Member of European Parliament envisages converting Tamils to Buddhism

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 July 2008, 20:45 GMT]
"Frequently now I wonder whether Sri Lanka would have been a much more peaceful and much more homogeneous place if say 40% or so of the Tamil speaking population had been Buddhists and not exclusively Hindu or Christian. Is taking the Buddhist religion to Tamil people such a difficult task?" wonders Niranjan de Silva Deva-Aditya, Member of European Parliament (MEP) from U.K. and Honorary Ambassador-at-Large for Sri Lanka, in a statement after his recent visit to Sri Lanka as Vice-Chairman of the EU delegation. The Sinhala speaking MEP is tagged with a title, 'Vishwa Keerthi Sri Lanka Abhimani' (universally famous pride of Sri Lanka), bestowed onto him by the Buddhist clergy of Sri Lanka.
Full story >>

JHU opposes granting land, police powers to EPC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 May 2008, 10:18 GMT]
The all-monks Sinhala Buddhist nationalist party, Jathika Hela Urumaya (JUH), which has 9 seats in the Sri Lankan parliament, has said that it would oppose granting "internal security and land allocation powers" to the newly elected Eastern Provincial Council (EPC). The All Party Representatives Committee (APRC) has not suggested anything about granting land and police powers to EPC at any stage, said Venerable Ellawela Methanananda Thera, leader of the JHU addressing media on Tuesday in Colombo. He added whether Pillaiyan or Hisbullah comes as chief minister, EPC should take immediate steps to "resettle all Sinhalese earlier chased out of the province."
Full story >>

EU expresses serious concern of Sri Lanka's Rights abuses

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 March 2008, 12:00 GMT]
While noting with regret that Independent International Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) has decided to terminate work, and expressing concern that the Commission of Inquiries lack compliance with international standards, the European Union, in a press release issued Tuesday said, the EU "continues to believe in the importance of guaranteeing access to Kilinochchi for the Norwegian facilitator and other Co-Chairs, as well as the UN and other concerned organisations." The release also said, "[i]n 2006 the EU listed the LTTE as a terrorist organisation. Since then there have been a number of criminal prosecutions against LTTE fund raising in Europe."
Full story >>

NE Bishops scheduled to meet UN special envoy

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 February 2008, 00:33 GMT]
A delegation of bishops from Northeast are scheduled to meet Angela Kane, UN Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs who arrived in Colombo Wednesday morning for a week-long fact finding mission in the island, sources close to the Bishops said.
Full story >>

APRC collaborated in a deception game: Kumar David

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 February 2008, 16:49 GMT]
"The Interim Report is a sham for two reasons; the Committee set aside its pervious 18 months and 63 meetings of deliberations and trotted out the Presidential diktat pretending it was its own finding, and secondly the APRC is collaborating in a deception game since this interim palliative is all that the government will ever want out of these worthies; the government will sell this interim hogwash to India and the Co-Chairs," says Prof. Kumar David in an opinion column that appeared in "Island" weekend edition.
Full story >>

"We are not party to Vitarne Report"- WPF

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 January 2008, 12:23 GMT]
General Secretary of Western Peoples Front (WPF) in a press release issued Friday said, "Minister Tissa Vitarana has used the name of our party among other parties for his interim report he submitted to the [Sri Lanka's] president. By listing the name of our party, Western Peoples Front (WPF), he is giving an impression that we too are in agreement with his submission. This is a regrettable sinister move of the veteran samasamajist minister..."
Full story >>

New office for Assistant Superintendent of Police opened in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 January 2008, 15:20 GMT]
"The lack of at least one police officer proficient in Tamil language is the cause for the public's reluctance to seek police assistance to have their needs attended," Jaffna magistrate Mr. R. T. Vicknarajah said, speaking at the official opening ceremony of the new office for Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) at the Jaffna police station premises Tuesday around 2:00 p.m. According to the 13th amendment of the Sri Lankan constitution, the Tamil language also shall be the official language of Sri Lanka. Despite this, the status of Tamil as an official language has not been implemented for the past 20 years.
Full story >>

APRC proposals postponed again

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 January 2008, 13:47 GMT]
Rajitha Senaratne, the Sri Lankan minister of construction and engineering services, on Tuesday said that the proposal by the All Party Representatives Committee (APRC), scheduled to be handed over to Sri Lankan president on Wednesday, would be delayed as the People's United Front (Mahajana Eksath Peramuna—MEP) and the extremist all monks Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) have demanded to reduce the level of devolution of provincial power in the draft proposal.
Full story >>

UK: world must act to protect threatened peoples

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 January 2008, 08:27 GMT]
In a keynote speech Monday during his official visit to India, Britain’s Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, called for the shaping of a “new world order” in which the international community intervenes where populations are being threatened by "genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes or crimes against humanity, and the state is unwilling or unable to halt or prevent it." The world has "a responsibility to protect" Mr. Brown said. Last week, in a British Parliamentary debate on Sri Lanka, junior Foreign Minister Kim Howell called for a new ceasefire and for UN monitoring of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.
Full story >>

APRC: key to peace or an albatross?

