Sri Lanka - Eelam News 310707

Teargas for Rajarata students

Potential case for global intervention in Sri Lanka: ICG chief
B. Muralidhar Reddy, The Hindu

“There are plenty of reasons to fear that things could get worse if the war moves from the east to the north”

COLOMBO: The prospect of a bloody war in Sri Lanka’s north with devastating consequences for the civilians makes the country a potential case for “right to protection” or right to intervention by the international community, Gareth Evans, President of International Crisis Group (ICG) warned here on Sunday evening.
Delivering the Neelan Tiruchelvam eighth memorial lecture organised by the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES), Mr. Evans said the situation demanded “preventive action” by the Sri Lanka Government with the help and support of the international community to ensure that further deterioration does not occur.
Making a strong case for protection of the rights of all citizens by the Government, Mr. Evans said that various foreign states bear some of the responsibility for allowing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to build up their power over the years, in part on the misguided belief that they were a legitimate national liberation movement.
He said since the resumption of hostilities between Government forces and the LTTE a year ago, both sides have been careful to keep their operations within certain limits. However, there are plenty of reasons to fear that things could get worse, especially if the war moves from the east to the north as it appears to be happening.
Friends’ role
“Should the war move into the LTTE-controlled areas in the north, it is likely to be much more fierce than the recent fighting in the east, and the impact on civilians is almost certain to be devastating. As the war grows vicious, it could well spill over into areas outside the north — perhaps through deliberate attacks on civilians designed to provoke excessive and politically damaging replies from the other side”, he said.
Mr. Evans lamented that despite documented cases of abductions, disappearances and killings, there has been only a single indictment announced for an identifiable human rights violation committed by Government personnel. He said the need of the hour is effective prosecutions.
He argued that the Government’s sovereign responsibility is not to put its citizens to undue risk and for this reason, it should resist the temptation to take its military campaign to the north. He said the international friends of Sri Lanka have a role to play in achieving this goal. Mr. Evans said it is the Government’s responsibility to seriously seek a political solution. He maintained the strategy of “fight now to negotiate later” would work only if the Government is ready with a package of political and constitutional reforms that appeal to non-separatist Tamils and non-Tamil parties.
Separately, Sri Lanka Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama asked the International Crisis Group which works to prevent conflicts worldwide, to undertake an in-depth study on the reason for the breakdown of a number of previous rounds of peace talks between the Government and the LTTE since 1985.
He said such a study will show that it was not a lack of commitment of successive Sri Lankan Governments, but the lack of interest and incapacity on the part of the LTTE to engage in a political dialogue with sincerity that resulted in the prolongation of the conflict. The Minister made this observation when Mr. Evans called on him Sunday morning,
The Minister, commenting on the contribution made by Tiruchelvam, said the Tamil scholar-parliamentarian was one of those who had worked tirelessly to evolve a negotiated political settlement. His becoming a victim of LTTE terror, belied the LTTE’s peace pretensions.
Discussing the Government’s current thinking in the aftermath of the clearing of the Eastern Province of LTTE presence, the Minister said the successful operation was a result of action taken by the security forces over the past year since the LTTE decided to cause disruption in the Eastern Province with the cutting off of water supply at Mavil Aru and also attacks on the Trincomalee port.
Mr Bogollagama reiterated that the Government was committed to a negotiated political settlement and was working towards it through the All-Party Representatives Committee (APRC) which is expected to announce its conclusions shortly.
He said the Government would rather see the LTTE also become stake holders in this search for peace. However, he noted that so long as the LTTE continued to threaten civil life and attack strategic and economic targets in the South, the Government will not hesitate to seek to destroy its capacity to do so.

Door open for Karuna cadres too?
Govt. starts recruitment of Tamil youth to police force in East
By Sunil Jayasiri

As part of measures to establish civil administration in the east, the government has started recruiting Tamil youth to the police force while speculation is rife that Karuna cadres may also be included.
With Karuna refusing to disarm in the east, sources said the invitation for ordinary youth to join the police force would give Karuna cadres the opportunity to be part of the state civil administration.
“A fresh recruitment drive is underway to recruit several thousands of Tamils especially from the eastern region,” a top defence official told the Daily Mirror.
Speaking to the BBC a day after the government celebrated the liberation of the east, Karuna said he had no intention of disarming as the LTTE threat still existed in the region.
“If we disarm now, it will be dangerous for us. We want to carry arms for self-protection,” he told the news agency soon after the government claimed that it had liberated the entire eastern province from the LTTE.
The defence official said the government had mooted the idea to recruit and deploy Tamil youth of the eastern areas to the police force even before military operations started to clear the LTTE from the province.
“Already some youth are undergoing training and will be deployed to police stations in the region,” the official said.
The defence official further added that the government expected to open more than 50 police stations in the newly captured areas including Thoppigala, Vakarai and Verugal. “We need some thousands of Tamil youths for this purpose,” he said.
The official said it was necessary to deploy Tamil officers in these Tamil populated areas to have a good rapport with the Tamil people.

