US Senator asks Lankan Prez to address needs of Tamils

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa needs to take steps to show a "serious commitment" towards achieving a political solution to the decades-long ethnic problem and to genuinely addressing the needs of the minority Tamils following the defeat of LTTE, an influential US Senator has said.

"I urge President Rajapaksa to take steps now to demonstrate a serious commitment to a political solution, the rule of law, and most importantly, to genuinely addressing the needs of the Tamil people," Senator Russ Feingold said on the Senate Floor.

At the same time, in proportion to the passion and effort with which the world's diplomats have demanded peace and respect for civilians throughout the conflict, donor countries must remain actively engaged and dedicated to helping bring about a lasting resolution to the issue, he said.

Expressing concern over the humanitarian situation in the country, Senator Feingold said the Sri Lankan Government must not shirk its responsibility to help the displaced people return to their homes swiftly and safely.

"The international community, too, can provide assistance to help these people return home safely or seek other lasting solutions," he said.

"The US government should join with its international partners to coordinate in demining efforts, work with the Sri Lankan government to develop and rebuild infrastructure, and ensure that those who have been displaced are able to reclaim the land that is rightfully theirs," the Democratic Senator said.

Feingold said the fundamental grievances of the Tamil minority have been overshadowed, distorted, and in some cases silenced by the severe tactics of the LTTE, who since 1997 have been designated by the United States as a terrorist organisation.

The LTTE claimed to be the voice of the Tamil people, and yet their commitment to both indiscriminate and targeted violence, as well as reports from the last days of fighting that they used Tamil civilians as human shields, would indicate otherwise, he said.

"If we are to see legitimate reconciliation in Sri Lanka, the grievances of the Tamil minority must be seen as distinct from the violence of the LTTE and addressed thoroughly and justly," the Senator said.

Air France crash: What could have caused it?

Was it a lightning strike, an electrical failure, or violent turbulence? Or a combination of all three that brought down the Air France plane?

As possible debris of Air France 447 surfaced 1000 km off the coast of Brazil on Tuesday, several theories emerged on what could have caused the crash that killed 228 people on board. The speculations are:

• Lightning crippled the plane's weather radar
• The electrical systems failed totally
• The pilots couldn't react quickly enough
• The plane broke into pieces as it entered the eye of a massive storm

Investigators are now intensely focused on locating the flight recorders or the black box of the plane. The crucial equipment holds the key to finding the reasons behind the accident.
Recovering the black box will be tough since this area in Atlantic may be as deep as 4700 metres.

Brazilian Air Force planes found what appeared to be parts of the Airbus 330 plane in this area. It will take months to arrive at any conclusion but investigators are hoping to get initial reports by June-end.

No Talks with Pak : India

India on Friday ruled out resumption of dialogue with Pakistan until it takes 'concrete measures' to prevent terrorism directed against this country.

"Not unless they (Pakistan) take concrete measures to prevent terrorist attacks emanating from the soil of Pakistan aimed against India," External Affairs Minister S M Krishna told reporters when asked whether there was any move to resume dialogue with Islamabad .

His assertion puts at rest speculation that moves were underway to resume dialogue with Pakistan in the near future. Referring to the release of Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, Krishna said, "That only shows that Pakistan is not serious about terror and all that terror spells out."

On the United States advisory cautioning its citizens with regard to travel in India, he pointed out that Home Minister P Chidambaram [Images] has already stated that India is a very safe country.

"If there are any concerns of particular countries, we are willing to address these concerns," Krishna said.

The US advisory had said that India faces 'high threat' from terrorism and Americans should be vigilant in this country.

On US President Barack Obama's speech on Thursday in Cairo, Krishna said, "We will have to wait and watch. He has made a broad appeal. It was a reconciliatory speech and we will have to watch the reaction from the Islamic world."

Obama, while trying to reach out to 1.5 billion Muslims across the globe, had talked about a 'new beginning' between the US and the Islamic world based on 'mutual respect'.

Is it the end of the LTTE?

With the death of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam chief V Prabhakaran and the decimation of most of its leadership, Sri Lanka has declared victory in Jaffna. The existence of the LTTE as an organised body that was a 'virtual' government in northern Sri Lanka has come to an end. But it would be hasty to come to a conclusion that it also means end to the Tamil insurgency and the return of peace to the island nation. The LTTE made several cardinal mistakes. The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi turned public opinion against it, so much so that even when the Congress was not in power, the National Democratic Alliance government also did not dare deal with it.

It needs to be noted that in 1987 when the Indian Peace Keeping Force went to Sri Lanka, it went there to save the Tamils from the genocidal tactics of the Lankan army. On a visit to Jaffna in 1989, I was told that till the time the break did not take place, the LTTE top brass used to dine in the Indian Army mess! The LTTE misread the Indian intention which was to save Tamils, but not help create a separate Tamil Eelam. India has been steadfast on this support to Sri Lankan unity.

The LTTE forgot that Eelam was a means to an end -- that is a place of honour for Tamils and preservation of their identity and culture. By obdurately focussing on 'all or nothing' strategy, the LTTE lost everything and has brought upon untold misery on the Tamil people of Jaffna.
The LTTE also failed to see the altered world situation after the 9/11 attacks in the United States. In the aftermath of that attack, a world consensus has been built around zero tolerance for terrorism and secessionism. Sri Lankan diplomacy was skilful and successful in hiding its own obduracy and painted the LTTE in the darkest possible colours.

Finally, Prabahkaran paid the price of forgetting cardinal rules of insurgency. It is true that the LTTE had reached the last stage of its guerrilla struggle in that it was capable of open confrontation with the regular Sri Lankan army.

But as Sri Lanka built its military muscle with Chinese and Pakistani help, the LTTE ought to ceded territory and gone back to its underground days to survive to fight another day. Instead, it chose open defiance and annihilation.

In the closing stages of current Sri Lankan offensive, the LTTE found itself friendless. The Sri Lankans also cleverly timed their offensive to coincide with Indian elections when Indian decision-making went on a limbo and gave the Lankans ample time to finish off the LTTE militarily.

What next?

Insurgency is like an amoeba that changes shape, size and reproduces itself.
If reports in the Western media are to be believed, close to 20,000 Tamil civilians were been killed in the present offensive. The whole of Jaffna has been turned into a concentration camp. While the LTTE may have been neutralised, an organisation like the Palestinian 'Black September' may well have taken birth.

It was Black September, born in aftermath of the Jordanian offensive against the Palestinians, that pioneered aircraft hijacking and started a cult of terrorism in the Middle East. There is real fear that the brutal tactics of Sri Lankan army may produce this result.

In its six decade long experience of dealing with insurgencies India has never used heavy weapons like artillery or air power against the insurgents. In this the Lankans seem to be following their Pakistani brethren.

A few years ago, an European diplomat involved in the peace process in Sri Lanka mentioned to me that both sides were obdurate. While the LTTE has been rightly criticised for its demand for Eelam, the Sri Lankans have escaped censure. Sri Lanka has steadfastly refused to give a federal structure a chance.

While talking to then foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar (assassinated by the LTTE later) in 1996, I mentioned that a status like that of Kashmir in the Indian Union would certainly satisfy most Tamils.

Unfortunately the mass of Sinhala opinion in Sri Lanka equates national unity with a unitary form of government. Such is the vehemence of Sinhala opinion on this issue that all talk of federal solution is denounced as treachery.

Historical roots
In terms of sheer longevity, the Sinhala-Tamil conflict is mother of all, dating back to the 67 BC war between King Elara (after whom Eelam is named) of Jaffna and King Duttagamini of Sri Lanka.

Unlike India, Sri Lanka did not have well-developed political parties at the time of independence. The Buddhist clergy was the most well knit organisation in the country with influence down to the small community levels. This was through the control that the clergy had over the educational institutions.

While not willing to play a direct political role, the clergy nevertheless had its own ideas of how and independent Lanka should be run. Solomon Bandaranaike and his Sri Lanka Freedom Party provided that vehicle.

At independence every major group in Lanka was a victim of feeling of insecurity. The plantation workers were afraid of deportation, the Moors (Muslims) were afraid of being lumped with the Tamils as they spoke the same language, the Sinhalese were afraid that the Jaffna Tamils together with the plantation workers will dominate them and the Burghers (a mixed race of Sinhalese-Europeans) simply emigrated to Australia en masse.

The 'credit' for sharpening the Sinhala-Tamil divide goes to the Sri Lanka Freedom party.
The elements of the divide were present even before his advent in 1956. He and his party, exclusively dependent on Buddhist Sinhala support, converted Lanka from a multi-ethnic nation to a Sinhala nation with Buddhism as its state religion and Sinhala as the state language and Sinhalese as the only legitimate citizens.

The Tamil demand for separatism was the logical culmination and reaction to the doctrine of Lankan nationalism that was 'exclusively' Sinhalese.

The religious fervour generated by the 2,500th death anniversary of Buddha in 1956, was utilised by the Buddhist clergy to push their agenda of ethnic cleansing of Sri Lanka of all non Buddhist elements. It is here Banadarnaike stepped in and gave this retrograde move a political direction and colour.

The first target of Sinhala chauvinism was, however, not the Lankan Tamils, but the Christians. In a systematic move the Christian institutions of learning and teaching were discriminated against and forced to either flee the country or shut down.

Having achieved success on the Christian front the next target were the plantation workers who had come to Sri Lanka nearly 150 years ago. Under the ill-conceived Shastri-Sirimavo Accord ,India took back the plantation workers who were in Sri Lanka for over a hundred years.
The imposition of Sinhala as the 'only' official language of Ceylon was interpreted not merely as a move to deny the rightful place to Tamil language but a direct attack on their 'identity ' and not just language. A comparison of the politics of the Indian and Lankan Tamil parties shows that it was the former that was more militant and also separatist.

