Red Lion News

What you don't know about Gaddafi.

2011-07-24T13:38:00.000-07:00

'US picks wrong allies again, cannot accept defeat in Libya'

2011-07-17T05:20:00.000-07:00

Source: www.rt.com

16.07.11

Libya Gaddafi And The New World Order

2011-07-17T04:40:00.000-07:00

Source: http://mathaba.net/news/?x=627569

Comments from the People:

Stop the aggression in Libya, wrote::
[Moammar al-GADHAFI is] A legend. The one and only! How many more years will we have to wait to see a politician who dares to expose all the fakes? If the media honestly translated all his speeches, the world would be on his side.

I, Christella Bernardene Krebs ‎replied @ S.T.A.I.L..:
BUT THEY WILL NOT TRANSLATE al-GADHAFI CORRECTLY! They are either ignorant or they are afraid of his real thoughts (which are marvelous and a wonder)!
In 1999, Pierre Salinger wrote on the dust jacket of al-Gadhafi’s book of miscellaneous writings about the problems of translation of al-Gadhafi’s beautiful, poetic and sometimes allagorical words. He mentions that one must have a thorough understanding of The Bible, the Quaran and unadulterated ancient world history. Also Arabic is more exact in some of its meanings than English. Still, with explanation footnotes, this CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED, as it was accomplished with “Escape into Hell and Other Stories”. Find a copy, it is exellent reading for a basic understanding of al-Gadhafi…But then there is also the BRAINWASHED MENTALITY of most Westerners: They automatilly think of Mao’s “RED-BOOK” when one mentions “THE GREEN BOOK”—They refuse to even look at it, believing it to be a Communist Manefesto….although, al-Gadhafi himself, on its very first introductory pages, openly refutes and condems communism.

Most people of the West have been conditioned to be totally “closed-minded”; although they will vehemently deny that. Still, ask them some questions on Africa; and see what their answers will be. (PROBABLY TOO HILARIOUS TO EVEN REPEAT!) This is a great Tragedy—
BUT I must reitterate the old adage: A prophet is never recognised in his own time….Very sad indeed. Gadhafi is a MUJJADID, undeniably YES. Also, as I expressed before:The peoples of the West are mesmorized and do not know the truth. They have been put in a BIG SLEEP by the NWO. Their lives are totally controlled by the Banksters. They have been fed, since infants, by the corrupt Mass Media.The fact is, their world is literally crumbling as I write; and they refuse to see this! What will it take to awaken the West? The whole west is in financial and spiritual collapse and they refuse to accept the reality. Anyone who tries to shake them out of their stupor to smell the roses again, is ridiculed and made into a joke—or even worse—they feel a need to “EXTERMINATE” ! as if that will cure their disasterous ills! How much longer can they go on with their false scenarios before they fall flat on their dark FAIRY tale. Can they survive not seeing the LIGHT of DAY ? Something has “got to give”!

Wall Street’s ‘rebel’ minister
A key person who can help these corporate predators is the newly appointed finance minister of the National Transition Council, Ali Tarhouni. Tarhouni left Libya in 1973 for the U.S. He taught economics at the University of Washington Graduate School of Business, specializing in stock analysis. He consults widely and sits on a number of corporate advisory boards. (tibra.org/awards/2002/judges/t...
Tarhouni was a key participant in a 1994 conference on “post-Gadhafi Libya” hosted by the Washington Center for Strategic and International Studies. He promoted privatization and regional economic integration at the conference, which was also attended by various groups with ties to the National Endowment for Democracy — a conduit for the CIA.
Tarhouni was the political coordinator for a National Conference of the Libyan Opposition in Seattle. The NCLO was founded in London in 2005 and is centered on the National Salvation Front, with a history of CIA connections. (“Post-Qaddafi Libya on the Globalist Road,” Foreign Policy Journal, Feb. 26) Tarhouni is Wall Street’s point man in the pro-imperialist would-be government

http://www.workers.org/2011/wo...

Protest Rally against the Channel 4 in London

2011-07-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

There will be a protest rally against the Channel 4’s malicious campaign to tarnish Sri Lanka’s and our arm force’s image.

Address: Channel 4 Television Station, Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 2TX

Nearest underground: St. James’s Park.

Date and Time: Sunday 17^th July 2011, 1pm-5pm

If you can, please participate. If you live out side the UK then please let your friends who live in the UK know about this protest.

Channel 4 documentary ‘Sri Lanka Killing Fields’ which was broadcasted on the 14^th June 2011 at 11.06pm. If you couldn’t watch it then you will be able to watch it by clicking on the following link:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/sri-lankas-killing-fields/4od#3200170

Chinthaka

Channel 4 Original Video of LTTE Killings (Tamil Voices)

2011-07-07T10:34:00.000-07:00

Libyan People resist NATO aggression: Green Square (Tripoli, Libya) - 1st July 2011

2011-07-05T06:10:00.000-07:00

Green Square (Tripoli, Libya) - 1st July 2011 from Libya News on Vimeo.

Tripoli bombings hit Britons’ in the wallet.

2011-06-20T11:45:00.000-07:00

As civilian deaths in Libya grow, anger mounts among the Western taxpayers footing the bill for the military intervention. The conflict is expected to cost one of its key players, the UK, hundreds of millions of pounds.

Britons are already calling it the “billion-pound war”. It is calculated that if the military campaign in Libya goes on for six months, it will cost the British taxpayer US$1.6 billion. But that initial “humanitarian mission” is now a “get-rid-of-Gaddafi” operation – and that could take a lot longer.

“Assuming their goal is simply to oust him from power, one imagines this is not going to end until he is killed or leaves office, so this could potentially drag on for months more. And as we see, they’ve already extended the operation by another three months,” journalist James Corbett said.

That is unlikely to be popular with a British public that is watching government spending like a hawk right now – already furious at seeing services and jobs slashed. Even so, Downing Street’s war wallet is open, and it is taking the lead in Libya.

Data gathered by Britain’s Guardian newspaper from defense ministries and news reports shows that Britain has flown 25 per cent of all sorties in Libya, second only to the US. By the second week of May, 6,000 strike missions had been ordered.

Blogger Daniel Renwick says the UK is likely to have weighed up the cost. But with a warm wind blowing westwards from Libyan rebels and youth movements, Britain reckons a billion pounds is a pretty good investment.

“It’s about having control of North Africa’s resources, particularly Libya’s crude oil, which is easily accessible. Sales have already started to be made through the transitional council,” he told RT.

Some bombs cost up to $1.5 million dollars each, and with the UK cutting defense spending, it seems unlikely they will be replaced. And when you’re dealing with such big numbers, small things make a big difference.

“The Eurofighter Typhoon [aircraft] costs 90,000 pounds an hour [to operate], so small changes in the number of hours you estimate produce big changes in cost estimates. I would go for the upper end,” Shank Joshi from the Royal United Services Institute said.

Wars are always expensive, but the costs back home could prove more difficult to afford. Next in line to strike are a million public sector workers, who are being asked to work more and get less. The disruption to services could run into weeks.

The commitment to continue in Libya for however long suggests a blank check at a time when there is little in the kitty. The deployment of Apache helicopters does not appear to have given NATO the tactical advantage it hoped for; and every time a plane takes to the sky or drops a bomb, the cost for Britain and its beleaguered European neighbors creeps higher and higher.

www.rt.com

20.06,11

Million Man, Woman and Child March in Tripoli, Libya.

2011-06-20T11:32:00.000-07:00

The Libyan people have been demonstrating and showing their adherence to their historic hero, Colonel Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi, who seized power from a corrupt ignominious king in 1969 and handed to to the masses on 2nd March 1977 when the world's first self-governing masses society came into existence, thanks to direct participatory democracy by way of people's conferences and people's committees.

Since then, Mu'ammar has dedicated his life to the people of Africa and the world, speaking truth to power,putting forward solutions to the problems facing humanity, and left The Green Book as his legacy to all future generations.

Since his address to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2009, in which he called for reform of the organization, he has been targeted for elimination by those who control the UN Security Council.

www.mathaba.net

19.06,11

NATO official: Gadhafi a legitimate target

2011-06-10T03:49:00.000-07:00

(CNN) -- A U.N. resolution justifies the targeting of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, a senior NATO military official with operational knowledge of the Libya mission told CNN Thursday.

The resolution applies to Gadhafi because, as head of the military, he is part of the control and command structure and therefore a legitimate target, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official was not authorized to talk to the media.

Asked by CNN whether Gadhafi was being targeted, the NATO official declined to give a direct answer.

But NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu disputed the claim, saying the alliance was not specifically targeting Gadhafi.

"We are targeting critical military capabilities that could be used to attack civilians, including command and control centers that could be used to plan and organize such attacks," Lungescu said.

"We are simply not targeting individuals."
NATO has been ramping up pressure on the regime, employing helicopters last weekend for the first time against Gadhafi's forces. Explosions are heard often in Tripoli, evidence of allied air strikes.

NATO intervened in March in the months-long civil war under a U.N. mandate to protect civilians as Gadhafi tried to crush the revolt against him.

The resolution adopted by the U.N. Security Council authorized "all necessary measures," with the exception of a ground invasion, to protect civilians.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday it is time to start planning for what to do in Libya after Gadhafi's departure "because Gadhafi's reign of terror is coming to an end."

But Gadhafi has refused to step down, going so far this week as to do a live audio broadcast as NATO warplanes bombed his Tripoli compound.

"We will not surrender," he said during Tuesday's broadcast.

NATO recently announced its decision to extend its mission in Libya by 90 days.

www.CNN.com
10.06.11

----------------------------------------------------------------------

What about killing Prabakaran and his terrorist gang? Is killing them a war crime?

But killing a leader of a country is not a war crime. Such a hypocrisy. What kind of animals are these ‘Nato’ fascists?

මුන්ට පිස්සුද? අපිට පිස්සුද ?

Chinthaka
10.06.11

Libyan NATO rebels force captured Libyan army soldiers to eat raw dog meat

2011-06-08T15:25:00.000-07:00

YouTube is full of evidence such as this, proudly recorded by NATO's "Libya rebels" on their mobile phones, and without any condemnation whatsoever by NATO countries.

Other videos widely circulated but too graphic to display on a news agency web site, include the cold blooded murder of a surrendered soldier who said his heart is with Muammar Qaddafi, was then beheaded while handcuffed, and his heart cut.

www.mathaba.net

08.06.11

What is this? These are the real war crimes. Why the west keep their silence on these crimes while accusing Sri Lanka of war crimes.

Chinthaka

Aircraft carrier left us to die, say migrants

2011-05-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

Exclusive: Boat trying to reach Lampedusa was left to drift in Mediterranean for 16 days, despite alarm being raised

Refugees from Libya reach Lampedusa. A warship failed to rescue a boat in trouble – leaving 61 people on board to die.

Dozens of African migrants were left to die in the Mediterranean after a number of European military units apparently ignored their cries for help, the Guardian has learned. Two of the nine survivors claim this included a Nato ship.

A boat carrying 72 passengers, including several women, young children and political refugees, ran into trouble in late March after leaving Tripoli for the Italian island of Lampedusa. Despite alarms being raised with the Italian coastguard and the boat making contact with a military helicopter and a warship, no rescue effort was attempted.

All but 11 of those on board died from thirst and hunger after their vessel was left to drift in open waters for 16 days. "Every morning we would wake up and find more bodies, which we would leave for 24 hours and then throw overboard," said Abu Kurke, one of only nine survivors. "By the final days, we didn't know ourselves … everyone was either praying, or dying."

International maritime law compels all vessels, including military units, to answer distress calls from nearby boats and to offer help where possible. Refugee rights campaigners have demanded an investigation into the deaths, while the UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, has called for stricter co-operation among commercial and military vessels in the Mediterranean in an effort to save human lives.

"The Mediterranean cannot become the wild west," said spokeswoman Laura Boldrini. "Those who do not rescue people at sea cannot remain unpunished."

Her words were echoed by Father Moses Zerai, an Eritrean priest in Rome who runs the refugee rights organisation Habeshia, and who was one of the last people to be in communication with the migrant boat before the battery in its satellite phone ran out.

"There was an abdication of responsibility which led to the deaths of over 60 people, including children," he claimed. "That constitutes a crime, and that crime cannot go unpunished just because the victims were African migrants and not tourists on a cruise liner."

This year's political turmoil and military conflict in north Africa have fuelled a sharp rise in the number of people attempting to reach Europe by sea, with up to 30,000 migrants believed to have made the journey across the Mediterranean over the past four months. Large numbers have died en route; last month more than 800 migrants of different nationalities who left on boats from Libya never made it to European shores and are presumed dead.

Underlining the dangers, on Sunday more than 400 migrants were involved in a dramatic rescue when their boat hit rocks on Lampedusa.

The pope, meanwhile, in an address to more than 300,000 worshippers, called on Italians to welcome immigrants fleeing to their shores.

The Guardian's investigation into the case of the boat of 72 migrants which set sail from Tripoli on 25 March established that it carried 47 Ethiopians, seven Nigerians, seven Eritreans, six Ghanaians and five Sudanese migrants. Twenty were women and two were small children, one of whom was just one year old. The boat's Ghanaian captain was aiming for the Italian island of Lampedusa, 180 miles north-west of the Libyan capital, but after 18 hours at sea the small vessel began running into trouble and losing fuel.

Using witness testimony from survivors and other individuals who were in contact with the passengers during its doomed voyage, the Guardian has pieced together what happened next. The account paints a harrowing picture of a group of desperate migrants condemned to death by a combination of bad luck, bureaucracy and the apparent indifference of European military forces who had the opportunity to attempt a rescue.
The migrants used the boat's satellite phone to call Zerai in Rome, who in turn contacted the Italian coastguard. The boat's location was narrowed down to about 60 miles off Tripoli, and coastguard officials assured Zerai that the alarm had been raised and all relevant authorities had been alerted to the situation.
Soon a military helicopter marked with the word "army" appeared above the boat. The pilots, who were wearing military uniforms, lowered bottles of water and packets of biscuits and gestured to passengers that they should hold their position until a rescue boat came to help. The helicopter flew off, but no rescue boat arrived.

No country has yet admitted sending the helicopter that made contact with the migrants. A spokesman for the Italian coastguard said: "We advised Malta that the vessel was heading towards their search and rescue zone, and we issued an alert telling vessels to look out for the boat, obliging them to attempt a rescue." The Maltese authorities denied they had had any involvement with the boat.

After several hours of waiting, it became apparent to those on board that help was not on the way. The vessel had only 20 litres of fuel left, but the captain told passengers that Lampedusa was close enough for him to make it there unaided. It was a fatal mistake. By 27 March, the boat had lost its way, run out of fuel and was drifting with the currents.

"We'd finished the oil, we'd finished the food and water, we'd finished everything," said Kurke, a 24-year-old migrant who was fleeing ethnic conflict in his homeland, the Oromia region of Ethiopia. "We were drifting in the sea, and the weather was very dangerous." At some point on 29 or 30 March the boat was carried near to an aircraft carrier – so close that it would have been impossible to be missed. According to survivors, two jets took off from the ship and flew low over the boat while the migrants stood on deck holding the two starving babies aloft. But from that point on, no help was forthcoming. Unable to manoeuvre any closer to the aircraft carrier, the migrants' boat drifted away. Shorn of supplies, fuel or means of contacting the outside world, they began succumbing one by one to thirst and starvation.

The Guardian has made extensive inquiries to ascertain the identity of the aircraft carrier, and has concluded that it is likely to have been the French ship Charles de Gaulle, which was operating in the Mediterranean on those dates.

French naval authorities initially denied the carrier was in the region at that time. After being shown news reports which indicated this was untrue, a spokesperson declined to comment.

A spokesman for Nato, which is co-ordinating military action in Libya, said it had not logged any distress signals from the boat and had no records of the incident. "Nato units are fully aware of their responsibilities with regard to the international maritime law regarding safety of life at sea," said an official. "Nato ships will answer all distress calls at sea and always provide help when necessary. Saving lives is a priority for any Nato ships."

For most of the migrants, the failure of the ship to mount any rescue attempt proved fatal. Over the next 10 days, almost everyone on board died. "We saved one bottle of water from the helicopter for the two babies, and kept feeding them even after their parents had passed," said Kurke, who survived by drinking his own urine and eating two tubes of toothpaste. "But after two days, the babies passed too, because they were so small."

On 10 April, the boat washed up on a beach near the Libyan town of Zlitan near Misrata. Of the 72 migrants who had embarked at Tripoli, only 11 were still alive, and one of those died almost immediately on reaching land. Another survivor died shortly afterwards in prison, after Gaddafi's forces arrested the migrants and detained them for four days.

The route of the boat

Despite the trauma of their last attempt, the migrants – who are hiding out in the house of an Ethiopian in the Libyan capital – are willing to tackle the Mediterranean again if it means reaching Europe and gaining asylum.
"These are people living an unimaginable existence, fleeing political, religious and ethnic persecution," said Zerai. "We must have justice for them, for those that died alongside them, and for the families who have lost their loved ones."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/08/nato-ship-libyan-migrants

Russian math genius answers $1 million question

2011-05-09T04:05:00.000-07:00

Reclusive Russian math genius Grigory Perelman finally explained his rejection of a $1 million prize for solving a problem that has puzzled scientists for over a century, the Russian newsru.com website reported on Friday.
"Emptiness is everywhere and it can be calculated, which gives us a great opportunity ... I know how to control the universe. So tell me, why should I run for a million?" Perelman said in an interview with journalist Alexander Zabrovsky, quoted in Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda

In March 2010, the Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI) of Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced that Perelman, 43, would be awarded the million dollar prize for proving the Poincare conjecture, one of seven problems on the institute's Millennium Prize list.

Perelman declined the prize.

"I learned how to calculate voids, along with my colleagues we know the mechanisms for filling in the social and economic voids," he said.

The conjecture, first proposed by Henri Poincare in 1904, posits that the three-sphere is the only type of bounded three-dimensional space possible that contains no holes.

Perelman presented proofs on the conjecture in 2002 and 2003. Several high-profile teams of mathematicians have since verified the validity of his proof.

In 2006, Perelman refused to attend a congress in Madrid where he was to receive a Fields Medal, often called the Nobel Prize of mathematics.

Perelman calls himself a "man of the Universe." It is rumored that his brain is already estimated to be worth $1 million or more, Komsomolskaya Pravda said.

Perelman, who lives in a small apartment in St. Petersburg with his elderly mother, is unemployed and neighbors say he lives in poverty. He has rejected job offers at several top U.S. universities.

MOSCOW, April 29 (RIA Novosti)

Russia celebrates Great Victory.

2011-05-09T03:23:00.000-07:00

Saving the world economy from Gaddafi

2011-05-06T12:00:00.000-07:00

Some believe it is about protecting civilians, others say it is about oil, but some are convinced intervention in Libya is all about Gaddafi’s plan to introduce the gold dinar, a single African currency made from gold, a true sharing of the wealth.

“It’s one of these things that you have to plan almost in secret, because as soon as you say you’re going to change over from the dollar to something else, you’re going to be targeted,” says Ministry of Peace founder Dr James Thring. “There were two conferences on this, in 1986 and 2000, organized by Gaddafi. Everybody was interested, most countries in Africa were keen.”

Gaddafi did not give up. In the months leading up to the military intervention, he called on African and Muslim nations to join together to create this new currency that would rival the dollar and euro. They would sell oil and other resources around the world only for gold dinars.It is an idea that would shift the economic balance of the world.

A country’s wealth would depend on how much gold it had and not how many dollars it traded. And Libya has 144 tons of gold. The UK, for example, has twice as much, but ten times the population.

“If Gaddafi had an intent to try to re-price his oil or whatever else the country was selling on the global market and accept something else as a currency or maybe launch a gold dinar currency, any move such as that would certainly not be welcomed by the power elite today, who are responsible for controlling the world’s central banks,” says Anthony Wile, founder and chief editor of the Daily Bell.

“So yes, that would certainly be something that would cause his immediate dismissal and the need for other reasons to be brought forward from moving him from power.”

And it has happened before.

In 2000, Saddam Hussein announced Iraqi oil would be traded in euros, not dollars. Some say sanctions and an invasion followed because the Americans were desperate to prevent OPEC from transferring oil trading in all its member countries to the euro.

A gold dinar would have had serious consequences for the world financial system, but may also have empowered the people of Africa, something black activists say the US wants to avoid at all costs.

“The US have denied self-determination to Africans inside the US, so we are not surprised by anything the US would do to hinder the self-determination of Africans on the continent,” says Cynthia Ann McKinney, a former US Congresswoman.

The UK’s gold is kept in a secure vault somewhere in the depths of the Bank of England. As in most developed countries, there is not enough to go around.

But that is not the case in countries like Libya and many of the Gulf States.

A gold dinar would have given oil-rich African and Middle Eastern countries the power to turn around to their energy-hungry customers and say: “Sorry, the price has gone up, and we want gold.”
Some say the US and its NATO allies literally could not afford to let that happen.

www.rt.com

06.05.11

Gaddafi's daughter whips supporters into a frenzy with speech in Tripoli

2011-04-16T14:59:00.000-07:00

Aisha Gaddafi tells a roaring crowd her father will not step down – 25 years after US forces bombed his Tripoli compound

Aisha Gaddafi addresses a crowd of her father's supporters at the Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli. Photograph: Pier Paolo Cito/AP

They gather nightly, ready to die for the Brother Leader. Wrapped in loyalist green, waving flags, chanting slogans, holding aloft portraits of their "Guide", singing, dancing and praying, they are Muammar Gaddafi's human shields against Nato air strikes.

In the early hours of Friday, exactly 25 years after US forces bombed Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound in central Tripoli, thousands gathered in defiance of the new international coalition against the Libyan regime's brutal efforts to suppress the uprising from the east.

Whipped up by loyalist chants led from loudspeakers and patriotic songs, they were already in a state of fervour when Aisha Gaddafi, the Libyan leader's daughter, appeared high in the skeleton of a bombed-out building.

Against a backdrop of the shattered facade and draped in a flowing headscarf of green and gold, Aisha pumped her fists at the crowd as they roared and ululated their approval.

Just a few hours earlier, Nato warplanes had flown sorties over Tripoli. Explosions and responding gunfire and anti-aircraft fire echoed around the capital, destroying at least one military site and causing blast damage to a nearby university cafeteria.

Aisha's message was one of uncompromising defiance. Referring to the strike in 1986, she said: "They rained down on us their missiles and bombs, they tried to kill me and they killed dozens of children in Libya. Now a quarter of a century later the same missiles and bombs are raining down on the heads of my and your children."

Below her was a statue of a giant golden fist crushing a western warplane in its grip. The throbbing crowd – mainly men, but including hundreds of women separated to one side – appeared intoxicated on love and loyalty.

"Talk about Gaddafi stepping down is an insult to all Libyans because Gaddafi is not in Libya, but in the hearts of all Libyans," Aisha told them. "Gaddafi said if the Libyan people don't want me I don't deserve to live. The Libyan people responded, 'He who doesn't want you does not deserve life'."

Half a dozen of Gaddafi's fabled female protection guards stood to the side as Aisha spoke, some with their faces covered, amid an atmosphere akin to a hyped-up football crowd crossed with a rock concert.

The cult of Gaddafi is evident across the capital. Huge portraits of him – saluting with a stern expression, beaming with his hands clasped, silhouetted against the rays of a rising sun – hang from buildings. Many in the crowd on Friday night wore miniature laminated versions on green ribbons around their necks.

"I love him more than my husband," said Randa Mohamed, 28, her voice hoarse from shouting and chanting. "We will never leave him. I will do anything to protect him."

This overt display of loyalty fractures when rare opportunities for rushed conversations out of earshot of the ubiquitous regime minders and informants arise. "He must go for the sake of Libya," is a view expressed in whispers. These few glimpses beneath the surface are always accompanied by visible fear at the possibility of being overheard and punished.

But in the Bab al-Aziziya compound, there was only one message: devotion to Gaddafi and hatred of Nato and Libya's rebel opposition. "We will never give up. Victorious or we die," ran one chant.

As the foreign media were escorted from the compound at the end of Aisha's speech, the "Zenga Zenga" song blared from speakers. The words are taken from a speech by Saif al-Islam, Aisha's brother and Gaddafi's son, early in the conflict, in which he pledged to hunt down the rebels.

"House to house, room to room, alley to alley, person to person we will disinfect the whole country from filth," it goes. "Zenga Zenga" – alley to alley – has now become part of loyalist Libya's lexicon, a chilling term of approval among people in Gaddafi's grip.

http://www.guardian.co.uk

15.04.11

Libya: Where William Hague got it wrong.

2011-04-15T11:45:00.000-07:00

Just who the Hell is this freak to say Gaddafi must go?

William Hague. A conceited, self-opinionated and arrogant wannabe politician so typical of little men with little lives, whose only claim to fame is to have got it so monumentally wrong about Libya and to have sided with terrorists who fought against British troops for Al-Qaeda.

