A British move to hold a London Peace summit to resolve the Sri Lanka Conflict

A BRIISH MOVE TO TO HOLD A LONDON PEACE SUMMIT TO RESOLVE THE SRI LANKAN CONFLICT

By Walter Jayawardhana

An all party British parliamentary committee will attempt to convey a London peace summit with the participation of the Sri Lanka government, the Tamil Tigers and the peace brokers of Norway to resolve the conflict.

A delegate of the British government, Colombo’s Deputy High Commissioner (ambassador) of Britain Lesley Craig is scheduled to travel to Kilinochchi to convince the leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to take part in the London talks.

The All Party committee of British parliamentarians was formed Wednesday May 2 and Lesley Craig was to travel to Kilinochchi one May 3 but due to an undeclared reason Craig’s trip has been postponed.

Addressing the British House of Commons, the British Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells told the parliamentarians neither the ban on the terrorist group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) will be lifted nor fund raising for the group will be once again allowed in Britain.

When European Union imposed a ban on the group the LTTE refused to deal with the Scandinavian country members who accepted the EU ban on the terrorist group. Ultimately the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission had to be comprised only of Iceland and Norway. Norway and Iceland are not members of the European Union and have imposed no ban against the LTTE in their countries. Norway freely allows the outfit to engage in fund raising activities in their country. But since that time the bargaining power of the LTTE has been greatly reduced and they are restricted only to two districts of the North and a small jungle patch in the East.

Observers note that the controversy has intensified ever since Norwegian peace broker Eric Solheim allegedly transferred his job of drafting the CFA to the Chief ideologue of the LTTE outfit, the Late Anton Balasingham. Tamil opponents of the LTTE have also have protested against the Norwegian participation and has alleged a Norwegian bias in the process.

Meanwhile, coalition partner of the government the JHU has been collaborating with the Norway based Norwegians Against Terrorism outfit who has been attempting to expose the LTTE bias especially of Eric Solheim and his collaborators. Due to that the Norwegian peace process itself has been ridden with controversy.

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Kim Howells tells parliament LTTE fund raising will be stopped and ban will not be lifted for peace

KIM HOWELLS TELLS BRITISH PARLIAMENT LTTE FUND RAISING WILL BE STOPPED AND THEIR BAN WILL NOT BE LIFTED FOR PEACE

By Walter Jayawardhana

British Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells told the House of Commons that the illegal fund raising activities of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) will be definitely terminated as the funds continues to prolong the civil strife in the island nation.

He assured the parliament that there would not be a lifting of the ban on the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist group.

The law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom are proceeding into “counter the bullying, threats and acts of fraud that are used regularly to extract money from the Tamil population and others in the country,’’ said the Minister addressing the British parliament on May 2.

He told British parliamentarians that fraudulently obtained money might be making its way to the coffers of the LTTE to fuel an ongoing insurgency in the Indian Ocean republic.

He told the parliament that intelligence officials have revealed to the government that “widespread fraud scams” are prevailing to raise funds for the terrorist group in Britain.

The Sri Lankan High Commission (embassy) in London, last month alleged that LTTE appointed gasoline station owners have cloned credit cards of thousands of British citizens to rob money from their bank accounts running into few millions of pounds to procure arms for the Tamil terrorist group. The LTTE’s political head S. Thamilchelvan denied the charges.

The insurgency of the LTTE has caused nearly 600,000 Tamils to seek refugee status mostly in Britain and Canada. They are also spread in Europe and Australia. Allegations have been brought up in many countries that the LTTE or Tamil Tigers as they are popularly called, extort money from the Tamil Diaspora to raise funds when they are not engaged in other fraudulent methods like credit card scams.

Some also voluntarily support them. According to the parliamentary records of the Hansard office in London, Howells said, “The ability of the LTTE to raise funds oversees helps to sustain its ability to carry out violent acts and reduces the incentive to move away from the path of violence.”

Howells said not only the LTTE but even Tamil paramilitary groups supporting the Sri Lanka government are also responsible for some violence.

On the day of the debate the parliament also formed an all-party committee to examine how to resolve the conflict in Sri Lanka.

