NEWS

Peace hopes fade amid new threats

The deadlocked Norwegian peace initiative in Sri Lanka suffered further setbacks this week as President Chandrika Kumaratunge last Friday again vowed to destroy the Liberation Tigers and promptly launched military operations against the movement, using all three service arms. She also emphatically ru-led out the possibility of lifting her proscription of the LTTE, a major barrier to peace talks, describing the notion as "ludicrous" and "absurd".

"The armed forces are ready to crush the Vanni hideout of Prabhakaran and his blood-thirsty band of terrorists for the good of the country," the President told a Sinhala gathering at Gampola in the deep south, referring to the LTTE leader.

It was "only" the Vanni area - comprising Vavuniya, Kilinochchi and Mannar districts - that still remained under the LTTE's control, and the "armed forces and the police were strong enough to destroy the Tigers there too," she said, in reference to the huge swathe of territory.
"I assure the country that my Government will not accede to any conditions placed by the Tigers which are detrimental to the country at large," Kumaratunga said in reference to the de-proscription.

She condemned the LTTE's call for de-escalation of the conflict - through a ceasefire and the lifting of a government economic embargo on the Tamil areas - and the legalising of the movement to pave the way for negotiations as "ludicrous conditions for peace talks," intended to delay the process.

Kumaratunge claimed she had agreed to the first two - although the LTTE and Norway have both denied any agreement had been reached on these matters. "But the one they are calling the most important, we cannot accept," she said in reference to the ban on the LTTE.

"He [Prabhakaran] is hell bent on taking the government and the people of this country for a ride thinking we are living in a fool's paradise," she said, repeating her justification for refusing the LTTE's unilateral ceasefire offered in December last year and finally withdrawn in April.

"'The government is always committed to a peaceful resolution to the ethnic conflict," President Kumar-atunge however added paradoxically. "But the placing of absurd conditions ahead of peace talks is the LTTE's way of strengthening their reserves at the war front."

But last week, the Sri Lanka Navy and Air Force launched a massive and sustained combined operation to blockade the Vanni region while the Army this week launched search and destroy missions into LTTE held areas in the Batticaloa district. The military police commandos had killed fifteen LTTE fighters when it attacked a camp in the eastern district.

Diplomatic sources told Tamil Guardian Monday that the Norwegian peace envoy Erik Solheim was not scheduled to meet the LTTE or the Sri Lankan government this week, dampening hopes raised by recent Sri Lankan and Indian media reports that there was still movement in the peace process despite Colombo's "categorical" refusal two weeks ago to de-proscribe the LTTE.

Meanwhile, LTTE sources told the Tamil Guardian that the movement had accelerated its recruitment and training programs in the face of renewed aggression by the Sri Lankan military. Sri Lankan government was pursuing the military option and seeking a battlefield advantage while paying lip service to the peace process, the sou-rces said. "It is the government's demonstrable intent and not its statements that matter," they said. "And war is clearly [the government's] objective still."

Meanwhile, on Monday, the leader of Sri Lanka's ma-in opposition United Nation-al Party (UNP) said his party would support any peace talks the government undertakes with the LTTE, leaving the fate of the UNP's upcoming no-confidence motion hanging. he told reporters after meeting Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha.

However, the possibilities of negotiations continued to decline this week amid Sri Lankan military offensive operations against the LTTE and vehement opposition to Norwegian involvement from the influential leadership of Sinhala-Buddhist clergy, which is supportive of President Kumaratunge's efforts to crush the Tigers.

LTTE warns against Army’s “human shields”

The Liberation Tigers called on the people of the Thenmaradchi division in Jaffna not to resettle in their villages as the area is still a war zone, reported TamilNet on Friday.

The Tigers, in a leaflet released in Jaffna Friday, said "the enemy and his lackeys are trying use our people as human shields. We do not want our people to suffer again from the calamities of war and destruction. Therefore we request them not to resettle in Thenmaradchi until we issue an official announcement."

The LTTE said that it has on many occasions in the past requested the people displaced from the Thenmaradchi division last year not resettle in their villages until there is an official announcement from the organisation on the matter. "The Sri Lanka army tried to use the people as human shields when the war erupted in Pallai and other areas last year. But we were able to minimise casualties with our careful tactics and the co-operation of our people," the leaflet said.

The Thenmaradchi division of Jaffna has been ravaged since last May by the most intense artillery and multi barrel rocket launcher barrages by Sri Lankan government forces who are trying to wrest control of the peninsula's southern sector from the Liberation Tigers. Thousands of civilians fled the shelling and bombing.

Attempts have been made recently to resettle the displaced civilians in villages and towns in the rear of the SLA's current front line in the Thenmaradchi sector.

The Liberation Tigers say that this is not motivated by humanitarian concerns but dictated by strategic exigency whereby the resettled civilians would actually constitute a human shield in the immediate rear of the SLA's second line of defence in Thenmaradchi.

