Author Archive for greg

by Dayan Jayatilleka
Mao Ze Dong, arguably the greatest military theorist of the 20th century and one of its finest philosophers, enjoined his followers to A?a??A?turn bad into good!A?a??A? The timing of the Supreme Court judgement was, as Dr Sarath Amunugama among others is reported to have said in Cabinet, not a good thing. But now that it has been rendered, and is in some senses irreversible A?a??a?? it is never a healthy thing for the executive or legislature to display scant regard for a Supreme Court decision – one has to make the best of it, and if possible turn it to good use. Just such a possibility has opened up with the reported comment of KarunaA?a??a??s TMVP welcoming the decision of the Supreme Court.

A?a??A?De-merger gives East a chance to decide its future says Karuna

The Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pullikal (TMVP), the political arm of the Karuna faction, says the de-merging of the North East gives the chance for the people of the East to decide their own future and not be A?a??A?political orphansA?a??A? anymore.

In a statement emailed to the Daily Mirror the TMVP said the rights and aspirations of the Eastern people were rejected under the guise of war and now that they have been given the chance to decide the fate of their own future, the de-merger should be welcomed.

A?a??E?Because of the war a certain section was at an advantage in the areas of political, security, education, employment and residence, creating unfairness to the eastern people. But now a full stop has been placed to that and the eastern people can elect their own representatives to address their problems. This is a victory they have got,A?a??a?? the TMVP statement said.

Now that the Supreme Court has decided to de-merge the North East, the TMVP says the country should respect the wishes of the Eastern people by accepting the decision which will in turn help the future of the country.A?a??A? ( Daily Mirror Oct 23, 2006)

While it is important not to let down the non-LTTE Tamil moderates, it is also important to note that they are not all of one mind, and that of them, those who militarily challenge the LTTE, those who are the objective allies or quasi allies of the Sri Lankan armed forces, those who have the military potential to defeat the Tigers, are the most important. Choices must sometimes be made, and if so, the priority must be accorded the Karuna faction.

It seems that the Karuna group sees an opportunity to liberate the Tamil people of the East from the North, in the Supreme Court decision. If a separate provincial council is set up for the east and an election is held, the TMVP stands an excellent chance of being elected and thereby wielding real power, authority and influence. Endowed with some degree of electoral legitimacy, it can act as a strong partner and ally of the Sri Lankan state, can be put forward as a stakeholder in the conflict, a new partner in the peace process and introduced to the outside world.

A Karuna dominated Eastern provincial council would permit the present bipolar balance to be transformed into a multipolar one with a new power centre arising in the east, countervailing the Tiger dominated north and what one of my ex-militant Tamil comrades who was recently in Havana and New York calls A?a??A?the arrogance of the Jaffna Tamils who think they are the Israelis of South Asia and the Tigers are the armed expression of this arroganceA?a??A?. An eastern council would permit the long standing zero-sum game to be transformed into a non-zero sum one.

Elections to an Eastern council would have one positive consequence: either the LTTE would have to commit its fighters to disrupting the election, thereby exposing them to Sri Lankan army, STF and K faction firepower, or it would have to conserve its cadres, thereby allowing the eastern council to be elected and established.

Cipro price at walmart A KarunaA?a??a??dominated Eastern council would achieve two positive results:

Myambutol price 1. It would enable Karuna to strengthen himself and expand his base, which in turn would mean that we could hand over many security functions to the Eastern council (the law and order function is devolved and there is provision to raise a police force, hence the earlier North east Provincial CouncilA?a??a??s CVF militia) draw down our forces from the East and commit them to defeating the Tigers in the North.

2. With the patronage he is able to extend through the Council, Karuna would be able to raise an army in the East which can work in parallel with the Sri Lankan armed forces in any offensive in the North and the Wanni.

A Karuna dominated council can decide at a subsequent stage, i.e. after the defeat of the LTTE, whether it wishes to opt for institutional linkage with the Northern council in the form of an apex body (Sirisena CoorayA?a??a??s favourite formula).