The parliamentary group has said they would summon a summit in London with the representatives of the Sri Lanka government, the Tamil Tigers and the Norwegian brokers with the intention of resolving the conflict.

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“The Death of Media Freedom in Sri Lanka”: FMM’s statement on World Press Freedom Day 2007

(FMM/IFEX) – The following is an abridged version of an FMM statement:

The Death of Media Freedom in Sri Lanka
Statement by the Free Media Movement (FMM) on World Press Freedom Day, 2007

Introduction

Sri Lanka is a country at war. As a direct consequence of the increase in hostilities between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation of Tamil Tigers Eelam (LTTE), fundamental rights, including the freedom of expression and media freedom, have severely deteriorated over the past year. Despite international condemnation and repeated local protests, the GoSL and LTTE are unable, or unwilling, to put an end to a culture of impunity that has cost some journalists and human rights activists their lives and places other at severe risk. The violence directed against pro-democracy voices in civil society has resulted in a fear psychosis amongst the media community in particular. Hate speech and open threats to even senior journalists are now, perversely, routine by members of the government and highly placed public servants. Abductions, murders and severe erosion of safety for working journalists stunts the growth of investigative reportage and results in a de facto censorship of issues related to justice, the Rule of Law, human rights and democracy.

The situation is already impossible, and unbelievably, getting worse. The Free Media Movement (FMM) considers World Press Freedom Day in 2007 to be a day to mourn, not celebrate, media freedom in Sri Lanka. Facts, which speak for themselves, on the deterioration of media freedom and fundamental rights in Sri Lanka in general, deny us even a cautious optimism on securing and strengthening media freedom in the near future. Calls to clarify the government’s position on hate speech and intimidatory tactics adopted and promoted by members of parliament and senior officials have fallen on deaf ears. Investigations into the deaths of journalists are stalled, unable to continue sans the political will to bring perpetrators of heinous crimes to justice. Journalists have been forced to flee Sri Lanka. Those who remain are in fear of their lives, in a context in which the Rule of Law withers in suspended animation. The threat to media freedom is real and palpable for those working in Sri Lanka and, especially, journalists who advocate the inviolability of human rights and basic norms of democracy even at a time of war. Unfortunately, the timbre of living constantly in fear and repression, and the significant erosion of media freedom and fundamental rights, isn’t always easily communicated to the international community, or can be.

This is our foremost challenge. On the one hand, free media is a vital bulwark against a total erasure of fundamental rights. Media, acting in the interests of the public, have a responsibility to report critically on all actors involved in the on-going conflict, including the Government and the LTTE. To harm the media, to threaten the media or otherwise seek to control free media is inimical to the fundamental tenets of democracy. Regrettably, this is precisely what journalists in Sri Lanka face today. Accordingly, this brief statement by the FMM seeks to a) flag key issues facing the media today and b) propose recommendations to address the significant deterioration of media freedom.

The failure to stop the erosion of media freedom in Sri Lanka is quite simply that the manner in which the State seeks to combat terrorism will itself give birth to a new tyranny and despotism in Sri Lanka. The possibility of deeper cycles of violent conflict that will be the inevitable result thereof is a frightening yet compelling appeal to all democratic stakeholders, local and international, to urge those responsible for the continuation of the on-going violence to desist.

Fundamentally, it is Sri Lanka’s future as a vibrant and viable democracy that is at stake.

For the full report, visit: http://www.freemediasrilanka.org/index.php

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How legal was Adam Gilchrist’s hidden ball?

(IANS) Two days after Adam Gilchrist’s slaughter of the lambs in the World Cup final, cricket’s fans and fanatics are still coming to terms with the onslaught that fetched 149 off just 103 balls and took the truncated game away from the Lankans even before they began their reply.

But, how legal was the wicket keeper’s innings?

And, as a direct corollary, therefore, how authentic was Australia’s ’Cup triumph’? Bloggers especially churmuri.com have raised this pertinent question.

By Gilchrist’s own admission, he had ’something’ in his left glove all through his knock. In fact, upon reaching the century, Gilchrist first doffed his bat towards his teammates in the pavilion, acknowledged the applause of the spectators, and then kept repeatedly pointing to his left batting glove with his right hand.

