(April 30, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) We have at no time gone for a ceasefire. We will not do so now. There is no time for that now. In the five or six days remaining we have given the opportunity for the LTTE to lay down their arms and surrender to the Armed Forces and, even in the name of God, free the civilians held by them. If they have no regard for their own lives they should even consider the lives of others.

So said President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the 50th Anniversary of the commissioning of the Chandrikawewa at Embilipitiya, today (30).

All television channels of the world are now directed towards Sri Lanka. With satellite technology the whole world can now see how the LTTE uses tanks to fire at the Tamil people fleeing from them. Of what need special observers to know of this? Why do we need special representatives to study this? This is known the world over, the President said.

However it is a great surprise that some members of the international community do not see this. I must warn the world that this lack of vision could leads to a international tragedy, he added.

You would have seen how our troops rescue mothers, carrying their little children at Puthumathalan. How they carry the aged, yet even seeing this, some international forces point accusing fingers at us.Daya Master says that he was carried to safety like a child carrying one’s father. Some parents go on their knees to respect our troops for saving them from terror.

The world must see and know all this. That is why we call this a humanitarian operation. This is not how wars are fought in other countries. We have seen how Iraq was bombed. We have seen how Afghanistan is bombed. Those who come to preach to us seen how Afghanistan is bombed. It must be made clear that before accusing others, you must have the strength to know what you do yourself.-Sri Lanka Guardian

(April 30, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Yasushi Akashi, Japan’s Special Representative is scheduled to arrive in the island today on a three-day visit.

The objective of the visit is to engage in discussions to ensure the safety of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the north and that they obtain all relief facilities without a break, says a press release from the Japanese embassy.

The release also said that he is scheduled to hold discussions with representatives of the government.

Mr. Akashi is visiting the island for the 17th time.

At the conclusion of the visit, Japan’s Special Representative will hold a special media briefing on May 2, according to the Japanese embassy.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

(April 30, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) UNP Member of Parliamnet Lakshman Kiriella speaking to the media at the UNP media unit today ( 30 Apr) said , the Mahinda Rajapakse Government is not only financially bankrupt , but is also bankrupt of policies . The policy it follows today is forgotten the next morning . This was clearly borne out , when it bowed to the International community and agreed to a pause in the war , and then , in the same breath it began screaming against the international community as LTTE supporters. This kind of backstreet politics and faceless policies of the Government had converted the internal problem into an unnecessary international issue and involvement , he added.

The Government is carrying out a poster campaign across the country vilifying and criticizing the British and French Foreign Ministers, and Hillary Clinton , while its extremist partners in the Government are also holding protest meetings. But , it is the same President Rajapakse who two years ago went about and sought aid from Britain to solve the ethnic conflict. The Government. ‘s faceless policies are so low that it seeks the Foreign countries only when it comes to begging for loans .

The Government by not implementing the 17th amendment to the constitution, not appointing the Constitutional Councils and kicking aside the rule of law is assuming that it can advance forward undemocratically with its bankrupt policies while also making the country financially bankrupt.. This belief is only wreaking more havoc on itself, the country and the people . The Government should not think that it can fool all the people all he time , let alone fooling the world, he observed.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

From the Archives of Subidcham

By B R Haran

(April 30, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) The White Christian Church has the unique characteristic of gaining entry into non-White, non-Semitic civilizations, by slow infiltration of important establishments to influence them and create unrest by dividing the local populace along communal or linguistic lines, with the sole objective of Christianising those countries.

Several instances in history confirm this. The Church has been partially successful in India, as evidenced by the Christianisation of north-eastern states such as Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, etc., and a few pockets in other States. While interior states have been able to withstand the Christian onslaught, the southern coastal states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have been vulnerable to the evil designs of the Church. This was made possible only because of the help provided by self-serving political leaders in the guise of secularism.

Influencing politics in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka

The Dravidian Movement of Tamil Nadu comprised only such leaders, who even went to the extent of requesting the British to continue their hegemony over Tamil Nadu. Since then, the unholy ‘Christian-Dravidian’ nexus has worked consistently for the cause of ‘Tamil Nation,’ extending it to the north-east of Sri Lanka as well.

Just as it divided the Tamil people through the bogus ‘Aryan (Brahmin) – Dravidian (Non-Brahmin) Theory,’ to alienate non-Brahmins from the ‘Hindu’ fold along linguistic lines (Aryan Sanskrit – Dravidian Tamil), the Church similarly divided the Sri Lankan people along linguistic (Sinhala-Tamil) lines. On the one hand, it backed the LTTE fully against the government, and on the other, it successfully infiltrated the Sri Lankan establishment and influenced the government through Sinhala Christian leadership.

When Sri Lankan Prime Minister Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike introduced the “Sinhala only Act” in 1956, the Island’s first anti-Tamil riots took place. Prior to Solomon Bandaranaike, the Sri Lankan government was headed by leaders like Don Stephen Senanayake and John Kotelawala, and his successors were Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Dudley Senanayake, Junius Richard Jayewardene, Premadasa, Ranil Wickramasinghe, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge (married a Christian), Percy Mahinda Rajapakse, who were all either Christians, or Buddhist converts, or married to Christian spouses.

The first Sri Lankan Tamil leader who started the demand for separatism was a Christian - Samuel James Velupillai Chelvanayakam; he also called for a “Greater Dravida Nadu” on both sides of the Palk Straits.

It can be said that LTTE just followed his footsteps, backed by the Church and missionaries. Ever since ethnic riots took place in 1983, Anton Balasingham, a Roman Catholic, assumed the mantle of LTTE’s political leadership and was second only to Prabhakaran, also a Christian.

Ironically, the 85% Hindu majority of Sri Lankan Tamils came totally under the control of a Christian minority leadership, thanks to the Machiavellian machinations of the Church and missionaries. It is difficult to swallow this bitter truth, especially when recalling the glorious past of Sri Lankan Tamil Hindus under the leadership of great Shaivite scholars like Arumuga Navalar, great men like Ponnambalam Ramanathan and Ponnambalam Arunachalam, and intellectuals like the Coomaraswamys. All were widely respected by the Buddhists in Sri Lanka and Ponnambalam Ramanathan was the one who pushed for “Wesak” or “Buddha Purnima” to be a public holiday in colonial Sri Lanka.

As for Tamil Nadu, though the Church suffered a slight setback when M.G. Ramachandran left DMK and founded the AIADMK, deviating from “Atheism” to “Theism” (moving closer to Hindu religion), and his successor Jayalalithaa followed his footsteps (at least for a while), it seemed to have cleverly moved its coins to influence AIADMK too. Now we have a host of Dravidian parties changing alliances at the drop of a hat and even at each others’ throats, but remaining perennially close to the Church.

So, whichever party is in power, the Church is able to have its say and continue with its agenda of de-Hinduising the state. Similarly, in Sri Lanka, the Church has been able to influence the leadership of both LTTE and the Sri Lankan government, while causing the death of thousands of Hindus and Buddhists in the decades-long conflict. The Church has also been indulging in blatant conversion activities in both Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.

Influencing Jayalalithaa for the greatest assault on Hinduism

At one point, the Church found it difficult in Tamil Nadu, due to the enormous influence of Melmaravathur Adiparasakthi Movement and Sabarimala Pilgrimage on Scheduled Caste Hindus, and the various activities undertaken by Kanchi Mutt to reach out to them, besides the enactment of the anti-conversion law by the Jayalalithaa regime.

But the Church finally succeeded in influencing Jayalalithaa after her party’s rout in the 2004 parliament elections, resulting in two telling actions. First, she repealed the anti-conversion law, enacted by her own government, to appease the Christian community; secondly, she went to the extent of denigrating and destroying the sanctity of a 2500-year-old institution established by Adi Sankara and flawlessly maintained by his order of disciples as ‘Jagath Gurus’ for millions of Hindus.

Not surprisingly, in October 2004, she received the ‘Golden Star for Dignity and Honour’ (Thanga Tharakai) award from a Ukraine-based Christian organisation named International Human Rights Defence Committee, controlled by America and funded by ‘US Agency for International Development’ (USAID).

The Indian representative for IHRDC was Mallavarappu Prakash, Bishop of Vijayawada and later Chairman of Tamil Nadu Minorities Welfare Commission! In February 2005, the ‘India International Society’, USA, proposed a tribute for her together with 'Barath Jyothi' award, after which evangelist K.A. Paul came to Tamil Nadu in a private jet to give thousands of crores of rupees for Tsunami relief.

