Sunday 28 February 2010
Leaders of non violence.
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ජවිපෙ සහෝදරවරු ජෙනරල් සරත් පොන්සේකාව
හිටපු දකුණු අප්රිකානු ජනාධිපති නෙල්සන් මැන්ඩෙලාට
සමාන කරන්න උත්සහ කරනවා. ලොකුම විහීලුවක්.
සිරභාරයට ගන්න සැම කසිකබල් දේශපාලකයෙක්ම
මැන්ඩෙලා කෙනෙක් වෙන්නෙ නැහැ.
මැන්ඩෙලා අවිහිංසාව, සාමාජ සාධාරණය අගය කළ
තම දේශපාලන සතුරන්ට පාවා සමාව දුන්න මානව හිතවාදී
නායකයෙක්.
ජෙනරල් පොන්සේකා වේදිකාවල තම දේශපාලන විරුද්ධ
කරුවන්ගෙන් පළිගන්න තර්ජනය කරපු දුෂ්ට අදහස් ඇති
කිසිම දෙශපාලන දැනුමක් නැති බොළඳ දේශපාලකයෙක්.
By Chinthaka.
Saturday 27 February 2010
Iran slams 'routine' US support for terrorists.
After the captured leader of the Jundallah terrorist group disclosed his ties with the US, Iran says the support of the so-called advocates of human rights for terrorists shows their dishonest approach.
"Ties between this terrorist group and security services of the so-called advocates of human rights including the US, Britain and certain other countries indicate that they are not honest about their claims of having respect for human rights," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on Saturday.
The captured ringleader of the Jundallah terrorist group, Abdolmalek Rigi, has confessed that the US administration had assured him of unlimited military aid and funding for inciting insurgency against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Rigi was captured by Iranian forces on Tuesday. He was aboard a passenger jet flying to Kyrgyzstan from the UAE when his plane was grounded in the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas.
The Jundallah group has claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks in Iran. The group has carried out mass murder, armed robbery, kidnappings, acts of sabotage and bombings inside Iran.
Mehmanparast said it comes as no surprise to Iran that the countries, which claim to be fighting terrorism, are supporting terrorists like Rigi.
"The support of certain so-called human rights advocates for terrorist groups and criminals such as Abdolmalek Rigi has turned into a routine issue," he said.
He pointed to the close cooperation between terrorist groups and the US, Britain and some European countries in the region and said, "We have always witnessed the support of these countries for terrorist groups to continue their moves in the region."
Iranian security forces explained that Rigi was at a US base in Afghanistan 24 hours before his arrest and was carrying a forged Afghan passport issued by the US at the time he was detained.
In one attack Jundallah terrorists killed at least 40 people in the southeastern city of Pishin.
By Courtesy of www.presstv.ir
27 February, 2010.
Friday 26 February 2010
ජානිපෙ බි‍්‍රතාන්‍ය ඊළාම්වාදී පිළිවෙත හෙළා දකියි.
ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාව තුළ වෙනම රාජ්‍යයක් පිහිටුවීම සඳහා ඊළාම්වාදීන්ට අනුබල දීමේ බි‍්‍රතාන්‍ය රජයේ කි‍්‍රියා පිළිවෙත තරයේ හෙළා දකින බව ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණ පවසයි. නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කරමින් එම පක්‍ෂ නායක විමල් වීරවංශ මහතා පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ මෙරට තුළ වෙනම රාජ්‍යයක් පිහිටුවීම අරමුණු කර ගත් බටහිර රටවල ක‍්‍රියාත්මක බෙදුම්වාදී කොටි හිතවාදී සංවිධානවල මව් සංගමය ලෙස සැලකෙන බෙදුම්වාදී සංවිධානයට අනුග‍්‍රහය දැක්වීමෙන් වෙනම රාජ්‍යයක් සඳහා වූ බෙදුම්වාදීන්ගේ දුෂ්ඨ අරමුණට සහාය දැක්වීමට බි‍්‍රතාන්‍ය රජය කටයුතු කර ඇති බවයි. ඒ මහතා නිකුත් කළ නිවේදනයේ මෙසේ ද සඳහන් වේ. ‘‘ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාව තුළ වෙනම රාජ්‍යයක් පිහිටුවීම සඳහා අවශ්‍ය ප‍්‍රතිපාදන කවරේ ද ? යන තේමාව යටතේ ලන්ඩනයේ දී ඉහත කී ඊළාම්වාදී සංවිධානය කළ සම්මන්ත‍්‍රණයට බි‍්‍රතාන්‍ය විදේශ ලේකම් ඬේවිඞ් මිලි බෑන්ඞ් ද විශේෂ ආරාධිතයෙකු ලෙස සහභාගි වී ඇති අතර එහිදී ඔහු දේශනයක් ද පවත්වා තිබේ. මෙමගින් බි‍්‍රතාන්‍ය විදේශ ලේකම්වරයා සිදු කර ඇත්තේ කුමක් ද ? අන් කිසිවක් නොව ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවේ ස්වෛරීභාවයට හා භෞමික අඛණ්ඩතාවට හානි සිදු කිරීමය.''
''දශක තුනක් තිස්සේ ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාව වෙළාගෙන සිටි බෙදුම්වාදී කොටි ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය සහමුලින්ම පරදවා ඒකීය රටක් නිර්මාණය කර ඇති මේ මොහොතේ දී බි‍්‍රතාන්‍ය පාලකයන් ඇතුළු බටහිර අධිරාජ්‍යවාදය යළි මේ රට බෙදුම්වාදී කොටි ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයේ ග‍්‍රහණයට නතු කිරීමට කුමන්ත‍්‍රණය කරමින් සිටින බව මෙමගින් පැහැදිලිය.''
'' යටත් විජිත වහල්භාවයෙන් නිදහස් වුණු පසුව බටහිර අධිරාජ්‍යවාදීහු ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාව තම ග‍්‍රහණයේ තබා ගැනීම පිණිස එය ණය වහල්භාවයේ ගිල්වා තැබීම හා ජාතිකත්වයන් අතර අසමගිය ඇති කොට බෙදුම්වාදය කරා තල්ලූ කිරීම ඔවුන්ගේ ප‍්‍රමුඛතම උපක‍්‍රම ලෙස භාවිතයට ගත්හ.''
''එහෙත් අද වන විට බටහිර අධිරාජ්‍යවාදීන්ගේ බෙදුම්වාදී න්‍යාය පත‍්‍රය පරදවා ඔවුන්ගේ බෙදුම්වාදී කුලී සේනාංකය වූ කොටි ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය සහමුලින්ම වනසා දැමීමට අපි ජාතියක් ලෙස සමත්ව සිටින්නෙමු. තම අණ නොතකා බෙදුම්වාදී කොටි ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය විනාශ කොට දැමීම හේතුවෙන් මෙකී බෙදුම්වාදයේ නිර්මාතෘවරුන් වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුව සමග දැඩි සේ උරණව ඇති බව අමුතුවෙන් කිව යුතු නොවේ.''
''බටහිර අධිරාජ්‍යවාදීන් දැන් උත්සාහ ගනුයේ තම බෙදුම්වාදී කුලී සේනාංකයට එනම් කොටි ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයට යළි පණ පිඹීමටය. ඒ වෙනුවෙන් තම පදයට නටන දෙස් විදෙස් බලවේග යහපාලනය, ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදය, මානව හිමිකම් යන වචන ඉදිරියට දමා කුමන්ත‍්‍රණකාරී ලෙස පෙරට ගෙන ඒමට ද මෙකී බටහිර අධිරාජ්‍යවාදීහු කටයුතු කරති.''
''පසුගිය ජනාධිපතිවරණයේ දී රටට සතුරු සියලූ බලවේග එකට එකතු වී රණවිරුවන් විසින් ඉරා පොඩි කර පාගා දැමූ බෙදුම්වාදී න්‍යායපත‍්‍රය නැවත කරළියට ගෙන ඒමට සමත්වීම ඊට කදිම නිදසුනකි. එහෙත් මෙරට දේශමාමක ජනතාව එම කුමන්ත‍්‍රණය ඉතා විශිෂ්ට අන්දමින් පරාජය කිරීමට සමත්ව තිබේ.''
''අද බි‍්‍රතාන්‍ය විදේශ ලේකම් ඊළාම්වාදීන්ගේ වෙනම රාජ්‍යයක් පිළිබඳ සිහිනය සැබෑ කර දීමට දේශන පවත්වන මේ මොහොතේ එකී දුෂ්ට අරමුණ පැරදවීම පිණිස ද සියලූ දේශමාමක බුද්ධිමත් ජනතාව පෙරට ආ යුතුව තිබේ.’’