William Hague, a failed politician fighting his corner in perhaps the most hated government in British history using Libya as an excuse to turn the attention away from the disastrous social policies of his party which ruined his country in the 1980s and early 1990s - reveals himself today as an abject failure as a Foreign Secretary, arguably the worst insult to British and world diplomacy in the annals of history.

Little William Hague is a protagonist, eternally searching for a front to hide behind, an excuse for his sad little existence and a cover for the extreme unpopularity of his Tory party. And like all protagonists, William Hague has jumped the gun.

Time after time after time, that whiny, tinny little voice on TV, that self-righteous tone of the British northerner-cum-toff (it never quite comes off, does it?), claiming that "Gaddafi" used weapons against innocent civilians, that NATO is there to defend civilians against a "dictator" and that "Gaddafi must go". Now just who the Hell is this...freak...to say anyone should go, in their own country? What kind of imperialist arrogance is that, coming from this apology for a man?

If anyone should go, it is Hague, the traitor, whose sheer arrogance and unadulterated barefaced lies match the priggishness of their delivery and the pig-headed imperialist orgy they betray. And why? Because the Libya debacle was primed and prepared in (where else?) the USA decades back, failed once, in (where else?) Benghazi in the mid 1990s and now that the oil companies have finally got their foot in Libya, it's time to go for it before the oil companies could be nationalised.

Colonel Gaddafi never attacked innocent civilians - he is fighting against Al Qaeda terrorists controlled by a criminal who recruited the same Benghazi fanatics to fight against British troops in Iraq and to kill British soldiers in Afghanistan. One wonders whether William Hague, the traitor, would dare to show his featureless face and bald pate in the market town of Wootton Bassett, where the bodies of British servicemen are repatriated after arriving at RAF Lyneham air base.

I invite him to walk around Wootton Bassett with a placard stating "I am supporting the Islamist fundamentalist terrorists from Benghazi, the ones who hate Colonel Gaddafi because he spoke out against stoning women and killing men for being homosexuals, and for calling the Moslem veil a tent, the ones who yell Allahu Akhbar like their British-hating friends in Afghanistan and who were recruited there to fight against our troops". That is precisely what William Hague is doing and anything he states to the contrary is a pig-faced lie.

Here is their Foreign Secretary, a traitor, lying about a causus belli, failing to see that the Libyan authorities are as hugely popular in most of the country as they have been successful in fighting against the Benghazi terrorists and foreign mercenaries drafted in to cause havoc across the country, now thankfully confined to Misrata and the far East. Here is their Foreign Secretary taking the side of Al Qaeda terrorists and aiding and abetting exactly the same elements who have fought against and killed British troops elsewhere.

William Hague is, in a word, a traitor. While his aircraft carry out missions supporting Islamist terrorists in Libya, wasting up to 50,000 pounds per hour per aircraft, the people of his country tighten their belts. If he had not jumped the gun, the "rebellion" would long ago have been put down in Libya, which would now be living in peace and the traitors who took up arms against the Government would have been liquidated, punished or pardoned.

What he has done is to involve his armed forces in a battle which is already lost, in a fight which is wrong. He has taken the wrong side and painted himself into a corner, his desperate plight now getting other NATO countries to shoulder some of the cost because his darling terrorist rebels are losing the battle.

If anyone should go, it is William Hague, the traitor who supports the sworn enemies of his own people, who supports Al Qaeda terrorists against a sovereign government and who wastes millions of pounds of his taxpayers' money on taking sides in a battle which has nothing to do with him. Who the Hell is this freak to say Colonel Gaddafi must go. Why? For fighting against Islamist terrorists?

Next time around, maybe William Hague should lock himself in a hotel room with a, er..."special advisor" (third picture) and get some of it out of his system before inflicting himself and his pent-up closeted frustrations on the international community. What is it with these British politicians?

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru

DAYLIGHT ROBERRY BY EVIL EMPIRES.

2011-04-04T15:31:00.000-07:00

They have the authority to rob and kill who ever they want and destroy any country they want in the name of Democracy. Is it trurly Democracy or cold blooded murder? Any right minded person tell me whether these destroyers of the earth doing in LIBIYA is correct because I dont understand this cruel world. When our war heros saved thousands of civillians from destruction and death during the last phase of the Elaam war this cruel evil Empire questioned us and that Black witch Pillai make a big fuss regarding human rights etc and now what the USA,FRANCE,BRITISH AND the ass lickers in the Middle East doing, destroying and killing thousands of innocent civillians no one is questioning and no one to stand up against these criminal activities of the west. There should be someone or a group to counter their evil minds and stop these massacres of innocents.

Those white evil killers kill the people for entertainment and destroy property to test their equipment and hardware and later to sell back their arms and ammunition. They openly rob oil and the wealth of the country they destroy.They did in Iraq,Afganistan now in Libiya what next? How come when the legitimate government is there anyone can do deals with the outside world? Who gave the rebels the authority to sell oil to Qatar and other countries. How come Turkey is planning to run the Airports in other countries without permission? Isnt it pure roberry of a another country? All these Arab countries and the evil western nations rob the whole country in daylight and no organization or Governemnt have the power to put a stop for this undemocratic way of doing things in this civilized world. It’s a shame.

“They killed our youths and elders for entertainment, during the night they smoked Marijuanna and opium and in the morning they go and kill our people” quote from HAMID KARZAI the Afgan President. This is how they AMERICAN,BRITISH AND THE WESTERN STOOGES AND hypocrits,killers and destroyers do to the innocents in the whole world. They dont have any shame, in the pretext of terrorism they kill as they wish. Russia,China and the rest of the world should stand up and tell these bastards enough is enough otherwise there wont be any civilized country left in this world. What is that Monkey Moon doing? Why not sending his troops to Bharain,Yemen and do the same like in Libiya? How many were killed in Bharain and Yemen and what they did to their people why not Pillai the bitch doesnt question those Governments? Thank God we have a great leader who stood tall against those cowards and hypocrits. Though small we are straight forward in telling the world in one voice that we are against the wrong doing of the evil empires. If not for the courage of our President we too would have been in the same soup.

Hugo Chavez is the only leader who talks against these criminals openly and I hope decent leaders in this world should wake up and call to stop this massacre in LIBIYA. Who ever is right or wrong in this conflict should not allow so many countries to come and destroy one country like this. It’s a sovereign country and it should be respected. Every two to three years these Evil empires get together and destroy a country they themselves choose. Their main aim is to rob countries wealth nothing else. They pretend that they are friends of the country and enter and loot the wealth in daylight. From 2001 still they couldnt catch BIN LADEN or his second in command? Al QEDA is all over the place and they kill innocents in thousands and our most modern evil empires cannot do anything. They are helping new AL QEDA groups in the world and armed them. They want terrorism to go on in this world so they can sell their arms and ammunition to stupid countries in this cruel world. Why any country follow America I dont understand They are not truely a friend. They leave their friends when in trouble and take the sides of terrorists. If Brotherhood comes to power in Egypt just imagine the situation? Hezbollah in Lebnon,Hamas in Palstine,Brotherhood in Egypt and Iran on top. Will there be any peace for America in that situation? They will dig their own graves sooner or later. The evil Empires will have to beg in years to come because of their behaviour. I hope we can see that day very soon.

All peace loving countries and the people should get together and say in one voice to these cowboys stop all these massacres in this world or should not follow them and say Yes to them in any world forum like in UN or other world bodies. We should fearlessly object to their demands and requests and show courage and true democracy. We should not bow down to these white slaves. Asia must take the lead role. The countries sould be like Russia and China without interfering in other countries and help others and be friendly with all. This is the true democracy helping your own people and helping others in a friendly way without giving pain and sorrow to others. How many die per day how many without hands and legs due to wars. How many have lost their loved ones, properties and wealth due to dirty wars? Why these criminal America and westren so called International community doesnt understand or hear the cries of millions around the world? What is the purpose in having world bodies like U.N. Commonwealth,Human rights etc if there is no truth and fair play in this world? What about Ivory Coast? Why Obama the great peace maker doesnt take any action there? Why not go there and start another war? Maybe they dont like coffee much? I read so many articles and we write so many articles but what’s the use when we see this cruel world do as they pleased and make millions of people homeless,miserable and starvation. Who will understand the value of a human life? How many are getting killed in Pakistan daily? Why these killers target innocents? What is the difference between Terrorists and America,France and British together? They both do the same killing innocents in broad daylight. Please stand up for PEACE around the world. Let’s be friends with everybody not enemies.Lets help each other instead of hatered and wars. We the humans are all same although we are born in diffrenet colors and countries and to diffrent Mothers. All religions preech PEACE and LOVE so let it be and say in one voice NO to WARS and indiscriminate killings of innocents.

Hands off LIBIYA and other poor countries around the world. You bloody barbarians stop killing innocent civillians and learn to respect other nations. Human rights watch dogs treay every country alike and with respect and dignity. Lead this world in the right path and PEACE not WAR and destruction. Learn from our beloved country how to win WAR AND PEACE. Thanks to our War heros we managed to put a full stop to terror and destructions.

May we all live in PEACE AND HARMONY. RESPECT HUMAN LIVES AND ALL RELIGIONS IN THE WORLD AND MAKE THIS WORLD A WONDERFUL PLACE TO LIVE.
MAY LORD BUDDHA PROTECT OUR LAND FROM THESE LAND GRABBERS,WEALTH GRABBERS AND VULTURES OF THE WEST.

Ranjit Wickremeratne.
01.04.11
www.lankaweb.com

One Response to “DAYLIGHT ROBERRY BY EVIL EMPIRES”

Ben_silva Says:
April 3rd, 2011 at 12:40 pm Some in UK have questioned why Western nations did not attack Sri Lanka to protect the civilians, as the Western nations are doing in Libya now. This is a coded message asking why Western nations did not attack Sri Lanka, to protect the terrorists they created. History shows that Western nations are evil and they have killed millions of people all over the world. No supernatural power has helped any one in the world, ever, defend against aggressors. Lord Buddha did not protect Nalanda Buddhists and neither did he protect us from invading Tamils or invading Western imperialists.. If we want to protect our selves then the only way is to have a defence strategy and stop depending on ancient belief systems that even Indians do not believe. If we want extinction as our aim, then it is easy to achieve it by ignoring defence, as happened to Nalanda Buddhists. Some Tamils and Norwegians are hell bent on sending us to extinction, by promoting ancient belief systems, that will prevent us from thinking critically.

Reason for war? Gaddafi wanted to nationalise oil.

2011-04-01T02:47:00.000-07:00

he Libyan leader proposed the nationalisation of U.S. oil companies, as well as those of UK, Germany, Spain, Norway, Canada and Italy in 2009.

On January 25, 2009, Muammar Al Gaddafi announced that his country was studying the nationalisation of foreign companies due to lower oil prices.

"The oil-exporting countries should opt for nationalisation because of the rapid fall in oil prices. We must put the issue on the table and discuss it seriously," said Gaddafi.

"Oil should be owned by the State at this time, so we could better control prices by the increase or decrease in production," said the Libyan leader.

These statements have worried the main foreign companies operating in Libya: Anglo-Dutch Shell, British Petroleum, U.S. ExxonMobil, Hess Corp., Marathon Oil, Occidental Petroleum and ConocoPhillips, the Spanish Repsol, Germany's Wintershall, Austria's OMV , Norway's Statoil, Eni and Canada's Petro Canada.

In 2008, the Libyan state oil company, National Oil, prepared a report on the subject in which officials suggested modifying the production-sharing agreements with foreign companies in order to increase state revenues.

As a result of these contract changes, Libya gained 5.4 billion dollars in oil revenues.

On February 16, 2009, Gaddafi took a step further and called on Libyans to back his proposal to dismantle the government and to distribute the oil wealth directly to the 5 million inhabitants of the country.

However, his plan to deliver oil revenues directly to the Libyan people met opposition by senior officials who could lose their jobs due to a parallel plan by Gaddafi to rid the state of corruption.

Some officials, including Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi, Ali Al-Mahmoudi and Farhat Omar Bin Guida, of the Central Bank, told Gaddafi that the measure could harm the country's economy in the long term due to "capital flight."

"Do not be afraid to directly redistribute the oil money and create fairer governance structures that respond to people's interests," Gaddafi said in a Popular Committee.

The Popular Committees are the backbone of Libya. Through them citizens are represented at the district level.

"The Administration has failed and the state's economy has failed. Enough is enough. The solution is for the Libyan people to directly receive oil revenues and decide what to do with them," Gaddafi said in a speech broadcast on state television. To this end, the Libyan leader urged a radical reform of government bureaucracy.

Despite this, senior Libyan government officials voted to delay Gaddafi's plans. Only 64 ministers from a total of 468 Popular Committee members voted for the measure. There were 251 who saw the measures as positive, but chose to delay their implementation.

Given the rejection of the Committee, Gaddafi affirmed before a public meeting: "My dream during all these years was to give the power and wealth directly to the people."

So...another big LIE falls by the wayside, the false image of Ghaddafi the dictator who robs from his people.

So far we have had pictures of pro-Ghaddafi demonstrations being portrayed as being against him. The professional, foreign and Photoshop nature of anti-Ghaddafi posters being bandied about were noted, along with signs being held upside down by people not knowing the alphabet placed on the signs.

We have had pictures of one sided battles where heavily armed terrorists are "fighting" with nobody. We have had reports, glaringly false, that Ghaddafi was fleeing the country.

We have had more than enough reports of bombings against his own people that never happened, as well as attacks against "unarmed civilians" that proved to be incorrect. It is patently obvious that there are no "unarmed civilians" involved in these actions against Ghaddafi, but CIA and other intelligence service mercenaries, foreign elements and Al Qaeda.

It has been brought to light that the living standard in Libya is the highest in Africa and that Libya was to be commended for its human rights record.

How many lies do we have to catch them in before somebody in charge buys a clue? It's no sale!

They try to portray Ghaddafi as crazy when he speaks of fighting Al Qaeda and now they have to admit it's true.

Two documents strongly back Gaddafi on this issue, according to the findings of Alexander Cockburn.

"The first is a secret cable to the State Department from the US embassy in Tripoli in 2008, part of the WikiLeaks trove, entitled, "Extremism in Eastern Libya," which revealed that this area is rife with anti-American, pro-jihad sentiment.

The second document, or rather set of documents, are the so-called Sinjar Records, captured al-Qaeda documents that fell into American hands in 2007. They were duly analysed by the Combating Terrorism Center at the US Military Academy at West Point. Al-Qaeda is a bureaucratic outfit and the records contain precise details on personnel, including those who came to Iraq to fight American and coalition forces and, when necessary, commit suicide.

The West Point analysts' statistical study of the al-Qaeda personnel records concludes that one country provided "far more" foreign fighters in per capita terms than any other: namely, Libya."

So who is the crazy one? Obviously that gang of lunatics savagely launching attacks on Libya based on the worst collection of lies in the history of the world. If you want to know where they are headed, just look at their track record, littered with genocide, theft and destruction.

More and more evidence is surfacing that this entire operation has been planned from outside (read U.S. and EU) for quite some time. First surround (Egypt and Tunisia), then invade. Wesley Clarke revealed the laundry list which included Libya.

In the U.S., there is a particulary motley group of interventionist war mongers who don't know what they're doing: Susan Rice, Hillary Clinton and Samantha Power, obviously sexually frustrated and repressed man hating lesbians who want to prove they are he-men.

We are also seeing attacks on residential areas, many civilians being killed. There have been attacks on Ghaddafi's living area, a clear attempt at assassination. Today intelligence also reports they plan a ground invasion. The fascists of the west never change. The term "humanitarian bombing" reminds of George Orwell doublespeak.

One can only heartily agree on Gaddafi's statement: They are "a group of crazy fascists that will end in the garbage dump of history."

History will surely judge them on the same page as Adolph Hitler.

www.english.pravda.ru

25.03.11

Open letter to Mssrs. Obama, Cameron, Sarkozy

2011-03-31T14:50:00.000-07:00

Dear President Obama, President Sarkozy and Prime Minister Cameron,

Thank you for caring about the welfare of human beings. Thank you for your concern about the safety of innocent civilians.

As you will be aware, the United Nations Organization had planned, this month, to pay homage to Muammar Al-Qathafi for his human rights record, after a carefully researched report was drawn up, praising him for his tremendous humanitarian work not only in his own country but across the African continent, where he is much respected.

Now a question. If a group of carefully trained heavily armed citizens seized power, burnt buildings, massacred civilians and destroyed government property in, say, Texas, Northern Ireland or Corsica, what would the authorities of your countries do? Stand back with their hands over their hearts or meet the challenge with armed security forces? You do know who started the massacres in Benghazi?

Another question. Where did all those former Libyan flags come from? Were they lying around somewhere in Libya for the last half-century or were they manufactured overseas, as was the Libyan "Revolution"?

Actually, a series of questions. Did you know that Muammar Al-Qathafi inherited the poorest country on Earth and turned it into the best in Africa in human development indices? Are you aware of the tremendous amount of good Muammar Al-Qathafi has done and continues to do across the African continent?

Were you aware that Libyans enjoy free housing? Have any of you implemented nationwide free housing policies in your countries?

UN Resolution 1970 (2011) forbids the supply of weaponry to the "poor unarmed civilians" (aka armed terrorists) running amuck in Libya. Why are the "rebels" then sporting sophisticated and heavy weaponry? Why are weapons being smuggled to them through the Egyptian frontier, so conveniently secured and from the west across the Tunisian frontier, the first stage of Operation Grab Libya's oil?

Who is supplying this weaponry and why is there not an independent investigation, now? UN Resolution 1973 (2011) forbids the deployment of troops in Libya. This includes special forces. What are they doing there, then? Why are they training the terrorists?

As you know, a similar uprising in Iraq was put down by your friend, the Prime Minister's troops, who opened fire killing 29 in Baghdad. Why haven't your free and independent media said a word about this? What is your policy on Yemen where the military forces of your friend the President are killing poor unarmed innocent civilians? Where is the No Fly Zone over Yemen, or Bahrain?

Why do you keep insisting you are not taking sides, when your air forces are bombing military columns from one side but facilitating the advance of the other? If that is not taking sides, I don't know what is. Why are you lying to your people?

What justifies the strafing of civilian facilities, which goes totally against the remit under Resolution 1973? Why are you attempting to murder Muammar Al-Qathafi and his children? How would you feel if someone murdered a member of your family?

You do know the origin of these wonderful unarmed civilians running around with heavy weaponry chanting Allahu Akhbar, do you not? You do also know that Muammar Al-Qathafi was one of the first figures to outlaw Al Qaeda? And you will be aware, of course, that Al Qaeda is indeed operational in Libya and has seized some sophisticated weapons systems which no doubt will be used tomorrow in a terrorist attack?

And you will be aware of the role played by AQIM in the Libyan uprising of course? Nicolas can ask Chad's President Idris Deby - he speaks French. Do you speak French President Obama? Prime Minister Cameron? You do know that AQIM has links to Al Qaeda and you also realise that in helping the "innocent civilians" you are also helping AQIM and therefore recognise that you are in fact aiding and abetting Al Qaeda?

The Americans will need no reminding what happens when you start arming Islamist fanatics, as per Afghanistan - the payback and thank you note was 9/11.

You do know that Islamist fundamentalism has been brewing in Benghazi for decades, that many members of the "Revolution" have been trained in Afghanistan, and that Al-Qathafi had caused fury there in Benghazi by daring to declare himself against stoning of women for "adultery" and the death penalty for homosexuals? Of course you also know that he stirred up rage in Benghazi by calling the Islamic veil a "rag" and a "tent"? You will be aware that the sentiment against him in Eastern Libya is because he has been throwing Islamist fundamentalists into jail, and for daring to say Christians and Jews should be allowed to visit Mecca?

Why have the Libyan information websites been taken down? Why are your governments practising cyber terrorism alongside the terrorist attacks with military equipment?

How comfortable do you feel, and I address myself to Mr. Cameron here in particular, about closing down hospitals in your country while the cost of the operation is, just in flying costs, somewhere like 50.000 pounds per aircraft per hour? To help Al Qaeda set up a base at the gates of Europe?

Do any of you know what in fact you are doing? Or are you driven by the desire for a war to bolster flagging support at home? You did realise that Colonel Muammar Al-Qathafi has a higher popularity rating inside Tripoli than you have in your capital cities?

Once again, you have jumped the gun inventing some Quixotic cause to justify your own ineptitude and to satisfy the energy and weapons lobbies which in fact run your policies. You three are the most disgusting examples of useless, spineless incompetent wannabe protagonists who have, in Libya, shown an extremely high degree of irresponsibility.

That having been said, if you want an exit strategy, here it is (because I have no doubt you are collectively unable to formulate one for yourselves). Accept the Libyan government's ceasefire, stop the campaign NOW and allow the African Union to step in and broker a deal. Stop arming terrorists, stop wasting your taxpayers' money (the bill for the Americans is already in the hundreds of millions; for the British and French many tens of millions already. How many maternity wings, how much school accommodation or medication against cancer would that fund? "Sorry Mr. Jones. We cannot continue with your treatment because the NHS does not have that type of funding. In the six hours you have been waiting to be seen, your Government has spent 300.000 on a single aircraft's sortie over Libya"). Helping Al Qaeda.

Sterling job, chaps! Tell you what...you are unfit to be in your positions. If anyone "has to go" it is you three. And this time, if I receive one single death threat in my mails (which usually follow this sort of article) I shall be investigating the source. This time I shall be implacable and shall not simply delete them.

www.english.pravda.ru

28.03.11

නේටෝ ප්රහාරයන්ට එරෙහිව කොළඹ උද්ඝෝෂණ.

2011-03-24T05:49:00.000-07:00

Innocent Rebels in Libya??? who has got ‘Multi Barrel Rocket Launchers in this short period of time ..

2011-03-24T05:43:00.000-07:00

Photo: www.nytimes.com
10.03.11
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/world/africa/10libya.html

This photo tells the story behind the nature of the innocent protesters in Libya. Even Sri Lankan Government had to struggle to get those MBRL (Mobile Multi Barrel Rocket Launchers) in our fight with LTTE. Even after 30 years LTTE couldn’t buy them unless they seized from our army. These so called innocent civilian protesters turn into rebels got those heavy weapons overnight. The West is telling us to believe their fairy tale. This operation against ‘Libya’ has been planned since long time and their eye has been ‘Libya’s on the vast energy and other resources in Libya. Libya is going to be Western Cannibal’s next prey after ‘Iraq’. UN is their cover where they hide and their tool of trapping the victim. Their media is one of their weapons. I think these bogus media men should be legitimate targets of the ‘Libyan’ government in their fight against the ‘Fascist Evil Western Empire and their evil ambitions.

Chinthaka

24.03.11

Children die in Israeli attack on Gaza, say doctors.

2011-03-22T15:02:00.000-07:00

Four Palestinian family members, including two children, have died in Gaza, in an Israeli artillery strike.

Another 12 people were wounded when an Israeli tank shell hit a home on the eastern outskirts of Gaza City.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said it was an unfortunate mistake, but added that was "the price of dealing every day with the terrorists".

22.03.11
www.bbc.co.uk

Libya costing Britain £3 million a day.

2011-03-22T12:12:00.000-07:00

The cost to Britain of air action in Libya is running at around £3 million a day, defence experts said yesterday.

Based on the total amount spent on British air intervention in the Kosovo conflict, the Royal United Services Institute has calculated the cost to the tax payer of the Libyan campaign could reach £100 million within four to six weeks.

This includes Britain’s share of over 120 cruise missiles fired at Libyan positions since Saturday night. These cost over £500,000 each. However their use is likely to decrease now that military planners have satisfied themselves that Gaddafi’s air defences have been effectively destroyed.

It also includes the additional cost of air support to monitor the no-fly zone and intervening against Gaddafi’s forces on the ground.

For every hour spent in the air the cost of operating Britain’s Tornado GR4 and Typhoon aircraft is £35,000 and £70,000 respectively.

These figures, released earlier this year by the MOD, include servicing, fuel costs, crew costs, training costs, as well as the cost of the planes and depreciation.

The Typhoon cost per flying hour reflects the build-up of the fleet and the MOD is likely to argue that the additional cost of the Libyan operation will be less as, even in peace-time, both planes make regular training flights.

However the cost does not include the possibility of damage or loss to any aircraft during the operations.

Professor Malcolm Chalmers, fellow in British Security Policy at the RUSI, said as operations continued the cost would fall.

“It is hard to see how you would keep up the same intensity of operations for six weeks,” he said. “Either you have significantly destroyed Gaddafi’s military capability or he has found a way to hide it. In both cases I cannot see the same level of intensity of operations continuing in the longer term.”

What is unclear is whether it each country in the coalition will have to bare it own military cost or whether it will be spread out amongst others who are taking a less active role in the campaign but none the less support its aims. That has not been agreed and may depend on its success.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/libya-costing-britain-3-million-a-day-2249628.html

Calls grow for allies to stop air strikes on Libya

2011-03-22T03:26:00.000-07:00

Libyan War- An Imperialist Aggression and lessons to learn.