Jaya pursuing Christian agenda

Since then, Jayalalithaa has clearly sided with the Christian clergy. Last year, while terming the spontaneous ‘retaliatory’ attacks on Christians in Kandhamal, Orissa, as a “disgrace” to the nation, she conveniently ignored the dastardly murder of Swami Laxmanananda and his disciples, and the distribution of blasphemous literature and pamphlets denigrating Hindu Gods and Goddesses, by his opponents. When the Rama Sethu Protection Movement was at its peak, she spoke against the Sethusamudram Project, not with true faith in Sri Rama, but with an eye on the votebank. And while protesting against the Sethu Project, she exhibited her 'secular' credentials by pointing out that ‘Adams Bridge’ (Ramar Sethu) was significant to Muslims and Christians as well, a myth which no Christian or Muslim scholar has so far endorsed!

Even the present election manifesto of her party makes only a passing mention of Rama Sethu! Yet it gives exclusive commitments for Christians, such as Reservation for Dalit Christians (unconstitutional), subsidy for Jerusalem pilgrimage, ‘All Souls Day’ to be made a holiday, hostels with all facilities at nominal charges in towns of minority religious significance, and addressing the ‘security’ concerns of minorities.

But she gave no commitments regarding repeal of the DMK government’s ordinance on Tamil New Year or returning the Chidambaram Temple administration to the Dikshidars, or any issue concerning Hindus. As if to confirm allegiance to the Christian agenda, she deviated from her original stand on the Sri Lankan ethnic issue and sat on a day-long fast on 9 March 2009, condemning the Indian government’s alleged inaction on the issue and addressed the LTTE as “fighters” instead of her usual remark of “terrorists”. Now she has openly supported the Christian agenda of creation of a separate Tamil Eelam, which amounts to supporting the LTTE and nothing else. After all, the Church-backed LTTE leadership is also fighting for the same cause!

Sabotaging the legislation on conversion in Sri Lanka

In 2003, Sri Lankan Buddhist and Hindu leaders joined hands to draft a legislation, at the request of Hindu Affairs Minister T. Maheswaran, to legally stop conversion activities by the Church. Despite the pressure applied by this joint committee which worked for six months to draft the new act for parliament, the Church-influenced Sri Lankan government has been reluctant to enact the law.

As the Church foresaw that Buddhist-Hindu unity - unity between majority (Buddhists) and the largest minority (Tamil Hindus) - could lead to permanent peace in the war-struck Island, it sabotaged the process of legislation by favouring the creation of an inter-religious council to hammer out a solution. This so-called inter-religious council is a typical Christian strategy (much like the Church-backed inter-faith dialogues in non-Christian countries) to thwart all attempts to ban conversions by an act of parliament; the same has been adopted by the Vatican to stop such legislations in India as well. Though organizations such as ‘All Ceylon Hindu Congress’ (though pro-LTTE), ‘Hindu Council of Sri Lanka’ and ‘National Council of Buddhist Clergy’ are dead against conversion activities, the Church has been able to influence the political leadership across the spectrum to sabotage the legislation of the anti-conversion law
(External Link ).

In this context, it must be noted that the former Hindu Affairs Minister in Ranil Wickramasinge’s cabinet T. Maheswaran escaped an assassination attempt in 2004, but was finally assassinated on 1 January 2008 while worshipping in a Shiva Temple. Till date, the government has not completed investigations in to the murder, though it has been blamed for allegedly reducing his security level and for continuing minister Douglas Devananda, widely alleged to be involved in the assassination. The government put the blame squarely on LTTE and Douglas Devananda also denied the allegation of involvement. The BBC Sinhala.com reported, “The DNA samples taken from the murder suspect of a Tamil legislator matched with the blood samples taken from the gun used for the killing, Sri Lankan judiciary said. The legislator’s security guard managed to shoot the suspect, identified as Johnson Collin Wasanthan Valentine
(Exaternal Link 1 and Link 2).

Importance of Hindu-Buddhist relationship

As early as June 1998, ‘Tamilnet’ reported that an International conference on Hinduism condemned attacks on Hindus and the destruction of Hindu places of worship by Sri Lankan security forces, and urged Colombo to halt such attacks. The report said that, the ‘First International Conference on Hindu Solidarity’ was held in Paris on 27-28 June at the UNESCO auditorium and attended by delegates from several countries, including functionaries from BJP and VHP (External Link).

Though this seems like a conflict between Buddhist and Hindu communities, it must be understood that the security forces are controlled by a political leadership owing allegiance to the Church. The centuries-old cultural relationship and largely peaceful existence of both the Sinhala Buddhists and Tamil Hindus can be ascertained from two facts.

First, their coming together to draft a legislation against conversion activities of the Church and missionaries, and second, the statement from the Hindu Council of Sri Lanka that the long-standing cordial relationship between the two religious communities in the Island Nation would go a long way in solving the present crisis and creating peace and harmony.

It is pertinent to note that Buddhists worship Hindu Gods and Goddesses and Hindus worship Buddha as an Avatar of Maha Vishnu, and both communities follow the same calendar and celebrate the same day as New Year. While condemning the politicisation of the ethnic conflict by self-serving politicians of Tamil Nadu, the Hindu Council felt that areas of common interests must be identified and along with religious commonality and cordiality, local capacities built for peace. It opined that furthering political interests and fanning Tamil chauvinism must be discouraged as it would complicate the situation and inhibit the capacity of the Indian government to help find a lasting solution by bringing both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamils to the negotiating table.

BJP-led NDA government’s proactive role in the peace process

Journalist M.R. Narayan Swamy (IANS) reported that the Vajpayee government played a secret but vital proactive role in the peace process between Sri Lanka and LTTE, brokered by Norway: “Overseen by New Delhi, a truce document began to be drafted. Norway was deeply involved in the exercise, roping in some of its veteran diplomats. Eventually, this translated into CFA. India also told Norwegian diplomats to let the LTTE know about the Indian involvement in the entire effort. On Feb 21, 2002, LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran signed the CFA. Wickramasinghe put his signature a day later.”

By sheer coincidence, both Ranil Wickramasinghe and A.B. Vajpayee lost power almost at the same time (April-May 2004) and J.N. Dixit, appointed NSA by Sonia-led UPA regime, passed away within a few months of his appointment, with all the details about India’s role in bringing the CFA, which he learnt from Ranil Wickramasinghe, when the later visited India after demitting office. It is natural for a Hindu nationalist party to be deeply concerned about the well-being of a country who’s Buddhist and Hindu people are both tied to Hindu India by an umbilical cord; hence it is no surprise that it tried to bring peace in the interests of both countries. Why did the CFA fail and whether the Sonia-led government pursued the policy of the Vajpayee government with regard to Sri Lanka remain unknown?
(External Link ).

The present scenario

At present, all Dravidian parties are wreaking havoc in the run-up to the general elections, using the inflammatory Eelam issue as an election talking point. Each party is trying to whip up emotions in Tamil Nadu to bring about a ceasefire in Lanka and thereby save Prabhakaran and the LTTE.

When the Father Jagat Gasper Raj-Kanimozhi combine floated the “Chennai Sangamam” cultural extravaganza in 2007, Jaya TV went to town with investigative reports on the LTTE connections of Gasper Raj; Jayalalithaa wasted no time condemning the government’s association with the project. But last year, both Jayalalithaa and her TV channel kept a conspicuous silence during the Chennai Sangamam festival.

During the last week alone, Father Gasper Raj has been promoted by mainstream electronic media as a representative of Sri Lankan Tamils! Participating in debates on electronic news channels, he blatantly supports LTTE in the guise of voicing human rights concerns, criticizes the Indian government, and in one debate on Times Now Channel had the audacity to call Dr. Subramanian Swamy a “paid agent of Rajapakse”! Yet it is unclear if he is a Sri Lankan refugee or an Indian citizen. His antecedents and present activities in India/Tamil Nadu need thorough investigation.

AIADMK leader Jayalaithaa, who condemned Karunanidhi for saying Prabhakaran was not a terrorist, has not reacted to her ally PMK leader Ramadoss’ identical statement! Why does Jayalalithaa, who questioned Sonia’s silence on Karuna’s statement, remain silent on Ramadoss’ statement?

And what has the Italian-Christian-led UPA done for Sri Lankan Tamil Hindus in the last five years? Why didn’t the Sonia-led regime follow the NDA policy with regard to the Sri Lankan Tamil issue? Why was her government silent when the Geneva round of talks failed despite the presence of a live CFA?

Sad irony, and civilisational opportunity

Actually, the West and the Church want to Christianise Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu and form a larger Tamil Christian State. Hence a Sinhala-Tamil divide has been created with the help of the Tamil-Christian leadership of the LTTE and the Sinhala-Christian leadership of Sri Lanka.

