-Viduthalaithiv falls to the army: (July 17) Sri Lanka Army (SLA) 's 58 division has been able to take control of the Viduthalaithiv town as of today (16th). LTTE maintained a major sea tiger base in the area which plays a vital role in providing supplies to the organization. In addition to its role as a logistics base, Viduthalaithiv has been the launching pad for several sea tiger raids on naval outposts recently. According to military intelligence, the LTTE have moved some of their hardware and personnel further northwards, deep into LTTE held territory. The base has been under siege for days, both by regular infantry units of the 58 division as well as by squads of commandos. Viduthalaithiv, located 20km north of Mannar, has been under LTTE control for nearly 19 years.
-Ready for talks with LTTE, says Mahinda Rajapaksa: (July 13)Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said on Saturday that his government was ready to resume talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) provided it laid down arms.Talking to journalists at the end of his two-day pilgrimage to the hill temple, Mr. Rajapaksa said the LTTE should give up terrorist activities and come to the negotiating table in the interest of the nation.
-No foreign hand in attack on Indian embassy: Gates (July 10) The United States has said that there was no evidence suggesting involvement of foreign agents in the suicide bombing on Indian Embassy in Afghanistan that left 41 people, including four Indians, dead. "I haven't seen any evidence or proof that foreign agents were involved," Defence Secretary Robert Gates said during a media briefing at Pentagon.
-Defiant Iran tests missiles : (July 09)Iran on Wednesday test-fired nine missiles in the medium and long range category, state media reports.The tests come at a time of rising tension between Iran, Israel and the United States.The missiles can hit targets in Israel and US bases in the region.
-CID Questions Two PMs : (July 07) Criminal Investigation Division in Sri Lanka has questions Member Parliamentarians Vijitha Herath and Ramalingam Chandrasekaran in connection with the arrest of a former Director of the film cooperation.
-Blast hits Indian embassy in Kabul : (July 07) At least 40 people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul Monday morning. A health ministry spokesman indicated that the death figure is expected to rise.
-Top UN official killed in Somalia : (July 07) Gunmen have killed the head of the UN Development Programme in Somalia, UN officials say. Osman Ali Ahmed was shot as he left a mosque in the capital, Mogadishu, and died in hospital of his injuries. It is the latest in a string of attacks on officials, which is plagued by lawlessness after years of conflict.
-President to decide on nominee for Dy Speaker: (July 07)President Mahinda Rajapaksa will preside over a meeting Monday evening with UPFA party leaders to decide on the nominee for the Deputy Speaker’s post. The vacancy was created by the resignation of Mr. Geethanjana Gunawardena. The Deputy Speaker is due to be appointed on Tuesday. The JVP has declared they would not be contesting for the post.
-Sri Lanka win Asia Cup(July 06): Sri Lanka won the Asia Cup beating India by 100 runs in the final at the Karachi stadium in Pakistan a short while ago. Spinner Ajantha Mendis became the first bowler to take more than 5 wickets is an Asia Cup match. Sanath Jayasuriya scored a century for the Lankans.
-Fresh Internal Crisis Within the TMVP: (July 05) Another internal conflict erupted within the TMVP between Karuna and his deputy S. Chandrakanthan, also known as Pillayan after Azad Maulana who is a party media spokesman has appointed as one of two representatives to the APRC on last Week by Pillayan without the Party’s majority.
Visionary science fiction guru Arthur C. Clarke, best known for the classic film "2001: A Space Odyssey," died in a Sri Lankan hospital on
third week of March 2008 at the age of 90.
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India & Global Peace
“Sri Lanka is a frightening example in this respect with both the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam procuring arms from various countries especially from the West. If Western industries are dependent on the arms trade, seeking global peace is going to be a tough process.”.
H.L.D.Mahindapala: Editor, Sunday and Daily Observer (1990 – 1994). President, Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ Association (1991 -1993). Secretary-General, South Asia Media Association (1993 -1994). He has been featured as a political commentator in Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Special Broadcasting Services and other mainstream TV and radio stations in Australia. He is Sri Lanka’s most senior journalist working in the English medium. He read for his degree at Melbourne University and resides in Melbourne, Australia. .
Victor Karunairajan, a journalist with extensive East-West experience has had an exciting career having worked with Anglican, CSI and Catholic institutions, a Buddhist organization and a socialist government in as many as seven countries.
Bahukutumbi Raman, Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, and Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre for China Studies..
The Rajapakse administration was willing to work closely with the Tamil opponents of the LTTE. If they cooperated they would be granted the security they needed to escape from the Tiger killers, a paramount consideration for any dissenting Tamil; they would also be assisted in their work against the LTTE, with money and weapons.
"The JVP, like the LTTE, did not want to share power with anyone; it wanted to rule alone. It would have tolerated the existence of other political parties and organisations only on condition of uncritical obedience. Even the SLFP was attacked, and attacked mercilessly, when it proved itself unwilling to abide by all the JVP’s rules."
