TamilWeek: Week's Digest of Top News & Views

India and LTTE: “Out of the box”

by K.T. Kumaran

“We cannot always assure the future of our friends; we have a better
chance of assuring our future if we remember who our friends are,” is the
mind of the doyen of international diplomacy, Dr. Henry A. Kissinger.
For India in the midst of its emergence as a future global powerhouse
and wanting to do that in a conflict free regional environment, the Tamils
in the island nation off of its Southern tip are natural allies.

Ramadoss to
open Tamil
convention in
New York

Health and Family
Welfare Minister,
Anbumani
Ramadoss, will
formally inaugurate
here a three-day
annual convention
of Tamils in North
America, on July 1.

Consul General,
Neelam Deo, will be
present at the
inauguration,
according to a
senior official of the
Federation of Tamil
Sangams of North
America, known as
FeTNA.

Indian rope trick at the UN

by K. Godage

I asked myself the question “Surely India could not be intending to field a
candidate? India the emerging superpower, India that is aspiring to
become a member of the Security Council?

Sri Lanka: Land of the protected

By J. Nikhil Mustaffa

We in Sri Lanka have not lived up to the promises enshrined in the
Constitution. We ask people to vote, carry NICs, have national passports
and call ourselves citizens of Sri Lanka. What do some get in return for
such obedience?

Seeking a negotiated settlement with LTTE

By S. Sellathurai

Failure to settle the ethnic problem since the late 1950s and the arrogant
thoughtless perception that the minorities could be sidelined and
silenced by intimidation resulted in the uprising of organised Tamil youth.
When the revolt against the State started, there were some 30 different
militant Tamil groups and the LTTE came to prominence after eliminating
or marginalizing others.

TamilNet Profile: Major General Kulatunga

Born in 1951 and educated in Trinity College, Kandy, Kulatunge joined the
Sri Lanka Army in 1971 and in 1972 he became 2nd Lieutinent in 1st
Gemunu Watch (GW). In 1989, he was promoted to Lt. Col. and appointed
as an official at the Sri Lankan Defence HQ.
He also served at 23rd Division of the Sri Lanka Army.
He became a Commanding Officer in Gemunu Watch in 1990. He was again
promoted to Colonel rank in 1993 and served as the Deputy Commander at
Kotalawala Defence Academy and the Commanding Officer of the 21st
Division.

Karunanidhi plays the balancing act

By N. Sathiya Moorthy

By asking the Central Government in India to take “appropriate steps” to
restore peace in Sri Lanka, and calling for efforts to halt the “loss of innocent
lives through mine blasts and serial bombings, which in turn has led to the
influx of refugees”, octogenarian M.Karunanidhi, the DMK Chief Minister of
the south Indian State of Tamil Nadu, has done the kind of ‘balancing act’,
whose message is far-reaching.

Bishop of Mannar writes to Apostolic Nuncio in wake of attack
on church

Full Text of the letter:

Shedding of innocent blood in St. Mary’s Church, Pesalai in the island of
Mannar at 8.20 AM on Saturday 17th of June,2006 sent with my kind request
to be forwarded to the Holy See, Rome.

The Thrift Column – Its fiscal, stupid [Lanka Business OnLine]

A look at authorities taking the first steps to protect the poor from a
predatory economic framework
During the last few weeks the Sri Lanka's authorities have taken some
laudable steps to mitigate the viciously poverty creating tendencies of the
economic framework that is now in force. Real inflation (as opposed to one-
off price increases of one or more goods and services) is ultimately created
by the central bank when it prints money by buying up large quantities of
treasury bills and push interest rates down.

Long Shadow of War: Video Report [Yahoo! Kevin Sites]

Heavy fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels has
effectively nullified the 2002 cease-fire, leaving a nation with so much
potential, and so much to lose, yet again on the brink of all-out war.

Ethnic tensions between Sri Lanka's Buddhist Sinhalese majority and Hindu
Tamil minority have alternatively simmered and boiled since Sri Lanka's
independence from Britain in 1948.

SCOPP welcomes LTTE's reaffirmation of commitment to the
CFA and the peace process

It is heartening and encouraging that media reports (AFP, Reuters etc) have
cited the Secretary-General of the LTTE's Peace Secretariat Mr.Puleedevan
as saying that the LTTE stands committed to observing the Ceasefire
Agreement (CFA) as well as taking forward the peace process. This is
indeed heartening.

Pesalai victims traumatized [TamilNet]

Bishop Rayappu Joseph, one of the first persons to enter the church, Our
Lady of Victory, after the attack targeting civilians who had taken refuge in
the church, told media that the attack was carried out by men in blue
uniform, alluding that the attackers were Sri Lanka Navy men. "There was no
fight on land; no LTTE cadre was present at the attack site in Pesalai," the
Bishop of Mannar Diocese told BBC Tamil Service Saturday.