Caught in between are the Sinhala Buddhist and Tamil Hindu civil populace. To keep the issue alive without any solution, the Christian leadership of India and the Dravidian, irreligious leadership of Tamil Nadu have been used, just as this diabolic group is using Dravidian politicians and Christian NGOs who have been harvesting souls in both Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. It is a sad irony that the interests of hapless Tamil Hindus of Sri Lanka, who have been persecuted for long by both the Christian leadership of LTTE and the Christian leadership of Sri Lankan government, have been represented by the unholy Christian-Dravidian nexus in Tamil Nadu.

As things stand in Sri Lanka, it looks as though the West might be able to save the LTTE leadership. It will try to send missionaries and NGOs to help the rehabilitation process, so it can clandestinely achieve its evangelical agenda also.

It is said that President Rajapakse instructed setting up of a chapel in the ‘welfare villages’ to look into the spiritual needs of the internally displaced persons and refugees, who number up to 200,000. Sensing the danger of evangelization, the Hindu Council, the Hindu Women’s Society (Saiva Mangaiyar Kazhagam), the Sai Samithi, along with other organizations, swung into action to provide medicines, clothes, soaps, detergents and sanitary napkins and other articles of basic necessity, to augment the shelter, food and water provided by the government. The Hindu Council has also organized singing of Tamil devotional hymns (Thevaram and Thiruvasagam); the Sai Samithi has organized bhajans. These organizations are likely to take care of orphaned children by sending them to orphanages run by the Sri Ramakrishna Mission.

The present situation must be seen as an opportunity to revive Hindu-Buddhist unity and Hindu religious heads from India, especially from Tamil Nadu, would do well to establish contact and communication channels with Buddhist leaders of Sri Lanka. This will go a long way in bringing peace and harmony to the Island Nation. For this to happen, we need a strong “Hindu” political leadership in India. Let us hope it gets ‘elected’ now.

The author is a senior journalist; he lives in Chennai

-Sri Lanka Guardian

(April 30, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) “Sri Lankan Buddhists are not prepared to sell our Buddha statues for food. We would like to tell the Venerable Ellawala thero that such statements are an insult to all Buddhists,” says Tissa Attanayaka, general secretary of the United National Party.

Responding to a statement by the Venerable Ellawala Medhananda Thero, the UNP general secretary at a media briefing yesterday questioned whether the representatives of the government accepted the fact that the country was that bankrupt.

“Just because the government is so bankrupt, Sri Lankan Buddhists are not prepared to sell our Buddhist statues and purchase food items with that money. Sri Lankan Buddhists are ready to rise again. But we would like to tell the Ven. Ellawala thero that our nation is not willing to dispose of our Buddha statues and buy food with that money. Such statements are an insult to Buddhists,” Mr. Attanayaka said.

The Ven. Ellawala Medhananda thero, leader of the Jathika Hela Urumaya on April 23 said that: “Unlike the Americans and the British, we are a proud nation. If aid is forthcoming, then it should be on that basis of dignity. Or else, we do not want such aid. We would sell even our Buddha statues, even the gold statues, and ensure the safety of our nation”.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

(April 30, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian)The United Nations says that Sri Lanka is at great risk and the top priority must be to get the civilians out as quickly as possible.

According to the UN news service, the UN has been urging the government for a further humanitarian pause for the sake of the people trapped in the Safe Zone.

UN Under Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs, Sir John Holmes addressing reporters in New York said that so far the government had not been willing to contemplate on the grounds that the LTTE simply exploits any pause to regroup militarily and continue their resistance.

The UN news service adds that during his meeting with the President, Homes had stressed the need for access for UN humanitarian staff to the combat zone to assess the conditions and the needs of the civilians.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

(April 30, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The $1.9 billion Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) facility sought by the Sri Lanka government from the IMF has now reached an advanced level of finalization with an IMF team currently in Colombo, the Central Bank said on Thursday.

“In this regard, the Sri Lankan delegation to the IMF Spring Meetings held several discussions with senior staff of the IMF. Further, a Safeguards Assessment mission from the IMF is now in Colombo having discussions with senior officials of the government and the Central Bank as a part of the process,” it said in a statement. The statement came just as Reuters news agency reported from Washington that the US administration has asked the IMF to delay the loan to Sri Lanka.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

(This is a Catapult Thangavelu of Kappang Highway column written four years ago and published in Subidcham and Independentsl. In the last paragraph he observes that even the Wanni leaders do not know where the orders are coming from and at the time this feature was written there was much less known about Selvaraja Pathmanathan alias KP and hardly anything about a medico from the UK who is in custody in the US facing possibly a charge involving massive funds for the purchase of weapons and other military material.)

(April 30, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Old habits die hard. May be the followers of a murderous bank robber felt like doing what their leader did when he apprenticed as a killer beginning with bank robberies. While on a mission to drive the Muslims out of Muthur during the recent campaign, a few Tiger teenagers in uniform passed by a small bank in the town. Suddenly, they must have felt inspired to rob it. May be they needed a lot of cash for a mission they had in mind.

So they robbed the bank; that they returned to the camp has not been confirmed. Punchi Puli acca feels they are already on their way to Canada to seek refuge helped by their guardian angels in Muthur itself. The LTTE are not the only people handling alien smuggling operations. Among the top guys in the field in the Colombo Underworld is a Muslim and his agent in Canada is a Tamil woman.

These are the very people who claim to be the sole spokespersons of the Tamils in Sri Lanka and this is the very organization that prides in having a judiciary of their own and even a police force. If their leader had robbed banks around the time he was about the same age as these boys in uniform, it is no excuse that they should follow suit some thirty years later.

But then the Tamil Tigers are a unique entity and a law unto themselves, individually and collectively. No one else other than a Tiger has the right of existence but even the loyalty to Prabhakaran must be one hundred percent, rather total submissiveness.

The current LTTE campaign has perceived and unperceived dimensions. While it falls in line with their determination to provoke a war, there are other factors such as ethnic cleansing of the East of Muslims and Sinhalese. They have to get Karuna dead or alive and wipe out the TMVP, a task that they know is beyond them.

They also strongly suspect that the TMVP has infiltrated and Zoo-Paa was nearly kidnapped by Karuna’s men a fortnight ago; that was the claim. Since then he has not appeared in public and is known to be sweltering in another hole that is not tunnel-linked to Groundhog Hole. A Wanni wit has named it the Bandicoot Hole. Very soon, it is feared the Tigers will run out of holes.

Punchi Puli acca said that since the attempted kidnap failed, they blamed it on Karuna’s men. According to her, it was an inside job because there are people in Wanni who want to liquidate him; may be the Big Chief himself is behind this idea. The chances are that Zoo-Paa will be soon out of Wanni and he probably expects Norway to help him out of this nightmare situation.

Karuna’s men do not want Zoo-Paa because for them he is a miserable small fry in the Wanni pack. The Big Chief has been using him as a convenient front liner with the kind of connections he has in Norway via Erik Solheim and Canada through his brother. Zoo-Paa carries an impressive title as political commissar and both words are beyond his understanding let alone what he is supposed to do as they title deems. Whatever press statements he is supposed to make are all prepared well ahead by people employed in Wanni for this purpose. He thinks communalism is the philosophy of the communists!

A certain section in the LTTE hierarchy also wants the government to aerial bomb a certain area in Wanni especially on the fringes of Mulliyawalai. They badly need a major martyrdom to overcome a very worrying situation that has gone too far. The government should never get drawn into this trap.

The Wanni leaders themselves are not sure who is leading and where the orders are coming from since the last Oslo “untalks” in particular.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

(Published by Subidcham and Independentsl four years ago . In both websites many aspects of LTTE brutality were regularly focused. This heart-rending account is just one of many unbelievable cruelty of Prabhakaran and it is indeed incredulous that thousands want this man to be spared. Even now to save his depraved life, he will lead thousands to slaughter.)

(April 30, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Subidcham: We came across this heart-rending lament of a friend of Aarthy who took arms for what she thought was right.

We noted her tribute to a dead comrade, killed by beasts in human forms crying for “justice for Tamils” as a cover for their deadly conspiracy to create a Fascist state, could be repeated hundreds and hundreds of times for the vile cruelty at which the Wanni terrorists are degenerate, depraved monsters.

Children and young ladies suffer the most and the latter are systematically abused sexually, the children both male and female are subjected to all kinds of atrocities. The Tigers have set up orphanages of infamy for the pleasurable activities of its senior cadres and as institutions that provide soldiers for the frontlines and suicide bombing expeditions.

The fate suffered by Aarthy is certainly not an exception. It is virtually an everyday happening in Wanni. There is a guy who keeps cobras, vipers and scorpions merely to use them as aids in torture. Known as Cobra Castro, he is the most senior of the Wanni leaders after the Wanni Monster himself, Pottu Amman and Soosai.

