REFUGEE

At a time when public discourse in Sri Lanka on the ethnic conflict and the issues growing out of it is bristling with misconceptions, misperceptions, jaundiced judgments, and even down right lies, this book makes a welcome entry into our midst with the abundant capability of putting the record straight on a multiplicity of such heatedly-contested matters. Chief among these issues on which clarity and perspicacity is remarkably achieved is the nature of Tamil militancy.

‘Freedom fighters’ or ‘terrorists’?; this is probably one of the most contentious issues to be raised about the LTTE. On reading some of the learned papers in Pathways of Dissent, one soon begins to detect the highly simplistic, superficial nature of the thinking that underlies this poser, over which hairs have been needlessly split over the years in particularly Southern Sri Lanka. The truth which dawns is that Tamil militancy is far too complex a political phenomenon to be broached in these starkly blanket terms – ‘terrorist’ or ‘freedom fighter’?

The correct approach to understanding Tamil militancy of particularly the LTTE kind, is to place the phenomenon in the socio-political conditions within which it has had its origins and evolution. It goes without saying that the militancy of the LTTE eventually degenerated into unalloyed barbaric violence but it must be clearly comprehended that such ruthlessness arose in reaction to the repressive and equally virulent and destructive ethno-populist violence of sections of the Southern polity. The 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom in Sri Lanka is a case in point.

In his thought-provoking paper, Towards Understanding Militant Tamil Nationalism in Sri Lanka, Ravi Vaitheespara, Associate Professor of History at the University of Manitoba, Canada, says, in the course of making a case for the continuous use of analytical categories, such as, neo-colonialism, class and caste, to understand Tamil militancy, that it is the excesses committed by the Tigers that made the use of the term ‘terror’ to describe their activism, seem acceptable. He explains:

‘While this shift may be understandable to some extent in light of the level of violence and extremism of Tamil militancy, what is less understandable is the accompanying tendency to not highlight the relationship between state repression and the violence of Tamil militancy or to completely shift the source and focus of the "national problem" to Tamil militancy or "Tamil terrorism" – it is a tendency that has been amplified a great deal in the popular media in the South and abroad. It is hardly surprising that the post-9/11 discourse on terrorism has only helped this tendency.’

We are reminded by papers such as these of the abject failure of public discourse in this country on the ethnic issue, to strike any qualitative depth and of the fact that it has been continuously nourished by mainstream, superficial popular perceptions that fail to place Tamil militancy in particular in the correct perspective. In other words, the ‘alternative discourse’ on the National Question has failed to strike deep root in the local political culture or has been effectively drowned out by the propaganda of the South’s ethno-populist forces. This is a vital poser for those sections which are seeking to promote an informed public debate on the National Question.

Another ‘must read’ in this collection of eye-opening papers is the one titled Nationalism, Historiography and Archaeology in Sri Lanka by S.K. Sitrampalam, Emeritus Professor of the University of Jaffna. This could be considered a comprehensive overview of the issues in a multiplicity of disciplines which are essential for an insightful understanding of the ethnic conflict. Particularly illuminating are the writer’s findings in the course of his archaeological and historiographic studies, which lend credence to the notion of the Tamils’ separate nationhood. The following are just some of the more ‘quotable quotes’:

‘The study of Brahmi inscriptions datable to the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC shows that there were 269 pre-state chieftaincies throughout the island (Gunawardana 1982). The author of the Mahavamsa says that by killing 32 Damila kings Dutthagamani (in the 2nd century BC) became sovereign ruler of Sri Lanka (Geiger 1950).’

‘However, the colonization of the Tamil areas became an obsession of the Sinhalese politicians inspired by the concept of Sihaladipa. This is evident in the biography of D.S. Senanayake entitled Sri Lanka’s First Prime Minister, Don Stephen Senanayake (D.S.) written by H.A.J. Hulugalle (1975). He states how D.S. Senanayake followed the model of Jewish settlements planted in traditional Palestine territory in order to deprive the latter if their homeland.’

‘A new confederation of Kandyan leaders crystallized into a new political association in December 1925 as the Kandyan National Assembly. In 1929, the Kandyan National Assembly fostered the case for a type of federal system when its membership gave evidence to the Special Commission on the constitution of 1927 (Donoughmore Commission).’