Sri Lanka Navy blockade raises tensions

In a fresh escalation of the war, the Sri Lankan government this week deployed its recently purchased warships for patrolling operations off the coast of Mullaitivu, in an effort to complement and intensify its current land based embargo into Tamil controlled areas.

The Sri Lankan Sunday Times in its defence column last Sunday, released details of operation "Operation Varuna Kirana," (Colourful Rays), a joint operation between Sri Lanka's Navy and Airforce launched on May 25th with the objective of blockading the Tamil held areas of the eastern coast of the island.

The Sri Lankan government recently also intensified its land based economic blockade of Tamil regions by including the predominantly LTTE-held region of Batticoloa. This latest development contradicts recent claims by Colombo that the economic blockade was to be lifted, aid workers said. The lifeline from the sea has been the sole source of humanitarian supplies to LTTE held areas for a number of years, they added.

Defence analysts had been predicting this particular shift in Sri Lankan strategy for a number of months after several high profile purchases of 'blue water navy' ships from Israel and India for the Navy and the acquisition of new aircraft for the Airforce. With the Sri Lanka Army debilitated following a bloody rout in late April, the onus has shifted to the Navy and Air Force for operations against the Tigers.

The Sunday Times defence analyst, Iqbal Athas had also written in a previous issue about LTTE preparations for such confrontations by developing 'stealth boats' to evade radar as well as acquisitions of surface to air missiles.

The navy has a considerable task containing the LTTE's sophisticated shipping operation.. The Sunday Times defence column has been highlighting for the past few months, the large amount of supplies that have been pouring into the LTTE-held areas. "Shiploads of material were brought in vessels to the deep seas off Sri Lanka by the LTTE and transferred to smaller vessels," the paper said last Sunday.

"It has now come to light that in the four months when the LTTE ceasefire was in place, there had been two shipments of supplies every month. Ships with two cranes on board had unloaded them into barge-like Sea Tiger vessels," the paper elaborated. The Sri Lankans had been tipped off by Indian warships and aircraft patrolling the nearby waters, the paper said.

The Sunday Times reported that on May 25, the Navy's "SLNS Sayura," acquired from India and one of the Israeli missile boats, "SLNS Nandimithra," left Colombo, to commence activities in the waters of the Northeastern coast. The ships are believed to have the capacity to monitor a radius of up to 60 miles through their RADAR facilities. "Assisting the Sri Lanka Navy in the conduct of 'Oper-ation Varuna Kirana' is the Sri Lanka Air Force," the pa-per said. "The reconnaissance flights will extend from 100 to 150 miles off the coast."

"The Navy has used a large part of its assets to place this cordon some six miles off the north eastern coast," the Sunday Times defence analyst commented, though other commentators said the vessels themselves were positioned in deep sea for fear of attack by the Sea Tigers.

UN refugee agency to cut operations

The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday it would be forced to cut back aid operations and staff worldwide due to a funding gap created by lower contributions from some European powers.

The Geneva-based agency said it was slashing its annual budget to $825 million from $954.9 million, about 14 percent. The number of employees was expected to be reduced to 4,065 from the current 4,828 by the end of next year, it said.

"What we have done is painful but absolutely necessary to make UNHCR a better focused, leaner and ultimately a better-funded organisation," said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers.

Total contributions from European Union countries have dropped sharply over the past five years, as donations from some larger EU members have fallen, UNH-CR spokesman Kris Janowski told Reuters.

"Five years ago they provided about 20 percent of our budget, now they provide about five percent," he said. "The European Union heavyweights -- France, Germany and to some extent Britain -- are funding more modestly than other EU countries."

The UNHCR, which was the lead U.N. relief agency during crises including the Bosnian War of 1992-1995, receives about 90 percent of its funding from 10 industrialised countries. The United States is UNHCR's single largest donor, providing about one-third of its budget, followed by Japan and Sweden.

Chandrika battles UNP threat over IMF rescue

Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga fought back Wednesday against opposition threats to unseat her government, saying an aid pact with the International Monetary Fund had saved her country from economic collapse last year, reported Reuters.

Kumaratunga told members of parliament that the aid pact with the International Monetary Fund had saved her country from economic collapse last year.

She defended the IMF's $253 million standby facility against opposition allegations that it was a sell-out and would force the government to cut welfare and raise taxes.

"If the IMF had not stepped in, we would have crashed in the same way economies in east Asia crashed," Kumaratunga, who is also finance minister, told state television in an interview.

The main opposition United National Party (UNP) says the IMF pact, which commits the government to wide ranging reforms from spreading the tax net to selling off state corporations, would heap more burdens on the people.

The 14-month balance-of-payments support facility was intended to bolster Sri Lanka's rapidly dwindling foreign reserves.

Kumaratunga blamed the shaky economy on soaring oil prices last year, which added $400 million to the country's fuel bill, and an offensive by Tamil separatist guerrillas, which forced the government to nearly double defence spending to $1 billion.

Kumaratunga laughed off plans by the UNP to use a confidence vote next month to topple her tenuous ruling coalition and take the IMF back to the negotiating table.