’I had a little message, to wave to someone at home in Australia about something in my glove,’ he is quoted as saying at the post-match media conference.

The intended recipient of that little message was his batting coach and former Western Australia player Bob Meuleman, also a noted squash player. Turns out that upon Meuleman ’s advice, Gilchrist had been carrying a squash ball in his left, bottom hand to help him with his grip.

’His (Meuleman’s) last words to me before I left the indoor training centre where I train with him in Perth were, ’Well, if you are going to use it (squash ball), make sure when you score a hundred in the final you show me and prove to me you got it in there’. I had stayed true to that.’

That’s as clear a confirmation that Gilchrist had the squash ball in his left glove to help him with his grip during his stupendous knock. But that’s also where questions over the legality of Gilchrist’s innings, or the seeming lack of it, come in.

Can a batsman carry an object – in this case, a squash ball not connected with cricket – to help him on the field? Did he secure the prior permission of the umpires? Was the fielding side captain aware of the use of the squash ball? Did Mahela Jayawardene approve its use?…..And, above all, and in a manner of speaking, did Gilchrist’s ’hidden ball’ give him an unfair advantage in knocking the daylights out of the Lankan bowlers?

These are hypothetical questions, of course, but cricket – a sport governed by mighty laws not lowly rules – is always full of ifs and buts that leaves cricket haters plain mystified but keeps cricket lovers breathlessly debating the whys and wherefores till kingdom come.

A quick recap of cricketing laws shows that Gilchrist’s squash ball was, therefore, neither a piece of protective equipment, nor clothing item and was most certainly not visible to either side or the umpires.

The law specifically prohibits a player from using equipment other than that permitted. And nowhere in cricket’s 42 laws is there a mention of a squash ball as a permitted item.

If Dennis Lilee’s aluminium bat and Ricky Ponting’s graphite-coated bat could be deemed illegal, if Hansie Cronje’s earpiece experiment was not OK, if Scott Styris had to remove all the bandage from his right hand before he could bowl in the super eight match, can Adam Gilchrist’s ’hidden ball’ pass muster?

No law can, of course, take the sheen away from Gilchrist’s knock. Batting with a normal grip against the world’s best bowlers is tough enough, batting with a squash ball in one of your gloves is worse. To score 149 scintillating runs is, well, incredible.

Still, two questions arise: If using a squash ball isn’t ok as per the laws of the game, is his innings legal and does it count? And if it doesn’t count, can Australia claim to have won a hopelessly one-sided and farcical victory?

(The author is editor of www.churumuri.com and can be reached at krishnaprasad@rediffmail.com)

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EMIRATES TO RESUME DAY LIGHT FLIGHTS

EMIRATE AIR LINES WHICH SUSPENDED ITS FLIGHTS TO COLOMBO TO RESUME ONLY DAY LIGHT FLIGHTS

By Walter Jayawardhana

The Emirate Air Lines of Dubai that suspended its flights to Colombo’s international Air Port since the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) made a mid night air raid in the city said it is resuming only its day time flights.

“Following a review of the situation in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, Emirates will recommence services Friday,”said a statement by the Middle Eastern Air Line.

The Emirates Air Lines is only following Singapore Air Lines which suspended its flights to Colombo and resumed only its day light flights.

The Middle Eastern Air lines were sold 43.6 per cent of shares of Sri Lankan Air Lines by the government of former President Chandrika Bandaranaike after the country scrapped the former national flag carrier, Air Lanka.

The Emirates Air Lines recently caught headlines when the Sri Lankan cricket runners up at the World Cup match in West Indies were stranded in London due to the cancellation of flights by the Emirates Air Lines. The cricketers now will use another airline to come home.
The Air Line uses Colombo to fly to destinations such as Maldives, Singapore and Indonesia.

The Emirates Air Lines totally suspended its flights to Colombo with the Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific stranding the hundreds of passengers. Cathay Pacific which suspended its flights for the second time, is yet to resume its flights.

Cathay Pacific, Singapore and Emirates carry 46 per cent of all air travelers to Sri Lanka.

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