tamilweek.com

By D.B.S. Jeyaraj

“Naghaichchuvai Mannan” (King of Comedy) Nagesh passed away in Chennai today (Jan 31st 2009).While eating breakfast he got chest pain and was taken to hospital where he breathed his last. Nagesh was 75.

He was the undisputed king of comedians in Tamil cinema from the early sixties to mid-seventies of the previous century. After a “lull” the versatile actor re-entered Tamil cinema in a new “avatar” playing character and villain roles. Even during his stint as comedian, Nagesh acted in quite a few lead roles too.

News of his death revives nostalgic memories of the golden era of Tamil cinema.Those of us who grew up on a steady diet of Tamil films can never forget the man and his acting.

The first Nagesh starring movie that I saw was “Nenjil Or Aalayam” directed by the legendaruy CV Sridhar who also passed away last year. Nagesh played Peter a male nurse in a hospital.

The last Nagesh movie I saw was “Dasavatharam” with Kamal Hassan essaying ten roles. In that Nagesh played a venerable Muslim elder Sheik Mukthar. He acted as father of the giant “Kamal”.

Between “Nenjil Or Aalayam” and “Dasavatharam” I have seen hundreds of films with Nagesh. How much we enjoyed his scenes and laughed. How many times would we have imitated and mimicked those scenes later. For those happy memories “Nandri Nagesh”! [click here to, Read more and see videos on ~ Nagesh: Comedy King of Tamil Cinema dbsjeyaraj.com]

Toronto City News reporter Francis D’Souza believes “an overwhelming sea of humanity more than achieved their aims”.

In what is described as largest such protest in Toronto, hundreds of thousands of Tamils formed a human chain through a large swath of downtown Toronto on Friday, Jan 30th to protest the Government of Sri Lanka over military onslaught on Tamil dominated areas.

[Toronto Star Video]

The protesters gathered along several kilometres of slushy sidewalks in the downtown core, chanting slogans such as “We want peace” and “Help us, Canada.”

A report by Toronto’s City News said, “it was an amazing sight, all the more so because it stayed so peaceful. There are probably thousands, tens of thousands of Tamils here all trying to bring some attention to their cause”

Full Text of Press Release by IFJ

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) strongly denounces an appeal by Sri Lanka’s Defence spokesman urging journalists in Sri Lanka to inform authorities about what he described as suspicious activities by fellow journalists.

Defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella was reported in local media on January 23 to have called on “journalists and all those attached to media organisations … to be vigilant about those who enter the media field”. He asks journalists to report “any person who appears suspicious”.

Rambukwella reportedly asked journalists to help in apprehending cadre of the insurgent Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who he alleged are “moving about in the guise of journalists”.

“The IFJ deplores efforts by government members to recruit journalists into a McCarthy-style witch-hunt. The role of journalists is to report all sides, fairly and accurately, without fear or favour,” IFJ General Secretary Aidan White said.

“The Defence rhetoric is an attempt to divide journalists at a time when the challenges they face in terms of professional freedom and physical security are at their most acute. There is a clear effort under way to stamp out independent reporting and critical commentary of the Government and its conduct of the war with the LTTE.”

The call for journalists to inform on one another came as the Defence Ministry reported arresting Prakash Shakthi Velupillai at Colombo airport on January 22.

The Ministry accused Velupillai of being an LTTE activist and posing as a journalist. The Ministry claimed he was about to take a flight to Singapore and was allegedly carrying forged press credentials. Rambukwella is quoted as saying Velupillai was attached to the IFJ and its partners in Colombo.

The IFJ reports that Velupillai is not attached to the IFJ or any of its affiliates, although it is believed that he had worked as a freelance journalist. The IFJ calls on authorities in Sri Lanka to make public his whereabouts and the conditions in which he is being held.

The climate of fear surrounding Sri Lanka’s media community has resulted in several prominent journalists, including the leadership of some of the main unions and associations, leaving the country in fear for their personal safety.