"Rumours that the government is about to fall have been spread by the UNP since we came to power in 1994. We have been in the power for the last six years and we will remain in power for the next six," she said.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan secretary to the treasury told Dow Jones Wednesday that the heavy cost to the government of fighting the protracted war against the separatist Tamil Tigers was preventing it from effecting a lower interest rate regime.

Speaking at a seminar, P.B. Jayasundera said "Unless the budget deficit is at around 5% of gross domestic product, we can't reduce interest rates."

"The deficit deviation comes from excessive defense expenditure. If defense is halved, the deficit can be halved," he said.

Jayasundera said the war has so far cost the government in excess of 340 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($1=LKR91.55), while domestic public debt is around LKR600 billion.

Last year, an escalation in the ethnic war caused defense spending to jump to more than LKR80 billion and resulted in a budget deficit of 9.9% of GDP, compared with 7.5% in 1999.

This year, the deficit is forecast at 8.5% of GDP, with defense spending earmarked at LKR75 billion. But that cost could easily overshoot should the current discussions stall.

Government borrowing last year to fund the escalation in defense spending has caused around a 10 percentage point rise in interest rates over the past year.

ADB lends $600 million

Sri Lanka said on Wednesday it would receive $680 million in loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) over a three-year period from 2002, reported Reuters.

A government statement said the lending programme, covering 16 projects in agriculture, transport, social infrastructure, energy and finance, was agreed on during a recent visit to Sri Lanka by an ADB delegation.

"$480 million will be from the Asian Development Fund and $200 million from Ordinary Capital Resurces," the statement said.

Recently the IMF lent $500 million from its own funds and a consortium of countries, triggering a political storm in Sri Lanka over the terms of the loan agreement.

Meanwhile, Japan has donated 7.6 million dollars to build roads for impoverished farming communities in north-central Sri Lanka, the Japanese embassy said told AFP Tuesday.
Isolated areas in the Dambulla region would benefit from the project, which will almost halve the distance that locals now have to travel to the nearest market, the embassy said in a statement.

"The project will enhance the regional economic significance of the Dambulla agricultural market centre and its immediate hinterland region," it said.

The road construction will result in substantial savings in transport costs, travel time and increase the overall profits of farmers."

Japan is Sri Lanka's largest single donor of foreign aid. Japan is also one of the largest contributors to the ADB.

Norway donates $1.1 million to southern universities

Norway has granted Sri Lanka USD 1.1 million under the aegis of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) for Information Technology training at southern universities the Island newspaper reported last Thursday.

The funds will be used for the purpose of establishing a Management Information System at the Universities of Ruhuna, Moratuwa, Colombo and the University Grants Commission and transfer Technology Competence to the Information Technology Sector in Sri Lanka.
The project agreement between UGC and Ergo-Enet, to implement the project, was signed at a ceremony last Thursday.

Prof. B. R. R. N. Mendis, Chairman of the UGC represented the UGC and Mr. Jan B. Ommundsen, Member of Board, ErgoEnet the Norwegian partner.

The goal of the project is to contribute to the improvement of management of Higher Education in Sri Lanka through establishing an efficient management information system.

The system will support the universities and the University Grants Commission with better data for day-to-day operations, and give updated knowledge for resource management, planning and policy decisions, the paper said.

Sinhala parties oppose education in English

Sri Lanka's main opposition party, the United National Party (UNP) and the Marxist People's Liberation Front (JVP) have joined forces to oppose a government plan to allow students to study all subjects in English rather than in their mother tongue, the AFP reported on Friday.
The two parties demanded parliament look into the implications of the decision which means students can be taught wholly in English for the first time in 45 years.

Under the current system, students learn in their mother tongue -- Sinhala or Tamil -- and then must take a mandatory crash course in English before starting university courses.

But many graduate with inadequate English, leaving them at a disadvantage in the job market especially in the private sector, the government said.

Sri Lanka continued with English as a medium of instruction for eight years after independence from British colonial rule in 1948.

But in 1956 the then prime minister Solomon Bandaranaike introduced a radical Sinhala-Only act, making it illegal for children to be educated in English. The law was only reversed in the 1980's.

Wimal Weerawansa of the JVP said: "We are not against English. In fact, we want a more scientific method of teaching English and we want more English teachers and an improvement in the quality of teaching.

"But we oppose the plan to change the medium of instruction because it could lead to greater divisions in our society between those who studied in English and those who opted for their mother tongue."

A joint petition by the JVP and the UNP asking that the decision be scrutinised by parliament was delivered to speaker Anura Bandaranaike, the son of Solomon Bandaranaike.

"It is accepted worldwide that children must study in their mother-tongue," the petition said.
But education ministry secretary Tara de Mel said the government would press ahead with the challenge of providing a good English education to the 4.3 million student population.

Free incoming calls on mobiles

Sri Lanka's mobile phone users could switch to a calling party pays (CPP) system in one year despite the need for $5 million hardware upgrade by cash-strapped Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), Reuters quoted officials as saying on Wednesday.

