UNP-TNA May Day rally in Jaffna fails to draw in local support

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2012, 14:45 GMT]
If the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the United National Party (UNP) of the Sinhala state, and whatever the international forces behind them, have thought of probing the Tamil minds about a future partnership between the parties through a May Day show, then the Eezham Tamils in Jaffna have totally rejected the idea by not showing local participation to their joint May Day rally. The local people didn’t come out even to watch the fun of roughly 10,000 Sinhalese brought down from the South by the UNP marching through the streets of Jaffna. While more than 80 buses were engaged in plying between the South and Jaffna in bringing down UNP politicians and their supporters, the Tamils seen in the rally on the side of the TNA were numbering less than a hundred, confined to the TNA members of the civic bodies, news sources in Jaffna said.
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India shows urgency in ‘ready-cash’ returns for ready abetment in genocide

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 April 2012, 18:38 GMT]
The Indian parliamentary delegation’s statement in Colombo, differing nothing from what the Congress regime, its bureaucrats and intelligence officials say, but designed to come through the Opposition Leader, shows New Delhi’s urgency in getting ready-cash returns apart from showing how the multiparty parliament is manipulated by some forces to follow a particular line of thinking leading to the annihilation of the nation of Eezham Tamils, commented a new generation Tamil politician in the island. The unity of the Congress, BJP and the CPI-M in this respect has to be carefully scrutinized by Tamil Nadu people and political parties in unity, in planning the composition of the next parliament and in extracting a genuine change in the thinking of the next government, he commented.
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New Delhi delegation’s Sri Lanka visit loses face in its own country

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 April 2012, 17:18 GMT]
With four major political parties, including the two government-making political parties of Tamil Nadu, boycotting the ‘All Party’ delegation of New Delhi visiting Sri Lanka, New Delhi’s approach to the national question of Eezham Tamils in the island and its strategic partnership with the genocidal regime of Rajapaksa lose face in its own country, political observers said. The ruling AIADMK of Tamil Nadu State and the New Delhi regime’s coalition partner DMK have announced in advance about their boycott. Mamata Banerjee’s AITMC, the ruling party of West Bengal, and United Janata Dal pulled out in the last minute. Communist Party of India was not invited. The ‘All Party’ delegation ultimately turned out to be only a five-party delegation of the ruling Congress, Opposition BJP, Rajapaksa-friendly Marxist Communists and two other regional parties.
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Building consensus with universal ideology

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 December 2011, 06:02 GMT]
The struggle of Eezham Tamils has to be waged with the strength of unity and consensus in ideology; both in the immediate task of dealing with a three-cornered international struggle in a multipolar world as well as in the long-term universal task of pursuing the Right of Self Determination for nearly a third of the world that is currently denied of it and in the world-wide struggles of the 99 per cent of the peoples in this planet seeking a more equitable world against the one per cent that constitutes today’s globalized Establishments, writes TamilNet Economic and Geopolitical Analyst in the Asia Pacific. The days of alignment with any power are gone in the multipolar world set-up, where the alignments are shifting every now and then though the underlying element among the Globalised Establishments is Cooperation via UN & its agencies, he further writes.
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Solheim hijacks thrust of Norway report