Sinhala chauvinists may resent giving Karuna control of the Eastern council, but it is only such an arrangement that can contain Tamil chauvinism in the North – or Northern Tamil expansionism A?a??a?? by changing the terms of the present conflict from A?a??E?Sinhala vs. TamilA?a??a?? to A?a??E?Eastern Tamil autonomy and integration vs. Northern Tamil separatism/expansionismA?a??a??. There are two variants of Tamil separatism: that of Prabhakaran and Perumal (Velupillai and Vardharaja)! Karuna knows that either one of those trajectories will be under the hegemony, or will result in the hegemony, of the wealthier, internationally and regionally (Chennai, New Delhi) connected Jaffna Tamils. Therefore he will resist the secessionist temptation. On balance, this makes Karuna a safe strategic Tamil ally for the Sri Lankan state.

Sources of De-merger

The de-merger of the North and East was only partially a consequence of JVPA?a??a??s recent legal intervention.

Had the Tamil parties accepted the December 19th 1986 proposal of P Chidambaram, the Tamil people would have obtained a sightly smaller but merged North-east, minus the Ampara district. However, given the usual combination of arrogance and myopia, the Tamil side rejected it, only to wind up today, with almost nothing.

The de-merger is sourced in a lack of legitimacy. That illegitimacy derived from a radioactive combination: the A?a??E?shotgun weddingA?a??a?? character of that merger by an administration (that of JR Jayewardene) that had lost legitimacy through the holding of a fraudulent referendum instead of a parliamentary election, coerced by the military intervention (the airdrop) by a powerful neighbour which was an ancient foe and had just prior to the merger, prevented the Sri Lankan armed forces from defeating the Tigers after Vadamaarachchi!

JR Jayewardene, co-author of the Accord, promised to campaign for a A?a??E?noA?a??a?? vote at the referendum while Vijaya Kumaratunga, the most outspoken supporter of the Accord and devolution, maintained a longstanding opposition to the merger (evidenced by the printed proceedings of the Political Parties Conference of mid-1986). So too did his party the SLMP, even after his death.

The de-merger is also A?a??E?materiallyA?a??a?? sourced, in the fact of the uneven development of the North east, and the resultant domination of the East by the North, especially Jaffna. This is no Sinhala propaganda creation: my attention was first drawn to the sociological potential for a North/East schism by a path breaking and prophetic research essay by Brian Pfaffenberger in the radical leftwing Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, almost two decades ago!

When Dutugemunu defeated Elara, he didnA?a??a??t run the place with a Sinhala Buddhist jackboot. He appointed a Tamil Yuvaraja to run it, with a large degree of autonomy according to its own customs. In any case ancient Lanka had a high degree of regional autonomy in that it was demarcated into three zones: Ruhunu, Maya and Pihiti ratas.

Today, in the 21st century, it is necessary to invert the sequence in order to obtain the same result. A Tamil yuvaraja cannot be appointed after the defeat of Prabhakaran. He has to be appointed before that defeat, so as to render that defeat possible.

PrabhakaranA?a??a??s Project

While PrabhakaranA?a??a??s defeat is not inevitable, the defeat of his project is. Meaning, he may continue to damage us and destroy our future prospects, but he cannot establish Tamil Eelam, nor can it be established by anybody else. He cannot triumph and we cannot be defeated, existentially. This is not because we are a thrice blessed isle, but because of the nature of his cause, the character of todayA?a??a??s world and the dynamics of contemporary history. A cutting edge study has resulted in a new book entitled A?a??E?No More States: Globalization, National Self Determination and TerrorismA?a??a??. It is edited by distinguished scholars Richard Rosecrance and Arthur A. Stein. Rosecrance is a research professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, and senior fellow in the Belfer Centre for science and International Affairs at the John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Arthur Stein is professor of political science at the University of California, LA, and a former member of the Policy Planning Council of the US State Department. Francis Fukuyama says that their volume A?a??A?deals with one of the most important issues in global politicsA?a??A?, namely A?a??A?the question of state fragmentation and state formationA?a??A?.