V. Nithyanandam, Professor of Economics, Department of Commerce, Massey University, New Zealand, in his paper The Economics of Tamil Nationalism, Evolution and Challenges comprehensively sets out a relatively underemphasized dimension in the development of Tamil nationalism – the crippling economic conditions underlying Tamil grievances. Beginning from the earliest imperialistic infiltrations of Sri Lanka, and the policy measures that came in their wake, the writer gives us a detailed study of the increasing economic marginalization of the Tamil community. On reading this insightful analysis, one comes to understand why confrontation rather than continued accommodation, became an inevitable option for some sections of the Tamil community.

A very useful appendix by Santasilan Kadirgamar, former teacher of Modern History and International Politics, Universities of Jaffna and Colombo, titled Jaffna Youth Radicalism – The 1920s and 1930s, brings this ground-breaking collection of papers, by some of the leading minds of the Tamil community, edited and put together by R. Cheran, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Sociology, University of Windsor, Canada, to a close. On reading it one begins to perceive the promising, progressive directions in which Tamil politics would have developed at the beginning of the last century, if this salutary trend had not been thwarted by the virulent communalism in sections of the South.

All on all, Pathways of Dissent meets a long-felt but neglected need in Sri Lanka’s efforts to more fully understand what went wrong in the island’s post-independence political history, from the point of view of the articulate sections of the Tamil community. It helps greatly in coming to grips with the ‘other side of the story’.

COLOMBO, - Workers at Sri Lanka's state-owned oil company on Wednesday called a four-day protest, in what is likely to be the first of many pre-election tussles between opposition-allied unions and the government.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, since coming to power in late 2005, has mostly avoided conflict with Sri Lanka's labour and student unions, after asking them in 2006 to hold off on strikes until the military defeated the separatist Tamil Tigers.

But since the government crushed the rebels and ended a 25-year war in May, many expect unions to pressure Rajapaksa for delayed wage increases with the cost of living rising and presidential and parliamentary polls due by April.

The union at the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) said it would stage a four-day "work-to-rule" protest from Thursday to demand wage rises that were due in January.

"While the government has been promising us our salary hikes, it has also been trying to sabotage our union actions," union spokesman D.J. Rajakaruna said. He also said the government had reneged on a promise to honour the wage increases on Sept. 30.

He said the union's office -- in a military-guarded high-security zone -- was attacked by vandals on Tuesday night. A police spokesman said he had no information.

A work-to-rule action means union employees do no work outside their assigned duties or working hours.

In reality, it means a delay or problem in one area could shut down the entire petroleum supply chain, leave the island's pumps dry and cripple normal economic activity. Already, people in Colombo were seen stockpiling petrol.

"They can't open doors and then create lot of unrest in the country. They will have to wait until January," Petroleum Minister A.H.M Fowzie told Reuters.

The government last January said the cost of the war had kept it from giving the wage hike as agreed.

Rajapaksa's government is under pressure to boost revenue and cut this year's budget deficit to 7 percent from an estimated current level of around 9 percent, under the terms of a $2.6 billion International Monetary Fund loan. [ID:nSP539379]

It also faces an election, which is when Sri Lanka's incumbent governments usually roll out populist measures that weigh heavily on state coffers.

Sri Lanka has a long history of protests and strikes by trade and student unions before elections and this year the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) is expected to use its widespread union influence to counter Rajapaksa's post-war popularity.

Many suspected a union hand in an island-wide power blackout two weeks ago, although both the government and the electrical workers' union said that was not the case. [ID:nCOL500139] ($1=114.80 Sri Lankan Rupee) (Writing by Bryson Hull;

Sri Lanka is still threatened by separatist forces five months after the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said.

Sri Lankans will defeat separatists and “build a new country,” Rajapaksa said yesterday, according to the Defense Ministry’s Web site. “We shall not fear to take the necessary decisions in the face of dangers we may face.”

Sri Lanka’s army defeated the last LTTE forces in a battle in May on the northeastern coast, ending the group’s 26-year fight for a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east of the South Asian island nation.

Rajapaksa’s government says security needs to be established and mines cleared in former conflict zones before more than 280,000 mainly Tamil refugees are allowed to leave transit camps where they have been held since the war ended. Sri Lanka is breaking its pledge to resettle all displaced people by the end of this year, Human Rights Watch said yesterday.

Rajapaksa, addressing a ceremony in the central town of Matale for heroes of the civil war, said the LTTE was on the verge of achieving its goal of dividing the country when he won the presidential election in 2005.

