Page 1
4.30 pm (18 t Аппу reinforcements landed at Alarmpil (15 km away from the base) and advanced towards the base. Heavy resistance from the LTTE slowed down the troop movements, Paratroopers landed near the base on Friday (19 July) night.
Mulativu | Situated in Saabordgr arge area е Mulativulo Nearest Thai Breat Wg|| (35 km awa
Elephant Ps
h it E.
鸭
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s
Graphic by Mašantha Sirw
Gallas T Military Debac
O Vier 200 So
--سي
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION
UKM,India/SriLanka........E5/525 Australia. AL5:45
f
1996 90p
1.30am. (18 July): Fighting erupted when LTTE launched attacks from the northern and southe flanks and the Sea Tigers from the coast. As the LTTErs were backed by heavy mortar fire the
reinforcement for troops to the base from the air and sea couldn't reach the base.
Апу Base:
the North-Eas
Mhich OCICLupies a xtending across
W1 |D h8 beach. (2) in Army camps
Oya in tha South w) and the A
15s in the North,
The Navy gunboat which was Supporting the Army reinforcements came under heavy attack from the Sea Tigers near Mullaith Wu.
T "алІЗла O Okm
ாேது -E e in W|t|lo) Giers Kiec.

Page 2
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Page 3
15 JULY 1996
I do not agree with a word of what you say, but I'll defend to the death your
right to say it.
– Voltaire.
ISSN 0266-4488
VOXV NO.7 15 JULY 1996
Published by
TAM TIMES LTD P.O. BOX 21 SUTTON, SURREY SM13TD UNITED KINGOOM
Phone: 0181-644 O972 Fax: 0181-24t 4557
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Views expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the editor or publishers
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responsibility for return of unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or artwork
CONTENTS
Military Débacle in Mullaitivu. . . .3
News Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Lanka Seeks Foreign Help. . . . . . 6 Military Problems in Jaffna. . . . . . 7
UNP Opposition to Devolution. . .9
Violence in Sinhala-Tamil Politics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Devolution and Unitary State... 13 Keeping Theology Immaculate. .16 Bangladesh - Mujibur's
Legacy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Depressing Start in India. . . . . . . 21 DMK & The Lanka Tamil issue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Chickens are Coming to Roost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Creative Writing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Remembering Rita. . . . . . . . . . . 29
he LTTE took of the Mullait northeastern killed 1208 soldier cording to a statem London office on 2 for the camp con pre-dawn amphibiot by the Tigers on 18 ued for four days. T to send in reinforcer the camp would app in failure, and the they have surround heavy casualties upc All the indicati ernment troops have losses and a humi Mullaitivu at the ha who are reported to tack backed by ovel res. The LTTE admr its cadres were kille denied unconfirme leader Pirabhakaran, ally supervising th injured.
After evading f the enormity of the l the troops, senior ar to have come to ac befell Over 1200 trC the camp. “The situ at all. What we can and what we on rac there is no one there don’t know what ha troops who were the officer is quoted as
However, the m ing to send in reinfo) aim of preventing the solidating at the car permanently.
"After two days the LTTE fighter un the military complex brought the camp control last night,' issued on 21 July fr "So far 800 bodi been recovered from battle and the casu, rise as more troops from small pockets side the camp perim "In the meantin
 
 
 

TAM TIMES
Débacle at Mulaivu
osoldiers Killed, says LTTE
complete control vu army camp in Sri Lanka and and officers, acnt issued from its 2 July. The battle menced with a sand land assault July and continhe army's attempt nents to recapture ear to have ended Tigers claim that led and inflicted n reinforcements. ons are that govsuffered massive liating defeat at nds of the Tigers have launched at2000 of its cadlitted that 241 of in the battle, but i reports that its who was persone operation, was
or days to accept osses suffered by my officers seem zept the fate that ops that manned ation is not good See from the air lio indicates that at the camp. We happened to the e,' a senior army aying. litary is continucements with the Tigers from conp and holding it
of fierce battles, ts have overrun at Mullaitivu and rea under their Tiger statement m London Said. S of Soldiers have the ruins of the lty figure might are being killed f resistance outeter,” it said. 2, the reinforce
ment troops airlifted by helicopters at Alampil, 10 km (six miles) from Mullaitivu, have suffered severe casualties and face virtual annihilation by the LTTE forces,' the LTTE statement said.
The Tiger radio said the battle between government reinforcements and the rebels had set off an exodus of residents from neighbouring towns which had come under heavy shelling. It was not clear who was doing the shelling. The radio said the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had moved its offices in the Kilinochchi town some 30 km (18 miles) from Mullaitivu to a safer area following continued bombardment since 18 July. It said the guerrillas had agreed to hand over the bodies of the Soldiers to the ICRC. The Tigers also said they had made arrangements with the ICRC to hand over 500 dead bodies of Soldiers and the rest would be cremated within the camp as the bodies have decomposed to be able to be transported.
None of the LTTE statements claimed that they were holding prisoners from the camp. Military analysts are of the view that if the LTTE was able to capture the camp and kill so many troops, they also would be holding captured soldiers, particularly senior officers.
Military officials, newspaper correspondents and news analysts are unanimous in their description the LTTE offensive against Mullaitive camp as the one of the biggest battles of thecountry's thirteen year civil war. Military analysts are comparing the latest Tiger attack to an earlier devastating raid carried out on another military base, at Pooneryn, in 1993. Then, the Tigers smashed all communication links before killing more than 750 government troops, and at the same time lost at least about 400 of their Own cadres.
The scale of the Tiger offensive and humiliating débâcle suffered by the military put paid to the claim made by the Commander of the Sri Lankan Army, Lt. Gen. Rohan Daluwatte that the were no longer capable of mass attacks after losing large numbers of

