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Cry for Self-Rule by Sri Lanka’s Tamils Is Muffled by Reality
NYT,
Feb 8.
JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Jaffna is a city of ruins. Some are physical, like the overgrown jumbles of mold-streaked concrete where graceful buildings used to stand. But perhaps the biggest ruin of the Tamil Tiger insurgency against the Sri Lankan government is the very thing the Tigers wanted most: any hope of self-rule. After 26 years of war that ended with a decisive government assault last May, Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority seems no closer to winning a measure of autonomy in a Sinhalese-dominated nation, and Tamil nationalism, the cri de coeur of the Tamil Tiger insurgency, seems all but dead.
“All of this armed struggle, so many dead and wounded, for what?” said P. Balasundarampillai, who leads the Citizen Committee in this city on the claw-shaped peninsula of the northern Tamil heartland. “In many spheres of public life our role is very much reduced. Economically we are weak, and politically we are weak.”
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Published: Sun Feb 7 22:36:50 EST 2010
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Lanka not to allow even UN to probe war crimes
ENS,
Feb 7.
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa told a foreign news channel that his country would not allow even the United Nations (UN) to investigate the alleged war crimes committed during the last phase of the Eelam war.
“I will not allow any investigation by the UN or any other country. There is nothing wrong happening in this country. I am the Secretary of Defense. Take it from me, we will not allow any investigation,” Gotabaya told the Asia Today programme. He pointed out that the Sri Lankan public did not want any investigation, as there was no reason to have one.
ACTION AGAINST FONSEKA UNDER ARMY ACT: Gotabaya denied that the government was itching to arrest the former Army Commander and joint Opposition candidate, Gen Sarath Fonseka, out of political vendetta. If Fonseka was talking of arrest, it was his “imagination” he said.
“He (Fonseka) has made many mistakes. He has divulged certain sensitive information to the public and spoken about them in public meetings. He has accused me of doing certain things. This is very wrong. Action might be taken against him for this under the laws of the country. There is the Army Act or other penal laws (which can be invoked,” Gotabaya added.
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Published: Sun Feb 7 22:35:48 EST 2010
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Sri Lankan Parliament likely to be dissolved soon
hindu,
feb 7.
COLOMBO: Following the extension of emergency laws by another month on Friday, the Sri Lankan Parliament is all set to be dissolved in the next few days and the general election is scheduled to be held in the first half of April.
“A formal announcement on dissolution of Parliament constituted in 2004 would be made by President Mahinda Rajapaksa next week after his return from his first official trip on his re-election to Russia beginning today [Saturday],” Minister of Constitutional Affairs and National Integration, D.E.W. Gunasekara told The Hindu.
Asked about the fate of the emergency laws, Mr. Gunasekara said, “The President has the discretion to extend them through an executive order which needs to be ratified within a month by the new Parliament. It is entirely up to the President to make a determination on whether to go for an executive order to keep alive the emergency laws or let them lapse and wait for the new Parliament to take the necessary action.”
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Published: Sun Feb 7 13:14:30 EST 2010
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