By Courtesy of www.lankacnews.com
26 February, 2010.
Kaoma – Lambada- Very popular Brazilian song in 80s.
Sri Lankan people should be given opportunities to enjoy music, cinema and literature from other Asian, African and Latin American countries too. Currently almost all the media in Sri Lanka are limited to local, Indian or English music and other entertainments.
Thursday 25 February 2010
කොටින්ට කඬේ ගිය මිලි බෑන්ඞ්ට රජයේ විරෝධය.
දෙමළ ජනයාගේ පරශයශ්න හා ඊනියා මානව හිමිකම් කඩවීම් ගැන කතා කරන බව පවසමින් ම්ලේච්ඡ කොටි සංවිධානයේ මුල්පෙළේ ආයතනයක් වූ ලෝක දෙමළ සංසදයේ සමුළුවකට මිලි බැන්ඞ් මහතා සහභාගි වීම බෙදුම්වාදයට ඍජු ලෙස සහාය පළ කිරීමක් බවත් එය බිරි බතාන්ය්ය සහ ශරීෙමළ ලංකාව අතර සබඳතා පළුදු වීමට හේතුවන හා මෙරට ස්වෛරීභාවයට, භෞමික අඛණ්ඩතාවට තර්ජනයක් වන කාරණයක් බව මෙහිදී අමාත්යේවරයා විසින් දැඩිව අවධාරණය කරන ලදී.
By Courtesy of www.lankacnews.com
25 February, 2010.
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa interviewed.
Inderjit Bhadwar: Under what specific charges did your government arrest Gen. Fonseka?
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa: I cannot talk about specific charges because the summary of evidence preceding the charge sheet is now being prepared by the military authorities under specific rules of procedure that guarantee due process and a fair trial. That is the work of the prosecutor.
Q: But because there are no specifics so far, this has the appearance of a personal vendetta.
A: Not at all. Most people are probably unaware of the damage done by the general to our military while he was in uniform, particularly in the way he entered politics.
Q: You mean, he should have stayed out of politics and not challenged the President in the election? What is this damage you speak of?
A: Of course he has that right in a democracy. But he misused his office to pervert the process. Most people tend to simplify this story into three parts – a)he fought a successful war, b)he was the army commander, c)he was arrested because he challenged the president in the election. The real issue is the damage he did is what led to his detention. He politicised the military. We share a proud tradition with India as the only two countries in the region that can boast about a neutral military, but when that tradition was subverted in Sri Lanka Lanka by Fonseka there was no option but to take action against him.
Q: As a war hero he has many admirers who urged him contest…
A: He should have had a clean break from the military and then entered politics. In his utter greed for power he used his position and contacts for his own benefits. He did this while he was chief of defense staff (CDS), and also when he was army commander. He used the army commander’s bungalow to conduct political activities and kept military resources made available to him in his official capacity for personal political use.
Q: What do you mean by political activities? And why the seeming haste to arrest him?
A: While he was CDS he was talking to commanders, senior officers, and there were complaints of a few soldiers saying he was asking them to work for him. He was clearly using the military for political purposes. If we did not act on this we would be signalling that in future others can get away with this. The tradition of a neutral military so precious to us – and to India—would have been destroyed.
Q: Can you be more specific about your phrase “using soldiers”?
A: Soldiers at lower levels manning roadblocks were stopping vehicles and seeking votes for the general. Most of them were very young people recruited during the last three years, and when their own commander contests they’re in a very confused state. In fact he tried to gather support even among army deserters to whom he gave shelter.
He was actively doing this while he was CDS. He was using officers and soldiers to conduct surveys and compute vote percentages to measure his support within the army, and this started while he was still army commander. That is why, when we found out, we acted swiftly against 15 senior army officers who were sent into compulsory retirement.
Q: Aren’t there other very serious allegations that the general was planning a coup and assassination of the President and his family?
A: Well, those are covered under civilian law and are the subject to procedures of criminal investigations which are a separate procedure. The general’s arrest is in connection with offences he committed while he was in uniform.
Q: But why was it necessary to surround his hotel with troops after the election results were announced?
A: He created that situation. He booked 70 rooms in the Taj hotel, another 70 in the Cinnamon. What for? We sent security around the hotel because we wanted to avoid post-election violence. During that time (former Prime Minister) Ranil (Wickremesinghe) spoke to me and I told him “we have not arrested you or him, you are the people who booked that hotel.”
We later found out that the security officer at the hotel, a former army army person, erased all the CCTV recordings and then altered his own attendance registry to cover up.
Q: The world, particularly the Western media and human rights groups are highlighting his arrest and charges of a vendetta.
A: I’d like to know why they didn’t highlight his public statements during the election when he was openly saying he would arrest the President if he is elected and put him and his ministers in cages.
Q: There were corruption charges against him when he was army commander that he was using his position to influence officers in the army to purchase arms from his son in law Danuna Tilekeratne’s company HiCorp International. Why didn’t you arrest him then?
A: Well, the details are only now coming out because there’s been a falling out among the suspects.
Q: His supporters say the general is being punished because he spoke out on a quick political solution to the Tamil issue, on war crimes, and the speedy resettlement of the IDPs (internally displaced persons).
A: I wish more journalists would do their homework. Why don’t you simply analyse his speeches while he was still in uniform immediately after the end of the war, and those he made when he became a candidate? His first speech to soldiers was that they had not lost their lives and shed their blood just to allow politicians to implement political solutions, “we will not allow this.” Is this not an attempt to mobilise the military against the political system? An Indian army commander making this kind of statement would have been sacked immediately.
Q: But then he entered politics.
A: His tactics changed from planning a direct military takeover to attempting to grab power through political means.
Q: How do you react to his allegations that you ordered your troops to shoot down in cold blood LTTE leaders who were surrendering with white flags?
A:Again, study the record, do your homework. Earlier, he said something else. He gave a lecture to his old school after the war and told the audience that the political leadership was trying to protect LTTE interests by asking them to surrender “But it was a war situation and they had to be killed.” Now, he reverses his stand, talks about a political solution and says I gave orders to shoot people waving white flags of surrender.
Q: What really happened?
A: This was supposed to have happened on the last day – May 18, 2010 – the day Prabhakaran was killed. The LTTE leaders were now trapped in an area 400 meters by 400 meters, about 200 of them, surrounded by the military. It is late at night, past midnight. Make a mental picture of this. Can you see them coming out with white flags in this dense jungle in pitch darkness? The situation was that some terrorist cadres counter-attacked.
Prabhakaran was trying to break out and escape to the lagoon, his son went in another direction. At the same time 10,000 surrendered cadres came down from one side. In this kind of situation in the thick of battle, can you expect a young recruit, barely a month into battle, to recognise a senior LTTE cadre and make a decision as to shoot him selectively or spare him?
Q: The war crimes issue is still being kept alive, do you recognise it as an issue?
A: Yes we recognise what a war crime is. If you use the pretext of war for revenge killings, abductions, ransom, if that is done under the pretext of a military operation it is a crime. And we have arrested, tried and punished soldiers for this. We have put officers in jail for this. But there are situations over which we have no control. They claim, for example that we bombed a hospital. If a hospital is marked as a hospital and we deliberately bomb it, that’s wrong. And we did not. But look at the last phase of the war. The LTTE was trapped in an area of one square kilometre, and in this situation of fighting it is difficult to control a stray bullet hitting a hospital. Moreover in a situation like this there’s no question of patients or civilians in the area. One has to understand the ground situation in such close combat.
Q: Many western countries are still insisting on a war crimes trial.
A: These appear to be the same countries that wanted a regime change in Sri Lanka.
Q: Why? And why would they want to back a military man?
A: Three aspects to this. First, there is a very powerful and moneyed diaspora with LTTE sympathies that plays a crucial role in these countries, participates in their vote bank politics and media. Second, because Sri Lanka did not tow the line on certain strategic policies; and third, the human rights lobbies pushing war crime trials to which they believed the UNP, supporting the general, would be more amenable.
Q: Are the general’s criticism of your government’s treatment and rehabilitation of IDP’s a source of real concern to you?
A: The reality is that when he was in uniform the general was the only person on our Security Council who opposed the early settlement of the IDPs – the only person. He kept arguing it was a huge security risk. That’s the only reason that the resettlement of IDPs was delayed. While as CDS he opposed heir release, he later made common cause with the opposition which was using the IDP issue to blame the government during the election.
Q: What finally happened?
A: My view was that the newly liberated areas like Jaffna, the peninsula, the East were safe and IDPs could be sent back there early. Fonseka had a firm “no.” So I said let them at least go to temporary camps in the eastern province. We released thousands of them but Fonseka ordered them dragged right back to the original detention areas. We were under pressure from the UN and other countries but the general kept arguing “security.”