Page 4
4 TAML mm... --
fighters in recent army offensives in the north of the island and following capture of Jaafna from the Tigers. He said the Tigers had lost important areas and anumber of middle-rung leaders, their strength had been reduced to about 5,000 armed fighters from around 16,000, and that they were no longer capable of massed attacks like overrunning a big army base. Daluwatte also said the Tigers were also losing "twos and threes” each day in army special operations in the east from where troops were pulled out to be redeployed for the Jaffna offensives adding, "For a small organisation to have that type of casualties, the loss is all the more for them.” The Tigers would appear have proved withinjust amonth the sheer falsity of the Army Commander's claim by massing thousands of cadres in the attack against the Mullaitivu camp.
The military débâcle at Mullaitivu coming in the wake of large number of attacks by the Tigers on the security forces both in the north and east, and particularly in the military-controlled Jaffna peninsula indicate that the government's assumptions that the LTTE has been seriously weakened, both in manpower and weapons terms, and it was only a matter of time before the government forces would be able to subdue the Tigers if not totally but substantially, were seriously fawed.
The government hoped that with the capture of Jaffna that the war was nearing its end, and what was needed was money for reconstruction and rehabilitation of the war-ravaged areas of the north-east.
The latest developments on the military front threw into question the willingness of foreign aid donors to pump money into Jaffna's reconstruction in response to an appeal by President Chandrika Kumaratunga. Even before the Mullaitivumilitary defeat, following the suicide bomb attack on the Housing Minister during his visit to Jaffna earlier in the month, a western diplomat was reported as saying,"It is troubling that a minister's security has been penetrated. The government has called on the diplomatic community to help fund Jaffna's redevelopment. Now potential donors may want to thinktwice.” In the context of the Mullaitivumilitary defeat, the reluctance on the part of potential donors is likely to be greater.
As the battle for the camp was launched, a Reuter reportdatelined 18 July filed from Colombo quotedamili
tary official as say is very bad. Terr strength and have the camp, includi room. They are ha ple.”
The military of that troops in the b able to regroup ir side the compoun were attempting to resistance.
Air force plan area of the battle rebel boats and tri rying off pieces ( stored at Mullaiti drop airborne troc ties would appe thwarted by intens camp and the se peared to be in ta LTTE. A military ( Tigers were pres powerful long rang captured from the tary planes, gunbo Government st tinued to assert tha been completely o of the troops their ing the camp. Th refuted the claim the number of Sol the same time have duce their own fi ties on the militar that communicati have been disrupte they were able to Tigers have been
On the day fo mencement of the military said a lar had surrounded th tivu and were poun mortar, machineg fire. Navy officials been sent to provic the base came un after midnight. Ai were unable to la evacuate the wout cials said... Helico bombers were attac destroyed some of force officer said.
Within few ho commenced, the T had overrun army killed more than 1. of 34 of their cadr ger radio traffic in signals intelligenc second day (19 Juli cially announcedtl