Aimed at our young people in particular, The Sri Lankan Guardian launches a campaign to help develop awareness of our rich natural assets and the need to protect and conserve them. We will from time to time publish features and reports on nature life which we are confident, will be used in schools as supportive material.
Copyrights Protected: All the content on this web site is copyrights protected and can be reproduced only by giving the due courtesy to Sri Lanka Guardian.
Interviews
New Book:- TERRORISM :Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
Terrorism is a threat, a modus operandi and a phenomenon. A resolution of the UN
General Assembly after 9/11 designated it as a threat to international peace and security.
As an MO, from a largely uni-dimensional threat of the years before the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, it has evolved into a multi-dimensional threat. As a phenomenon, it has many dimensions—political, economic, ideological and operational. Even the profile of a terrorist keeps changing. The terrorists of yesterday were seen as “misled youth” from the exploited or wronged sections of society. An increasing number of the terrorists of today are educated and come from well-to-do families. They are self-motivated and technology savvy. Their ability to add sophistication to their methods of operation surpasses the skill of the security agencies. This book seeks to contribute to the task of understanding terrorism as it is evolving.
Its author, B Raman, headed the counter-terrorism division of the Research & Analysis
Wing (R&AW), India’s external intelligence agency, for six years and has continued studying the subject even after his retirement in 1994. He is well known as an analyst of terrorism in India and abroad. He is much in demand in international conferences on terrorism. His prolific writings on this subject are widely read and his views are heard with attention and respect.
Children In Sri Lanka
"...We are Tamils…but this story is about children of war…we crouched down in the bunker in silence. We would alternately sit on our flip-flops to avoid dirtying our clothing, and stand huddled in the bunker that was eerily reminiscent of a grave. It was just tall enough that we could bend over halfway without brushing against the tree trunks making up the roof of this make-to shelter. But as the bomber planes flew overhead more and more frequently, forcing us to disrupt our classes to run into the bunkers, the bunker seemed more and more like a grave.....
(May 18, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The political party of the Wansakkarayo represented by Somawansa and Weerawansa canvassed hard to make Mahinda Rajapakse the President at the last presidential election by misleading the voters. They did this by singing his praises, erecting platforms, and carrying out an adverse campaign against the other contenders, with JVP Secretary Tilvin Silva publicly proclaiming that the JVP had no objection to anyone being elected as long as it was not a candidate from the UNP.
The JVP at that time wanted Indian made Maruti jeeps to be given to MPs for their official travel; but today they are shouting that Indian goods to Sri Lanka be banned while as parliamentarians they enjoy the most expensive Japanese intercooler vehicles.
When they canvassed to make Mahinda Rajapakse the President of Sri Lanka the JVP very well knew that if elected he will be the President for the next six years. But even before the expiry of three years of Mahinda Rajapakse’s term, the JVP is all out to oust him. It is trying every trick in the book to get the people to protest and cause civil disobedience.
The JVP is equally responsible for the horrible situation that Sri Lanka is in today. We saw how government employees and other citizens of this country were mercilessly murdered by the JVP during its uprisings of 1971 and 1988/1989. The damage caused to public property was immense including the many CTB buses that were set on fire.
The JVP is a party based on hatred, violence and vengeance although it makes every effort to show the world that it is a democratic party. The path taken by the JVP from its inception has been to the detriment of this country. It thrives purely on the misery of the people, and when not in power it creates the ideal conditions for people to suffer making them disgruntled with the government.
When that party is in power it enjoys the perks of office turning a blind eye to the sufferings of the people as it did when it was in government during the coalition governments of Chandrika Kumaratunga and Mahinda Rajapakse.
The UNP on the other hand has always worked for the well being of the people. The Senanayake Samudra which can hold the largest body of water, the Mahaweli/Victoria project, the 200 garment factory project, and the one million housing project for the homeless, and the Mahapola Scholarships are examples of national projects executed by the UNP for the benefit of the masses of this country.
No other political party in this country has done anything close to what the UNP has done, although the JVP and its allies are making a song and dance of the little things that they have done, which in turn in more ways than one have benefited them, and not the people as it is made out to be.
Sri Lanka is a place where you can fool some people all the time and all the people for sometime, but not all the people all the time.