Bringing together 15 distinguished contributors, the volume studies the factors that lead to the rise of new nation states, and examine the Middle East, Asia North America, Europe and Russia, A?a??A?where pressures for new states are intenseA?a??A?. Drawing attention to globalisation/integration/dependency, the nuclear issue, and A?a??A?the disadvantages of terrorism as a tacticA?a??A?, the authors opine that the phase of proliferation of nation states is over. A?a??A?The book concludes that discontented national movements will have to find ways to exist within current geopolitical boundaries.A?a??A? (Foreign Affairs, Sept-Oct 2006).

This means that Tamil Eelam is a futile fantasy and Sri Lanka, though in dire need of internal reform and domestic change, is here to stay as a state in its present boundaries.

Arugam Bay was devastated by the tsunami, but the people began to rebuild. Things were looking better, until the Tamil Tigers tried to kill the Sri Lankan army chief.

ARUGAM BAY, Sri Lanka – The sun is setting over the Indian Ocean and, for a moment, Arugam Bay is paradise. The coastline, a jagged, gray-toothed smile of crumbling walls and stone foundations destroyed by the 2004 tsunami, is bathed in the giddy, rose-colored light of dusk.

The upstairs bar at the Siam View Inn is beginning to fill up with surfers who just finished their afternoon session at the south end of the bay. It is, they know, a wonderful secret spot A?a??a?? a reward for intrepid and fearless surf travelers, a right-hand point break which can carry you into next week, if you’re lucky enough to out-paddle the other fifty hard core surfers gunning for the same peak.

But tonight they’re out of the water early. Mostly Aussies, along with a handful of Japanese, they’re keen to see day two of the World Cup soccer matches, Australia versus Japan, on the bar’s satellite television set.

As the first round of beers is poured, the national anthems are played before the start of the match. The Aussies sing along to the sounds of Waltzing Matilda. Everyone seems to savor the good fortune to be in this place, at this moment.

It is a well-earned moment of serenity in what has been a tumultuous two years for the people of Arugam Bay and the surrounding areas.

The Siam View Inn had 22 rooms before the tsunami hit. Now it has four. The owner, a German named Manfred, is a quiet but determined guy who knows how to get things done. He is rebuilding slowly, with the hope that if he does, they A?a??a?? the tourists A?a??a?? will come.

The reputation of having been devastated by the tsunami was obviously bad for business, and though there has been progress, the region is far from reconstructed. Officially, over 30,000 Sri Lankans were killed by the 2004 tsunami, many of them in this area on Sri Lanka’s southeast coast. Thousands more here are still living a rudimentary existence in thatch houses without water or electricity.

But businesses like the Siam View, struggling to rebuild in the aftermath of the tsunami, began to see a light at the end of the tunnel: the possibility of becoming, if not a mainstream tourist spot, at least a bragging-rights stop for the young, hip, “Lonely Planet”-type traveler.

But then, in April, the Tamil Tiger rebels used a female suicide bomber, a “Black Tigress,” in an assassination attempt in Colombo against Sri Lanka’s army chief, Lt. General Sarath Fonseka. The attempt only injured Fonseka, but likely killed any hopes for rekindling a viable tourist trade in Arugam Bay.

“Sixty people canceled on me after that,” says K.M. Rifei, one of the managers at the Siam View Inn. “They were from all over the world, too A?a??a?? Germany, England, Australia.”

Rifei is troubled by the developments, but he’s seen enough tragedy in his life that his emotional range seems wisely shifted to neutral. Rifei says he lost 17 members of his family in the tsunami, including his son, who was just one-and-a-half years old.

“When the tsunami hit,” he says, as we sit on the deck of restaurant overlooking the beach, “my family was all in the water, including my son.”

Now the challenge, the same for everyone here, is surviving the tragedy after the tragedy. If the world’s most deadly natural disaster wasn’t enough, Sri Lanka’s slow slide out of a 2002 cease-fire agreement between the government and the Tamil Tigers and back into civil war now seems not only inevitable, but already in progress.

