Sensitive colonization issue in Sri Lanka's Welioya (Manal Aru) area

(July 14, 2009) The Director General of Sri Lanka Mahaweli Authority Dharmasiri de Alwis has told the state-owned Dinamina newspaper today that 2500 families will be settled in Nedunkarni in Mullaithivu district under the Welioya project of the Mahaweli L-zone. Each family will be granted one acre for paddy cultivation, half an acre for coconut growing and one acre for the home garden. 

Nedunkarni is a Tamil dominated area centered by a small town and the residents are now internally displaced in camps in Vavuniya. Dinamina report does not mention anything about the ethnicity of the settlers in the new colonies. 

We consider this as a very sensitive political issue that should be handled with utmost care. Mahaweli Authority should not be the sole competent authority in this regard. 

The idea that the Sinhala invaders are colonizing their land is one of the basic tools manipulated by the Tamil nationalists to fuel the passion on the homeland among Tamils. This phenomenon presented as Sinhala colonization was vehemently resisted by Tamils. 

In the early colonization process, the traditional dwellers of the lands as such in Galoya etc. were integrated to the new colonies. The ethnic ratio among the settlers was also considered. But this situation gradually changed later.  

In the late 1950s, Pihimbiyagollewe Dhammaloka Thero, a young Buddhist monk who had settled in Padaviya blocked Tamils being settled in the Eastern parts of the Padaviya colony with the auspices of the Sinhala politicians. Entire Padaviya settlement was tuened to a Sinhala colony and later in 1980s the traditional Tamil villagers like Thennamaravadi in the Eastern coast off Padaviya were also wiped out. 

Through this process, a wall of Sinhala villages was erected in between the Northern and Eastern Provinces. It can be observed that the colonization process in the age of the D.S. Senanayaka aimed at undermining the separatist trends among the minorities. But the late colonization were attempts to spread Sinhala chauvinism. 

Herman Malinga Bandara, a civil servant engaged in colonization in Welioya  has clearly hinted in his book ‘For a sovereign State' that Sinhala chauvinist interests were behind the setting up of Welioya colony in the northeastern parts of Sri Lanka.

Before Welioya colony was set up, this area was dominated by the farms like Dollar, Kent and Ceylon Theaters Farm etc. that were set up in long leased crown land. An NGO called Gandhiyam Movement had settled some Tamils that had been displaced from the southern parts of the island due to ethnic violence in the abandoned land of these fams. Militant groups like PLOTE led by Uma Maheswaran were also active among these displaced persons. Ill-famous Dollar and Kent Farm massacres of Sinhala settlers and the retaliatory massacre of Tamil villagers in nearby Othiyamale were a beginning of a new era of bloodshed in this zone that took hundreds of lives of Sinhala and Tamil peasants.

Welioya was later earmarked as Mahaweli L-zone. Under the original plan, 39,000 hectare land belonged to Anuradhapura, Vavuniya and Mullaithivu administrative districts were divided into six zones. They include Sampathnuwara, Janakapura, Kokilai, Nedunkarni and Nayaru areas but only two zones were developed so far, say the Mahaweli Authority. The other zones could not be developed due to the unsafe conditions. There are settlements in Nikaweva, Ehetugasweva, Kiribbanweva,  Janakapura , Kalyanipura, New Monaraweva and New Gajabapura areas. People were settled in some other areas of Gajabapura, Monaraweva, Helambaweva, Kambiliweva, Konweva, Veheraweva and parts of Kalyanipura but they vacated those areas due to security concerns.

Mahaweli Authority says that 5000 families were settled in Welioya area during the past 22 years. 3364 of them were settled in legally allocated land and the others were squatters. They were leaving and coming back time to time due to security issues.

IFJ Condemns Vilification of Lawyers for Sri Lankan Newspaper

(July 14, 2009) The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is shocked at a recent article posted on the website of Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence, branding as “traitors” five lawyers appearing in a case of contempt involving the Sunday Leader newspaper.

The article, titled “Traitors in Black Coats Flocked Together”, names five lawyers who appeared for the Sunday Leader at a hearing in the Mount Lavinia court near Colombo as having “a history of appearing for and defending” separatist guerillas of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The article features pictures of three of the lawyers.

“We have observed in recent times that this manner of public vilification of individuals for being supposed sympathisers of the LTTE has often provoked physical attacks on them by vigilante groups,” IFJ General Secretary Aidan White said.

“The IFJ calls upon the Sri Lankan President to publicly repudiate the sentiment expressed in the article and ensure that it is removed from the official website of the Defence Ministry.”

The Sunday Leader, edited by Lasantha Wickramatunge until his murder in January, has for long been locked in a defamation case brought by Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse.

After Wickramatunge’s murder, the newspaper agreed during a hearing of the case that it would not publish material similar to that which had brought the action against it.

The contempt case that the Sunday Leader now faces reportedly involves another report involving the Defence Secretary, though on a different subject.

“It is a principle of natural justice that the newspaper should be able to seek sound advice and be represented by competent legal counsel in this case,” White said.