“Many foreign forces attempted to persuade us that the path to peace was to give in to a terrorist organization which they claimed was invincible,” he said. The government’s move to defeat terrorism was based on an “undivided country, a national consensus and an honorable peace,” he added.

Settlement Plan

Sri Lanka will try to resettle 100,000 displaced people by the end of this year, Deputy Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama said on Oct. 6. The United Nations and U.S. are leading international calls for the swift release of all refugees from the transit camps.

The government is failing to meet its promise to release 80 percent of the displaced people by December, Human Rights Watch said in a statement. It has allowed only about 27,000 people to be resettled, it said.

“It is well past time to release civilians detained in the camps,” said Brad Adams, Asia director of the New York-based group. “Sri Lanka’s international friends should tell the government that they will not accept any more broken promises.”

Many of the refugees could live with relatives or friends if security conditions don’t allow them to return to their homes immediately, the group said, adding that their detention is a violation of international law.

Internment Camps

Sri Lanka last month rejected an assertion by UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay that the Tamils are detained under “conditions of internment.” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon, who sent Lynn Pascoe, his political chief, to the country last month said at the time that keeping people under harsh conditions may create bitterness among the Tamils.

Rajapaksa has called on the international community to stop criticizing Sri Lanka over human rights and the treatment of displaced people and help the country rebuild after the war.

The European Union said yesterday it may consider suspending some trade benefits granted to Sri Lanka, citing “significant shortcomings” in three human rights areas.

The government says it has to undertake security checks of displaced people after receiving information that Tamil Tiger fighters infiltrated the camps.

Remnants of the LTTE are continuing efforts to raise funds abroad, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake told Ban when they met in New York last month.

Investigations are continuing into whether billionaire hedge-fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, one of Sri Lanka’s largest investors, provided any funds to the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization, a group the government says is a front for the LTTE, the government said on its Web site yesterday.

Rajaratnam, 52, was arrested last week in the U.S. and faces charges over insider trading.

The U.S. froze the assets of the TRO in November 2007, saying it raises funds for the LTTE, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S, the EU and India.

human rights group today asked Sri Lanka to release over 2.45 lakh displaced Tamils from the camps, where they are currently living, and alleged that the Rajapaksa Government is breaking its own commitment in this regard.

"The Sri Lankan government's recent statements that it aims to return only 100,000 of the original 273,000 displaced civilians confined to camps by the end of 2009 breaks a promise to camp residents and the international community," the Human Rights Watch said.

In May, the Government announced that 80 percent of the displaced people would be able to return home by the end of the year.

Since the end of the fighting in May, the Government has released or returned fewer than 27,000 people, leaving about 245,000 civilians in the camps, it said.

"Enough is enough.

Lake House sources said that the Chairman was trying to take over the power of the Workers Association at Lake House by trying to remove its current Secretary Dharmasiri Lankapeli at the Association’s election on the 27th.

At the election of the SLFP trade union at Lake House held recently, the group put forward by the Lake House Chairman was defeated by a group supportive of Media Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa. However, the Chairman managed to gain control of the union by giving various perks and privileges to its President W.M.P.A. Dassanayake, Vice President Dhammika Kulasiri and Assistant Secretary Leslie Andrew.

The Lake House Chairman had recently called the Workers Association President Athula Dharmasri at his residence

and had promised to grant him any favour if he worked to remove Dharmasiri Lankapeli from the Association. The Chairman had also said he would support Athula Dharmasri if he contested for the post of Secretary along with Dharmasiri Lankapeli.

However, Athula Dharmasri has not responded to the Chairman’s telephone call.

Workers Association Secretary Dharmasiri Lankapeli filed a Fundamental Rights case in the Supreme Court against the Lake House Chairman claiming he unduly interfered with him and his union work. The Supreme Court on the 7th decided to hear the case.

Sources further said the Chairman was trying to oust Dharmasiri Lankapeil and replace him with Athula Dharmasri and then make him withdraw the case filed against him by the Association in the Supreme Court.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was a notable absentee at the Army Tattoo organized at the Kettarama Stadium to mark the 60th anniversary of the Sri Lanka Army, which was attended by the President and the Chief of Defence Staff General Sarath Fonseka. A senior Presidential Secretariat official told Lanka News Web that the Defence Secretary left the country on a tour to Singapore to avoid participating at the event. Meanwhile, at the book launching ceremony of Minister Champika Ranawaka that was held last Friday, was attended by Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and General Sarath Fonseka did not participate in it. Although Presidential photographer Sudath Silva tried to capture a photograph of the President

	and General Fonseka engaged in a happy conversation during the Army Tattoo programme, he did not succeed. Several photographs of the event and of the President and General Fonseka together have been published below.