The economic costs are already high. Two pro surfing events scheduled to take place in Arugam Bay this summer have been canceled because of the violence.

“We weren’t expecting much from them, though,” says 24-year-old Asmin, whose father and uncle own the Tropicana, a small surfboard rental shop, and handful of beachside rental cabanas. “They’d probably all stay at five star hotels somewhere else.”

Asmin and his family are Muslims, like the majority of the people in this area, and so don’t directly share in the Sinhalese versus Tamil feud that has divided Sri Lanka for decades.

Jamaldeen, Asmin’s father, says the people here have a good relationship with government security forces, especially the elite police commandos known as the Special Task Force (STF), who are in charge of this area.

“The Tigers aren’t active here but the government perceives this as an area in which they operate,” says Jamaldeen, “so they don’t invest a lot to help counter that reputation.”

It is, I think, a dilemma like the legendary scene in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” in which American Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore (an avid surfer), played by Robert Duvall, covets a stretch of beach held by the enemy (Charlie) simply for its surf.

When his men protest that the beach is heavily fortified, Kilgore responds, “Charlie don’t surf!” and orders an attack on the beach.

Like Charlie, Tiger may not surf either, but the perception of potential violence here, as in other areas of the country, hasn’t made Arugam Bay seem like a safe spot for many mainstream travelers to hit the water.

Jamaldeen says that the ongoing dearth of tourists could eventually do what the tsunami did not: kill their business.

And while businesses struggle to survive, many tsunami survivors in the region are also still doing the same, even a year and a half later.

In one refugee camp a few miles from the beach, hundreds of families are just scraping by, they say, without any assistance.

Kaleander Musama says she, her husband and six children got a large water tank from the government a few days after the tsunami, but that was the last thing they ever got A?a??a?? since then there has been no one to refill it.

As I photograph the family, an angry old woman from the camp confronts me.

“You people are like the marauding elephants that come and ransack our homes and leave us with nothing,” says the woman, Yasim Bawa. “Three hundred photographers have come here and taken our picture and nothing has changed.”

I ask her why things haven’t changed, why the government hasn’t helped them more.

“You know what I got from the government after the tsunami?” she asks, half smiling now A?a??a?? “a coupon for 100 rupees (about $1).”

Things are a little better at another refugee camp further up the road where the Sri Lankan Lion’s Club has helped build dozens of new houses with concrete walls and corrugated tin roofs.

Still, the trauma of the event still lives with all of the families here.

Forty-two-year-old Mohammed Bahdurdeen, a tall, proud-faced man, makes a living as a fisherman when he can hire onto a local boat. But those days are often few and far between.

Mohammed Bahdurdeen and family

Mohammed places his hands on the shoulders of his six-year-old son Ajiwath, a boy seemingly full of energy A?a??a?? if not words.

“Since the tsunami he doesn’t speak anymore,” says Mohammed. “I think the trauma was too much for him.”

Others here can speak, but have tired of it when nothing seems to change.

Back at the Siam View Inn, the world cup match is over with the Australians beating the Japanese 3-1.

As the crowd, a few at a time, pays their tabs and heads out, there are smiles on the faces of the employees behind the bar. It was a good night A?a??a?? the kind of night they haven’t seen in quite some time A?a??a?? and with the increasing violence, may not see for some time again.

It is, however, a place stubbornly committed to optimism in the face of challenging times.

Above the bar on a whiteboard is a message in blue marker written on the day of the tsunami. It has not been wiped clean since.

It reads, “This event is not the end, just a new beginning. A great chance for all of us. Posted 20 hours, December 26, 04.”

see the original article and blog:
http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/blogs6318

ReutersA?A? Order pamelor reviews

By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi

POTTUVIL, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s military on Monday accused Tamil Tiger rebels of hacking 10 Muslim labourers to death in the island’s east, but angry local residents blamed security forces.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) denied any involvement in the killings, which took place near the island’s Yala National Park on Sunday, instead blaming the military for the latest in a string of mass killings and abuses.