Aarthy: My sister My friend

When the hatred rules,
When the jungle law prevails,
Justice lose, for which I cry,

She was once a freedom fighter,
Fought many a war,
Sacrifices her young life,
For the Eelam cause,

Now a traitor for her faith,
For she stood for her truth,

Ferocious Vanni forces,
Crossing Verugal river,
Warriors from Tamil Eelam,
Becomes warriors from hell,

She surrendered, they captured,
She was striped, she was bitten,
She was pushed to death,
Shot in her vagina by "northern warriors"
Once brothers, now gods of death,

Justice lose, my heart freeze,
Blood lose its values,
Water becomes thicker than blood,

My sister, My friend,

The Verugal river cries for you!

By Chitrapathy of Batticaloa

Aarthy, a women cadre loyal to Karuna was sexually harassed and later shot in her vagina by the advancing Vanni forces from Prabhakaran’s clan during the infamous blood bath near the Verugal river when she surrendered to the Vanni forces. (Courtesy of Denmark Tamil Web site)

-Sri Lanka Guardian

By Shikha Mukerjee

(April 30, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) Merely ensuring that the anti-Left vote is not split between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress is not quite the same as jointly taking on the Left Front, more so the CPI(M), in West Bengal

It was a formality that Ms Mamata Banerjee chose not to waste time. She joined one public meeting at Lalgola in Murshidabad organised by the Congress for Ms Sonia Gandhi’s campaign tour of what is the most significant phase for the party, given that key contestants, including Mr Pranab Mukherjee, will be tested on April 30.

Ostensibly Ms Banerjee’s single appearance, as a guest star, reflected the way in which seats were distributed in West Bengal — North Bengal for the Congress and South Bengal for the Trinamool Congress. To merely ensure that the Congress and the Trinamool Congress do not contest from the same seats is not the same as putting up a joint effort against the Communist Party of India(Marxist) and so scooping the groundswell of anti-incumbent sentiment, on the boil since Nandigram in March 2008 to Singur in October 2008.

In reality, it would have been hard for Ms Banerjee and Ms Gandhi to make joint appearances in more than one place, since not only has the Trinamool Congress taken rebel Congress leaders and their cohorts under its wing, it has encouraged rebels to contest the elections, thereby dividing the anti-CPI(M) vote. In Murshidabad, the Trinamool Congress has given shelter to bitter rivals of Behrampore MP Adhir Chowdhury. In Raiganj, the party has encouraged Mr Abdul Karim Chowdhury to contest as an Independent. And, Ms Dipa Das Munsi, who is contesting from Raiganj, has been an outspoken critic of the seat-sharing arrangement with Ms Banerjee.

For the Congress, a lot rides on the results in West Bengal producing a serious upset for the CPI(M) in particular and the Left Front in general. For the Trinamool Congress too, winning more than Ms Banerjee’s South Kolkata seat is crucial to its survival and its future.

An election outcome that signalled a ‘Change,’ in other words greatly reduced the 35 out of 42 seats held by the Left Front in the 14th Lok Sabha would be balm to the Congress’s wounds. Post July 2008, the Left and the Congress have been at loggerheads and the intensity of the bickering seems to have escalated rather than declined after each successive phase of the election.

With the Left, more specifically CPI(M)’s general secretary Prakash Karat reiterating at every turn that the Congress would not get the chance to form the Government at the Centre, West Bengal has become a key State. In that context, the cameo role played by Ms Banerjee during Ms Gandhi’s tour signals several things.

The joint exercise by the Congress and the Trinamool Congress is indeed a seat-sharing arrangement; in other words, a convenience. Ms Banerjee declared as much when she said at Lalgola in Murshidabad that the meeting was a Congress rally for Ms Gandhi. Since she did not play a stellar role, the neither party, it would appear, expects the other to function as a vote multiplier. That is, the Trinamool Congress does not expect to transfer its votes to the Congress and if that is the case, it would be unlikely that the Congress would transfer its votes to the Trinamool Congress in South Bengal.

In other words, the chances of a joint effort at mobilising anti-CPI(M) or Left Front may not be effective with only a formal seat-sharing arrangement. The adjustment, if it has not impacted and so altered the formula under which the Congress and the Trinamool Congress functioned earlier, would defeat the purpose of the exercise. Both parties have operated on the basis of strong local leaders who controlled the turf on which they operated; Mr Adhir Chowdhury in Behrampore, Mr Priya Ranjan Das Munsi in Raiganj, Ms Banerjee in South Kolkata.

While there is the expectation that the combination of opposition forces, the Trinamool Congress and the Congress, will bring about the downfall of the CPI(M), that expectation can be fulfilled only if there is effective organisational coordination at the local level. Formal adjustments that do not produce real sharing would undermine the hype behind the deal, marketed as an exercise in consolidating anger against the domineering bully, the CPI(M).

As the countdown in West Bengal begins, if the opposition’s strategy of pooling together its strengths is effective, the voting percentages would vividly reflect it. Voter participation in West Bengal is, to begin with, high. A higher than usual voter turnout would indicate that the opposition’s voters have mobilised. A voter turnout even higher than that would mean that both sides have mobilised in a fierce contest to win or lose, as the case may be.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

By Siva Sunderam in Toronto

(April 30, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) Finally, it appears the Canadians are beginning to see the truth about the Tamil Tigers but it may just be too late for Canada. We publish below a feature from Canada’s National Post that appeared this morning, Wednesday April 29, 2009.

There is a Tiger underworld in Toronto that is in full functional flow and its very interests are the ones that have brainwashed the Tamil youth into pro-Tiger terror activities. Every day the Canadian Multicultural Radio and TVI and other Tamil media organizations especially the weekly tabloid trash, and there are many of them, are preaching venom to these young people and they have been effectively hijacked from their parents and elders.

This is exactly what happened in the 1970s in north Sri Lanka when the LTTE hijacked young people from the hundreds of tuition centres and made them their followers; and some became their terror packs.

So effective are the Tiger activities in Canada that today the Tamils in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) live in an Eelam shell - Tamil Eelam in exile - and without in any way being a credit to multicultural Canada. A large number of Canadian Tamils do not support the LTTE neither are they happy with the street protestors who have now attained mob status. They openly admit that being a nuisance is their intention and the next stage would obviously be violence. Violence by such people is being reported from Berlin, Paris, London and Oslo and many cities are bound to be subjected to such outrage.

The majority of Tamil Canadians are helpless because they know these people are dangerous and if they seek the help of the police or courts, they will get into greater trouble because the Tigers are ruthless.

What is significant about the LTTE in Canada is that it began to grow with Canadian taxpayers’ grants. The Tamil Eelam Society has received millions and even the World Tamil Movement had received taxpayers’ funds. There are several other organizations, all supportive of the Tigers that received various grants under some pretext or other. In this respect the Liberal Party has been quite naïve if not part of the conspiracy to defraud the Canadian taxpayers.

It is time the Government of Canada launches a searching inquiry into such organizations as the Tamil Eelam Society and several individuals, their background and how they amassed their wealth and their current lifestyles. Most of these people if not all and whose names must be freely available in the records of the RCMP and other security services, are actively involved with the Tiger underworld and they are the ones who are inducting the Tamil youth into violence of the LTTE type that has already become a global plague.

The fine line between a protest and a mob

National Post Published: Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Torontonians rightly celebrate the multicultural nature of their city. But such sentiments were tested this week, as an ongoing cycle of Tamil protests besieged tens of thousands of workers in the city's downtown core, adding idle time to core-bound commutes, and subjecting the country's most expensive labour to the constant angry thrum of folk drumming. There is a fine line between accommodating spontaneous political action on behalf of a legitimately concerned ethnic group seeking to express solidarity with brethren overseas -- and letting one's city be taken over by a mob.

The protesters are demanding that Canada take action against Sri Lanka's government, which is now in the final stages of a military campaign against the Tamil Tigers, a once-successful military insurgency that often has resorted to terrorist tactics in its bid to create an independent Tamil homeland.

As noted in previous editorials, we are not unsympathetic with the protesters' professed humanitarian concerns: Tens of thousands of ethnic Tamils remain trapped -- alongside several hundred apparently suicidal Tamil Tiger fighters -- in a small sliver of northeast Sri Lanka. But there is a reason that most informed Canadians regard the protesters more as a slightly sinister annoyance than as noisy humanitarians: They are caring flags designed by, and glorifying, a banned terrorist organization.

Moreover, many Tamil spokesmen here in Canada seem to live in a dreamworld -- ignoring the plain fact that (as the United Nations and several blue-chip NGOs have pointed out) a primary threat to Tamils in Sri Lanka is posed by the Tigers themselves, who are holding trapped civilians as human shields. Given that the protesters seem curiously unperturbed by the Tigers' own brutality toward Tamils, one is left to wonder what their real goal is: saving Tamils, or saving the remaining leadership of the Tigers.

