| by V. Anandasangaree

(September 30, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) I regret to bring to your notice the concerns of the people of the North and of the Tamils living aboard about the action that is now being taken by the Government, to register the lands owned by them or held in trust or otherwise by them. No one can succeed in collecting the required details asked for in the questionnaire form No. PS/01/2011 issued by the Ministry of Lands and Land Development for the registration of ownership of lands under the new scheme.

The people very genuinely feel that this scheme is neither justifiable nor beneficial to them. They also feel that this is yet another scheme to harass them and are convinced that the Government has an agenda of its own for collecting the details asked for in the form. During the last fifty years or more some activities of the Government had caused a lot of unrest and pain of mind for the Tamil People.

If this scheme is going to be implemented Island wide, why can’t the Government start this in districts where normalcy prevailed for several years and people are living in their homes and not displaced for any reason. But in the North and the East people faced enough problems due to the war and repeated displacements. Some are not in their homes. Some have lost all their documents along with their belongings. Some had gone aboard and some are missing. Many died without leaving a will. The heirs of persons died intestate do not know whether they are also beneficiaries of his properties. There are children who died leaving property for which there may be many claimants. There are many more complicated problems. Problems arising from certain properties cannot be solved by the Ministry of Lands. Let those problems be handled by the Court of Law and not by the civil or military officials.

The people who had lost almost all their possessions are now scared that they will lose more under this scheme. I do not believe that this is going to be a useful scheme. The people, left alone, will sort-out matters themselves without any body’s interference. If they fail, they can seek remedy through courts of law.

If the people who are landless, wanting land for themselves, the Government can very well indentify some crown lands and meet their requirements. Please warn the officials not to harass the people who had suffered enough and lost enough. Above all due to the loss of their kith and kin and living with the expectation that their dear once will return one day, they are not in a mood to get involved in this type of problems now. I humbly request you to advice the Land Ministry to abandon this scheme which is very unpopular among the people in the North. In respect of disputed property the parties can go to courts or to the Government Agent if the dispute relates to private lands or crown lands respectively.

I hope you will intervene at least at this stage and give relief to the people of the North and the East by abandoning this scheme, which has caused a lot worries for the people of the North, where the scheme is now about to be implemented.

| by Dr Kumar David

(September 30m Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The front page headline item in Sri Lanka’s Island newspaper of 29 September, reported that Lal Kantha, a leading member of the Somawansa Amerasinghe (official) faction of the JVP, had alleged that the rival dissident faction has been put up “by the Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW)”. He also added, for good measure, that “some other forces” such as the Sri Lanka “government, the UNP or even the CIA could be backing the party rebels”. He did not, just to be catholic in taste and outlook, add the now defunct KGB, Pakistan’s ISI, and MI5!

The JVP’s schism is turning nasty, it seems irreconcilable and headed for an open split, it will not have immediate significant repercussions outside the party, but in the long-term it is an important turning point in the island nation’s politics, especially the left movement. The more militant dissidents, purportedly lead by the elusive Premakura Gunaratnam, allege that the official leadership faction has turned soft, compromising and been co-opted by the “system”. It sights coalitions with Chandrika Bandaranaike and current president Mhinda Rajapakse and alignment with Sarath Fonseka in the 2010 presidential elections.

There is a tussle for control of the party paper Lanka and for possession of the newspaper’s premises. The pro dissident editorial staff is sleeping-in refusing access to the official directors. There have been fisticuffs and arrests, about ten people are in custody. Both factions held meetings at venues less than a mile apart in Colombo on 27 September; to judge from participation, the dissidents seem to have won a substantial majority of the cadre. This is confirmed by reports of support for the dissidents by JVP youth, university students’ and women’s bureaus and federations.

The JVP is in the throes of the most profound disarray in its 46 year history. The events of 1971 and 1988-90 did enormous physical damage when the state, responding to the JVP’s folly, retaliated with greater ferocity, brutality and barbarity. But neither of these blows, from the outside, could destroy the ideological spirit and cohesion of the movement. What is happening now is far more serious; it could sap inner energy and demolish the faith of the movement in itself. This is why inner raptures of a deeply ideological nature are tsunamis; vide Martin Luther, the philosophical schisms in the church, and the birth of Protestantism. Are the present troubles in the movement as profound and fundamental, and, in the eyes of the contending protagonists, do they call in question the raison d’etre of party? It seems to be so.

The JVP is now the largest left party in Lanka; it pushed the LSSP out of pole position in the 1980s and has since also won enough allegiances to emerge as the biggest trade union combine in the state sector. However one must bear in mind that only 15% of Lanka’s workforce is unionised and that too only if one includes the huge Tamil upcountry plantation unions. The near erasure of the traditional left (LSSP and CP) in the working class is a matter to discuss another time. The point here is the significance that the JVP has now gained in the working class.

The JVP (founded in 1965 by Rohana Wijeweera) was born of the social crisis of tens of thousands of educated, but exclusively Sinhala educated and hence lacking exposure to the outside world, unemployed rural and semi-urban youth. It was born of the socially (including caste) and economically under-privileged subaltern village and small town classes. It was a product of the 1960s and 1970s ferment – the age of Vietnam, anti-imperialism and the heroic guerrilla, the much loved Che. Hence it was a movement of the oppressed, but it was also intellectually half-baked. It was cadre-based, radical, and militant petty-bourgeois. From its origin the JVP was immersedin the secretive mentality of the Narodniks; unlike Leninism which was strict on discipline but plural and free in matters of theory.

The mix of more than a little education, frustration in life and romanticism made a decoction that went straight to the head. It was not a world’s first, the Narodniks who cultivated secrecy and individual terrorism, were the forerunners of the early JVP. The 1971 Insurgency against Mrs Bandaranaike’s government was Narodnik style ultra-left adventurism. The state’s response was ruthless; about 10,000 young people were killed in cold blood by the state. Not the most ardent JVPer will now dispute that 1971 was a blunder rooted in the aforesaid heady mix which it mistook for Marxism with which it had but slim familiarity.

In the ensuing prison years (1971-1983), it was said, that these errors were debated and rectified, but the facts belie this. In 1988-90 the JVP went ahead with an armed insurrection that was the closest that the state in Sri Lanka ever came to being overthrown. It eviscerated Jayewardene as a traitor for inviting Indian troops (IPKF) into the country and sought to overthrow the state. The IPKF kept the LTTE tied down in the Tamil areas giving Colombo a free hand to focus troops in the South and slaughter the JVP – the estimate is that 60,000 were slain in retaliation for some 1000-plus politicians, policemen, academics and military men and families that the JVP had gunned down. Thereafter Colombo and the LTTE joined hands to humiliate Delhi (the citadel of those who never learn) and kick out the IPKF.

The JVP has obviously not learnt from past blunders and possibly the new feud may lead one or the other faction to repeat a horrific bungle. The JVP is fond of quoting Lenin, so why not I?

