tamilweek.com/news-features

By S.U.W.K. Jayaswardane – Watupitiwala

At an event celebrating her 63rd birthday, the former President of Sri Lanka Chandrika Kumaratunga said that she fears regarding her personal safety and was afraid to travel as she was liable to be attacked by people quite unconnected with the LTTE, reports the Colombo daily The Daily Mirror.

She said, “I am afraid to travel because there is a threat to my life from certain people, though not from Prabhakaran,” Mrs. Kumaratunga said, at a function held in Nittambuwa celebrating her birthday – June 29th.

The Daily Mirror further says – The former president said that she had already set up a foundation to help poor people, and it had been registered internationally. From this fund, a project had been initiated in India. There were many plans to help the poor in Sri Lanka. “But I am a bit afraid to start it because those people I referred to would attack me,” she said.

She claimed that during her tenure as president she had spoken only the truth and had not robbed even five cents or murdered anyone or done any wrong thing. She asked whether this was what some saw as a “crime”.

Mrs. Kumaratunga also claimed that she would continue to serve the people of Attanagalla, whether in Parliament or out of it. “Some are threatening to kill me and also threatening to do many nasty things to me. Whenever I return to the country after a trip overseas, I find my security detail has been reduced,” the former president said,; adding: “Now they are going to court with trumped-up charges against me. But no one can stop me from serving the people of Attanagalla.”

The Divisional Secretary (DS), Assistant Government Agent – for Thunukkai, in the Mullaitivu district was killed in a claymore mine attack on Sunday June 29th evening, which the Sri Lankan military said in an ‘uncleared area’ in the north, the District Secretry for Mullaitivu, Emilda Sukumar said.

He was identified as Nagalingam Nanthakumar, 36.

The DS, Mr. N. Nanthakumar, father of three-month-old baby girl, was killed on the spot in the attack which was reported at 4:50 p.m. Sunday.

He had been traveling on a motorcycle when he came under a claymore attack between Ampalapperumaal Kulam and Koaddaikaddiya Kulam, an area, 15 km north east of Mankulam, an ‘uncleared area’, as the Government of Sri Lanka calls it.

The LTTE Peace Secretariat website said, Nanthakumar ‘was tirelessly working among the people who are now displacing from his division due to SLA shelling’.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has accused the Sr Lanka army deep penetration unit (DPU) of being responsible for the attack. However, the Sri Lanka Army have said that they do not operate in the area in such manner.

Also, News wire TamilNet reports that A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier was killed while he was engaged in setting up a Claymore mine in Vannearikkulam in Karaichchi division of Kilinochchi, on Sunday June 29th morning around 9:30.

Related articles by D.B.S. Jeyaraj:

- LRRP infiltration demolishes impregnable Tiger terrain myth

- Claymore Kills “Kili Father” M.X. Karunaratnam at Ambaikulam

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka later next month, has decided to rely on his very own specialised Indian security for protection during his stay in the island, reports the Colombo weekend newspaper ‘The Nation’.

The newspaper quotes highly-placed sources that the ‘Indian Black Cats’ would provide the necessary protection to the Indian Premier during his visit here to participate at the forthcoming SAARC Summit.

India’s concern for the Prime Minister’s security stems from the July 1987 assault on Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by a Sri Lankan navy soldier while he was in Colombo to sign the Indo-Lanka Accord with then President J.R. Jayewardene.

Meanwhile, speculation is rife that Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, who is also scheduled to attend the regional Summit, would be relying on his own security as well, according to the ‘Nation.’

on June 25th, the Afghan government for the first time publicly accused the Pakistani intelligence service of organizing the failed plot to assassinate President Hamid Karzai at a parade in Kabul in April 2008.

by C. Sugumar

There has been a spate of bombings targeting civilians in Colombo, its suburbs and other areas during the course of the past six months or so. These bombs have been placed in crowded buses and trains on most occasions. The perception that many people have of these bombings is that they are mindless acts of terrorism perpetrated by a desperate terrorist group unable to withstand the onslaught of the government’s mighty armed forces on the battlefield.

Certain persons in the government declare that the objective of these bombings is to provoke a backlash against the Tamils living in the south like in July, 1983 in the hope that it would destroy the economy and lead to foreign intervention. But what has to be said is that even without these bomb blasts the economy has already been destroyed anyway.

The Tamil newspapers however paint an entirely different picture. According to them most of the bus and train bombings of the recent past have been in the nature of retaliatory attacks triggered by the deaths or serious injuries caused to innocent civilians in the north by the government’s armed forces who oddly enough are portrayed as benevolent persons in a series of state sponsored television advertisements.

It is being reported that each incident relating to a bus or train bombing here was connected to some specific earlier event that occurred in the conflict areas resulting in civilian deaths and injuries. Some of these incidents are blamed on the Deep Penetration Units (DPUs) of the army which are deployed to carry out search and destroy missions in enemy territory.