2011-03-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to understand what's really happening in Libya as we only see & hear Western Bias Media Mafia reports just like about Sri Lanka when our country forces conducted war against LTTE Terrorists. The Western Aggressors & Imperialists who are after Libyan oil hiding their true motive behind the 'Freedom' and 'Human Rights' of the people. They have blocked nearly all the independent channels of information about 'Libya' (‘Jana’ Libyan Official News Agency site, www.allibiya.com, etc.). Now only people can hear & see Western version of the events in Libya which are coordinate by western Intelligent Agencies to fulfill their evil ambitions. These Western Media Outlets and Journalist are just like warriors who work according to the Western Military agenda. They also have recruited network of paid and unpaid agents and western supporters in those countries who write blogs, post comments in websites and write ‘Tweets’, emails, SMS and ‘Facebook messages’ etc. regularly on their behalf. They are the part of ‘artificial revolutionaries’ who work to fulfill Western cold imperialist ambitions.

We had the similar information war situation when Sri Lankan forces fought with ruthless LTTE and lots of misinformation were spread by Western Bias media (BBC, CNN, Aljazeera, Reuters, tamilnet, lankathruth, and many other foreign and local media outlets and websites) with the help of the internal and external enemies and paid agents. But luckily Mr. Gothabaya Rajapaksa had thought about it in advanced. He had initiated a reasonably sophisticated website: www.defence.lk which served a lot to counter that misinformation and gave to the world true picture what had happened in the front.

Col. Moammar Gadhafi may not be an angel but he is not a corrupt leader compared to many 'Arab Kings' (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, etc.) and Emirs (Qatar, UAE etc.) or Puppet presidents like in (Yemen) and many other Arab and countries all over world. He is a 'Nationalist' and kind of a revolutionary who has his own idea about democracy and socialism in Libya according to the context of the Libyan society. We cannot solely rely on the Western borrowed democracy to develop a country. (Good example is ‘China’). At least he did not allow the Western powers to indiscriminately rob the country’s oil wealth. He rather used the income for the benefit of his own people at least a big portion of the income.

See this paragraph from the following article in www.mathaba.net:

http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=626216

‘Given the fact that in most of the developing countries the system of tax collection is not in place, and fiercely resisted by the business sector, the oil revenue serves as a source for the country’s annual budget that facilitates road construction, water desalination, electricity production, refinement of oil, subsidized fuel, food and transportation, not to mention free education, healthcare and housing.

For a moment, let us shed a glance at the health indicators of Libya:

Health Indicators		Libyan Jamahiriya	Middle East & North Africa	World
Infant Mortality Rate {b}, 2000-2005		25	52	55
Under-Five Mortality Rate {b}, 2000		20	64	83
Life Expectancy at birth (years), 2000-05
	Female	73	70	68
	Male	69	67	64
Births Attended by Trained Personnel,
	1994-2000 {c}	94 %	67 %	57 %
Adults and Children Infected with HIV/AIDS,
	2001 (number)	7000	500000	40000000
Percent of Adults Ages 15-49 infected
	with HIV or AIDS, 2001:	0.2 %	X	1.2 %
Safe Water and Sanitation {c}
Access to Improved Sanitation, 2000
	Urban:	97 %	91 %	85 %
	Rural:	96 %	70 %	40 %
Adult Literacy Rate, 2002
	Female:	71 %	61 %	75 %
	Male:	92 %	80 %	86 %
Youth Literacy Rate (ages 15-24), both sexes:
	1980:	79 %	67 %	80 %
	2002:	97 %	86 %	87 %

Between the years of 1980 and 2000, the life expectancy in Libya has increased by 20 years, which happened not by chance. (Statistical data provided by Earth Trends, Country Profiles).’

That's why the greedy west doesn't like him. They like leaders like in 'Nigerian' or 'Congo' and many other ‘Arab, African, Latin American and Asian countries (Indirect Dictators, corrupt democracy). We also had this type of democracy under Mr.J.R. Jayawardena and Mr. R. Premadasa. America and West want to install such a regime in ‘Libya’ at any human cost as a remedy to their recent economic woes. They only know very well how to conquer and rob other counties from the centuries experience. They are like group of hyenas. Cleverly encircle and kill their pray and divide the blood and flesh between them. That their way of life during the past centuries. Without plundering, exploiting, robing other countries they cannot have the luxury lives they are used to have. But only percentage of the people in the west actually live good lives compared to the amount of money they rob from other countries.

Please see the following link to understand what the western, American intelligent agencies have done to block all uncontrolled information coming out from 'Libya'. This is the main part of their evil imperialist war. ‘Information War using disinformation’

http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=626085?flattr

http://mathaba.net/news/?x=626216

I am also very disappointed about the behavior of 'Russia' and 'China' in this situation. We thought that there is some kind of a protection to the vulnerable small countries by these two powerful countries from the Western Evil Imperialism. Now it seems that money matters for them than anything else. It is very difficult to understand that Russia became so stupid that broke the faith of their friends. They haven't learnt the lession at least from ' Col. Gadhafi'. Col. Gadhafi later trusted the West (May be he didn't have a choice as after Iraq he knew that their country would have been the next target as rich with Oil and big reserves of Natural Gas). Col. Gadhafi may have not expected this scenario or he didn’t know how to prepare for it as a soldier. He and the people around him didn’t know the importance of the information war front. He may have just bought planes, missiles and anti-aircraft systems but didn’t even bother to by few servers to run .lb web extension in Libyan soil. Those servers are in USA and Americans have blocked most the Libyan websites.

Sri Lanka has also a good lesson to learn. Don’t rely on those big brothers like India, China, Russia etc. anymore as they can betray you as pawns for their profits and benefits. Self-reliance is the best option in every aspect (Economy, Food supply, defense etc.). We should increase our food production, increase the defense capabilities, up to date information technology and well-funded media and information front. We also need to have many friendly countries both regionally and around the globe.

It’s very important that we should have a highly sophisticated ‘Intelligent Agency’ with highly trained and highly skilled agents both locally and internationally well placed to counter any threat to our countries national interests. This agency should not be used for internal political motives. This is very important for the safeguard of the national security and interests. This organization can monitor the young politicians, journalists, diplomats and other important officials from their youth to make sure they don’t betray their country and work against the collective national interests and security of the country. They also need to monitor those ‘Bloggers, websites, NGO’s etc. They need to recruit the best graduates from our universities for that agency. Sophisticated Intelligent agency is very important organization for a country if we need to develop it to a higher level. Otherwise our enemies and the counties jealous about our development could easily destabilize and also could reverse all of the developments in matter of days by false revolutions using various internal and external groups and foreign funded politicians and their political parties. Mr. Gothabaya you are an IT man and lived in USA about 15 years. You know better than us how political system in USA works and what role CIA plays in their National Security and Interests. The situation is the same in England as the intelligent agencies like MI5 work for their national interests and security. Finally my conclusion is that we need highly sophisticated Intelligent Agency which work both locally and internationally to our country to go forward. This is the best lesson we can learn from the current situation in ‘Libya’.

Chinthaka

Independent News about Libya:

www.mathaba.net

Libyan TV:

http://en.ljbc.net/home.php

Other western independent news websites for regional news:

http://www.cubanews.ain.cu/worldnews.htm

http://english.cntv.cn/20110320/101034.shtml

http://www.presstv.ir/

http://www.globovision.com/

http://venezuelanalysis.com/

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/index.htm

News Papers:

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article1556012.ece

Some comments from the people for an article published in: www.rt.com

http://rt.com/politics/libya-russia-security-council-un/

PR101 March 18, 2011, 15:38 quote

Russia can now do one the last decent thing on the matter of Libya: just shut up! Russia had the chance to prevent this impending war against Libya and it has chosen to tacitly support military strike vote lead by the usual imperialists by its vote of absenting. I do not blame Russia for this since China and Brazil and India but also wise Germany also voted for take this dubious option. If Germany had the courageous to vote absenting from this aggressive war Russia should have the moral courage to vote no. But that did not happened; thus, we can assume that Biden’s recent trip to Moscow was successful. Only what is clearly demonstrated here is Russia is no global leader; that Russia’s weakness cannot be masked and that called Brick bloc does not represent an alternative to the unilateral global dominance of the empire. We know Russia cannot resist the will of the empire and that is sad and tragic but Russia is not the Soviet Union. It is insecure country, headed by clearly insecure President. We just have to wait and see how things unfold from this point onward.

Goran March 19, 2011, 10:34 quote

I just don't understand. I do not understand why Russia did not block this. And then to have anyone from the Russian government warn about a possible invasion? What an insult. What happened to Russia?

Nothing could have stopped Russia from resisting if it wanted to, so I wonder what Biden offered Medvedev that's only going to be renegged in all likelihood like everything else they say they'll do. I wonder why Medvedev would allow it, knowing that the US is already violating the very arms embargo it supported and got into effect on Libya.

NL123 March 19, 2011, 12:03 quote

These "peaceful protesters" just happened to wonder into military bases (took a wrong turn did they?) arm themselves and (by pure coincindence, you understand) they siezed the strategic oil refinery locations in the East and West of the country (Ras Lanuf, Brega, Zawiya etc...). Alas PR1O1 is right in his analysis. For whatever reason Russia and China are so terrified of the NATO Axis that they don't even dare use their power of veto. Sad times, indeed.

Realist March 19, 2011, 12:20 quote

This is a pre-arranged "invasion" of Libya and its oil assets, by the banksters of the West.

Dex March 19, 2011, 12:32 quote

We had read in the media that civilians have been killed yet no footage of that or any proof..and yes rebels have to be dealt with and how come they have all those arms from where?.. so if the West is arming them then the blood is also in the Western countries hands.. the West is making this look like Gaddafi is killing people as a justification to invade. Why? Oil oh yes. And the British know that if Gaddafi prevails they are in big trouble.. so that’s why they want if out.. no idea what France wants maybe oil as well. I was really surprised that Russia did not veto it.. why I wonder?

Nahuel March 19, 2011, 13:01 quote

We know what Is Ghaddafi all about, We knew what is the nature of western countries, we knew what their only nterest is oil. But, because of this huge amount of misleading information from main stream medias, there was some doubt regarding the real nature of this so called "revolution". Now we can see clearly: What kind of revolution beggs for Western Imperial forces intervention? Shame on them.

Jhon Bass March 19, 2011, 13:31 quote

If Russia not take any action against west Imperialism at this moment. There it is no any occasion in future. Russia must insist on “all necessary measures to protect civilians." which that clear it meaning is NATO also unauthorized to Assassinate any Libyan civilian. It's has always must take decision to protect Libyan civilian rather than protect NATO properties. Have to pressure on it. we don't want to hear in future that NATO also killing Libyan civilians. This is not the Afghanistan or the Iraq where they inventions earlier without per authorized issue from the UNSC. Russia always must insist and warn on this “all necessary measures to protect civilians." issue favor to Libyan civilian. Russia must have to pressure to UN and NATO when we (no problem boycotted vote) UN decided to sanction actions on the Libya it was a single country and it must be always a single country in the further and we hope that there is no any dividing where people can't trust anymore UN activities. Russia, China can beautifully pressure one those things to UN and to NATO.

Kihnu March 19, 2011, 16:42

Mee: "The problem is that the UN should have intervened earlier to save lives of civilians..."
Like they did when America attacked Afghanistan and Iraq???
The UN does not seem to be concerned about the civilians killed by American drones and predator missiles in Pakistan. Almost 40 Pakistani civilians were killed by Americans yesterday, and as usual, the UN takes no action except to say "sorry about that".

PR101 March 19, 2011, 16:18

Sorry few typo corrections: we can see the meltdown of Russia or at east the unmasking that this country has recovered from the collapse of the Soviet Union. The West can ignore Russia. More critical is who is in the Paris meeting when it comes to Arab leaders? Most of them are fighting or suppressing their populations. So the meeting in Paris cannot be about the defense of the civilian population in Libya. So we see and wait if this colonial project succeeds of fails but Russia is not active agent of history at this moment. It was not able to steer the events unfolding in the Arab world away from western military interventions that will bring not peace but death and destruction in mass scale. Russians are happy with little things at this moment and they will receive little goodies from London, Paris and Washington by not spoiling this show. Last night I’ve one of the Soviet films called Liberation. Anybody who has ever seen these films or actual documentary of the Eastern Front in WWII knows that today’s Russia is a mere shadow of the Soviet Union both in military might and in human spirit.

Comments of another article: Posted: 14.03.11 in rt.com.

PR101 March 15, 2011, 15:22 quote

Russia should all that it can to make life difficult for Gaddafi. What Russia should never do is support the U.S military intervention in the Libya. The United States, is the nation behind such damning crimes against humanity as using nuclear weapons against civilians in WWII, the nation that used massive and state backed sexual sadism in Abu Gharaib, the nation that is running torture camp in U.S occupied Cuban land in Guantanamon, the nation that is seeking to charge the death penalty with Julian Assange and is torturing Bradley Manning, cannot be given another chance unleash corporate driven mass destruction followed by mass looting in Libya,

Ground Report with Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha

2010-12-11T09:17:00.000-08:00

පුස්වෙඩි ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිවලින් ඖෂධ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය පරාජය කල නොහැක.

2010-12-11T08:43:00.000-08:00

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රී විජිත හේරත් මැතිතුමාට අනුව ඖෂධ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය මර්ධනය කිරීම සඳහා ඖෂධ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය හැකි ඉක්මනින් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කල යුතුය. ‘ඖෂධ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් වහා ගෙන එනු’ යන්න ඉතා පැරණි සටන් පාඨයක් බව එතුමා ඉතා හොඳින් දන්නා කාරණයකි. ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් අවශ්‍ය බවට මන්ත‍්‍රයක් සේ ජප කලාට එහි අඞ්ගු විය යුතු කාරණා පිළිබඳව සංවාදයක් ඇතිවන්නේ නැත. ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම ඖෂධ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයට කත් අදින පිරිස් කියන්නේද ඖෂධ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් අවශ්‍ය බවයි. අන් අය එසේ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් අවශ්‍ය බව පැවසීම පිළිබඳව ඖෂධ ත‍්‍රස්ත හිතවාදියෝ සතුටට පත්වෙති. එයට හේතුව ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියේ අඩංගුව පිළිබඳව සඳහන් නොකර කුමක් හෝ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් අවශ්‍ය බව පැවසීම ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයට වාසි සහගත වීමයි.

විජිත හේරත් මන්ත‍්‍රීතුමා කියන ඖෂධ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය සහ 2008 වසරේදී පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට නියමිතව තිබූ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය යන දෙකම එකක් නම් එතුමා කරන්නේද ඖෂධ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයට කඬේ යාමකි. මේ වන විට යම් පමණකට හෝ මහජනයාට කියවීමට ලැබුණු ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය එසේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට නියමිතව තිබූ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය බවට සැකයක් නැත. මේ ලියුම්කරු මීට පෙර දිවයින පුවත්පතට ලියූ ලිපිය සඳහන්කල ආකාරයට එම ඖෂධ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය ඉතියෝපියාවටත් ඇමරිකාවටත් එකසේ පිළිගත හැකි එකකි. එය සුන්දර අරමුණු සහ සංකල්ප වලින් සරසා ඇති කිසිදු උපායමාර්ගික ප‍්‍රවේශයක් නැති ලියවිල්ලකි. එවැන්නක් අන්තර්ජාල පහසුකම සහිත ඉලෙක්ට්‍රොනික් ලේඛණ හොඳින් කැපීමට සහ ඇලවීමට දන්නා ශිෂ්‍යයෙකුට වුවද සකස් කල හැක. එම ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය තුල ඖෂධ ව්‍යාපාරයේ දුෂ්ඨ සහ කූඨ ක‍්‍රියා මැඩ පැවැත්වීමට හෝ දැනට ඖෂධ වෙළඳපල ආශ‍්‍රිතව හඳුනාගෙන ඇති ගැටළු විසඳීම සඳහා උපක‍්‍රම හඳුනාගැනෙන්නේ නැත. එවැනි ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් එළිදැක්වීමේ උත්සවයකට අන්තර්ජාතික මහා ඖෂද සමාගම්වල අනුග‍්‍රහයද ලබාගත හැක. ඒ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය ඒ තරමටම දුර්වල හිස් ලියවිල්ලකි. ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් නමින් පුස් වෙඩිල්ලක් පත්තු කිරීමෙන් ඖෂධ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය පරාජය කල හැකි යයි විජිත හේරත් මන්ත‍්‍රීතුමාලා හිතනවා නම් එතුමන්ලාගේ දේශපාලන දැක්ම පිළිබඳව අනුකම්පා කල යුතුය.

මූලිකවම ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් අවශ්‍ය වන්නේ සමාජ ආර්ථික වශයෙන් බරපතල ගැටළු විසඳීම සඳහා දේශපාලන මඟ පෙන්වීමක් ලබාදීම සඳහාය. එමෙන්ම එම ප‍්‍රතිපත්ති සම්පාදන ක‍්‍රියාවලිය සැබෑ එකක් නම් ඒ තුල මහජන අදහස් නියෝජනය වීමද සහතික කෙරේ. (නිළධාරීන් කිහිප දෙනෙකු විසින් සකස් කල ලියවිල්ලක් වෙබ් අඩවියක හෝ පුවත්පතක ප‍්‍රසිද්ද කිරීමෙන් පමණක් ඒ අරමුණ ඉටු නොවේ.* ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක සංකල්පීය රාමුව සහ එහි අරමුණ තුලින් විසඳීමට උත්සාහ කරන ගැටළුව කුමන ආකරදැයි පිළිබිඹු වේ. ඉතා සරල පොදු සංකල්ප සහ අරමුණු ලයිස්තුවක් මඟින් සුවිශේෂී ගැටළු ප‍්‍රමාණාත්මකව හෝ ගුණාත්මකව ගැඹුරට විග‍්‍රහ වන්නේ නැත. තවද ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් මඟින් ගැටළු විසඳීම සඳහා පවතින නීතිමය, පරිපාලන සහ ආයතනමය වූයහයන් තුල සිදුවිය යුතු වෙනස්කම් පිළිබඳව මඟපෙන්වීමක් ලබා දිය යුතුය.

ඒ සියල්ලටම වඩා ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක මූලික හැඩය හෙවත් දේශපාලන උවමනාව සැබෑ ලෙසම පිළිබිඹු වන්නේ එම ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය පදනම් වන මූලික උපායමාර්ගික රාමුව තුලිනි. ඉහත සඳහන් කල ආකාරයට විජිත හේරත් මන්ත‍්‍රීතුමාලා කථාකරන ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට උත්සාහ කල එක නම් එහිදී අවම වශයෙන් උපාය මාර්ග යනු කුමක් දැයි හෝ හඳුනාගෙන නැත. එවැනි ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් ගෙන එනු යයි හඬ නඟන්නේ කුමක් සඳහාද? කාගේ අවශ්‍යතාවයකටද? ඒ මේ රටේ ජාතික ජාතික ආර්ථිකයට පිල්ලියක් වී ඇති සහ අහිංසක රෝගීන්ට මර උගුලක් වී ඇති ඖෂධ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය පරාජය කිරීමේ උවමනාව සඳහා නම් නොවන බව ඉතා පැහැදිලිය.

ඒ නිසා විජිත හේරත් මැතිතුමන්ලා රෝහන විජේවීරයන් තෝරාදුන් අධිරාජ්‍ය විරෝධය මුල් කොටගත් දේශපාලනය තව දුරටත් අගය කරනවා නම් බටහිර මහා ඖෂධ සමාගම් වලට යටත් වන ඖෂධ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් රටට වැඩක් නැති බව නිර්භයව ප‍්‍රකාශ කල යුතුය. එම සමාගම් වල කූඨ උපක‍්‍රම මැඩපැවැත්විය හැක්කේ මේ ආකාරයේ උපායමාර්ගයකින් බව නිශ්චිතව ඉදිරිපත් කල යුතුය. එසේම ආර්ථික ඝාතක නිළධාරී පැලැන්තිය විසින් හිතාමතා පවත්වාගෙන යන ඖෂධ ලියාපදිංචි කිරීමේ සහ ආනයනය කිරීමේ ක‍්‍රමවේදවල පවතින දුර්වලතාවයන් නිශ්චිතව සඳහන් කොට ඊට ප‍්‍රතිකර්ම ඉදිරිපත් කල යුතුය. තවද වෛiවරු අතින් සිදුවන වැරදි සහ ඔවුන් ඉටු නොකරන යුතුකම් පිළිබඳව පැකිලීමකින් තොව කතාකල යුතුය. එක, දෙක, තුන වශයෙන් ඒවා ලයිස්තුගත කොට ඊට අදාල විසඳුම් රාමුව ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය තුලට ඇතුල් කල යුත්තේ කෙසේදැයි සඳහන් කල යුතුය.

එසේ නොකර සුවපහසුවට පුවත්පත් සාකච්ඡුා පවත්වා ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් ගෙනෙව්, ගෙනෙව් කීමෙන් සිදුවන්නේ අවැඩකි. දැන් එතුමන්ලා ගේන්න කියන නිසාම ඖෂධ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයට දැනුවත්ව හෝ නොදැනුවත්ව කඬේ යන පිරිස් විසින් සකස් කල ඊනියා ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය අනුමත කර ගැනීම සඳහා නිදහසට කාරණාවක් ලැබේ. වෙනත් වචනවලින් කියන්නේ නම් එය පනින්න සිටින රිලවුන්ට ඉනිමං බැඳීමකි. ප‍්‍රතිපත්ති කමිටුවකට මහාචාර්යවරු හෝ විශේෂඥ වෛiවරු පත්කල පමණින් රටට ජනතාවට හිතවාදී ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් හැදෙන බවට පූරව නිගමනයකට එළැඹීම එතුමන්ලාට තරම් නොවන ක‍්‍රියාවකි.

මේ රටට විනාශකාරී බොහෝ ප‍්‍රතිපත්ති සහ යෝජනාවලි ඉදිරිපත් කල සෑම කමිටුවකම පාහේ එන්.ජී. ඕ. මහාචාර්යවරු නියෝජනය වූ බව රටේ ජනතාව හොඳින් දනිති. ඖෂධ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයට ගොදුරු වූ මහාචාර්යවරු සහ විශේෂඥ වෛiවරු රාශියක් අදද මේ රටේ ඉහල තනතුරු හොබවති. එමෙන්ම එදිනෙදා ජීවිතයේදී ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයට අවශ්‍ය ආකාරයට ඔවුහු ඖෂධ නිර්දේශ කිරීමේද යෙදී සිටිති. රටේ මහජනතාවගේ පැත්තෙන් බලන විට ඔවුන් එසේ යටත් වන්නේ දැනුවත්වද නැද්ද යන්න වැදගත් නොවේ. ඒ අතරම කිව යුතු යමක්ද ඇත. එනම් මේ රටට ආදරය කරන සහ ඖෂධ සමාගම් වලට යටත් නොවන දියුණු මනසක් සහිත මහාචාර්යවරුන් මෙන්ම විශේෂඥ වෛiවරුද මේ රටේ බොහෝ සිටිති. මහජනයා ඔවුන්ට දෙවිවරුන්ට මෙන් සලකති. අවාසනාවකට එතුමන්ලා මේ ප‍්‍රතිපත්ති කමිටුවලට පත්වන්නේ නැත. එසේ නැතහොත් එතුමන්ලා එවැනි තනතුරු බාරගන්නේ නැත. හොඳ මිනිසුන් ප‍්‍රධාන ප‍්‍රවාහයෙන් ඈත්වීම නිසා පුංචි මිනිසුන්ට වේදිකාවට පැමිණීමට ඉඩ සැලසීම මේ රටේ අවාසනාවකි.

ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම විජිත හේරත් මැතිතුමන්ලා සේනක බිබිලේ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් ගැන දෙඩෙව්වාට භෞතිකව නිශ්චිත ලේඛණයක් ලෙස එවැන්නක් මේ රටේ නැත. ඉතිහාසයේද අප රටේ එවැන්නක් තිබුණේ නැත. සැබෑ ලෙසම නීතිමය රාමුවක් තුල සේනක බිබිලේ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් පුළුල්ව ක‍්‍රියාත්මක වන්නේ බංගලා දේශයේය. අප කොහොමත් අපේ මිනිසාගේ දේ අගය කිරීමට මැලිවන ජාතියක් නිසා ඒ ගැන පුදුම විය යුතු නැත. හැත්තෑව දශකයේදී සේනක බිබිලේ මූලධර්ම මත පදනම්ව එවකට පැවති රජය යම් ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිමය තීන්දු ප‍්‍රමාණයක් ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කලද නිශ්චිත ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවෙන් අනුමත කලේ නැත. කෙසේ වෙතත් රාජ්‍ය ඖෂධ සංස්ථාව, ඖෂධ නිෂ්පාදන සංස්ථාව බිහිවන්නේ ඒ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිමය තීන්දු අනුවය. ඊට අමතරව අත්‍යවශ්‍ය ඖෂධ ලයිස්තුවක් නීතිමය රාමුවක් යටතේ නොවුනත් යම් පමණකට ක‍්‍රියාකත්මක විය. ඒවා එසේ සිදුවූයේ එදා රජයේ මූලික දේශපාලන ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිවලට සහ ඒ කාලයේ රාජ්‍ය තන්ත‍්‍රය තුල තනතුරුදැරූ දියණු මිනිසුන්ට පින් සිදුවන්නටය. ඒ නිසා හිස් ලියවිල්ලකට බොරුවට සේනක බිබිලේ ලේබල් ඇලවීමට උඩගෙඩි නොදී සිටිනවා නම් එය කථා කරනවාට වඩා රටට හොඳ බව විජිත හේරත් මැතිතුමාට මතක් කර දිය යුතුය.