“A political party’s attitude towards its own mistakes is one of the most important and surest ways of judging how earnest the party is and how it fulfils in practice its obligations towards its class and the working people. Frankly acknowledging a mistake, ascertaining the reasons for it, analysing the conditions that have led up to it, and thrashing out the means of its rectification -- that is the hallmark of a serious party; that is how it should perform its duties, and how it should educate and train its class, and then the masses”.

Foundational errors, embedded in its own class background, lay uncorrected through the 1971 defeat into the 1988-1990 debacle. They are again at the root of the present split. Now may be the JVP’s last chance to “thrash out the means of its rectification. There are two blunders; one, an addiction to armed struggle and arising from this a predilection to secrecy and conspiracy. The second is chauvinism, incomparably milder than the SLFP or the UNP (Sri Lanka’s main parties), but when one flaunts socialist colours the concomitant degeneration is weightier.

From its birth the JVP conceived of revolution as a practice that was devoid of political flexibility. It was Lenin, the movement’s purported guru, who dinned into goofy heads that seriousness of purpose and flexibility of method are not contradictory; they are inseparable. Use parliament and every forum; form principled alliances; never be sectarian in action; build a strong party - not conspiratorial cells - to raise the consciousness of cadres and masses; such was his core message. The IVP cannot with any seriousness say that it functioned flexibly, sure retaining its identity, but with practical and theoretical involvements that were open and wide.

Look at the way the current schism is developing; it’s like a clash between two splinters of a secret society. The consequence is that party cadres remain backward, unable to fathom the full meaning of issues or to understand them against the backdrop of modern day local and global reality. Had the JVP been more open in the past the stupidity of 1971 and its repetition as gigantic folly in 1988-90, would not have happened? The absence of openness now is rooted in the secret-society mentality of the past and could end in tragedy again.

If you mean does the JVP go around killing, raping and burning down Tamil homes, the answer is an unequivocal NO. This is the realm of the SLFP and the UNP; both have mastered the art of the pogrom over decades. But if you ask, is the programme of the JVP in respect of the national question a version of petty-bourgeois Sinhala-Buddhist ideology, I will not hesitate to answer ‘yes’. Taking into account the exclusively Sinhala background of the oppressed young people who came together to form the movement, this is unsurprising at the beginning. But leadership and vision could have lifted the JVP beyond these limitations, but such a leadership, Wijeweera included, never materialised.

Its intellectual chauvinism has dogged and haunted the JVP all the days of its life. Its role as cheerleader for a racist war, its anti-Indian stance (concealed antagonism to plantation workers), its refusal to allow tsunami aid into Tamil areas, its anti-Tamil deal with Mahinda in 2005; all of this has corroded the party.

It has been rumoured that the Gunaratnam faction wants to reopen the debate on the national question, albeit four decades belatedly. Well it’s to be welcomed but Pubudu Jagoda, spokesman for the faction (interviews in the Island and Daily Mirror of Sri Lanka on 27 September, and at the public meeting in New Town Hall, Colombo, on the same day) offers no more than the old rubbishy line; “too much devolution will be the first step in dividing the country”. Until the JVP both renounces and abandons its enduring errors on the national question, it will remain an archaic article in the world of modern Marxism. Let’s hope that a theoretically modern, open minded on the national question, militant but non conspiratorial movement comes out of the deep crisis now on show.

(September 30, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) In Pallavaram, Chennai, a young female (25) was advised to pray in several temples nude on a off-moon day in order to regain her boyfriend.

25 year old Geeta from Cheyyar in Tiruvannamalai District had completed +2 had fallen in love with Ramachandiran. Both of them used to go around together and were in love for several years. But unfortunately, Ramachandiran married another girl. After this Geetha was very disappointed and distraught and still wanted Ramachandiran at any cost.

Geetha met an astrologer and told him about her predicament and asked him to help marry Ramachindran. This astrologer in turn told her to engage in prayer without any clothe and that she should do this in 9 temples on a off-moon day. According to the astrologer, if she does this, she is certain to get Ramachandiran back and that he will abandon his married wife.

Determined Geeta moved out of the village to avoid her parents and others. She went to her sister’s house in Pozhichalur (Chennai) a day before an off-moon day.

On the off-moon day, she took a bath in the night and informed her sister that she wanted to make a call and went out. She waited on the roadside until midnight and went to a temple near Pammal Krishnanagar and found no people there. She removed her clothes on the road. Naked Geeta, covered her face with her long hair and started walking towards the temple. She offered a nude prayer at the entrance of the temple, since it was locked.

Then she walked towards Pallavaram and on the way she offered a naked prayer at Puththu temple and walked further to another temple called Periyapalayathamman temple. No one noticed her walkabout since it was midnight. Geetha was then walking on the Aduthotti Road to another temple. By then police on patrol duty at Pallavaram saw a nude female walking on the road. They were shocked and called a nearby police station for women police support.

Women police with Saree rushed towards naked Geetha. When Geetha saw the police she started to run and the women police finally got hold of her and covered her with the saree and took her to Pallavaram Police Station.

During the the investigation, she confessed to the police why she was doing this and requested their help to get her lover back. She is in the custody of the Parangimali police station for further investigations.

| by Thomas C. Mountain


(September 30, Asmara- Eritrea, Sri Lanka Guardian) It is not very often that a long serving African President is given a hero’s welcome by his people in New York City but on Sunday, September 25 over 5,000 Eritreans from all over the eastern USA and Canada converged on Manhattan to do just that for Eritrean President Issias Aferworki. Don't take my word for it go to eastafro.com and see for yourself.

Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki attends a news conference at State House in Entebbe, 31km (19 miles) southwest from Uganda's capital Kampala, August 18, 2011. - REUTERS PHOTO

The Eritrean President, who is under travel and financial sanctions imposed by the UN inSecurity Council for the now Wikileaks discredited charge of supporting terrorism in Somalia (Wikileaks Exposes UN Eritrean Sanctions Lies), spent several hours addressing and than answering questions from thousands of Eritreans who had crammed into the overcapacity theater on a first come basis.

The event was billed as a seminar and was really a town hall meeting with most anyone in the audience who wanted given a chance to ask questions.

Issias Aferworki is supposed to be a dictator, a tyrant, a leader “who kills his own people” according to just about every western media and human rights outfit there is, yet there they were, over 5,000 very proud and happy Eritreans giving him a hero’s welcome, standing ovations inside and wildly cheering throngs outside greeting his arrival and especially when he joined the crowd outside before his departure.

And all the while a couple dozen rather forlorn looking anti-Eritrean demonstrators held banners across the street. The utter bankruptcy of the so called Eritrean “opposition” was there for all to see, for with such a prime opportunity to show their support all they could muster was a couple dozen people?

From the US State Department to Amnesty International it seems those who have the ear of the media in the western banktatorships do not want to have to explain the discrepancy of what they claim is going on in Eritrea today versus what the Eritrean diaspora, some 80,000 who visit home every year and see first hand for themselves are so determined to express for the rest of the world to hear.