Moreover, whatever the manner in which Tamils are treated in Sri Lanka, they are not persecuted here in Canada. Just the opposite: They have done notably well by our refugee system, and until recently carried heavy weight in Liberal ethno-politics. Where they have failed is in establishing a dedicated political outlet that is free from links to terror -- a fact that casts a dark shadow over this week's events: While staging non-violent protest marches is well within the Canadian political tradition, convening a mob to praise an illegal terrorist organization is not.

Indeed, this month's protests raise questions about whether Tiger-friendly Tamil-Canadian ringleaders are committed Canadians who are sincerely concerned with the fate of their hyper-extended Tamil family -- or exiles who have been biding their time on Canadian soil, waiting for the Tigers to win the war and build Tamiltopia; and who are now punishing their neighbours for the imminent collapse of their dreams.

For all our impatience at being held up on the streetcar, we know the question is complicated, and we hope it is being asked in Tamil circles. In Peter Kuitenbrouwer's report on the protests for yesterday's Post, he quoted a youth Tamil organizer as saying: "They ask us 'Why are you blocking the street?' And we tell them, 'Because we are out of choices.' “In a way, that's good news: Before Stephen Harper banned the Tigers in 2006, the "choices" for Canadian Tamils have included raising money for political assassinations and suicide bombings. But in a way, it's also bad news, because supporting peaceful change in Sri Lanka does not appear to be one of the "choices" on this perceived menu.

Tamils in Canada could have spent recent decades building alternatives to the Tigers, yet they showed little interest when force seemed to have some chance of succeeding. Now that the tables have turned, and the Sri Lankan army has the Tigers trapped, their Canadian cheerleaders suddenly are left with nothing to do but pound out a dirge on Canadian streets, as uninterested Canadians file past on their way to work. Perhaps these protesters should have preached against violence when that message would have meant something.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

By Turkmen Terzi

(April 30, Ankara, Sri Lanka Guardian) Turkish Parliament Speaker Köksal Toptan met his Sri Lankan counterpart W.J.M Lokubandara at the Turkish parliament in capital Ankara.

Toptan and Lokubandara held a tete-a-tete meeting and later chaired a meeting between Turkish and Sri Lankan parliamentary delegations.

Speaking to reporters, Toptan said Wednesday's meeting aimed at developing relations and cooperation between the two countries' parliaments.

Toptan later hosted a luncheon in the honor of the Sri Lankan parliament speaker and the delegation.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

(April 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The French Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Dr. Bernard Kouchner and Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom David Miliband is on an official visit to Sri Lanka at the invitation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Rohitha Bogollagama.

During their visit, Foreign Minister Kouchner and Foreign Secretary Miliband called on President Mahinda Rajapaksa and had a cordial discussion on the present developments. They also visited the IDP welfare centres in Vavuniya, and the Field Hospital donated by the French Government in Chettikulam. The visit takes place against the background of the current developments in the North of Sri Lanka, in particular the recent security forces action to liberate approximately 120,000 civilians, who were held hostage by the LTTE.

Following bilateral talks with the two visiting dignitaries, the Foreign Minister Chaired a meeting with the two delegations and all the relevant line Ministries involved with the current humanitarian efforts relating to the IDPs. The Attorney-General, the Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the Secretaries to the Ministries of Healthcare & Nutrition, Social Services, Justice, Nation Building were present together with the Commissioner-General of Essential Services. The two delegations also had an opportunity to see an audio visual presentation including UAV footage of the humanitarian rescue operation by the security forces.

While welcoming the two visiting dignitaries, Foreign Minister Bogollagama stated that we are encouraged by the continued interest and concerns expressed by France and the UK on developments in Sri Lanka. He further stated that we are on the threshold of defeating terrorism and are embarking on an era of lasting peace and security for all our people. He spoke of the huge task of the humanitarian relief operations in place and thanked the UN, ICRC and the international community that are providing assistance to the Government of Sri Lanka. While specifically thanking France and UK for their special assistance he stated that he is happy to host the two dignitaries who have made this special trip to Sri Lanka in order to see for themselves and be engaged with the government of Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lanka side also briefed the visiting delegations on the ongoing efforts by the Government and the close collaboration with the international community as well as UN agencies and the ICRC, in supplying the needs of the displaced population including shelter, food and health. The Sri Lanka side further briefed the two delegations on the additional measures in place for long term resettlement as well as rehabilitation of surrendees. It was highlighted that the international assistance towards the de-mining process would facilitate and expedite long term resettlement.

The two visiting dignitaries thanked the Foreign Minister for the detailed briefing and appreciated the extensive ongoing efforts undertaken by the Government of Sri Lanka in managing the current humanitarian situation. They highlighted that their concern relating to the current situation focused on the security and welfare of the displaced civilian population. They condemned the LTTE for holding the civilian population hostage in the “no fire zone”. They encouraged the Government of Sri Lanka to continue its cooperation with the UN agencies and ICRC and, to look at the possibility of providing more access to the international community.

Both Foreign Minister Kouchner and, Foreign Secretary Miliband agreed that the French and British Governments have stood with Sri Lanka during the 25 years of conflict and will continue to stand by Sri Lanka in the future. They also observed that Sri Lanka had reached a defining moment in the conflict.

Minister Bogollagama thanked the French Government for the medical assistance and for the increased financial contribution amounting to Euros 1.6 million towards the humanitarian agencies working in Sri Lanka. He also thanked the British Government for allocating a further 2.5 million Pounds, in addition to the 5 million Pounds already pledged, for humanitarian assistance. The Minister also welcomed their willingness to provide assistance in the post-conflict scenario.

During the visit to the IDP sites in Vavuniya and the French Field Hospital in Chettikulam, the visiting dignitaries obtained a first-hand impression of the relief efforts underway. They also held discussions with the Minister for Resettlement & Disaster Relief Services Rishard Bathiudeen and the GA/Vavuniya Mrs. Charles as well as the Competent Authority Major General W.A. Chandrasiri.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

(April 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The United Nations Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Sir John Holmes visited Sri Lanka on 26th and 27th of April on the invitation of the Government. During his visit, Sir John Holmes had discussions with President Mahinda Rajapaksa Foreign Minster Rohitha Bogollagama, Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights, Mr. Mahinda Samarasinghe and several other senior officials. He also visited the relief centres accommodating displaced people in Vavuniya and the Omanthai transit point where displaced persons escaping from the LTTE are received by the GOSL.

Sir John Holmes’s visit took place against the background of the humanitarian operations launched by the Sri Lankan Security Forces which recently resulted in the liberation of approximately 110,000 civilians.

In order to brief Sir John Holmes of the measures taken to facilitate the large number of IDPs Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama chaired a meeting with the Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights, Mr. Mahinda Samarasinghe. Secretary Foreign Affairs, Dr. Palitha Kohona, Secretary/ Healthcare and Nutrition Dr. Athula Kahandaliyanage, Secretary Ministry of Social Services and Social Welfare, Ms. V. Jegarasasingam, Secretary/ Ministry of Justice Mr. Suhada Gamlath and the Commissioner-General for Essential Services, Mr. S.B Divarathne were also present.

The Government side explained in detail the progress made in expediting required shelter, food, sanitation and other needs for the displaced persons in the light of the sudden influx of people since April 20th. Significant measures have been taken to ensure the wellbeing of the displaced civilians, and both sides discussed at length the numerous steps that could be taken to further enhance the relief effort. The Government reiterated that it will be working in close cooperation with the UN agencies, NGOs and ICRC on multiple issues related to provision of protection and assistance.

Secretary, Ministry of Healthcare and Nutrition informed that his Ministry, in consultation with the relevant stake holders have formulated a “Master Plan of Action” to tackle the emergency medical situation in the Vavuniya region. He added that several foreign agencies and governments have already stepped in to enhance the medical facilities in the area. In this regard a field hospital donated by the French Government is to be set up in Chettikulam.

The Commissioner General of Essential Services outlined the continuous supply of food, shelter and other basic services that are being provided to the IDPs. He also added that arrangements have been made to send food and medicine for people still trapped within the Safe Zone.

Secretary, Ministry of Justice in his capacity as the Commissioner General of Rehabilitation, briefed Sir John Holmes on the measures taken to rehabilitate ex-combatants. He added that ex combatants are presently being rehabilitated in three sites.

Secretary, Ministry of Social Services and Social Welfare elaborated on the psycho-social services and special programmes conducted among the displaced persons especially targeting the elderly, disabled, women and children.

With regard to the civilians still trapped in the “no fire zone”, the Government reiterated its commitment to continue to send food and medical supplies, despite the fact that much of these provisions are being appropriated by the LTTE. The Government repeated its position that it has not, and will not target civilians while defeating terrorists in the Safe Zone and the Government will continue its ongoing civilian medical evacuation operation together with the ICRC.