Khaleej Times Online >> News >>

THE U.A.E Returning home in a coffin

By Preeti Kannan and Sebugwaawo Ismail 31 July 2007

DUBAI — After working in the UAE for 14 long years, 48-year-old Sri Lankan housemaid Kumre Gadara Padmavathi finally returned to her motherland on Sunday. Her kin, who received her yesterday, were heartbroken and shell shocked, because Padmavathi went back to her country in a coffin.
Padmavathi’s shattered 29-year-old daughter, husband and elder sister, could not believe she had come back home dead. Her maudlin sister, Kumbugadi Nilandi, told Khaleej Times from Sri Lanka: “We were waiting for her to return as she had spent many years away from the family. But we did not expect her to return in a coffin.”
The Sri Lankan woman, who was working as a housemaid in Fujairah, had died of cardic arrest in the emirate on December 20 last year, according to hospital officials. She was found dead by the police and they had taken her body to the Dibba Hospital.
Her body had been lying in the mortuary since December as the consulate was unaware of the death till January-end, after which, they tried to contact the family. However, after nerve-racking efforts to track down her family and her sponsor, the Sri Lankan Consulate finally managed to repatriate her body.
Like many Sri Lankan women, Padmavathi had come to the UAE -in 1993- with the dream of supporting her poverty-stricken family back home. Though she was in constant telephonic contact with her family and was sending money regularly, she had not visited them ever since she came to the UAE.
Nilandi, her sister, added: “Padmavathi’s 29-year-old daughter is yet to recover from the shock. We didn’t hear from her since December last and were a little worried. But that was not much cause for alarm for us as even earlier, she had not contacted us for long periods of time. She was the only breadwinner of our family.”
The Sri Lankan Consul General, Wasantha Senanayake, told Khaleej Times: “We were not aware of her death until a fellow Sri Lankan accidentally learnt that the body of a Sri Lankan housemaid was lying in the mortuary. Neither her passport nor her visa had been renewed since 1995 and that made it very difficult for us to track her family. The Sri Lankan authorities placed an advertisement in Colombo and then the family got in touch with us only two months ago. We were unable to reach the sponsor.”
The consulate, however, has assured that they would try and recover all the salary arrears of the maid from the sponsor and if necessary, resort to legal action to do so.
It may be noted that for the repatriation of a body, the documents required are a confirmation from the sponsor, a death certificate from the hospital and the police clearance.
An official from Dibba Hospital said the Sri Lankan Consulate had earlier taken the body to Dubai for embalmment and then repatriation. “Padmavathi expired on December 20 and since there were no relatives to claim her body, we had to keep it in the mortuary for so long. The Dibba Police brought her body to the mortuary,” the official said.
When contacted, Fujairah Police said they did not have any clear information about her death since no police case was filed in this case.

Sri Lankan postal workers protest against privatization, alleged corruption
The Associated Press Monday, July 30, 2007 COLOMBO, Sri Lanka:

Sri Lankan postal workers staged a one-day strike Monday, paralyzing the island's postal service, as a part of their campaign against privatization and alleged corruption in the postal department.
Postal workers around the country have joined this strike demanding action against corruption and waste and also to halt any effort to privatize the service, said postal union spokesman Nawaratne Bandara.
The government has repeatedly said it has no plans to privatize any state institution.
But Bandara complained that the government had licensed private companies to deliver mail as well, in what amounted to a de facto privatization campaign.
Postal department officials were not immediately available for a comment.
Strikes and trade union actions are common in this south Asian island nation.

Teargas for Rajarata students

[30-07-2007 3.25pm]

The students of the Rajarata University launched a massive protest at the Lipton roundabout against the sudden closure of the university and the current situational crisis. Their efforts to march to the front of the University Grants Commission (UGC) was met by water and tear gas hailed by the Police. 4 students are reported to be hospitalized while one has been arrested.
All the same, the Union leaders were given an opportunity to discuss matters with the Minister. Discussions are currently underway, while the situation is reported to have cooled down.

Bus operators threaten strike, seek subsidy

Private bus operators are poised to strike if the Government does not favourably consider a letter they sent to the Acting Transport Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna yesterday. They demand that either the minimum fare of Rs 5 be increased to Rs 6 or they be provided with a fuel subsidy in the wake of the most recent increase of Rs 4 per litre of diesel.