Last year it was over 10,000 Eritreans gathered in Washington DC to protest the UN sanctions against Eritrea, this time 5,000+ in NYC not far from the UN where the worlds leaders were gathered for the UN General Assembly meeting.

While Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is dogged by protests almost everywhere he goes, with thousands protesting his appearance at the G-20 Meeting of world leaders held in Toronto, Canada last year Eritreans are traveling long distances, some riding buses for up to 30 hours to be a part of the hero’s welcome for Eritrea’s President. And this with only a little over a weeks notice to get organized.

The last time Issias Aferworki was in the USA was over a decade ago and so many Eritreans showed up the Interstate Freeway off ramps where shut down by the Highway Patrol as a result of the traffic jam caused by so many thousands converging on the venue.

The question begging to be answered is “who knows best” about life in Eritrea, those with their generous salary and benefit packages in their Human Rights Watch offices in NYC or the thousands of Eritreans gathered to greet their President?

And if it is true that so many Eritreans allegedly hate President Issias Aferworki, where were they when they had a chance to show this? MIA? Or just plain nonexistent?

Again, don't take my word for it, see for yourself at eastafro.com. What you will see there is what I have seen time and again for the past five years I have lived here in Eritrea. Whenever Issias Aferworki appears in public, all to rare due to the threat of foreign based assassination teams, he is greeted by enthusiastic crowds, especially from amongst the youth. The question is who are you going to believe? A “human rights” specialist who might never have been to Eritrea or the over 5,000 Eritreans giving their President a hero’s welcome in NYC?

| by Shenali Waduge

(September 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) It was never a surprise when Sri Lanka began to be admonished for completely defeating an international terrorist organization. The wave of admonishes coming from foreign Governments including international peace agencies disregarding the success of the first military defeat of a terrorist organization while carrying out the worlds largest humanitarian rescue operation simply reveals the hypocrisies that prevails in international laws & international thinking. Sri Lanka’s public is not surprised & Sri Lanka’s public is also aware that the “wish lists” presented by the West including India attempting to entice the Sri Lankan government to agree to various implementations to prevent war crimes against Sri Lanka is only a ploy & Sri Lanka’s Government should not fall prey.

Saddam Hussein agreed to allow UN weapons inspectors to avoid US pressures – the outcome was report after report surfacing giving credibility for the US action & eventual invasion of Iraq. The collateral damage caused to a country & its people in order to kill one single dictator who was once the US’s friend reveals that Sri Lanka should trust no foreign power.

Osama bin Laden remained a friend of the US until his supposed death. Linked to the Saudi royal family, linked to US former President & having business interests, shares & ventures in partnership with US business tycoons how could Osama really have been an enemy? Could the Al Qaeda be just a name to allow US & Western hegemony to reign without questions asked? Gaddafi now is the latest target, a man who handed bagful of money to Western leaders to carry out their political campaigns – ask Sarkozy & Blair & US politicians themselves.

In the overall gameplan by powerful nations to make smaller nations bow down to its pressures thereby facilitating their ability to take over them geographically & economically raises the need to understand how India is involved & aligned to the West for this sole purpose.

It is in India’s interest to align with the West portraying itself as part of western pressures to implement its own plans in Sri Lanka. No country other than India will understand the importance of Sri Lanka geographically. True it created & supported the LTTE, it was done so to ensure that India would continue to have a foothold in Sri Lanka & a say politically whether amongst Sri Lankan politicians or foreign political designs.

Knowing the importance of Sri Lanka & not wanting Sri Lanka to belong to western governments as a base, India planned various maneuvers to tie Sri Lanka to India other than the LTTE factor. The 13th amendment wais one such maneuver.

Lest we should forget, the 13th amendment to the constitution came about totally disregarding Sri Lanka’s sovereign right. Indian cargo planes invaded our air space, the infamous “parippu” drop, the eventual acceptance of the Indian Peace Keeping Force signing after the Indo-Lanka Peace Agreement which only JRJ & India knew & signed under curfew which was boycotted by some Sri Lankan ministers including R Premadasa & Athulathmudali. When it came to voting in favor of the 13th amendment to Sri Lanka’s constitution only one gentlemen politician prevailed – he was Gamini Jayasuriya who resigned in protest while all other MPs on account of JRJ possessing “undated resignation letters” remained mum.

What did the 13th amendment realistically achieve? Much has been said about the Official language policy of 1956 as being the core reason for Tamil unrest & the ethnic conflict itself. Well the 1990 13th Amendment making Tamil an official language should have resolved all issues, that it did not perfectly depicts that the war mongers were simply looking for excuses to justify a hidden cause.

What the Indian invasion did was result in the JVP uprising resulting in over 65,000 Sinhala lives & no international NGOs/foreign governments or INGOs raised hue & cry over the loss of Sinhala lives. Today, the JVP has become a unit influenced & maneuvered by Indian intelligence!

The 13th amendment set up the Provincial Council system in each province with a high court in each & a wide range of powers devolved to the provinces including police &a land powers & a reserved list retained by the Central Government. For Sri Lankans the Indian intervention was similar to bifurcating East Pakistan into Bangladesh. The devolution of powers was in itself a failure with the first Chief Minister of the North-East provincial council making a “unilateral declaration of independence” in 1990.

The IPKF tasked to disarm terrorists failed to uphold its end of the agreement resulting not only loss of security forces but of Tamil civilians & Indian soldiers as well as affecting the unitary nature of the Sri Lankan constitution with powers being devolved along ethnic lines.

What India has done through the forceful implementation of the 13th A is to divide Sri Lanka communally encouraging communal based politics as seen in the case of the North & East Provincial Councils. It must also be reiterated that India’s 13A was never accepted by the LTTE.

Let it also be noted that the Federal Party conveniently coined so in English to cover the Tamil “self-determination” Illankai Tamil Arassu Katchchi was formed by S J V Chelvanayagam in 1949 well before any qualms with regard to discrimination. That the Federal Party lost parliamentary elections in 1952 winning just 3 seats shows that the Tamil community did not favor separatism.

What the 13A is responsible of achieving is mass waste of public funds & proliferation of public office. Devolving land powers will only mean nefarious activities like smuggling illegal arms, drugs, people & future terrorists – all threats to Sri Lanka’s sovereignty. The 13A is invalid so far as it was forced upon a sovereign nation & the 13A & the Provincial Councils should be eliminated & repealed forthwith.

Yet, if Sri Lanka is unable to totally do away with the Provincial Council system, given that funds are disbursed towards its upkeep, a restructuring of objectives need to be carefully looked into.

Realistic devolution would mean giving over to these Provinces a practical set of powers that does not & will not undermine the authority of the Central Government. Let these provinces & officials take care of the provinces vis a vis daily activity. There is no requirement to have separate lists as appearing presently.