Finally President Rajapakse himself intervened. He said: “What security are you talking about? Here are 300,000 people in these camps, some 20,000 pro-LTTE as well as cadres have already escaped. So where’s the security? I want them resettled immediately!".
Interviewed by Inderjit Bhadwar.
By Courtesy of Tehelka.
25 February, 2010
Wednesday 24 February 2010
Katyusha - Soviet War Red Army song. In Russian with English Subtitles.
Katyusha- Yulya Nachalova, victory day Moscow
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බටහිර සංස්කෘතියට ගැති රසවින්දනයෙන්
ජනතාව මුඳවා ගනිමු.
අසියානු, අප්රිකානු, ලතින් ඇමෙරිකානු සංගීතය,
සාහිත්ය රසවිඳිමු.
By Chinthaka.
‘‘ජවිපෙ හවුලේ ඉන්නේ පාලම් පිටින් ගිලපු අය’’- විමල් වීරවංශ
ජවිපෙ ඇතුළු පක්‍ෂ කිහිපයක් සහ සරත් ෆොන්සේකා මහතා එක්ව ඉදිරි මහ මැතිවරණයට තරග කිරීම සඳහා නිර්මාණය කර ඇති ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදී ජාතික සන්ධානයේ සිටින්නේ පාලම් පිටින් ගිලපු පිරිසක් බව ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ නායක සහ හිටපු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රී විමල් වීරවංශ මහතා පවසයි. අද (23) පෙරවරුවේ බත්තරමුල්ලේ පිහිටි එම පක්‍ෂ මූලස්ථානයේ පැවති මාධ්ය හමුවේ දී ඒ මහතා පෙන්වා දුන්නේ ජවිපෙ පවසන ආකාරයට ඔවුන් යහපාලනයේ පියවරු බවත් එහෙත් ඔවුන්ගේ සන්ධානයේ සිටින්නේ නියම හොර නඩයක් බවත්ය.
මේ අතර එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය යටතේ ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ අපේක්‍ෂකයන් 16 දෙනෙකු දිස්ත‍්‍රික් 15 කින් මහ මැතිවරණයට ඉදිරිපත් කරන බව විමල් වීරවංශ මහතා පැවසීය. එම අපේක්‍ෂක ලැයිස්තුව මෙසේය. කොළඹ දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කය විමල් වීරවංශ, ගම්පහ දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කය පියසිරි විජේනායක සහ අන්ජාන් උම්මා, කළුතර දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කය ජයන්ත සමරවීර, මාතර දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කය සරත් වීරවංශ, හම්බන්තොට දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කය ධර්මසේන කොඩිතුවක්කු, මොණරාගල දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කය පද්ම උදයශාන්ත, කෑගල්ල දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කය බුද්ධදාස විතානාරච්චි, මාතලේ දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කය අරවින්ද වන්නිආරච්චි, මහනුවර දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කය නිමල් පේ‍්රමවංශ, නුවරඑළිය දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කය නිමල් පියතිස්ස, අනුරාධපුරය දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කය වීරකුමාර දිසානායක, පොළොන්නරුව දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කය රාජා රංජිත් ගුණරත්න, කුරුණෑගල දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කය සේනාරත්න ද සිල්වා, පුත්තලම දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කය සමන්සිරි හේරත්, රත්නපුර දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කය දීපාල් ගුණසේකර
මීට අමතරව මැතිවරණ ජයග‍්‍රහණයෙන් පසුව ක‍්‍රියා කළ යුතු ආකාරය සම්බන්ධයෙන් මෙම අපේක්‍ෂකයන් කරුණු 05 ක් යටතේ ප‍්‍රතිඥාවක් ලබා දී ඇතැයි විමල් වීරවංශ මහතා මෙහිදී සඳහන් කළේය. එම ප‍්‍රතිඥාව මෙසේය.
01. බටහිර අධිරාජ්‍යවාදී බලවේග සහ ජාත්‍යන්තර රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධාන ජාලය සමග එක්ව සියලූ පරාජයන් අභිමුව වුවද අප රට දෙකඩ කිරීම සඳහා අත්නොහරින කුමන්ත‍්‍රණයක යෙදී සිටින දෙස් විදෙස් සියලූ බලවේග අවසන් වශයෙන් පරාජය කිරීම සඳහා අපි අනුකම්පා විරහිතව ඉතා දැඩි ස්ථාවරයක සිටිමින් දිවි හිමියෙන් සටන් වදින්නෙමු
02. ‘මෙහොමඞ් මුසම්මිල් ආදර්ශය’ අපි අකුරටම පිළිපදිමින් ජනතා පරමාධිපත්‍යය මුදලට යටත් නොකරන මහජන මුදල් කිසිදාක අයථා ලෙස හෝ නීත්‍යනුකූල නොවන ආකාරයට පරිහරය නොකරන්නෙමු
03. මහජනයා විසින් අප වෙත ලබා දෙන පරමාධිපත්‍යයේ බලය අයුතු ලෙස යොදා ගනිමින් මහජනතාවගේ ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදී අයිතිවාසිකම් උදුරා ගැනීමට හෝ ඔවුන් කිසිදු ආකාරයකින් පීඩාවට පත් කිරීමට අප කටයුතු නොකරන අතර මහජන සේවකයෙකු ලෙස ඔවුන්ගේ ප‍්‍රශ්න කිරීමට සහ සොයා බැලීමට නිහතමානීව යටත් වෙමු.
04. විජාතික ආර්ථික ආක‍්‍රමණය පරාජය කොට ජාතික ආර්ථිකය ශක්තිමත් කිරීමට අප වෙත පැවරෙන සියලූම ආකාරයේ ව්යවස්ථාදායක සහ විධායක බලතල උපරිම ආකාරයෙන් යොදා ගැනීමට කැපවන අතර එදිනෙදා ජීවිතයේ දී මහජනයාට ආදර්ශය සපයමින් හැමවිටම දේශීය ආහාර සහ දේශීය කාර්මික නිෂ්පාදන මිලදී ගැනීම සඳහා ප‍්‍රමුඛතාව ලබා දෙන්නෙමු.
05. අපි පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රී වරප‍්‍රසාද භාවිත කොට කිසිදු ආකාරයේ සදාචාර විරෝධී ක‍්‍රියාවක නිරත නොවන අතර සෑම අවස්ථාවක දීම අපේකම අගයන සහ අපේකම රැකෙන ආකාරයේ ජීවිතයක් ගෙවීමට උත්සාහ කරමු.
මේ අතර ඉදිරි මහ මැතිවරණයේ දී තුනෙන් දෙකක බලයක් ලබා ගැනීම එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානයේ අපේක්‍ෂාව බවත් ඒ අනුව ආසන 149 ක් හෝ 150 ක් ලැබෙනු ඇති බවටත් වීරවංශ මහතා මෙහිදී විශ්වාසය පළ කළේය. වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ ජානිපෙ නායකයා තුනෙන් දෙකක බලයක් ලබා ගැනීමේ වැදගත්කම පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.
‘‘සමහරු කතා කරනවා තුනෙන් දෙකේ බලය ලැබුණාම වෙන්න පුළුවන් කියන නරක දේවල් ගැන. ඒත් තුනෙන් දෙකක බලයක් නැතුව කෙහොම මනාප බලූපොරය නතර කරන්නේ කොට්ඨාසයට මන්ත‍්‍රීවරයෙක් ගේන ක‍්‍රමය ඇති කරන්නෙ. එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය ඇති කරන ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය රටේ ඒකීය භාවයට තට්ටු කරන එකක් නෙවෙයි. යල් පැන ගිය නීති වලින් රට එළියට ගන්න ඕන. ප‍්‍රගතිශීලී ජනතාව ඉල්ලන යහපත් දේ කරන්නයි තුනෙන් දෙකක බලයක් ඉල්ලන්නෙ.’’
By courtesy of: www.lankacnews.com
Published 24 February, 2010.
Tuesday 23 February 2010
Americas bloc excluding US and Canada is proposed.
Latin American and Caribbean nations have agreed to set up a new regional body without the US and Canada, Mexican President Felipe Calderon has said.
The new bloc would be an alternative to the Organisation of American States (OAS), the main forum for regional affairs in the past 50 years.
Mexico is hosting a regional summit in the beach resort of Cancun.
The OAS has been dogged by rifts between some Latin American members and the US over economic policy and trade.
Its has also been criticised as promoting US interests over those of other members.