Media and human rights activists in Sri Lanka have urged the British authorities to arrest the suspected killer of Jaffna journalist Nimalarajan Mylvaganam on 19 October 2009.
Nimalarajan, who worked for BBC Tamil and Sinhala services as well as Ravaya and Virakesari newspapers, was brutally shot dead allegedly by gunmen from the Tamil paramilitary group, EPDP.

Colleagues and rights activists believe that it is his reporting of widespread vote rigging in Jaffna, in Kayts islands in particular, during the general elections was the main reason for his untimely death.


For years, Kayts islands are manned by Sri Lanka navy personnel and the EPDP.
Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumarathunga administration, of which President Rajapaksa, SB Dissanayake and Mangala Samaraweera were senior ministers, failed to bring the culprits into books despite constant appeals by Sri Lankan and international rights groups.

The alleged killer, widely known as Napoleon, and some other EPDP members were arrested but disappeared after they were granted bail few years ago.

Napoleon is a senior member of the EPDP. Social affairs minister Douglas Devananda, a militant leader turned a politician, is the leader of the EPDP.

It is believed that Napoleon has left Sri Lanka with the help of Minister Devananda. Napoleon is reported to have claimed political asylum in Great Britain.

It is also widely believed that Minister Devananda never forgets to meet Napoleon on his visits to UK.

Activists accuse the British authorities of failing to take any action or refuse his asylum application despite being informed of serious allegations against Napoleon.

The UK is known to be lenient towards many serious human rights violators including Chile’s General Pinochet and Sri Lanka’s Karuna Amman, currently a minister in Mahinda Rajapaksa government.

UPFA Southern Provincial Councilor and SLFP Akmeemana organizer Nishantha Mutuhettigama says that although the credit for ending the war was with the government, the war was not fought by the President or his family members and the General who truly fought the war, but was treated unfairly, would come forward as the common candidate.

Councilor Mutuhettigama had made this statement during a discussion with the Irida Lanka newspaper.
“Our leaders are now in the jungles. We are trying to take them on to the right path. The war was fought by the people in the South. President Rajapaksa did not fight in the war. None of the President’s family members also fought in the war. But we have the respect for
handling the war. What has now happened to the General who carried out the war? People will stand against this. General will come forward as the common candidate,” Mutuhettigama had further observed during the discussion.

The decision could affect British shops including Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Next, which have imported hundreds of millions of poundsworth of Sri Lankan-made clothes since the benefits were granted after a tsunami in 2004. The scheme waives import taxes.

Withdrawing the benefits would add about 6 per cent to the cost of products, forcing many retailers to buy from cheaper producers such as China, India and Bangladesh.

It is the most drastic international response yet to the war — in which UN officials estimate that 20,000 civilians died — and to the subsequent detention of 300,000 Tamil civilians in internment campsThe Sri Lankan garment industry accounts for 10 per cent of GDP, employs about 250,000 people and recorded exports of $1.4 billion (£856 million) to the EU last year.

EU officials said that they had no option because the scheme obliged Sri Lanka to abide by rights agreements and its Government had refused to co-operate.

The commission will make the recommendation on Monday when it formally approves and publishes the results of an investigation. A decision will not be taken until the end of the year.

The EU grants the Generalised System of Preferences Plus (GSP+), to help developing countries to boost their economies while improving human rights and labour standards. Sri Lanka is the only country in Asia to benefit from GSP+, which obliges beneficiaries to adhere to 27 international rights agreements.

The EU has investigated whether Sri Lanka violated the UN Convention against Torture, UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In August it completed a report, which described a culture of “complete or virtually complete impunity in Sri Lanka”, citing police torture, abductions of journalists and uninvestigated disappearances.

Sri Lankan officials accused the EU of seeking to punish workers. Its ministers met business leaders and politicians in London and Brussels.

They won support from Sir Stuart Rose, the chairman of Marks & Spencer, who met the Sri Lankan Trade Minister in London in June.

“We believe it [GSP+] is advantageous for the company and our customers and important for Sri Lanka,” a spokesman for the shop said this week.