විජිත හේරත් මැතිතුමාලාට දේශපාලන වශයෙන් වරදින තවත් ප‍්‍රධාන කාරණයක් මතක් කර දීම අමනාපයට හේතුවක් නොවනු ඇතැයි අපි සිතමු. එතුමන්ලා සෑම විටම කොක්ක පටලවා ගන්නේ දේශපාලකයන් සමඟ පමණි. දේශපාලකයන්ට ලණු දෙන ඔවුන් කැලෑ පාරේ රැුගෙන යන ආර්ථික ඝාතක නිළධාරී පැලැන්තිය පිළිබඳව ඔවුන් වචනයක්වත් කතාකරන්නේප නැත. සමහර විට එය දේශපාලන උපක‍්‍රමයක්ද විය හැකිය. නිළධාරීන්ගේ ලණු කකා ඔහොම යං කියා යන එක දේශපාලන වශයෙන් වාසි සහගත බවඑතුමන්ලා සිතා සිටිනවා විය හැක. දේශපාලකයන් අහිංසක නිර්දෝෂී පිරිසක් බව අප කියන්නේ නැත. නමුත් අද ලෝකය පුරා යළි යටත් විජිතකරන ක‍්‍රියාවලිය උපායමාර්ගික දිශාවට රැුගෙන යන්නේ තෝරාගත් ආර්ථික ඝාතක නිළධාරීන් පිරිසක් විසිනි. දේශපාලකයන් වෙරිකාරයන් මෙන් එහේ මෙහේ විසි වෙවී හෝ නිළධාරීන් තෝරා දෙන පාරේ යනවා නම් අධිරාජ්‍යවාදීන්ට ගැටළුවක් නැත. දේශපාලකයන් කරන්නේ අපායට යන පාරේ දෙපස මල් සිටුවා ‘පොට් හෝල්’ වහන එකය. විජිත හේරත් මැතිතුමන්ලාද අඩු වැඩි වශයෙන් කරන්නේ එයම බව කණගාටුවෙන් වුවත් කිව යුතුය. පරණ මාක්ස්වාදී පොතපතේ මේ නව තත්වයන් ගැන විග‍්‍රහයක් නොමැති නිසා විජිත හේරත් මැතිතුමන්ලාට එම තත්වය තේරුම් ගැනීමට අපහසු බව අපට තේරුම් ගත හැක.

අද සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍යංශයේද දැනුවත්ව හෝ නොදැනුවත්ව ඉහත කී ආර්ථික ඝාතක භූමිකාවන් ඉටුකරන නිළධාරීහුද සිටිති. එම අමාත්‍යංශ මූලස්ථානයේ මිදුල දෙස ඞීන්ස් පාරෙන් එබී බැලූවහොත් සිතෙන්නේ ඒ තරුපහේ හෝටලයක් හෝ ජාත්‍යන්තර රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධාන කාර්යාල භූමියක් කියාය. ඒ තරමටම නවීන සුවපහසු වාහන පෙරහැරක් එහි නතර කොට ඇත. ඒ නිළධාරී මහත්වරු ජාත්‍යන්තර ණය දෙන ආයතනවල පිහිටෙන් සුවපහසුව ගමන් ගියාට මේ රටේ බහුතරයක් බෞද්ධ මහජනයාට ඉරිසියාවක් උපදින්නේ නැත. නමුත් ඔවුන්ට දුකක් ඇතිවනුයේ මීට අවුරුදු 30-40 කට පෙර සිටි නිළධාරී පරම්පරාව (පැරණි ජීප් කබල්වල නැඟී ඉතා දුෂ්කර තත්වයන් යටතේ ගම් දනව් වල සැරිසරමින්* ඉටුකල මෙහෙයට අලගු තැබීමටවත් නූතන නිළධාරී පන්තියට නොහැකි වීම පිළිබඳවය. එසේ යම් කාලයක ඌව පළාතේ විශාල මෙහෙයක් ඉටුකල වර්තමාන අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ ජනරාල් තුමාද කේලාම් දඬුකඳේ ගසා වැඩ නොගන්නා තත්වයට පත් කොට ඇත. එදා සිටි පැරණි පරම්පරාවේ පුරුකක් වන එතුමා පැත්තකට කිරීම පිටුපස සිටින නිළධාරීන් කවුරුන්ද කියා සොයා බලන්නේ නම් ඖෂධ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයේ ගරිල්ලා සටන් කරුවන් හඳුනාගැනීමට හැකිවනු ඇත. අද එතුමා සිටින තත්වය අනුව ඖෂධ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයට යටත්වේද නැද්ද යන්න පිළිබඳව අපට සහතිකයක් දිය නොහැක. එහෙත් ඖෂධ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය මඩින්නේ කෙසේදැයි එතුමා ඉතා හොඳින් දන්නා බව අපි දනිමු.

වර්තමාන සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මැතිතුමා මේ වන විට ඖෂධ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය පරාජය කිරීමට තමා සූදානම් බව රටට ප‍්‍රකාශ කොට ඇත. ඊට ඇති ප‍්‍රධාන බාධකය ඊනියා ප‍්‍රතිපත්ති හදන ආර්ථික ඝාතක නිළධාරීන් බව අපගේ පිළිගැනීමයි. ඒ නිසා විජිත හේරත් මැතිතුමන්ලා මේ රටේ ජනතාවට යම් ආදරයක් ඇත්නම් කල යුත්තේ ඖෂධ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය පරාජය කිරීම සඳහා නිශ්චිත උපායමාර්ග හඳුනාගත් ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් ගෙන එන ලෙස සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය තුමාට අභියෝග කිරීමයි. ඒතුමා ඒ අභියෝගය බාරගන්නවා නම් දේශපපාලන කුහකකමින් තොරව එතුමාට සහාය දිය යුතුය. එතුමා එසේ කරන්නේ නැති නම් බොරු සිල්ලර සටන්පාඨ මත නැහෙන තම වෘත්තිය සමිතිවලට ඇත්ත සටන අතට ගන්නා ලෙස උපදෙස් දිය යුතුය. (දිගු කාලයක් තම ආත්මාර්ථකාමී ඉල්ලීම් වෙනුවෙන් පමණක් සටන් කරමින් සිටින සෞඛ්‍ය වෘත්තීය සමිති නායකයන්ට පොදු මහජන සටනක් අතට ගැනීමට ධෛර්යයක් තිබේද යන්න අපි නොදනිමු) එසේ නැතිව පුස් වෙඩිල්ලකට බොරුවට සේනක බිබිලේ ලේබල් ඇලවීම මඟින් සැබෑ ලෙසම සිදුවන්නේ ඖෂධ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය පොෂණය කිරීමකි.

වෛද්‍ය කේ.එම්. වසන්ත බණ්ඩාර

මහ ලේකම්

දේශහිතෛෂී ජාතික ව්‍යාපාරය

"අප ඉදිරියේ තිබෙන්නේ හැදෙන්ට නියමිත රටක්" - විමල්

2010-11-04T04:38:00.000-07:00

අපේ රට අතීතයේදී කැඩෙන්නට නියමිතව, බෙදෙන්නට නියමිතව, වැනසෙන්න නියමිතව තිබූ රටක් බවත්, එහෙත් අද වන විට අපේ මාතෘභුමිය ඒ කෲර ඉරණමින් නිදහස්වී නැගෙන්න නියමිත රටක්, හැදෙන්න නියමිත රටක් බවට පරිවර්ථනය වී ඇතැයි ඉදිකිරීම්, ඉංජිනේරු සේවා, නිවාස හා පොදු පහසුකම් අමාත්‍ය විමල් වීරවංශ මහතා පැවසීය.

අප විසින් ඉතා පැහැදිළිව එම පරීච්ඡේද දෙකෙහි වෙනස හදුනාගත යුතුව ඇතැයි සඳහන් කළ අමාත්‍යවරයා බෙදෙන්ට, වැනසෙන්ට මේ රට නියමිතව පැවති යුගයේ අපේ සිත්තුල මව්බිම පිළිබඳ සුභ වාදී බලාපොරොත්තු ඉතිරිවී නොපැවති බවද, තැන තැන බෝම්බ පිපිරෙණ විට, මිනිසුන් බල්ලන් බළලූන් මෙන් මැරී වැටෙන විට, පත්තර පිටු හැමදාම මරණ දැන්වීම් වලින් පිරීයන විට, රටේ ආර්ථික සම්පත් කුණුකොල්ලයට විකිනෙන විට රටේ ජනතාවට අළුතින් දල්වා ගැනීමට සුභවාදී අපේක්‍ෂාවන් ඉතිරිවී නොපැවති බව සඳහන් කළේය. එහෙත් එ් යුගයේ ජනතාවගේ සිත් තුළ ශි‍්‍ර ලංකාව පිළිබඳ පැවති කලකිරීම වේදනාව අද වන විට මිනිස් සිත් තුළින් ගිලිහී ගොස් ඇතැයි කියා සිටියේය.

අමාත්‍යවරයා මේ අදහස් පල කළේ පසුගියදා, මහනුවර දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කයේ ජනතාවට නිවාස ණය හා සින්නක්කර ඔප්පු ප‍්‍රදානය සඳහා එක්වෙමිනි. මහනුවර ළමා පුස්තකාල ශ‍්‍රවණාගාරයේ පැවති මෙම උත්සවය සංවිධානය කර තිබුනේ ජාතික නිවාස සංවර්ධන අධිකාරිය විසින් වන අතර එහිදී සින්නක්කර ඔප්පු 42 ක්ද ,චෙක්පත් 100 හා ප‍්‍රදාන පත‍්‍ර 118 ක් ද අමාත්‍යවරයා විසින් බෙදා දෙනු ලැබීය.

www.lankacnews.com

04.11.2010

War Crimes Inquiry for Iraq.

2010-11-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

Ira de Silva London,, Canada

Ms. Navi PillayHigh Commissioner for Human Rights
Geneva.

cc: Hon. Ban ki Moon, Secretary General of the U.N., New York

Dear Madam,

I have just read a news report dated October 26,2010 in which it is claimed that after the publication of the documents by Wikileaks and the press reports of thousands of civilians being deliberately targeted and killed by U.S. British and Iraqi forces you have urged the U.S. and Iraq to investigate allegations of torture and unlawful killings in Iraq. It states that you are concerned that serious breaches of international human rights have have occurred in Iraq. I am writing to you to inquire why you have adopted a double standard and taken this timid approach towards the U.S. and Britain in comparison to your aggressive, accusatory, one sided and judgemental attitude towards allegations of civilian deaths in Sri Lanka in the last stages of Sri Lanka’s struggle to eliminate the leadership of the most ruthless, confirmed terrorists, namely the Tamil terrorists called the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

It is accepted that as a Tamil from South Africa, a country that was supportive of the LTTE, funded their terrorist activities in Sri Lanka and were part of the organized demonstrations in May 2009 to save the terrorist leadership, that you felt the loss of the leadership of the LTTE as did many thousands of other supporters of the LTTE and expressed your sorrow by immediately bringing a resolution at the UN in Geneva, supported by the western governments, who had a vested interest in the continuation of Tamil terrorism to destabilise Sri Lanka. With the publication of documents from the U.S. government files, they are no longer “allegations” but confirmation of torture and unlawful killings of civilians in Iraq. If you are not biased and partial, why have you not immediately called for a war crimes inquiry in Iraq instead of merely asking the culprits to investigate themselves? Is the UN not expected to be impartial and treat all member states in the same manner?

One other point of difference in your attitude towards the U.S. and Britain is that you are urging the U.S. to investigate these allegations while in the case of Sri Lanka you, at the behest of the western powers, brought a resolution against Sri Lanka in Geneva. When that failed you refused to accept the verdict and wanted to bring in another resolution – such was your vindictiveness towards Sri Lanka. It was followed by the insistence of a U.N. panel being set up to investigate alleged violations of human rights and humanitarian law in Sri Lanka even though in doing so the Secretary General was clearly exceeding his powers as prescribed per Chapter XV of the UN Charter where the limits of his authority are specifically defined in Articles 97 and 98. The Charter clearly provides that the Secretary General shall perform such functions as are entrusted to him by the General Assembly, the Security Council and other subsidiary bodies such as the Human Rights Council but does not have the authority to act on his own. He nevertherless appointed a three member panel. As you are the Commissioner for Human Rights, it could be argued that you should immediately set up an inquiry to support the Secretary General and carry out the job that you are supposed to do instead of asking the US to investigate itself. The U.S. had all this information compiled for years, denied having it, rejected reports from other groups and claimed that they were acting within the framework of international law yet you are still expecting them to investigate themselves! It exhibits a subservience to the west and a colonial, biased, racist mentality which has no place at the UN. You are urging the U.S. to investigate itself but both you and the Secretary General scoffed at the notion that the panel set up by the Sri Lankan government would be of any use. It was claimed that it had to be from outside the country to be “independent” – well the same rules apply in this case too. Once more this exposes the double standards being followed by the U.N. and articulated by you.

The question that Sri Lankans have for you and also for the Secretary General, is when are you going to set up an investigation into the human rights violations and war crimes in Iraq which even the British now state was an illegal war? In the case of Sri Lanka it was a legitimate war on terrorists within the country, not an illegitimate invasion by foreign forces. If you do not do so immediately it could be inferred that in the case of Sri Lanka you were prejudiced and vindictive based on your personal agenda and that you yourself should be called to account for not performing your dutires in accordance with the mandate you have been given as the Commissioner for Human Rights – which means the rights of all humans and not a select few which included those of Tamil terrorists.

Looking forward to your statement of the establishment of a commission of inquiry by you into the allegations of the deliberate killing of civilians, rape, torture and other atrocities in Iraq.

Yours truly,

Ira de Silva

London,, Canada

www.lankaweb.com

29th October 2010

යුධ හමුදාවෙන් වගා සංග‍්‍රාමයක්.

2010-10-24T09:00:00.001-07:00

යුද හමුදා සාමාජිකයන්ගේ සහභාගිත්වයෙන් වගා සංග‍්‍රාමයක් ආරම්භ කිරීමට යුද හමුදා මූලස්ථානය සූදානම් වෙයි. යුද හමුදාපති ලූතිනන් ජෙනරාල් ජගත් ජයසූරිය මහතා සඳහන් කළේ මඩකලපුව වාකරේ කන්දල්කාඩු ප‍්‍රදේශයේ හෙක්ටයාර් 5000ක කෙසෙල් වගා කිරීමට නියමිත බවයි. හෙක්ටයාර් 900ක වගා කෙරෙන කෙසෙල් මිලදී ගැනීමට පෞද්ගලික සමාගමක් ඉදිරිපත් වී සිටිති. ඒ සඳහා වූ ගිවිසුම්ද අත්සන් කර ඇත. එම පෞද්ගලික සමාගම අයත් වන්නේ මුත්තයියා මුරලිදරන්ට සහ ප‍්‍රමෝද්‍ය වික‍්‍රමසිංහට බව යුද හමුදාපතිවරයා අනාවරණ කළේය. වසර 10ක් පුරා අස්වැන්න මිලදී ගැනීමට එම සමාගම සූදානම් බව පැවසේ. නිෂ්පාදනය කරන කෙසෙල් විදේශීය රටවලට අපනයනය කරනු ඇති. යුද හමුදා සාමාජිකයන් සහ පුනරුත්ථාපනය ලබන එල්.ටී.ටී.ඊ. සාමාජිකයන් යොදා ගනිමින් මෙම වගා සංග‍්‍රාමය ආරම්භ කරන බව යුද හමුදාපතිවරයා කියා සිටියි.

www.lankacnews.com

24.10.10

Campus rebels in remand seek pardon from SB.

2010-10-23T15:59:00.000-07:00

A group of 21 University students, who, along with hundreds of others, stormed the Ministry of Higher Education premises at Ward Place last Thursday and allegedly caused damage to the properties there, has written to Minister S. B. Dissanayake’s seeking pardon.

Arrested and produced in courts by the police, they were remanded. Their parents met President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday and requested that they be pardoned.

Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake said yesterday that the students had individually written to him seeking his intervention and pardon. They had apologized to him for what happened and asked for pardon, he said. There had been no pressure on the students to do so.

Blaming the JVP for student agitations, Minister Dissanayake said that the JVP was using the students in a’ desperate bid’ to destabilisee the country.

In their letters, the students had said the JVP hierarchy had led them into the Higher Education Ministry premises on the pretext of obtaining their signatures to a petition and they had not been aware of the JVP’s plans.

The Minister said that the JVP had misled innocent students to achieve its political goal.

by Norman Palihawadena

www.island.lk

24th October 2010

UNP members seek divine intervention to unseat Ranil.

2010-10-21T15:10:00.000-07:00

බහුජාතික පාන්පිටි සමාගම සැඟවී පහරදීම අරඹයි

2010-10-20T07:03:00.000-07:00

පිටි සමාගමට කඬේයන දොස්තරලාට දේශහිතෛෂී ජාතික ව්‍යාපාරයේ දැඩි විරෝධය

සෞඛ්‍ය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ බෝ නොවන රෝගී අංශයේ අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ පාලිත කරුණාපේ‍්‍රම මහතා විසින් පසුගියදා පෞද්ගලික රූපවාහිනී නාලිකාවක ප‍්‍රවෘත්ති විකාශයකදී වෙළඳපලේ ඇති සහල්වල ගුණාත්මකභාවය ගැන කල ප‍්‍රකාශය සම්බන්ධයෙන් වන පැහැදිලි කිරීමක් සහිත මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයක් දේශිහිතෛෂී ජාතික ව්‍යාපාරය විසින් නිකුත් කර ඇත. සුළු සංශෝධන සහිතව එම නිවේදනය මෙහි දැක්වේ.

තිරිඟු පිටි වල ග්ලසරීන් දර්ශකය සීනි තරම්ම ඉහල අගයක් ගන්නා බවත්, ඒ නිසා තිරිඟු පිටි දීර්ඝ කාලයක් භාවිතා කිරීම දියවැඩියා රෝගයට හේතු විය හැකි බවට ඇති තරම් වෛද්‍ය සාක්‍ෂි ඉදිරිපත් වී ඇත. එසේ තිබියදීත් උවමනාවට වඩා පොලිෂ් කල සහල් වලිනුත් දියවැඩියාව සෑදෙන බවට පර්යේෂණ සාක්‍ෂි නොමැතිව හිතුමතේට ප‍්‍රකාශ නිකුත් කිරීමට වෛද්‍යවරු දෙතුන් දෙනෙක් සූදානම් වී ඇත. සහල් උවමනාවට වඩා පොලිෂ් කල විට එහි ගුණාත්මක තත්වය අඩුවන බව අප දන්නේ වසර 3000කට පෙර සිටය. තිරිඟු පිටි පිළීබඳව වචනයක්වත් කතා නොකරන මෙම වෛද්‍යවරු හදිසියේ නින්දෙන් අවදිවී සහල් පරිභෝජනයට පහර ගසන්නේ කාගේ උවමනාවටදැයි ඉතා පැහැදිලිය. ඔවුන්ගේ සහල් විරෝධය හදිසියේ මතු කරන්නේ රට පුරා ප‍්‍රභල තිරිඟු පිටි විරෝදයක් මතුවන අවස්ථාවකදීය. පසුගිය දිනවල තිරිඟුපිටි මිල වැඩි කිරීමෙන් ඔවුන්ගේ ලාභයට අමතරව එකතුවන මුදල රුපියල් බිලියන 6-8 ත් අතර ප‍්‍රමාණයකි. එවැනි තත්වයක් තුල වෛද්‍යවරු දෙතුන් දෙනෙකු පමණක් නොව දහස් ගණනින් වුවද මිළදී ගැනීමට එම කුප‍්‍රකට බහුජාතික සමාගමට හැකියාව ඇති බව රහසක් නොවේ.

මේ උගුලේ හසුවූ සෞඛ්‍ය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ බෝ නොවන රෝග අංශයේ අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ පාලිත කරුණාපේ‍්‍රම වෛද්‍යවරයාට අපේ දැඩි විරෝධය පල කරමු. මෙම අධ්‍යක්‍ෂකවරයා පාන්පිටි සමාගමේ උවමනාව වෙනුවෙන් පොළඹවාගෙන ඇත්තේ කවදත් රටට හතුරු මෙහෙයුම්වල තිරය පිටුපසින් සිටින පෞද්ගලික රූපවාහිනී නාලිකාවකි. එම මෙහෙයුමේදී සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍යංශයේ වන්නිනායක නමැති මාධ්‍ය නිළධාරියා අදාල සම්බන්ධීකරණ කටයුත්ත සිදුකර ඇත. මේ තීරණාත්මක මොහොතේ විවිධ මාධ්‍ය හරහා සිදුවන සියුම් කුමන්ත‍්‍රණයන්ට ගොදුරු නොවී පාන්පිටි ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයට එරෙහි මව්බිමට ආර්ථික සමෘද්ධිය කැන්දන ජාතියේ මහා සංවාදය තියුණු ලෙස, ප‍්‍රබල ලෙස පණගන්වන ලෙස දේශමාමක ප‍්‍රගතිශීලී සියළු ශ‍්‍රී ලංකිකයන්ගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.

www.lankacnews.com

20 October 2010

දේෂහිතෛශී, ඔබලා දන්නවාද..? ලංකවේ විශ්ව විද්‍යාල වල සිසුන්ව ජ.වි.පෙ. හරහා උත්ඝෝෂණ වලට පොළඹවන්නේ සිංහගපූරුව හරහා ක්‍රියාත්මක වන සංවිධාන ජාලයක් විසින් බව, මේ සඳහා සිංගප්පූරු රජයේ අනුග්‍රහය නොමදව ලැබෙන බවත් ආරංචියි, කුමාර් ඩේවිඩ් සිංගප්පුරුවේ සේවය කරන මාහාචාර්ය වරයෙක් ලංකාවේ සිසුන්ට දේශනත් පවත්වලා තිබෙනවා මහින්දගේ දේශපාලනය, ඒකාදීපතිවාදයක් කරා ගමන් කරමින් තිබෙන බවට. මෙම දේශනයේ අරමුණ විශ්ව විද්‍යාල සිසුන්ගේ ඔළු වලට විෂබීජ දැමීමයි. තවත් පොරක් ඉන්නවා මහාචාර්ය රොහාන් ගුණරත්න කියලා, මිනිහට පැවරිලා තිබෙන කාර්ය ලංකාවේ ආරක්‍ෂක අංශ නොමඟ යැවීම‍‍‍. මිනිහත් සිංගප්පූරුවේ ඉඳන් බටහිරයන්ට කඩේ යන එකෙක්. තව දෙයක් අනුර කුමාරට මේ ළඟදී ඉතාලි ආපු වෙලාවේ දී විදේශ තනාපති කාර්යකින් භෝජන සංග්‍රහායක් දීලා තියෙනවා. ආරංචියේ හැටියට ඒ සිංගප්පූරු තනාපති කාර්යාලයේ දී යී. ප්‍රිමා සමාඟම සිංගප්පුරු කොම්පැනියක්. ඒ වගේම හම්බන්තොට වරාය නිසා අනාගතයේදී සිංගපුරුව විශාල ආරථික අර්බුදයකට යනු ඇතැයි කියා මත පළ වෙලා තිබෙනවා. සිංහප්පුරුවේ නාවුක අංශයේ ව්‍යාපාර වැඩි ප්‍රමාණයක් තිබෙන්නේ ද්‍රවිඩයන්ටයි. මේ සියල්ලේන් පැහැඳිළී වන්නේ කුමක් ද..?

“SRI LANKA- TOO IMPORTANT TO BE LEFT ALONE”.

2010-07-27T10:27:00.000-07:00

The recent developments of U.N Secretary General appointing a committee to advise him on Human rights issues in Sri Lanka and The E.U’s conditional demand that Sri Lanka agrees to fulfill 15 requirement to obtain a six month extension of GSP plus is a clear reflection that various forces external as well as internal, have not given up their heinous attempts to black list Sri Lanka as an international pariah state as long as this government is in power. The UNSG’s latest move in bringing the committee under U.N human rights council which is headed Navaneetham Pillai who has openly expressed her prejudiced views against Sri Lanka and undoubtedly is Pro-LTTE is an indication where the investigation is heading.

