- Benjamin Franklin [1706 - 1790]
support us, we will still betray you"
- TNA Parliamentarian Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam
"TNA supported the UNP government when President Kumaratunga
dissolved the parliament. But now we all learn that certain elements
from the UNP government has helped LTTE's former Eastern leader
Karuna. The President and some of her Minsters despite assurances
are continuing to support Karuna and increase destabilization in the
East. The message from the Sinhala leaders on this single largest
threat to the cease fire and peace process is that they will continue to
betray us", said Mr. Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, MP while
addressing a gathering organized by the Ilankai Tamil Sangam in New
Jersey.
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CONDEMNS
SUICIDE BOMBING
IN SRI LANKA [Foreign
Affairs Canada]
Foreign Affairs
Minister Bill Graham
today denounced
yesterday's suicide
bombing in Colombo,
which killed four
members of the Sri
Lankan police and
wounded numerous
others.
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have told the BBC they fear the
country is drifting back to war.
The pair were among a group of breakaway Tamil Tigers held in the
east.
Rebels to End
Terrorism
[VOA News]
The United States has
called on Sri Lanka's
Tamil Tiger rebels to
give up terrorism in
the wake of
Wednesday's suicide
bombing in the
capital, Colombo.
in Kilinochchi [LTTE Peace Secretariat]
The Northeast secretariat on human rights was launched in
Kilinochchi today. It will monitor the human rights violations in the
northeast and implement actions to strengthen the human rights
there.
involvement in
suicide attack
[Tamilnet]
“This is an act to
destabilize the peace
process. We suspect
this has been carried
out by elements that
want to disrupt the
peace process”, Mr.
Thamilchelvan said.
(Keuneman)
1916-2004:
Indefatigable
political activist
[Sunday Observer]
Hedi Stadlen, better
remembered in Sri
Lanka as Hedi
Keuneman, died under
tragic circumstances
on January 21, 2004 in
London, aged 88. She
had been "hidden from
history" until the
pioneering efforts of
Kumari Jayawardena in
her under-appreciated
study of western
women in colonial
South Asia, The White
Woman's Other
Burden (1995).
A government minister last week admitted that he was continuing to have links
with former LTTE Eastern Commander Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias
Colonel Karuna even after President Chandrika Kumaratunga told the
Norwegian facilitators that the government was not helping the renegade leader.
To prove his claim, Minister Douglas Devananda called Karuna in the presence
of the journalists. "I have continued to have telephone conversations with
Karuna. He is in Sri Lanka and is in Batticaloa," Devananda told The Sunday
Leader. Devananda speaking to Karuna on the telephone invited the journalists
to listen in to confirm he was in fact in touch with the LTTE renegade
commander.
India''s anti-terrorist guru KPS Gill [India Daily]
Former DGP of Punjab and India’s top anti-terror
expert, KPS Gill, feels that Sri Lanka should have
more Tamils in its police and army, if it is to tackle
Tamil terrorism successfully. "When I went to Lanka in
2000, I saw that there were very few officers in the
forces who knew Tamil. That was a disadvantage. To
have terrorist inputs, you need to know the
language," said Gill, who was invited to Sri Lanka to
advise the government on VVIP security.
Indian papers praise the budget presented by Finance Minister P
Chidambaram, saying he has managed to walk a tightrope between the
government's commitment to sound economics and meeting the needs of the
people.
Palaniappan Chidambaram caught the imagination of Indians and the Press,
when he presented the 2004-05 Budget with the catch phrase "Main Hoon Na"
and meant it too.
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The raids were part of the ongoing Operation Enver, which is targeting
intimidation and crime among the near 100,000-strong Sri Lankan community.