The New York hedge fund billionaire indicted today in an alleged $20 million insider trading scheme, Raj Rajaratnam, was a major contributor to the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and also the single largest known U.S. contributor to a charity linked to the Tamil Tiger terror group in Sri Lanka, according to records obtained by ABCNews.com.

Raj Rajaratnam, billionaire founder of the Galleon Group, a major hedge fund, is led in handcuffs...

(Louis Lanzano/AP Photo)

Rajaratnam is accused of operating an elaborate insider trading operation through his Galleon Group hedge fund, which made him one of the wealthiest men in America with an estimated net worth of $1.3 billion.

The case against Rajaratnam and the five others indicted alleges they netted over $25 million in profits and marked the first time a court authorized wire taps were used in a hedge fund case.

A Sri Lankan native, Rajaratnam gave more than $3.5 million to the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), whose assets were frozen by the U.S. Treasury Department in Nov. 2007 because of its alleged ties to the Tamil Tigers.

According to documents filed with the IRS, Rajaratnam's contributions to the TRO were made in 2005 and 2006 through a separate charity, which he founded in the wake of the tsunami which hit Sri Lanka in Dec. 2004Despite its stated relief efforts, the Treasury Department described the TRO charity as "a front" for Tamil Tigers fundraising and procurement in the United States.

"TRO passed off its operation as charitable, when in fact it was raising money for designated terrorist group responsible for heinous acts of terrorism," said Adam Szubin, director of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control at the timeThe Tamil Tigers waged a bloody insurgency against the government ofSri Lanka in which both sides were accused of civilian atrocities. Under the Clinton administration, the State Department designated the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organization in 1997.

Sri Lankan government officials alleged that contributions funneled through U.S. and Canadian-based charities prolonged the group's bloody campaign.

The leader of the Tamil Tigers were killed by government forces in May, effectively putting an end to its insurgency.

* Trade preferences worth over $100 million at risk

* Sri Lanka does not fulfil criteria, sources say

* Major EU importers, retailers concerned

(Adds Sri Lanka reaction)

By Darren Ennis

BRUSSELS, Oct 16 (Reuters) - A European Union investigation has found Sri Lanka in breach of international human rights laws, meaning it is likely to lose concessions worth over $100 million for its top exports to Europe, EU sources said.

Brussels is expected to publish on Monday the findings of the investigation launched a year ago into allegations of human rights violations and torture in the 25-year war between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels.

"The evidence is very clear that Sri Lanka does not fulfil the basic human rights conditions of GSP plus," one EU source said on Friday, in reference to the system of preferential tariffs for the world's poorest countries.

"I think the EU has leaked this deliberately. The motivation of the leak is to undermine Sri Lanka. The concession is a total process of economics, but the process is hijacked by politics. There is a political motive," said Rajiva Wijesinghe, secretary of ministry for human rights and disaster management Brussels has consistently warned Sri Lanka it must meet 27 international human rights conventions to retain its Generalised System of Preference Plus trade scheme.

"GSP plus is not an instrument used for short-term political crisis, but is meant to provide long-term stability," a European Commission official said.

"This is not a trade sanction. There are rules for GSP plus and if you break the rules, then unfortunately there are consequences. They will keep basic GSP either way."

Colombo came under heavy pressure from Western nations, including those in Europe with large Tamil populations, because of civilian deaths in the final phase of the war against the Tigers, which ended with the separatists' defeat in May.

Last year, the government said it would neither cooperate with the European Union's investigation nor allow investigators to come to the island nation.

EU sources said its report showed evidence of police violence, torture and breaches of labour laws, notably the use of underage children.

The Sri Lankan government has repeatedly accused European countries with large and vocal Tamil populations of pandering to pro-Tamil Tiger viewpoints in exchange for electoral support.

"It is unfortunate for the Sri Lankan government that GSP plus is so cut-and-dried. You either meet the requirements or you don't. There is no discussion, no negotiation about it," a Colombo-based diplomat from a developing nation told Reuters on condition of anonymity. TEXTILES

In 2008, the European Union was Sri Lanka's largest export market, accounting for 36 percent of all exports, followed by the United States with 24 percent.

Suspending the preferential tariffs -- which can go as low as zero -- would hit Sri Lanka's textile industry hard.