From the days just before and ever since the war was over, it was an avalanche of pressure brought on the government of Sri Lanka by numerous sources making demands such as immediate ceasefire, direct unimpeded access to the IDPS, immediate release of IDPS, allegations on human rights violations etc. A destabilized or subjugated Sri Lanka is what is required for some global super powers to get the upper hand in the struggle for supremacy in the Indian Ocean. The relentless campaign to tarnish our image has many segments in it led by the so called international community consisting mostly of western superpower bloc, International agencies (NGO/INGO) under the direct influence of the international community, Sri Lanka Diaspora living in the west, International and local media, locally based individuals and agencies funded by foreign sources with questionable objectives, some local politicians and their political parties. These various segments have been together right through, pressing an agenda directly opposed to the present government policy of eradicating terrorism and they continue to do so until they find a break through. Therefore one cannot be complacent that the war on terrorism is now over and Sri Lanka is heading for better times. These campaigners are armed with proclamations that they are the watch dogs of democracy, human rights, freedom of expression, freedom of movement etc. which rights that are supposed to be violated in Sri Lanka. Now that the government is solidly entrenched in power, the only way of achieving the covert objective is to try and attempt regime change by making things extremely difficult to the government of Sri Lanka. Bang KI Moon the U.N.S.G has come as “Messiah” . It has to be noted that leaders of some countries have been found guilty of war crimes and human rights violations and punished long years after the events when they were out of power and senile. This is a great possibility in relation to Sri Lanka, as long as local leaders who are willing to betray our country’s sovereignty are still holding on to leaderships of major political parties.

The European and North American bourgeois revolutions in the 17th and 19th centuries and the crisis in European feudalism brought the western conflation of democracy and capitalism. The capitalist world in which the head quarters was Washington D.C. was the guardians of the “free world” and the “expansionist” “totalitarian” communist world was head quartered in Moscow consequent of which was the “Cold war”. Liberal economist Lester Thurow writes that “democracy and capitalism have very different beliefs about the proper distribution of power. One believes in a completely equal distribution of political power, ‘one man [sic] one vote,’ while the other believes that it is the duty of the economically fit to drive the unfit out of business and into extinction. ‘Survival of the fittest’ and inequalities in purchasing power are what capitalist efficiency is all about. Individual profit comes first and firms become efficient to be rich. To put it in its starkest form, capitalism is perfectly compatible with slavery. Democracy is not. This is why we can see in the post- cold war political scenario the “free world” super powers at the bottom of placing in power, dictators and tyrants who were favorable to capitalism. The human rights record of theses dictators are much to be desired. Such powers would still wish that someone favorable to their cause is in power in our country too.

Therefore capitalism will always seek places where exploitation can be done to the maximum and Democracy or freedom does not have any importance in this regard. Elam under Prabhakaran would have been an excellent prospect for such an investment on capitalism. Now that he is gone, the next alternative is to have a government subservient to the west.

British Admiral Horatio Nelson has described Trincomalee as the “finest harbor in the world”. The great depth of the harbor and the four miles across entrance are its unique features. It covers an area of twelve square miles and securely enclosed. Nuclear submarines can easily hide in this harbor for long durations without being detected by any enemy radar in times of necessity. There are 101 British built oil tanks with capacity of a single tank at 15000n tons of oil. Thus the power that controls Trincomalee harbor has a great advantage in the hegemony of the Indian Ocean.

The India Sri Lanka accord in 1987 ensured that Trincomalee or any other port of Sri Lanka will not be made available for military use by any country prejudicial to India’s interests in the region and the restoring and operating of the Trincomalee oil tank farm will be undertaken as a joint venture between India and Sri Lanka. The primary reason for India’s intervention in Sri Lankan affairs directly was its security interests which were being jeopardized by the J.R. Jayewardene government which had a strong alliance with the west rather than through sympathy towards the Tamil grievances as proclaimed by India. The disharmony in Sri Lanka was only a vehicle for India to strengthen its security. Trincomalee harbor safely in their pocket and the oil tank farm being entrusted to the IOC (Indian Oil Company) the Indians got what they wanted. They are further strengthening their presence with the proposed Indian built Thermal power plant in Sampoor, close to Trincomalee harbor. Having got themselves assured of Trincomalee harbor in their hands, they were disturbed when Prabhkaran was setting up a chain of LTTE camps around the harbor with the aegis of Ranil Wickramasinghe government which was in power from 2001 to 2004. Moreover Prabhakaran had turned towards the west for his support and the western powers were overtly and covertly providing him support to fight the Sri Lanka State and establish his dream Elam. This is the vital factor which made India to look the other way when the LTTE was entrapped and not give any support what so ever to bail out Prabhakaran and the Tiger leadership. It is nothing but strategic interests of India which came in favor of Sri Lanka state this time, not forgetting that it’s the same strategic interests which made India to nurture the Tigers to fight the Sri Lanka state during Indira and Rajiv Gandhis’ tenures as prime ministers of India. What logical reason than strategic reasons do they have to request for a consulate at Hambantota.

India’s silence over the UNSG appointed panel on Sri Lanka now gives a good picture how strategic interests become more important than good neighbor relations. India now is heavily tilted towards the U.S and the relationship with the U.S far more important than Sri Lanka. Besides Tamilnadu sentiments about their “Tamil Brethren” in Sri Lanka is a sensitive issue which is the other reason for the silence. It cannot be a surprise if India remains non-committee in the latest issue on Sri Lanka allowing it to be hauled over the coals by the UNSG’s panel.

With the changing global power equation, especially the economic balance tilting towards Asia, a dictator in the state of Elam would have ensured that the west has a strong footing in the mid Indian Ocean. Hypothetically, investment could have poured in to Elam from the west and from the Diaspora and Prabhakaran’s type of “socialism” would have ensured forced labor at very cheap rates. Trincomalee had been earmarked as the capital of Elam. Infortunately for them it was not to be.

The government of Sri Lanka building a bunkering Port in Hambantota would see that the importance of Singapore diminishing substantially. Nearly two thirds of the sea traffic on the route to and from the west to east consists of carriers of cargo to and from China. China’s oil supply depends on this route. The piracy in the Indian Ocean is a threat to this vital trade route. America is well established with its bases in Diego Garcia, Singapore and Thailand. Therefore China needs a friendly port in the Indian Ocean, if not a base to counter balance. Sri Lanka is very unlikely to give in to any military interests of China which would be harmful to relations with India but Hambantota Port is going to be one of the most prudent steps taken by Sri Lanka to ensure that Sri Lanka’s geographical potential is maximized for its development. It is widely believed that the reason for the long years of delay in commencing the Hambantota port project was Singapore covertly scuttling all such efforts through powerful local politicians in Sri Lanka. This belief cannot be discarded as a canard, considering the effects of the alternative Hambantota port would have on Singapore.

The strategic importance of Sri Lanka for regional and global powers is the root cause for nurturing of terrorism and destabilizing this country. All Sri Lankans citizens should be mindful that we are a country used as a pawn in the global and regional power play. Falling in to any of these blocks will take us again towards instability. In the meantime the entire nation of Sri Lanka should know that the era when we welcomed everything and very body that is foreign with open arms and hospitality, should now end. The most stringent scrutiny of all foreign activities inside this country should be made and any attempt to subvert the status – quo overtly or covertly should be crushed with no sympathy. There is no guarantee that there is no threat of a new Prabhakaran in the making. The vigilance of the security forces should not be relaxed at all, but should be strengthened further. Any sign of subversion should be dealt with no mercy. A certain degree of regimental rule is required to preserve our sovereignty, democracy and independence.

The west have to be our friends as in the past but they must be made to understand that meddling with our internal problems will take them nowhere in our relations in the future and we should be allowed to decide our destiny without their interference.

UPALI COORY

By Courtesy of www.lankaweb.com
27th July 2010.

Buddhist Songs.

2010-06-25T04:03:00.000-07:00

Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka Part 01: By Erickson Tissera.

2010-06-25T03:57:00.000-07:00

Songs-Victory to Our motherland

2010-06-18T04:27:00.001-07:00

Sri Lanka celebrates first anniversary of war victory.

2010-06-18T04:21:00.000-07:00

Jun 18, Colombo: Sri Lanka today staged an extravagant military parade at the Galle Face Green in Colombo to celebrate the first anniversary of the monumental victory over the terrorist war waged by the Tamil Tiger rebels for three decades.

The victory celebrations presided by the President Mahinda Rajapaksa were held at the Galle Face sea front promenade in Colombo with the participation of the armed forces commanders, Defence Secretary, government ministers and other political leaders.

The parade displayed over 9,000 troops from the three armed forces, the police, and the Civil Defence Force representing their units involved in the military operations against the LTTE last year. Highlight of the parade was the participation of disabled soldiers in wheel chairs.

Major General Kamal Gunaratna was the Commanding Officer of the entire parade. Commanders of the Wanni, Northern, and Eastern theaters commanded their respective contingents.

Showing the military might of the country, a large number of military vehicles including armed personnel carriers, Sri Lanka Navy ships, and fighter jets joined the parade.

The parade concluded with a group of paratroopers including two women with colorful parachutes jumping from 6,000 feet onto the Gall Face green.

The government declared today a Special Public and Bank Holiday in view of the Victory Day Parade.

The first anniversary celebrations, due to be held on May 18, were postponed for today due to the inclement weather and heavy flooding in the Western Province including in capital Colombo.

By Courtesy of www.colombopage.com
18th June 2010.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට එරෙයහි ඇමරිකානු මානව හිමිකම් නාඩගම,

2010-06-16T16:12:00.000-07:00

"ඉරාකයට හා සර්බියාවට එරෙහිව ක්‍රියාකිරීමට ඇමරිකාව එක්‌සත් ජාතීන්ගේ ආරක්‍ෂක මණ්‌ඩලයේ අවසරය ගත්තේ නැහැ"

-ලුවිස්‌ ආබර්

මානව හිමිකම් සහ යුද අපරාධ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජය සමඟ සාකච්ඡා කිරිම සඳහා ඇමරිකානු ජනාධිපති බැරක්‌ ඔබාමාගේ මානව හිමිකම් පිළිබඳ විශේෂ සහකාර සමන්තා පවර් සහ යුද අපරාධ පිළිබඳ ජාතික ආරක්‍ෂක කවුන්සිලයේ අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ ඩේවිඩ් ප්‍රේස්‌ටන් දැන් මෙරටට පැමිණ ඇත.

ඊළඟට පැමිණියේ එක්‌සත් ජාතීන්ගේ විශේෂ නියෝජිත ලීන් පැස්‌කෝ යි. ඔහු ආවේද මානව හිමිකම් සහ යුද අපරාධ ගැන අසන්නටය.

ඉන් පසු සම්ප්‍රාප්ත වූයේ ප්‍රභාකරන්ගෙන් ස්‌වර්ණමය තිළිණයක්‌ ලබා ගත් ජපන් නියෝජිත යසුෂි අකාෂිය.

මානව හිමිකම් සහ යුද අපරාධ ගැන විමසීමට මෙරටට පැමිණීමට නොහැකිව ඇත්තේ රටින් පිටත ඊළාම් හොර ආණ්‌ඩුවේ ප්‍රධානි රුද්රකුමාරන්ට පමණි.

මේ හැර බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය පාර්ලිමේන්තුව හමුවේ ද ඊයේ විවාදයක්‌ පැවැත්විණි. මෙරට මානව හිමිකම් සහ යුද අපරාධ ගැන විමසීමට පැමිණි ඩේවිඩ් ප්‍රෙස්‌ටන් ඇමරිකානු හමුදාව සර්බියාවේත්, ඉරානයේ සහ ඇෆ්ගනිස්‌තානයේත් යුද අපරාධ ගැන විමසුවේ නැත.

ඉරාක රොයිටර් ඡායාරූප ශිල්පියා ඇමරිකානු හෙලිකොප්ටර් ප්‍රහාරයකින් ඝාතනය වීම ගැන විමර්ශනයක්‌ කළේ ද නැත. ගෙයක්‌ බාගෙට ගිනි තැබීමෙන් වැඩක්‌ නැතැයි ඇෆ්ගනිස්‌තානයේ සිටින ඇමරිකානු අණදෙන නිලධාරි මැන්ක්‍රිස්‌ටල් කළ ප්‍රකාශය ගැන ඔහුගෙන් නිදහසට කරුණු විමසුවේ ද නැත.

එහෙත් ඔහු මෙරටට පැමිණියේ කොටි ඝාතක සමාගම විනාශ වීමේදී යුද අපරාධ සිදුවූවේ ද යන්න විමසීමටය. යුද අපරාධ ගැන සොයන්නේ නම් ඒබ්‍රහම් ලින්කන් ජනාධිපතිවරයා ද වගකිව යුතු වේ. ඇමරිකාවේ දකුණේ කැරැලිකරුවන්ට එරෙහිව ලින්කන් එදා "ලී" නමැති හමුදා නිලධාරියා ලවා සිදුකළ යුද්ධ මෙහෙයුමේදී ලක්‍ෂ සංඛ්‍යාත සිවිල් වැසියන් මරුමුවට පත්වුවද ලින්කන් යුද්ධය ජයග්‍රහණය කර උතුර - දකුණ එක්‌ කළේය. එදා ලින්කන් කැරලිකරුවන්ට එරෙහිව ක්‍රියා නොකළේ නම් අද ඇමරිකාව කියා රටක්‌ නැතැයි හිටපු ඇමැරිකානු රාජ්‍ය ලේකම්වරයකු වූ ලන්සින් වරක්‌ කියා සිටියේය.

ලින්කන් කැරලිකරුවන් මර්දනය නොකළේ නම් සමන්ත පවර්ට හා ඩේවිඩ් ප්‍රෙස්‌ටන්ට අද ඇමරිකාව කියා රටක්‌ නියෝජනය කරමින් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ඒමට ඉඩක්‌ ලැබෙන්නේ ද නැත. එහෙත් මේ අතීතය අමතක කළ ඇමරිකානු යාන්ත්‍රණය මානව හිමිකම් මුවාවෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවෙන් කරුනු විමසීම හාස්‍යජනකය. ඊටත් වඩා හාස්‍යජනක සිද්ධිය නම් ජපන් හමුදාව නැන්චුන් සමූලඝාතනයට සම්බන්ධව සිවිල් වැසියන් බයිනෙත්තුවලින් ඇන මරද්දී යසුෂි අකාෂි ද ඇමරිකානු මානව හිමිකම් නාටකය පසුබිමින් මෙරටට පැමිණීමට ක්‍රියා කිරීමය.

ඇමරිකානු නියෝජිතයන්ගෙත් ලියෝ පැස්‌කෝගේත්, යසුෂි අකාශිගේත් අරමුණ වෙනත් කිසිවක්‌ නොව ඇමරිකානු ක්‍රමවේදය මත ශ්‍රී ලංකාව පවත්වා ගෙන යැමයි.

මෙයට පෙර පැවැති ආණ්‌ඩු ඇමරිකාව හමුවේ දණ ගැසීය. ඇමරිකානු හා බටහිර තානාපතිවරුන්ගේ ඉල්ලීම ප්‍රතික්‍ෂේප කළේ ද නැත. කොටින්ට එරෙහි මෙහෙයුම් නතර කරන්න යෑයි එම තානාපතිවරු ඉල්ලුවොත් එය ඉටු කිරීමට ද ක්‍රියා කළහ. එහෙත් ඇමරිකානු හා බටහිර ක්‍රමවේදය මෙවර ව්‍යාර්ථ විය.

මේ නිසා ඔබාමා තම නියෝජිතයන් එවමින් ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජයෙන් විමසීමට පෙර කොටි ඒජන්ත විශ්වනාදන් රුද්රකුමාරන්ගෙන් ප්‍රභාකරන් කළ අපරාධ ගැන විමසිය යුතුය.

ඔබමාගේ නියෝජිතයන් මෙරටට පැමිණීමට පෙර ඇමරිකානු තැපැල් බාලධාරීහු ඩොලර් ශත 44 ක කොටි මුද්දරයක්‌ ද ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කිරීමට ඉඩ දුන්හ.

මේ අන්දමටට අල්කයිදා සංවිධානයටත් මුද්දරයක්‌ ප්‍රකාශ කිරිමට ඔබාමා රජය ඉඩ දෙන්නේද?

ඇමරිකාව ප්‍රමුඛ නේටෝ සංවිධානය ඇෆ්ගනිස්‌ථානයේ සිදුකරන ප්‍රහාර නිසා සිවිල් වැසියන් මියයන අතර රාජ්‍ය ලේකම් හිලරි ක්‌ලින්ටන් එම සිදුවීම ශෝකජනකයි යනුවෙන් මාධ්‍යවලට පවසා නිහඬ වෙයි. මේ සිදුවීම් ගැන විමර්ශනය කිරීම සඳහා ඇමරිකානු නියෝජිත සමන්තා පවර් හා ඩේවිඩ් ප්‍රෙස්‌ටන් ඇෆ්ගනිස්‌ථානයට ගොස්‌ ජනාධිපති කරාසිs හමුවී සාකච්ඡා කළේ නැත. එහෙත් මොවුන් මෙරටට පැමිණ ඇත්තේ යුධ අපරාධ ගැන විමසීමටය. කොටි සංවිධානය නැගෙනහිර ප්‍රදේශයේදී පොලිස්‌ භටයන් 600 ක්‌ නිරායුධ කර ඝාතනය කිරීමෙන් පසු පුළුස්‌සා දමද්දී ඇමරිකාව නිහඬව සිටියේය. ඊට වගකිවයුතු කොටි න්‍යායාචාර්ය ඇන්ටන් බාලසිංහම්ට එරෙහිව කිසිදු පියවරක්‌ ගැනුනේ නැත. මේ නිසා ඇමරිකානු නියෝජිතයන්ගේත් ලියෝ පැස්‌කෝගේත් යසුෂි අකාෂිත් මෙරටට පැමිණ ඇත්තේ රෙදි ඇඳගෙනද යන්න විමසිය යුතුය.

අද මෙම බටහිර බලවේග වඩාත් කම්පාවට පත්වී ඇත්තේ කොටින් ඝාතනය වීමයි. තව වසර ගණනාවක්‌ තිස්‌සේ ත්‍රස්‌තවාදය ශ්‍රී ලංකාව තුළ පවත්වා ගෙන යැමට නොහැකි වීම ගැන ඔවුහු දුක්‌වෙති. මේ නිසාම සාවද්‍ය යුද අපරාධ චෝදනා මත මෙරට රජයෙන් තොරතුරු විමසීමට ඉදිරිපත්වී ඇත.

මෙහිදී අතීතය ද සිහිපත් කළ යුතුය. ඇමරිකානු හමුදා ඉරාකයේ මෙහෙයුම් දියත් කරද්දී ඇමරිකානු තානාපතිව සිටියේ පැටිරිෂියා බුටේනිස්‌ය. ඇය අද මෙරට ඇමරිකානු තානාපතිවරියයි. ඉරාක සිවිල් වැසියන් 138000 ක්‌ මියගොස්‌ ඇති බව ඉරාක රජය මෑතකදී පවසා තිබිණි. එසේ නම් බුටේනිස්‌ ද ඊට වගකිව යුතු වේ.

මෙහිදී ඔබාමාගේ ක්‍රියා කලාපය ගැන ද විමර්ශනයට ලක්‌ කළ යුතුය. ඇෆ්ගනිස්‌ථානයේ සිවිල් වැසියන් ඝාතනය වීම යුද අපරාධ යෑයි නොකියන ඔබාමාට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සිවිල් වැසියන් ගැන විමර්ශනය කළ හැකිද? යුද අපරාධ ගැන සොයන්නේ නම් ප්‍රභාකරන් වසර 30 ක්‌ තිස්‌සේ කළ බිහිසුණු අපරාධ ගැන සෙවීමට ඇමරිකාව ක්‍රිටා නොකළේ මන්ද ඔහු දුසිම් ගණන් සිවිල් වැසියන් බෝම්බ තබා ඝාතනය කරද්දී ඇමරිකාව කළේ එම සිදුවීම හෙළා දැකීම පමණකි.

මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් කොටි න්‍යායාචාර්ය ඇන්ටන් බාලසිංහම් වරක්‌ පැවසුවේ ඇමරිකාව තමන්ගේ වැඩ බලාගත යුතු බවයි. මේ අතර එක්‌සත් ජාතීන්ගේ මහ ලේකම්වරයකුව සිටි කොෆී අන්නන් ත්‍රස්‌තවාදියකු වූ කෞශල්‍යයන් ඝාතනය වීම ගැන වැලපුනේය.

මේ නිසා ඇමරිකාව රඟ දක්‌වන මානව හිමිකම් නාටකය පැහැදිලිය. මෙම නාටකයේ ප්‍රධාන නළුවා සහකාර රාජ්‍ය ලේකම් රොබට්‌ බ්ලේක්‌ ය. පසුබිමේ සිsටින සහාය චරිත නම් ප්‍රංශ විදේශ ඇමැති බර්නාඩ් කුෂ්නර් සහ නෝර්වේ අමාත්‍ය එරික්‌ සෝල්හයිම් ය.

රොබට්‌ බ්ලේක්‌ දැන් මෙරට සෑම කටයුත්තකට මැදිහත් වේ. ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ රජය කරන්නේ කුමක්‌ ද කියා බලමු යෑයි ඔහු විදේශ මාධ්‍යවලට කියා සිටියි

එසේම ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජයට උපදෙස්‌ දීමට ද ඔහු ඉදිරිපත් වී ඇත. මානව හිමිකම් සහ යුද අපරාධ ගැන හඬ නැඟිය යුත්තේ ඊට සම්බන්ධ නොවූවන් ය. එහෙත් ලෝකයේ විශාලතම යුද අපරාධකරු හා මානව හිමිකම් උල්ලංඝනය කරන්නා ඇමරිකාවයි.

ඇමරිකානු රජය ඉරාකය ආක්‍රමණය කළේ එක්‌සත් ජාතීන්ගේ ආරක්‍ෂක මණ්‌ඩලයෙන් අවසරය නොගෙනය. සර්බියානු මෙහෙයුම ගැනත් අවසර ගත්තේ නැහැ යෑයි හිටපු මානව හිමිකම් කොමාසරිස්‌ ලුවිසේ ආබර් මෑතකදී පිළිගත්තාය.

එසේ නම් බරක්‌ ඔබාමාලාට හා ලියෝ පැස්‌කෝලාට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ත්‍රස්‌ත මර්දන මෙහෙයුම ගැන විමසීමට හිමිකමක්‌ තිබේද? මේ අතර එක්‌සත් ජාතීන්ගේ විශේෂ නියෝජිත ලියෝ පැස්‌කෝ වෙත සාවද්‍ය තොරතුරු යොමු කිරීමට එන්.ජී.ඕ. ක්‍රියාකාරිහු සූදානම් ඇතැයි වාර්තා විය.

යසුෂි අකාෂි ද මෙරට සය දිනක්‌ නතර වී සිටිනු ඇත. යුද අපරාධ සහ මානව හිමිකම් ගැන ක්‍රියා කරන්නේ නම් මුලින්ම ජාත්‍යන්තර අධිකරණය වෙත ගෙන ආ යුත්තේ ඇෆ්ගනිස්‌ථානයේ සිවිල් වැසියන් ඝාතනය වීමට වගකිවයුතු බරක්‌ ඔබාමාගේ සිට බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය, ප්‍රංශ හා නෝර්වේ අගමැතිවරුන්ය.

කීර්ති වර්ණකුලසූරිය

By Courtesy of www.divaina.com
16th June 2010.

'BBC meets its match in Sri Lankan Defence Secretary'- The Manila Times

2010-06-16T15:45:00.000-07:00

With its foreboding lighting effects that appear to have been plucked straight out of Dante's dark epic Inferno-and cleverly devised one suspects to reduce its willing, and oftentimes unsuspecting, "victims" to submission-the BBC's HARDtalk program has attained a universal reputation (or should that be notoriety?) for tough and bruising interviews that border on intimidation.

Why, in its trailer for the widely popular program the BBC has fierce animals from the wild locking horns in deadly tussles, while HARDtalk inquisitor-in-chief Stephen Sackur looks on arms folded barely able to disguise the smirk on his face.

Last week HARDtalk was "on the road" in Sri Lanka with the sole purpose it seemed to derail the widely held perception that this jewel of an island-blessed with every imaginable treasure that nature could bestow -was finally at peace after a crippling secessionist war that lasted for three decades and ended a year ago with the humiliating defeat of the Tamil Tigers terrorist outfit, and at the needless cost of countless lives.

Any independent visitor to Sri Lanka these days cannot fail to be both surprised and exhilarated at the remarkably swift transformation that has come about in this once war-ridden nation.

One can freely enjoy the spectacular beaches (some of the most breathtaking of which cling to the north east coast which was at the heart of the conflict but are now once again open for leisurely business), savor the easily activated smiles of young and old from every ethnic mix, admire an economy that has been rejuvenated and get a real feel of the people's faith in a government given an overwhelming mandate in just concluded elections to sow the dividends of peace and prosperity.