Impact on India
If the Sri Lankans do not show pragmatism and accommodate Tamil aspirations, the island nation is in for a long spell of violence. It is only a matter of time before the refugees begin to arrive in India from Lanka, inflaming public opinion here.

The Indian approach to Lanka has been timid and indecisive. Partly out of the memory of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination but more due to the shrewdness with which the Lankans have used the bogey of China-Pakistan against India.

While in the short run the Lankans may have succeeded, but they will suffer in the long run if they get involved in the potential big power rivalry in the Indian Ocean. They may yet discover that a giant India is far more benign than the Chinese dragon.

Sri Lanka : Ten Myths !!!

In the ancient Indian epic Ramayana the Aryan Prince Rama goes all the way from north India to vanquish Ravana, the King of Lanka. Following a massive battle in which thousands are slaughtered Rama, with the help of the monkey god Hanuman, finally rescues his kidnapped wife Sita in a grand victory of ‘good' over ‘evil'.

The Ramayana of the 21 st Century may need a little modification.

In the modern version the Indian Rama and the Lankan Ravana, who turn out to be long lost brothers, together stage the abduction of Sita and accuse the ‘terrorist' Hanuman of the crime. Finally with international support they use every means possible to kill him along with thousands of innocent bystanders.

Adding insult to injury the council of Gods supposed to safeguard the world's conscience not only absolves Rama and Ravana but perversely even applauds them for ‘saving' Sita and winning the ‘War on Terror ‘.

Alas, if this were really the only wonky myth about Sri Lanka in our times! The truth is that over the years and decades dozens of myths have been floated about this island nation's history, politics and conflict.

Many of these myths were created by colonial administrators and ‘scholars' in the period when the British ruled the island. Many more were created by the chauvinist Sinhala elite- of different shades- who have run Sri Lanka for the past sixty years. Some others were born in the fertile minds of the armchair warriors who sit in New Delhi and a few created by the various champions of the Sri Lankan Tamils themselves.

Given below is a list of the top ten myths (in my opinion) about contemporary Sri Lanka , the dispelling of each of which is indispensable to finding a lasting solution to the seemingly perpetual tragedy of its diverse population.

Myth One: The Sri Lankan government is/was at war with the LTTE: This has been the single biggest myth about the Sri Lankan conflict in our time and used as an excuse by many outside to keep quiet about what has been happening all these years in this island country. The LTTE is/was after all a ‘terrorist' organisation banned by the international community and so what as wrong if the Sri Lankan government went to war against them?

The simple truth is that the Sri Lankan conflict is much older than the LTTE itself, which emerged as a force only in the early eighties. The systematic conversion of Sri Lankan Tamils into second-class citizens in their own country or state-sponsored violence against them however dates back to the time of Sri Lankan independence in the late-forties itself.

The recent offensive in the north of Sri Lanka was just a new and more brutal phase of the war that Sri Lankan Sinhala elite have been waging for a long time against Sri Lankan Tamils and indeed all the minorities in the country. And I must add that these minorities are not just linguistic or religious ones but also political as over the decades successive Sri Lankan regimes have also killed – and continue to kill- a very large number of Sinhala people opposed to their policies.

In their quest for power there has been no human norm left unviolated by the Sri Lankan elite, which has managed to murder over 20,000 or more of the country's Tamil citizens in its final assault on the LTTE in May this year. If the LTTE has used terrorist methods to further its cause there is no doubt that the Sri Lankan government has used genocidal methods to put them down.

Myth Two: The Mahinda Rajapakse government has ‘won' the ‘civil war' and successfully prevented the division of Sri Lanka : There is of course nothing ‘civil' about any war but this term implies that the conflict in Sri Lanka is between two groups that belong to the same nation. Maybe this was true upon a time long ago but is certainly not the case any longer.

How many countries around the world do you have governments bombing their own citizens using air power, mobilising tanks, heavy artillery, thousands of ground forces, sophisticated military equipment supplied by foreign governments? How many governments herd all citizens of a linguistic minority into concentration camps to be treated as terrorists simply because of their identity? And after doing all this what right do they have to call themselves ‘one nation'?
What we are today witnessing in Sri Lanka is indeed a war between two separate nations.
Whether the regime in Colombo realizes this or not by their own actions over the years they have made Tamil Eelam a reality today. The defeat of the LTTE is not the defeat of the Tamil people of Sri Lanka . Nor is it the end of their quest for dignity, against racist discrimination and the right to self-determination.

There comes a point in every relationship when divorce becomes inevitable and the only alternative to separation is gross murder. That time has arrived in Sri Lanka today. The future of the Tamil people should be urgently decided by a internationally monitored referendum on whether or not they want to be part of a united Sri Lanka .

Myth Three: The creation of a Tamil Eelam will damage the interests of the rest of Sri Lanka : In fact the opposite is likely to happen if Sri Lanka 's Tamils are given the right to self-determination and form their own country. Either they will fail miserably and clamour to become part of a future Sri Lankan federation on their own accord or succeed brilliantly and create a prosperous neighbourhood that benefits everyone. If a group of Tamil guerillas could make fighter aircraft while hiding in the forests of Vanni imagine what they can achieve in peacetime.
At the same time the proponents of Tamil Eelam will also have to remember that independence does not mean all their problems will be solved automatically. They will have to deal with the divisions of caste, religion, class within the Tamil population and also demonstrate to the world that they treat all minorities in their midst as equal citizens unlike the Sri Lankan state they have opposed so bitterly all these years.

Also any Tamil Eelam will geographically forever remain on the same island- after all Eelam can't be physically carried away to Australia or Canada . In the long run the Tamil and Sinhala people, along with every other community on the island of what is currently called ‘Sri Lanka' today will have to come to terms with each other and live in harmony - as perpetual war can only mean collective suicide.

Myth Four: The Sri Lankan Tamils will gang up with Indian Tamils and create a ‘Greater Tamil' nation: For all the light and sound produced in the Indian province of Tamil Nadu about the fate of their ‘Tamil brothers and sisters' in Sri Lanka the fact remains – beyond the usual rhetoric- they have not really done much for them. Over the past twenty years there are thousands of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees languishing in Tamil Nadu without proper shelters, livelihood, education for their children or even safety from arbitrary arrest by local police. The Indian government has repeatedly turned down calls to sign international treaties on rights of refugees and the politicians of Tamil Nadu – busy bargaining for their place in the Indian cabinet- don't care a damn.

Similarly, soon after independence from British rule when the then Sri Lankan government, in one of its first vile acts, disenfranchised over a million Indian Tamils working in the country's tea plantations there was not a murmur of protest from the then leaders of the Sri Lanka 's Tamils. They were ‘Indian Tamils' after all and that too poor workers to boot.

The point I am trying to make is that Sri Lankan and Indian Tamils have different histories, outlooks and priorities and cannot be simplistically conflated into one phrase ‘Tamil people'. The fact is that the problem of the Sri Lankan Tamils is not a ‘Tamil' issue at all- it is a problem common to many linguistic, ethnic, religious and other minorities around the world. While indeed the people who are suffering today in Sri Lanka are the Tamil speaking population of that country their primary identity is that of an oppressed people fighting for their rightful place under the sun and not as Tamil speakers alone.

In that sense what is being murdered in Sri Lanka is not just the Tamil population but the very concept of humanity itself, an issue that should agitate the entire world. To make my stand clear I would say that if the Sinhala people had been a minority in Sri Lanka and the Tamils had been the racist oppressors I would have appealed to the world to fight for the rights of the Sinhalese.

Myth Five: Sri Lanka has a special place in world Buddhism and its territorial integrity needs to be protected by the Sinhala people: From whatever little I know, the Buddha became what he did only by giving up his entire kingdom in the search for truth and the salvation of humankind. In the process he in fact conquered the entire world. What the current day proponents of religious nationalism in Sri Lanka are promoting is a crude kind of ‘landlordism' and certainly not ‘Buddhism', which has nothing to do with ownership of property.

The idea of the Sinhala elite being champions of Buddhism – a religion of compassion, peace and tolerance - is also simply laughable given their historical record of taking so many lives. Ultimately you are a Buddhist only by what you do in practice and not by wearing saffron robes, chanting a few mantras in Pali or Sanskrit or building large and expensive monuments to the Buddha.

Two thousand years ago the great Emperor Ashoka became a Buddhist when he repented for the massacres he committed in the war on the Kingdom of Kalinga . Today the Sinahala chauvinists, many of whom claim their ancestry back to the very same Kalinga, are exiting from Buddhism through the genocide they have committed against the Tamil people. These champions of Buddhism have no doubt become its greatest destroyers.

Myth Six: Sri Lanka is a sovereign country and outsiders should not interfere: Sri Lanka used to be a sovereign country once upon a time when they were not at war with their own people. The fact is that whenever the Sri Lankan regimes have been in deep trouble they have always violated their own sovereignty to seek help from other countries to help prop up their rule.

In 1971 the Sirimavo Bandaranaike government sought and obtained the help of the Indian navy together with the Pakistani air force to put down the JVP rebellion- mainly consisting of Sinhala youth fighting for revolutionary change in their country. Today in their war against the Tamils the Sri Lankan regime is supported by the governments of India , Pakistan , China , Russia and Israel while the entire Lankan economy depends on regular infusions of aid and cash from the IMF, World Bank, Japan or the European Union. It is also worth mentioning that the conflict on this island over the decades has sent thousands of Tamil citizens fleeing the country into exile all over the globe. So for all the touchiness of its leaders against ‘foreign interference' what is happening in Sri Lanka is really an international conflict and the people of the world have as much right to interfere there as their governments.