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 November 2011, 03:39 GMT]
Norwegian minister Erik Solheim, while speaking in Oslo 11 November at the release of the report evaluating Norway’s failed peace process in Sri Lanka, tried to hijack the philosophical thrust of the findings of the report and this brought him into confrontation with the evaluation team leader, Gunnar M. Sørbø. Mr. Erik Solheim tried to defend the main criticism in the report and the stand of Sørbø that Norway should have quit the peace process to signal the world of the impending dangers. Arguing that nobody expected a military solution succeeding, Solheim painted the picture of a star-crossed and epic-style tragedy that everyone has to be now contended with in a philosophical way, and said that the stand of Sørbø was ‘arrogant’. Solheim’s speech made Sørbø to remind that the issue was of life and death and Norway should have had contingencies ready.
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SLMM tilted balance in favour of Sri Lanka, against LTTE: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 November 2011, 21:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), the peace keeping arm of the Norway facilitated peace process in the island, tilted the balance in favour of the Sri Lankan state and against the LTTE, wrote Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam in 2007, in an unpublished research paper on the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) he submitted to a foundation in the West. The IC could have used the CFA to pursue conflict resolution by maintaining the balance of power between the parties, but to the contrary it had used the CFA as a ‘counterinsurgency’ tool to reinforce the state and weaken the de facto state, so that the state could pursue yet another military solution to the conflict, he further wrote. The unpublished paper that reveals how the very idea of Norway’s peace facilitation was to ‘fail the peace facilitation’ in favour of state, is documented here for historical purposes.
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Norway ‘LLRC’ distributes blame, washes hands of victims after ‘victory’

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 November 2011, 11:11 GMT]
A report on Norway’s failed peace process in Sri Lanka, “Pawns of Peace: Evaluation of Norwegian Peace Efforts in Sri Lanka, 1997-2009” was released in Oslo on Friday. Whether pawns of peace or ploys for genocide, Norway’s report distributed blame among all the actors. A deficiency the report finds in Norway was not its grave failure to warn the world about peace turning into genocide, but that Norway should have escaped from the scene at an earlier stage. The report admits that the peace process has only enhanced obstacles to peace now. But, even after the process facilitating internationally abetted genocide, the report subconsciously sees “victory” in the war and it now harps on “primacy of domestic politics,” to imply ways for solutions. Norway washes hands of its responsibilities to victims and the report now seeks lessons to learn for ’peacebuilding’ elsewhere.
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‘Politics of Deceit’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 September 2011, 14:51 GMT]
The TNA needs to publicly clarify its position on the Recognition of the Right of Self Determination and how it is proposing to overcome the Politics of Deceit perpetuated on the Tamils for the last 63 years, writes TamilNet Economic and Geopolitical Analyst in the Asia Pacific. As experience teaches us, any agreement can be torn unilaterally. So it is not the details or fine print that matters but that agreement is built on the base of the Recognition of the Right of Self Determination. The politics of deceit is practised universally by the oppressors, in various forms from diversionary politics to pre-emptive solutions, all aimed at blocking political progress of the peoples. What concern Eezham Tamils mostly are the pre-emptive solutions put forward by various interested parties in the prevailing atmosphere of negativism after the disaster of May 2009, he further writes.
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Sampanthan proposes SL minister dismisses

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 July 2011, 02:55 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R. Sampanthan, moving an adjournment motion in Sri Lanka’s parliament Thursday and speaking on it said that his objective was “to develop a just settlement within an undivided Sri Lanka,” adding that this approach has been widely endorsed by the international community, notably India. The co-chairs have clearly stated and have clearly ruled out any form of division of this country, he further said. On the same day in the SL parliament, SL minister Nimal Sripala de Silva said that his government would not offer a federal solution to Tamils. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka occupying the Tamil country is intensifying its war against the TNA as more and more of the TNA candidates and supporters are attacked and intimidated in civic elections in the north, news sources in Jaffna said.
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Wickremasinghe to meet Indian leaders

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 May 2011, 03:16 GMT]
Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP), is to leave for New Delhi on Monday on a two day visit. Wickremasinhe is expected to hold talks with the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, leader of the Congress Party Ms Sonia Gandhi, and several ministers in the Indian government, according to UNP sources in Colombo.
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Colombo defies court request, proceeds with obligatory military course to undergrads

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 May 2011, 05:58 GMT]
Defying SL Supreme Court request to provide one week time for it to consider a case filed by University students associations against a compulsory military training programme for the newly selected undergrads, the Rajapaksa regime proceeded with the programme on Sunday. The excuse of Colombo was that it had already spent money on the programme and students had already started traveling to the military centers announced by the SL government.
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Moragoda appointed special foreign policy advisor to Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 May 2011, 12:19 GMT]
Former Sri Lanka Minister Milinda Moragoda has been appointed special advisor on foreign policy matters to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse. Moragoda is to assume duties with immediate effect, according to Presidential Secretariat sources.
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UNP to make stand on UN's war-crimes report public soon