Telecommunications Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said the country's fixed-line monopoly was waiting for a report on the financing of CPP to decide how to recover its investment. "I am very optimistic that within six to 12 months we can have CPP," de Silva told Reuters.

"SLT will look at the finance committee report as to how they can apportion the call rates and depending on that I am confident we can bring in CPP," he said.

The country's four mobile operators are keen to see the introduction of CPP because they believe it will increase the number of mobile phone users and the volume of traffic. Industry officials said earlier that the switch to CPP could be delayed because it would require too much of an investment by SLT which reported a 93 percent slump in net profits in 2000 due to weak international revenue, high depreciation and debt servicing costs.

Under the present system, Sri Lanka's 425,000 mobile phone users pay for incoming calls as well as outgoing calls. Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp owns 35.2 percent of SLT and the government is planning to sell at least part of the remaining stake.

Watch that monkey!

A sex-crazed male monkey has caused an uproar in a central Sri Lankan town, stalking and attacking girls in public and flirting outrageously with cats and dogs, reported Reuters on Wednesday quoting a local newspaper.

The monkey has roused the anger of residents of Kundasale by following young women around the town, jumping on them without warning and clinging tenaciously until it was chased away with sticks and stones, the Daily News reported.

Apparently having little success with human females, the primate also makes advances on other animals to which it has "a very strong affinity (particularly) cats and dogs of the opposite sex", the newspaper said, adding the creature fed its libido by stealing chocolates from local shops.

The monkey business has outraged the town in Sri Lanka's conservative rural heartland where public displays of affection are frowned upon even between humans of the opposite sex.

Buddhist clergy slams power-sharing with Tamils

Sri Lanka's hardline Buddhist Sinhala clergy last week unanimously adopted resolutions at a key meeting, denying any form of devolution of power to other ethnic communities on the island, demanding that "Constitutional supremacy should lie with the parliament" and that the concept of a Tamil homeland be "totally rejected".

At a conference at the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress Hall in Colombo, the Buddhist clergy defined these - among a number of resolutions - that were 'inviolable fundamentals' which should be included in any revised constitution.

The Sinhalese priests were keen to include the denial of areas populated by Tamils and other ethnic groups as their respective homelands within any revised constitution. "No area in the country should be treated as homeland of any linguistic section," the clergy said referring to Tamil assertions that the North and East of the island was their traditional homeland. "Accordingly, the concept that Northern and Eastern Provinces as homeland of Tamils should be totally rejected," the statement concluded.

On a similar note the Buddhists also demanded that "demarcation of Regions or provinces should not be done at the behest of either political parties or minorities for political or economic reasons."

"Sri Lanka should continue to be a unitary state. The Constitutional supremacy should lie with the parliament while preserving the independence of the judiciary," the Sinhala clergymen proposed.

On the subject of Buddhism and the current national flag and anthem the powerful religious order demanded that they continue to maintain their current status. "Provisions available in the present constitution should be enacted without change," said the resolution referring to the protection the Buddhist religion receives under the current constitution. The Sri Lankan national flag is dominated by a Lion with a sword, the Sinhala national symbol.

The clergy also looked to undo existing minor concessions to other ethnic groups on the island brought about by the Indo-Lanka accord.

"As the 13th Amendment to the present constitution was imposed on Sri Lanka by India by force and deceit, it should be annulled immediately. Accordingly, all laws and regulations enacted under that constitution should be treated as null and void. The system of Provincial Councils should be revoked and unification of North and Eastern region should also be revoked," the clergy said with reference to the changes under the 1987 Indo-Lanka agreement.
"Decentralisation should not be used as a means of solving the imaginary ethnic problem," the Buddhists announced referring to solutions to the decades old conflict in the Tamil areas of the island.

The statements of the Buddhists were echoed last week by Sinhala Jathika Sangamaya Chairman, S. L. Gunasekera, who warned on that any confederation state given to the LTTE could turn out to be another "Israel" which would ultimately lead to the Sinhala people becoming refugees in their own country, similar to what happened to the Palestinians.

"The parties which initiated the Balfour Treaty in 1948, silently wiped off their hands resulting in one of the worst crises of the past century, and I'm afraid the same scenario would be repeated here on our own soil" Mr. Gunasekera said.

Quoting speakers at the conference, the staunchly nationalist Sinhala language paper the Divaina, in an editorial called on the Sinhala people to unite.

"There is a massive conspiracy under way against the Sinhala majority in this country. So as a nation the Sinhala must unite now to tackle all the challenges that has risen against the country and the nation. Mere talking is not going to save the disunited Sinhala, " the paper warned quoting Mahanayake thero of the Amarapura chapter Ven. Madihe Pagnaseeha thero.

The religious leader's statement was made at a meeting organized by the National Sangha Council, Sinhala Jathika Sangamaya, Movement to protect motherland and National Unitary Committee, which was held in order to point out the dangers of peace talks, the paper reported.