Myth Seven: A majority of the Sinhalese people are racists and chauvinists: Sinhala chauvinism was inevitable in a country where the Sinhala population is in a majority and every politician has to stoke nationalist, ethnic or religious passions to win his/her election. So whether you were a practicing Buddhist or not or knew even how to speak Sinhala properly or really loved your motherland you had to be a ‘Sinhala Buddhist nationalist' in order to succeed in politics.

There is no real history of Sinhala-Tamil conflict before the formation of the Sri Lankan ‘nation' artificially carved out of their ‘Raj' by the hastily departing British colonialists in 1948. For most ordinary Sinhalese, like ordinary folk everywhere, the main concern is livelihood or love and the quest for a better life denied to them by their own elites.

But so venal have been the feudal Sri Lankan families that inherited power from the British that they chose to divide and destroy their motherland rather than give up power- political, economic or social- to the ordinary men and women of their land.

If one looks at the results of the 2005 presidential election in Sri Lanka the hawkish Mahinda Rajapakse won only by a slender margin of 50.29% of the overall votes against 48.43% for former Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, who had signed a peace deal with the LTTE in 2002. Since the Tamil population largely boycotted the election what this clearly shows that close to half the Sinhala voters preferred peace over war when they voted for Ranil.

Today most of these Sinhala people are also being held hostage by the fascist Rajapakse regime, which has turned Sri Lankan nationalism into a family-run dictatorship guarded by guns purchased with the people's own hard earned money. The fact that there are still enough Sri Lankan journalists and human rights activists willing to die to preserve democracy in their country is evidence that human decency is still not dead everywhere on this troubled island. The entire world should come to the support of these brave people fighting one of the most murderous regimes in recent history.

Myth Nine - The Indian government, once supportive of the Sri Lankan Tamils, has turned against them: The truth is that the Indian government does not really care for either the Sri Lankan Tamils or the Sinhalese for that matter. Like in most countries of South Asia successive Indian regimes too have only been bothered about preserving the power of the corporate or feudal elites and care little for their ordinary citizens.
New Delhi in that sense is not the capital of India but the seat of the Indian Empire inherited from the Mughals and the British by the ‘Brown Sahibs' of today. And among the nefarious things these Johnnies have been up to all these years is bullying neighbouring governments and playing games with the lives of their people - especially those that don't ‘stand up and obey'.
So the Indian regimes in the past supported the Tamil struggle, including through military assistance and training, when they wanted to put the then Sri Lankan government in ‘its place'. Later on when their priorities changed – for various reasons chief among which was the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi- they dumped the Tamils and started cultivating the Sinhala elite.

The lip sympathy for Tamils across the Palk Straits that still emanates now and then from New Delhi is solely because of the compulsions of electoral politics in Tamil Nadu- where politicians routinely play political football with the hopes and aspirations of the Sri Lankan Tamils. Once elections are over it is back to the usual indifference to the fate of thousands of people being pulverised by the genocidal Sri Lankan state.

Myth Ten – Governments around the world do not care what happens to the Sri Lankan Tamils: Many of them actually they care so much that they will not do anything to help the Tamils form their own nation. For many governments – from India to Israel and China to Russia- Tamil Eelam becoming a reality would set a ‘bad example' to their own restive minorities. Hence their all out support to the ruthless Sri Lankan government, who they believe is showing them ‘the way' how to deal with dissent of all kinds within their borders.

Western nations, that themselves have the blood of innocent civilians on their hands in Iraq , Afghanistan and elsewhere, also care- but only about their own global image. Making noise about upholding human rights after the genocide has been carried out allows to them to appear to be ‘civilised' without having to take any meaningful action.

After all it was quite clear that a colossal human tragedy was in the offing for the past three months. If the UK , EU and the US had put their combined might together to warn the Rajapakse government properly the Sri Lankan lion- for all its bravado- would have squeaked like a trapped mouse.

The fact is that the Sri Lankan Tamils today can expect genuine support for their cause only from other people around the world facing similar racist discrimination or fighting for autonomy and self-determination. That is not such a bad thing, as looking across the globe such people probably constitute well over half the planet's population.

There are the Palestinians, the Tibetans, the Burmese, the Kashmiris and people of the Indian North-East, the Baluchis, the Pashtuns, the Chechens, the Basques, the Puerto Ricans, the Scots—and lots more. If Sri Lanka 's Tamils can join hands with all these struggles for dignity and equality it would be a good start indeed to make a fresh bid for Tamil Eelam!

IDP Camp in Sri Lanka

China to help rebuild Lankan economy after LTTE war

As Sri Lanka works out ways to accelerate development after defeating the rebel LTTE, China has pledged its full cooperation in reconstruction of the Island nation's economy after 30 years of ethnic war.

"Prevalence of peace will strengthen the economy of Sri Lanka and China will continue to be a part of the economic reconstruction of the Island country," Deputy Director General of the Asian Affairs, Commerce Ministry, China Liang Wentao said.

"Ending the war against terrorism might help Sri Lanka to regain its ancient glory and economic prosperity," Wentao told reporters in Beijing yesterday.

"What Sri Lanka needs at this moment is a peaceful environment to rebuild its economy and this will attract more investments and economic benefits to the country.

"Sri Lanka has the best natural resources in the entire South Asian region. Reviving tourism and the export trade will help Sri Lanka rebuild its economy which was affected severely due to the war," Wentao said.

He said China will provide assistance to the Sri Lankan Government to rebuild and rehabilitate those affected. The top Chinese official said the two countries could work towards economic as well as cooperation in tourism.

"The strategic location and Buddhism will attract more Chinese tourists to Sri Lanka," he said.
Rubber, tobacco and fish products are the major exports to China from Sri Lanka.

"Diversifying of the economy will open new avenues for Sri Lankan products to enter the Chinese market," the state run Daily News quoted Wentao as saying.

Sri Lanka has invited Chinese investments to the country by taking advantage of the conducive conditions for setting up projects. China had invested in the Southern Hambantota new Port Complex, the Norochcholai (North-west Sri Lanka ) coal-fired power generation plant and the Performing Arts Centre in Colombo, among other areas, in Sri Lanka.

Tourist arrivals from China to Sri Lanka is estimated to have grown by 7.3 per cent during the first half of 2008.

On the export front, Sri Lankan tea is performing exceptionally well in the Chinese market and has achieved a remarkable growth of more than 65 per cent during first few months of 2008 over export figures for 2007, an official said.

Weapons that won the War: Untold story

Sri Lankan Armed Forces’ yesterday marked their unprecedented triumph over the LTTE with a striking show of fighting forces and military assets ranging from Czechoslovakian-built RM 70 mobile multiple launch rocket systems, movable Indian radar (Indra Mark II) to a fleet of Israeli, US and locally made Fast Attack Craft (FACs) built with Japanese collaboration.

Despite heavy international pressure Sri Lanka managed to secure much needed supplies to keep up the momentum. Had there been a breakdown in supplies, the LTTE would have been able to hang on a little bit longer.

Also on display were the Multi Sensor Integrated System (MSIS) mounted on fighting vessels and armoured fighting vehicles, mostly of Chinese origin and a range of artillery pieces acquired from China. Israeli-built MSIS with night vision and radar capability acquired at the tail end of the offensive had facilitated naval operations against the LTTE. But the Navy had far more powerful land based MSIS of Italian origin on the north-eastern coast to thwart LTTE attempts to launch boats stealthily.

Also on parade were the Police, its elite para-military wing, the STF and the Civil Defence Force (CDF). The STF played a critical role in the overall security strategy to weaken the enemy in the eastern theatre and in covert operations. The STF contingent on parade was one of the smartest along with the elite Special Forces, Commandos and the Special Boat Squadron.

Yesterday’s display of firepower was undoubtedly the biggest ever since the gradual transformation of the country’s ceremonial armed forces to a cohesive fighting force. A three-year campaign spearheaded by the first serving General Sarath Fonseka brought the LTTE to its knees last month.

Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) retd. Air Chief Marshal Donald Perera General Sarath Fonseka, Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda and Air Chief Marshal Roshan Goonetilike joined President Mahinda Rajapaksa on a special dais to take the salute following a 21-gun salute. A smiling Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa whose contribution made Sri Lanka’s victory possible sat in the front row with his wife enjoying the finest hour for Sri Lankan forces.

Among the armoured fighting vehicles on display was a mixture of Russian and Chinese armoured fighting vehicles including BTR 80 A, BTR 80 and T 85 along with Czechoslovakian-built T 55 main battle tanks. A range of artillery pieces of Chinese origin and RM 70 mobile multiple launch rocket systems aka as MBRL were some of the main attractions at yesterday’s parade.

Among the state of the art equipment displayed by the army Signals Corps are of Japanese, Indian and French origin. General Fonseka’s brainchild, the Mechanized Infantry Brigade formed two years ago paraded some of its Russian and Chinese armoured fighting vehicles. The Brigade attached to the 53 Division stationed in the Jaffna peninsula before capture of Elephant Pass comprised over 100 armoured fighting vehicles.

But the destruction of the LTTE wouldn’t have been possible without bolstering the infantry. Of some 80,000 recruits who had joined the army over the past three years, the majority strengthened the SLLI (Sri Lanka Light Infantry), Sinha Regiment, Gemunu Watch, Gajaba Regiment, Vijayaba Infantry Regiment and the National Guard. The Commandos and Special Forces, too, received a tremendous boost over the last three years.

The armed forces and police lost 6,200 officers and men in the three-year war with the army paying a heavy price to finish off the Tigers.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his inspiring 40 minute speech to the nation declared that the ground forces fought under extremely difficult conditions to achieve victory.