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 May 2011, 19:31 GMT]
The special committee appointed by UNP Leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe, to study the UN war-crimes report on Sri Lanka is due to communicate its findings and stand on the report to the UNP and its leader this week, the Sinhala daily Lakbima said. The UNP committee is led by Bradman Weeerakoon and subsequent to the advice given by this panel, the UNP leadership will make the Party's stand public, according to sources close to UNP.
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UNP appoints team to study UN Expert Panel report

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 April 2011, 15:09 GMT]
The main Sri Lankan opposition United National Party (UNP) has decided to appoint a team to study and report on the UN Experts Panel that was officially released by the UN Secretary General on Monday. The team will be headed by a UNP veteran civil servant Bradman Weerakon.
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Wickremasinghe retains UNP leadership

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 March 2011, 11:31 GMT]
Ranil Wickremasinghe has retained his leadership in the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and his contender Sajith Premadasa accepted a post of Co- Deputy Leader. Both agreed to amicably settle the dispute over the leadership that had been dragging for over several months at the party’s working committee that met on Wednesday evening at Sri Kotha, party headquarters.
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Terror in Jaffna is only a hair in elephant’s tail: SL prime minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 January 2011, 09:20 GMT]
“Crimes are taking place everywhere in the world. […] If you compare the crimes in the whole country to an elephant, what is happening in Jaffna is only a hair of that elephant’s tail,” said Sri Lanka Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne in the SL parliament Thursday, answering accusations brought out by Tamil National Alliance (TNA). Dismissing allegations, and explaining that alleged killings and abductions are suicides and elopements, Leader of the House, Nimal Siripala de Silva charged TNA that it was deliberately trying to draw a grim picture of the situation in Jaffna, to fulfil the vested interests of the Tamil Diaspora, Daily Mirror in Colombo reported Friday.
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Send all party delegation to Jaffna to assess situation, says UNP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 January 2011, 13:54 GMT]
Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) Tuesday made an appeal to the Speaker of the Sri Lanka Parliament to take immediate steps to send an all party delegation to the Northern Province to assess the ground situation amid complaints by that people in Jaffna live in fear psychosis due to the rise in abduction, killing extortion by armed gangs. EPDP, one of the Para military groups supporting the government state security machinery, has been accused of encouraging abduction, killing and extortion in Jaffna by civic groups. A recent disclosure of confidential note by a US ambassador revealed that the paramilitaries operate with impunity for criminal acts sanctioned by highest level officials in Colombo.
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Wickremesinghe on two-day visit to India

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 December 2010, 23:05 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Opposition Leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe left for India on the 27th of December, and has planned to stay there for two days, the Sinhala daily Lankadeepa said. Wickremesinghe met with members of trade unions and the business community in Sri Lanka before he left for India, according to the paper.
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UNP claims 20 UPFA parliamentarians to leave government

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 December 2010, 20:56 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) in south Wednesday claimed about twenty government parliamentarians were holding discussion with its leadership to leave the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA). UNP Badulla district parliamentarian Harin Fernando told a media briefing that the disgruntled UPFA parliamentarians, including some senior ministers, were ready to join the UNP under its new leadership.
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Sajith Premadasa vows to take UNP on victory path

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 December 2010, 20:30 GMT]
The son of the late president of Sri Lanka Ranasinghe Premadasa, addressing the UNP's convention held Sunday at the party headquarters Sri Kotha, has vowed that the UNP would "capture" the power from Rajapaksa family with the support of the masses. Sajith Premadasa is an elected parliamentarian from Hambantota district, the native place of SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Meanwhile UNP leader Ranil Wickremasinghe said the party would give way to a new young set of leaders.
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