Garments netted the country a record $3.47 billion from EU markets last year, and were its top source of foreign exchange, followed by remittances of $3 billion and tea exports of $1.2 billion.

Sri Lanka has seen an investment boom since the end of the war, with its stock market -- traditionally one of the world's most volatile -- up 108 percent so far this year, the second best performing in the world after Peru's. [ID:nCOL436132]

It took advantage of this to sell its second $500 million internationally traded bond this week to strong international demand, while ratings agency Standard and Poor's upped its outlook to positive from stable on a stronger balance of payments picture and $2.6 billion IMF loan.

Many fear the loss of the EU trade terms would force big job cuts in Sri Lanka.

Major European importers, notably large British retailers such as Marks & Spencer, are concerned about possible increases in the cost of importing from one of their major hubs in the midst of the worst economic downturn in decades.

Monday's report will be discussed by the EU's executive European Commission -- which oversees trade policy for the 27-nation bloc -- who must then decide by the end of November whether to propose to member states that they temporarily suspend Sri Lanka's GSP plus status. Any decision would take effect six months from the vote by EU member states.

"It would most likely take effect around June next year," a Commission official said. (Additional reporting by Peter Apps in London; editing by Dale Hudson and Andrew Roche)

Kevin Rudd has prevented 255 Sri Lankan asylum seekers coming to Australia from Indonesia. The asylum seekers were already at sea when the Prime Minister put in an urgent call to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono requesting that the Indonesian Navy intercept the vessel and escort it back to Indonesia.

The people on the vessel are ethnic Tamils, a group suffering at the hands of the majority Sinhalese following the defeat of Tamil resistance in a civil war that has waxed and waned tragically for the past 26 years.

About 300,000 Tamils are being held in camps controlled by the Sri Lankan Army under the most appalling conditions, including a shortage of food, medical supplies and adequate shelter. The old and very young are dying at the rate of several hundred a month. Who would not want to escape, particularly as conditions are set to deteriorate with the onset of the monsoon season? This weather will also affect the ability of boats to undertake the voyage, so the pressure is on to complete the journey soon.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband admitted to the House of Commons on October 13 that the British Government was aware that the extrajudicial killing of Tamils has taken place. Others claim that it is continuing inside and outside of the camps.

Australia has not sought humanitarian assistance for Tamils detained in the camps. The Sri Lankan Government has denied access to international aid organisations whose protests against this, and the conditions inside the camps, has been muted. The international media has also been denied access so that their witness will not generate criticism.

Bob Birrell, of Monash University, says that the Tamils should wait to be processed by the UN's refugee agency, but it is not allowed access to the camps. If placed in the same situation, would he patiently wait to suffer illness and possibly die?

Australia has not sought access to the camps to process refugee claimants, which in any case is a process fraught with difficulty when conducted under the eyes of the military. In light of its own complacency and compliance, Australia can hardly complain when desperate people take matters into their own hands.

When it comes to criticism, we have seen how thin-skinned Kevin Rudd is. Does this stem from a lack of confidence or courage? There is no way Rudd is going to lose the next election, so why does he let the Opposition get away with the wedge on refugees? The issue is not an election winner or spoiler for either major party. Why can't he get out on the front foot and put the facts relating to refugees fairly and squarely to the Australian people?

The Opposition has no coherent, compassionate or long-term policy with regard to the processing of desperate people and has indicated that it is still prepared to play with the lives of those most in need of protection. It does them no credit.

Most people arriving by boat are found to be refugees after due process. Illegal immigrants arriving by plane run into the tens of thousands each year, maybe 50,000. Some pay large sums of money for illegal visas, some stay after arriving on valid visas. In addition, refugees are being demonised in the face of some dreadful and corrupt student visa practices.

Rudd was quite right to castigate the egregious former immigration minister Philip Ruddock for seeking to claim that the Howard government had ''success'' with respect to refugee policy. But if Rudd is to claim any sort of genuine humanitarian success, rather than narrow and cruel political success, he will need to ensure that he quickly processes those that he has sent back to Indonesia.

It is untrue to claim, that the slightly more humane approach of the Rudd Government has led to an increase in refugees seeking to come to Australia by boat. There has been a worldwide increase in the number of people seeking refugee protection. A deterioration in security in Sri Lanka for Tamils and in Afghanistan have pushed people towards the safe haven of Australia.