Ven. Sobitha thero, a leader of another Buddhist chapter, cast suspicion upon the Norwegian delegate intermediating between the government and the LTTE. Speaking at the same meeting, he said Erik Solheim, who demonstrated some time ago in Norway demanding that Eelam should be given to Tigers, is now the peace negotiator and though the govt does not know where Prabhakaran is, Solheim knows very well, the Divaina commented.

The Island, the English language sister paper of the Divaina, also called for unity before peace talks, in its editorial saying "we say for the umpteenth time that such bipartisan consensus between the two main parties is a fundamental requirement for any negotiating process to get going."

"Peace between the PA and the UNP is essential before peace with the terrorists," it went on to comment. Divaina reflected this sentiment and urged their unity. "Today this [unity] has to be done at all costs to save the Sinhala nation," the Sinhala language paper said.

Norway’s role seen “suspect”

Senior Sri Lankan ministers said last week that the Norway's peace efforts in Sri Lanka are "suspect" among the Sinhala community, press reports said.

Sri Lanka's Prime Minister even hinted Norwegian special envoy Erik Solheim should admit his failure to broker unconditional talks with Tamil Tigers and quit, AFP reported.

"Norway's role is suspect for most Sinhalese because of the pro-LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) statements it had made in the past," Fisheries and Aquatic resources Minister Mahinda Rajapakse said in an interview to Indo-Asian News Service.

The minister said the island's political parties should work out a political package and offer it to the Tigers on a "take it or leave it basis."

He noted that the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) had recently said in a statement that Oslo's efforts were aimed at giving international recognition to the LTTE, which had been designated a "terrorist" outfit by the U.S. and proscribed by Sri Lanka, India and Britain.

Premier Ratnasiri Wickremanayake on Saturday mysteriously asked reporters to carry a quote from an unidentified third person criticizing Solheim for raising the stakes in the Sri Lankan conflict by meeting with US authorities.

While Wickremanayake did not identify the source of the criticism, it is believed he was hinting at his personal opinions.

"What the Norwegian envoy must now do is realise that he cannot solve this problem and leave without further internationalising the issue," the prime minister quoted the person as saying, according to the Sinhalese-language Lankadeepa daily.

He made the request to the reporters after giving a speech in his home constituency of Horana. The speech was also critical of the Oslo peace bid.

Norway has been playing the role of the "facilitator" to bring the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE to the negotiation table to end the island's ethnic bloodletting that has claimed more than 60,000 lives in two decades.

Rajapakse had opposed President Chandrika Kumaratunga's Constitution reforms proposals when it was presented to Parliament as the draft Constitution bill days before the general election in October. The government was forced to withdraw the bill in the face of strong protests not only by Sinhala hardline groups and the main opposition United National Party (UNP) but also from within its own ranks.

The prime minister, who advocates a hard line against the LTTE and often echoes the views of ultra-nationalistic elements of the Buddhist clergy and Sinhalese, said the government was committed to resolving the conflict through talks.

As the peace process has become bogged down, Sinhalese nationalists have escalated their campaign against Norway's efforts, and especially Solheim. The United Sinhala Maha Saba, or Sinhalese Council, said Saturday they wanted Norway's ambassador here, Jon Westborg, expelled and Solheim declared persona non grata.

In previous protests against Norway’s involvement in Sri Lanka’s “internal affairs” crowds rioted outside Oslo’s embassy in Colombo. The Norwegian flag was torched by Buddhist monks as both right and left wing Sinhala parties united in opposition.

Amnesty slams impunity in Lanka

Amnesty International, the human rights watchdog, voiced its concern last week over the continuing erosion of human rights in Sri Lanka. Particular points of concern for Amnesty was the impunity with which perpetrators carried out human rights violations, the rise of torture in custody and the extension of emergency powers to the Sri Lankan security forces allowing these actions to continue unabated.

"Impunity for the perpetrators of human rights abuses remained a major concern. Victims who sought justice through the courts received death threats," the organisation commented.
"Torture remained common, both in the context of the armed conflict and during routine policing operations. Reports of torture increased following the introduction of ERs [Emergency Regulations] in May," the report went on to say. The organization also voiced concern over the number of deaths in Sri Lankan custody. "Several incidents of violence in prison and other detention facilities were reported."

The report specifically mentioned the Bindunuwewa massacre where "young Tamil men and boys aged between 14 and 23 detained for 'rehabilitation' were killed during an attack by a mob of Sinhalese villagers on a rehabilitation camp."

"There was evidence of collusion by members of the local police and deliberate failure to protect the detainees," said Amnesty.

The Amnesty report was also concerned the plight of political prisoners. "Thousands of Tamil people were arrested on suspicion of involvement with the LTTE. At least 1,500 were held without charge or trial at the end of the year; some had been detained for more than four years," the report stated.

"Tamil armed groups working alongside the security forces, and members of the security forces acting outside the normal command and control structures, were allegedly responsible for human rights violations, including against journalists," said Amnesty International.

The report also stated concerns over the LTTE's alleged use of child soldiers and civilian deaths caused during attacks attributed to the movement. The LTTE has denied reports that it uses children as combatants.