Press Council 'media censorship' [BBC]

Media rights watchdogs in Sri Lanka accuse the government of trying to
impose a media censorship by re-establishing Press Council.
Free Media Movement (FMM) said the Press Council is an institution
authorised to impose penalties "in direct violation to freedom of expression”.

Cutting edge of Hindu revivalism in Jaffna

By PK Balachandran

After about 300 years of intense persecution under the Portuguese and the
Dutch, the Hindus of Jaffna heaved a sigh of relief when the British took over
at the fag end of the 18th century.

The era of forcible conversions to Catholicism (under the Portuguese) and to
Protestantism (under the Dutch) was over.

Former
Canadian
Minister,
appointed as
UN Special
Advisor on Sri
Lanka

Highlighting
allegations of
“grave violations”
against children
by all parties in
the conflict,
United Nations
Special
Representative
for Children
affected by
armed conflict
said today she
was appointing a
Special Adviser
to undertake a
fact-finding
mission to Sri
Lanka.
Alan Rock, the
erstwhile
Canadian UN
Ambassador and
Justice Minister in
the Chrétien
Government, was
appointed today
to this task by
Radhika
Coomaraswamy,
UN Special
Representative.

Under the guise of peace, Sri Lankan government accelerates
drive to civil war

By Wije Dias

Amid the descent into all-out civil war, the Sri Lankan government, via its
peace secretariat (SCOPP), issued a thoroughly cynical statement on June
18, which has been trumpetted in the international press as a “call for peace
talks”. It could be more aptly described as a declaration of war on the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The statement denounces the LTTE’s “intransigence” for the breakdown of
peace talks, condemns its reliance on “violence and terrorism to achieve its
political goals” and, without providing any evidence, blames the LTTE for the
killing of 64 Sinhalese villagers in a mine blast near the town of Kebitigollewa
on June 15.

Fighting continues to escalate in Sri Lanka

By Wije Dias

While neither the Sri Lankan government nor the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) has formally torn up the 2002 ceasefire agreement, an
undeclared war is escalating in the North and East of the island.

Since the killing of 64 Sinhalese villagers near the northern town of
Kebithigollewa early Thursday morning, there have been four days of open
warfare. The Sri Lankan government immediately blamed the LTTE for the
Kebithigollewa bombing and ordered reprisals by the armed forces. Two
days of air strikes and artillery barrages followed on LTTE positions near
Kilinochchi, Mulaithivu and Muttur.

Bomb blast kills 64 villagers and catapults Sri Lanka toward war

By K. Ratnayake

Most of the victims were impoverished Sinhalese farmers and their families,
who were travelling to town from neighbouring villages. Among the dead
were 15 children. The area, about 240 kilometres from Colombo, borders the
war zones of the northern province, significant portions of which are under
the control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Sri Lankan refugees live in appalling conditions, says DPI MLA
[Hindu]

Dalit Panthers of India MLA D. Ravikumar has alleged that the rights of the
refugees from Sri Lanka are totally neglected and they are made to live in
sub-human conditions in Tamil Nadu.

Discharged alleged suicide bomber seeks Rs 5m redress

By S.S. Selvanayagam

The Supreme Court yesterday (19) granted leave to proceed with the
Fundamental Rights violation petition filed by a Tamil Relief Announcer of
the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) who was arrested and
detained on the eve of a conference on World Press Freedom Day at BMICH.

The Bench comprising Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, Justices Nihal
Jayasinghe and Shiranee Tilakawardena, granted leave for the alleged
infringement of the Petitioner’s right to equality and equal protection of the
law and freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention.

Sri Lanka: The Dirty War

By Professor Jayadeva Uyangoda

Sri Lanka’s peace process that began in 2002 continues to go deep in a
serious crisis. An undeclared war between the armed forces of the Sri
Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is
intensifying every day. In the escalating violence, civilians have become
victims to claymore mine attacks. Reports of civilian killings by unidentified
death squads operating in the Northern and Eastern provinces have been
increasing. Now it is really a dirty war in which civilian populations are
deliberately targeted, killed and terrorized while the perpetrators deny
responsibility.

Poet on Call: By Andrei Codrescu

Long-Time Holdout Learns to Be a Hugger

Commentator Andrei Codrescu disdains public hugging. He traces it back to
Frank Sinatra -- and lust. But he admits, as he gets older, and fears not
seeing people again, he has reluctantly become a hugger.

Information M.I.A. [Yahoo! Kevin Sites]

How do you report on one of Sri Lanka's most famous daughters when
no one is talking?

The Hot Zone team recently received an e-mail from a reader asking why we
haven't covered a reported immigration dispute involving the daughter of a
Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger, British rapper M.I.A.

"As thorough as your coverage of Sri Lanka was, you forgot to discuss Sri
Lanka's greatest export to the West: singer M.I.A. Hugely popular now in
Europe and the US, M.I.A.'s (Maya) father is a...rebel Tamil Tiger, and as a
result M.I.A. has been unable to get a visa to return to the US to record her
new album with American hip hop producer Timbaland."