Make no mistake - sending these people back to Indonesia is to condemn them to a debilitating existence on top of the effect and memory of the horrors they sought to escape. They will be warehoused in Indonesia, a country that is not a signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees, for up to 10 years under conditions that will lead most to suffer mental deterioration.

Bruce Haigh is a political commentator and retired diplomat who served in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. He has dealt with the issue of refugees since 1972 and is a former member of the Refugee Review Tribunal.

The President has decided to retire Major General Shavendra Silva who served as the Commanding Officer of the 58th Brigade during the military operations in the north in order to appoint him as the SLFP organizer for Matale, sources from temple Trees said.

The President had arrived at this decision to make this appointment following a proposal made by Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa that it is the best step to be taken to fight the political challenge posed by General Sarath Fonseka.

The President had informed Major General Shavendra Silva that Major General Lalith Davulagala would be appointed as the Army Commander after current Army

Chief Lt. General Jagath Jayasuriya retires from service and had assured Shavendra that he would be appointed as a Cabinet minister after the next general election.

Shavendra had then been asked to contest from the Matale District at the next general election by the President, who had also asked him to help put down General Fonseka in front of people if he made any serious political decisions.

The President has ordered his Media Secretary Vijayananda Herath to promote Shavendra Silva as the real war hero and to include him in all Ranaviru felicitation programmes that are to be held at village and school level.

Lanka News Web learns that popular actress Sangeetha Weeraratne is planning on entering motherhood. It is reported that she is now more involved with her family business, Voice of Asia Company, in which she is a director and is taking some time off acting.

Sangeetha is married to Roshan Kariyapperuma, who is a close confidant of the President. Roshan is the brother of Priyantha Kariyapperuma, who is the Director General of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC).

The TRC allocates radio and TV frequencies to broadcast companies. Priyantha Kariyapperuma is the real owner of Voice of Asia. In a clear case of abusing powers vested with the head of the TRC, he has illegally allocated frequencies to the Voice of Asia company, which operates private radio stations under his brother’s name.

Before Priyantha Kariyapperuma assumed office at the TRC, Voice of Asia was allocated only three radio frequencies. However, after he became director general, the company has been allocated 13 radio frequencies and five TV frequencies.

ustice Ministry sources said Ceylinco Chairman Lalith Kotelawela is to be released from jail following an agreement reached with Senior Presidential Advisor, Basil Rajapaksa to hand over majority shares of Ceylinco to a relative of the Rajapaksa’s.

Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal and Attorney General Mohan Peiris have acted on behalf of Basil Rajapaksa in arriving at this agreement. Following months of secret discussions, Lalith Kotelawela had given his consent to Basil’s proposal.

NFF Leader Wimal Weerawansa has accused SLFP candidates of stealing preferential votes from the three NFF candidates at the Southern Provincial Council election.

Wimal had made this statement to a journalist from a national newspaper who had contacted him through his wife’s mobile phone to receive a comment on the defeat of the three NFF representatives at the Southern Provincial Council election. The journalist had to contact Wimal through his wife’s mobile phone since Wimal’s mobile phone has been switched off since the preferential vote results of the election were released.
Wimal had said that the NFF candidates were heading the preferential votes list by midnight on the 10th and they were later pushed back in the list due to changes made in the number of preferential votes received by each candidate. He had added that changing preferential votes was common and had taken place even during the previous provincial council elections.

Wimal had further told the journalist that he did not wish to make any public statements on the matter, but would discuss with the President on the possibility of appointing an NFF member to one of the bonus seats received by the government in the Southern Provincial Council.

Although the government recorded a victory at the Southern Provincial Council election, the three NFF members who contested from the Alliance were defeated. Among the 26 candidates who contested from the Alliance in the Galle District, the NFF candidate is at the 24th place.

In the Matara District, the NFF member is the 20th in the list of 21 candidates while in the Hambantota District, the NFF member is the 14th in the list of 15 candidates who contested from the Alliance.