During his visit to the relief centres in Vavuniya where a majority of the recently liberated civilians are accommodated, Sir John Holmes held discussions with the Minister of Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services, Rishad Bathiudeen, the Competent Authority appointed by the Government to oversee the emergency relief services, Major General G.A. Chandrasiri and the GA, Vavuniya.

At the conclusion of his visit, Sir John called on donors to respond to the humanitarian needs in Sri Lanka and announced that the United Nations was allocating a further US Dollars 10 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). Sir John also conveyed the willingness of the UN to assist Sri Lanka in post-conflict issues, including rehabilitation of ex-combatants.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

-LTTE were now cornered in an area of 6.5 sqkm
-Ground troops captured Rekthawaikkal junction

(April 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) “Sri Lanka Navy’s elite Special Boat Squadron (SBS) and Fast Attack Craft (FAC) destroyed six (06) LTTE sea tiger boats killing twenty-five (25) sea tigers in the seas of Mullaithivu on early morning hours today (29th April 2009),” said the Sri Lanka Navy in an official statement.

According to the Statement released by the Sri Lanka Navy, “the vigilant Naval troops engaged a combined cluster of sea tiger suicide and attack craft on their launching pad located in the No Fire Zone while attempting to set off on an attack mission on the advancing ground troops in the early hours of today. Four suicide craft laden with high explosives and two enemy attack craft mounted with higher caliber weapons were destroyed in the Naval gun fire forestalling their desperate mission.”

“One of the SLN craft was slightly damaged and one sailor received minor injuries to his left arm in the incident. Search and clear operations are still continuing.”

The round-the-clock vigilance maintained by alert Naval troops on continuous Naval patrol close to the now-fast-diminishing enemy stronghold, has been instrumental in thwarting LTTE’s last-ditch desperate sea tiger attacks on ground troops. The Navy’s patrol craft have recently been able to inflict heavy enemy cadre and vessel losses on the LTTE sea tigers on four consecutive occasions.

Meanwhile Military sources confirms , the security forces have gained control of the Rekthawaikkal junction.

The Defence Ministry website states that the 58th Division captured the junction last evening, during operations to rescue the remaining civilians held captive by the LTTE.

The Rekthawaikkal region is two kilometers south of Valayanmadam.

Meanwhile, the 53rd and 58th Divisions captured two LTTE earth bunds south and south-west of Valayanmadam yesterday.

Security sources note that the LTTE were now cornered in an area of 6.5 square kilometers.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

(April 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband arrived in Sri Lanka a little while ago on a one-day visit aimed at rescuing civilians trapped in a safe zone.

The two foreign ministers are scheduled to meet President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama today while a visit to a Vavuniya camp where the war displaced people are sheltered is also on their agenda.

Prior to his departure Miliband has said the purpose of his visit was to address the humanitarian situation in northern Sri Lanka and the “continuing grave risk to civilians in the conflict zone."

Miliband and Kouchner were to be accompanied by Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, but the Sri Lankan government announced that Bildt’s inclusion in the team was a last minute affair and therefore he was extended an invitation to visit the country next month.

However, the refusal to accommodate Bildt has created a diplomatic row – with Sweden recalling its ambassador in Colombo.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

By Philip Fernando in Los Angeles

(April 29, Los Angeles, Sri Lanka Guardian) War analysis by Tiger-hugging Economist is a total farce. The April 18-25 issue treats the conflict in Sri Lanka with scant respect for factual accuracy. It has the gall to state that “even moderate Tamils, their ranks severely thinned by LTTE assassins, say they will be worse off without Mr. Prabhakaran as their champion. The London weekly’s assessment is an irreparable blemish on its capacity to be impartial. This is a glitch even bigger than the BBC’s pro-Tiger rant.

The Economist even injects a racist tone to the whole article when discussing the LTTE and their demise. Sri Lankan army commander is called an “avowed Sinhala chauvinist,” while Minister Douglas Devananda is reportedly” loathed by the people in Jaffna”. Defence Secretary is painted as a war monger for stating that the “government had no choice but to use extraordinary tactics against a monstrous foe.” The Economist did not state when Commander Fonseka took vows to be a chauvinist or how loathing of Devananda was divined by the Economist. Subjectivism has ruined all semblances of journalistic norms in the Economist’s article.

The Economist is prejudiced beyond belief. It is racially motivated to debunk what the government had been doing to get rid of the vicious terrorists plaguing Sri Lanka for three decades. The invitation to fight terror was first pontificated by the US-UK axis of Bush and Blair soon after the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers in New York. The Economists is even unaware that Sri Lanka took that seriously and won the anti-terror war deemed unwinnable by Gordon Brown and his ilk.

Like the BBC trying its best to distort the situation in Sri Lanka (read “Pig flu makes Tigers eat grass by Dusty Ratnetunge today in the Guardian). The London weekly digest seemed bent on shattering all accepted norms of journalism.

The article in the Economists is a pathetic display of partisanship. These are few of the many howlers concocted by the Economist. “Tigers may be reduced to 1,000 hardened fighters, plus a few thousand” according to recently impressed refugees. The accurate number of LTTE cadres left is less than half the number given by the Economist.

The situation is an “increasingly anachronistic blot on a hopeful country.” It is in fact, a dawn of hope after a dark period. That assessment by the Economist was true when the Tigers were controlling a third of the country and going on a killing spree chopping innocent civilians. Tigers are now getting crushed.

The Economist states that “impending declaration of victory will be largely derided. The army has shown a cruel disregard for Tamil civilians crowding the battlefield.” This is completely untrue. Armed forces have taken all precautions to treat civilians with great care. Sri Lankan armed forces have proved to be disciplined and beyond reproach.

The Economist has alluded that the Sri Lankan government had plans to keep the liberated Tamil civilians in bondage. It stated that “government’s original plan, to keep this population penned up for a year or more, was outrageous.” This is a figment of imagination by the Economist.

The weekly also implied that Sri Lanka was seeking new friends when referring to the assistance received by Sri Lanka from Pakistan. India and Pakistan had been friendly with Sri Lanka as members of the British Commonwealth from its inception. The Economist is distorting history.

While throwing in a few innocuous lines like “Nor should Mr. Prabhakaran and his crew be mourned, and Tigers are “A well-organized and vicious terrorist group, expert in brainwashing and suicide-blasting” the Economist unjustifiably debunked the heroic fight waged by the Sri Lankans.

The Economist is dismayed that Sri Lanka got assistance from Iran. It stated “Iran, which has been providing 70% of its oil supply on tick; and Libya, from which it expects a soft loan.” That has nothing to with the war.

While giving the impression of neutrality with the headline historic chance to make peace, the Economists denigrates itself into the level of a scurrilous rag-bag of a weekly instead of a prestigious publication embodying the scared norms of journalism.

It taunts President Rajapaksa thus “Crowned with laurels, he is expected to hold parliamentary and presidential elections within a year, and win thumping majorities” This is what the Prime Minister of England is now trying to do ignoring the atrocious illegalities of the Tiger multitudes storming Parliament square. The Economist has very little or nothing to say about the ruthless vandalism of the Tigers in beheading the Nehru statue recently or the vandalism against the Indian and Sri Lankan embassies. Shame! The Economist had to scoop to this level.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

By Ashok K Mehta

(April 29, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian)  The Sri Lankan Government’s unexpected declaration on Monday that combat operations have reached a conclusion and specifying it was not a ceasefire or cessation of hostilities completely ignored the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s unilateral declaration of ceasefire. It was killing two birds with one stone, such is the convenient interpretation of military terminology. Sri Lanka was able to meet the demand of the international community, including that of India and the UN, for restraint, by stopping the use of the Air Force and artillery while continuing ground operations for the humanitarian rescue mission in what is incongruously being called the ‘No Fire Zone’. The fine art of deception was in full play on both sides of the Palk Straits, each side making its own interpretation of what was said or not said about the military offensive. To understand the ‘Southern Great Game’, we have to go back a bit.

On April 23, ahead of an emergency meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, the media reported that External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said there can be no military solution of the ethnic problem, “so we are requesting Sri Lankan authorities to have a pause or cessation of hostilities till the last civilian comes out of the conflict zone”. The next day, on April 24, newspapers reported that National Security Adviser MK Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon would go to Sri Lanka to secure immediate cessation of hostilities. On their return from Colombo, Mr Narayanan told newspersons that Sri Lanka was “receptive to our concerns. We are hopeful of a positive outcome and there will be good news soon.”