Let these Provinces be tasked to uplift the state of national schools, hospitals, clinics, transport at the provincial level & engage with the Central Ministry coordinating these national efforts. All financial transactions must be periodically audited by the Center. No province should have authority to align/coordinate or appeal to any foreign agency/Govt or institute. All foreign transactions must take place only with the Center which includes all procurement of any kind.

Does India need to be repeatedly reminded of its deceit towards Sri Lanka? Feigning to be Sri Lanka’s friend while clandestinely training, arming, supporting & instructing LTTE action against Sri Lanka & its Government, India cannot escape the truth. It was Sri Lanka’s allegiance towards China, Pakistan & Russia towards the end of the military exercise that set India following a double act by pretending to appease Tamil Nadu while extending support to Sri Lanka’s Government for in realizing that the LTTE could not raise itself from the present crisis it suited India to be part of the winning team. India out of pure selfishness sided with the operation to defeat the LTTE & that is the undeniable truth. The diplomatic trips were merely part of a double standard exercise to show India’s power over Sri Lanka. The families of IPKF soldiers should demand compensation from the Indian Government for India was siding with the LTTE which ended up killing over 1000 Indian soldiers & injuring more than double of that number & subsequently LTTE gratitude for India’s support was by assassinating Rajiv Gandhi though many believe it was a contract by a western intelligence unit.

What India must in the present context be reminded if it is not aware already is that the 13th A & the insistence of devolving land powers & police is likely to be detrimental for the interests of India. We are all aware of the separatist aspirations of Tamil Nadu & that it was this desire that became imported to buy time for India. It is not that Tamil Nadu has forgotten the hunger for self-determination from India & with LTTE remnants domiciled globally the next phase of that self-determination battle will be disuniting India using Sri Lanka as a foundation. Sri Lanka’s LTTE was only a ploy in a larger gameplan to disturb India an aspiring super power. That the West is silent or shown to appease LTTE factions overseas who openly promote LTTE separatism shows that the West is keeping the LTTE movement alive to be used against India. This has always been the West’s gameplan – Sri Lanka was merely a tool in that larger exercise.

India is shrewd enough not to realize this. India is playing a double game by aligning with the West pretending it is unaware of the West’s plan while pressurizing Sri Lanka & gaining footholds economically whereby the motive is clear to Indianize south Sri Lanka with North Indian investments & with the move to include “Indian labor” it would mean legalizing North Indian presence in Sri Lanka enabling India to take care of any insurgency from the North of Sri Lanka or Tamil Nadu in the future.

Sri Lanka must tell the world that it is & it will remain a Unitary State with equal rights to every citizen. Sri Lanka does not need to create provisions based on ethnicity, caste, creed etc. Sri Lankans mean all our citizens – there is no requirement for further connotations. As pointed out by all land & police powers should not be devolved.

Tamils need to remember that it was the LTTE that ethnically cleansed the Sinhalese & Muslims from the north and eastern provinces & that was how the LTTE ran a de-facto system. Tamils must not forget how they suffered in the hands of the LTTE, how their wealth were confiscated for a supposed “cause”, how they had to pay “taxes”, how their children were abducted & made into child soldiers & Tamils must remember at all times that it was the LTTE that blocked the progress of the Tamils economically, socially & spiritually. LTTE was nothing but a mafia unit helped by the Tamil Diaspora for their own selfish interests.

It is in dismay that we wonder for whose interest Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister is serving. Agreeing that a “devolution package, building upon the 13th Amendment, would contribute towards creating the necessary conditions for such reconciliation” is more or less noosing Sri Lanka according to India’s gameplan.

The Tiger Nominated Agents (TNA) are simply mouthpiecing India’s desire now that the LTTE is no more. Tamil people should first ask what the TNA did while the LTTE illtreated Tamils! The present calls for resettlement is hypocritical wherein it is rightfully the Sinhalese & Muslims who should be settled first. TNA is now demanding a re-merger of the North & East. Then there is the Global Tamil Forum that has succeeded to influence foreign MPs both in opposition & government. The success of these endeavors have even resulted in motions against a sovereign government & calls for international investigations into war crimes in Sri Lanka by proxies of the LTTE who are supposedly banned in these very countries. What else is more hypocritical! Much of these anti-Sri Lanka sentiments rests upon the monetary transactions that ensues & the political favors that results clearly evident from GTF hiring Joan Ryan former Home Minister/Labor as its Chief Executive after she lost her seat. She went to the extent of filing an application at the Westminister Magistrates Court to arrest Maj. Gen. Chagi Gallage.

UN must be continuously reminded that if it is to bring about lasting peace it must also look into the interests of the developing nations. Developing nations need to now band together to demand the bias towards western interests must stop forthwith. Until & unless the developing nations get together & demand that the UN must adapt unbiased approaches, we are likely to see UN mandates & UN resolutions surfacing against smaller nations such as Sri Lanka. UN bias is evident in the manner US, UK, France & NATO are not investigated for war crimes against innocent people – nations that have been invaded without any reason.

At this point we must wonder whether the push for war crimes by the West stems from more than just monetary contributions from the LTTE. The more we look at this angle we can understand the interest India is showing to control Sri Lanka in the interest of the Indian subcontinent. If Sri Lanka becomes a perfect western base it is detrimental to the interests of both India & China – tomorrows future power houses. While we can empathize with India’s concerns vis a vis the threats that prevails, we must reiterate that Sri Lanka is no country’s prostitute.

Let the world not forget that inspite of suffering 30 years of terror Sri Lanka remained resilient. It is one of few nations in the world that continues to provide free education & free healthcare, its infant mortality is….its labor laws have been acknowledged by the ILO, there is no case against ethnic discrimination in the workplace – private or public, while the terror prevailed Sri Lanka’s government continued with public infrastructure – roads, ports, airports, railway lines, power plants while spending millions on resettling & rehabilitating LTTE men & women who were once brainwashed to kill. These achievements do not qualify any country to be termed a failed state!

The airing of a documentary titled “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” telecast over UK’s Channel 4 prompted the UK Govt to warn the GOSL to investigate alleged war crimes before the end of the year or face consequences. It simply translates to mean that the West is angered because the LTTE is no more. Where was the West when children were conscripted to the LTTE by force – were these not Tamil children whose fundamental rights were stolen by the LTTE? What is the use of diplomatic niceties if behind the scenes countries are supporting terror – do we need to spend billions on stationing diplomatic officers & maintaining offices just to pose for the cameras & print statements when a total different campaign takes place thereafter!