To his credit, General Fonseka maintained his troops on a UN peace keeping mission in Haiti as he met the LTTE military challenge. While bloody fighting was on Geneal Fonseka expanded the army to almost 200,000.

The unprecedented naval parade included three Indian OVPs (SLNS Sayura, SLNS Sagara, 623), SLNS Samudura formerly of the US Coast Guard, Fast Missile Vessels, SLNS Suranimala and SLNS Nandimithra acquired from Israel, two Chinese heavy gunboats, Udara and Prathapa, troop carrier Jetliner of Indonesian origin. Twenty five FACs and 20 locally built boats of navy Special Forces, too, joined yesterday’s impressive display. The big ships played a pivotal role in the war by sinking eight LTTE ships on the high seas.

Also on display were 14.4 mm (Chinese), 23 mm (Bulgarian), 25 mm (Chinese), 37 mm (Chinese), 107 mm rockets also of Chinese origin now deployed both on land and on ships as well as Gabriel Mark II missiles (Israel). Sri Lanka has received eight missiles along with the two Fast Missile Vessels acquired years ago. None of them had been used.

The Navy accommodated armoured personnel carriers turned out by its personnel in the parade. The army, too, displayed armoured personnel carriers built by its personnel. Had the navy bothered to remove a 30 mm Bushmaster weapon from one of its FACs, the people could have seen a powerful US weapon which helped the navy to overwhelm fast moving LTTE craft on many a occasion.

The air display included altogether about 40 helicopters and fixed wing aircraft including Bell 212s and Bell (US), Mi 17, Mi 24s, MiG 27s (Russian), PT 6, Y 12, K 8 , F7 (China) and Kfirs (Israel). Also on display were C 130 medium lift aircraft, the largest transport aircraft in service with the SLAF and AN 32s of Russian origin.

Although there was no mention of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) acquired from Israel, the eye in the sky as they were also known played a critical role in the war. There was also no mention of the Chinese 3 D radar station at Mirigama.

But the SLAF displayed 20 mm (Israel) and 23 mm (Bulgarian) along with 40 mm L 70 anti aircraft weapon acquired from India.

SLanka seizes ship with supplies for war-hit civilians

Sri Lanka's navy Thursday seized a foreign-owned ship loaded with medical, food and other supplies for war-hit civilians, saying the vessel had entered its territorial waters illegally.
The supplies, arranged by supporters of the Tamil rebel cause, were loaded onto a ship in the English port of Ipswich in April -- just weeks before the government declared victory in the ethnic conflict, a navy spokesman said.

"We have seized the vessel and we are bringing it ashore now," Captain D.K. Dassanayake said, adding the crew offered no resistance when the navy boarded the vessel 140 kilometres (87 miles) west of Sri Lanka.

The ship, the Captain Ali, was carrying hundreds of tonnes of food, medicine and other supplies for Tamil civilians caught up in the decades-long conflict, he said.

A London-based group called Mercy Mission to Wani had arranged the transport of the supplies at a time when Tamil Tiger rebels were cornered in a strip of coastline in the island's northeast and using tens of thousands of civilians as cover.

Wani had formed part of the Tigers' virtual mini-state in the island's northeast before the end of the conflict.

"We have been tracking this ship for some time and seized it today as it got closer to our shores," Dassanayake said. "We are bringing the ship to a port together with its crew."

Initially it was believed that the ship had set sail from Britain but the website of the Mercy Mission said the shipment was made using two vessels and that the Captain Ali had set sail from France.

The website said the Syrian flag-carrying vessel with a crew of 13 was carrying 884 tonnes of food, medicine and other essentials for Tamil civilians affected by the fighting.

Government troops announced they had crushed the Tigers after killing the rebel leadership on May 18.

Nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians crossed over to government-held areas during the final stages of fighting.

Mercy Mission's website said an Icelandic national who had served as one of the monitors of a truce between Tamil Tigers and security forces between February 2002 and January 2008 was also aboard the the Captain Ali.

The supplies were first ferried from England to the French port of Fos-sur-Mer, 50 kilometres (30 miles) northwest of Marseille aboard another vessel, the Sea Ruby.

The supplies were then transferred on May 7 to the Captain Ali, the group's website said.
The cargo was donated by Tamils living abroad, according to the website.

India rejects US advisory, says country is safe

The United States has claimed that India is faced with a 'high threat' from terrorism and asked its citizens to be vigilant, prompting New Delhi to assert that the country is a safe place and such an advisory was unwarranted.

Home Minister P Chidambaram said India is "safer than any other country in the world" and New Delhi will try to persuade Washington to withdraw such an advisory. He was reacting to an 'Urgent Warden Message' posted on the American Embassy website, which cautioned American citizens in India.

"The United States Mission in India wishes to urgently remind all US citizens, resident in or traveling to India, that there is a high threat from terrorism throughout India," the message said.

"As terror attacks are a serious and growing threat, US citizens are urged to always practice good security, including maintaining a heightened situational awareness and a low profile," it said.

The message said, "Americans in India should be vigilant at all times and monitor local news reports and vary their routes and times in carrying out daily activities."
The advisory asked Americans to consider the level of security present when visiting public places, including religious sites, or choosing hotels, restaurants, entertainment and recreation venues.

Commenting on the advisory, Chidambaram said the Ministry of External Affairs will be asked to speak to the US to persuade them to withdraw the advisory.

"India is a completely safe country... India is a safe place, it is safer than any other country in the world. Thousands of tourists come to India and we look forward to welcoming them," he told reporters.

Asked whether the US was trying to hyphenate India and Pakistan, Chidambaram said, "Why should we jump to conclusions. We will try to find out why this advisory was issued, if at all it was issued."

America is not at war with Islam, asserts Obama

Reaching out to the 1.5 billion Muslims around the world, President Barack Obama on Thursday called for a "new beginning" between the US and the Islamic world by ending the "cycle of suspicion and discord" and confronting "violent extremism" together.

In a much-awaited speech at the University of Cairo in Egypt, Obama said he had "come to Egypt to seek a new beginning between the US and the Muslim world," Obama made several significant remarks on the so-called clash of the civilization, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to women's rights.

"My father came from a Muslim family; I know civilization's debt to Islam," he said, striking an instant chord with the audience.

The US President said: "America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Let there be no doubt that Islam is part of America."

"America is not and will not be at war with Islam."

To move forward, we must listen to each other, learn from each other and respect each other, says Obama. No single speech can eradicate years of mistrust, he pressed.

Starting his address with traditional Islamic greeting Assalaamu alaykum, which drew a huge round of applause from the jam-packed hall, Obama said "we meet at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world."

He conceded that "more recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations."

"I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect," the US President, on his first visit to Egypt, said.

In a candid confession, Obama admitted that "9/11 had led some in my country to view Muslims with fear and as being anti-human rights." "Changes brought about by globalism made many Muslims view the West as hostile."

"9/11 was an enormous trauma for US, in some cases it led us to act contrary to our ideas...Al-Qaida killed innocents on 9/11, they still plan to kill; this is not an opinion, it's a fact."

"The Koran says whoever has killed an innocent has sinned against mankind," he said, adding, "Enduring faith of over a billion is more important than the narrow ideals of a few."

"US has international support to pursue Al-Qaeda," the US President said.

On the war Afghanistan, the US President said: "We did not go to Afghanistan out of choice, it was a necessity. Any nation that subjugates will eventually fail, we must engage in partnership."
"We are not seeking to create a permanent military base in Afghanistan."

He, however, said, "Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq was a war of choice."

"I believe Iraq is better off without Saddam; it has reminded US of the need to use diplomacy."
The US President announced that America will remove combat troops from Iraq by July and all troops by 2012.

On Iran, he said :"Rather than remain trapped in the past (with Iran) I am ready to move forward."

He announced that "Israel must recognise Palestine's right to a separate homeland." "America will not turn its back on the legitimate aspiration of the Palestinian people."

Obama also touched upon the proliferation issue: "'No single nation should pick and choose which nation should hold nuclear weapons. None should have nuclear weapons, I have reiterated my commitment to the NPT."

More Air France debris found, but no bodies

Despite intensive search, Brazil's air force and navy have found no trace of any of the 228 people on board the Air France plane that vanished in a mysterious plunge into a rough and dangerous section of the Atlantic Ocean three days ago.

The air force on Wednesday found new debris and a long oil trace in the crash region about 1,200 km north-east of Brazil's mainland.

"No bodies or survivors have been found," Brazil's defence minister Nelson Jobim said on Wednesday evening at a press conference in Brasilia.

It is seen as next to impossible that any of the passengers or crew survived the crash, even as experts raised the possibility the Airbus A220-200 had disintegrated in mid-air.
Brazil, from where Air France flight 447 took off, is in the midst of three days of official mourning. French President Nicolas Sarkozy joined other dignitaries on Wednesday at a multi-denominational service at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris commemorating the victims.
Paris was the destination of the ill-fated flight.

The most urgent focus of the search was finding the two black boxes mandatory on every large plane: a flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder, which are essential in helping investigators in the painstaking search for the cause of a plane crash.

"We have to find the black boxes," said Paul-Louis Arslanian, director of France's Office of Accident Investigations and Analyses (BEA), in Paris. The BEA is leading the investigation.
US accident inspectors will also get involved since the engine was built by General Electric and some of the instruments were made by Honeywell, according to US media reports.

"This aviation catastrophe is the worst this country has ever suffered," Arslanian said in Paris. "We cannot allow ourselves to speculate. We must verify everything."

After the Brazilian air force searched Tuesday and Wednesday over tens of thousands of square kilometres of ocean, the Brazilian Navy was expected to concentrate Thursday on a 230 sq km defined zone near the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Islets, a small, uninhabited archipelago that is home to a Brazilian Navy scientific station.