On April 25, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram was quoted as saying: “It is a humanitarian crisis, we want killings to stop” and that China was fishing in troubled waters. Mr Chidambaram, who has to win an election from Sivaganga, has become the most vocal on the war. He has been telling his constituency that New Delhi has urged Colombo to announce an immediate ceasefire and, while blaming both sides, said the Sri Lankan Government was more to blame.

On April 26, banner headlines read: “Sri Lanka mum on India’s ceasefire plea”. The Secretary to the Sri Lankan President and a key architect of the war, Mr Lalith Weeratunga, told Colombo Page on April 26 that the President received the two Indian envoys and registered their concern about the safety and security of civilians in the conflict zone but there was “no call for ceasefire or halting the military offensive”. The spokespersons of the Congress have spread confusion by alternately referring to the party’s demand for ceasefire and cessation of hostilities, but finally succumbing to the internal affair angle and limiting their expectations to “concrete assurances on the plight of civilians”. Within the Congress, there is a clear anti-LTTE stand. The LTTE-linked Puthinam Tamil Website has faulted Congress president Sonia Gandhi for the killings and sufferings of the Tamils. India will not allow the war to end as Ms Sonia Gandhi will not sleep in peace till the last nail is hammered in V Pirabhakaran’s coffin, it says.

The UPA Government has actively supported the war with moral, material and intelligence support. The BJP is less emotional and more pragmatic about the LTTE. In 2000, after the Sri Lankan debacle at Elephant Pass with the LTTE on the verge of capturing Jaffna, one of its top Government leaders said: “Heavens won’t fall if that happens”. This, after the NDA Government refused a request from Colombo to evacuate its beleaguered Jaffna garrison. The BJP is being more muscular in recommending sanctions against Sri Lanka. No wonder the LTTE is hoping the BJP will come to power and enforce a ceasefire. For that to happen, the LTTE will have to defend the ‘No Fire Zone’ till May 16.

By last Sunday the LTTE was confined to just four sq km of the ‘No Fire Zone’ along with 50,000 civilians. Cleverly, it declared a unilateral cessation of offensive military operations which the Government instantly rejected as a joke, boasting that the Tigers would be history in 48 hours. On Monday, with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on a fast unto ceasefire in Sri Lanka (Colombo described it as “dishonestly enacting fast drama”) Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Government made the vague announcement on conclusion of combat operations, rendered more confusing with the embargo on use of heavy weapons. If operations have ended where is the need for any weapons at all? Incidentally use of heavy weapons was stopped on April 21.

The defence spokesperson said security forces will confine themselves to the humanitarian rescue operation with the use of small arms. In the field, commanders were saying that ground offensive to rescue civilians will continue. Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollogama has attributed the escape last week of a 100,000 civilians from the ‘No Fire Zone’ to the rescue mission which is part of ‘Operation Final Countdown’ involving 60,000 troops. “When we had a 48-hour humanitarian pause, only 146 civilians were able to get out.”

The decision to scale down operations was made in the face of mounting pressure from the UN, Tokyo Donors Co-Chairs — the US, Japan, the EU and Norway — and India. The International Monetary Fund is about to decide on a $ 1.9 billion bailout package for Sri Lanka.

A discussion on the humanitarian situation resulting from the war in Sri Lanka, twice blocked by Russia and China at the United Nations, was held on Monday. The Foreign Ministers of the UK, France and Sweden are scheduled to arrive in Colombo on Tuesday, seeking reciprocation from Colombo to the LTTE’s unilateral declaration of ceasefire.

The priority objective of the rescue mission is the capture of Pirabhakaran which alone will signify total victory. The LTTE strategy is banking on an eventual ceasefire, amnesty and dialogue/safe passage. Otherwise, it’s the cyanide capsule. Escape appears out of the question, given the tight trap laid by the military who are under tremendous pressure to end the rescue operation quickly by plucking out Pirabhakaran from the ‘No Fire Zone’. The longer the delay in seizing Pirabhakaran, the greater the external pressure on a ceasefire and access to UN observers in the ‘No Fire Zone’.

Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa has often talked of his admiration for ‘fighting’ rescue missions like Israel’s in Entebbe and Russia’s in Beslan where 300 hostages were killed in the operation. The Rajapaksa brothers are pitted against the world’s wiliest guerrilla commander. Rescue will not be easy or clean.

Meanwhile, many in India are taking credit for the phony truce/ceasefire. After 6,500 civilians killed and 14,000 wounded between January 15 and April 15 , 2009, as claimed by UN, it is rather late to celebrate ‘conclusion’ of combat operations.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

By Nalin Swaris

(April 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Velupillai Prabhakaran, President, Prime Minister and Solar Deity, was the Commander in Chief of the LTTE armed forces. Once upon a time, his counterpart on the Lankan side was President Chandrika Kumaratunga. Kumaratunge’s government came to power promising an end to the war through talks. After six months of talks, the LTTE returned to war by bombing two navy boats. Kumaratunga the ’peace queen’ was forced into war. Some one coined a slogan for her; she was waging a "War for Peace’ It was like fornicating for chastity.

In the end she lost many battles andfailed to get what she coveted a Nobel Peace prize. She did inflict a moral defeat on the LTTE when the army captured Jaffna, the cultural and administrative centre of Eelam in December 1995. As the Lankan army was about to capture Jaffna the BBC held a Panel discussion on the situation in Jaffna. Kumar Rupesinghe, then Head of International Alert, spoke on behalf of the Jaffna Tamils. Rupasinghe was frank about his considered opinion about the recapture of Jaffna (Daily News Jan. 11 2006). "I was interviewed by the BBC with our Ambassador to the UK and when I was asked what I felt about the occupation (sic) … I did call for International intervention (sic) to stop the carnage". Strong language, "occupation", "international intervention","carnage".

Warrior Niece and Uncle

Kumaratunga’s uncle Anurudddha Ratwatte was Defence Secretary at the time Jaffna was regained. Kumaratunga held a ceremony on the grounds of the Presidential Secretariate to celebrate the victory. She was more than three hours late. When she finally arrived, in a very feudal ceremony, Prince Sapumal presented the Queen with a sannasa to report ‘Mission Accomplished’. I learned later that Ratwatte had no battlefield experience. I thought he had, but I was told he walks with the aid of a stick due to a road accident. Kumaratunga made her uncle senpati by elevating him to the rank of General with operational command of the army! Now anyone with even a general knowledge of war history knows that when an army marches deep into enemy territory it is absolutely essential to protect its rear flank militarily and logistically. But the Kumaratunga-Ratwatte duo were fighting the war to a political agenda. The mercurial, warring-for-peace Kumaratunga was not known for steady focus on any issue and the Lankan army suffered spectacular defeats; Pooneryn. Mulaitivu, Elephant Pass fell like dominoes. Thousand of soldiers lost their lives. No one was called to account, no one resigned, not even after the devastating attack on the Air Force base in Katunayeke. A large swathe of territory in the North East was de facto in LTTE hands. This was given de jure recognition by the Norwegian crafted Ceasefire Agreement. The LTTE converted the ceasefire lines into state borders with customs and immigration-emigration posts.

During the international conference in April 2002, an admiring foreign correspondent referred to the Tiger Chief’s renown as one of the most brilliant military strategists in the world and asked him what he considered was his most spectacular battle field victory. Prabhakaran replied with a sarcastic smile, "Driving back the Jayasikuru forces and capturing Kilinocchi." There were titters in the audience.

Showdown at Mavi Aru

After months of stalled talks and low intensity warfare by the LTTE, political chess master and brilliant military strategist Velupilla Prabhakarn played a big hand. On 22 July 2006 he ordered the shutting down of the Mavil Aru sluice . It affected 30,000 acres of paddy fields, and 15,000 farming families of all communities, Muslim Tamil and Sinhala, depriving them of drinking and agricultural water. The LTTE had confronted the government with a fait accompli. The Norwegians and the Colombo NGOs urged ‘both parties’ to settle the issue through negotiation. On the face of it, it seemed a laudable proposal. But like many proposals of these ‘honest’ peacemakers, it had an undisclosed sinister intent. Article 20 of the notorious ISGA dealt with ‘Water Use’. The LTTE demanded "equitable and reasonable use of water resources by lower riparian users". This is the type of treaty that would be signed between two contiguous sovereign states. That was the peacenik snake in the grass. The GOSL was being asked to negotiate the reopening of the sluice and thereby concede legitimacy to LTTE’s right to the waters of Mavil Aru. The President did not fall into the trap and ordered to the Army to capture Mavil Aru. The rest is history by August 2007 the Government was in control of the East. The climax, even literally, of the eastern campaign was the capture of Thoppigala on July 11, 2007. Thoppigala is a huge cap-like rock rising from a thickly forested mountain. It was the "citadel" of the Tigers, where they trained their fighters, kept close watch on any troop movements in the low lying areas below and from where they launched attacks in the East and on border villages. Ranil Wickremesinghe shamelessly trivialised the capture of Thoppigala.