MP calls for probe on 1983 pogrom

A Sri Lankan Minister has demanded the appointment of an inquiry body on the lines of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa to probe the July 1983 pogrom, which killed thousands of Tamils in Colombo and other parts of the country, reported the PTI last Tuesday.

Deputy Minister for Ethnic Affairs K S Ganeshamoorthy has written to President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Parliament Speaker Anura Bandaranaike asking for a commission to "establish the truth behind the organised pogrom of July 1983 against Tamils. We have a right to know the truth and are not seeking revenge," he said.

Over three thousand Tamil people were estimated to have been killed, in July 1983 with widespread reports that government forces and officials played an instrumental role in orchestrating the riots.

NPC calls for lifting of self censorship

The National Peace Council (NPC), expressed doubts whether Sri Lanka's lifting of censorship on the reporting of military news from the North and East of Sri Lanka would have any effect on the quality of news coverage from the region, reported the Lanka Academic on Thursday.

"Now once the government censorship has been officially lifted, are the journalists going to tell the real story of war" asked Jehan Perera, the NPC's media director, while welcoming the government's decision to lift censorship on war-related reporting. Mr. Perera maintained the view that even before the government imposed a censorship, many journalists did not genuinely cover both sides.

The ban was lifted without any explanation, said Jehan Perera, because the government wanted to indicate to the international powers that it intends to pursue a negotiated settlement to the ethnic problem. He pointed out that the government had to resort to this measure after the Norway brokered peace process reached a stalemate. Sri Lanka has refused to lift the ban on the LTTE, which is proving to be a stumbling block to the Norwegian peace initiative.

The NPC official said that the authorities should now prove their genuineness by putting BBC's Sinhala and Tamil programmes, back on the SLBC broadcasts. These programmes were banned after the Sri Lankan Army was defeated by the LTTE in Elephant Pass, last year. In an interview with BBC's Sandeshaya, he said that it is only one of several possible goodwill and confidence-building measures for Norwegian brokered peace process.

Welcoming the move, the Free Media Movement (FMM) said that it hoped the censorship will not be re-imposed once the military situation escalates again.

Meanwhile, left-wing "Haraya" Editor Gnanasiri Kottigoda talking to "The Lanka Academic" questioned whether mainstream journalists in the South who write to help the government win the war, will now stop writing from Colombo and go to the war-torn area to give their readers the real story.

British far right sees new growth

BRITAIN’S main extreme rightwing party, linked to involvement in the country's worst race riots for years, says it is growing fast after shedding a skinhead image.

But British National Party (BNP) Chairman Nick Griffin said on Tuesday though the image may have changed the message of racial separation was the same.

"We haven't changed our principles," he told Reuters in an interview. "The multi-racial country is a bad idea."

Anti-racist opponents agree there has been no change in the BNP's pro-white message and say the BNP are still Nazis in disguise.

The image makeover has included a slick red, white and blue the colours of the Union Jack flag site. It has put forward 33 candidates for election to parliament, and it has dropped demands that black and Asian minorities be forcibly deported to their ancestral homelands.

"We used to have a policy of forced repatriation," Griffin said. "But we have acknowledged that is not practical and sellable."

Griffin said if he came to power, he would support an end to non-white immigration to Britain, voluntary racial separation, and voluntary repatriation of racial minorities. Griffin refuses to give membership numbers of the BNP but he called recent estimates "woefully low".

According to the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, BNP's membership, buoyed by anti immigrant sentiment, has jumped 35 percent this year to 2,300 members.

The magazine said most members are poorly educated, white working-class men. About 150 people also belong to the far right activist National Front Party, which has put forward four candidates for election.

"We are going to shock people," Griffin said. "We have no illusions of winning seats. Our involvement in this election is all about getting us on the bottom rung."

"If we don't provide a political lead, people will turn to violence," he said. "People are going to be forced from their homes by racist mobs."

But Griffin added that some minorities should be allowed to stay to make Britain a more interesting place.

"It's a question of salt in the soup," he said. "Soup without salt is plain. But soup with too much salt is inedible."

Opponents to Griffin say his comments on racial separation show that while the party may have gotten a facelift, its character is the same.

"They're Nazis," said Tony Robson, a Searchlight researcher. "Anyone who joins the BNP is basically joining because they're a hard core bigot and racist."

Neo-Nazis’ secret silent support scheme

SET UP as a clandestine society to support Germany's wanted war criminals after World War II, Stille Hilfe Silent Help is now very much up to date.

Evidence is emerging that the organisation is protecting and educating a new generation of German Nazis, playing a key role in fostering the neo-Nazi scene, the BBC reported last week.

Joerg Fischer, a former member and key player in the organisation, says it has penetrated high levels of German political and judicial society and wields enormous power. "These are Nazis in pin-stripe suits, they're not the kind you might see running down the street after foreign immigrants," he says. "But they have real influence on the political scene in Germany.