15 July 19s T
ing, "The situation orists attacked in occupied much of ng the main radio ammering Our peo
ficials also claimed lesieged camp were two locations ind of the camp and put up an effective
les flying over the reported firing on cks that were carof the vast arsenal vu. The planned to ops by the authorilar to have been e rebel fire from the a Coast which apotal control of the official said that the umably using the e weapons they had camp to fire at miliats and naval craft. atements have conat the camp had not verrun and sections have been defende authorities have of the Tigers as to diers killed, but at been unable to progures as to casualy side on the basis ons with the camp d. But inexplicably, claim that over 300 killed.
blowing the comLTTE attack, the ge force of Tigers le camp at MullaiIding the camp with un and Small arms s said gunboats had le fire support when der attack shortly r force helicopters nd at the camp to hded, military offipter gunships and king the rebels and their boats,' an air
urs after the attack igers claimed they
camp and to have 50 troops to the loss es, according to Tinonitored by army e. However on the ly), the Tigers offihat 500 Soldiers had
been killed. An LTTE statement on said: "The LTTE forces after taking control of the central military complex, have removed three armoured vehicles and large quantities of heavy weapons including two 122 mm artilleries.” “Sri Lankan armed forces suffered heavy casualties and a large number of them have died,' the statement said adding that 120 Tigers had been killed in the encounter. In a statement issued on 20 July, the Tigers claimed that 800 soldiers had been killed and the ICRC was being asked to make arrangements for the delivery of the deadbodies.
"Terrorists have captured two 122 mm artillery weapons, vehicles and other equipment,” the army officer is reported to have confirmed. The navy rushed eight Dvora-class gunboats to the Mullaitivu area for back-up from the eastern port of Trincomalee, the Navy said.
It was quite clear that the military was unable to send in reinforcements to relieve the beleaguered garrison, because the only way to reinforce the camp was by air or sea as it was in Tiger-held territory. Mullaitivu base is 20 km (13 miles) north of a major Tiger jungle base complex.
A Tiger suicide squad rammed its explosive-laden motorboat into a Lankan naval ship carrying more than 40 sailors on 19 July, setting the craft afire. The 120-foot Ranaviru was reported sinking, but the fate of the crew was not known, military officials said. The suicide boat carrying an unknown number of Tigers slipped through heavy gunfire from the naval patrol boat, which was trying to fend off about a dozen rebel boats.
On shore, the rebels pinned down a commando unit sent to break the rebel siege and killed the commander of the elite force. About 100 soldiers - more than half of the counter-attack force - were evacuated under fire from the Tigers. Sixty were wounded, including the Mullaittivu base Commander, Brigadier Lawrence Fernando.
The Tigers, in a statement released from their political office in London, said they had surrounded the reinforcements near Alampil village, a few miles from the military camp.
A helicopter gunship that tried to land commandos on 19 July was damaged by rebel fire but managed to return to its base today, officials said. Two helicopters were damaged on the previous day. The Tigers also have beaten back naval gunboats that rushed to the area. O

Page 5
15 JULY 1996
Minister Narrowly Escapes
At least 17 people were killed and at least 50 people, including a Sri Lankan minister and civilians who had gathered, were severely wounded in a Tamil Tiger suicide bomb attack by in the northern Jaffna peninsula on 4 July.
Housing Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, visiting Jaffna to assess reconstruction needs, narrowly escaped death suffering slight injuries to his forehead. An army brigadier and five soldiers, including 11 members of the minister's visiting party were among those killed in the bomb blast, reported to have been triggered by a female suicide bomber whose Severed head was found nearby. The suicide bomber with explosives strapped to her body is reported to have leapt at a government minister's motorcade at Stanley Road in Jaffna city which is under military control.
The military officer in charge of northern Jaffna city, Brig. Ananda Hamangoda, died in the blast. Also
killed were the chairman of the
state-owned Lanka Cement Ltd., two police constables, a retired police superintendent working for the minister, four soldiers, other government officials and 10 civilians.
"The attack in Jaffna was predictable in that there would have been infiltration (into the army controlled area) and they will have to get used to this happening in the future," said political analyst Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu. He said the LTTE's aim was to make the army's control of Jaffna, heart of their dream homeland in the north and east, "as expensive and intolerable as possible' and to show that they were still a potent military and political force. They certainly retain the capability to harass and be more than just nuisance value.”
The assassination attempt on the Minister occurred on the eve of the annual "Black Tiger' day (5 July) on which the Tamil Tigers celebrate their
fallen Suicide cad sion, public meetir their top leaders.
"The Tamil E. will be raised and ( in memory of the gave their lives for and the liberation ( the LTTE said in a London headquart Photographs of and women killed tacks adorned with ers, are reported t tioned throughout ern Sri Lanka still trol. All those who year fight for an in accorded great m the LTTE's leader. are shrines to the b. Sters who have del ingly sacrificed th against military or In an address ta reported on the L radio - Voice of the leader, Vellupillail Tamils around the ber their sacrifice. ger suicide mission July 5th, 1987, w known as "Miller' of explosives into ing scores of soldi
LTTE B
The extension LTTE for a further by India has bee Mr.P.Nedumaran tional Movementil statement Mr.Nedu Tamil Tigers had 1 the security and int. charge that they w the murder of Raji be proved in court, on the LTTE was unjust. The new Ur ment under Deva C the same grave erro gress government banning the Tamil
 
 