The new grouping "must as a priority push for regional integration... and promote the regional agenda in global meetings," Mr Calderon told the summit, which includes leaders and representatives from 32 countries.
A US State Department official said he did not see the new body as replacing the OAS.
The summit has also reportedly backed Argentina's claim over the British-owned Falklands.
By Courtesy of www.bbc.com
23 February, 2010
‘DNA’ Test for RW and SF.
It is a supreme irony that UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has had to jostle with Gen. Sarath Fonseka for supremacy in the Colombo District within weeks of their joint campaign to oust President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Resentment towards the UNP`s decision to break ranks and contest parliamentary polls under the Elephant symbol may have prompted the latter to pit himself against the former in Colombo from the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) by way of tit for tat. Even SLFP (M) leader Mangala Samaraweera, who was instrumental in luring Gen. Fonseka into politics and served as a spokesman for him has joined the UNF!
Why did the UNP decide against contesting parliamentary polls under the Swan symbol? The UNP insists that Gen. Fonseka was the real winner at the Jan. 26 election it has thrown its weight behind his election petition to the Supreme Court and is conducting protests against the election results. If the UNP really believes Gen. Fonseka won, then there is no reason why it should prevent him from leading the Opposition`s general election campaign under the Swan symbol. How can the UNP justify its position that the man who, it claims, won the presidential election but was denied the presidency, is not fit enough to lead the joint Opposition s parliamentary polls campaign?
In dealing with Gen. Fonseka, the UNP used the so-called karapincha (curry leaves) method in politics. He was used and discarded! He may have thought he was using the UNP but he, in fact, offered himself as a cat`s paw to draw political chestnuts out of the fire for some wily bankrupt politicians who were racking their brains, not knowing how to avoid the presidential contest. He, too, sought to play tricks on the UNP leader by allegedly grooming former chief justice Sarath N Silva on the sly for premiership but only to be outfoxed in style.
The UNP leader says the door is still open for Gen. Fonseka to contest the general election on the UNF ticket. This offer reminds us of the proverbial fox that invited a crane (or swan?) to dinner and served soup on a plate! Ranil is aware that Gen. Fonseka`s ego is too big for him to settle for playing second fiddle in the UNF.
At least now, Gen. Fonseka, who gave up the plum CDS post at the behest of the JVP, the UNP and several others to stand for presidency and is currently languishing in military custody pending a court martial, should realise that he should have known better than to plunge headlong into politics. He has fallen between two stools! All his palanquin bearers have deserted except the Rathu Sahodarayas, who, to their credit, have stood by him. The JVP has proved that it is not totally incapable of taking a principled stand. Or, it is that the JVP has only made a virtue of necessity?
The UNP leader may have succeeded in outwitting Gen. Fonseka but he is still in an unenviable position. Until very recently, he had been campaigning for Gen. Fonseka, who, he claimed, was best suited for presidency. It was Gen. Fonseka, he told us, who had defeated terrorism and was capable of restoring democracy. He went around the country asking the people to vote for the former army chief for that purpose. How can Ranil make a U-turn and say he is better suited for the prime minister`s post than Gen. Fonseka? If he, who was too scared to face the incumbent president in the presidential race and therefore opted out of the contest, happens to beat Gen. Fonseka at the April 8 polls by polling more preferential votes, he will be demolishing his own argument that President Rajapaksa failed to defeat Gen. Fonseka. Or, in such an eventuality, will the Opposition claim that Ranil`s victory over Gen. Fonseka is due to a fraud or a computer jilmaat?
Similarly, the challenge before Gen. Fonseka, who has conferred on himself the title `people`s president`, will be to come first in Colombo on April 8 in terms of preferential votes. It will be a shame for him to be beaten by a person who lacked intestinal fortitude to contest the presidential election. How can a man who gets beaten by Ranil claim to have defeated Mahinda?
What Charles Schumer has said about expediency comes to mind: `Do not let arguments of expediency persuade you. That is the slow road to oblivion .` Unfortunately, Gen. Fonseka let himself be persuaded by such arguments. Gen.Fonseka knew the Tiger but not the Elephant.
Editorial
By Courtesy of http://www.island.lk/
23 February, 2010.
Monday 22 February 2010
NATOs Attack on Serbia the Ultimate Crime Against Peace.
These are the real war crimes. The American and Western imperialists accuse others of War crimes. War crimes against ‘Former Yugoslavia are a tip of an iceberg of their war crimes through out the history.
By Chinthaka.
The split within: Two years on since Kosovo declared independence.
The second anniversary of Kosovo's self-proclaimed independence comes amid concerns over its legal status.
By Courtesy of www.rt.com
22 February, 2010.
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After Western backed independence, the Serbs who live in the ‘Kosovo’ province stateless and helpless now. Under the Serbs (In former ‘Yugoslav Socialist Federation and later ‘Serbia’ after the breakup of ‘Yugoslavia) ethnic Albanians in ‘Kosovo’ province enjoyed lots of rights and equal opportunities in every aspects. But at that time Western politician were very critical about the human rights issues, press freedom and discrimination etc in ‘Kosovo’ province. The West funded and trained ‘Kosovo Liberation Army’ (KLA) to fight with ‘Yugoslav security forces’. KLA committed lots of atrocities against Serbs in Kosovo. But the Western politicians cried very loud and accused Serbs and then ‘Yugoslav’ president of ‘War crimes’. They branded socialist President Milosevic who tried to save the ‘Yugoslav federation and the secession of ‘Kosovo’ as a war criminal. Ultimately using an artificial revolution they brought their obedient puppet politicians to power in the remaining ‘Yugoslavia’. Those puppet politicians later handed over Mr. Slobodan Milosevic to the ‘Hague’ war crime tribunal. After years of a show trial ultimately they killed Mr. Milosevic (by a so called heart attack under mysterious circumstances) in the ‘Hague’ prison. Later ‘Kosovo’ declared independence without the consent of Serbia and the West was eager to recognized its independence status without any hesitation.
This is what exactly those fascist Western powers wanted to do in Sri Lanka using Tamil Elam. They could not achieve their goal due to the brave leadership provided by President Rajapaksa, the effective war management of Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, diplomatic skills of Mr. Basil Rajapaksa and the sacrifices of war heroes. The other factor was the help given by the friendly countries such as India, China, Iran and Russia. Without those helps we could not have defeated the separatism in Sri Lanka. ‘Prabakaran’ and the gang would have carved a separate country within Sri Lanka with the backing of Western politicians and their agents within Sinhalese. The Western powers would have recognized ‘Tamil Elam’ independence without hesitation. Sri Lanka had a very lucky escape thanks to the firm leadership and heroic security forces.
By Chinthaka
Sunday 21 February 2010
Gotabaya Rajapaksa's imprint on Lanka will not be a footrint on the sands of time.
After a certain victory in the north, lovable General Denzil Kobbekaduwa came running and embraced him with fatherly affection. Before that the genial General shouted “Yako Gota umba hari yakek ne (Gota you did it)” He was the chosen one even then. Chosen one of the two most loved Generals of our times General Denzil Kobbekaduwa and Vijaya Wimalaratne.
Not only them, this battle hardened officer was loved by another no nonsense politician of our times, UNP minister of National Security, Ranjan Wijeratne. He did not want Gotabaya to leave the Army then. But, Ranjan knew that his hands were tied and it was no easy task to hold back officers like Gotabaya who had fought for the country for 20 long years. Though Ranjan wanted to end the war his leader at the time was not ready for it neither did they have a strategy to defeat the LTTE.
Though the cheap politician in Sarath Fonseka made vain and cheap attempts insult his former boss Gotabaya Rajapaksa during the elections, everyone including Ranjan Wijeratne knew that it was not possible to beat the LTTE then since he did not have wholehearted support and the leadership required. Let us also not forget that Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka never blamed or accused Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He was only full of praise and said the country couldn’t have done without Gotabaya.
Fighting went on. We lost out a lot to LTTE terror. Gotabaya and several good officers left the island. Some retired, some left the three forces, and some perished in vain. But, they left their hearts and souls in Sri Lanka , waiting for a time to return and put an end to terror. Yes. They waited and waited.
Gotabaya was never flashy person. He was simple and very humble. A family man who never even ate cake because he is a true vegetarian. His wife Ayoma is a charming and a simple lady, who stood by him then and now, with all her simplicity. They continue to live that simple life. Meet him and you will understand. I had the honour of meeting him along with several others during a Api Wenuwen Api function.