Tamils need to know that a piece of paper is unlikely to give them any sense of “belonging” & it is in their own capacity to want to be shareholders that will enable them to think Sri Lankan. The majority populace are aware that many Tamils though not agreeing with LTTE terror chose to ride on the LTTE bandwagon for it enabled them to apply as refugees & seek citizenship in foreign climes. How else would 1m Tamils reside overseas today, how else would almost every Tamil family member have at least 1 member living abroad. Many of these Tamils who make up the Tamil Diaspora are angered by the fact that their lifestyle has seen a marked change. Today, no Tamil can apply to go overseas as a refugee, getting visas has also become cumbersome, thus new calls for “meaningful powersharing”, remerger of the North & East – yet Sinhalese cannot be blamed for this. The LTTE was running a defacto Government of its own for several decades. Did the lives of the Tamil people in the North & East improve. Did they gain their fundamental rights? No- these people ended up suffering while their brothers & sisters living in the South amongst the Sinhalese managed to sail to foreign shores on the refugee ticket. Power sharing does not & should not have ethnic dimensions. If the interests of the Tamils were not safeguarded the first place to question this should be amongst the Tamils themselves & we return to the factor of caste which plays an integral role in every aspect of life amongst the Tamils. Caste discriminations amongst Tamils is carefully hidden from international forums & many do not know the exact nature & seriousness of caste factor amongst the Tamils. It is this facet that needs to be highlighted & taken care of first before any other “meaningful solution” is looked into.

What is essential at this stage is for every citizen to think as if he/she is a stakeholder in Sri Lanka. Aligning with parties interested in breaking up Sri Lanka is unlikely to bring the dividends & will only lead to catastrophe.

It seems pointless showcasing Sri Lanka’s achievement post-conflict & no matter what the Government shows as evidence of Sri Lanka’s commitment to developing the nation after 30 years of terror is not important to the West or India. This is so simply because wars are just a ploy to advance agendas, terrorists are merely a means of creating sales for arms & ammunitions, peace propagandists & negotiators are people who press for political deals & commitments on the excuse that the discussions are aligned to development goals.

It is upto the public to ensure its Government elected by the people does not fall prey to these gameplans & does not commit Sri Lanka to several more decades of neo-colonial activity & political slavery.

We are today a free nation thanks to our brave solders & Sri Lanka must continue to remain a free &sovereign nation, no matter what.

| by Gamini Weerakoon

(September 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Sri Lankan diplomatic hit squad led by Mahinda Percival Rajapaksa is now in New York. By tradition the Lankan DPL hit squad is accompanied by a Cheer Squad that vastly outnumbers the DPL kind.

This time we have been unable to get the strength of the combined squad, at the time this column goes to press.

President Rajapaksa leads his squad to the UN General Assembly’s 66th session not to showcase Sri Lanka as the ‘Miracle of Asia’ but mainly for the unpleasant task of defending his regime against allegations of war crimes. It is not on the agenda of the UNGA sessions but supporters of the LTTE under names of various global Tamil organisations are reported to be hard at work attempting to raise the allegations in the UN and other fora.

Reports on the Internet say even the Grease Yakka allegations are on the cards of the anti Sri Lankan activists in New York. It will be recalled that Robert O. Blake the former US Ambassador in Sri Lanka and now US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia too expressed concern about the ‘Grease Devil’ when he was here about two weeks ago.

The Rajapaksa regime blames anti-government forces for the creation of the Grease Yakka to discredit the government, but, Opposition critics say it is a government invention to keep strict security laws in place even after emergency regulations were lifted and keep security personnel amidst people in regions where they suspect terrorism lingers. It does appear that the government’s inability to exorcise this ‘devil’ quickly enough and restore the confidence of the people is making the Grease Yakka score points even in New York.

However, the Sri Lankan President despite the planned hostilities by anti-Rajapaksa activists was able to pull off a propaganda scoop when he attended the 2011 Clinton Global Initiative on Tuesday.

The former US President not only warmly welcomed Rajapaksa and thanked him for the co-operation extended to the organisation founded by him but even threw an arm around Rajapaksa’s shoulder—quite an unusual gesture of welcome even by an ex-American president. Naturally, Sri Lankan newspapers particularly the state and pro-government newspapers splashed it on their front pages.

There is also the picture of the handshake with President Barack Obama but nothing politically significant can be read into the standard smiles exchanged.

Political observers are bound to read much into this unusual gesture of Bill Clinton in the context of the hostile exchanges that have been taking place between the US and Sri Lankan government spokespersons, particularly those of the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, (the spouse of the former president) and our leaders. Was this the thawing of hostility between the American and Sri Lankan governments over the controversial ‘war crimes’ issue or merely a gesture of no political significance? The US State Department under Hillary Clinton has been leading the charge of Western nations demanding that Lanka investigate the alleged war crimes by its security personnel or submit to an international investigation while Sri Lanka has maintained that it is an internal matter for Sri Lanka to decide on while vehemently denying the allegations. The issue is expected to come to a head during the current UN Sessions.

Another instance of – on this occasion an incumbent president - throwing his arm around the shoulders of a Sri Lankan leader was when Ranil Wickremesinghe, the then prime minister, visited the White House. Wickremesinghe’s government had excellent relations with the George W. Bush administration and other western nations and they were the four Co-Chairs; the US, European Union, Norway and Japan, mediating over the Sri Lankan peace process. Whether the Bush-Wickremesinghe photo had an immediate impact back home is hard to say but on Wickremesinghe’s return two days later he found President Chandrika Kumaratunga had taken away the portfolios of defence, foreign affairs and mass media from the UNP government which made Wickremesinghe dissolve parliament and go to the polls only to lose the elections!

The Bill Clinton gesture could have a direct impact on local politics. Local patriots who are ardent followers of the Rajapaksa regime have been going ballistic with overheated rhetoric against Americans and other western nations over the ‘ war crimes’ issue. Now with Bill Clinton throwing his arm around Rajapaksa’s shoulders and Rajapaksa apparently appreciating it with his eyes closed( See Daily News September 21, Page 1) what will the patriotic rhetoricians say about it? It does seem to take much wind off the sails blown by the patriots!

We have many a time in this column pointed out that criticism of Rajapaksa’s military options to resolve the terrorist problem here by powerful Western nations led by America had propelled the Rajapaksa led coalition to victory in all his elections. He became the ‘Appe Raja’ of the Sinhala masses – the man who stood up to the mightiest powers on earth. Now would the arm of an ex-American president round the shoulders of our president diminish the Dutu Gemunu image?

Or will it be forgotten in a few days? As Velupillai Prabakaran said, memories of the Sinhalese do not extend beyond a couple of weeks.

The Rajapaksa regime is oozing with loving kindness (Metta—the Buddhist terms expresses it better). Quite recently it decreed that wild elephants should not be called by the name it has been called from time immemorial: Wal Ali. (It could have been interpreted as being ‘uncivilised’ or in many other derogatory ways. The official name now bestowed on them is Wana Ali – elephants of the jungle. The reaction of the jumbos to this change in their nomenclature is not known. Whatever the name, the killing of these lovable animals either by man or trains continues while they are also captured, tortured and kept at home by rich perverts to show off their Thathvaya status).

Now the government wants to change the designation given to the hangman, Alughosuwa – the name used since the time when people were hanged here. We are not aware of how this name came about but some say that in earlier times the hangman wore a white hood when he performed his official function.