TAM TIMES 5
res with a procesng and speeches by
elam national flag oil lamps will be lit Black Tigers who democracy, justice of the motherland,' statement from its
ᎾcᎢᏚ.
young Tamil men in the suicide atgarlands of flowo have been positerritory in northunder LTTE conD have died in their dependent state are ilitary honours by But these they say lacktigers: youngliberately and willeir lives in attacks
civilian targets. ) the Tamil people, TTE’s Clandestine Tigers - the LTTE Pirabhakaran urged ; world to rememThe first black tiwas carried out on then a black tiger drove a truckload an army camp kill
S.
of the ban on the period of two years in condemned by of the Tamil Nasouth India. In his Imaran said that the never acted against egrity of India. The ere responsible for v Gandhi is yet to Therefore the ban discriminatory and ited Front GovernGowda was making or that the old Conmade in initially Tigers.
In the meantime, a special court sitting in the south Indian city of Vishakapatanam ordered the release of nine persons suspected to be connected with the Tamil Tigers who were taken into custody in 1993 by the Indian Navy and charged under the provisions of anti-terrorism law,
In its order, the court said that the charges against the accused had not been proved beyond doubt. The nine accused were on a ship which was intercepted by the Indian Navy about 440 nautical miles off Madras. The inmates refused to surrender and were reported to have blown up the vessel which was allegedly carrying explosives and weapons. A prominent leader of the LTTE, Sathasivam Krishnakumar alias Kittu, was among those who committed suicide by exploding the vessel. The nine person who were before the court jumped off the vessel and survived and were picked by the Indian Navy.
In acquitting the nine accused persons, the court ordered that they be handed over to the government of Honduras as the vessel in which they travelled was registered in Honduras to see whether they had violated any laws of that country
amil Parties Opposed
to Unitary State : 3
Leaders of six of Sri Lanka's Tamil political parties based in Colombo are reported to have told President Chandrika Kumaratunga that they were opposed to the unitary character of the state, as proposed in her package of devolution. They told the President at recent talks with her that they had always been for a separate state of Tamil Eelam but now they had settled for a political solution based on federalism.
The choice was between a federal state and an unitary state. Any reference to a unitary state in the Constitution would entail a situation where the Supreme Court would be in favour of the central government in the event of a constitutional dispute. The leaders said this would make the process of devolution meaningless. The President pointed out that a two-third majority was required in Parliament to have the legislation passed and the main Opposition United National Party was insisting on a unitary state.
The Tamil party leaders insisted that if they all stood together on the government’s original stand of pro

Page 6
6 TAMIL TIMES
posing to do away with the unitary state, the opposition would relent and support the legislation.
The Tamil parties which met the President were the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), Eelam Revolutionary Organization of Students (EROS), People Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), Eelam People Democratic Party (EPDP), Eelam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front(EPRLF) and the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO).
“We welcome the constructive views expressed at the "Peace with Justice' two day International Conference held at the Edmund Barton Centre, in Canberra, Australia on 27-28 June 1996 on the conflict in Sri Lanka. The Conference concluded with a Statement calling for negotiations under international facilitation and observation,' Mr. Lawrence Thilakar, the Paris-based international spokesman for and Central Committee member of the LTTE said in a Statement dated 28 June.
The Conference was organised under the auspices of the Australian Human Rights Foundation and Australian Federation of Tamil Associations.
The statement of Mr.Thilakar added, "We see this effort by the international community towards resolving the ongoing conflict in Sri Lanka as a very positive one. We are also heartened that the Conference statement duly recognized and endorsed the fact that :
* Tamils are a people (Nation); * the governance of the Tamil people must be vested in the Tamil people themselves (self determination), and
* the Tamil people as well as Sinhala people have their own traditional homelands.
"The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is committed to a peaceful resolution of the conflict and respects the views expressed that an early cease fire and de escalation of the war is necessary while negotiations are proceeding.
“While we respect the desire of the Conference that immediate negotiations must commence, the necessary conducive conditions must be created by the Sri Lankan government by withdrawing its troops from the oc
cupied areas."
The World Ba S140 million for training and private ture developmentir of $64.1 million has teacher education million for support tor Infrastructure D pany (PSIDC), saic lease.
“The main obje tion project is to el of education servic improving teacht training and stren hiring and deploy said.
The PSIDC will provide long-term at market-based rat tors in high-prior projects. The two c vided by the Inter ment Association Bank's concession "The credits ca. are to be repaid ove years including a g years,” the release
Lanka. Seek
Help for Re
Late last m Chandrika Kumara diplomats they wol fly to war-torn nor
sess the damage th
speaking to diplom the government col tal peace” betweer and the LTTE bef bilitation work in fore... the governm with the process of in the north in the time,' the Pre Kumaratunga met discuss her appeal
month for a $274 tion and rehabilitat
Kumaratunga S people had returnec government wres peninsula from th Kumaratunga Set t ing earlier with a to U.N. aid agenci sions. It called fo 100,000 families
 
 
 
 
 
 