Northern Campaign

With the Eastern Province cleared the armed forces turned to the Northern theatre, without jeopardising the Eastern victories. The terrain in the North is quite different to that of the East. Much of the North is covered in thick jungle. The LTTE said its withdrawal from Thoppigala area was strategic reasons: the brilliant strategist, the spin doctors said, was concentrating his forces and waiting for the kill. The UNP politicians led by Ranil though appearing to deride the government, were in fact ridiculing the armed forces. Instead of Sampur the army should be taking Kilinocchi, they had said. But the armed forces under the leadership of the Defence Secretary were in no hurry. They had a well worked out step by step strategy in which the battle plans of the army, navy and air force were brilliantly coordinated. During the First Iraq war Colin Powell was the Commander in Chief of the US forces. He, like his field commander Norman Schwarzkopf, were Vietnam war veterans. They were not going to let their soldiers get bogged down and killed in a prolonged land war, as in Vietnam. Colin Powell enunciated the principle of "Invincible Force"- that is to say, use of massive air power to destroy enemy assets. Then the land forces would move in "to cut off and kill" - the Iraqi forces occupying Kuwait. Our military strategists matched the best in the world. Forward intelligence was radioed to Katunayeke. The Air Force carried out accurate pin point bombings of LTTE assets, personnel and material. Considering the wanton destruction caused by a better equipped and supposedly well trained Israeli pilots in South Lebanon in 2006 and in Gaza in 2008, the Lankan lads were superbly accurate – and touch wood - they all came back to base unscathed. In a spectacular foray, Navy fighter craft sailed into distant blue waters and destroyed the LTTE ten huge floating arsenals. Prabhakaran was being hit from all sides. He had presumed that the ‘modaya’ Sinhala army (remember his sarcasm about the Jayasikuru campaign?) would attack as they did in the past; advance in massive armoured columns and large companies of infantry. His strategy was built on this assumption – kilometer long rings of deep ditches and high mud walls. The tanks and heavy armoured vehicles with their difficult maneuverability would get bogged down and the LTTE fighters would go for the kill. The Army however, used small commando style units, trained for jungle combat and began to engage the LTTE fighters on several fronts.

The master guerilla tactician was getting a taste of his own medicine. Mao Zedong pointed out that a clenched fist is a powerful weapon. But when unclenched, one could chop off the fingers one by one. This is what the army was doing. The Mannar district was taken first and that task force started moving eastwards. Another task force was moving south from Muhamalai and others up from the south east. One by one LTTE’s northern strongholds were falling like a pack of cards. Elephant Pass was retaken.

It was said that Kilinocchi is invincible, that Kilinocchi will be the Lankan army’s Stalingrad, that the "The War is Unwinnabale". Instead of a direct frontal assault on Kilinocchi and other towns, as Prabhakaran expected, the army units came to the towns through the jungles. I suspect, they followed what in counter insurgency terminology is called the "dragnet principle". They moved from the outside in, scooping and mopping up LTTE pockets operating in the jungle, cutting them of and killing them, forcing them to retreat and capturing the weapons and ammunition the LTTE fighters had abandoned. If the army had attacked the towns first, with massive force, LTTE cadres would have melted into the jungles. Everyone has seen the enormous stockpiles of weapons, ammunition, communication systems, and underground bunkers, stocks of fuel and the food rations they had stock piled. They would have dug in and the war would have lasted another thirty years. In the event, LTTE assets accumulated over decades, some under cover of the CFA, were lost in a matter of weeks. Kilinocchi fell, Mullaitivu fell, Puthukuduyiruppu fell. The Tiger’s back was broken. It crawled with its heavy and light weapons into the No Fire Zone reserved by the GOSL as a refuge for unarmed civilians. The saviour of the Tamil people now hides behind hapless civilians for its salvation while firing at the army using the aged, women, children and infants as human shields. The Sun God’s Eelam has been reduced to a tiny patch, that too in an army allocated area.

It’s over. Finished. And with it the charade of the peacenik NGOs. Hearts cannot but melt at the sight of those poor people, the aged, the children, the infants. Weary, broken baffled, but relieved. "All tremble at the thought of death", the Buddha said. By their tens of thousands of our fellow countrymen and women, braving the bullets of the LTTE, the scorching sands of beaches, the shallow waters of Challai lagoon are asserting their will to live. They have had enough of Prabharan’s cult of death and blood sacrifice and glorification of martyrdom. Most heart wrenching is the realisation that the vast majority of these refugees are poor, destitute Tamils. Those who could bribe the LTTE have left; those who had the wherewithal to buy houses of Sinhalese at inflated prices in crowded Colombo North or the more residential Wellawatte have done so. Others have migrated to rich countries. The agitations of politicians and the clever theoretical arguments of scholars go far above the heads of this poor residue. This is what the politicians and pundits have reduced them to. And there must a curse in their hearts for those made their fortunes on their misery and justified their internment under the jackboots of a ruthless thug. The plight of these poor people have unleashed a wave of compassion. Let us hope it will become a tsunami of loving kindness. There are simple Sinhala women volunteering to breast feed orphaned Tamil infants. Soldiers are providing first aid and cooking meals in huge cauldrons. Sinhalese women soldiers pick up Tamil babies and cradle them in their arms and gently lead the aged. Time the Kumar Davids and Rajan Philipses to end their disgruntled swipes at ‘Sinhala chauvinism’ from their luxury condominiums in five star residential complexes and comfortable bungalows. Their ponderous writings have done nothing to lighten the burden of people whose lives are far removed from theirs. Time also for the western powers to end their machinations against this majority Buddhist country.

Now the ordinary Sinhala people know what the poor Tamil people have had to endure under Tiger rule. They are rising up to embrace their Tamil bretheren like the people, in the Cakkavatti Sutta, come to their senses, saying: "Oh fellow manussa manussa, How glad I am to see you are alive. Come, let us not kill anymore". Far more effectively than the abstract legal concoctions of the All Political Party Conference, this ground swell of compassion from the masses might yet be the catalyst of a genuine peace, wiping away the tears and binding the wounds of far too many years of created hatred. 

By Dushy Ranetunge in London

(April 29, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) On the morning of Saturday the 25th of April, the BBC world service telephoned me. A vehicle was on its way to provide transport to Bush House, in Aldwych.

Aldwych had many memories. It was the sight of my old haunt, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). The small café adjoining the main entrance had the meanest toasted egg and bacon sandwiches in town and many a coup were plotted on those tables.

Aldwych is also the location of the Indian High Commission. This was where Nehru was beheaded recently, allegedly by an agitated bunch of flag waving protestors, some jumping in protest into that vast and ancient sewer known as the Thames River, because their team was losing back home. "Going back to your roots" has new gravitas.

Amidst the waving of the team flags, which is proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000, and adjusting the team scarf, they would whisper into their mobiles, checking the score, back home. It was not looking good. Two top players of the team, the Geneva veteran George and Daya, the masterful one, had surrendered. Winston Churchill looked on disapprovingly, as the Tigers ate grass at Westminster.

Sitting next to me in the broadcast room of the BBC World Service News Hour program was Simon Hughes MP. He was upset that he has been branded a Tiger supporter and prevented from entering Sri Lanka. "I am not a Tiger supporter" he said. "I am for the Tamils". The BBC presenter inquired if electoral compulsions were resulting in him being manipulated. The answer was, "yes".

Simon disclosed that he had just returned from Washington, and that they were pushing the Sri Lankan issue to become the top international issue in the World. There was talk of how the Sri Lankan issue was being discussed more and more in the corridors of power of the world’s capitals. They wanted a ceasefire and peace talks - on humanitarian grounds of course.

It all seemed to going Simon’s way, when some Mexican pigs entered into the fray. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Swine Influenza (swine flu) is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza that regularly cause outbreaks of influenza among pigs. They go on to say that Swine flu viruses do not normally infect humans. Well to the disappointment to the Tigers eating grass at Westminster, Swine flu was sweeping up from Mexico at an alarming rate and 60 people had already died within a few days.

Alarm bells were ringing in the corridors of power. It has become the top story. To wear or not to wear facemasks is the question.

In 2007, during a Terrorism seminar at the Lloyds Building in the City of London, Sir Richard Mottram from the cabinet office stated that their risk assessments have determined that terrorism is not the biggest risk to Britain. The biggest risk is pandemic influenza, which could result in 700,000 deaths and cost 2% of GDP. Sir Richard Mottram was until 2007 the Permanent Secretary, Intelligence, Security and Resilience in the Cabinet Office.

The Western powers are scrambling to avert their worst nightmare from coming true. Pig flu has hit the fan.

-Sri Lanka Guardian