The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is alarmed that Sri Lankan authorities are taking the unprecedented step of applying the country's draconian anti-terrorism law to seek to condemn senior journalist J.S. Tissainayagam for pursuing his profession.

After being held for five months without charge, Tissainayagam has been formally indicted by the High Court of Sri Lanka under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) (1979), according to the Free Media Movement, an IFJ affiliate.

The Sri Lankan military and the opposing Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are putting tens of thousands of displaced civilians at risk as fighting continues in the Wanni area of northern Sri Lanka.

Displaced mother washing her baby in Sri Lanka

This is the full text of a speech delivered on Aug 17th 2008 at a seminar organized by the Canadians for peace in Toronto.It was chaired by Mr. Ratnam Ganesh:

Chairman Sir, Mr. John Argue of AI, Ladies and Gentlemen: Good evening.

Thank you, Canadians for Peace and sponsors for the kind invitation to speak this evening. When the invitation came from Chelian, I recalled the advice of one of my old batch mates who had been my room-mate when we were undergraduates. He said to me "Do you think we do not know all that you talk about publicly. The only thing you accomplish is bringing your family and yourself into trouble. It is better to look after your family and be safe." What he meant is that any reasonable peace loving Tamil who gives voice to his views is slandered, vilified and demonized by the Tamil right. Mr. V. Anandasangaree, Ketheesh Loganathan, and Neelan Tiruchelvam have suffered this fate. Likewise, on the Sinhalese side we see the same thing happening to Elmore Perera, Rohan Edirisinghe, Jayadeva Uyangoda and Jehan Perera. Their stories will tell us what happens to those who refuse to conform with the right.

The Eelam War is entering the messy phase. During the last two weeks, in Mannar sector the security forces have progressed up to Mulankavil (southeast of Nachikuda on the Mannar coast) on A32 road to Pooneryn. They are leaning on lineTunukkai-Mallavi, West of Mankulam on A9 highway increasing the threat to Pooneryn and Kilinochchi defences of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). This should put the LTTE in a dilemma as the security forces have two options to strike, along A32 to Pooneryn with holding operations along Tunukkai-Uyilankulam/ Mallavi, or progress in the other way round to threaten Kilinochchi. Both are viable as they have another task force guarding their eastern flank of 57 Division operating closer to A9.

[Sri Lanka Army, in Wanni-pic:SLA]

by D.B.S. Jeyaraj

“Humanitarian catastrophe” was the description given by the so-called international media when the Caucasian conflict began displacing people.

Initially it was a humanitarian catastrophe only to Russian and other pro-Moscow media when 34,000 people became Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) due to Georgia’s military adventure.

Thereafter, when Moscow commenced military action and the IDP numbers touched six digits, the US and other Western media began focusing on what they termed as a humanitarian catastrophe.

There was a time (of idealist hope) when we of the developing world tried hard to establish a new information order as a forerunner to a new economic order. All hopes turned into dupes and the envisaged new ‘orders’ remain mirages.

[Displaced families]

Of the assassination of politicians during the past years, the killings of two cabinet ministers Hon. Lakshman Kadirgamar and Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, two outstanding speakers, both clever lawyers, both valiant defenders of the policies of the Present Government, are an irreparable loss to our nation.

The claims and counter claims by Sri Lanka's warring parties in the current fighting have overshadowed civilian suffering and misery in the northern region.

Many Tamil civilians are trapped between the warring sides

"China is using the space provided by India’s reluctance to sell weapons to Sri Lanka for political reasons to increase its influence in Sri Lanka’s strategic spectrum. So the possibility of the Hambantota project ending up as a remake of the Gwadar episode in Pakistan is very much there".

Extracts of the paper presented by Col.R.Hariharan, at the India-Taiwan interaction, jointly organised by the Chennai Centre for China Studies and the Federation of Chambers of Commerce & Industry-Tamil Nadu Chapter at Chennai on August 1, 2008:

China is aiming to quadruple its per capita GDP to $ 3200 by 2020 from $ 800 per capita attained in 2000. This would imply an average annual economic growth of 7.2% till 2020. In order to attain this, China will have to keep meeting the enormous appetite of its manufacturing economy for raw material and energy resources. On the other hand, it has to open up new markets for Chinese products while keeping the competitive economies of Asia and Americas at bay. Though this might be viewed as an exercise in international trade, it has to be driven by international relations backed by strategic defence capability.

In 1958, ten years after Independence, Sri Lankans of my generation were shocked by the anti-Tamil riots. We had complacently assumed that that was the sort of thing that was endemic in India but could never take place in Sri Lanka. Thereafter we came to a proper appreciation of what those riots were really about. They were an episode in the inevitable assertion of the dominant position of the island’s Sinhala Buddhist majority. We then assumed, again with complacency, that once that dominant position had been asserted and ethnic imbalances resulting from colonialism had been corrected, we would reach a new equilibrium and the dominant Sinhala Buddhist majority, or the Sinhalese majority, would give fair and equal treatment to the minorities. That kind of equilibrium has been reached in a great many multi-ethnic countries. Why not, after all, in Sri Lanka as well?

1956, half a century ago, the year I was born, was a strangely seminal year: it was the year that Fidel and Che landed on the shores of Cuba, the year of the Suez crisis, of the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist party and de-Stalinisation; it was the year of Elvis Presley and rock-and-roll.

It was also the year that Alan Ginsberg published his poem 'Howl', which began unforgettably: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked".

Looking back on my country in my times, the indelible impression is of seeing the best minds of my generation murdered by those once thought to belong to the same side; believers in the same ideas and project; comrades even. A collective Abel slain by a collective Cain.

Kethesh Loganathan was one of those 'best minds'. He was above all else a committed, engaged intellectual.

[First death anniversary of Late Kethesh Loganathan was commemorated on Aug 12, 2007]

Once upon a time, not so many years ago, Muralitharan Vinayagamoorthy alias Karuna was not only a  self confessed member of the LTTE and the undisputed leader of that gang of terrorists in the East, but also their principal `killing machine’ who led most of their major campaigns to the great detriment of our Republic. That, however was only until the 2nd/3rd March 2004 when he, together with his followers who included Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyan, [the present elected Chief Minister of the Eastern Province] broke away from the LTTE because of the discrimination constantly practiced by Prabhakaran against the Eastern Tamils in favour of the Northern Tamils, and became the sworn enemy of his former comrades in treason and genocide.

[Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyan, at recent Chief Ministers Conference] 

I am not a politician nor do I belong to any political/militant organisation.  I was deeply disturbed and disappointed with the strategy of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and wrote the following article (see the link below) about two and a half years ago.

This is a year beaded as a necklace with anniversaries. Some are past us, some ahead. Some are international, the others national. Some are of heroism, others of tragedy and darkness. All are significant. All teach us something, provide occasions for reflection.