15 UY 1996
nk has approved eacher education sector infrastrucSri Lanka. A sum been allocated for training and $77 to the Private Sec'evelopment Comla World Bank re
ctive of the educanhance the quality es in Sri Lanka by r education and gthening teacher ment practices,” it
l use the funds to subordinated debt esto private invesity infrastructure redits will be pronational Develop(IDA), the World ary lending arm. rry no interest and ra period of forty race period of ten said.
ng Foreign onstruction
Onth President tunga told foreign uld soon be able to thern Jaffna to asere. Kumaratunga, ats on 28 June, said Ild not wait for "tothe armed forces ore it started rehathe area. "Thereent would press on restoring normalcy shortest possible sident as said.
the diplomats to for help earlier this million reconstrucion plan for Jaffna.
aid about 450,000 to Jaffna since the ed control of the e LTTE in April. he stage for meet29-page document sand foreign misthe relocation of , preparing 5,000
hectares (12,350 acres) of arable land and building 490 km (305 miles) of roads and 200 schools. It also sought help in rebuilding the Jaffna Teaching Hospital and installing generators to provide electricity pending reconnection to the national grid.
Foreign donors emerged from the meeting with the President with many doubts about her request for aid for the nation's war-torn north dispelled, a senior aid official said. The government made no demand for pledges but instead gave several reassurances and sought comments on the government's document outlining reconstruction and rehabilitation plan for the Jaffna peninsula.
Some donors promised aid and technical assistance for the project. Germany promised immediate technical assistance in the reintegration of displaced persons, the international aid official said. It also promised commodity aid, such as agricultural supplies.
India promised food aid. Japan, the Netherlands and the United States all mentioned the importance of involvement of the United Nations and non-governmental organisations, and Japan expressed worries about security.
Britain said it wanted to provide five mobile generators as existing generating equipment in Jaffna was beyond repair.
Leading donors and lenders to Sri Lanka include Japan, the United States, Germany, Britain, Canada, Australia, Norway, the Netherlands, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
A Ranh With Flowers.
A time-bomb hidden in a flower tray brought as an offering to a Buddhist shrine in northeastern Sri Lanka was defused by an army bomb disposal squad on 10 July, according to reports from Colombo.
The bomb was timed to go off when a group of policemen was due to attend a religious ceremony at the Jayanthipura Buddhist Centre in Polonnaruwa. The bomb was detected by a police informant who had been deployed among the crowds of devotees on the lookout for Tamil Tigers rebels. The informant noticed a thin wire protruding from one of the flowers in the trays, the report said.

Page 7
15 JULY 1996
INCREASEDTIGER ATTAC MILITARY PROBLEMSIN
By DPSivaram, Colombo
he LTTE set off a land mine at
Karaveddi in the Jaffna penin
sula on 9 July killing four soldiers and wounding seven. The soldiers were escorting a Police party which was transporting question papers for the GCE(OL) examination. The incident somewhat illustrates the government’s predicament in the peninsula after the completion of Operation Riviresa 3. It has to engage a substantial number of the troops which has been deployed in the peninsula to resuscitate and run the civil administration there. The task, as the Karaveddi incident shows, is tough.
The suicide bombing in the heart of the Jaffna town has, among other things, increased the pressure of the army's holding and clearing operations in the Valikamam sector. The security of the town is paramount. In defending and consolidating the strategic territorial gains of Riviresa 1, 2 and 3, the government faces dilemmas. To consolidate the territorial gains, the civil administration has to be firmly in place and should be run effectively so that reconstruction and rehabilitation work can take place. The civilian authorities need enhanced protection from the military for this. The bureaucracy in the peninsula is scared to co-operate because the manner in which the army has established its presence in the peninsula is such that there are significant areas from which the Tigers are able to operate and gain access to the Jaffna tOWn.
The army's territorial 'control' of the town extends, to the west, up to the Nachchimar Kovil junction on the KKS road. On the Palaly Road, the army's eight foot wall is only a few metres south from Urumpirai junction by the road to Maruthanamadam. Three main roads in the peninsula are under military control. They are - the Palaly Road, the Kandy Road from the town to Chavakacheri, the Point Pedro Road from the town to Atchuvely. These connect, in some places precariously, three defended Zones in the pe
ninsula which th consolidate, and
which eightfooth constructed at Stra ing several mil (These “walls” há sand, mud and t and buildings de lery barrages wh ing the Riviresa c zone comprises t its environs. The the coastal part of part of Nelliady. zone begins, acc dents, at Patella 1 the north west Idaikadu-Thond was the eastern d base before Oper
The landmine on the army on 9 Side this defende ing the point ma analysts in Colom of defended Zone army in the peni Situation where t expend resource flushing out Tig ers, suicide bomb parties as well a zones at the perii tion to carrying O into the areas out yet, these analyst find the LTTE b Side the defende fore the Riviresa gers posed a prob Forward Defence bases in the peni
The LTTE, sir peninsula by the its military wind Several area comm ing to some sour and directed by P ernment official Colombo from Ja Suicide bomb att: said that his coll sometimes go be rimeter bund at