All that, however, appeared to have been lost on the BBC and its rabid attack dog Sackur. He seemed hell-bent on using his platform to paint-with the aid of a handful of accommodating interviewees-a sinister picture of the country that belied any semblance to the harmonious reality that is post-war Sri Lanka.

To give just one glaring example. Sackur kept harking on about alledged state sponsored media persecution even while he was traversing the length and breadth of the island talking on camera to whoever he cared to choose-including even a telephone chat with detained former Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka who is the most vociferous critic of the government.

But then came his interview with powerful Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa-a tough no-nonsense tolerating retired Sri Lankan Army Colonel who (invited back in 2005 by President Mahinda Rajapaksa-his elder brother-to Sri Lanka from the US where he was domiciled with his family to lead the faltering war effort) is credited both at home and abroad with having marshalled the decisive phase of the war that saw final victory.

Now spearheading the vital task of restoring and maintaining law and order in a country that has been on a war footing for so long, Rajapaksa is totally driven to ensuring post-war stability in his homeland.

In a recent interview in Colombo with The Manila Times he was passionate in his hopes and plans for his country's future. "While it is true that the government has been able to regain control of each and every inch of land in Sri Lanka and restore peace, we have to keep in mind that we are emerging from a 30 year long conflict that, apart from its local impact, had international connotations too," said he.

Despite the military success, Rajapaksa is not given to complacency. He explains: "Although the Tamil Tigers have been militarily defeated in Sri Lanka, a lot of pro-separatist activity is taking place internationally, aided and abetted by former Tamil Tigers cadres and activists among the Tamil Dias-pora. So it is imperative that we remain vigilant.

"And while the government is committed to relaxing the emergency regulations and restoring normalcy and giving the people the full benefits of peace, we have to take whatever steps necessary to ensure that terrorism does not raise its ugly head in Sri Lanka ever again."

So, with a reputation as a guy who doesn't mince his words, Rajapaksa's characteristic hard talking style made him the ideal guest for a TV program which prides itself in being called HARDtalk.

But. alas, it turned out to be more than Sackur could handle. Every verbal punch that he threw at Rajapaksa the combative Defense Secretary returned with crushing effect, jolting the normally self-controlled Sackur off balance.

Fixing Sackur with a steely glare and reminding him "that Sri Lanka was a sovereign nation," Rajapaksa tore apart the BBC talking head's argument that Sri Lanka should submit itself to a United Nations brokered inquiry into accusations of atrocities allegedly committed by both sides in the closing stages of the war.

When Sackur pulled out what he thought was his trump card and accosted Rajapaksa with the charge leveled at him by General Fonseka (who, incidentally, has built himself a post-military political career out of making wild accusations against the Defense Secretary) that during the final battle he ordered that even those people waving white flags of surrender should be shot, the Defense Secretary's rage was palpable.

"He is a liar," bristled Rajapaksa, "and if he continues to say that, he should be hanged because that is treason." Sackur, unaccustomed to hearing such hard talking on his show was visibly taken aback, "You mean to say you would execute him?" asked Sacker his voice rising. "Yes, that's the punishment for treason against your country," countered Gotabaya.

And so the interview went on, with the by now emotionally charged Rajapaksa giving back twice as hard as he was getting from Sackur, and making it clear to the BBC frontman that he doesn't have a monopoly on the truth.

So much so that Sackur brought the interview-that by this stage was turning into an absorbing mis-match-to an abrupt end.

Normally the show ends with Sackur shaking hands cordially with his guest. And we hazard a guess his trip is clasping the hand offered by the guest sitting across him and getting a triumphant feel of the sweaty and clammy level he had been able to reduce the often cowering interviewee.

But this time around, in a first-ever for this globally televised talk show, it ended with the Sri Lankan Defense Secretary allowing himself a hearty chuckle in the knowledge that in this particular edition of HARDtalk it was undoubtedly game, set and match to him. And TV viewers worldwide could attest to that!

By Courtesy of www.manilatimes.net
14th June 2010.

BBC Hard Talk with the Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.-07th June 2010

2010-06-08T01:57:00.000-07:00

BBC iPlayer Link

Sri Lanka on BBC s Hardtalk, Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa fields questions.

2010-06-07T12:35:00.000-07:00

The BBC World Service will air four HARDtalk programs on Sri Lanka beginning Monday (June 7) on BBC World News, BBC announced from London.

The first of the four-part series will begin with `Tamils and the broken north` with Stephen Sackur talking to military officials, the Defence Secretary and former LTTE fighters (who BBC said live in hiding) and civilians trying to rebuild their lives.

Tuesday`s program is titled `Democracy under threat` and Sackur will talk to Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, the brother of the President. He asks `Has Sri Lanka`s ruling family replaced democracy with their own authoritarian rule?` BBC said.

Wednesday`s program is titled `Former Tiger child soldiers rebuilding their lives.`

This is described as `one of the untold stories of the Sri Lanka conflict what has become of the hundreds of children conscripted and forced to fight as part of the Tamil Tiger army?` the BBC release said.The blurb says hardtalk ``gains exclusive access to the Sri Lanka government`s child soldier rehabilitation program.`

Here Stephen Sackur talks to the rehabilitation program director, to teachers and `to the teenagers themselves about their horrific experiences and new lives.``

`The program poses a troubling question should the victorious Sri Lanka military really be responsible for the rehabilitation of the traumatized and vulnerable Tamil teens?`` the blurb said.

The final part of the program is an interview with Sri Lanka`s powerful Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse which is described as a hard hitting one-on-one interview.

`Stephen Sackur questions the Defence Secretary on the Sri Lanka army`s conduct in the final days of the war, accusation of war crimes, the economy, democracy, the judiciary, freedom of the press and the future of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.``

Broadcast times are 0330h, 0830h, 1530h and 2030h GMT.

BBC Link
By Courtesy of www.island.lk
07th June 2010.

IIFA Awards 2010 in Sri Lanka.

2010-06-05T07:01:00.001-07:00

State ventures will not be sold but made profitable - Wimal

2010-06-05T06:54:00.000-07:00

President Mahinda Rajapaksa would never hand over State enterprises to the private sector, but make every attempt to make them profitable ventures, Minister of Housing and Construction, Minister, Wimal Weerawansa, said after an official visit to the Government Factory at Kolonnawa.

Addressing the employees at the Government Factory, he said that the best example was the taking back of SriLankan Airlines from the control of Emirates.

"The Government sector has a proud history behind it and they face certain problems in the present economic situation. The State Enterprises can now give tough competition to the private sector, and we will make every attempt to solve each and every problem," Weerawansa said.

He said that President Rajapaksa since assuming duties as Head of State and the government never sold any State enterprise but always looked for ways and means to turn them into profit making ventures. The government was making every attempt to get over all obstacles facing the State enterprises that are facing problems, and will not allow those institutions to fail, but see that they are successful and find solutions, the Minister promised the employees.

"We must improve this institution to face the challenges ahead to develop the country and request all employees to throw their full weight behind it. I am willing to discuss development plans for this institution with the officials and employees," he said.

Minister Weerawansa was accompanied by Deputy Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna, and officials and employees of the Government factory with whom he held discussions.

By Courtesy of www.island.lk
06th June 2010.

Sri Lanka is on the right track - Global corporate 'guru' Dr. Ram Charan.

2010-06-02T15:56:00.000-07:00

Sri Lanka has many positives and assets, along with the passion to take the country to the next level, said Dr. Ram Charan, addressing the media during a whirlwind 24 hour visit to the island on an invitation from Brandix Lanka on Monday.

Dr. Charan - who is a highly-sought after business advisor and speaker famous for his uncanny ability to solve the toughest business problems - asserted that "the key thing everybody has to know in this world is that the speed and volatility of external change is very high. No one individual can master this change."

"There is passion here to take this country to the next level, particularly in relation to the economy and education and positioning Sri Lanka in the changing world," he noted.

Responding to a question on his first impressions of Sri Lanka, he said: "This is my first visit here to Sri Lanka. As you know, Sri Lanka has more in common with the Indian culture than some of the other countries. I am glad to see that you are on the growth path and transforming your economy."

For over 35 years, this business 'guru' has worked behind the scenes with top executives at some of the world's most successful companies and has also shared his insights through teaching and writing.

According to Dr. Charan, he visited Sri Lanka for two purposes: "Firstly, I love learning. The second is focused on how I can help Brandix in new ways with new ideas."

"The management of Brandix has a very forward looking, visionary and bold management and ownership to take this company forward towards number one in the world. And these are not light words from me because I am able to examine many companies in the world," added Charon, who consults for the largest and most powerful companies and is among the most sought-after CEO advisors in the world.

Touching on whether it would be wise for Sri Lanka to come out with its own brand, given its expertise in the apparel industry, Dr. Charan said: "See the market, see the change in the market, which gives you the understanding to create new things. Why not?"

However, CEO of Brandix Lanka Ashroff Omar was quick to point out that while branding was one matter, execution was another altogether.

Pointing out that there were other aspects that came before branding, he said: "For example, Apple Computers are built by a huge Taiwanese company which is almost as big as Apple. Providing the total solutions your customer needs is a different discipline. Brandix is not looking at its own brand immediately; we have to first master what we are doing."

Touching on some figures, Omar revealed that total apparel imports into the US stood at US$ 65 billion, of which Sri Lanka exports 1.75 billion and China about US$ 30 billion.

"In China there are apparel companies which are about a billion dollars today, which is not big. There are shoe companies which are close to four to five billion dollars. They don't have their own brand, but 35% of the world's shoes are made by one Taiwanese company. Our whole focus and plan is to be a mega supplier of apparel. As we go along, we will build our own brand if necessary - but we have to first be masters at what we do," he added.

"The market is so big. There is an over 100 billion dollar market in apparel. If you take the six or seven categories which the country is good at, that will account for more than 40 or 45 percent of the total buying."

By Marianne David
By courtesy of: www.dailymirror.lk
Published 2nd June, 2010.

Buddhist songs.

2010-05-27T08:17:00.000-07:00

Let us follow the Buddha's path - President

2010-05-27T07:55:00.000-07:00

Those who live virtuous lives will not see the faults of the past and grieve in the present. Let us resolve during this Vesak Day to follow the wholesome path of the Buddha with determination and relentless efforts to build a virtuous nation, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said.

President Rajapaksa issuing a message for Vesak said: "Vesak Full Moon Day which marks the birth of Prince Siddhartha, His Enlightenment and Parinibbana is the noblest religious event for all Buddhists. We can spend this day meaningfully by engaging in Buddhist rituals and practice.

We who observe the five precepts do not approve killing, bloodshed and torture. It brings joy to celebrate this Vesak after closing the sorrowful chapter of thirty years of bloodshed and destruction of life. It is fortunate that Buddhists now enjoy the freedom and a secure atmosphere necessary for that purpose. We must enter a spiritual and virtuous way of life in order to sustain that joy.

A path of love (metta), compassion (karuna), sympathetic joy (muditha) and equanimity (upekha) should be followed. Ours should be a nation which is not shortsighted but farsighted and committed to achieve consolation through patience as taught by Buddha.

If delays in the pat obstructed our path to Nibbana, we should learn to avoid such delay.

Yo cha pubbe pamajjithva - paccha so nappamajjathi

So imang lokang pabhasethi - abha muththova chandima

- Dhammapada

"If one was heedless in the beginning but is not so afterwards, he will illuminate this world as the moon emerges through the cloud," thus Buddha taught.

May the Triple Gem bless you!

By Courtesy of www.dailynews.lk
27th May 2010.

POINT OF VIEW: Dr. Palitha Kohona.

2010-05-23T13:32:00.001-07:00

The latest 'horror drama'

2010-05-23T13:19:00.000-07:00

One year has elapsed after Sri Lanka's Security Forces crushed LTTE terrorism and became the first country to eradicate terrorism. During Sri Lanka's relentless battle against terror, many international organisations and a few countries made desperate attempts to disrupt the operations of the Security Forces.

Some countries, which profess to be the Godfathers in the international battle against terror, made many an attempt to resurrect the LTTE when the world's most ruthless terrorist organistion was on the verge of being vanquished.

Even when the Security Forces were about to trounce the LTTE leadership in the final battle at the Nandikadal lagoon, some countries, at the eleventh hour attempted to pump in the last drop of oxygen to the moribund terrorist organisation which had killed a countless number of innocent people and inflicted untold hardships on millions of people of all ethnic groups in Sri Lanka.

Although these countries and organizations, including some INGOs, who could not directly support a terror outfit which was violating all accepted norms and international conventions, they buttressed moral support for the LTTE and attempted to discredit the country's Security Forces which rendered a magnanimous and invaluable service.

Certain countries and some international organisations shamefully used human rights as an effective tool to exert pressure on the Government, in an insidious attempt to bring about a premature end to the operations of the Security Forces.

Fortunately for us, we had the invincible political leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who did not yield to mounting pressure from all quarters, including a handful of local opportunistic Opposition politicians who attempted to gain petty political mileage.

Had it not been for the indomitable and determined effort of President Rajapaksa and unfailing support extended by Sri Lanka's friendly countries, we would perhaps never have eliminated terrorism and liberated the country.

Ironically, the same extremist elements which had made numerous attempts to protect Tiger terrorists and disrupt Sri Lanka's battle against terror, have again surfaced at a time the entire nation is celebrating the first anniversary of the country's liberation from terrorism.

Controversial Louise Arbour, the then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a high-ranking international official, was one whose conduct was questionable. The International Crisis Group (ICG), headed by Arbour, which has now made the latest attempt to discredit Sri Lanka's Security Forces.

As exclusively reported in our lead story last Sunday, the ICG has made an ignominious attempt to level war crimes against the Security Forces which liberated over a half a million people who had been forcibly held by the LTTE terrorists as a human shield. Arbour's move from the UN to the ICG has not changed her moral responsibility one wee bit.

The ICG report, released last Monday to coincide with the first anniversary of the LTTE's defeat, not only puts the scale of civilian casualties far higher than previous UN estimates, but also declares that the ICG has "credible evidence" to suggest that the Security Forces shelled civilian targets and hospitals during the battle against terrorism.

This is no doubt a shameless and unethical attempt to distort the truth and fabricate stories to deny the credit of the Security Forces which had maintained a near zero civilian casualty rate at all times.

The ICG said that its report was based on eyewitness statements, photographs, video satellite images, electronic communications and documents from a "wide range of sources". One has a reason to wonder how the ICG had based its facts or was influenced by the tampered video footings such as the infamous Channel 4 incident which championed concocted stories.

The ICG report could well be the first in the latest series of conspiracies that are likely to emerge in the international arena against Sri Lanka. The few remaining international leaders of the now defunct LTTE, along with a section of the Tamil diaspora and a handful of LTTE sympathisers are behind the latest conspiracy of which Arbour's ICG, perhaps, is only a partner.

In these circumstances, the credibility of the ICG report is at stake as ICG personnel have made hostile expressions on Sri Lanka's conduct of the conflict and the public perception is that their report will be unfairly hostile and cannot be relied upon.

In a subtle attempt to give credibility to itself, the ICG has faulted the extinct LTTE too, as a part of balancing act, knowing only too well that in the absence of personnel or an organisation, no action can be taken against the LTTE. It seems that the sole aim of the ICG report is to frame war charges against the Government and its Security Forces.

To hound a democratically elected government, which has every right to defend its sovereignty and protect its people against the most ruthless terrorists in the world which had bled our nation for 30 years with the support of certain countries in the West to restore the right to life to its subjects to say the least is certainly mind boggling.

Why is the ICG keen on holding an inquiry into the alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka? Are the backroom boys at the ICG playing the role of scripting the ghost report to discredit the Defence Forces of Sri Lanka. The prime objective of the report is to bring Sri Lanka into disrepute in the eyes of the international community. Unlike the non-existent, Sri Lanka is a nation state that can be subjected to international sanctions. Certain Western powers and its allied INGOs tried their best to concoct stories to discredit Sri Lanka in its effort to defeat terrorism.

It is patently clear that certain countries in the West and their shadow INGOs are staging their latest 'horror drama' against Sri Lanka. These extremist elements, who fought tooth and nail to protect the LTTE and failed, now need a busybody such as the ICG to unearth material to sully Sri Lanka's reputation.

Why are these organisations conspiring only against Sri Lanka? Having woefully failed in their attempt for a regime change by using a traitor such as Sarath Fonseka who was only too willing to favour war crimes' allegations, they are now resorting to everything under the Sun in an attempt to tame the leadership which had never been a Western puppet.

By Courtesy of www.defence.lk
22nd May 2010

මහ කොටියා මරා දමා වසරයි.

2010-05-18T07:14:00.000-07:00

බෙදුම්වාදී ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය අවසන් කරමින් ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාව එක්සේසත් වී අද (18) දිනට වසරක් සපිරෙයි. වීරෝදාර රණවිරුවන් විසින් මුලතිව් වෙල්ලමුල්ලිවෛක්කාල් හි පිහිටි නන්දිකණ්ඩාල් කලපුවේ දී කොටි නායක වේළුපිල්ලේ ප‍්‍රභාකරන් ඝාතනය කිරීමත් සමග මුළු දිවයිනම සිංහ ධජය යටතට පත්විය.

යාපනය නගරාධිපති ඇල්ෆ‍්‍රඞ් දොරේ අප්පා මහතා ඝාතනය කරමින් ප‍්‍රභාකරන් විසින් ආරම්භ කරන ලද ඝාතන රැල්ල හේතුවෙන් දහස් සංඛ්‍යාත අහිංසක සිවිල් වැසියන් පිරිසකගේ ජීවිත විනාශ විය. එපමණක් නොව තවත් දහස් ගණනක් දෙනා අබාධිත තත්වයට පත් වූ අතර විනාශ වී ගිය දේපළ වල වටිනාකම රුපියල් කෝටි ගණනකි. කොටි ත‍්‍රස්තවාදීන් සමග සාකච්ඡ මාර්ගයෙන් ගැටලූවට විසඳුම් සෙවීමට බලයට පත් සෑම රජයක්ම උත්සාහ දැරූ නමුත් ත‍්‍රස්තවාදීන් එම සෑම අවස්ථාවක්ම ප‍්‍රයෝජනයට ගත්තේ ඔවුන්ගේ ප‍්‍රයෝජනය සඳහා පමණි.

කෙසේ වෙතත් 2006 වසරේ දී මාවිල්ආරු සොරොව්ව කොටි ත‍්‍රස්තවාදීන් විසින් වසා දැමීමෙන් පසු එය විවෘත කිරීම සඳහා ආරක්‍ෂක හමුදාවන් ආරම්භ කළ මානුෂීය මෙහෙයුම සාර්ථකව ඉදිරියට ම ගෙන යනු ලැබිණි. එහි ප‍්‍රතිඵල ලෙස නැගෙනහිර පළාතත් වන්නි මෙහෙයුම මගින් උතුරු පළාතේ පිහිටි සියලූ කොටි බලකොටුත් ආරක්‍ෂක හමුදාවෝ අත්පත් කර ගත්හ. ඒ අනුව 2009 වසරේ මැයි මස 18 වැනි දින මුළු ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවම තිස් වසරක් පැවති ම්ලේච්ඡ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදී ශාපයෙන් නිදහස් විය.

මාතෘ භූමිය ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයෙන් මුදා ගැනීම සඳහා ක‍්‍රියා කළ ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතාටත්, හිටපු යුද හමුදාපති ජනරාල් සරත් ෆොන්සේකා, හිටපු නාවික හමුදාපති රියර් අද්මිරාල් වසන්ත කරන්නාගොඩ, ගුවන් හමුදාපති එයාර් චීෆ් මාර්ෂල් රොෂාන් ගුණතිලක, සිවිල් ආරක්‍ෂක බලකායේ හිටපු අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ රියර් අද්මිරාල් සරත් වීරසේකර මහත්වරුන්ටත් ජීවිත පූජා කළ එමෙන්ම ආබාධිත තත්වයට පත් රණවිරුවන් ඇතුළු සියලූ වීරෝදාර රණවිරුවන්ට මේ මොහොතේ අපගේ ගෞරවණීය ප‍්‍රණාමය පුද කර සිටිමු.

By Courtesy of www.lankacnews.com
18th May, 2010.

The country can rise up with pride in the world Defence Secretary 22 05 2009.

2010-05-17T12:47:00.001-07:00

"I was convinced that the military option was the only way to eliminate the LTTE"- by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

2010-05-17T11:52:00.000-07:00

In a sense, I could say that it all began on November 18, 2005 around seven o'clock in the morning. Those were tense moments and we were monitoring the results of Sri Lanka's closest presidential election at Temple Trees.

My brother, then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa walked out of the self-styled 'Operations Room' where the results were coming in thick and fast. The Ampara district result had just come in. It clinched the contest, for he had just obtained an unbeatable lead over his rival, Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Beaming as he came out of the 'Ops Room', I was the first person he met. As I greeted him, he had just a few words for me: "You must take over as Secretary of Defence," he said. I smiled in reply, realising that I had very little choice in the matter.

Even so, it was a difficult decision. I had retired from the Army in 1991 after twenty years of service and, after obtaining a Post-graduate Diploma in Computer Technology from the University of Colombo, I had reconciled myself to a life domiciled in the United States, where I had lived since 1994.

I had been working as a Unix Systems Administrator at the Loyola Law School in Marymount University in Los Angeles, California for over nine years. Like most others of my age, I had to support my son's education and a mortgage to pay on my house.

However, towards the end of July 2005 when I was informed that my elder brother was given the party nomination for the presidency, I felt it was nothing but right that I should return to the country for a while to help him in his campaign.

My employers were keen to support me -- it was not every day that someone came with a request for leave saying his brother was running for President! I obtained three months leave and came to Sri Lanka leaving my wife and son and kept in touch with my employers via e-mail: I wanted to return to my job as soon as the dust settled on the elections, where I was busily campaigning in the Kurunegala district.

The outcome of the elections and my brother's request had now changed all that. When my wife Ioma and my son Manoj flew to Sri Lanka for the President's inauguration, we discussed what should be done about her job in the United States, my son's future and the mortgage on the house, knowing all along that we didn't really have a choice.

That is because I have always had my own ideas -- and plans -- about the war and I sensed that this was an ideal opportunity to implement them. If I didn't, I would always regret it. While in the United States, I always read avidly about the war effort, kept in touch with officers of my vintage and, as a result, I had come to my own conclusions.

For instance, I was convinced that a military option was the only way to eliminate the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). I believed that it could be done. I also strongly believed that talking to Velupillai Prabhakaran was a waste of time -- and ultimately, a waste of lives. Now, I had the chance to be a part of a team that believed in these same ideas.

I was indeed appointed Secretary of Defence but the President came in for some criticism because of this. He was appointing family members to key posts, his critics said. It is true that I am his brother but my appointment had other advantages.

As a former army officer, I understood the war better than a civil servant and officers in the higher ranks were mostly my contemporaries. And, as the President's brother I always had unrestricted access to him and he had utmost confidence in me. Therefore, I could serve as the crucial link between the political and military establishments ensuring better co-ordination between the two. Few appreciated this at that time.

As Secretary of Defence, I had to brief the President on the state of the war. This I did, gathering information from intelligence services as well as the ground commanders. What I heard from them convinced me even more that the war could be won -- and that it had to be won, for there was no other way. And this is what I told the President.

One of the President's first tasks after assuming office was to visit India. There, he met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a one-on-one discussion. Thereafter, I was called in to brief Premier Singh. I handed over a report containing my observations which detailed how the LTTE had abused the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) to recruit cadres, purchase arms and even train civilians for their 'Makkal Padai' ('Peoples' Force'). These, I said, were all signs that they were preparing for war. We even requested military assistance from India to counter this threat.

Of course, as the political head of the country, the President had to purse the democratic option first -- that of talking to the LTTE. But the President was very clear in his instructions to us: he would handle the negotiations in Geneva but the armed forces must be ready for war. They were to be two separate efforts.

I also proposed key changes to the armed forces. A crucial strategy was in appointing field commanders who could get the job done. In fact, I was instrumental in appointing General Sarath Fonseka as the Army Commander.

I recommended General Fonseka for the job as I believed he should have a chance to command the Army. My recommendation posed a problem for the President because General Fonseka's predecessor, General Shantha Kottegoda had two more years to serve and there was no reason to remove him from office. Nevertheless, the President accepted my recommendation and General Fonseka was appointed Commander of the Army in December 2005.

As he was appointed just a week before his fifty-fifth birthday, General Fonseka's tenure had to be extended every year by the President. This too led to difficulties when General Fonseka came up for his first extension in 2006. By then, the Geneva peace talks with the Tigers had broken down and slowly but steadily, the war had begun. But there was pressure on the President from various quarters not to extend General Fonseka's term of office as Commander.

I do recall former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva calling me to his chambers and having a lengthy discussion on the matter. The then CJ suggested that I should not recommend an extension for General Fonseka as he claimed the General's actions had led to many injustices in the Army causing a lot of dissent and stated that General Fonseka had dictatorial tendencies which could be a threat to democracy.