"There is no doubt that the crash site is in this place," Jobim said.

Recovery workers face difficult challenges, with strong currents and uneven topography in the region, where the Atlantic plunges to a depth of 4,000 metres and has spiking underwater mountain peaks.

France has sent a vessel carrying diving equipment that can reach 6,000 metres down.
Jobim said the oil traces on the water would tend to exclude an on-board explosion as the cause of the accident. "When there are oil traces, that's because the oil was not burnt up," he said.
The air force found a piece of debris on Wednesday that measured 7 metres in length, possibly a piece of the wing, officials said.

German aviation expert Heinrich Grossbongardt, analysing sparse details provided by Air France, gave an account suggesting several minutes of severe technical problems by the Airbus 330-200 before it crashed.

In an interview with DPA, Grossbongardt described a four-minute time span between 0210 and 0214 GMT Monday in which the A330 plane apparently experienced severe technical problems before all contact was lost.

At 0210, the plane's system reported that the crew had turned off the automatic pilot in order to fly the plane manually."Then, for a span of two to three minutes, there was a flood of malfunction messages: the navigation equipment had collapsed, the image on the onboard monitors was gone, and other things," Grossbongardt said.

"That was the last report that was automatically transmitted from the airplane via satellite to company headquarters," he said.

Grossbongardt said the sequence of events also spoke against a mid-air bombing. Four minutes between the shut down of the auto pilot to the drop of cabin pressure "is a very long time. That means that the pilots were trying to get control of the problem".

He also ruled out a lightning strike, saying: "A lightning strike does not bring down any plane of this size from the sky."

The 228 people on board were from 32 countries, including 72 French, 60 Brazilians and 26 Germans.

President Rajapaksa proclaims himself father of the nation !!!

Sri Lanka celebrates victory over Tamil Tigers in a military parade in Colombo. The president announces a great and bright future for the country. Speaking to Tamils in their language, he guarantees protection and a life “without fear and mistrust”.

“I am the happiest guardian, leader and father of a victorious nation,” said President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his speech to the nation during the military parade celebrating the victory over the Tamil Tigers.

In Tamil the head of state said that Sri Lanka was the “Motherland of us all” and that “Tamil speaking people should be protected [. . .] able to live without fear and mistrust.”

Similarly he said the country had a great and bright future, urging his compatriots not to forget that 24,000 military who died and the 5,000 who were wounded in the fight that led to the victory over LTTE rebels.

Rajapaksa also named some of the better known figures who died during the conflict; Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi for instance, who died in an attack carried out by the LTTE.

After a two-minute moment of silence in honour of the fallen soldiers and civilians, units from Sri Lanka’s army, navy and air force began a parade along the Galle Face Green, the capital’s coastal promenade.

Weapons captured from the Tamil Tigers were also exposed as war trophies.

'Sinhalese hate us, we won't return to Lanka' !!!

Sri Lanka may have succeeded in destroying the LTTE, but the Tamil Eelam dream remains. Sri Lankan Tamil refugees living in 115 camps across 25 districts of Tamil Nadu believe that they can return to their country if only a separate Eelam is created for them. Nearly 99% also believe that LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran is alive and will resurface on November 26, Maaveerar Naal (Heroes Day).

"The Sinhalese hate Tamils. We lived as refugees in our own country for 35 years and were denied all rights, including educational opportunities. How do you expect us to return to Sri Lanka? We would rather die as refugees here," Sundari, 46, who fled Kandy and Mullaittivu subsequently, told DNA at the Gummidipoondi camp ( 45 km from Chennai).

Similar sentiments were expressed by other refugees, including the youth. Some of them were infants when they had left their homeland.

"We may be refugees without any rights here, but at least we are leading a peaceful life. A fortnight ago, we got a call from a relative at the Vavuniya camp and the news from Sri Lanka was not very encouraging. In the government camps, Tamils are kept behind barbed wires and suffer for want of food and medicines. We are willing to be repatriated if only our people are rehabilitated with equal rights and lead a prosperous life," J Rasilda Mary, 25, whose family fled Kokkilai in Mullaittivu when she was 10 months old, said.

Government officials and those of Organisation for Eelam Refugees' Rehabilitation (OfERR), an NGO launched by former Sri Lankan Tamil leader SJV Chelvanayakam's son SC Chandrahasan and run by Sri Lankan refugees, say the Sri Lankan government has a bigger task of rehabilitating over 3 lakh internally displaced people (IDPs), most of them living in Menik Farm in Vavuniya. OfERR believes that it will take close to 10 years for all the refugees to be repatriated to their native land.

"We will soon write letters to the Government of India and the Government of Tamil Nadu to keep in mind a timeframe of 5-10 years for complete repatriation of refugees. The Sri Lankan government wants to screen the refugees to filter out remaining militants, if any. Under the circumstances, one wonders if the government will be able to complete the process of rehabilitation in six months," OfERR director of advocacy M Sakkariyas, a former assistant commissioner of labour under the Sri Lanka Administrative Service who arrived in India in 1985, said.

"Some of the freed regions, such as Jaffna, are still high security zones. It will take a long time for internally displaced people to be relocated. Before repatriating refugees their children's education will need to be addressed. They would like their children to complete their education before relocating to Sri Lanka. Further, we are given to understand from the deputy high commissioner's office that about 30% of the people are of Indian origin and need to be granted Sri Lankan citizenship. The deputy high commissioner feels it would be better to complete the formalities here before they are sent to Sri Lanka. However, fishermen from Mannar and Trincomalee, which weren't a part of the war zone, would like to return soon as they haven't got suitable jobs here. They would like to return to fishing and they can get exit permits from the respective district collectors after getting due permission from the police," Sakkariyas said.

"We have 73,675 refugees in 115 camps in 25 districts of the state. The main camps, including the transit camp at Mandapam, are in Madurai, Erode and Tiruvanamalai. We also have 26,976 non-camp refugees registered with the police. Any decision on their fate has to taken by the governments of India and Sri Lanka. This is likely to happen only after the internally displaced people of Sri Lanka are rehabilitated. We then have to get the willingness of the refugees to return to their native land, before we think of repatriating them," a senior officer at the office of the special commissioner and commissioner of rehabilitation said.

"The UNHCR has helped some 104 refugees return to Lanka. In case the refugees are not willing to return, they will have to stay in the camps in India. In that event, New Delhi will have decide on whether to give them citizenship or otherwise," he said.

No fresh influx

There has been practically no flow of refugees ever since the Sri Lankan government announced an end to the war and the LTTE's defeat. "We've no reports of boats carrying refugees reaching Indian shores," a senior officer at the office of the special commissioner and commissioner of rehabilitation said. "The last batch that reached Vijayawada was last month. Some of them died of starvation," OfERR director of advocacy said.

Tamils for Obama: U.N. is Hopeless and Useless, Should be Dismissed After Recent U.N. Human Rights Council Event

According to Tamils for Obama, the U.N. Human Rights Council resolved last week that Tamil Tigers are responsible for all killings this year, and the Sri Lankan government for none of them.

The U.N. has refused to carry out its basic duties to protect minorities, Tamils for Obama said recently. The Financial Times last week wrote that "in what will be seen as a further blow to its already damaged credibility," the U.N.'s Human Rights Council adopted a resolution introduced by the Sri Lankan government that condemned the Tamil Tigers and ignored Sri Lankan outrages. The Tamils complain that the U.N. has been slow to act and silent when confronted with a clear duty to defend national minorities.

According to Tamils for Obama, the United Nations' Human Rights Council shocked much of the world on May 27 when it stated that it blamed the Tamil Tigers for all of civilians death in Vanni this year and failed even to mention atrocities by the Sri Lankan government. The London Times reported online that "Western diplomats and human rights officials were shocked by the outcome at the end of an acrimonious two-day special session to examine the humanitarian and human rights situation in Sri Lanka…"

The U.K. Guardian wrote "Sri Lanka last night scored a major propaganda coup when the UN human rights council praised its victory over the Tamil Tigers and refused calls to investigate allegations of war crimes by both sides in the final chapter of a bloody 25-year conflict."

The Guardian continued "In a shock move, which dismayed western nations critical of Sri Lanka's approach, the island's diplomats succeeded in lobbying enough of its south Asian allies to pass a resolution describing the conflict as a 'domestic matter that doesn't warrant outside interference.'"

At the same time as it affirmed Sri Lanka's right to abuse its population without interference from the rest of the world, the council voted down a resolution proposed by Switzerland and supported by European countries proposing access by international aid agencies to the war zone and IDP camps. The Swiss resolution had also called for investigations into possible war crimes by Sri Lanka.

The U.N. is not doing its job, says Tamils for Obama.

"The U.N. has a responsibility to watch out for human rights and the safety of minorities," said a spokesman for the Tamil group. "U.N. officials are looking for every reason not to do their duty." In 1992, the General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National … Minorities. It places a moral obligation on U.N member states to respect the rights of their minorities and on the U.N. to ensure that its members do so.

A London Times analysis writes "Critics say that the UN should be reformed or abolished because of its failure to stand up to dictators or the perpetrators of genocide. They point to its failure to halt the Rwandan genocide in 1994, to intervene in the Srebrenica massacre in 1995, its obsession with criticizing Israel and its failure to halt genocide in Sudan."

'It has been largely impotent on the major issues of our time," said Anne Bayevsky, a UN expert at the Hudson Institute. Tamils for Obama adds that the U.N. has seen atrocities in Sri Lanka and tried its best not to notice.