TAMIL TIMES 7
e army is trying to for the protection of ighbunds have been Ltegic points, extendes in some areas. lve been made with he debris of houses stroyed in the artilich took place durperations.) The first he Jaffna town and Second one covers f Vadamaradchi, and To the south, this ording to some resinear Pt Pedro and to is linked to the amanar FDL which efence of the Palaly ation Riviresa 1.
attack by the LTTE July took place in'd zone, corroboratde by some military hbo - that the system 's established by the Insula has created a he army will have to s on screening and ær informants, snipers and even ambush is on defending the meter bunds in addiut special operations side the "walls'. And S say, the army will oth inside and outl Zones whereas beOperations the Tilem only beyond the Lines of the army's nsula.
ce the capture ofthe army, has organised in the peninsula into hands which, accord’es, are co-ordinated Ottu Amman. A govwho came down to ffna a week after the ck on Stanley Road eagues who have to vond the defence peNachchimar Kovil
junction can carry out their duties only withe the approval of the LTTE area commander. This is making rehabilitation work difficult, he said. The of ficial also mentioned that the army knows about their predicament because some of his colleagues have duly informed the military of this particular difficulty to avoid problems. But the army is able to do little about this state of affairs in the peninsula because it has to soon find enough troops to enter the Wanni and hold most major towns there which is the government's wish. Some operations were conducted recently in the Thavady and Manipay areas which are under the influence of an LTTE area command. Here, as in Batticaloa the Tiger attack group operating in the area simply avoids confrontation in order to retain the element of surprise which is key to the long term success of the mode of fighting that the LTTE seems to have adopted in the peninsula.
On the ground the situation in Jaffna resembled that which obtains in most parts of the cast - and Batticaloa in particular. The army controls some key access roads and strategically important population centres. The Tigers rule the roost everywhere else, regularly threatening and mounting military pressure on the access routes and thereby on the population centres. This strains the resources and morale of the forces which, as a result, gradually tend to lose their grip on the civilians.
The current predicament of the STF in the Batticaloa and Amparadistricts is a case in point. Now, this is quite similar to the kind of military balance which obtains in the peninsula. But the army enjoys certain geographical advantages in Batticaloa such as the lagoon which surrounds the town and which separates the politically important population belt along the districts's coast from the hinterland dominated by the LTTE. The geography of Batticaloa poses serious tactical and logistical problems to the LTTE. Hence, by the method of sustaining the government's grip on the district by controlling three key access routes and a few important towns and villages on the coastal population belt works in Batticaloa, though quite precariously at times. This method helps the government mainly to hold on to the district with a minimum number of

Page 8
8 TAMIL TIMES
troops - a semblance of control for less expense. This system is feasible in Batticaloa primarily because of the singular geographical advantage which the district offers to the army of a state - an advantage which was also well exploited by the colonial rulers. But can this method succeed in the peninsula in the years to come?
The government has only the army to stand between its machinery in the defended Zones and the areas outside where the Tigers operate. The drawbacks of the defence system which the army has applied to a terrain which has non-particular physical features as in Batticaloa to enhance its effectiveness are already evident - particularly in the matter of keeping a firm grip on civilian morale. For example, on 6 July the Tigers shot dead in broad daylight Mr Thambu Ramalingam, a retired Assistant Government Agent of Jaffna who hoisted the Nanthi (seated bull) flag along with the Lion flag at the victory celebration followng the fall of Jaffna town after the conclusion of Operation Riviresa 1 last year. The Tigers killed him at his residence in Ariyalai which is inside a defended Zone.
The suicide bombing and the killing of Mr Ramalingam have somewhat rattled the naive complacence of the politicians in the south. The Tamil bureaucracy in the peninsula is of course quite alarmed by this state of affairs. There is only one way in which the government can hope to manage the problem immediately - recruit more soldiers! The government announced an ambitious recruitment drive to take in at least ten thousand youths (education up to grade five being the basic criterion) soon after the conclusion of Operation Riviresa 2 mainly for the purpose of opening a Main Supply Route through the Wanni to the peninsula which was and still remains, a pressing need for the sustenance of the civil and military systems in Jaffna. The recruitment program is almost into its third month. About three thousand youths have joined. Some mainstream Sinhalapapers have deplored the poor response from the Sinhalayouths. The army has also reiterated its position that all deserters are free to come back to service and need not face any disciplinary measures. The deserters, however, are not returning in large numbers. In
stead they have become a bloody men
ace to civil society in the south. Seven members of a family were recently chopped to death with swords by a
gang led by army cident in Akmee country and the g ately appointed a to locate and brin; sands of deserters' are engaged in mu The Akmeem, the climax to a spa gory killings whic south since Eelam earnest in 1990. T erally pointed its ing number of dese South - sometimes rifles and handgun units.
On the political reached a veritab United National Pa cally that it will no to the modification Constitution on th destroy the unitar State.
This has simply a possible Parliame some form of devol the Tamil parties. cally scuttled the PA ing the Tamil par doorstep seeking a on the devolution
All the Tamil p spondent and cre: know that the PA' ess is dead. They its epitaph for it wo their position and a macy. Any they ar. by the knowledge whose popularity i rock bottom sinces due to the rapidly r and growing unem as she herself imp recent meetings w Gordian Knot by s from the Sinhalese package at a refere
The probable peace package, ho' suaged the passio nationalists who flayed the packag. ous editorialists i mainstream press. Sinhala "Buddhist' rected recently att who had said a few age the devolution ing on the Mah Malwatte chapter. Peter Burleigh told during the meeting people in most cou