Sources say at least 10 journalists have gone into voluntary exile in the past week. This is apart from more than a dozen who left over the past year on account of threats to their lives.
The exodus of journalists follows the daylight murder of the well-respected editor of The Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickrematunge, on January 7 and comes as unknown assailants attacked the editor of the Sinhala weekly Rivira, Upali Tennekoon, and his wife with a knife on January 23.

“The IFJ is extremely concerned that several of the journalists who have been forced into exile have been directly threatened by people holding senior positions in the Government and the Sri Lankan security services,” White said.

The IFJ is also concerned by any attempt to discredit the work of international organisations which assist to promote human rights in Sri Lanka, including the right of Sri Lankan citizens to a free media, freedom of expression and freedom of association.

The IFJ urges Rambukwella to withdraw his insinuations about the IFJ.
The IFJ clarifies that in Sri Lanka, as elsewhere in the world, it operates through local affiliate organisations that are fully compliant with national law.

The three formal affiliates of the IFJ in Sri Lanka are the Free Media Movement (FMM), the Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ Association (SLWJA) and the Federation of Media Employees’ Trade Unions (FMETU). Together with the Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum (SLMMF) and the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance (SLTMA), these organisations form a strong coalition of journalists’ organisations in Sri Lanka.

All these organisations have contributed richly to keeping media issues in the spotlight all through Sri Lanka’s 25-year civil war, including in the latest phase of hostilities.

The IFJ calls on President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse and the senior leadership of Sri Lanka’s armed forces to take a strong public stand to end the persistent intimidation and harassment of journalists in Sri Lanka.

“The strongest affirmation from the highest level is required to prevent lasting damage to the foundations of media freedom in Sri Lanka,” White said.

For further information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific on +612 9333 0919

The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 122 countries

Hundreds of civilians – including many children, women and elderly persons – have been killed and wounded during the Sri Lanka Army artillery barrage using multi barrel rocket launchers in Vanni, Sri Lanka North on Monday Jan 26th.

Many of the dying, sick and wounded are being treated at make shift clinics in Mullaithivu district. Mullaithivu district has always been short of vital medical supplies and personnel because of the crippling restrictions by Government of Sri Lanka. But the latest artillery attack has pushed the health services to breaking point.

Civil society sources described the situation as “a real massacre” and “catastrophic”.

In the aftermath of the carnage, Parliamentarians belonging to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in an urgent press statement has renewed their call upon the international community to use all its influence with the Government of Sri Lankan to bring an immediate end to the “massacre of Tamil civilians”.

The TNA further appeals that the international community intervenes to secure immediate medical supplies and medical personnel to be sent to treat the affected civilians.

26 January 2009
URGENT APPEAL

The Sri Lankan State has announced “Safe Zones” within Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) administered areas where civilians have been asked to move into for their safety. Over the last few days civilians have been concentrating into these areas. Despite the Sri Lankan State declaring these areas “Safe Zones” the Sri Lankan Armed Forces have been bombing these areas causing many civilian deaths and injuries.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) reliably learns from medical sources in the affected areas that within the last 48 hours the Sri Lankan Armed Forces have launched non-stop bombing campaigns on these self-declared “Safe Zones”. It is estimated that several hundred shells have been fired reportedly causing over 300 civilian deaths and about 500 persons been gravely injured.

The TNA also learns that due to the continuous shelling even the dead and the injured are unable to be transported to the makeshift hospitals that have been setup by the medical staff. Further, the medical supplied and personnel are grossly inadequate to cope with the current number of casualties.

There can be little doubt that if immediate steps are not taken to stop the shelling, and emergency medical supplies and medical personnel not sent into the affected areas, there would be many more hundred civilian deaths as a result of lack of treatment.

Under these dire circumstances the TNA calls upon the international community to use all its influence with the Sri Lankan State to bring an immediate end to the massacre of these Tamil civilians. The TNA further appeals that the international community intervenes to secure immediate medical supplies and medical personnel to be sent to treat the affected civilians. The TNA reiterates that these steps must be taken within the next 24 hours if the civilian death toll is not to increase to several more hundreds.

The Regional Director of Health Services (RDHS) in Mullaithivu, the embattled district in the North of Sri Lanka has urgently appealed for medical assistance today Monday January 26th, as approximately 300 people have been killed in intense artillery barrage.