Their wait was long. The country waited. But, the believable change happened only when Mahinda Rajapaksa won against all odds and predictions defeating a weak Ranil Wickermasinghe who had left his heart in some foreign land. . Mahinda knew he could defeat terrorism and put an end to the misery Sri Lankans were going through. Gotabaya had returned to help his brother during the campaign and concentrated in the Kurunegala district. He had mobilised them well and people in Kurunegala rallied behind Gotabaya to make his brother the President of Sri Lanka.
Only correct decision Chandrika made during her tenure was to make Lakshman Kadirgamar the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka. Mahinda Rajapaksa made such a decision with the appointment of Gotabaya as the Secretary Defence. But, unlike the voluntary 2nd Lt Anuruddha Ratwatte, who accepted a Generalship and wore all kinds of uniforms and ridiculed the three forces, Gotabaya a battle hardened soldier decided to be a civilian Defence Secretary. Let us remember it.
It was a time the Sri Lankan forces had lost heavily men, equipment, morale and the propaganda war to the LTTE. The army could not even recruit adequate soldiers. Using his skills, Gotabaya started the Defence website which became an instant hit and counted the LTTE propaganda worldwide. It gave the true picture to the world whilst Tamilnet continued with its anti Sri Lankan propaganda. With the Api Wenuwen Api campaign Gotabaya Rajapaksa boosted the morale of the forces and the masses and people started to rejoin the army in large numbers.
There was a time when the Army failed to attract even 2000 to join the army. But, it was Gotabaya morale booster where he created welfare funds, housing projects for the forces, schools for their kids, proper place in the society which saw large numbers joining three forces and the police. We are told that he personally supervised them.
Gotabaya also made the forces high tech as never before. Many officers and soldiers who joined hands to defeat the LTTE paid tribute to the Defence Secretary for his vision which saved many lives. The Defence Secretary took care of the forces like a father would do. President Mahinda Rajapaksa had faith in that caring Defence Secretary brother of his and provided everything he could to save and protect his motherland.
People like Anuruddha Ratwatte, Chandrananda de Silva and Austin Fernando could not tell the difference between a real gun and a toy gun, they could not care for the rank and file. But, President Rajapaksa and the Forces had a man who really knew it, who was there in the heart of the battle field and cared for them.
He saw to the welfare of the forces. They were well looked after. He joined the three forces and the Police together at checkpoints and other areas when dealings with civilians. He improved the intelligence service tremendously which was considered very weak at the time. That was a high point of the countries victory against LTTE.
I have seen several articles by Dr Rohan Guneratne asking the country to improve the Intelligence operations saying it will lead to successful eliminating of the LTTE. Gotabaya did it. Let us not forget that he had a very tough task after Ranil Wickermasinghe and John Amaratunge’s foolish actions with the Millennium City debacle killed over 60 Intelligence officers of the Sri Lanka Army.
I would like to say that Sri Lanka should try Wickermasinghe and Amaratunge for it. They can reserve a room next to Sarath Fonseka or may be even Welikada for it. General Lionel Balagalle, General Hendavitharana and the families of all those Intelligence officers (mainly Tamil, Muslim and Malay) will say YES to it. The defence ministry which looked like an old Katchcheri looked like a defence ministry.
Unlike the previous Defence Secretaries he reached out to the masses. Because he could communicate. Gotabaya spoke from the heart. A BBC correspondent in Sri Lanka at the time had described Gotabaya as “Very refreshing” because he was sincere, frank and honest. He continues to be so even today though his detractors try to castigate him. Check why he gets angry?
ONLY when the forces are attacked and his country is looked down and betrayed. We have read in the media how Gotabaya gave a piece of his mind to the Foreign Minister for France, Bernard Kutchner. All for the sake of Sri Lanka.
Mahinda Rajapaksa gave the leadership as the Commander in Chief and his brother Defence Secretary as the head of the defence establishment led the war effort. It was no easy task for him to keep together Sarath Fonseka his Army Commander who refused to speak with his old classmate Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda. (We are told it was due to a difference they had at a swimming meet in Ananda.) But, Gotabaya kept them together He deserves a gold medal for it. He had to do the balancing act because he was well focused to end terrorism from the island nation.
Finally the country was doing well and defeating the LTTE. The opposition saw the winning team and started to target Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Only Gotabaya and his family know what insult the man had to undergo for spearheading the war effort. We are told his simplicity and discipline made him withstood all that. He also knew that he earned the love from the masses. Many say that they have seen tears in his eyes and how he had reached out to help the needy, when in trouble. He must be the only public official in recent times who decided to take a newspaper to court to clear his name. A friend of his said “He got nothing to hide. He will not hide anything. It pains him when people make false accusations. He got only the country at his heart.”
When you know the man you will know who really is. He does not wear a mask. He is who he is. He will be who he is. The man who loves Sri Lanka more than he cares for himself. People who criticize him today should know that they have failed to do an inch of what Gotabaya has done for Sri Lanka. He is a simple but a true hero.
Gotabaya's imprint on Sri Lanka will remain . No one will be able to erase it because his imprints are not mere foot prints in the sands of time.
By Ranmali Fernando
By Courtesy of www.transcurrents.com
20 February, 2010
Few good comments:
IF THERE WAS NO PEOPLE LIKE GOTABAYA AND MAHINDA JOINT TOGETHER WE WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DEFET TERRARISM SF CANNOT DO NOTHING IF THE LEADERSHIP CRUMBLED LIKE RANIL WITH INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE WE DID IT AND THE NATION SALUTE MAHINDA AND GOTABAYA THE MOST WITH AND ALL THE SECURITY FORCES. SO NO ONE CAN DENY THE CREDIT TO MAHINDA AND GOTABAYA FOR SURE.
Posted by: Anonymous
February 20, 2010 08:55 PM
It is my pleasure to thank the father of MR, Gota and Basil for the raise and educate of these brave Sinhalese heroes to our country. I humbly honored them and proposed to add their names to the Sri Lanka history. The unity and the family binding empowered these heroes to build the thrust without fear to administer the war defeating strategy and crush the LTTE terror force. Some folks have misunderstanding due to anti party politic criticism. This is time for you to memorise the tragic death of General Denzil Kobbekaduwa; he could not get this type of support; that was the main reason he lost his life and his battalion. So thanks to Rajapaksa family you did it.
Posted by: Somachandra Mutukuda
February 20, 2010 08:55 PM
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We totally agree with the author that Mr. Gothabaya Rajapaksa is a true hero. He is a very brave leader. There is no reason to exaggerate his service to our motherland. Only traitors, Tiger sympathizers, and Western politicians who can not tolerate his strait policies hate him very much. Current JVP leaders and brainwashed some JVP members also harshly criticize him (Mainly mud slinging) because of the jealousy and to fulfill the contract given by their Western Masters.
By Chinthaka.
Saturday 20 February 2010
India is my relation, the others are friends.
Mahinda Rajapaksa, a powerful and popular head of government and state, has the way cleared for him for the next six years and more. In a recent conversation with N. Ram lasting three-and-a-half hours at Temple Trees in Colombo, he covered, and answered questions on, a range of subjects. Excerpts from his on-the-record comments and responses:
I was not surprised [by the margin of victory, nearly 18 percentage points]. Because in the Provincial Councils, if you count the majority, it was 2.5 million. I knew that if you took 1 million out of that, I would have won with 1.5 million. And I knew what the pulse of the people in villages was. Even in Colombo district, outside the municipal area, they gave me a good majority. I knew from the start that my majority would be there.
And I am not surprised about the North-East results. I was encouraged by that. I had the election, I knew that people must vote, they must be given a chance to elect their own President. Twenty-six per cent, I am satisfied with it. In every village, I got some votes, didn't I?
Factors behind the decisive win
One thing is that people wanted experience – a politician to lead their country. I have been in politics for 40 years. Suddenly a military man coming in, I don't think people trusted him. They were frightened by the way that he talked, shouting at people, blackguarding people. He [Sarath Fonseka] showed his inexperience on economic affairs,
On mis-targeting
Actually, he never said anything about me other than a few words in the final days. Other than ‘I will take him and remand him.' ‘I will kick him out' – that was Somavansa [Amarasinghe, the JVP leader] and he endorsed it. ‘At 7 o'clock I will walk in there, take him into custody, put him into Bogambara [maximum security prison in Kandy] in a 2x2 cell.' He thought this was the Army! He was ill advised.
The whole campaign was against a family and it was all mud-throwing. Without politics, they were trying to personalise the campaign.
Rural Sri Lanka supported me in a big way. I feel that was because of the development in the villages. We had the village road development programme, the programme for the development of the whole village, the fertilizer subsidy, the ‘Grow More Food' campaign. Incomes for rural households rose sharply. From 1948 to 2005, the per capita income came up to $ 1000. During the period of my presidency, when the war was going on, it has gone up to $2200. With development, the lifestyle of the people had changed. They [the Fonseka camp] couldn't understand that.