15 JULY 1996
deserters. This inhana shocked the
vernment immedi
pecial police team to book the thouiho are at large and rder and arson.
na maSSaCTc WaS te of robberies and have plagued the War Two began in e police have geninger at the growrters who roam the armed with assault S stolen from their
front matters have le dead end. The rty stated categorit in any way agree of Article 76 of the e basis that it will y character of the
closed the door on ntary consensus on ution acceptable to The UNP has basiA's strategy of sendties to the UNP's change in its stand proposals. arties are quite destfallen. They all devolution procre scared to write uld spell an end to ny claim for legitifurther saddened : that Chandrika, in the south has hit he assumed office sing cost of living ployment, cannot, lied at one of her ith them, cut the eeking a mandate for her devolution ndum. iasco of the PAs vever, has not aShs of the Sinhala have frequently ', fanned by Zealsections of the he venom of such passions was die US ambassador things to encourrocess, while callanayake of the The ambassador, the Mahanayake that most learned tries of the world
have said that devolution brings good
tothe people. The Mahanayake Thera, however, informed him that whatever may be the case in other countries he (the Thera) did not think that devolution "will do any good in Sri Lanka'. The President of The Organisation to Save the Sinhalese took umbrage at this. He lashed out at the US ambassador while addressing the 47th convention of the All Ceylon Buddhist Ladies Conference in Colombo on 29June, saying “I was deeply concerned when I saw a news item in the Divaina newspaper on 27 June. The American Ambassador has said that devolution will bring good to the people. The Mahanayake has, however, told him that it won't do our country any good. The ambassador's statement that a majority of the learned people in the world accept tihe (devolution) proposals makes it clear that the Malwatte Mahanayake was not learned. Humiliating the Mahanayake Thera of Malwatte who is venerated by all, including the President of this country, is a matter of concern. I have no politics. I have a feeling for the country, the people and the religion. We cannot just watch when Beef-eating whites like him come and humiliate us. I am, therefore, of the view that this foolish intellectual, the American ambassador, who humiliated us should be sent back immediately.' The situation seems to have gone back to square one O
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Page 9
15 JULY 1996
DEVOLUTION PACKAGE
UNPs Opposition Based on P Distortion and ignoranc
By Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu
he UNP held a press conference this week that indicated it would not support the Government's legal draft of the devolution package. This effectively kills off the prospects for a select committee consensus and two-third majority support in Parliament for these proposals.
In effect, it also brings down the curtain on devolution as a political solution to the ethnic conflict and halts the constitutional reform process in its tracks. This of course means - if anyone thought otherwise - that the executive precedence will not be abolished and the provincial council system will be retained.
The current challenge for the Government is not so much a question of what it can do to make things better, but what it should not do to make things worse. The UNP's objection to the substance of the Government's devolution proposals is based upon a combination of rank prejudice, deliberate distortion and/or ignorance. Their position is that the proposals lie outside the unitary framework and therefore are unacceptable. The unitary state is sacrosanct and has to be defended at all costs. As for federalism or anything that even remotely resembles it, the logic of the UNP is that it would facilitate ratherthan contain secession.
The Government has at no point projected its legal draft as a federal document. In fact, Professor Pieris has been at pains to emphasise that the draft intends and constitutes a 'redefinition' of the unitary state.
Moreover, it is clear from reading it what whilst it is more closely federal than the Thirteenth Amendment, it is far from genuinely federal in its scope and content. Furthermore, the legal draft provides the Sri Lanka state all the powers necessary to protect and defend the territorial integrity, unity and sovereignty of the indissoluble Union of Regions envisaged.
There are significant omissions as well in the legal draft that go far in substantiating the thesis that it is not federal. Principal amongst them is the
absence Of a SeC. will express the at the centre - the ism being partn pendence. The le well on a mechan between the centri does not enshrine constitution - two tures of a federa cial review of le give expression t the constitution, mental rights an riod of two years
To all of this further entrench) anism represente Council and the p the centre's pov vis-a-vis a region be noted that on Thirteenth Amen ter safeguards a abuse of power b
Under the Thi the President has a provincial coun hell benton overl more. Contempor nothing else, that been exacerbated of power at the c any attempt to de
Perhaps the blinkers with reg and contents of been tightened by verse modus ope1 consensus on it. dice must be a Wickremesinghe ence shed light c doubt on the Pres to devolution an form. That she ha rtunity into an o castigate the UN ally attack the L« tion, and all this needs their co-op to arrive at a pol overarching natic dence to Wickre tion.
 