Sri Lankan rapper M.I.A.

Actually, we didn't forget M.I.A.

Monica to play Sonia [Hindu]

In a film on Sonia Gandhi's life, Monica Bellucci has been chosen to
play the leader.

At last the suspense is over! There was speculation about who will play
Sonia Gandhi in the movie based on her life, for which the shooting will start
later this year. The list included Aishwarya Rai and Preity Zinta. And now the
news is out that it will be Italian star Monica Bellucci.

During the recent Cannes Film Festival (Monica Bellucci was a member of
the jury), Sunanda Murali Manohar, producer, had handed over the
screenplay to the Italian actor.

Hiccups in the release of Tamil's first historical comedy 'Imsai
Arasan...' [TheWeek]

If mentioning a king makes you conjure up images of majesty and gallantry,
Imsai Arasan 23aam Pulikesi may change your perception. Touted as Tamil's
first historical comedy (if you exclude a few scenes of Cho Ramasamy's
Mohammed Bin Tughlaq), Imsai Arasan... (Imsai means trouble and arasan,
king) promises to be a comedy riot.

Tamil's most popular comedian, Vadivelu, plays the main role. With his thin
frame and dark looks, Vadivelu could easily pass off as a misfit in a historical
film. Surprisingly, he plays a dual role.

"The perception that kings are majestic and gallant is a wrong one," says
director Simbhuthevan, a newsman. "If you visit the museum in Madurai, you
will see portraits of Maruthu Pandiyar. These small-statured kings, who put
up a valiant fight against the British, were 'unkingly' with their pot bellies and
rotund structures. Kings in those days were mostly like our present-day
politicians. That is why we decided to cast Vadivelu in the role."

Music is the medium of education in Vilvarani

For the children of Vilvarani, an agrarian village 35km northwest of
Tiruvannamalai, the best part of the day comes at dusk. Dressed in their
best, they scurry towards the village grounds to attend isai vazhi kalvi or
education through music. Taught by the their beloved Thirupathianna, nearly
100 children learn the basics of Carnatic music.

The music programme was launched in 2005 by G. Thirupathi, as a part of
his initiative to curtail the high incidence of school dropouts in the village. "I
wanted to do something for the children of Vilvarani through the art forms,"
says the unassuming native who is working towards his doctorate in Tamil.
So he approached Dr K.S. Subramanian, founder of Brhaddvani Research
and Training Centre for Musics of the World, Chennai, for guidance and help

He hooked all to Kokki with his pointed music [NewsToday]

Manmadharasa was a landmark number in the career-graph of music
director Dhina. Though he had films like King to vouch for his good work,
Thiruda Thirudi happened at the right time.
Continuing his good work in Thirupachy, Dhina's deligtful offering in Kokki
has placed him on a higher league. With offers in a cascade, Dhina is set for
a prolonged and fruitful stint.

'Mail Link':
Program to foster friendship between Tamil children

The Program:

“Mail Link” is a letter writing program to foster friendship between the
Tamil children of North America and the Tamil children affected by the war
and Tsunami in the North and East of Sri Lanka.

'Vanakkam' to new Tamil courses

South Asian students rally together to raise funds for introductory
Tamil course

“Toronto is one of the most multicultural cities in the world and having the
university get involved in this is very important to us,” said Thaves
Ponnampalam, the committee’s director of operations. “And it’s also
significant that these courses be held in this city because Toronto has the
largest Tamil population in the world outside of South Asia with over 250,000
now settled here.”

Tamil Children's Endowment Fund

A nation’s most precious natural resource is its children. The conflict in Sri
Lanka, coupled with a state-enforced economic embargo has literally and
figuratively crippled this resource. Presently, a ceasefire and the lifting of the
embargo has brought about a climate of positive change. The conflict-
affected areas are abuzz with the theme of redevelopment and
reconstruction.

Conservative Leader praises Ontario Tamil Community
at Awards event

by Dhakshi Ariyakumar

It is very remarkable to note that the Canadian Tamil community in many
ways has enhanced the prosperity of the Greater Toronto Area with their
diverse contributions towards the society.

“I want to thank the Tamil Community for their hard work and contribution
made to the prosperity of Ontario in so many different ways, such as
economically, socially and culturally. I think the province is stronger and
prouder and is better off in many ways, for the contributions made by the
Tamil community, particularly by the entrepreneurs of this community,”
Conservative Leader of the Province of Ontario John Tory stated recently at
a community event.

"There are two things born from mountains, shining so brilliantly that the great bow down, driving
darkness from earth circled by roaring waters. One is the flaming sun, single wheel bright as
lightning, the other is Tamil that has no like." — from the taNTiyalankârum [Berkeley Tamil]