If I had been in the Opposition, I would have addressed not anything else but the cost of living. Forget about everything else, just address that. When eventually they tried to address it, it was too late. We had the answers.
People in the villages didn't like the way they conducted the campaign: that they would try to take me into custody, kick me out, kill me. People don't like that. Villagers don't want that to happen. They [the Fonseka camp] miscalculated, failed to see the affection, the love people in the villages have for me.
In addition, suburban people voted heavily for me. Other than people in Colombo, and some people in Kandy and other cities, they voted for me. They wanted a peaceful life. They believed in democracy. I think our people are, in that way, very educated, very conscious about democracy. They didn't want a military man coming in.
Who got the credit for eliminating the LTTE?
People, by the way they voted, showed they gave the credit to me. Who built the Taj Mahal? Who is remembered by people as the builder of the Taj Mahal? Not the mason or the chief engineer, right?
On parliamentary election prospects
I think we will win the parliamentary elections very comfortably. The people will vote with us. Now they know the government is stable for seven years.
A two-thirds majority?
I think we will be able to get that, or at least close to that. Finally, Ranil Wickremasinghe's crowd is there to come back and join me, right [laughter]?
Cohabitation? Ranil as Prime Minister?
Oh, no problem but he won't do that [do well in the parliamentary election]! So the situation won't arise. You know that during the campaign, Ranil campaigned for me when he went to the Tamil areas.
He said, ‘ Poda, Mahinda Rajapaksa poda, Gotabaya poda, Basil poda [laughter].' People were shocked. I was talking in Tamil; he wanted to show that he also knew Tamil. And the first word he said was ‘ Poda, Mahinda poda [laughter].' He meant, ‘Don't vote for him, reject him.'
Role of opposition
The opposition must be able to contribute. They must criticise – constructive criticism but not mud-throwing all the time. Not opposing everything the government brings. This is the unfortunate thing in Sri Lanka. They oppose everything, whatever the government does. It's petty politics. The criticism is always personalised. The opposition must contribute to whatever solution we are going to bring to this North-East issue. Because what we want is permanent peace.
13th Amendment plus
The 13th Amendment was brought in a hurry, without studying the whole problem. There is a need to understand the geography of the country, the historical background of the whole problem. Without studying that, you can't bring a solution that is suitable for your country. It must be a practical solution.
The 13th Amendment is implementable at the moment other than the police powers. It is in the Constitution. I don't have to say I'm implementing it because it is implemented in the other areas. The land, everything is implementable. We had the [presidential] election [in the Northern Province] and we are going to have the Provincial Council election after this [parliamentary elections of April 8]. I thought I had to resettle the people [first]. Now there are fewer than 50,000 in the IDP camps; and many of them don't want to go.
The development-peace link
The west doesn't understand this. It doesn't know what's going in here. They're making statements. They ask about humanitarian assistance. I say I don't want humanitarian assistance! We will look after our people, provide them food. I can get down food from India any time. I said we want development assistance [for the North].
Without peace, there is no development; without development, there is no peace.
Tamils in the national police
Do you know we have taken about 500 Tamils from the Eastern Province and they are already in service? Now we are taking them from the Northern Province. In Jaffna, 7500 Tamils came for 450 places. They have been selected. [The President's Secretary, Lalith Weeratunga add: ‘The people selected have been security-screened and will be recruited [in the national police force] immediately after the election. This is an achievement, by any government.']
There was a campaign by the LTTE and the Muslim parties, Rauff Hakeem and some others, not to join the police forces and the Army. We had Tamil Army officers and even now we have Muslim [Army officers]. There was a campaign against joining. But now, after this [final victory over the LTTE], they have joined.
You should see their muscles! They have been trained well [laughs]. You don't have to train them again. The only thing is they must learn some police work. That's all, it's easy! We have good training institutes.
We can train adequate numbers. They will be in these [Tamil] areas mostly and we want to get them down to the South also. You've got to mix them.
Tamil-Muslim majority in Colombo
In Colombo, the majority is Tamil and Muslim. Twenty years ago, the Sinhalese were about 90 per cent; today, they're less than 30 [per cent]. The majority are Muslims and Tamils and there is no problem. The Mayor of Colombo is a Muslim [Uvais Mohamed Imitiyas].
Dialogue on devolution
Soon after these parliamentary elections, I will call all the leaders of the political parties and start talking to them. You know, I tried to get them down, the TNA [Tamil National Alliance], the Tamil parties, the Muslim parties. But they were not interested. They were not interested in solving this problem as long as [Velupillai] Prabakaran was there. Now they must understand that there is no option for them but to talk. I'm the President of the country, I'm the leader of the country, they must come and negotiate with me, have a dialogue with me. If they think they can't cope with me, new leaders will come up and I will have to deal with them.
On western antipathy to him
They don't like me. They don't like my independent views. My preference is for my country. Why should I be loyal to any other country? I'm not a green card holder, am I?
Close ties with Asian countries
They [India, China, Japan] were the countries that helped me to develop this country. As neighbours of the Asian group, they were very generous in offering us development assistance. This country needs development: infrastructure in the North-East and in the South. In the North and East, the conflict is over, we're one country. Now I want to develop the country. For development, these are the countries that helped me and I am ready to accept other countries to come and help me develop the country. We can look after the humanitarian… We give free food, free health care, subsidised fertilizer, transport assistance. We can afford that. But I want development assistance. I want roads, development of the power sector, hotels. And investment.
I have set new targets for tourism. I called the Tourism Board and said I was not satisfied with the present [rate of development]. I want to call the private sector. They're going to the Maldives and various other countries to invest their money. I am going to tell them to invest here. I want to get Indian companies, the Tatas and others, to invest in Sri Lanka.
On excellent ties with India
That's right. Because I'm very clear. When I say something, I stick to it. When I say ‘yes,' yes. When I say ‘no,' no. With India, I think I have been very clear in my policy. Consistent, never changed. They were a little worried about my connection with China. For development, China, Japan and all these [Asian] countries will come and invest. That is a different question. India is our close neighbour. I always say, ‘India is my relation. Others are my friends.'
On Sarath Fonseka's arrest
When I heard about all this earlier, when the intelligence agencies were reporting to me on all this, the Army would have taken him over [under military law]. They wanted to do that. But if at that time I had allowed that, they would have said that I was frightened of this man contesting.
I accepted his resignation as CDS [Chief of Defence Staff]. I could have declined to do that [under the special Act] and we could have charged him for what he had done, what the intelligence agencies were reporting on. But I didn't want to do that because the people would have said I blocked him from contesting.
I knew he was the best candidate I could get! It was very clear in the election. He couldn't get what Ranil Wickremasinghe got.
Even with the JVP, which supported me once and with all this alliance, he never got that vote. They had the biggest alliance against a contesting President. Ultimately, what happened?
Then [after the election] the Army came and said, ‘Sir, we have to take action for what he had done.' So I said, ‘All right, it's up to you. See if you have the evidence to arrest him. If you have evidence, certainly do it. But please consult the Attorney-General.' Gotabaya [Rajapaksa] was very cautious. He said ‘no,' otherwise they would have taken him [Fonseka] immediately [after the election results were announced]. Only after going through all the evidence was the Army given the green light to do what they wanted.
This is an enquiry [under military law] to see if there is a prima facie case against Fonseka. I don't want to get involved in the judicial process. One thing is that I am a lawyer myself, so I always respect the law. I never say anything against the courts, against the judges. [Except once when the last Chief Justice was trying to decide the price of petrol. I said that was the executive's, not the judiciary's, job.] My view is, ‘let the legal process go on.' I don't want to get involved in it. Discipline is an Army matter. If I get involved, Army discipline will go for a six. I don't want to do that. It is very important that democracy is restored.
Army law is very different from the general law. Now he has been taken by the Army. He is under the Army Commander. He is being given a luxury flat, the Navy Commander's chalet. If he had won, I would have been in Bogambara, in a 2x2 cell! He is allowed access to his lawyer, his wife is allowed to see him. She called my wife, who was at a banquet in Moscow; she was told, ‘ask for it and you will be allowed to see him' and she did. Doctors, everything possible is allowed. We don't want to harass him.
In Buddhism, they say, ‘for what you have done, there will be repercussions in this particular birth.' Good or bad, you don't have to wait till the next birth.
I always believe in God – Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and God. There is somebody who looks after us. They say that when Vishnu looks after you, no one can do you any harm. That's why I went to Tirupati [and prayed]: ‘Look after this country.'