Dr.T.Varatharajah, the Physician in charge in Mullaithivu has appealed to the Government of Sri Lanka, ICRC, the UN, and the international community for medical supplies and medical teams to be sent to the District to assist the 9 physicians currently serving there.

Full text of letter by the RDHS is as follows:

26 January 2009

Human Catastrophe & Medical Emergency in the Vanni

Heavy fighting and continuous multi-barrel artillery shelling has resulted in more than 300 internally displaced persons being killed and over 1000 hundred injured in Suthanthirapuram, Udaiyaarkaddu, and Vallipuram in the Mullaitivu District.

We are making an URGENT APPEAL to the Government of Sri Lanka, ICRC, the UN, and the international community for medical supplies and medical teams to be sent to the District to assist our staff. We currently only have 9 MMBS Doctors.

The nature of the injuries and the number of the injuries is such that if these medical supplies do not arrive in the next 24 hours many of the injured will die.

Needs:

1) Blood Bags
2) Blood Transfusion sets
3) IV Fluids
- Hartmanns
- N.Saline
- Haemaceal
- Dextrose
-Gelafusin
4) IV giving set
5) IV Cannulas of different size
6) Antibiotics
IV – Benzyl pennicillin
- Ampicillin
- Cloxacillin
-Cepazolin
-Ceftriaxone
-Metranidazole
- Gentamycin
-Tazosin
Oral -Amoxicillin
-Cloxacillin
-Cephalexin
- Metranidazole
-Augmentin
Dressings
-Gauze
-Bandage
-Cotten
-Analgesics
V – Morphine
- Pethadine
-Fentanil
Oral – Paracetamol
-Ibuprufen
-oral morphine
-Panadine forte
- Indocid
Anaesthatic Drugs
-Ketamine
-Propofol
-Thiopental
-Suxamethonium
-atrcurium, Rocuronium,Pancuronium
-Neostigmine
-atropine
-Hydrocortisone
-Maxalon,Ondensetron,phenargan
Local anasthatics -lignocaine
-lignocaine with adrenaline
ETT Tubes
Urinary catheters, Bags
Intercostal drainage tube
-Surgical Stuff
-Surgical blade
-Suture meterials
-Vicryl 1.0,2.0,3.0,0.0
Nylon
Proline 2.0,3.0,4.0,5.0
Catgut 0.0,1.0,2.0,3.0
Silk
Suturing needles
Miscalanious
anti malarials

Signed:
Dr.T.Varatharajah

RDHS
Mullaitivu

Email: mullaitivurdhs@gmail.com

Humanitarian situation continues to be in increasingly precarious conditions day after day, as civilians are confined to smaller areas in Vanni, North-East Sri Lanka.

Many of them have displaced multiple times within a short period of time, moving from village to village. Pristine gravel pathways cutting across Vanni villages surrounding paddy fields are filled with steady streams of humanity seeking safety.

With the war zone shrinking and a huge population of civilians in the area, the situation has grown desperate in recent days, U.N. resident coordinator Neil Buhne told The Associated Press on Monday, Jan 26.

“There have been many civilians killed over the last two days,” he said. “It’s really a crisis now.”

Throughout Sunday January 25th, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continued artillery shelling on densely populated ’safety zone,’ in Chuthanthirapuram, Udaiyaarkaddu and Thearaavil in Visuvamadu, at least twice attacking the vicinity of the supply centre, located at Chuthanthirapuram playground, the only centre in Vanni where humanitarian supplies brought in by the UN World Food Programme are distributed. Two shells exploded in the premises, killing five members of a single family of Mr. Jegatheeswaran, owner of a saloon displaced from Visuvamadu. Five more civilians, including children and women, were also killed.

[Children seeking safety in bunker from Sri Lanka Air Force bombing]

According to civil society sources, all civilians are in life threatening situation. Health services are reported to be facing severe safety, security, medicinal shortage.

A New York Times report on Jan 22nd said, “there have been at least 11 Sri Lankan aerial attacks on or near hospitals inside the rebel-held areas between Dec. 15 and Jan. 15, according to a United Nations official who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak with the media.”