UN Humanitarian Coordination Office (OCHA) spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told AFP: "The UN has publicly and repeatedly said that the number of people killed in recent months has been unacceptably high and it has shared its estimates with the government as well as others concerned."

The Tamils for Obama spokesman said "Of course the U.N. has said those causality figures are 'unacceptably high.' Any number of casualties would be 'unacceptably high.' Ten deaths would be 'unacceptably high.' It is a way of not giving a figure, of not acknowledging that not ten but tens of thousands of innocent civilians have been killed."

The London Times reports that "Confidential United Nations documents acquired by The Times record nearly 7,000 civilian deaths in the no-fire zone up to the end of April. UN sources said that the toll then surged, with an average of 1,000 civilians killed each day until May 19, the day after Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the Tamil Tigers, was killed. That figure concurs with the estimate made to The Times by Father Amalraj, a Roman Catholic priest who fled the no-fire zone on May 16 and is now interned with 200,000 other survivors in Manik Farm refugee camp. It would take the final toll above 20,000. 'Higher,' a UN source told The Times. 'Keep going.'" The Tamils for Obama spokesman commented "Of course, that figure comes from 'Confidential United Nations' sources. Do not expect the U.N. to state that in public."

The Times goes on "On Wednesday, Sri Lanka was cleared of any wrongdoing by the UN Human Rights Council after winning the backing of countries including China, Egypt, India and Cuba." Tamils for Obama notes that this is one group of malefactors covering up for another.

Tamils for Obama reports that it has its own sources in the safety zone. These sources estimate that there were 360,000 Tamil civilians in the safety zone last January. Now, news reports say that there are about 290,000 Tamil civilians held in detention camps by the Sri Lankan military. For Tamils for Obama, the math is simple: about 70,000 Tamils civilians have vanished in the last five months.

In an earlier example of U.N. denial, Gordon Weiss, the U.N. spokesman in Sri Lanka, spoke this month about the "Mothers' Day Massacre" that had happened in the safety zone in northern Sri Lanka. "The large-scale killing of civilians over the weekend," he said, "including the deaths of more than 100 children, shows that (the) bloodbath has become a reality." However, Ban Ki-Moon, the U.N. secretary general, visited Sri Lanka last week and denied the reality to which the U.N. spokesman had just testified. Ban said, regarding the bloodbath, "I myself did not mention that particular word, I want to make that quite clear."

The U.S. has satellite photos that seem to show that Sri Lanka used heavy weapons in the "safety zone." The U.N. "has leaked satellite images from multiple sources that appeared to prove that the Sri Lankan air force had bombed civilians (in the safety zone) despite establishing it as a no-fire zone for them to shelter in," said the London Times Online. Ban Ki-Moon, however, claimed in an interview with CNN that, after flying over the safety zone, he saw "no clear evidence" of heavy weapons use against the civilians.

The Tamils for Obama spokesman acknowledged Ban's diplomatic obligations--"The secretary general was clearly being polite to his Sri Lankan host"--but added "At the same time, he was neglecting his duty to protect the Tamil minority and was deliberately ignoring evidence which the U.N. possessed of Sri Lankan abuses."

Ban Ki-Moon's chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, visited Sri Lanka last month to report on the humanitarian crisis unfolding in northern Sri Lanka. He then refused to pass on anything he had learned to the Security Council, his bosses. Nambiar has argued that as a "mediator," what he discussed with Sri Lanka's president Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brothers was "confidential," even from the Security Council. Nambiar declined at first even to have a closed door briefing for the Security Council, but later bowed to international pressure.

"Whatever Nambiar learned about the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka," said the spokesman from Tamils for Obama, "he apparently did not want to share it with the rest of the world, or even with the Security Council."

After Prabhakaran, what next?

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is in its death rattle. It was decisively defeated by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces weeks ago, but a handful of its leadership headed by Prabhakaran has cynically and cruelly prolonged the agony of the Tamil civilians by using them as a buffer and human-shield in order to delay the re-establishment of the writ of the Sri Lankan Government in a miniscule piece of territory (about 20 sq.kms), which has been declared by the government as a no-fire zone to avoid collateral casualties among the civilians still under the control of the LTTE and to enable them to escape from the clutches of the LTTE.

Prabhakaran is a leader with a split personality. During the 26 years he has dominated the Tamil landscape in Sri Lanka , he had shown a remarkable organizing capacity and an ability to motivate his followers to perform virtual miracles. His motivation of his cadres to acquire a capability for action by air and sea would go down in the history of insurgency and terrorism as indicating an organizing capability of a high order. The LTTE under his leadership managed to bring almost the entire Tamil-inhabited territory in the Northern and Eastern Provinces under its control. The determined manner in which the LTTE fought against the Indian-Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in the late 1980s and frustrated its efforts to defeat it spoke highly of its capabilities for a conventional warfare.

If Prabhakaran had the activities of the LTTE confined to conventional warfare and developed the LTTE as a purely insurgent force, which targeted only the Armed forces and not innocent civilians, he would have acquired greater support from the international community for the Tamil cause. The rational side of his personality as illustrated by his organizing capabilities had to constantly contend with a highly irrational side, which drove him to simultaneously take to terrorism of a shockingly brutal kind.

The targeted killings by the LTTE of many Sri Lankan Tamil leaders, who were perceived by Prabhakaran as possible impediments to his rise as the unquestioned leader of the Tamil community, and its brutal assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991 were the outcome of the irrational side of his personality. No other Indian leader had done more to help the Sri Lankan Tamil cause than Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. Only a sickly and sickening irrational mind could have ordered the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and Laxman Kadirgamar, a highly-respected Tamil leader, who was a senior adviser on foreign policy to former President Chandrika Kumaratunge. The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi on Prabhakaran's orders shocked Indian public opinion----including public opinion in Tamil Nadu--- and weakened Indian support for the Tamil cause. The assassination of Kadirgamar shocked the Western public opinion and led to the declaration of the LTTE as a terrorist organization by the Western world, thereby denying the last vestiges of Western support for the Tamil cause.

As the LTTE faced one defeat after another during the last three years from the Sri Lankan Armed Forces---initially in the Eastern Province and finally in the Northern Province ---- the irrational side of Prabhakaran's personality erased his rational side. His shocking use of the Tamil civilians in order to delay the final end of the counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism campaign undertaken by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces is driven by this irrational streak in him, which now dominates his personality.

The prolonged agony of the Sri Lankan Tamils caused by the final bout of Prabhakaran's irrationality and loss of lucidity in thinking has to be ended. The Sri Lankan Armed Forces, which have shown patience till now and deliberately slowed down their operations, cannot be faulted if they have come to the conclusion that the time has come to liberate the no-fire zone too from the clutches of the LTTE by undertaking limited operations with small arms and ammunition even at the risk of some collateral casualties to the civilians.

The desperate attempt of Prabhakaran to use civilians to protect himself from the advancing Sri Lankan Army can be attributed to the total loss of lucidity in his thinking and his consequent inability to face the bitter truth that he and his organization have been defeated decisively by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces and that there is no chance of their staging a come-back.

The requiem for the LTTE could be written without fears of going wrong, should the LTTE stage a comeback as it had done on occasions in the past. It has been defeated beyond recovery. His conventional as well as terrorist capabilities are in shatters. Earlier conventional wisdom that small groups of the LTTE might still be able to keep indulging in sporadic acts of terrorism in different parts of Sri Lanks needs re-consideration.

His desperate delaying action at the cost of immense suffering to the Tamils, whose cause he claims to espouse, is meant to give him an opportunity to seek safe sanctuary either in Tamil Nadu or elsewhere from where he could try to re-start his fight against the Sri Lankan Armed Forces. It is in the common interest of India and Sri Lanka that Prabhakaran is finally able to make peace with his maker by either being killed by the Armed Forces or by taking his own life. A defeated Prabhakaran, if left alive in India or elsewhere, would not be a threat, but could be a nuisance for both the countries.

After the death of the LTTE, which is expected any day, what is the future of the Sri Lankan Tamil cause? Would a requiem for the LTTE also mean a requiem for the Sri Lankan Tamil cause? Hopefully not. It is in India's interest that the LTTE as a terrorist organization is destroyed once and for all, but it is not in India's interest that the Sri Lankan Government and Armed Forces proceed from the destruction of the LTTE to the destruction of the Tamil aspirations for greater political and economic rights in their traditional homeland and for greater human dignity.

Let us not forget that ever since our independence in 1947, the Bengalis of the then East Pakistan, the Balochs and Sindhis of Pakistan and the Tamils of Sri Lanka have been India's natural allies. It was this reality which persuaded Indira Gandhi to assist the Bengalis of the then East Pakistan to achieve their independence. Even though successive governments in New Delhi refrained from supporting the causes of the Sindhis and the Balochs, Indian public opinion sympathized and continues to sympathise with their cause. It was sympathy for the Sri Lankan Tamil cause at New Delhi when Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister and in Tamil Nadu, which induced India to take up their cause in the 1980s.

There is no reason why India should not pride itself and seek to be the paramount power of the region. To emerge and remain as the paramount power, we need natural allies in the region around us. We should not let the legitimate aspirations of our natural allies---whether they be the Sindhis and Balochs of Pakistan or the Sri Lankan Tamils--- be crushed by a brutal regime--- whether in Islamabad or in Colombo.

Since 1947, the Balochs rose twice in revolt in favour of independence for their homeland. On both occasions, they were defeated by the Pakistani Armed Forces as decisively as the LTTE by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces. The Pakistani leadership brutally used the Air Force against the Balochs to crush their freedom struggle. Undaunted by this, the Baloch people, under a new leadership, rose in revolt for a third time two years ago and their third war of independence is still going on.