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 January 2008, 01:02 GMT]
J.R. Jayawardena's Government claimed that the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution passed in August 1987 fulfilled the promises made in the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, to 'devolve power' to the Tamil people. The Liberation Tigers dismissed the legislation outright, and said it allowed "perpetuation of the domination, oppression and exploitation of the Tamil masses by the racist Sinhala state," and N. Satyendra, a constitutional scholar and attorney who represented ex-militants in Sri Lanka trials, ridiculed the legislation as a "comic opera."
Full story >>

JVP noose around APRC neck

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 January 2008, 02:02 GMT]
While State media continues to provide an air of credibility to the All Party Representative Committee (APRC), insiders revealed to the Sunday Leader that APRC committee has decided to "delay discussing the contentious issues until the end but that they have now reached a deadlock with the JHU and SLFP insisting on a unitary state while the other parties have objected to the use of that terminology." The Sunday Leader further said that while several members have insisted on a set of proposals which goes beyond the 13th Amendment, the JVP has warned that they would topple the government if any proposals resembling a federal formula is forwarded in February.
Full story >>

Indian PM's participation in SL independence day not fixed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 January 2008, 17:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogolloagama had to hastily retract on Friday his earlier claim that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will participate in the 60th Independence Day celebrations of Sri Lanka on February 4, 2008. A few weeks ago, Mr. Bogollagama told Parliament that Sri Lanka had invited Dr. Manmohan Singh to be the chief guest of the independence day function. The information that the dates of Manmohan Singh's proposed visit to Colombo have not been finalized was revealed a day after Bogollagama called the Indian High Commissioner Alok Prasad to inform him about GoSL's decision to abrogate the almost six-year old CFA agreement with the LTTE, informed sources said.
Full story >>

2007: The year in review

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 January 2008, 07:34 GMT]
For the people of the NorthEast, 2007 was a grim year. Sri Lanka’s security forces and allied paramilitaries intensified their campaign of abductions (‘white van’ abductions), torture, and murder of Tamil civilians. Tamil civil society leaders bore the brunt of the counter-insurgency campaign. Jaffna remained an open prison with shortage of essential items, east falling under the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) control with thousands displaced as Colombo concocts colonization schemes to make east a Sinhala majority province.
Full story >>

UK: LTTE must change its ways, no intervention in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 December 2007, 22:10 GMT]
The British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Dominick Chilcott, said Monday that President Mahinda Rajapakse must make an offer acceptable to moderate Tamils because the LTTE would not accept a negotiated solution within a united Sri Lanka. Mr. Chilcott accepted, however, that the President had to be able to “sell the solution” to the majority Sinhalese. The international community has no plans to intervene in Sri Lanka to exercise the responsibility to protect, he further said.
Full story >>

'Rajapaksa sustains majority votes' - UPFA minister

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 November 2007, 18:18 GMT]
Addressing a live political discussion programme in the Sri Lankan state-run ITN (Independent Television Network) TV, Thursday night, the Sri Lankan Minister of Education, Susil Premajayantha, assured viewers that the SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa has sustained sufficient number of votes, more than 117, to pass the 2008 budget in the parliament, coming Monday. Mr. Susil Premajayantha, who appeared in the "Thulawa" programme, said that the Rajapaksa government was not dependent on the JVP to pass the budget.
Full story >>

APRC on hiatus

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 October 2007, 12:56 GMT]
Despite claims by Colombo media in early August that the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) formed by Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse has met with "sudden death," amid opposition from SLFP, MEP and the JHU to the "unit of devolution" ahead of the Committee report deadline of 15 August, the APRC discussions were resurrected; the latest on the resilient APRC is that after the 51st sitting on the 23rd October, the APRC is taking a 2 month recess, reports from Colombo said. The current status: APRC is "exploring the possibility of reaching consensus among the political parties on power sharing."
Full story >>

Tamil sovereignty, basis of peace talks - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 September 2007, 17:37 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), in a statement issued Monday, urged the UN General Assembly which has gathered for its 62nd session in New York, USA, to recognize the concept of the sovereignty of the Tamil people and support the peace process in accordance with this principle. The LTTE statement characterized the confidence of some members of the International Community on Sri Lanka's latest All Party Representative Committee (APRC) which has not brought any constructive outcome to date, as a misplaced confidence.
Full story >>

“Avoid unitary, avoid states” - United States ambassador

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 September 2007, 16:10 GMT]
Addressing a seminar on "Sri Lanka: the Way Forward," in Colombo on Friday, organized by Fullbright Association, the U.S. Ambassador for Sri Lanka, Robert Blake, categorically stated that Sri Lanka's conflict cannot be won by military means. He said whatever the Sri Lankan government achieved in terms of military victories in the last several months, were merely "tactical" successes. The Ambassador who didn't want to mince words, cautioned the Colombo government against possible failures, hoped on All Party Representative Committee (APRC) and harped on development especially in the East, but dodged words when it came to the political model for resolving Sri Lanka's ethnic crisis.
Full story >>

India, Sri Lanka form joint defence panel - report

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 September 2007, 18:15 GMT]
India and Sri Lanka have formed a high-level, joint defence panel following a meeting in New Delhi between top officials of the two countries on September 3 and 4, the Hindustan Times reported Wednesday quoting a release from the Sri Lankan Presidential Secretariat.
Full story >>

APRC is dead, says UNP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 August 2007, 00:43 GMT]
After the Tuesday meeting of the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) on Constitutional Reforms was abruptly halted and adjourned indefinitely due to demands from Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) members, and failed to "finalise a draft report by today to keep to a deadline set by the United National Party UNP," the opposition UNP spokesperson said the "APRC process is dead in the water," the Morning Leader reported in the Wednesday edition.
Full story >>