In keeping with the political mood of the times we suggest the name: Humanitarian Hanger in English and its equivalents in Sinhala and Tamil. But we wonder whether a hangman by another name matters to the person swinging at the end of the rope.

(September 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Constructing physical infrastructure projects, together with selling/leasing land to foreigners, is the leitmotiv of Rajapaksa development. In its name untold wealth is pumped into building highways and overhead bridges, ports and airports. In its name national heritages (such as the Sinharaja forest) are endangered. In its name mammoth debts are incurred and questionable dependencies on foreign powers formed.

A regime which regards physical infrastructure development as an expressway to prosperity should prioritise the creation of an efficient and safe rail transportation system – logically. Yet, as the recent horrific accident in Alawwa demonstrates, the opposite is true. The triple-train crash may not have happened had Sri Lanka not been burdened by an ‘old and obsolete’ signal system. According to the Minister of Transport, the 40 year old system needs “immediate modernisation before a major accident occurs” (Daily Mirror – 21.9.2011).

Clearly an efficient railway system does not figure in the Rajapaksa Grand-Plan to turn Sri Lanka into a hub of many miracles.

(A digression: The regime will give Rs.150,000/- to the family of the French tourist who died in the crash and just Rs. 20,000/- each to the families of the dead train operator and assistant!)

The regime’s failure to replace the dysfunctional rail-signal system is symbolic and symptomatic of a strategic malaise. The Rajapaksas’ development-drive prioritises the facile while ignoring the foundational. For instance, the first step in any realistic effort to clean-up Colombo would have been to resolve the city’s sewage problem, as a matter of urgency. Colombo’s sewage system is aged, overloaded and increasingly malfunctioning. Beautifying the city without grappling with this core-issue is like putting a 24-carat gold facial on an old and decrepit person. The futility of this facile-beautification is evident in the unsuccessful attempts to clean Colombo’s canals and turn them into transport-alternatives and tourist-attractions. Citizens were exhorted, and rightly so, not to dump garbage into the canals even as the defence authorities turned a blind eye to the key pollutant – the innumerable sewage lines which empty into the canals. The canals will continue to be unclean and odorous, until the sewage lines are provided with an alternate destination!

The lopsided vision and unbalanced approach to ‘development’ are creating outcomes which could have been comic had what is at stake been less fundamental. Sri Lanka is going to build the world’s 5th tallest tower in Peliyagoda (a Chinese firm will handle the construction). But a project to expand the Sapugaskanda oil refinery is in jeopardy because the regime lacks the necessary counterpart-funds. 100,000 trees on Matale hill-slopes are being felled; “a senior official of the plantation company admitted that … the trees were being felled and sold in order to obtain the necessary funds to pay the salaries of the estate workers” (Daily Mirror – 22.9.2011).

What sort of a parent would spend lavishly on expanding and refurbishing the family-home while scrimping on basic necessities for the children and jeopardising their future well being?

“The stories our leaders tell us matter…because they orient us to…the worldviews they hold and the values they hold sacred”, according to Professor of Psychology Drew Westen (The New York Times – 6.8.2011). The Rajapaksa narrative is premised on three myths: the myth of perennial national-insecurity, the myth of miraculous-development and the myth of Rajapaksa-infallibility. Their purpose is to create a suitable politico-psychological environment for the success of the Dynastic Project.

The myth of the ‘eternal terrorist’ enables the regime to militarise society and maintain defence expenditure at exorbitant levels – even at the cost of development. For instance, the Wildlife and Agrarian Services Minister mentioned “the need to withdraw Army and Navy detachments deployed in the Wilpattu National Park” because tourists object to this ubiquitous military presence (The Island – 18.9.2011). The militarization of Lankan society (by a Rajapaksaised military) may impede development and bankrupt the nation; yet it will continue because a garrisoned-Sri Lanka is the final-guarantor of Familial Rule.

The myth of miraculous-development helps inculcate illusions about ‘jam tomorrow’ in the South. It also enables the regime to pass off corruption, waste, mismanagement, inefficacy and the destruction of human and natural environments as developmental necessities. For instance, Hambantota will need $1.1billion in new facilities alone, to be ready for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, according to the Commonwealth Games Federation.

That is 110 billion rupees which can be spent on a new rail signal-light system or a new sewage system for Colombo or modernising the Sapugaskanda refinery or paying plantation workers without degrading the environment. The myth of Rajapaksa infallibility discourages people from thinking, questioning and resisting the irrational and the unjust. For instance, post-war the Navy is expanding building bases in areas none existed during the war (sometimes using land forcibly taken from local communities, such as in Panama in the East). According to the Navy Commander, this is to “bridge security gaps that existed during the separatist Tamil Tiger insurgency” (LBO – 28.8.2011). If the Sea Tiger could be defeated and the war won without those camps, why would a post-war Sri Lanka need them, with such urgency, at such cost? But a South, dazzled by the Rajapaksa narrative, is oblivious to such logical-inconsistencies. Still.

Currently the Rajapaksas are popular. But public opinion is a mutable thing. For instance, at a 2007 Marga opinion poll, 70% of respondents expressed willingness to ‘accept devolution close to a federal system as a part of a three-tier system which brings government close to the people by giving adequate power to political institutions at the local (third) and the community level’. Thus, greater devolution (up to federalism) at the national level and enhanced decentralisation within the devolved unit was the choice of the majority in 2007. Four years later, federalism is a political obscenity and public support for a political solution based on enhanced devolution has waned. Until the Rajapaksas began to rule, the Sinhala fundamentalists who equated devolution with separatism were languishing on the political fringe. But under Rajapaksa rule, this devolution-phobia has become a mainstream political-value. Thus during the early years of Rajapaksa-rule, the masses were still moderate, still rational, still resistant to devolution-phobia. But today, after four full years of official propaganda sowing fundamentalist antipathy to devolution, Southern opinion has swung the other way.

This pendulum swing on devolution is an augury. Someday public opinion can change in an anti-Rajapaksa direction. Thus, the need to keep official-propaganda at a fever-pitch and impede the free-flow of information, terrorise the media and oppose, tooth and nail, any Freedom of Information Act.

The myth-laden Rajapaksa narrative would not be sustainable in an open society. The Rajapaksas, astute in matters of power, understand this reality and the consequent need to block information channels to the Sinhala-public. The Rajapaksa desideratum is an uninformed-public willing to give the Ruling Family a universal and a timeless carte blanche. How else can the pro-Rajapaksa consensus in the South be maintained? How else can a public-consciousness be created, which accepts that only a Rajapaksa can succeed a Rajapaksa? Or see in a thuggish or a corrupt sibling or a vapid offspring the only desirable future?

| by Fidel Castro Ruz

(September 29, Havana, Sri Lanka Guardian) If our Nobel Prize winner is deceiving himself – something that has yet to be established – that perhaps explains the incredible contradictions in his reasoning and the confusion sowed among his listeners.