The remarkable victory of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces against the LTTE was partly due to their improved counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism capabilities made possible by Indian assistance in the form of training and sharing of intelligence and partly due to their emulating the Pakistani Armed forces in the brutal use of the Air Force against people whom they portray as their own. Just as the Balochs were defenceless against the brutal Pakistani air strikes, the Sri Lankan Tamils were defenceless against the Sri Lankan air strikes.

The US has used air strikes in Iraq and Afghanistan----but in foreign territory and against foreign nationals. Only three countries in the world have used air strikes in their own territory against their own people---- the Pakistanis against the Balochs, the Russians against the Chechens and the Sri Lankans against the Tamils.

President Mahinda Rajapakse has repeatedly promised that once the LTTE is defeated, he would be generous in meeting the political aspirations of Tamils. He gives the impression of being a sincere man, but will the Sinhalese Army with its head bloated by its success against the LTTE allow him to do so? The indications till now are not encouraging. Many Sri Lankan officers might have been trained in India, but their mindset and their attitude towards the minorities have more in common with those of their Pakistani counterparts than with those of their Indian counterparts. Therein lies the danger that after winning the war against the LTTE, the Government, strongly influenced by a victorious army, might trey to impose a dictated peace on the Tamils.

If the angry Tamils once again look up to India, there is no reason why we should not reciprocate provided a new leadership emerges in the Tamil community and it has drawn the right lessons from the brutalities of the LTTE.
The LTTE is deservedly dying, but long live the Tamil cause.

Karunanidhi turns 86, celebrates birthday with full gusto !!!

Fresh from his twin triumph of winning the Lok Sabha polls and sorting out the succession issue in his family, an elated Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi celebrated his 86th birthday today.

Central and state ministers and DMK workers called on the octogenarian leader at the party's headquarters 'Anna Arivalayam' here.

Before reaching the party office, Karunanidhi celebrated his birthday with his family members and visited to the memorials of his mentor the late C N Annadurai and Dravida Kazhagam founder the late E V K Periyar.

The birthday of the DMK patriarch, holding the Chief Minister's post for the fifth time, comes at a time when his party has registered a thumping victory in the Lok Sabha polls bagging 18 out of 39 seats in the state.

Karunanidhi recently solved his succession issue by anointing his second son M K Stalin as his deputy and ensuring a Union cabinet berth for his Madurai-based son and first time MP M K Azhagiri.

His grand nephew and former Union IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran has been made Union Textile Minister.

Hundreds of party workers thronged Anna Arivalayam, dressed in party colour and carrying a variety of birthday gifts for their beloved leader.

Union and state ministers, including A Raja, MPs Arcot N Veerasamy, Duraimurugan, D Napolean and many others called on the DMK patriarch.

Sri Lankan Puppets in the Hands of Emerging Superpowers !!!

We all wept when the Asian Tsunami took the lives of thousands
When the Asian Tsunami struck the shores of Sri Lanka, more than thirty thousands died instantly. They stopped breathing in minutes after they were swept into the ocean. Their last chapters were very brief.
News channels from major broadcasting networks were showing the horrors of tsunami twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Media and Sports personalities appealed for aid. We packed gifts and took it to our churches and schools. Nations of the free world gave billions as aid to a country that still treats its Tamil minorities as second class citizens.

But the world remained silent when thousands of women and children experienced painful slow death in the killing fields of Sri Lanka

Another disaster struck the Tamils of Sri Lanka recently and this was a war conducted with many hidden agendas. More than fifty thousand innocent Tamil civilians were killed and thirty thousands were maimed in one of the most brutal wars in the history of the mankind. This war has cost more lives than the Asian Tsunami in this tear drop island.

Men, women and children were forced to live inside bunkers without food and medicine for months. Innocent civilians were bombed and killed by Chinese F7s and Russian MIGs in schools, hospitals and public places. Heavy artilleries and banned weapons were used against the helpless and vulnerable.

Many had to experience slow and painful death. Wounded civilians were bombed even when they were being treated in makeshift hospitals. Food and medicine were denied deliberately to the sick and to the needy. Women and children had to witness horrors after horrors.

News channels in the west didn't give much importance to this man made tsunami that was orchestrated by some world powers. Media and Sports personalities who regularly talk about poverty elimination in Asia and Africa didn't even lift a single finger to save the innocent lives.

Corrupt leaders in the UN failed in their duties. Instead of protecting the vulnerable, they danced to the wrong tunes that were played by the wrong people

UN and other international organisations who are supposed to protect the vulnerable, acted like they were also part of a mysterious game that took the lives of thousands. Many had the powers to stop the destruction but they didn't do it because they didn't want to.

The way how the diplomats and the leaders of some Nations spoke and acted during the war, made many to doubt that they were all acting out a script, written by some aliens from space.

Many leaders including the UN Secretary General kept their mouths shut and spoke only a little when they had to. Vijay Nambiar, the Head of Staffs at UN and other UN representatives went to Sri Lanka few times to negotiate a ceasefire but they failed because they had their own agendas.

They had miserably failed in their roles and had provided their full support to a regime that had committed crimes against humanity.

Some Indian leaders who were orchestrating the war in Sri Lanka visited Colombo few times not to arrange a ceasefire, not to stop the war, not to talk about the civilian causalities but to monitor the progress of the war and to congratulate the Sri Lankan authorities.

They always talked about receiving the head of the rebel leader on a platter and a piece of document with the proof of his death. This was to deceive the world that they were only after the rebel leader and the war was not about military strategies in the region and India having access to the oil reserves found in the Seas of Sri Lanka.

Only person who came across as a genuine defender of human rights was Hon. David Miliband. He confronted the Sri Lankan authorities about the deaths caused by the usage of heavy and banned weapons against civilians. As usual David Miliband or anybody who talks about human rights violations in Sri Lanka are called white tigers, brown tigers or yellow tigers depending on the colour of their skin.

War on Terror is over but the Killings haven't stopped
Sri Lankan authorities had declared that they had killed the rebel leader and decimated his group. According to them, terrorism has now been wiped out from Sri Lanka.

But the ground realities are telling us a different story. War is over but the killings haven't stopped yet. Sri Lankan government hasn't finished with the Tamils. Every Tamil man, woman and child is considered as a suspect. Under the emergency rules, Sri Lankan forces have the right to arrest or kill anybody they consider as a suspect. Living as a Tamil in Sri Lanka is like walking on a thin rope above a deep valley that is filled with deadly snakes.

So called war on terror and humanitarian operations are now over. But the killings are still continuing. One should now question whether the objectives of the war were genuine. No government on earth would bomb and kill fifty thousands people and make thirty thousands maimed and destroy an area twice the size of Singapore just to chop the head of just one rebel leader.

“Killings of Tamils” started after Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948 and this will continue till the government of Sri Lanka come up with a constructive plan to address the grievances of the Tamil community in this island.

How is the world responding to the massacre of Tamils?
Forty seven nations came together to vote on Sri Lanka. Majority voted in favour of Sri Lanka and they all took a stand that what had been happening in Sri Lanka was an internal issue. They voted to congratulate Sri Lankan Government on its victory over the Tamil Tigers and to ignore calls for an inquiry into possible war crimes.
United Nations Human Rights Council has now lost its credibility. This body has totally lost its purpose for which it exists.

According to the majority who voted in favour of Sri Lanka, their message was very clear. “No matter what Sri Lanka does to the Tamils, we will stand shoulder to shoulder with the Sri Lankan government because we also have skeletons in our closets. Let them bomb and kill innocent women and children. Let them starve them to death. Let them deny medicine to the wounded. Even if they kill all the Tamils and dump them in mass graves, we will still support this terror island because we have our own interests and hidden agendas in the region”
This is the state of the world now. Many of these countries no longer care about human rights but are only interested in satisfying their own greed.

I often wonder if voting is a great idea in emergency situations where the majority is not at all interested in saving lives but having their focus on destructive policies in order to look after their own interests.

If a building is on fire, it is not sensible to have voting and then decide not to go and save lives when the majority is not interested. We don't have voting to rescue the passengers from a sinking ship. Even if we have one, the focus will not be on whether to save the people or not but on how to save the lives.

Human Rights Council should now be discussing about helping the innocent civilians who are abused in the Nazi Style concentration camps in Sri Lanka. It is a disgrace to the whole humanity that a green light has now been given to any country that wants to wipe out its minority.

Could we have avoided this bloodshed?
The answer is “Yes”, but there were many beneficiaries in this war. Therefore many had decided not to stop the war but to let it to continue till the end, despite thousands of civilian causalities. Countries like India, China and Pakistan, who have traditionally not been in good terms, surprisingly became friends. They acted like vultures that came to an agreement to share a piece of meat, which they were desperately looking for.

Everybody knew what was happening. World leaders were listening to the casualty figures as a slow cricket commentary. Some of them made statements here and there, just for the sake of making it. Nobody had the boldness to stand up and say “STOP THE KILLINGS”. They had the power but they didn't do it.

UN was updating its score boards with the number of deaths taking place. Even when the score went up by thousands a day, they kept quite. They didn't open their mouths and speak about it.

US satellites were taking pictures of the killings but no attempts were made to stop the bloodbath. Hearts of the nations became stones and the helpless perished so that the greedy could be satisfied.

Defenders of human rights and highly paid diplomats were hearing about the horrors in Sri Lanka while having their big breakfasts. They found these stories very boring. Experts and researchers in human rights were looking forward to publish their latest journal papers instead of doing something about saving lives.

Many western countries, although some had raised their voices, their statements were not strong enough to stop a regime that was determined to carry on with its destructive agenda.