If Fonseka had won
Had there been a different election result, there would have been a bloodbath. There would have been dead bodies everywhere. Burning houses and all that. Just before the election, even government servants were getting threatening letters saying ‘on the 26th [of January] we will come for you.‘
By Courtesy of www.hindu.com
20 February, 2010.
Sri Lanka, Iran mutual friends
Sri Lanka and Iran have maintained mutually beneficial and fruitful bonds of friendship and cooperation since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1962 and in recent times the ties have expanded considerably in political, economic and cultural fields.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister M.H. Mohamed declared so representing the government at the function held at Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel in Colombo on Thursday marking the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.
The Minister in the course of his speech recalled that the President of Sri Lanka and the President of Iran had exchanged visits in 2007 and 2008 and that both of them had stressed their firm commitment to further enhance the mutual cooperation in the political, economic, trade, cultural, educational, scientific and technological fields. The visits resulted in the signing of agreements and Memorandum of Understandings between the two countries in the fields of power supply and irrigation as well and the expansion of the oil refinery facilities in Sri Lanka. The agreements for operationalising the Uma Oya Multipurpose Development Project and the Sapugaskanda Oil Refinery Project are now in progress with the assistance of the Islamic Republic of Iran, he said.
Minister Mohamed also pointed out that the reflection of the increase in contacts between the two countries was due to the specific focus placed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on expanding ties between Sri Lanka and Iran since his assumption of office in 2005 and Iran continues to extend invaluable support for the socio-economic development of Sri Lanka.
Speaking on the occasion Islamic Republic of Iran Ambassador Mahmoud Rahimi Gorji, said that the people of Iran were proud of the fact that they were able to preserve their centuries old traditions and values and uphold their sense of independence and national identity. The country has made noteworthy advances over the years, especially with regard to eradicating illiteracy, economic growth, widening the scope of higher education and achieving vast advances in the areas of scientific technology, industry, mine and energy, he said.
The Ambassador added that Iran had also pursued its own independent foreign policy. Peaceful co existence, promotion of bilateral relations and extensive regional and international cooperation had been the corner stone of Iran's foreign policy. While establishing constructive and interactive relations with most countries, Iran also played an active role in various international and regional institutions, he said.
Touching upon Iran-Sri Lanka relations the Iranian envoy said that he felt happy to note that the relations between the two countries had been close and productive and that the ties had further expanded in recent times with new avenues of cooperation generated. Referring to the launching of the Uma Oya Project with Iranian funding amounting to USD 500 million the Ambassador said that the project would stand as a lasting testimony to Iran-Sri Lanka friendship. There is also the Rural Electrification project in Sri Lanka costing USD 106 million providing electricity to about 1,000 villages and a housing project in the Batticaloa district for which a grant of USD 1.5 million was to be provided by Iran, the envoy said.
Congratulating President Mahinda Rajapaksa over his receiving a strong mandate for a second term in office the Iranian Ambassador wished the President every success in his effort to reconstruct and develop the country.
By Courtesy of www.dailynews.lk
20 February, 2010
Yulia Tymoshenko drops Ukraine election challenge.
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has dropped her legal challenge against her rival's victory in Ukraine's presidential election.
Mrs Tymoshenko said the court was not interested in giving her justice in her case against winner Viktor Yanukovych.
The Kiev court had suspended the result when Mrs Tymosheko appealed on Tuesday, claiming the poll was rigged.
International monitors deemed the vote free and fair, and Mr Yanukovych is due to be inaugurated on 25 February.
Ukrainian Central Electoral Commission's declaration on Sunday that Mr Yanukovych had won the vote by a margin of 3.48%.
Mrs Tymoshenko complained that the court proceedings were biased against her.
"Given that the court is refusing to establish the truth in essence, I withdrew my lawsuit at today's morning sitting of the Supreme Administrative Court and asked the court to stop this show, which bears no resemblance to justice," she said.
Political deadlock
Mrs Tymoshenko had so far rejected Mr Yanukovych's appeals for her to accept defeat, claiming the election was marred by "systemic, fundamental and general falsifications".
As recently as Friday she had appealed for the poll to be declared void, saying: "I cannot accept double standards and I cannot give up".
The prime minister said more than a million votes, which she said were decisive to the outcome, were invalid.
But she said she would not call people on to the streets to protest, as she had done during the Orange Revolution after the 2004 presidential election.
Mr Yanukovych was pronounced the victor after that vote, only for the result to be overruled because of vote-rigging.
The uprising eventually brought Ms Tymoshenko's erstwhile ally, President Viktor Yushchenko, to power.
Ukraine has been in political deadlock for several years, undermining its ability to deal with a severe economic crisis. Analysts said Mrs Tymoshenko's challenge would only prolong the instability.
With Mrs Tymoshenko still heading the government, stalemate is likely to continue. Mr Yanukovych has said he wants to form a new coalition, and may try to call snap parliamentary elections.
By Courtesy of www.bbc.com
20 February, 2010
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Another classic example of the behavior of a defeated presidential candidate who was backed by the American Western Powers. Current Prime minister Mrs. Tymoshenko who was an obedient puppet politician of the Western powers can not except the people’s verdict and claim all kind of nonsense just to discredit the victory of Mr. Yanukovych. In the last presidential elections they reversed the victory of Mr. Yanukovych using Western funded media and organizing mass protest funded by millions of Western money. It was another artificial fascist revolution which brought former President Mr. Victor Yushchenko and Mrs. Tymoshenko to the power. Their coalition government completely ruined the ‘Ukrainian’ economy and created a great instability in the country. Even though now those puppets were defeated by a considerable margin they still could not come to term with their defeat and try to create instability using bogus claims.
That is very similar to what our defeated puppet politician’s behavior in Sri Lanka. Mr. Somahanse, An(ura) Kumara and UNP collations gang claim all short of nonsense just to discredit the victory of the President Rajapaksa. They challenge the people’s verdict by bogus claims such as ‘Computer Jilmat’. Now those idiot politicians have become real jokers in the eyes of the people. People no longer take them seriously. They have destroyed the credibility of the JVP which acted as a powerful pressure group in the past. It’s true that Mr. Vimal Werawanse said that in the past people looked at the JVP to decide what is right and wrong. It was people’s political compass. But now it behaves exactly opposite way thanks to current agent laders.
Further we would like to emphasis that we criticize JVP not because we hate it as a party. Even though we are not members we loved that part as it has done a tremendous service to our motherland. We want to clean that great people’s party and rescue it from the current western agents.
We don’t bother criticizing UNP, CMC or TNA politicians as we do not see any point doing so. They are born traitors and there’s very little chance that we could correct them.
By Chinthaka.
Friday 19 February 2010
Cult of Stalin continues to divide and conquer.
Moscow City Hall has approved hanging posters of Stalin throughout the city in the run up to Victory Day, but tempers are running high.
For years, Moscow authorities have received hundreds of requests from communists, veterans’ organizations and pensioners’ groups to use the image of Joseph Stalin in the celebrations for Victory Day.
This year they got their wish – the billboards will be put up around the city. There are reports that one of the posters is already up in the southwest of Moscow, a caller told the Echo of Moscow radio station.
At the same time, the city of Volgograd in southern Russia is celebrating the 67th anniversary of the victory in the battle of Stalingrad by producing a limited collection of boxes of carbonated water bearing the image of Joseph Stalin. There is considerable controversy on whether this image should be used.
This is not the first time that Stalin has reigned from the grave. In the end of 2009, in the city of Voronezh in southwestern Russia, there were 7 large billboards placed around the city commemorating the 113th anniversary of Joseph Stalin’s birth. It was not even the first incident in the city. In the summer of 2009, 10 billboards were paid for by the Communist party of Voronezh to commemorate the day when Russia entered World War II. They were eventually taken down three days later after a large controversy.
The move of Moscow City Hall has provoked a whole range of different reactions.
President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the billboards do not automatically imply a veneration of Joseph Stalin.
Predictably, the Communists have declared the City Hall decision as a very brave one.
Human rights activists say they will protest this decision, and that everyone who supports it is in favor of a return to those dark days of Stalinist oppression.
Surprisingly enough, Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union, said that these billboards around the city could result in widespread dismay. Instead of putting up these billboards, Gorbachev added, more should be written in the history books on Stalin’s role in World War II.
Boris Gryzlov, speaker of the State Duma, was also against the decision, saying that the victory was not Stalin’s merit, but that of Soviet people.
Vyacheslav Tetekin, a secretary for the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party, told RT why Stalin’s images are being put up around the city on Victory Day.
“Stalin is being perceived by the nation as the military and political leader who took the nation to the victory. The country needed industrialization. Without it, there would be no victory.”
General Zhukov, who is often viewed as a true hero, Tetekin said, was only “in charge of military operations while Stalin was running the whole economy, the back of the fighting force.”