The killings near the town of Panama in the tsunami-battered eastern district of Ampara — which has so far escaped the worst of recent fighting — came just days after the government and rebels agreed to meet for talks to halt violence that has killed hundreds of people since late July.

“(Police) Special Task Force (STF) troops killed these people,” said Muslim M.S. Mohedeen, as around 2,000 people, including women and children, gathered around a mosque in the eastern town of Pottuvil where the bodies were laid out and incense burned to mask the stench of death.

“We don’t blame anyone else,” he added. “The LTTE can’t come into this area. It is completely controlled by the STF. Without the STF’s knowledge, no one can come into this area.”

The army said one person had survived the attack and had been taken to Ampara hospital.

A military spokesman said the labourers had gone missing at the weekend when they had gone to renovate a sluice gate, and were found hacked to pieces. He blamed the Tigers.

Nordic truce monitors were on the way to the scene.

“The LTTE notes that this is a Sri Lankan government controlled area and a Sri Lankan military camp is stationed near the location of the massacre,” the rebels’ Peace Secretariat said in a statement.

“The Sri Lankan military is adopting its long tradition of blaming the LTTE for the atrocities it commits,” it added, pointing to the massacre of 17 aid workers in August which the Nordic Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission blamed on government troops.

EXCHANGE OF FIRE

The latest killings also came as the navy exchanged fire on Sunday with the rebels’ feared naval wing, the Sea Tigers, and said it, along with the air force, sank a large vessel carrying rebel weapons and ammunition.

The navy did not say how it knew there were weapons on board the vessel.

The were no reports of violence on Monday.

Peace broker Norway announced last week that the government and the Tigers had agreed to meet for talks for the first time since the rebels pulled out of negotiations in April, and is aiming to arrange a meeting in Oslo next month.

However both sides have imposed conditions few expect either to honour. Petty squabbling has sunk previous talks, and some analysts fear renewed fighting could escalate.

“It’s certainly not clear what talks are going to lead to,” said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu of the Centre for Policy Alternatives. “They both at the end of the day would prefer to be in positions of strength as far as the ground situation is concerned before they engage in serious negotiations.”

The Tigers insist the army must end offensive operations and give back captured territory on the southern lip of the strategic northeastern harbour of Trincomalee.

The government wants a written guarantee from the Tigers that they will halt attacks, and have also urged them to lay down arms.

Analysts and diplomats say none of the demands are likely to be met, and that talks will yield little aside from a breather in the fighting until both sides sit down and address the central issue: the Tigers’ demands for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils.

see the original article:
http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-09-18T181354Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-268096-5.xml Cheap mobic pain pills

A?A?The Hindu, India
International

Purchase torsemide vs lasix Sri Lankan police shoot 14 Muslim civilians during protest

Colombo, Sept 21. (AP): Police opened fire on Muslim protesters in eastern Sri Lanka, wounding 14 civilians, officials have said.

The protesters, who were demanding the transfer of a local police chief following the murder of 10 Muslim labourers, allegedly by an elite police force, shut down shops and offices in Pottuvil town and surrounding villages, 250 kilometers (155 miles) east of Colombo yesterday, said Mohammad Mustafa, who represents the region in the Parliament.

The shooting began as protesters tried to prevent officers of the elite police Special Task Force from entering Ullai village, Mustafa said.

Fourteen protesters were injured in the shooting yesterday, according to Rauff Hakeem, a lawmaker and leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, the largest political party representing the Muslims.

The demonstrators claimed police were involved in the slaying of 10 Muslim laborers whose mutilated bodies were recovered in the area on Monday.

Government troops have been deployed to the Tamil homeland.

The guerrillas accuse Muslims of supporting the government, which is dominated by the country’s majority ethnic Sinhalese. The rebels also oppose Muslims cultivating land in areas they consider Tamil territory.

Gasex delivery Meanwhile, the military said yesterday it recovered a large haul of arms and ammunition left behind by the rebels retreating from Sampur, a strategic eastern village captured by the military early this month.

see the original article:
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/003200609210913.htm