Relatives of those who were dying in Vanni went to the streets of great cities of the world. They knelt down and cried before the kings and queens. They protested through various means. We didn't hear their cry but we found them very annoying because they blocked our streets. They did all that was possible to get the message across. But their cries fell on our deaf ears. If we did listen and acted, we would have saved thousands of lives.

Our radio shows were not about the reasons for the protests but we talked about how to get these protesters out of our streets. We are now happy because there are no more Tamil protests and many of the people who they were trying to protect are now dead.

It is very clear that this war was conducted with the full support of many countries .They could have persuaded the Sri Lankan government to stop the bloodshed especially after the rebels had announced their surrender.
Bloodbath could have been avoided but nobody was interested because all went according to their plans. Partners of this war had started to reap their benefits even before it had come to an end.

Who benefited from this war?
Sri Lankan government was used as a puppet in the hands of India and China for these countries to secure their interests in the region. Everybody is happy now, apart from an innocent Tamil community that is slowly being wiped out from Sri Lanka.

Sinhala extremists who have been killing Tamils for more than sixty years in this country have a lot to rejoice for.
China has been fishing in the trouble spots of this world. It has once again achieved its goal by giving deadly weapons to the one it saw as the “strong man”. China has started many construction projects in the South of Sri Lanka including a port that will mainly be used by its Navy.

India has already started to draft project plans for oil explorations in the seas of Sri Lanka and now sending its experts to start many construction projects in the North and East of the country.

Although China and Pakistan had supplied most of the deadly weapons, they were neither involved in writing the script nor executing the script for the War.

Sri Lankan President had recently acknowledged that he fought India's war in Sri Lanka. One of the former Indian High Commissioners has confessed that India has blood in its hands but India doesn't care about the plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

War in Sri Lanka was not to do with the head of the rebel leader. Making a big deal out of the body of the rebel leader and all these victory speeches were not foolish acts but they were deliberately done by parties who want to hide all the deadly snakes under their carpets.

War Crimes in Sri Lanka
Number of war crimes that had been committed by the Sri Lankan forces is more than what Saddam Hussein did to the Kurdish people.

Surrendered rebels with white flags were executed and thousands of wounded civilians were killed without mercy. Serious war crimes have been committed and the culprits are not just Sri Lankan forces but some Indian security experts, Sri Lankan and Indian politicians and UN officers.

Banned weapons (cluster and phosphorus bombs) were used against innocent men, women and children. Red Cross workers were killed. The same hospitals were repeatedly bombed. Buildings and properties were destroyed by very powerful bombs.

Innocent civilians were forced to live inside the bunkers for months. Food and medicine were denied to them.

Sri Lanka is still hiding the evidences
Killing more than fifty thousands, wounding thirty thousands and forcing three hundred thousands in concentration camps will not convince anybody as a genuine humanitarian or rescue operation. These people never lived as hostages in the first place.

Sri Lanka knows that serious war crimes had been committed and they are now working to hide their atrocities.
Witnesses of these war crimes are mainly the people who came out of the war zone. They saw all that happened to them and to their loved ones. One of the main reasons why the Sri Lankan forces are not allowing journalists and aid workers into the IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps is because they want to hide their crimes.

Three doctors who served the wounded people in Vanni are considered as real heroes by the international community. Instead of appreciating their efforts, Sri Lankan government has locked them up in jail in order to hide the evidences of war crimes.

War came to an end two weeks ago but the journalists and aid workers are still not allowed to the war zone. When Sri Lanka declared that the war was over and all the civilians had been rescued, there were still thousands of wounded lying in the killing fields and many frightened civilians were hiding inside the bunkers.

Mass graves have become an outdated technique for the Sri Lankan forces. Sri Lankan authorities are still not allowing any journalists or aid workers to the war zone. It is taking quite a long time for the military to dispose thousands of dead bodies.

Recent announcement by the Head of Sri Lankan armed forces about how they cremated the rebel leader’s body and threw the ashes into the sea is an indication that they are using the same technique on all the dead bodies. Sri Lankan forces might probably using mobile cremation furnaces to cremate the bodies in order to wipe out evidences.
It is obviously going to take sometime for them to finish this process considering the number of people died in the conflict. When everything is over, our BBC reporters will be taken to that area and they would tell us about a beautiful blue sky and golden flat sandy beaches in Vanni.

War crime evidences have already been collected
This is one of the controversial wars in the history. Although the Sri Lankan forces had barred all the reporters and journalists into the war zone, images and videos of the dying civilians were regularly sent out to individuals and organisations all over the world.

Communication systems were functioning in Vanni till the last minute. High resolution satellite images are available to prove the use of heavy weapons against the civilians. Last moments of the war had been captured by various technical devices.

It is a complete waste of time that Sri Lankan authorities are shutting the mouths of those in the IDP camps because many civilians who were stuck in the war zone till the last day were able to cross the waters and many had already reached the foreign shores.

Millions of evidences are already available to prove that Sri Lankan forces had committed war crimes and those who are responsible for these crimes should be brought to justice.

Horror camps for the Tamil civilians
Sri Lankan forces bombed and killed more than fifty thousands. Now they have locked three hundred thousands up in Nazi style concentration camps.

Ten to fourteen deaths are taking place daily in these notorious camps mostly among the children and elderly. Detainees are not allowed to meet their relatives and are not allowed to receive foods or cloths from their loved ones.
Sky news had recently reported about rapes and torture taking place inside these camps. Young people are disappearing daily. Dead bodies are thrown outside these camps.

Wounded and the sick and not given proper medical care. Sri Lankan government is still not allowing any international aid workers to these camps. Family members are purposely kept in separate camps in order to destroy the foundations of the entire Tamil race in Sri Lanka.

Can this happen again?
This will be repeated again in Sri Lanka or in some other parts of the world unless we bring the culprits to justice and restructure UN with the powers to deal with such wars in the future War in Sri Lanka was orchestrated by India. Deadly weapons were given by China and Pakistan. UN and many Western Nations knew what was happening but they remained silent.

Are we going to allow something similar to happen in the future? Do these innocents have to die to satisfy the greed of some countries?

UN with its corrupt staffs has failed in their duties. They deliberately remained silent and didn't do anything constructive to stop the bloodshed although they had the ability to do so.

Sri Lankan leaders became puppets in the hands of some of these sleeping giants. Masters of this war should be brought to justice.

Role of UN in resolving any conflicts in the future is now in doubt. We desperately need an International body that can stand on its own and stop such crimes. There is no use in having an organisation that is completely powerless to stop the killings of the innocents.

Sri Lanka is now on radar
As far as Sri Lanka is concerned, Rebel leader is dead. LTTE is gone. More than fifty thousand civilians have been killed.

If everybody is happy with what they have achieved, the question is why the killings are still taking place? Tamils are still intimidated and their properties are burned throughout the country. Tamil women on the streets are harassed by Sinhala mobs.

This island might even witness another riot just like it experienced in the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties.
Those times, they sent the Tamils to the North and East. As the whole island is now filled with uniformed Sinhala men and women with arms, Tamils will have nowhere to run for their safety.

Danger of another Tamil rebellion
The Tamil Diaspora is not an alien to Sri Lanka. More than ninety percent of the Tamils among the Diaspora had witnessed what happened to their friends and relatives in Vanni. They saw their brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers dying helplessly. They communicated with their loved ones till the last days of the war and they all knew what was happening. Many of them have their relatives locked up in these notorious IDP camps.

Prabhakarans are not born but they are made. He did all that he did after witnessing many horrors. He saw Tamils being burned alive in the south of Sri Lanka. He saw properties of the Tamils being destroyed by Sinhala mobs.
If the oppression against the Tamils continues, Sri Lanka and even India might one day regret creating more Prabhakarans out of the Tamils from the Diaspora.

Minority indigenous Tamils who live mainly in the north and east of the country are one of the most oppressed communities on this planet.

Future of Sri Lanka completely depends on the steps taken by the Sri Lankan government. Policies based on racial and religious supremacy, attempts to continue with Sinhalasisation of the country through systematic Sinhala settlements in the Northern and Eastern provinces will escalate the conflict further and hit deadly levels.
This may not just destabilise Sri Lanka but will even have global repercussions.

Conclusion
Sri Lankan President and his ministers have recently acknowledged that they fought India's war in Sri Lanka with the help of the weapons from China and Pakistan. Half of their crimes have now been confessed verbally by the Sri Lankan authorities.

Sri Lankan leaders have now become puppets in the hands of two emerging superpowers that are competing with each other. A conflict that was once confined within the boundaries of Sri Lanka has now become an international issue. Sri Lankan military muscles have now been artificially strengthened by their new masters. A country that once spoke to the West with a humble voice has now started to challenge many countries.

China's opposition in the Security Council for the Sri Lankan conflict to be discussed in the formal meetings is an obvious evidence for China's role in Sri Lanka's war.

India, China and Pakistan found themselves on the same side with Sri Lanka in the United Nations Human Rights council. They all voted against war crime probes over alleged war crimes committed by Sri Lankan forces. This clearly shows that they all have blood in their hands.

Defendants of human rights and the world powers who fought many wars to restore freedom for their own citizens have now seen the faces of the master magicians who orchestrated the war in Sri Lanka.

Although India gave the strategic directions and China provided with the weapons for the war, it was the Sri Lankan armed forces that carried out the massacre of Tamil civilians. A country that is well known for slowly wiping out its minorities found a perfect opportunity to cause maximum damage to the innocent Tamils with the blessing of their new masters.

Now it is time for the civilized to world to decide whether to allow the Sri Lankan government and its friends who had caused so many thousands of deaths, to run these controversial Nazi style concentration camps.

We have all failed to save many lives in this war but it is still not too late to save the innocents that are still being abused, raped, tortured and killed in the barbed wired concentration camps.