The IFJ stands by the strong stand taken by its affiliate, the Free Media Movement (FMM), and other professional bodies in Sri Lanka on the matter.

“We urge Sri Lanka’s President to turn the page on the bitterness of the long civil war against the LTTE and actively seek to restore the freedoms that have deteriorated alarmingly in recent years.”

Sri Lanka opposition tries to field an intractable candidate for the upcoming Presidential to challenge the powerful President

(July 14, 2009) Sri Lanka's opposition political parties are reportedly trying to field an intractable candidate for the upcoming Presidential to challenge the powerful President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Rajapakse is marketing his role as the overall commander of the three armed forces in the war to maintain his power and many political strategists opine that only a person who acted a superior role in war can challenge his candidacy for the Presidency.

It is reported that there is an attempt to bring a figure that acted a major role in war against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) as the common candidate of the opposition in the next Presidential.
A leftist party that acted the role of king maker in the past elections has initiated this move, sources say. Although this party has no strong vote base day, it is very well organized and clever in political campaigns. Some say they can teach the Sri Lankans that the crow is white if they want to do so.
The major opposition is also backing this move, reliable sources say.

Informed sources say that the President has stated that he will hold the Presidential election before the general election and apparently it will be scheduled by the end of this year or the beginning of the next year.

Two photos of Balachandran Prabakaran

(July 13, 2009) Here we post two photos of slain son of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) leader Velupillai Prabakaran.

In the first photo adapted from the Sri Lanka Defense Ministry website the caption given is "Killer's Love."

The second photo was posted in several websites recently as the photo of the dead body of the assassinated Balachandran Prabakaran, a minor.

We do not write a caption here and leave that to you. But we can say one thing. The caption you write will reveal you; not this minor.

 

 

Sri Lanka state terrorism in cyber space

(July 13, 2009) The website of the Sri Lanka state-owmed Dinamina newspaper has been reported as an attacking site that tries to install programs that steal private information, use your computer to attack others, or damage your system.

Meanwhile, the authorities have also taken steps to block the Lanka News Web (www.lankanewsweb.com) in Sri Lanka since July 11. This site published both in Sinhala and English post news that thoroughly criticize the government, its allies and the pro-government media. It was started in February and came under criticism from the pro-government lobby since the beginning.

The editors of the website are believed live in UK. Some media persons supected to be the reporters of this website are also under threat.

Sri Lanka state's ICRC phobia

(July 12, 2009) Sri Lanka has asked the ICRC to scale down its operations in the island and the ICRC has in response shut down two of its offices in the Eastern Province and the expatriate staff was withdrawn.

Sri Lanka government and the Sinhala nationalists that support it always suspect of a Western conspiracy against the nation and try to shy away from the humanitarian and other world organizations. The phobia created in the minds of the people help them to get the people maintain them to save the nation from the Western conspirators despite the high cost they have to pay for it.

No one can deny their can be Western influence in these organizations. It is crystal clear that they are run in line with the Western ideology on humanitarianism. That is the very fact that make the Sri lankan authorities tremble before them. On one hand, they are guilty of their conduct in relation to the modern ideology and on the other hand they have no alternates to the Western ideology at least to rationalize or legitimize their conduct.

The true Sinhalese must not be afraid of the West. Instead, they must cultivate more positive ideologies that can show the loopholes in the Western ideologies. On the other hand , why can't our people show more humanity than the West in principles?

Sri Lanka’s failure to provide scientific proof to the death of Tiger leader gives way to blind nationalism

(July 11 2009) Sri Lanka is failing to provide concrete proof of the death of Velupillai Prabakaran, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) and Pottu Amman, the intelligence chief of the outfit who are wanted by India to wind up the case regarding the assassination of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

The sources say that Sri Lankan authorities are unable to provide scientific proof for the deaths of these Tiger leaders. Although a corpse said to be of Prabakaran's was displayed as the government declared he was killed on May 18. No corpse of Pottu Amman's was shown so far. 

The situation has triggered claims from the ardent Tamil Ealam nationalists that their elusive leader is still alive and will appear in public in right moment. The admittance of the expatriate leadership of the LTTE has also gone unhindered among these arch nationalists.

In theater-crazy Tamil Nadu, the politicians are manipulating the mystery for their gains where the Chief Minister M Karunanidhi told the State Assembly of a story of a “hero's escape on a horseback with none in the know of his whereabouts” inferred here to mean LTTE leader V Prabhakaran.

“Mr Prabhakaran had been announced as dead in the past too atleast four times in 1984, 1987, 1989 and in 2004. This is the fifth time the announcement has come. Similarly four wars of independence have been fought in Sri Lanka. The fifth war for independence for Eelam (the area of Tamils in Sri Lanka) will commence and our respected Mr Prabhakaran will lead that war,”said Tamil Nadu politician P. Nedumaran, close associate of the elusive LTTE leader who has known him for decades.

“In connection with the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, a formal request for an official confirmation of the deaths of Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman, the chief of the intelligence wing of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), has been made to the government of Sri Lanka,” External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna told parliament, when asked whether India had sought the death certificate of Prabhakaran.