There is not a drop of morality, not even of politics, in his attempt to justify his announced decision to veto any resolution approved supporting the recognition of Palestine as an independent state and a member of the United Nations. Even politicians who in no way share socialist ideas and lead parties which were closely allied with Augusto Pinochet support Palestine's right to full membership in the UN.

Barrack Obama's words on the main topic of discussion today in the organization’s General Assembly can only be applauded by NATO, with its artillery, missiles and bombings.

The rest of his speech consisted of empty words, lacking moral authority and making no sense. Let us observe, for example, how just how vacuous they were. In a starving world, plundered by transnational corporations and the consumerism of developed capitalist countries, Obama proclaimed, "To stop disease that spreads across borders, we must strengthen our system of public health. We will continue the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. We will focus on the health of mothers and of children. And we must come together to prevent, and detect, and fight every kind of biological danger - whether it’s a pandemic like H1N1, or a terrorist threat, or a treatable disease

"To preserve our planet, we must not put off action that climate change demands. We have to tap the power of science to save those resources that are scarce. And together, we must continue our work to build on the progress made in Copenhagen and Cancun, so that all the major economies here today follow through on the commitments that were made. Together, we must work to transform the energy that powers our economies, and support others as they move down that path. That is what our commitment to the next generation demands. And to make sure our societies reach their potential, we must allow our citizens to reach theirs."

Everyone knows that the United States did not sign the Kyoto Protocol and has sabotaged all efforts to protect humanity from the terrible consequences of climate change, despite being the country which consumes a considerable, disproportionate part of the world's oil and natural resources.

Let us make a record of the idyllic words with which he attempted to beguile the state leaders assembled there, "I know there’s no straight line to that progress, no single path to success. We come from different cultures, and carry with us different histories. But let us never forget that even as we gather here as heads of different governments, we represent citizens who share the same basic aspirations – to live with dignity and freedom; to get an education and pursue opportunity; to love our families, and love and worship our God; to live in the kind of peace that makes life worth living. It is the nature of our imperfect world that we are forced to learn these lessons over and over again.

"… Because those who came before us believed that peace is preferable to war, and freedom is preferable to suppression, and prosperity is preferable to poverty. That’s the message that comes not from capitals, but from citizens, from our people. And when the cornerstone of this very building was put in place, President Truman came here to New York and said, "The United Nations is essentially an expression of the moral nature of man’s aspirations." The moral nature of man’s aspirations. As we live in a world that is changing at a breathtaking pace, that’s a lesson that we must never forget.

"Peace is hard, but we know that it is possible. So, together, let us be resolved to see that it is defined by our hopes and not by our fears. Together, let us make peace, but a peace, most importantly, that will last.

"Thank you very much."

Listening to this until the very end is worthy of more than gratitude; it merits a medal.

As I have already indicated, early in the afternoon, it befell the President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Evo Morales Ayma, to take the floor and immediately address the essential issues.

"…There is a clear difference over the culture of life and the culture of death. There is a clear difference over the truth in the face of falsehoods, a profound difference over peace as opposed to war.

"... I believe it is going to be difficult to understand each other with economic policies which concentrate capital in the hands of a few. The facts show that 1% of the world's population holds 50% of the wealth. If such profound differences exist, how can poverty be reduced? And if we do not eliminate poverty, how can we guarantee a lasting peace?

"I remember perfectly well how as a child whenever there was a rebellion of the people against the capitalist system, against the economic model based on the permanent plunder of our natural resources, the union leaders, the political leaders of the left were accused of being communists and arrested. The popular movements were attacked militarily: arrests, exile, massacres, persecution, incarceration, accused of being communists, socialists, Maoists, Marxist-Leninists. But now, they have other tools, they make accusations of drug trafficking and terrorism.

"... they plan interventions whenever a president, a government, a people are not pro-capitalist or pro-imperialist.

"... A lasting peace is spoken of. How can there be lasting peace with U.S. military bases? How can there be lasting peace with military interventions?

"Of what use is the United Nations if a group of nations here decides on interventions, massacres?

"If we want this organization, the United Nations, to have the authority to have its resolutions respected, well, we have to begin thinking about re-founding the United Nations…

"Every year the United Nations – practically 100% of the countries, with the exception of the United States and Israel – decides to lift the blockade, end the economic blockade of Cuba. And who respects this? Of course, the Security Council is never going to respect this United Nations resolution… I cannot understand how, in an organization including all of the world's nations, resolutions are not respected. What is the United Nations?

"I would like to tell you that Bolivia is not turning its back on the recognition of Palestine in the United Nations. Our position is that Bolivia welcomes Palestine to the United Nations.

"You all know, dear listeners, that I come from the Indigenous Campesino Movement and when our families talk about a company, we assume that that company has a lot of money, holds a lot of money, they're millionaires. We can't understand how a company could ask the state to lend it money for its investments.

"That's why I say that these international financial entities are the ones who do business through private companies, but who has to pay for it? Of course, it is the people, the states.

"... Bolivia has a historic demand, of Chile, to return to the sea, to retake sovereign access to the Pacific, with sovereignty. Therefore Bolivia has made the decision to resort to international tribunals, to demand useful, sovereign access to the Pacific Ocean.

"Resolution 37/10 of the UN General Assembly, November 15, 1982, establishes that ‘recourse to judicial settlement of legal disputes, particularly

Referral to the International Court of Justice, should not be considered an unfriendly act between States.’

"Bolivia is protected by law and by right has recourse to an International Court because its confinement is the result of an unjust war, an invasion. Demanding a solution in the international arena represents for Bolivia the reparation of a historic injustice.

"Bolivia is a peaceful state which favors dialogue with neighboring countries, and for that reason maintains open channels of bilateral negotiation with Chile, without renouncing its right to have recourse to an International Court…"

"The peoples are not responsible for the maritime confinement of Bolivia, those responsible are the oligarchies, the transnationals which, as always, appropriate the peoples’ natural resources.

"The 1904 Treaty did not contribute to peace or friendship; it caused Bolivia’s lack of access to a sovereign port for more than one century."

"…in the region of the Americas another movement of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean is being organized, I would say a new OAS without the United States, in order to liberate ourselves from certain impositions, fortunately, with the little experience that we have acquired in UNASUR. [... ] If there is a conflict between countries, we no longer need [...] persons coming from above and outside to impose order."

"I also want to take advantage of this opportunity to address a central issue: combating drug trafficking. Combating drug trafficking is being utilized by U.S. imperialism for purely political ends. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Bolivia was not combating drug trafficking, it was controlling drug trafficking for political ends. If there was a labor leader, or an anti-imperialist political leader, that’s why the DEA was there: to implicate him or her. We saved many leaders, many politicians from that kind of dirty work by the empire to implicate us in drug trafficking. They are still attempting to do just that."