“If it has not been for the war, Stalin would be a political leader of a different kind. His actions were driven by particular historic circumstances,” Tetekin added.
By courtesy of: www.rt.com
Published 18 February, 2010, 21:46
Edited 19 February, 2010, 10:07
Ukraine-Russia: friends will be friends.
Ukraine’s relationship with Russia has been on the rocks in recent years - but that is about to change, according to the incoming Ukrainian president.
By Courtesy of www.rt.com
18 February, 2010, 15:36
Sri Lanka opposition split after defeat.
Sri Lanka's opposition coalition has split after its defeated presidential candidate was detained on allegations of sedition, the group said Friday, further strengthening President Mahinda Rajapaksa ahead of April 8 parliamentary polls.
The coalition of four main parties and several smaller groups broke up after its biggest partner, the United National Party, decided to go it alone in the upcoming elections, said opposition official Vijitha Herath.
The split will weaken opposition prospects of checking Rajapaksa's power by taking control of Parliament after his re-election as president last month. Rajapaksa's ruling coalition controlled 128 seats in the 225-member legislature before it was dissolved earlier this month for the elections.
Oher opposition parties are now planning to form a new front with defeated presidential candidate Gen. Sarath Fonseka, Herath said.
The military arrested Fonseka almost two weeks after his election defeat on Jan. 26. Though charges against him have not yet been specified, government officials have alleged various offences from plotting to overthrow the government while in military service to taking kickbacks on arms deals.
Opposition parties describe Fonseka's arrest as punishment for daring to challenge Rajapaksa. Fonseka has accused the president of election fraud and has petitioned the Supreme Court to declare the presidential election void.
Rajapaksa and Fonseka were strong allies who together defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels last year, ending the country's 25-year civil war.
But they soon had a falling out, and Fonseka quit the army and ran for the presidency against Rajapaksa.
Meanwhile, the governing coalition United People's Freedom Alliance is trying to get celebrities to run as its candidates to attract more votes.
Susanthika Jayasinghe, a sprinter who became Sri Lanka's second ever Olympic medallist after winning the 200-meter women's silver medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and cricket star Sanath Jayasuriya will run for parliamentary seats, Information Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said.
By Courtesy of www.cbc.ca, CBC News
Friday, February 19, 2010 5:47 AM ET.
Thursday 18 February 2010
විෂ කුසලානය.
අලියාට පෑඟී හංසයා මියයයි.
කුසලානයෙන් වසබී සාමුහික සියදිවි නසාගැනීමකට
ජවිපෙ සැරසෙයි.
By Chinthaka
අපේ‍්‍රල් 8ට අවුරුදු දෙකයි. අපි හරිද? වැරදිද?- විමල් වීරවංශ අසයි.
තමන් ඇතුළු කණ්ඩායම ජවිපෙ නායකත්වයේ වැරදි තීරණ වලට එකඟ නොවී එම තීරණ වලට එරෙහිව අභියෝග කරමින් ලාංකීය දේශපාලනයේ බරපතල තීන්දුවක් ගත්තේ 2008 අපේර්ල් 08 වැනිදා බවත් එම තීන්දුව වැරදිද නිවැරදිද යන්න හරියටම වසර දෙකකට පසු මහජන අධිකරණය ඉදිරියේ මෙම අපේරල් 08 වැනිදා විනිශ්චයට ලක් වීමට නියමිත බව ඔහු පැවසීය.
ඉදිරි පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සංයුතිය පිළිබද රටේ පොදු මහජනතාව ගන්නා තීරණය අනුව රටේ ඉදිරි ගමන තීරණය වනු ඇති බවත්, මේ වන විට ලංකාවේ ජනයා නිවැරදි තීන්දු ගණනාවක් ගන්නට තරම් බුද්ධිමත් වී ඇති නිසා රටට ඉතාම හිතකර තීන්දුවක් ඔවුන් විසින් ලබා දෙනු ඇති බවටත් ඔහු විශ්වාසය පල කලේය. තමන් ඇතුළු කණ්ඩායම ගත් දේශපාලන තීරණය මවුබිමට ජයගරුහණ ගෙන ආවා මිස, මවුබිම සුරක්ෂිගත කලා මිස මවුබිමේ හතුරන්ට වාසි ගෙන දුන්නේ නැති බවත් ඔහු වැඩි දුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වීය.
2010 පෙබරවාරි 18 වෙනි බ්‍රහස්පතින්දා, 21:53 LANKA C NEWS
By courtesy of www.lankacnews.com
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ජවිපේ සහෝදරවරු විමල් වීරවංශ සමඟ පුදුම
වයිරයක් තියෙන්නෙ. මොන වරදක් කළාටද?
ඇත්ත කියලා නිවැරදි ජාතිහිතේශී මඟ ගත් නිසාද?
ජවීපෙ වත්මන් ඒජන්ත නායකයින්ගෙ ඇම ගිළලා
වීරවංශට ඉතා පහත් විදිහට ඇති තරම් මඬ ගහනවා .
ඩොලර් වලට කහින බොරු විප්ලවවාදීන්.
By Chinthaka.
Wednesday 17 February 2010
ලැජ්ජා නැති කම.
බ්‍රිතාන්‍යයෙ ඉන්න ජෙනරල් සරත් පොන්සේකාගෙ ජේවීපි
ආධාර කරුවන් පෙත්සන් අත්සන් කරනවා අගමැති බ්‍රවුන්ට පිලිගන්වන්න.
අනේ අපොයි සහෝදරවරුනි ලැජ්ජා නැති කම මහමුදලි කමට වඩා ලොකුයි.
අපේ අභ‍‍‍‍යයන්තර කටයුතු වලට ඇඟිලි ගහන්න එපා කියලා නෝර්වෙට
විරුද්ධව පෙළපාලි ගිය සහෝදරවරු දැන් අගමැති ගෝඩන් බ්‍රවුන්ට අයදිනවා
අනේ අපේ සත්ගුණවත් පොන්සේකා මැතිතුමාව නිදහස් කරන්න අණ කරන්න
කියලා. බලන් ඉන්න සහොදරවරුනි ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ භය වෙලා හෙටම
පොන්සේකා මහත්තයාව නිදහස් කරාවි.
By Chinthaka.
Fonseka's statements encouraging pro-LTTE groups: Sri Lanka.
Describing vanquished opposition presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka's taking support from pro-LTTE groups like TNA as a "great betrayal", the government on Wednesday said his actions helped rebel sympathisers in the West to stoke anti-Sri Lanka sentiments.
"A substantially negative impact has been made on the sovereignty of the country through the irresponsible statements of General Sarath Fonseka," senior Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said.
Participating in the programme by the state owned Sri Lankan Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) yesterday, Yapa said when (the Pro-LTTE) Tamil National Alliance (TNA) took measures to support Fonseka, LTTE-friendly groups in Britain and France, endorsed these measures by conducting processions.
Yapa who recently gave up the Mass Media Ministry to enable President Mahinda Rajapakasa to takeover the portfolio, said Fonseka had no political experience
Yapa, who is now Minister of Investment Promotion told a radio programme that it was a "great betrayal of the country" on the part of General Fonseka who made these statements based on "hatred".
"The President who has defeated terrorism has been working hard to defeat the terrorist ideology as well.
However, the rash statements made by Fonseka have further strengthened the terrorists' concepts," he said.
The President has been successful in giving a new outlook to the national development drive, the minister said.
He said during the last 4 years, massive development programmes have been underway throughout the island and that people living in Sri Lanka have a good understanding of these activities.
The people have voted at the recent presidential election to extend their gratitude to the President for ending the war, the minister said.
It is widely acknowledged all over the country that traditional voters of the main Opposition UNP party in large numbers decided to vote for the President this time, he said.
"The people have rejected false propaganda carried out by the opposition during the period of the presidential election," the Minister said.
"It has been proven that the people can never be deceived through propagation of false stories and that people always remain intelligent when taking decisions," he said.
Those who question the validity of the presidential election result are actually undermining the genuine opinion of the country’s majority.
The people will never endorse such invalid and baseless accusations," Yapa told the radio.
The people will rally-round the President once again at the upcoming election to set up a strong government, he said.
By courtesy of: www.indianexpress.com
Wednesday, Feb 17, 2010 at 1510 hrs
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කොටින්ගෙ අඩුව පුරවමින් මවුබිමට විනකරන
ජාතියේ හතුරො.
කාගෙ කොන්ත්‍රාත්තුවක්ද මේ කරන්නෙ කියලා
ජනතාවට තේරුම්කර දිය යුතුයි.
By Chinthaka
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