An Open Letter to His Eminence Dr. Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith On the Role of Leaders of Catholic Faith in a Sovereign State.

Prof. Hudson McLean

 Your Eminence

As a Catholic, with a deep respect and a feeling of patriotism towards Sri Lanka, I respectfully address the issue, with regret,  on the behaviour of Bishop of Mannar Dr. Rayappu Joseph, acting as a racist and openly supporting anti-Sri Lankan sentiments, supporting Division & Terrorism.

Furthermore, as a Tamil Nadu immigrant, Bishop Rayappu Joseph is demonstrating exactly the opposite of Catholic principles, setting a poor example to Catholics in his Diocese. The fact that the visiting Catholic delegations from Tamil Nadu, turned their religious pilgrimage into a Racist Rally on Sri Lankan soil, under the patronage of the Tamil Nadu Bishop, was tolerated by the Sri Lankan Hosts, showed the difference in mentality. Read more...

The Right To développent sshould not be seen as a divisive concept – Ambasadaor Tamara Kunanayakam

The right to development should not be seen as a divisive concept, but as the means by which the human person, individually and collectively, can become the principal actor of his or her own destiny, said Ambassador Tamara Kunanayakam. Read more...

Those who commit Human Rights abuses cannot preach to Sri Lanka

Shenali Waduge

Sri Lanka’s delegation presently at the Geneva sessions of the UN Human Rights Council are facing a barrage of onslaughts on the theme of “accountability”. For a country that has become the only nation to defeat terrorism and put an end to sporadic acts of terror with bombs, suicide and assassination this is an achievement no other nation is likely to achieve. Instead of bouquets Sri Lanka receives bricks – why because Sri Lanka jerked the happy existence of too many factions benefiting from the prevalence of terror. The whole “accountability” sing song is just a gimmick and a perfect modus operandi to strike revenge. Yet, given the limitations within our scope we have done an admirable job from the time the military took up the challenge to eliminate the LTTE to the present where people do not have to fear terrorism. Sri Lanka is not going to apologize for succeeding to achieve what the majority wanted just because it leaves a minority disappointed. Our message to the world is : First hold LTTE accountable for its crimes & then move on to accusing Sri Lanka. This is the order of “accountability”. 
Read more...

Amnesty International Calls Cops To Quash Questions About Ties To Terror Supporters – OpEd

“It looks very much as if Amnesty’s leadership is suffering from a kind of moral bankruptcy, and has lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong.”

Salman Rushdie wrote those lines in 2010 when he weighed in on the controversy that erupted when Amnesty International (AI) fired, Girta Saghal, the much-respected head of its Gender Unit, for questioning the rights group’s ties to Moazzam Begg and the Cageprisoners, a pro-Taliban group Begg founded. Saghal in a public statement following her firing accused AI of not being troubled by terrorism and of actually supporting jihadism as ‘the individual obligation of every Muslim.’ Read more....

Sri Lanka’s problems are starting only now!
Posted on March 1st, 2012

Shenali Waduge

For three decades Sri Lanka was battling a terrorist problem that camouflaged itself as “ethnic” primarily to buy time and made possible by inefficient political leaders & bureaucrats unable to give proper advice. We have succeeded to discard the “terrorist” element from the “ethnic” but we now return to square one – this “political solution” that we are being asked to draw up takes place amidst a feigned reconciliation maneuver that is all about a Tamil Eelaam. It appears that we have to finally pose this question to our Tamil brethren to answer. Do they really want a Tamil Eelaam? At the same time they need to accept that Sri Lanka will not allow a possible 9% of Tamils the area it is demanding as Tamil Eelaam EVER. Neither will Sri Lanka ever agree to devolution or changing its unitary status. It appears we have been and continue to be taken around the mulberry bush & it is time we finally decide where Sri Lanka is to head. Until the question of Eelaam is put to rest there can be no reconciliation whatsoever. Read more...

Arun humiliates Diaspora during Geneva confrontation

March 5, 2012, 10:19 pm

By Shamindra Ferdinando

 Slain EPRLF MP Sam Tambimuttu’s son, Arun, targeted the Tamil Diaspora on the sidelines of the current session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in Geneva.

The outspoken SLFP organizer for Batticaloa, Arun Tambimuttu told the Diaspora that he wouldn’t seek revenge from those who had assassinated his father and mother in Colombo over two decades ago. They were shot dead on May 7, 1990. Read more...

Tamil Language to be taught to 35,000 govt. employees 

The Ministry of National Languages and Social Integration has decided to teach the Tamil Language to 35,000 government employees during this year.

The Chairperson of the National Institute of Language Education and Training, Seetha Withanaarachchi said that the training will take place at their respective workplaces at district secretariat level.

She went onto say that measures were taken to educate 35,000 government employees in  the Tamil Language last year as well.

She added that  government employees undergoing training in Tamil were also granted a monthly
allowance.
 

Sri Lanka’s L.L.R.C. Report and U.K.’s “Bloody Sunday” Report
Posted on March 5th, 2012

By Albert J. Fernando, Canada

Britain, out of the various Western countries, had taken a leading role in criticizing and condemning Sri Lanka for alleged human rights abuses, and alleged war crimes, including alleged shooting down unarmed civilians.

Before the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (L.L.R.C.) was appointed, it asked Sri Lanka why there is no such inquiry panel appointed; but when it was appointed, London was worried that the Commission was taking a long time to complete the hearings and issuing the report. After the Report was issued, British Government, while thanking the Sri Lanka Government for making the report public, declared its concern that the findings are rather disappointing. Read more...