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Vikalpa is a citizen journalism initiative located in Sri Lanka. It aims to build on the success of citizen journalism pioneered by the Centre for Policy Alternatives by providing content in Sinhala and Tamil that explore oftentimes hidden facets of democracy and governance in Sri Lanka.

Following videos are from Vikalpa on the July 1983 anti-Tamil riots:

A Colombo University student:

Leader of the Western People’s Front, Mano Ganesan MP:

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian R.Sampanthan MP:

Civil Society Activist Shanthi Sachchithanandan:

The sacred statue of Our Lady of Madhu, which was taken away to Thevanpiddy in April was brought back to the Mannar Bishop’s House on Tuesday across the Omanthai entry / exit point, Colombo Tamil daily Thinakkural reported today.

As war is spreading in the surrounding areas and people in Thevanpiddy also face displacement, the sacred statue of Our Lady of Madhu was brought back to the Mannar Bishop’s House.

[Our Lady of Madhu, file pic]

Renovations of the Madhu church now underway are expected to be completed during the first week of next month, at a cost of Rs. 1.5 million, and the sacred statue of Our Lady of Madhu will be installed in the near future, according Thinakkural.

Sri Lanka Army entered Madhu area after a lapse of nearly ten years on April 25 this year.

Amidst tight restrictions by the Government of Sri Lanka on access to Vanni and coverage by media personnel, the tragedy that has unfolded in Vanni region largely remains untold to the out side world, the Peace Secretariat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said in a statement today.

Fleeing Internally Displaced Persons live in open spaces in Vanni

Full Text of the statement:

IDPs unseen

The latest estimate of the number of IDPs inside Vanni is around 110,000 and 35,000 of them are preschool and school children. People moving with their possessions in carts and tractor-trailers on the roads are a common sight in Vanni.

The rain is multiplying the woes of the IDPs

Indeed several schools have displaced too. Schools that are not displaced must now intake the displacing children and teachers. The chaos and workload has forced the even the schools that are not displaced to halt their end of term examinations.

With the Sri Lankan Government artificially creating severe shortages in Vanni there are long delays in providing even the very basics like food to the displaced people. To bring the IDPs under a decent roof could take several months. Even INGOs are struggling with shortages in their efforts to assist the IDPs as a result of restrictions imposed by the Sri Lanka Government.

As if to multiply the woes of the IDPs, Kilinochchi has already seen several days of rain since the latest wave of displacement to Kilinochchi began. The problems faced by the IDPs must be seen to be believed.

Yet, the woes of the IDPs remain mostly unseen due to the imposition of fuel restrictions because local media personnel in Vanni are also suffering the same fuel shortage faced by everyone else.

Neither are the international media present in Vanni to cover the disaster.

Even though intentions of the unilateral ceasefire announced by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are not known to them, the United National Party welcomes it. This is due to UNP is against loss of lives and property.

UNP General Secretary and Kandy district parliamentarian Tissa Attanayake made these remarks at a media briefing held at the Office of the leader of Opposition today, according to a report published in Tamil daily Virakesari.

He added that UNP has continued to express its stand over and over again, on war related destruction. The UNP is firm on its belief that war cannot bring peace, according to the General Secretary of UNP.

The unilateral declaration may be aimed towards winning the good will of SAARC leaders. However, it’s the LTTE and Mahinda Rajapakse government who are amidst war in this environment, Tissa Attanayake MP said.

[Tissa Attanayake MP]

The 15th SAARC summit is to be held in Sri Lanka from July 27 to August 3 under the theme ‘Partnership for our people’ and according to the vision ‘Towards a South Asian Union’.

The LTTE statement declaring the ceasefire said,

“We are always keen to develop friendship with the countries of the world and our neighbouring countries in our region. We are sincere in our efforts to create the external conditions in order to build these friendships. We wish to express the good will and trust of the Tamil people.

As a sign of this goodwill, our movement is glad to inform that it will observe a unilateral ceasefire that is devoid of military actions during the period of the SAARC conference from 26th July to 4th August and give our cooperation for the success of the conference”.

Minister Nimal Siripala Silva, a negotiator for Government of Sri Lanka at the previously held peace talks told parliament on Tuesday evening that the “Government was not ready to accept any ceasefire that would supply oxygen to the LTTE”.

Government won’t enter a ceasefire when LTTE is militarily weak, Sri Lanka Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was quoted as saying to the media.

A new milk collection facility will be open on 23 rd July, 2008 in Trincomalee in order to support rural dairy farmers in the district. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) funded World Concern Sri Lanka to build the centre at Uppuveli, Trincomalee enabling dairy farmers along the Kuchchaveli coast to supply direct to the domestic market. MILCO, who own Highland milk products, will run the centre transporting milk daily to their upcountry processing plant. The centre can hold 3,000 litres in chilled milk at present and has the capacity to expand to 5,000 litres in future.

Representatives from the Department of Animal Production & Health, MILCO, the District/Divisional Secretariat and CIDA are expected to attend the opening which marks a turning point for Trincomalee’s dairy farming community. It has been over three years since farmers had a regular buyer for their milk. With powdered milk prices now at record highs, demand for fresh milk is increasing and both Nestle and MICLO are actively soliciting farmers in the district. Farmers can now make between Rs. 32 and Rs. 35 per litre, providing much needed income as they rebuild their lives after many years of economic hardship.

The Trincomalee facility is one of two MILCO run regional facilities built by World Concern Sri Lanka, an International NGO ‐ the other having recently opened at Vellavely in Batticaloa. CIDA and World Concern also built three smaller Community Chilling Centres with 500 and 1000 litre tanks through which farmers societies can keep their milk cold before transporting it to the regional centres.

Over the 15 month project World Concern Sri Lanka has supporting 580 farmers with technical training, the purchase of cows, micro credit facilities, insurance services and the provision of milk cans and cattle sheds ‐ all designed to improve the farmers productivity and to raise rural incomes. Ian McInnes – Country Director for World Concern Sri Lanka – says that “incomes for these farmers have more than doubled as a result of this project”. World Concern Sri Lanka is also working in Batticaloa and Ampara with a total of 1,500 famers across the Eastern Province. Mr. McInnes believes there is plenty of scope to assist thousands more farmers across the Province as they resettle through the Governments IDP resettlement project. He says “Many farmers are returning to find their cattle gone, their old collection facilities in disrepair and that they have no access to a regular milk run. Once the cattle are reclaimed or new cows are purchased, the problem of replacing the milk run is easily solved as long as the chilled collection facilities can be rebuilt”.

This project was possible thanks to a contribution from the Canadian International Development Agency.

Author: Ian McInnes, Country Director, World Concern Sri Lanka

About 10,000 persons depending on day labour work in Colombo business district face job losses, due to SAARC security measures, reports Tamil daily Thinakkural, published from Colombo.

Thinakkural report further says:

Day labourers fully rely on these jobs for daily survival of their families.

They perform manual duties in loading and or unloading – carrying on their head and shoulders and by way of pulling carts loaded with merchandise for distribution.

They will not be able perform their tasks when the SAARC is in session in Colombo.

The workers distribute items throughout Colombo area and work on transporting goods to and from other parts of the country, on any given day in the main business hub of the city, Pettah.

Daily paid labourers, known as “Nattammais” in Tamil [pic:HA]

The security measures in place for the SAARC will not permit anyone without “passes” to the declared high security zone that includes the centre of business activity in Colombo, Fort and Pettah.

Due to these special high security measures, all business activity – in Fort and Pettah are expected to come to a standstill, when SAARC is in session later this month in Sri Lanka.