Sri Lanka will hold both presidential and parliamentary elections before April 2010, state radio says.
The holding of the presidential poll nearly two years ahead of schedule reflects the government's popularity.
The announcement comes five months after its military victory over Tamil Tiger rebels.
The move also comes three days after the coalition of President Mahinda Rajapaksa scored its eighth clear victory in provincial polls.
The coalition has now decided the decks are clear for elections by April.
Mr Rajapaksa, who is hugely popular among the Sinhalese majority, is likely to score a clear victory.
The opposition is weak and the president is hoping for a two-thirds majority which would enable him to change the constitution, possibly making provision for more than two successive presidential terms.
He has said that he will wait until after the vote to introduce political reforms aimed, for instance, at addressing Tamil grievances.
Mr Rajapaksa and other top politicians regularly speak of the need for reconciliation.
On Monday the president used the Tamil language to address newly-elected local politicians from the north and pledged to resettle displaced Tamils soon.
But his critics say he is being vague about concrete plans for reconciliation and about the nuts and bolts of reforms - for instance, the degree to which powers might be devolved to Tamil-majority areas.
Dayan Jayatilleka, recently sacked as Sri Lanka's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, writes in a new article that "there is no informed discussion about the nature of the post-war order".

Sri Lanka's Tamil minority political parities said Tuesday that the 10,000 Tamil Tiger rebels surrendered to the military in the final battles between the government troops and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are safely housed in state-run camps.

Several parties representing the island's Tamil community told the visiting 10-member delegation from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu that the Sri Lankan government has implemented a separate rehabilitation program to integrate them back to the society.

D. Sidharathan, leader of the PLOTE (People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam) said the delegation met leaders of the Tamil National Alliance, the Democratic National Alliance, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, the estate political parties and the PLOTE on Tuesday.

Sidharathan said some of the politicians in Tamil Nadu were misled by the remaining LTTE sympathizers that 10,000 ex- combatants of the LTTE had gone missing from the camps in northern Sri Lanka where about 250,000 civilians are being housed.

"We have explained to them that it was a rumor and a propaganda by those who are still backing the LTTE,"Sidharathan said.

The Sri Lankan Tamil politicians also told the Indian delegation that the ICRC (the International Committee of the Red Cross) has a record of the former LTTE members under rehabilitation and they are undergoing rehabilitation.

Apart from providing vocational training, the government is holding classes for those who missed education, said Sidharathan.

The delegation arrived in Sri Lanka on Saturday to get a firsthand account about the on-going process to resettle the war- displaced civilians and re-build the north and east once controlled by the LTTE.

There are over 65 million Tamils in Tamil Nadu. It had put pressure on the Sri Lankan government to halt military offensives against the LTTE during the last days of the battle.

The LTTE had been fighting for more than two decades to carve out an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east before it was defeated by the troops in May.

Sri Lanka, which won its war against terrorism has a responsibility by its people to win the peace by accelerating the resettlement process of the IDPs belonging to all communities, UNDP Director for Asia and the Pacific, Ajay Chhibber told Daily Mirror online today.

Mr. Chhibber said while the UNDP welcomed the Sri Lankan government’s efforts to annihilate terrorism it fervently hoped that Sri Lanka respected the time table it has given the UN for resettling the IDPs.

“While we understand the government’s concern to have proper logistics in place before the IDPs return to their places of origin, we have conveyed to the government that an undue delay in the process will go to undermine the faith the IDPs and the international community have on the government” said the UNDP Regional Director.

“We sincerely hope that Sri Lanka will respect the commitment it made to its people and the international community” he added reminding that the UNDP has set aside a big budget to help the returnees once the government sends them to their places of origin.

Chhibber said he expressed the UNDP concerns to Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama when he met the latter recently in New York. He added that a swift yet a well co-ordinated resettlement programme will help the government to win the confidence of the IDP population which will benefit the government immensely in the long run.

Minister Rohitha Bogollagama says a visit by a Tamil Nadu political delegation to Sri Lanka establishes India’s confidence on President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Minister Bogollagama participating in a live radio programme of the SLBC this morning said the international community is extremely appreciative of the government’s policy of acting with a sense of transparency regarding local and international issues. There is no possibility of convening local leaders and gallant heroes before an international military tribunal and inflicting punishments. The reason being Sri Lanka not signing an Act in this connection. The Minister added that Sri Lanka was accorded the opportunity to become a signatory to this Act in 2002. He added the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe refrained from signing this as his signature would have allowed the LTTE leader to appear before the tribunal. The opposition leader discredits the heroic soldiers by telling that they will be brought before a military court. The government headed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been able to secure victories in past eight elections. This proves that the path taken by the President is correct. The masses have endorsed his actions. This fact has been further demonstrated by the government receiving a two thirds mandate at the Southern Provincial Council election. The Minister has identified this as a special victory for a government in power to receive such a large mandate.