"In recent weeks certain media from the United States were saying that the presidential plane had been detained in the United States due to traces of cocaine. How untrue! They are trying to confuse the population, trying to promote a dirty campaign against the government, even against the state. However, what is the United States doing? Decertifying Bolivia and Venezuela. What moral authority does the United States have to certify or decertify countries in South America or in Latin America, when the United States is the world's prime consumer of drugs, the prime producer of marijuana in the world? [... ] What authority does it have to certify or decertify? It is another means of frightening or intimidating countries, trying to teach countries a lesson. However, Bolivia is, very responsibly, fighting drug trafficking.

"In the same U.S. report; that is to say, of the Department of State of the United States acknowledges a net reduction of coca cultivation; that the interdiction has improved.

"But, where is the market? The market is the origin of drug trafficking and the market is here. And who decertifies the United States because it has not reduced the market?

"This morning, President Calderón of Mexico said that the drug market is still growing and asked why there is no responsibility taken for eradicating the market. [... ] Let’s fight under a shared co-responsibility. [... ] In Bolivia, we’re not afraid, and we have to end secret banking if we want to make a frontal assault on drug trafficking."

"… One of the crises, on the margins of the crisis of capitalism, is the food crisis. [... ] We have a little experience in Bolivia: giving credits with zero interest to rice, corn, wheat and soy producers, and they can also pay their debts with their products, such as food; or accessible credits to encourage production. However, the international banks never take small producers into account, never take associations, cooperatives into account and these can make a very good contribution if they are given the opportunity. [... ] We have to end commerce which is based on competitiveness.

"In a competition, who wins? The most powerful, the one with the most advantages, always the transnationals, and who are the small producers, who are these families who wish to rise up through their own efforts? [... ] Within a policy of competition we are certainly not going to solve the issue of poverty.

"But, finally, to end this speech, I want to state that the crisis of capitalism is already unpayable. [... ] The economic crisis of capitalism is not circumstantial, but structural and what are the capitalist or imperialist countries doing? Seeking any pretext for intervening in a country in order to recoup its natural resources.

"This morning, the President of the United States said that Iraq has been liberated and that they are going to govern themselves. The Iraqis are going to be able to govern themselves, but in whose hands is the Iraqis’ oil now?

"They welcomed it, they said that autocracy in Libya was over, now it’s a democracy; it can be a democracy, but in whose hands is Libya’s oil going to be now? [... ] the bombardments were not the fault of Gaddafi, the fault of certain rebels, but because of seeking Libya’s oil."

"…Therefore, they want to overcome it, their crisis, the crisis of capitalism, they want to rectify it by recouping our natural resources, on the basis of our oil, on the basis of our gas, our natural resources.

"… we have an enormous responsibility: defending the rights of Mother Earth."

"…the best way of defending human rights today is by defending the rights of Mother Earth [...] here we have an enormous responsibility in approving the rights of Mother Earth. Just over 60 years ago the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was approved. Just over 60 years ago it was recognized in the United Nations that human beings have their rights as well. After political rights, economic rights, the rights of the indigenous peoples, now we have the enormous responsibility of how to defend the rights of Mother Earth.

"We are also convinced that infinite growth on a finite planet is unsustainable and impossible, the limits on growth are the degeneration of the Earth’s ecosystems. [... ] We are calling for [...] a new decalogue of social demands: in financial systems, over natural resources, over basic services, over production, over dignity and sovereignty and, on this basis, to begin to re-found the United Nations, so that the United Nations becomes the highest body for solving issues of peace, issues of poverty, issues of the dignity and sovereignty of the peoples of the world."

"We hope that this experience as a President might serve for something for all of us, as I also have come to learn from many of you in order to continue working for the equality and dignity of the Bolivian people."

"Thank you very much indeed."

After the essential concepts of Evo Morales, Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority, who was granted speaking rights two days ago, set out the dramatic sufferings of the inhabitants of Palestine: "…the crass historical injustice perpetrated against our people, for whom it was deemed convenient to establish the state of Palestine in just 22% of the territory of Palestine and, above all, the Palestinian territory which Israel occupied in 1967. Taking that historic step, which was applauded by the states of the world, allowed an excessive acquiescence in order to achieve a historical contemporization, which would allow peace to be attained in the land of peace."

"[... ] Our people will continue popular, peaceful resistance to the Israeli occupation, its settlements and its policy of apartheid, as well as the construction of the racist wall of annexation [... ] armed with dreams, courage, hope and mottoes in the face of tanks, teargas, bulldozers and bullets."

"… we want to extend a hand to the Israeli government and people for the establishment of peace, and I say to you: let us build together, in an urgent way, a future for our sons and daughters in which they can enjoy peace, security and prosperity. [... ] Let us build relations of cooperation based on parity, equity and friendship between two neighboring states, Palestine and Israel, instead of policies of occupation, settlements, war and the elimination of the other."

Almost half a century has passed since that brutal occupation promoted and supported by the United States. However, barely a day passes without the wall rising, monstrous mechanical equipment destroying Palestinian homes and some young or even adolescent Palestinian falling injured or dead.

What profound truths were contained in Evo’s words!

Invasive Plants Specialist – Melbourne - Australia

(September 29, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) Yoda Nidikumba (Mimosa pigra) was first recorded in Sri Lanka in 1997. The species is mainly confined to the Central and North Western Provinces of Sri Lanka. This species one of the worst alien invasive plant in the world. It has spread along the Mahaweli river and its tributaries covering approximately 200 ha reducing the flow of water and chocking water movement in the connected reservoirs, significantly affecting the biodiversity of Sri Lanka.

Yoda Nidikumba is native plant of Central America and become a serious environmental, agricultural and economic problem in many countries where it has been introduced (accidentally or deliberately). Mimosa has invaded thousands of hectares in Northern Australia and the government has been spending large sum of money to control them over several years.

Recently I came to Sri Lanka as I do every year to see the unique environment of Sri Lanka. I started my journey from my brother’s place at Malambe. First I entered to the Denzil Kobbakaduwa Road from Koswatta side and travel towards to the Central Environmental Authority (CEA). When I approached to the CEA I found several number of Yoda Nidikumba plants were growing very happily on the opposite side of the CEA along the wetland. Most of the plants were flowering and some of them already produced large number of seed pods. I couldn’t believe my eyes after seen “Yoda Nidikumba” in Colombo area and specially in front of the CEA? Can you believe this? I stopped my vehicle and took several pictures to publicise this story. I am sure that there was a big public awareness campaign on this plant species in the past as it was new plant for the Sri Lankan people and threat to our environment. But how do you miss this species in a very public place specially around the CEA. 

I do hope that the relevant authorities will be inspecting this area and make suitable arrangements to remove those plants and burn them with seed pods. Further it is very important to monitor this site for several years to see any more seedlings or new plants could be emerged from seed-bank in the soil. Please keep our capital city away from alien invasive plants. Try to grow and promote our endemic plants.