But what the Karumakkarayo and the Wansakkarayo are trying to do is to fool all the people all the time and be in power aligning themselves with whatever government that is in power.- Sri Lanka Guardian
This writer must be joking to praise UNP like this. The very fact that JRJ is the man behind this constiution along with RW, Athulathmudali and Premadasa itself is a mockery in the present age. How about those undated resignation letters of MPs. These guys wasted valuable time they had in the Pariliament of 5/6 majority only crusifying Mrs. B. Why they could not solve the ethenic problem then. They created this megalomaniac of Prabhakaran to this proportion. Most of these people blame Mr. SWRD for ethenic issue by talking about 24 Hrs. Sinhalese legislation. No one talk about the parrerel agreement he had with Chelvanayagam to resolve any leitimate tamil grievances. However, the villan of the whole issue is JRJ who mooted the Official Sinhala stance at Sinhala Maha Sabha in 1953. Though SWRD was priviledged enough to carry it though and make it happened, it is JRJ who disrupted the whole process by getting Maha Sangha involved with the infamous 1000 Bikhu march to Kandy. The weapons given to tigers by Premadasa Co, and all the aminities and land given by RW by way of peace pact, is hilarious. Any reasonable citizen will understand it is the cohoots of UNP who sold the country to the terrorists for petty gains. Even the current situatian in the Eastern Province is a testimony for a party who only acts with mean spirits. UNP first told they do not contest, then made a pitch with Hakeem on Muslim sentiments, then TNA joined them to support LTTE. The bomb blasts which happened at Ampara and Trinco is their work in the making. I do not know how long the innocent masses of Sri Lanka will tolerate this set of UNP stooges who has no principles, but riches for a few.
What a pity to have this type of irresponsible biased poor journalists in SL? As a country where are we heading with world standards? He is not aware of Batalanada, Sotti Upali becoming UNP Ex-co member, Gonawala Sunil almost the education ministry top brass, killing photo graphers for taking pictures of wives of politicos, Assasination of artists like Richard De Soysa, Waiving billions of tax deafaulted to keep cronies happy..What a shame on this writer?
Rock and Crack: Nuwan Jayatilleke, a young short film director in Sri Lanka, expresses reservations when talking the merits of his experience of the "Rock and Crack" 'A film that isn't a feature film in terms of length of time. Has to be able to get the message/ideas etc. across a lot faster.' He was born in 1985 and early 2000 he was joined with the mainstream medias in Sri Lanka. He can be reached at j.nuwan@gmail.com.
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The Feature article based on Internal Crisis of the JVP .
"We are back to an old truth, a truth the government seems unaware of, despite its vaunted economic populism. Though necessary, economic growth by itself cannot improve the living conditions of a majority of the people; the state must put in place means of disseminating the benefits of growth among those who occupy the lower half of the economic totem pole.”.
"A good example, which is now publicly known, is the intelligence gathered by the R&AW about the plans of the Khalistani terrorists to kill Rajiv Gandhi when he went to Rajghat in October,1987. The R&AW was able to get complete details of this plot including when, where and how the Khalistanis would try to kill Rajiv Gandhi. The report was totally correct,but the R&AW's credibility with the Delhi Police was so low that they did not act on this report thinking that it must be one of those "gups" of it.” by B.Raman .
As expected the delegation had discussions with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, the service chiefs, and senior members of bureaucracy. .
The show is not just a platform for the designers, but it means more than that. The ramp is the market, stalls are the business places and this fashion fair is a place where many business relations start.:by Zubina Ahmed from Kalkata.
Zubina Ahmed, art editor of the Sri Lanka Guardian. She also is working as a sub editor for The Statesman, Indian leading newspaper and a student of St. Xavier’s college Kolkata doing her bachelors in English.
Ranil with CBK
The West has defined the crisis facing them as a necessary war waged by democracies against terrorism. Brown went further and said that “the war on terror was a struggle for the soul of the 21st century.” .
This writer must be joking to praise UNP like this. The very fact that JRJ is the man behind this constiution along with RW, Athulathmudali and Premadasa itself is a mockery in the present age. How about those undated resignation letters of MPs. These guys wasted valuable time they had in the Pariliament of 5/6 majority only crusifying Mrs. B. Why they could not solve the ethenic problem then. They created this megalomaniac of Prabhakaran to this proportion. Most of these people blame Mr. SWRD for ethenic issue by talking about 24 Hrs. Sinhalese legislation. No one talk about the parrerel agreement he had with Chelvanayagam to resolve any leitimate tamil grievances. However, the villan of the whole issue is JRJ who mooted the Official Sinhala stance at Sinhala Maha Sabha in 1953. Though SWRD was priviledged enough to carry it though and make it happened, it is JRJ who disrupted the whole process by getting Maha Sangha involved with the infamous 1000 Bikhu march to Kandy. The weapons given to tigers by Premadasa Co, and all the aminities and land given by RW by way of peace pact, is hilarious. Any reasonable citizen will understand it is the cohoots of UNP who sold the country to the terrorists for petty gains. Even the current situatian in the Eastern Province is a testimony for a party who only acts with mean spirits. UNP first told they do not contest, then made a pitch with Hakeem on Muslim sentiments, then TNA joined them to support LTTE. The bomb blasts which happened at Ampara and Trinco is their work in the making. I do not know how long the innocent masses of Sri Lanka will tolerate this set of UNP stooges who has no principles, but riches for a few.