Apr 6-12: "A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience." -Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) Physician, Poet & Writer
Attack on arms sale to Sri Lanka
By James Mallet
Roy Isbister, head of arms exports controls at Saferworld, said that the EU code of conduct forbids arms exports where there is a danger the weapons could be used against civilians. [BBC News]
Our Lady of Madhu Joins Fellowship of Internally Displaced
By D.B.S.Jeyaraj
The Marian church dedicated to our Lady of the Holy Rosary at Marudhamadhu - commonly known as Madhu - in the North - western district of Mannar has provided safety and refuge at different times to thousands of people fleeing the violence of war. [TC]
Madhu Church: Tragic Casualty of Politico-Military Crossfire
by D.B.S. Jeyaraj
The continuing strife between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has had many unintended consequences.
Chief among them are the numerous victims caught in the politico - military crossfire of a conflict they were never a part of. [TC]
Safegurad Madhu Shrine from War
Press Statement by National Peace Council of Sri Lanka
The ongoing military battles in the north are now threatening the security of one of the country’s most sacred religious sites, the Madhu shrine. [FI]
By R.Venugopal
The suspension of Wimal Weerawansa, the JVP ’s public face and most popular leader is an event of immense signficance for the JVP and is fraught with possibility. [TC]
‘Against violent oppression, violent resistance is moral’
Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka Interviewed by Juliette Perrier in Geneva for Afrique Asie
Reputed academic, author of ‘Fidel’s Ethics of Violence’, Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka is today the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva. He fervently defends the policy of his government against the Tamil Tigers, the secessionists of the North-East whom he describes as ‘Fanatics’: [FI]
These Monks Aren't Freedom Fighters
The radical Jathika Hela Urumaya party rose to power after a wave of church burnings across Sri Lanka in 2004. The party both exploited and fostered this explosive environment by campaigning on a platform of Buddhist supremacy and on promises to criminalize religious conversions.
With attacks against Sri Lanka's Christian minority on the rise, I was shocked that The Post linked militant monks in Sri Lanka's ruling elite with nonviolent Buddhist protesters in Tibet and Burma. [Washington Post]
Fernandopulle’s Assassination Likely to Trigger Fresh Offensive
By Col R Hariharan (retd.)
The assassination of Sri Lanka Highways Minister and Chief Government whip Jeyaraj Fernandopulle (55) by a suicide bomb blast at Gampaha district on Sunday (April 6) morning has deprived the President Rajapaksa of his point’s man in the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). The minister was killed along with 11 others when he was flagging off a marathon race as part of the Sinhala (and Tamil) New Year’s Day celebration at Weliweriya. Over 95 others were injured in the blast. [TC]
NPC: Path of Violence and War is too Costly
[Full Text of Press Release by national peace Council of Sri Lanka]
The assassination of Minister of Highways and Road Development, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle and the killing of 14 others including some of the country’s athletic stars, and the injuring of over 80 others by a suicide bomb attack at a new year Marathon race adds to the long list of political leaders and civilians whose lives have been cruelly taken due to the long unresolved ethnic conflict. The National Peace Council condemns this bombing which is suspected to be by the LTTE. Targeting of civilian events for violence is reprehensible. [FI]
Churches damaged/destroyed by Aerial bombing and shelling in the North of Sri Lanka
Not all the Churches damaged and destroyed are included in this list. The real figure is higher.
Name of Church Parish Address A.G.A. Division Extent of the damage: [TC]
Mounting Civilian Casualties as Conflict Persists
[Public Statement by Amnesty International]
Amnesty International condemns the suicide bomb attack of 6 April 2008 in Gampaha district, Weliveriya, near Colombo. The bomb blast killed at least 12 people, including Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, a senior government minister, and injured over 90 people including children. [FI]
High Commissioner for Human Rights condemns Sri Lanka bomb attack
The High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour has strongly condemned the suicide bombing which killed a Government minister and at least 14 other people at the start of a marathon in Sri Lanka, on 6 April. She also extended her condolences to the bereaved families of the victims, as the funerals of the victims continued to take place on Thursday. [TC]
All Lands Home
Fictitious capital puts America in turmoil and may trigger a global food crisis
by Rajan Philips
What Marx called “fictitious capital” would seem to have been a more frequent and spectacular destabilizer of real economies than what he elaborately diagnosed as the principal contradiction of capitalism between rising production and stagnating markets. Fictitious capital is that portion of capital that exists on paper and speculation in excess of real assets and real production. [FI]
Subramania Bharati’s Letters: a treasure trove
The Letters to the Editor the great Tamil poet contributed to The Hindu between 1904 and 1916 have a remarkable range
C. Subramania Bharati (1882 - 1921) is indisputably the greatest of modern Tamil poets. He was a precocious child, and his prodigious talent at verse earned him the title of Bharati even as a boy. He briefly taught Tamil at Madurai before joining the Swadesamitran. The nationalist Tamil daily was founded by G. Subramania Iyer, one of the founders of The Hindu. [Hindu]
Arts - Culture - Heritage
Sujatha had a new take on everything in the Tamil world of letters.
Sujatha, a well-known writer in the Tamil language, had an impact on the 21st century readers which went well beyond the bounds of his immediate circle of readership. His success as a short story writer and a novelist has been phenomenal and he was appreciated for his attention grabbing style and versatility, which delighted a whole generation of readers. [Hindu]