"It is not necessary for you to have him, you can manage with another person," Silva advised. Many others, including government and opposition politicians and retired and senior serving military officers had the same sentiments.

Yet, I thought that changing the Commander of the Army in the midst of a military campaign was counter-productive. I personally carried General Fonseka's file to the President for his signature, on the very last day the extension could possibly have been given and the President signed it while having lunch.

Many also often ask me the question as to whether the suicide attack on me on December 1, 2006 strengthened my resolve to fight the war to a finish. The truth is that it was not an unforeseen event. At the Security Council, intelligence services had warned us of possible attacks on the President, me and the three service commanders.

The President responded by giving us bullet proof vehicles from his pool of vehicles. It is fortunate that I used a bullet proof vehicle that day -- or else, I would not be writing this today. It is also unfortunate that General Sarath Fonseka did not use his bullet proof vehicle on April 25, 2006 possibly because he was travelling within the Army Headquarters complex which he believed to be secure, in his soft skin vehicle.

Nevertheless, the attack on me was just another incident. It did not demoralise me; nor did it add courage or vengeance to my efforts.

As far as I was concerned, I was committed to end the war, anyway. There were many ingredients to our success. I feel that the single most decisive factor was our decision to increase the strength of the military -- mostly the Army -- three-fold. When such a request is made, it obviously entails a significant burden on the economy; it is not simply a matter of paying the salaries of the additional troops; they need to be equipped with weapons and ammunition, their logistical needs increase and other administrative and organisational changes are needed in the long term.

There are also other political implications and many politicians would think twice about why the military was seeking to enhance its strength in this manner. But again, the President understood the need for our suggestion and he believed it was a fair request. Therefore the President's decision was made easier, and he readily allocated the necessary funds for this purpose.

I was in close contact with our ground commanders at all stages of the battle. This enabled me to process their requests quickly, sort out their logistical problems and at times, directly intervene to facilitate co-ordination between the different forces.

Meanwhile, in the military operations we engaged, our troops were pushing the LTTE back, destroying their strongholds and capturing vital terrain in the process. The Tigers resorted to delaying tactics, putting up a 'ditch cum bund' heavily fortified with mines in the areas they held. Eventually, a major clash erupted at Puthukuduirippu, which had them encircled.

By then, the Tigers had decided to adopt the strategy of taking civilians with them as they retreated and when they had been cornered to Puthumathalan, they had some 300,000 civilians who were being used as their 'human shield'. The international community, the United Nations and India were very concerned and we understood their concerns. The question uppermost on everyone's mind was how these civilians should be rescued.

For the government, it was a time to take crucial decisions. The military had to maintain its momentum to end the long lasting campaign as soon as possible. The end of thirty years of suffering was near because we knew that the top leaders including Prabhakaran were surrounded.

However, at the same time the government had to consider the safety of the trapped civilians. Elsewhere, India, especially Tamil Nadu, was sensitive to events here and their concerns had to be taken into consideration. Meanwhile, Pro-LTTE organisations were lobbying and putting pressure on the international community.

The President was firm in his decision that the offensive should continue. After conferring with him, we arrived at several decisions. We declared 'no fire zones'. We also adopted a self-imposed ban on air bombing, artillery and mortar fire whenever we were confronted with battle zones which were home to civilians. Our field commanders were very mindful of this and restrained themselves often.

Also, at every stage of the battle we made certain that food and medical supplies reached the trapped civilians through the World Food Programme, the Red Cross and the United Nations. In the last stages of the war, this could be done only through sea but we still did so, even if it involved a high risk to the military and even though we knew that some of the food and medicines we supplied invariably went to the LTTE.

We felt that the LTTE strategy was to try and prolong the conflict with the help of civilians under their control with the expectation that some in the international community would intervene on their behalf to ensure that their leadership survives, so that they could live to fight another day.

To try and foil this, we adopted a novel method. We opened up corridors in the battle zone so that civilians could flee to government controlled areas. Nearly all of them did and the whole world saw footage recorded from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) which showed how the LTTE fired at and killed civilians trying to leave the battle zone. It was a major victory for us because thousands of civilians were evacuated in this manner-and also because the hypocrisy of the LTTE was exposed.

I do admit that it was a very difficult and complex operation. Often, wounded LTTE cadres would change into civilian clothes to cross over. There would be times when we had to hold fire to prevent civilian casualties.

I must remind all those who accuse us of shooting cadres crossing over with white flags that we at all times adopted a 'zero civilian casualty' principle, despite fighting an unconventional war with a terrorist group which adopted each and every method of warfare. By mid-May last year, I was fairly certain that the end was near for the LTTE. I was engaged in visiting every district to meet the families of servicemen in each region. On May 18, by a strange co-incidence, I was at Hambantota, my hometown.

Usually these meeting are conducted in an army camp but since this meeting was in my hometown, it was arranged at Medamulana, at our ancestral home. I then received a telephone call from the President and briefed him to say that the war would in all probability end that day. Close to noon, the President called back to say that the Army Commander, General Fonseka had said it probably could not be done within the day.

I however informed him that this was possible as the field commanders had assured me that the end was at hand. Later, the President was contacted by General Fonseka who had confirmed my prediction. It was on May 18 that the military recovered many bodies of top LTTE leaders after the final battle at Nanthikadal and they began the task of identifying the dead that day itself. It was also the day that there was some speculation that Velupillai Prabhakaran had been killed while trying to flee in an ambulance.

On the following day, May 19, I was attending a meeting of families of servicemen in the Galle district when General Fonseka called me. He carried good news: the body of Velupillai Prabhakaran had been found. It was on the same day that the President addressed Parliament, officially declaring the end of military operations and the capture of all territories previously controlled by the LTTE.

For some, questions remain such as the fate of Pottu Amman, the Tigers' intelligence chief and there are suggestions that he was not killed in the final battle. We do have credible information from extremely reliable sources that Pottu Amman was in the battle zone at Nanthikadal. We also know that he could not have escaped from the tight naval and military blockade that encompassed the area.

It is true that his body was never identified. But it is also true that this area of scrub jungle yielded dozens of bodies which could not be identified positively because they were in an advanced state of destruction. Therefore, Pottu Amman is certainly dead and it would be extremely naïve to believe otherwise.

Since the end of the war we have had some significant breakthroughs, the most notable among them being the capture of 'KP' or Kumaran Pathmanathan, the LTTE's point man in international relations and close confidant of Prabhakaran.

We know that KP was responsible for organising the arms procurement network of the LTTE and that in the two years that he was side-lined by Prabhakaran, the Tiger's supplies dwindled drastically.

However, they reconciled and in the last stages of the war, Prabhakaran re-appointed him to procure weapons. KP arranged for a final shipment but when the battle ended on May 18, the vessel carrying these arms dumped their cargo in the sea on May 20 and made a hasty exit.

We also know that Prabhakaran spoke to KP from Puthumathalan through an intermediary. Prabhakaran's son, Charles Anthony, spoke directly to KP just before his demise. After their deaths, KP anointed himself as the new leader of the LTTE and asked the Tiger diaspora to rally round him and pledged to re-structure the organisation. Therefore, I would rate capturing KP as being as important as killing Prabhakaran -- and that is not an exaggeration.

Now that the war is over, there are demands to relax the military controls in the North and East. In my opinion, that would be foolish. With an organisation as destructive as the LTTE, there are always bound to be some elements who would want to re-group and we must be wary of such possibilities.

I believe protecting our coastline should be a priority now. If our beaches were secured previously, the Tigers could not have smuggled in weapons in such large quantities and they wouldn't have grown in to the monstrous organisation that they were. Similarly the vast jungle terrain in the Wanni must be dominated -- it is this land that the LTTE exploited to the maximum during the early stages of its campaign to wage guerrilla warfare.

The Police must also complement this by adopting a different role. Police officers should speak the language of the region. They should cease to be the paramilitary force that they have been for the past 25 years and revert to their more familiar role of maintaining law and order. These changes require time, effort and most importantly, a change of attitude.

I hear a clamour for political reforms in the North and East and I understand and appreciate that. But I do also sincerely believe that priority should be given not to political reforms but to infrastructure development and attending to the other basic social needs of the people.

The people of the war-ravaged areas now need roads, electricity, drinking water, schools, hospitals and jobs much more than they need amendments to the Constitution. With the former, they can rebuild their lives which had been stalled for nearly three decades. Then, surely, the latter will follow.

In two days, we will be celebrating the first anniversary of our war victory. The victory parade will represent the formations of the final humanitarian operation. We hope to continue this as an annual event, in remembrance of the country's greatest victory in recent times. It is especially a victory for those people who lived in fear of the LTTE in the North and East and in the threatened villages bordering them. But what we must also remember is that this is not a celebration of the President, the Armed Forces, the government, a political party or of one particular community; this a celebration for every Sri Lankan.

As for my future plans, many ask me whether I would follow the footsteps of my brothers and take to politics. If I wanted to do that, I had the perfect opportunity at the April general elections but I declined.

Unfortunately, all my adult life I have been either a professional soldier or an expert in information technology and politics does not have any attraction despite growing up in a political family and being under the constant influence of my brothers. Politics, therefore, is most certainly not an option.

I do believe that I can do more as a public official -- just as I have done over the past five years. There are new challenges that beckon. Remodelling the military into a modern, thoroughly professional peacetime force is one of them.

The Urban Development Authority has now been attached to the Defence Ministry and that is an added challenging responsibility. And who knows, that could be as testing as fighting the most ruthless terrorist organisation in the world!

What is certain though is that saying 'yes' to the President's offer on that November morning five years ago has not been in vain.

By Courtesy of Sunday Times.
17th May, 2010.

ජනපති අද ඉරානයට.

2010-05-15T08:55:00.000-07:00

ටෙහෙරාන් නුවර පැවැත්වෙන ජී 15 කණ්ඩායමේ රාජ්‍ය නායක සමු`ථවට සහභාගි වීම සදහා ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා අද (15) ඉරානය බලා පිටත් වීමට නියමිතය. මෙවර එම සමුථවේ සභාපතීත්වය ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවට හිමිවීම ද විශේෂ කරුණක් වන අතර සමුථව 17 වැනි දා දක්වා පැවැත්විමට කටයුතු යොදා තිබේ. ජී 15 කණ්ඩායම 1989 දී පිහිටුවා ගනු ලැබුවේ සංවර්ධනය වෙමින් පවතින රටවල ආර්ථික සහයෝගීතාවය වර්ධනය කර ගැනීමේ අරමුණෙනි.

ආජන්ටිනාව, ඇල්ජීරියාව, බ‍්‍රසීලය, චිල, ඊජිප්තුව, ඉන්දියාව, ඉන්දුනීසියාව, ඉරානය, කෙන්යාව, ජැමෙයිකාව, මැලේසියාව, මෙක්සිකෝව, නයිජීරියාව, සෙනගල්, වෙනිසියුලාව, සිම්බාබ්වේ ආදි රටවල් 17ක් මීට අයත් වන අතර ජාත්‍යන්තර ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය, ගෝලීය කාලගුණ විපර්යාස, ආර්ථික සහයෝගීතාවය යන කාරණා මෙවර සමු`ථව තුළ විශේෂයෙන් සාකච්ඡුාවට ලක් කෙරේ. මෙම සංචාරයට ජනාධිපතිවරයා සම`ග අමාත්‍ය ජී.එල් පීරිස් විදේශ ලේකම් රොමේෂ් ජයසිංහ, ජනාධිපති ලේකම් ලලිත් වීරතුංග, ඇතුථ පිරිසක් සහභාගී වීමට නියමිතය.

By Courtesy of www.lankacnews.com
15th May, 2010.

ඉන්දියාව ගැන ඇමති විමල්ගේ කණස්සල්ල.

2010-05-14T10:33:00.000-07:00

13 වැනි ආණ්ඩු ක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සඳහා දින වකවානු තීරණය කිරීමට ඉන්දියාවට අයිතියක් නැතැයි ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ නායක සහ නිවාස ඉංජිනේරු සේවා ඉදිකිරීම් හා පොදු පහසුකම් අමාත්‍ය විමල් වීරවංශ මහතා පවසයි. 13 වන සංශෝධනය ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඉන්දීය අභ්‍යන්තර කටයුතු අමාත්‍යවරයා කළ ප‍්‍රකාශයක් පිළිබඳ අදහස් දක්වමින් ඒ මහතා මේ බව ප‍්‍රකාශ කළේ ඊයේ (13) පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුවක දීය.

ආණ්ඩු ක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන සම්බන්ධයෙන් සහ බෙදුම්වාදය වැළැක්වීමට අදාළ නීති ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් තම පක්‍ෂය දැඩි උනන්දුවෙන් කටයුතු කරන බව වීරවංශ මහතා මෙහිදී පෙන්වා දුන්නේය. වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දක්වමින් අමාත්‍යවරයා කියා සිටියේ ආණ්ඩු ක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව සංශෝධනය කිරීම පියවර තුනක් යටතේ සිදු කරන බවත් විධායක ජනාධිපති ක‍්‍රමය වෙනස් කිරීම මැතිවරණ ක‍්‍රමය සංශෝධනය කිරීම හා සෙනෙට් මන්ත‍්‍රී මණ්ඩලයක් ස්ථාපිත කිරීම එම අවස්ථා වන බවත්ය.

By Courtesy of www.lankacnews.com
14th May, 2010.

Songs tribute to National Heros.

2010-05-11T11:11:00.001-07:00

National war hero week launched in Sri Lanka to commemorate first anniversary of war victory.

2010-05-11T10:56:00.000-07:00

May 11, Colombo: Sri Lanka commenced the war hero week, today for the first time after the victory of the war against Tamil rebels Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at a ceremony held in Temple Trees today (11).

Marking the beginning of the National Ranaviru week, the first war hero flag was pinned on President Mahinda Rajapaksa by Waruna Rashminda, the 9-year-old son of late Sgt. B.S.Chandrasiri (Singha Regiment 511/581), an Army soldier who was killed in a battle in Muhamalai in the northern tip of the rebel-held Wanni territory.

A distinguish gathering of provincial governors, ministers and deputy ministers, and provincial chief secretaries, heads of three armed forces and the police and representatives of war hero families along with President's Secretary Lalith Weeratunga and the Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa participated in the event.

Ranawiru flags were handed over to the governors of the nine provinces today for island wide distribution. Income from the sale of these flags is to be utilized for the welfare of the war heroes.

Sri Lanka government declared the week from May 12 to 18 as National Rananiru Week to mark the victory of the three-decade long war against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

By Courtesy of www.colombopage.com
11th May 2010.

NFF will remain UPFA watchdog – Muzzamil.

2010-05-09T11:21:00.000-07:00

Former National Freedom Front (NFF) MP Mohammad Muzzamil says that his party will continue to offer constructive criticism to the government while continuing to be one of UPFA’s coalition partners.

In an interview with LAKBIMANEWS, he noted that if the government was to veer away from people-friendly policies and charter a dictatorial march, then the NFF will not hesitate to speak against the ruling party.

He also stressed that the NFF had rendered yeoman service to the country during the height of the North-East conflict and will not allow any force either locally or internationally to harm the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka.

Excerpts of the interview

Though the NFF is one of the affiliated parties of the UPFA recently we witnessed your party leader and Minister Wimal Weerawansa speaking on the need to allow detained former army chief retired General Sarath Fonseka from attending parliament sessions. Your party leader was also was pretty vocal when your nomination on the national list to parliament was rejected at the eleventh hour by the UPFA.

Does all this mean that the NFF can go the whole hog with the government by not toeing the government line?

The best form of defence they say is attack. Likewise we will continue to maintain our identity within the UPFA, but that will not preclude us from speaking our mind when the need arises.

The NFF always believed that this country has to be safeguarded from the clutches of the LTTE by crushing them and that policy we advocated since the inception of our party.

However, as a result of the JVP not willing to put country before self in an effort to defeat the LTTE that forced us to leave them and start a fresh political journey under the NFF banner.

Among other significant milestones of our party was ousting Ranil Wickremasinghe from power in 2004, bringing Mahinda Rajapaksa to power in 2005, and last but not least we were also able to overcome the subtle moves of the JVP to defeat the budget and prevent the collapse of the UPFA regime in 2007.

The climax of our patriotic struggle was the total elimination of the LTTE last May, and providing solid support to the president in his bid to return for a second stint at the presidential poll last January, and the UPFA scoring a resounding win in the subsequent general election.

Now, our duty is to provide maximum support to the UPFA to develop this country after the end of the three-decade long war, but that will not bar us from criticizing the ruling party when it needs to be and commending other measures when the need arises.

But, the comment made by your leader MP Weerawansa that retired General Fonseka should be allowed to attend sessions of the legislature as a MP has reportedly drawn the ire of the UPFA big wigs.

Wouldn’t that be an obstacle to co-exist with the government?

We know our duty as a party attached to the UPFA. And at the same time we also know our responsibility as a political party and if at all there is an issue where justice has not been meted out then we will not be reluctant to speak out publicly and that is what MP Weerawansa stated with regard to the former army chief.

What our leader said then was if General Fonseka had been able to gain power at the last presidential poll, then that would have sounded the death knell to the democracy of this country.

But, the former Army Chief managed to win a seat in the parliamentary poll and therefore as an MP he has certain rights and he is entitled to attend sessions of the legislature.

This is what MP Weerawansa tried to reiterate and we do not think that such a comment will draw the ire of the UPFA.

We are not in the government to pussyfoot, any issue and sugarcoat the UPFA we will speak then and there to whatever the topic and issue that needs our attention.

NFF vehemently campaigned to prevent Sarath Fonseka from unseating the president at the last presidential poll.

But, now that he has entered the legislature after the general election, do you think whatever the motives he may have had at the presidential election will take a backseat?

It is the duty of the speaker to safeguard the rights of all the 225 MPs in the legislature. What MP Weerawansa did was to make a statement with regard to safeguarding the rights and privileges that a fellow MP is entitled to when attending the parliament and it should not be taken out of context and misconstrued as the National Freedom Front whitewashing the sins of Sarath Fonseka.

You hit the national headlines in the run up to the presidential poll last January with your disclosure of how you were bribed with a sum of 300,000 rupees to support the retired General by certain opposition MPs.

However, the UPFA cold shouldered you openly by denying you a slot on the national list even after your bombshell revelation which most critics felt also contributed immesnsly towards the comprehensive win of the president. What do you make of it?

I feel it was a huge mistake committed by the UPFA denying me a slot on the national list considering what I achieved by way of my disclosure of the bribe and then as if to add insult to injury they brought in Rajiva Wijesinghe.

This was not what the NFF expected from the UPFA especially after they had guaranteed our party two slots on the national list.

If they had only promised us a single seat from the national list then I could have contested and won and we point our finger at the UPFA General Secretary Susil Prem Jayanth.

It was his tactic to allocate only a single seat to the NFF without even briefing our party and our leader vehemently opposed such a move.

Also I like to emphasize here that there was never any agreement or policy with any of the constituent parties of the UPFA on the allocation of seats from the national list.

So what do you think prompted the UPFA General Secretary to carry out such a measure when there was no prior agreement with any of the its coalition parties?

Though he is only the UPFA General Secretary the people of this country will know what sort of a character he is.

Though you find fault with Minister Prem Jayanth it is the president who really allocates the slots on the national list.

So just because you cannot fall foul of the president you are going hammer and tongs at the UPFA General Secretary. Isn’t this the truth?

Even if the president boobs, we are not afraid to criticize him and that is how the NFF functions. But, the final authority on the allocation of the national list seats is the UPFA General Secretary.

He is the person who liaises with the constituent partners of the UPFA.

It is he who hands over the final list to the polls commissioner and we clearly stated that if the NFF is to be given two seats then nominate both or refrain from nominating both.

But, he acted arbitrarily and did not heed our call and such moves have to be condemned in the strongest possible terms.

It was also known at the time that when your party was snubbed of a second slot on the national list that your leader had tried to contact the president but in vain.

Now if the NFF cannot even contact the president does that indicate that all is not well between him and your party?

Denying the NFF a national list slot and being unable to contact the president are two different issues.

The president was quite busy on that particular day and if we had been able to get an audience with him this issue could have been well and truly settled.

And you must understand that with the workload he has by merely contacting the president on the phone would not have been the answer to this grave blunder committed on the part of the UPFA General Secretary.

Are you entirely pleased with the finalization of the UPFA national list?

I believe that though there are certain MPs who deserve to be in parliament at the same time there are also a few dolls who have been accommodated by the UPFA - a lot which the government could have most certainly done without. However, I have no intention of naming names. I will continue to play my role within the NFF for the sake of the country and for that being in the parliament is not imperative.

By Courtesy of www.lakbimanews.lk
9th May 2010.

Marching in memory of common victory.

2010-05-09T06:38:00.000-07:00

A spectacular parade has opened the Victory Day festivities in Moscow. On the 65th anniversary of the end of WWII, military from the allied forces have for the first time ever marched on Red Square during the parade.

It started at the traditional 10am Moscow time. President Dmitry Medvedev delivered an address to the nation and all the guests.

“In 1945, not only military but also a great moral victory was achieved. A common victory. All peoples of the former USSR struggled for it. Our allies were advancing it,”

Medvedev said. “And today, soldiers of Russia, CIS countries and anti-Hitler coalition states will march together triumphantly. A single rank is evidence of our common readiness to defend peace, not to allow the revision of the outcomes of war and new tragedies.”

By courtesy of: www.rt.com
Published 09th May 2010.

The siege of Leningrad – deadliest blockade of WWII.

2010-05-09T06:31:00.000-07:00

Russia's second-largest city of St. Petersburg, which during the war was known as Leningrad, suffered a devastating blockade by Nazi troops for almost 900 days, but never surrendered.

It is considered the deadliest siege in human history, with hundreds of thousands dying of hunger in two-and-a-half years. Some historians describe it as deliberate genocide.

Almost one third of the population was wiped out in the city, hemmed in by enemy troops – Finnish to the North, Nazis to the South.

“It was victory. They announced we had won!” recalls Nina Andreeva, blockade survivor. “I was dumbfounded, overwhelmed. It was amazing, but what did it mean? No more shooting?”

Victory was something incomprehensible for Nina Andreeva before 1945. She was just 11 when the siege of Leningrad began, and the diary she kept is a testament to the life of famine, fear and horror she had become used to.

“The bombardment and shelling were terrible,” Andreeva remembers. “We were scared to walk in the street. We got really frightened. And yet, we had no idea what was happening, nor of the nightmare still to come.”

The nightmare began in September 1941 and continued for almost 900 days, as the Nazis tried to suffocate Leningrad. They were within touching distance of the city less than three months after invading the Soviet Union. But that was as close as they got.

“Hitler’s plans for Leningrad underwent changes because of the resistance put up by the city’s residents,” says Irina Muravyeva, a historian. “According to the Barbarossa plan, Leningrad was to be taken in no time, and they didn’t expect such resistance.”

Hitler tried to squeeze the life out of Leningrad’s three million civilians by isolating the city with a blockade. Transport links, electricity and heating were cut. Food stores were bombed and the hunger soon set in.

125 grams of bread was what the daily ration was reduced to during the winter of 1941. It is barely more than a few mouthfuls, and one ingredient was even sawdust. It simply wasn’t enough for many to survive on. The dead were piled up as the city was brought to its knees.

The winter of 1941 showed no mercy, with temperatures plummeting to 35 degrees below zero. People scavenged for what they could, eating leather, glue and even their pets. The ice thawed to reveal streets strewn with dismembered corpses as some turned to cannibalism.

“One time my mother bought meat,” Andreeva confesses. “When she began boiling it, red foam rose. “It’s human meat,” my mother screamed. So we threw everything away. There were cases of cannibalism, especially among mentally unstable people. My friend wrote that her neighbor gave birth to a baby and then ate it.”

Amidst this hell, Leningrad’s heart remarkably kept beating thanks to the Road of Life. The Soviets controlled a narrow, but crucial, artery across the frozen Lake Ladoga to the east of the withering city. Supplies were driven in, and women and children were evacuated. But it was a perilous route, with enemy bombers patrolling the skies.

“When our air defense knew German planes were headed for Ladoga, they’d turn on the searchlights over the ice,” states Vera Rogova, a traffic controller on the Road of Life. “We would see the beams roaming about and understand right away what was coming. That’s when you got scared, but you had to keep on controlling the traffic on the ice road while the Germans were bombing you from the air.”

One in four trucks sank, but those that got through were enough to keep Leningrad alive. Nina was one of over 1.5 million people who were transported over the ice and had a narrow escape.

“The Germans were bombing that road all the time and the truck two ahead of us was hit and went under the ice,” she says. “A woman traffic-controller ran up to us and showed us how to get to a bypass road. It was March, and the ice was melting. The water had risen up to the body of the truck. Everybody was crying. We were afraid of drowning. Our truck was practically floating.”