And they work very powerfully in the wings, so that they're not easily recognised and for that reason they're just as dangerous as the Nazis in the street who do the killing."

Joerg explains the levels of power Stille Hilfe's activists have attained and puts the endless delays and obstructions of several high-profile prosecutions against Nazi war criminals very firmly down to the group's activities. He says they are close to senior parliamentarians.

Bavaria is a particular stronghold of power. "It's no surprise, when you consider that the most radically right-wing and neo-Nazi publishers and newspapers are based there, that that's where most far right demonstrations take place," he says. "When a neo-Nazi faces trial, he'll do his utmost to get before a Bavarian court, because that's where very many Stille Hilfe lawyers operate and where the whole legal system is likely to be much more lenient".

Now 32, Joerg was first recruited to the far-right cause when he was only 13. His social worker, a state employee suggested he come along to meetings and join the "Brown Comrades" of the main neo-Nazi party, the NPD. By 18, he was regional deputy leader. He became a founder member of another far-right party. He was responsible for preparing leaflets, writing party literature and planning demonstrations.

Stille Hilfe assigned him a lawyer of its own to keep him and his projects out of obvious trouble. He was told his future as a far-right activist was a glowing one. Although there are leading politicians in Germany who have condemned Stille Hilfe's activities as a national scandal, it is still not a story that gets talked about much in Berlin. And there are no plans whatsoever to ban Stille Hilfe in Germany. The state security service has officially described them as "harmless" and there has never been an open debate in parliament about them. Hardly the "national scandal" their opponents speak of.

Asylum seekers riot at Australian camp

More than 200 asylum seekers were involved in the violence at the Curtin detention centre in remote western Australia, the BBC reported last week.

Staff had to use teargas to disperse the rioters who smashed windows and destroyed fences and buildings.

A spokesman for Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock says the trouble broke out after a group of asylum seekers were told their applications to be granted refugee status had been denied.

The authorities detain all asylum seekers - often in the remote Australian outback while waiting for their claims to be processed, which can sometimes take years.

The riot was the latest in a string of violent outbursts at detention centres in Australia.
Last month, detainees at a remote refugee detention centre went on hunger strike in protest over a raid, in which, according to refugee groups, women and children were beaten and handcuffed.

Earlier last week, the Australian Government rejected claims by Amnesty International that it was no longer a leader in promoting human rights, which were at a record low in the country. Amnesty said that Australia as well as other countries including Japan - was denying asylum seekers basic human rights.

It said the detention of at least 3,000 refugee applicants had triggered riots and mass breakouts.

In April, the Australian Government said it may significantly reduce the number of legal asylum seekers it accepted, in order to compensate for the large number of people who entered the country illegally.

Australia currently takes in about 12,000 asylum seekers a year through the legal system, according to official figures.

Aid workers brace for Indonesia humanitarian ‘catastrophe’

WITH INDONESIA’S President Wahid fighting for his political life and supporters vowing to lay down their lives for him, aid agencies and others are preparing for a humanitarian crisis, Reuters reported last Thursday.

Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of Oxfam Community Aid Abroad, said the Australian charity came up in March with full contingency plans for a humanitarian catastrophe. "We are ramping up," Hobbs said, adding that the scale of any potential crisis was impossible to predict. "I think it's terribly important that official multilateral organisations and governments keep a very close brief on what's happening."

Security analysts say the danger of bloodshed spreading across the Indonesian archipelago, the world's fourth most populous nation, and sparking a huge outflow of refugees, spiralling piracy and economic chaos, remains remote but real.

U.S. forces in the Western Pacific, while viewing the prospect of widespread bloodshed as a worst-case scenario, are making sure that they are able to help the region cope with any flood of refugees.

Vice Admiral James Metzger, commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, told Reuters that preparations for humanitarian relief were not focused on any one country.

An Australian defence spokesman insisted no special plans were being made for Indonesia. "The situation is quite normal over there," the spokesman said.

But Washington-based security specialists said Indonesia had been clearly identified by U.S. strategists as one of four potential theatres of operations in the Western Pacific, alongside Taiwan, the Koreas and the Indian subcontinent.

Others with ties to the U.S. military said its commanders were pushing regional allies to inject "reality and realism" into their operational scenarios. "Indonesia has really struck an iceberg here and it's sinking," said analyst Carlyle Thayer of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies in Hawaii, a U.S. Defence institution.

Even United Nations-run East Timor, ransacked by Indonesian-backed militia after it voted to break free from Jakarta in 1999, is prepared to help. "We have urged our people that in case of a humanitarian crisis in Indonesia, and if there are refugees seeking protection in East Timor we must welcome them with open arms," East Timor foreign affairs spokesman Jose Ramos-Horta said.

West keeps shaky Macedonia together

NATO and the European Union reaffirmed their support for Macedonia's young coalition government on Wednesday, but urged it to press ahead quickly with reforms aimed at healing deep inter-ethnic rivalries.