They are supposed to attack strategic targets and also eliminate key personnel in the LTTE hierarchy whenever possible. Apparently the DPUs have a propensity to pick on civilian targets when they are unable to zero in on any hard target. This inevitably results in a very prompt ‘tit for tat’ bombing in the south.

Aerial bombings and heavy calibre machine guns fired from aircraft also cause a large number of civilian deaths, serious injuries and property damage in the north regularly. If the damage is heavy, swift retribution is meted out in some other place by way of a bus or train bombing. It would seem that every time there is an explosion or blast in the north its echo is heard in the south within two, three days.

The Tamil newspapers also state that little or no information is presented in the Colombo based Sinhala and English media about the regular massacres and mayhem inflicted on Tamil civilians in the conflict areas by the army, air force and other special forces. At most there may be a passing reference to some incident and that too after it is no longer newsworthy.

This, they say is in sharp contrast to the massive coverage given to the acts of violence unleashed by the LTTE in these parts with graphic footage and in such an impressive manner that even the wail of ambulance sirens is projected into the drawing rooms of persons living in places far removed from the scene of disaster!

As the Tamil newspapers continue to carry on in this vein, I just thought I should draw attention to these rather divergent views for the benefit of those who cannot or do not read these newspapers.

by S. Rajaratnam

How useful is SAARC?

For sometime many Lankans have questioned the validity of the SAARC grouping. The Press has highlighted these concerns with little response from the Government. The time has come for us to seriously ask ourselves as to what good has SAARC done so far in terms of invigorating trade, freeing of travel restrictions to enable the different peoples of the region to visit each other? Has trade improved within the region in the past few years of the existence of SAARC? How many Lankans have seen merchandise from Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Afghanistan here? Have our exporters found new markets in countries other than India and Pakistan? It may be noted the increased trade between India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka is due to specific bilateral trades between the 3 countries and has little to do with SAARC endeavours. Just because the EU and ASEAN were successes there is no reason why the already meagre resources of the smaller countries in the region should be wasted on the regular unnecessary tamashas under the SAARC flag.

Lankans have been demanding reciprocity from India for the “Visa on arrival” facility we extend to their nationals for years. This Sri Lanka has faithfully done in prompt compliance with SAARC resolutions. India flippantly continues to ignore her responsibility. She has only succeeded in convincing our weak Foreign Ministry officials with strange and untenable excuses of potential danger from imaginary LTTE and Pakistani terrorists. Hundreds of Lankans – old men and women, some of whom are in poor physical shape; pregnant women, children – are allowed to suffer only in search of a mere Visa. The escape route the IHC chose to be rid of the public glare by outsourcing Visa formalities at Bambalapitiya has only exacerbated the Lankan woe. Whereas earlier sometimes lucky applicants were able to get their Visas in a day, the present out-sourcing process requires one to hand over the documents one day and call to check the fate of their Visas many days later. Imagine the suffering and unnecessary expenses of an applicant coming from Jaffna, Trincomalee or Batticaloa – from where, in fact, many of the applications come from. I am tempted to believe it is suffering such as this that regional groupings – believed to be committed to assist their nationals should concentrate and not the wining and dining one often sees and hears. It is clear, where Sri Lanka is concerned, the return on investment on SAARC cannot be justified. SAARC seems to dominate TV and media time when in session to the bloated egos of politicians but has offered little to solve the problems of the people. I have not commented on the asymmetry between countries e.g. India and Maldives that immediately brings to question the wisdom of SAARC. The insensitive refusal by India to assist in the Visa matter makes it clear SAARC should be done away with pronto. It is not only Visa applicants to India will support my call but also several hundreds of mendicants who have been ordered “to get lost” from Colombo streets until the SAARC VIP’s leave. They will be as keen to be SAARCers as much as I. O tempora! O mores! [dailymirror.lk]

The Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) has refuted a news item published by a Sinhala daily on Thursday, June 26th that eight Tigers had been sent to Norway as journalists.

The refutation was made at a hurriedly convened press conference chaired by Mr. Kumar Nadesan, the Chairman of SLPI. Associated with him were newspaper publishers, editors and representatives of the Free Media Movement (FMM), a media rights group.

A Super lead news report on Sri Lanka Government controlled Dinamina, said on Thursday that SLPI had last year invited applications from print and electronic media journalists for training in Denmark and 500 applications had been received. Of them 100 had been interviewed and 20 selected – 10 Sinhalese and 10 Tamils, of whom eight were from Jaffna.

The report alleged that eight of the Tamil persons so selected had no connection to any media organisation and knew neither English nor Sinhalese. Several of them had not returned to Sri Lanka after the completion of the course.

[Lead news report on Dinamina of June 26th says Tigers were sent to Norway under Journalists label]

SLPI said it was committed to enhancing the professional standards of Lankan journalists and conducted training programmes both here and abroad for this purpose.
Selections for such programs had been done according to accepted standards with full transparency, it said.

The Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) is reportedly seeking legal advice as to what action could be taken if the Sri Lanka Government controlled Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (Lake House) – publishers of Dinamina, did not take immediate action to correct a news item.