For Nina, the hell was over in March 1942, but for Leningrad it continued for almost two more years. There was temporary relief at the beginning of 1943, as a two-pronged Soviet attack bashed a corridor through the German defenses. Finally, in January 1944, the Nazi stranglehold was unlocked.

The siege had claimed the lives of around 700,000 civilians. Leningrad’s refusal to surrender prevented the Nazi’s from claiming more.

By courtesy of: www.rt.com
Published 09th May 2010.

School with one student, teacher and principal.

2010-05-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

Education Minister Bandula Gunawardene Thursday witnessed how trained human resources and State properties were being underutilized after an inspection tour on Dambuwa Primary School in Kelaniya where there is only one student with a teacher and the Principal.

It was his first inspection tour after being appointed as the Education Minister. This school is among the three schools in the Gampaha district where there are less than 10 students.

The Minister had an interaction with the student, teacher and the Principal and guessed that the situation of the school in other parts of the island would be worse.

Minister Gunawardene told the Daily News that he also visited the Ananda Primary School, Minuwangoda where there are no students nor teachers.

This school has been reduced to a principal who was not in the school when the Minister arrived there. This Principal in question has pasted a notice on his office door saying that he left for the Zonal educational office. Gunawardene said he has plans to meet this situation effectively and ensure that the resources in the education sector are properly distributed to all stakeholders equally.

"I will discuss with Provincial educational authorities and implement an effective mechanism to overcome this situation," he added.

By Courtesy of www.dailynews.lk
8th May 2010.

Birthday of Karl Marx – Born 05th May 1818.

2010-05-05T11:44:00.000-07:00

Karl Marx Documentary.

Karl Marx's Biography.

Karl Max Songs.

People who changed the world: Birthday of the Philosopher Karl Marks- Born 05th May 1818 .

2010-05-05T10:55:00.000-07:00

Karl Marx, the son of Hirschel and Henrietta Marx, was born in Trier, Germany, in 1818. Hirschel Marx was a lawyer and to escape anti-Semitism decided to abandon his Jewish faith when Karl was a child. Although the majority of people living in Trier were Catholics, Marx decided to become a Protestant. He also changed his name from Hirschel to Heinrich.

After schooling in Trier (1830-35), Marx entered Bonn University to study law. At university he spent much of his time socialising and running up large debts. His father was horrified when he discovered that Karl had been wounded in a duel. Heinrich Marx agreed to pay off his son's debts but insisted that he moved to the more sedate Berlin University.

The move to Berlin resulted in a change in Marx and for the next few years he worked hard at his studies. Marx came under the influence of one of his lecturers, Bruno Bauer, whose atheism and radical political opinions got him into trouble with the authorities. Bauer introduced Marx to the writings of G. W. F. Hegel, who had been the professor of philosophy at Berlin until his death in 1831.

Marx was especially impressed by Hegel's theory that a thing or thought could not be separated from its opposite. For example, the slave could not exist without the master, and vice versa. Hegel argued that unity would eventually be achieved by the equalising of all opposites, by means of the dialectic (logical progression) of thesis, antithesis and synthesis. This was Hegel's theory of the evolving process of history.

Heinrich Marx died in 1838. Marx now had to earn his own living and he decided to become a university lecturer. After completing his doctoral thesis at the University of Jena, Marx hoped that his mentor, Bruno Bauer, would help find him a teaching post. However, in 1842 Bauer was dismissed as a result of his outspoken atheism and was unable to help.

Marx now tried journalism but his radical political views meant that most editors were unwilling to publish his articles. He moved to Cologne where the city's liberal opposition movement was fairly strong. Known as the Cologne Circle, this group had its own newspaper, The Rhenish Gazette. The newspaper published an article by Marx where he defended the freedom of the press. The group was impressed by the article and in October, 1842, Marx was appointed editor of the newspaper.

While in Cologne he met Moses Hess, a radical who called himself a socialist. Marx began attending socialist meetings organised by Hess. Members of the group told Marx of the sufferings being endured by the German working-class and explained how they believed that only socialism could bring this to an end. Based on what he heard at these meetings, Marx decided to write an article on the poverty of the Mosel wine-farmers. The article was also critical of the government and soon after it was published in The Rhenish Gazette in January 1843, the newspaper was banned by the Prussian authorities.

Warned that he might be arrested, Marx quickly married his girlfriend, Jenny von Westphalen, and moved to France where he was offered the post of editor of a new political journal, Franco-German Annals. Among the contributors to the journal was his old mentor, Bruno Bauer, the Russian anarchist, Michael Bakunin and the radical son of a wealthy German industrialist, Friedrich Engels.

In Paris he began mixing with members of the working class for the first time. Marx was shocked by their poverty but impressed by their sense of comradeship. In an article that he wrote for the Franco-German Annals, Marx applied Hegel's dialectic theory to what he had observed in Paris. Marx, who now described himself as a communist, argued that the working class (the proletariat), would eventually be the emancipators of society. When published in February 1844, the journal was immediately banned in Germany. Marx also upset the owner of the journal, Arnold Ruge, who objected to his editor's attack on capitalism.

In 1844 Marx wrote Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts. In this work he developed his ideas on the concept of alienation. Marx identified three kinds of alienation in capitalist society. First, the worker is alienated from what he produces. Second, the worker is alienated from himself; only when he is not working does he feel truly himself. Finally, in capitalist society people are alienated from each other; that is, in a competitive society people are set against other people. Marx believed the solution to this problem was communism as this would enable the fulfilment of "his potentialities as a human."

While in Paris he become a close friend of Friedrich Engels, who had just finished writing a book about the lives of the industrial workers in England. Engels shared Marx's views on capitalism and after their first meeting Engels wrote that there was virtually "complete agreement in all theoretical fields". Marx and Engels decided to work together. It was a good partnership, whereas Marx was at his best when dealing with difficult abstract concepts, Engels had the ability to write for a mass audience.

While working on their first article together, The Holy Family, the Prussian authorities put pressure on the French government to expel Marx from the country. On 25th January 1845, Marx received an order deporting him from France. Marx and Engels decided to move to Belgium, a country that permitted greater freedom of expression than any other European state. Marx went to live in Brussels, where there was a sizable community of political exiles, including the man who converted him to socialism, Moses Hess.

Friedrich Engels helped to financially support Marx and his family. Engels gave Marx the royalties of his recently published book, Condition of the Working Class in England and arranged for other sympathizers to make donations. This enabled Marx the time to study and develop his economic and political theories. Marx spent his time trying to understand the workings of capitalist society, the factors governing the process of history and how the proletariat could help bring about a socialist revolution. Unlike previous philosophers, Marx was not only interested in discovering the truth. As he was to write later, in the past "philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is, to change it".

In July 1845 Marx and Engels visited England. They spent most of the time consulting books in Manchester Library. Marx also visited London where he met the Chartist leader, George Julian Harney and political exiles from Europe.

When Karl Marx returned to Brussels he concentrated on finishing his book, The German Ideology. In the book Marx developed his materialist conception of history, a theory of history in which human activity, rather than thought, plays the crucial role. Marx was unable to find a publisher for the book, and like much of his work, was not published in his lifetime.

In January 1846 Marx set up a Communist Correspondence Committee. The plan was to try and link together socialist leaders living in different parts of Europe. Influenced by Marx's ideas, socialists in England held a conference in London where they formed a new organisation called the Communist League. Marx formed a branch in Brussels and in December 1847 attended a meeting of the Communist League' Central Committee in London. At the meeting it was decided that the aims of the organisation was "the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, the domination of the proletariat, the abolition of the old bourgeois society based on class antagonisms, and the establishment of a new society without classes and without private property".

When Marx returned to Brussels he concentrated on writing The Communist Manifesto. Based on a first draft produced by Friedrich Engels called the Principles of Communism, Marx finished the 12,000 word pamphlet in six weeks. Unlike most of Marx's work, it was an accessible account of communist ideology. Written for a mass audience, the book summarised the forthcoming revolution and the nature of the communist society that would be established by the proletariat.

The Communist Manifesto begins with the assertion, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." Marx argued that if you are to understand human history you must not see it as the story of great individuals or the conflict between states. Instead, you must see it as the story of social classes and their struggles with each other. Marx explained that social classes had changed over time but in the 19th century the most important classes were the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. By the term bourgeoisie Marx meant the owners of the factories and the raw materials which are processed in them. The proletariat, on the other hand, own very little and are forced to sell their labour to the capitalists.

Marx believed that these two classes are not merely different from each other, but also have different interests. He went on to argue that the conflict between these two classes would eventually lead to revolution and the triumph of the proletariat. With the disappearance of the bourgeoisie as a class, there would no longer be a class society. As Engels later wrote, "The state is not abolished, it withers away."

The Communist Manifesto was published in February, 1848. The following month, the government expelled Marx from Belgium. Marx and Engels visited Paris before moving to Cologne where they founded a radical newspaper, the New Rhenish Gazette. The men hoped to use the newspaper to encourage the revolutionary atmosphere that they had witnessed in Paris.

After examples of police brutality in Cologne, Marx helped establish a Committee of Public Safety to protect the people against the power of the authorities. The New Rhenish Gazette continued to publish reports of revolutionary activity all over Europe, including the Democrats seizure of power in Austria and the decision by the Emperor to flee the country.

Marx's excitement about the possibility of world revolution began to subside in 1849. The army had managed to help the Emperor of Austria return to power and attempts at uprisings in Dresden, Baden and the Rhur were quickly put down. On 9th May, 1849, Marx received news he was to be expelled from the country. The last edition of the New Rhenish Gazette appeared on 18th May and was printed in red. Marx wrote that although he was being forced to leave, his ideas would continue to be spread until the "emancipation of the working class".

Marx now went to France where he believed a socialist revolution was likely to take place at any time. However, within a month of arriving, the French police ordered him out of the capital. Only one country remained who would take him, and on 15th September he sailed for England. Soon after settling in London Jenny Marx gave birth to her fourth child. The Prussian authorities applied pressure on the British government to expel Marx but the Prime Minister, John Russell, held liberal views on freedom of expression and refused.

With only the money that Engels could raise, the Marx family lived in extreme poverty. In March 1850 they were ejected from their two-roomed flat in Chelsea for failing to pay the rent. They found cheaper accommodation at 28 Dean Street, Soho, where they stayed for six years. Their fifth child, Franziska, was born at their new flat but she only lived for a year. Eleanor Marx was born in 1855 but later that year, Edgar became Jenny Marx's third child to die.

Marx spent most of the time in the Reading Room of the British Museum, where he read the back numbers of The Economist and other books and journals that would help him analyze capitalist society. In order to help supply Marx with an income, Friedrich Engels returned to work for his father in Germany. The two kept in constant contact and over the next twenty years they wrote to each other on average once every two days.

Friedrich Engels sent postal orders or £1 or £5 notes, cut in half and sent in separate envelopes. In this way the Marx family was able to survive. The poverty of the Marx's family was confirmed by a Prussian police agent who visited the Dean Street flat in 1852. In his report he pointed out that the family had sold most of their possessions and that they did not own one "solid piece of furniture".

Jenny helped her husband with his work and later wrote that "the memory of the days I spent in his little study copying his scrawled articles is among the happiest of my life." The only relief from the misery of poverty was on a Sunday when they went for family picnics on Hampstead Heath.

In 1852, Charles Dana, the socialist editor of the New York Daily Tribune, offered Marx the opportunity to write for his newspaper. Over the next ten years the newspaper published 487 articles by Marx (125 of them had actually been written by Engels). Another radical in the USA, George Ripley, commissioned Marx to write for the New American Cyclopaedia. With the money from Marx's journalism and the £120 inherited from Jenny's mother, the family were able to move to 9 Grafton Terrace, Kentish Town.

In 1856 Jenny Marx, who was now aged 42, gave birth to a still-born child. Her health took a further blow when she contacted smallpox. Although she survived this serious illness, it left her deaf and badly scarred. Marx's health was also bad and he wrote to Engels claiming that "such a lousy life is not worth living". After a bad bout of boils in 1863, Marx told Engels that the only consolation was that "it was a truly proletarian disease".

Marx published A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy in 1859. I the book Marx argued that the superstructure of law, politics, religion, art and philosophy was determined by economic forces. "It is not", he wrote, "the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness." This is what Friedrich Engels later called "false consciousness".

By the 1860s the work for the New York Daily Tribune came to an end and Marx's money problems returned. Engels sent him £5 a month but this failed to stop him getting deeply into debt. Ferdinand Lassalle, a wealthy socialist from Berlin also began sending money to Marx and offered him work as an editor of a planned new radical newspaper in Germany. Marx, unwilling to return to his homeland and rejected the job. Lassalle continued to send Marx money until he was killed in a duel on 28th August 1864.

Despite all his problems Marx continued to work and in 1867 the first volume of Das Kapital was published. A detailed analysis of capitalism, the book dealt with important concepts such as surplus value (the notion that a worker receives only the exchange-value, not the use-value, of his labour); division of labour (where workers become a "mere appendage of the machine") and the industrial reserve army (the theory that capitalism creates unemployment as a means of keeping the workers in check).

In the final part of Das Kapital Marx deals with the issue of revolution. Marx argued that the laws of capitalism will bring about its destruction. Capitalist competition will lead to a diminishing number of monopoly capitalists, while at the same time, the misery and oppression of the proletariat would increase. Marx claimed that as a class, the proletariat will gradually become "disciplined, united and organised by the very mechanism of the process of capitalist production" and eventually will overthrow the system that is the cause of their suffering.

Marx now began work on the second volume of Das Kapital. By 1871 his sixteen year old daughter, Eleanor Marx, was helping him with his work. Taught at home by her father, Eleanor already had a detailed understanding of the capitalist system and was to play an important role in the future of the British labour movement. On one occasion Marx told his children that "Jenny (his eldest daughter) is most like me, but Tussy (Eleanor) is me."

Marx was encouraged by the formation of the Paris Commune in March 1871 and the abdication of Louis Napoleon. Marx called it the "greatest achievement" since the revolutions of 1848, but by May the revolt had collapsed and about 30,000 Communards were slaughtered by government troops.

This failure depressed Marx and after this date his energy began to diminish. He continued to work on the second volume of Das Kapital but progress was slow, especially after Eleanor Marx left home to become a schoolteacher in Brighton.

Eleanor returned to the family home in 1881 to nurse her parents who were both very ill. Marx, who had a swollen liver, survived, but Jenny Marx died on 2nd December, 1881. Karl Marx was also devastated by the death of his eldest daughter in January 1883 from cancer of the bladder. Karl Marx died two months later on the 14th March, 1883.

By Courtesy of www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
05th May 2010.

Song- The Internationale.

2010-05-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

English version with subtitles.

The Communist Internationale (Original, with English Lyrics).

A War Hero Week in Sri Lanka from May 12 to 18.

2010-05-01T09:52:00.000-07:00

May 01, Colombo: Sri Lanka government has decided to declare a 'Week of War Heroes' from May 12 to 18 to mark the victory of the three decade war against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Numerous programmes of war hero welfare will be conducted during this week.

The government has decided to hold a victory memorial ceremony on May 18th annually. May 18th is the day the leader of the LTTE Velupillai Prabhakaran was rounded in a marshland in the Mullaitivu district and killed.

Meanwhile, the Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said to media following the opening of a war hero memorial in Elephant Pass in Jaffna district that the first war hero memorial following the victory of the war will be held in grand scale on May 20 this year.

By Courtesy of www.colombopage.com
1st May 2010.

Sri Lanka marks the first post-war May Day.

2010-05-01T09:42:00.000-07:00

May 01, Colombo: Sri Lanka today celebrated the first International Labor Day (May Day) since the end of the three-decade long war last year in a grand scale with pageantry.

The ruling United People's Freedom Alliance held its May Day rally at Town Hall under theme "Power to the Workplace, Dynamism to the Factory, Peace to the Motherland" with the participation of the President, Prime Minister, government ministers and union leaders.

The main opposition United National Party opted to hold religious activities instead of a political rally to mark the May Day this year. The activities had been held at the Piliyandala Dharma Shastroda Piriven Viharaya.

The Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) held its May Day rally at the Campbell Park in Borella under the patronage of its leader Somawansa Amarasinghe.

The Ceylon Workers Congress representing the upcountry plantation Tamil workers held its May Day rally in Thalawakelle while Socialist People's Front comprising five leftist political parties held its May Day rally at the Athulathmudali grounds in Kirulapone.

The association of workers in the free trade zone factories held its May Day rally at P.D. Sirisena grounds in Maligawatta.

Police Media Spokesman SP Prishantha Jayakody said the police have implemented a special security programme for the May Day. The police had added more officers to the streets to maintain law and order and direct the traffic.

Police spokesman said 11 rallies and 6 processions had been scheduled to be held in Colombo.

May Day celebrations in previous years had been low key due to the threats of LTTE terrorist attacks. In 1993 a LTTE suicide bomber attacked the then government's May Day processions in Colombo killing the former President Ranasinghe Premadasa and 23 others.

By Courtesy of www.colombopage.com
1st May 2010.

Song - SINHAYA OBA- YOU ARE THE LION Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

2010-04-28T09:35:00.000-07:00

******************************************************
The song is little bit too much, but we should accept the fact that Mr. Gothabaya Rajapaksa is a true hero for the Sinhala nation.

By Chinthaka.

President meets South Asian leaders.

2010-04-28T09:24:00.000-07:00

President Rajapaksa today held bilateral discussions with South Asian leaders on the sidelines of the 16th SAARC Summit being held in Thimphu, Bhutan. The summit will commence this afternoon and will continue until 30th April 2010.

The President of Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed called on President Rajapaksa today at the Sri Lanka House at SAARC Village in Thimphu. The Maldivian President congratulated the President on the resounding election victory at the recently concluded Presidential and Parliamentary elections. The Maldivian President opinioned that the people of Sri Lanka had recognized very well the good work that had been carried out by the President and wanted the continuity of the same leadership.

The two leaders discussed several issues of bilateral importance including cooperation in the fisheries sector and sea route connectivity.

The Prime Minister of Nepal Madhav Kumar Nepal called on President Rajapaksa yesterday (27).

The meeting took place in an atmosphere of cordiality and friendship. The Nepali Prime Minister, at the outset, congratulated the President on his resounding election victory both in the Presidential and Parliamentary elections. The Nepali Prime Minister inquired about the status of the political parties in the Parliament and the strength of the ruling party. The Nepali Prime Minister was keen to learn from Sri Lanka experiences and inquired as to how Sri Lanka weakened and defeated the LTTE. He explained the difficulties the Nepal going through at the moment and his Government’s efforts to reach consensus with the Maoists Party to finalize a new constitution.

The President stressed the importance of Sri Lanka’s relationship with Nepal which is the sacred Birth place of the Lord Buddha and very dear to the majority Buddhist community. The President inquired about the progress of the Lumbini Development Project and expressed Sri Lanka’s commitment to support the development of Lumbini. He also recalled the inauguration of the Sri Lanka monastery complex in Lumbini during his recent visit to Nepal. The two leaders agreed to work closely to promote bilateral relations. The Nepali Prime Minister requested the President to consider recommencing direct flights to Nepal. The President responded saying that this matter would be seriously considered.

Prof. G.L. Peiris, Minister of External Affairs, Namal Rajapaksa, MP, Mr. Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to the President, Mr. Romesh Jayasinghe, Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs and other senior officials were present at the meeting.

By Courtesy of www.news.lk
28th April 2010.

Birthday of the Iraqi Dictator/ Nationalist President Saddam Hussein- Born 28th April 1937.

2010-04-28T08:39:00.000-07:00

SADDAM KING OF IRAQ.

Tony Benn's interview with Saddam Hussein 4th February 2003 (Part 1-3).

Song - Viva La Quince Brigada - Christy Moore

2010-04-23T12:58:00.000-07:00

Viva la Quinta Brigada (listed as Viva la Quince Brigada in later recordings) is a Christy Moore song about the Irishmen who fought in the Spanish Civil War against Franco. The title was inspired by a Spanish song about the war, 'Viva La Quinta Brigada'.

Sri Lanka's new cabinet, 37 Ministers sworn in.

2010-04-23T12:19:00.000-07:00

Apr. 23, Colombo: The newly appointed Cabinet comprising of 37 Ministers took oaths before the President at the Presidential Secretariat early Friday afternoon in the capital Colombo.

Basil Rajapaksa has been sworn in as the Economic Development Minister. G. L. Peiris as Foreign Affairs, Education - Bandula Gunawardana and Helth portfolio went to Maithripala Serisena.

HIGHLIGHTS ::

• Deputy Media Minister - Mervyn Silva

• Keheliya Rambukwella - NO Portfolio

• Dr. Amunugama - NO Portfolio

• Mahindananda Aluthgamage - NO Portfolio

Following are the Ministers and their portfolios:

Minister Portfolio

* President Mahinda Rajapaksa (1) Defence, (2) Finance & Planning, (3) Ports & Aviation, (4) Highways

1 D. M. Jayaratne Buddhasasana & Religious Affairs

2 Ratnasiri Wickramanayake Public Management & Reforms

3 Nimal Siripala de Silva Irrigation & Water Resource Development

4 A. H. M. Fowzie Disaster Management

5 Maithripala Sirisena Health

6 Susil Premajayantha Petroleum Industries

7 Dinesh Gunawardena Water Supply & Drainage

8 Douglas Devananda Traditional Industries & Small Enterprise Development

9 A. L. M. Athaullah Local Government & Provincial Councils

10 D. E. W. Gunasekera Rehabilitation & Prison Reforms

11 Rishad Bathiyutheen Industry & Commerce

12 Wimal Weerawansa Construction, Engineering Services, Housing & Common Amenities

13 Champika Ranawaka Power & Energy

14 Basil Rajapaksa Economic Development

15 P. Dayaratne State Resources & Enterprise Development

16 Prof G. L. Peiris Foreign Affairs

17 John Seneviratne Public Administration & Home Affairs

18 Mrs. Sumedha Jayasena Parliamentary Affairs

19 Milroy Fernando Resettlement

20 Jeewan Kumaratunga Post & Telecommunication

21 Pavithra Wanniarachchi National Heritage & Cultural Affairs

22 Anura Priyadarshana Yapa Environment

23 Tissa Karaliyadde Child Development & Women's Affairs

24 Athauda Seneviratne Justice

25 Gamini Lokuge Labour Relations & Productivity Improvement

26 Bandula Gunawardena Education

27 Mahinda Samarasinghe Plantation

28 Rajitha Senaratne Fisheries & Aquatic Resources

29 Piyasena Gamage Indigenous Medicine

30 S. B. Navinne National Languages & Social Integration

31 Janaka Bandara Tennekoon Lands & Land Development

32 Felix Perera Social Services

33 C. B. Rathnayake Sports

34 Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena Agriculture

35 Kumara Welgama Transport

36 Dullas Alahaperuma Youth Affairs

37 Johnston Fernando Co-operatives & Internal Trade

The Deputy Ministers and their portfolios:

Deputy Minister Portfolio

1 Salinda Dissanayake Plantation and Industries

2 Dilan Perera Public Administration and Home Affairs

3 Susantha Punchinilame Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development

4 Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena Economic Development

5 Chandrasiri Gajadeera Finance and Planning

6 Jagath Pushpakumara Agriculture

7 T. B. Ekanayake Education

8 Mahinda Amaraweera Health

9 Rohitha Abeygunawardena Ports and Aviation

10 S. N. Chandrasena Irrigation and Water Resources Management

11 Gunaratne Weerakoon National Heritage and Cultural Affairs

12 Mervyn Silva Mass Media and Information

13 Pandu Bandaranayake Indigenous Medicine

14 Jayaratna Herath Industry and Commerce

15 Dayashritha Tissera Ports and Aviation

16 Duminda Dissanayaka Posts and Telecommunication

17 Ranjith Siyambalapitiya Economic Development

18 Lasantha Alagiyawanne Construction, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities

19 Rohana Dissanayake Transport

20 H. R. Mithrapala Livestock Development

21 Nirmala Kothalawala Highways

22 Premalal Jayasekera Power and Energy

23 Geethanjana Gunawardena External Affairs

24 Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan Resettlement

25 Indika Bandaranayake Local Government and Provincial Councils

26 Muthu Sivalingam Economic Development

27 Siripala Gamlath Lands and Land Development

28 W. B. Ekanayake Disaster Management

29 Chandrasiri Suriyarachchi Social Services

30 Neomal Perera Co-operatives and Internal Trade

31 Sarath Gunaratne State Resources and Enterprise Development

32 Nandimithra Ekanayake Higher Education

33 Nirupama Rajapaksa Water Supply and Drainage

34 Lalith Dissanayake Technology and Research

35 Sarana Gunawardena Petroleum Industries

36 Reginold Cooray Justice

37 Vijithmuni Zoysa Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms

38 N. L. A. M. Hisbullah Child Development and Women’s Affairs

39 Weerakumara Dissanayake Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development

By Courtesy of www.colombopage.com
23rd April 2010.

This is disgraceful – Wimal Weerawansa.

2010-04-22T10:19:00.001-07:00

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin- Born 22nd April 1870.

2010-04-22T07:37:00.000-07:00