The multi-ethnic national unity government formed to tackle the five-month old insurgency came to the brink of collapse and was only rescued on Tuesday by crisis shuttle diplomacy from European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

NATO and the EU called for an immediate end to violence and said the international community would not negotiate with extremists or their agents, Reuters reported.

When Macedonian Albanian political party leaders met the political chief of the self-styled National Liberation Army last week and agreed a common platform, Western powers and Slav parties fell over themselves to condemn the initiative.

"The Macedonians will not be ready under any circumstances to talk to these people. And we support that," said a senior Western envoy in Skopje. The unity of Macedonia is at stake and the Slav elite is in no mood for talks with rebels.

The ethnic Albanian guerrillas have waged a five-month-long guerilla campaign against the Skopje authorities, fighting to end what they say are violence and discrimination against the small southern Balkan republic's Albanian population. Macedonian security forces have responded by bombarding rebel bases in northern villages and the clashes have threatened to degenerate into civil war.

"There can be no place at the table for those who have taken up arms against this democratic governemnt," the joint NATO-EU statement said.

Western government officials and diplomats insist there are many reasons why the successful Presevo plan cannot be imported wholesale into Macedonia. They say that while Macedonian Albanians have some legitimate grievances, their country -- which has had multi-ethnic governments for years -- is not like Serbia under Milosevic so the rebels have no justification for their actions. "It would be unfair and wrong" to equate the two situations, NATO Secretary General George Robertson said.

NATO and the EU said they would help Skopje carry through ambitious reforms -- in education, language and policing -- that would help improve the rights of some 700,000 ethnic Albanians who make up around one third of Macedonia's population.

Diplomats and Western government officials insist the best way to deal with the Macedonian insurgency is to isolate its leaders politically, by making progress on inter-ethnic problems within the new government of national unity. Skopje has been asked for a progress report on these reforms for EU leaders at their summit in mid-June, or at least by the end of next month.
If that happens, however, many acknowledge that a way out will still have to be found for the guerrillas that does not upset the ethnic Albanian community.

Meanwhile, An ethnic Albanian guerrilla insurgency in southern Serbia seems to be in its dying days after NATO brokered successful peace talks between government officials and the rebels' political representatives. They agreed to disband by the end of the month in return for an amnesty for their fighters and assurances from the West and Serbia's new reformist leaders that Milosevic-era discrimination against ethnic Albanians would be ended. But while NATO officials became frequent visitors to the Presevo guerrillas' headquarters in the rural village of Konculj, they vehemently reject any suggestion that the rebel group in Macedonia should be similarly involved in peace talks.

Arafat offers truce as Israel plans retaliation

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Saturday that he was ready for an "immediate and unconditional cease-fire," the Associated Press reported. Arafat spoke a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Tel Aviv disco, killing 18 Israelis and wounding scores of others.

Speaking at his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Arafat said he condemned the attack. "We are ready to make all possible efforts to stop the bloodshed of our people and the Israelis and to do everything necessary for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire," Arafat said after a meeting with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had announced two weeks ago that he would unilaterally observe a truce and urged the Palestinians to do the same. At the time, the Palestinians dismissed Sharon's gesture as a ploy, and said the violence only could end once Israel lifted its blockade of Palestinian areas and halted settlement expansion.

Arafat's announcement came as Israel's Cabinet was meeting in Tel Aviv to discuss a possible response to the suicide bombing, the deadliest in five years.

The Palestinian leader, meanwhile, was confined to the West Bank town of Ramallah by Israel's tightened blockade of Palestinian areas. Israel barred him from using Gaza International Airport, thus blocking his return to his headquarters in the Gaza Strip. Israeli military checkpoints ringed West Bank towns, barring residents from leaving.

Palestinian Authority offices stood deserted Saturday after thousands of public servants and police officers were evacuated amid fears of an Israeli retaliation for a deadly suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.

Earlier in the day, the Palestinian Authority had ordered thousands of public servants and security officials to leave government buildings for fear they would be shelled by Israel.

In Ramallah, ambulances parked near the homes of senior Palestinian officials, as well as close to Arafat's headquarters. Residents of five homes close to the office of Palestinian intelligence chief Amin al-Hindi were told to leave.

Palestinian policemen manning checkpoints at the edges of Palestinian-controlled territory pulled back several hundred meters under orders from their commanders.

In the West Bank town of Nablus, where 11 policemen were killed in an Israeli airstrike last month, residents were urged to stay indoors. At the town's An Najah University, students were evacuated, including a group that was in the middle of taking a chemistry exam.

In the West Bank town of Hebron, residents piled sand bags in front of their homes and shops. "We are expecting any Israeli attack at any time," said Omar Shahin, 27, at his cloth shop.
In the Gaza Strip, a convoy of cars carrying foreign staffers of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency left the agency's compound Saturday afternoon. The cars were loaded with luggage.

U.N. officials would not say whether the United Nations had ordered its foreign staffers to leave the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Palestinians marched through Jerusalem behind the coffin of Faisal al-Husseini on Friday, turning mourning for the late leader into an outpouring of defiance against Israeli rule, reported Reuters.