| AML UWIKES 9
ond chamber which stake of the regions essence of federalrship and interdegal draft is silent as sm to settle disputes 2 and the regions and the supremacy of the further essential fea| constitution. Judigislation which will o the supremacy of is limited to fundad that too for a peonly.
must be added the
ment of majoritari
2d by the Supreme rovisions relating to vers of dissolution all council. It should this last point, the dment provides betgainst the arbitrary y the centre. rteenth Amendment, no power to dissolve cil. The UNP seems ooking all of this and ary history shows, if t ethnic conflict has by the concentration entre rather than by volve it. UNP\s ideological ard to the character the legal draft have the President’s perandi for achieving a To the UNP's prejudded pique. Ranil in his press conferin this when he cast ident's commitment d constitutional resturned every oppoccasion on which to P and even personcader of the Opposiat a time when she peration and support itical solution to the nal crisis, lends cremasinghe’s conten
The corollary to its is equally significant - the President has done everything possible to alienate the UNP because, if there was a consensus on devolution it would pave the way for constitutional reform, including the abolition of the executive presidency. Both sides seem to be playing politics with a political solution to the ethnic conflict and bad politics at that. Would it not have been politically shrewder for the UNP to have supported the legal draft and called the Government's bluff on constitutional reform and the abolition of the executive Presidency? Even the Choksy stratagem to retain Article 2 enshrining the unitary state and amend Article 76 to allow Parliament to delegate its legislative powers to another body, is being orphaned at the point at which the government appears interested in adopting it, at least for form's sake. It will be presented to the committee in legal draft. Apparently Choksy asked a question rather than provided an answer. One wonders whether it was all that spontaneous.
In any event, motive notwithstanding, if the UNP is to fall back upon the Thirteenth Amendment and the provincial council system, there is no need to amend anything. The status quo on woefully inadequate devolution will be retained. There is no escaping the imperative ofapoliticalsolution to the ethnic conflict as a necessary condition for peace and prosperity.
Yet, neither side seems mature enough to grasp the full implications of this. They are more concerned with petty partisan pre-occupations and in apportioning blame for failure rather than in sharing responsibility for success. The Government will blame the UNP for sabotaging the legal draft and will point to the draft as demonstrable proof of its commitment to devolution. The UNP will claim to have saved the unitary state and with reference to its continued subscription to the Thirteenth Amendment, assert that it has not turned its back on devolution either.
There is a sense of deja vu about all this. It is not unlike the Mangala Moonesinghe Committee. There too a lot of hope was invested only to be dissipated. Machiavelli wrote about Virtu and Fortuna. Our politicians would do well to read him well, rather than merely professing to the former whilst desperately relying upon the latter.
(Courtesy "Sunday Leader" - 7.796)

Page 10
10 TAMILTIMES
3 ర్గ
by Dr.S.Narapalasi
ngam
he people of Sri Lanka over the
past four decades have remained
politically divided between a clear majority of Sinhalese (74%) and a substantial minority of Lankan Tamils (13%). The latter have their roots in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka - though many of them resided outside these provinces - where they remained the predominant ethnic group except in certain parts of the Eastern Province.
The LTTE has been waging a war over the past 13 years with the declared aim of establishing an independent state of Tamil Eelam in the North-East. Without going into the pros and cons of this move, it is useful at the present critical time to consider the repercussions of the actions of this group and its supporters, particularly those among the Tamil diaspora, as far as the present and future of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
It should be clear to any rational person familiar with the recent happenings in Sri Lanka and the stand and measures taken by the leadership of the LTTE during the several phases of the war for Eelam, particularly after it broke the ceasefire agreement and resumed hostilities in April 1995, that the primary aim of continuing the war, regardless of its human and other costs as well as its consequences to the political future of the Tamils living in a multi-ethnic country, is to take possession of the land considered to traditionally belong to the Tamils.
In fact, the phrase "war for land" was used in its statement issued in July 1995 in an apparent justification for the killing of Sinhalese villagers in the border areas of the North-East region, as they were considered by the LTTE to be part of the Sri Lankan Government's "war for land' in the NorthEast. As for the LTTE's aim, the fact that nearly a half of Lankan Tamils (the up-country Tamils are also Sri Lankans as their citizenship rights
have been restored but for the purpose.
of the discussions here, they are not included in this group) live in ethnically mixed areas seems irrelevant.
Hence others, whet Or not, who strive mate rights of the multi-ethnic coun principles of equali ing between differ are considered to therefore "traitor, cause'.
Tamil diaspora
The migration o countries surged c the 1983 anti-Tami still continuing as ti tinues unabated. number of them hav citizenship rights c dence and develop mostly in countries France, Germany, land, Denmark, St Canada, Australia a hence seem to hav ment home for the selves and for their ture in these countr engaged in a fever quire the same. Alre tial number of elede ers, fathers-in-law a have become pa diaspora, and the such elederly peopl tries to join their continue.
According to sc 20 per cent of the La ently live abroad. C whelming majori North, particularly 1 from those Tamils w well in Sri Lanka, sons - political or e. not want to migrat tions are that there among Tamils to sc country, whether the war-torn north-east the south and living adjoining areas. It w only problem that migration of most ( in Sri Lanka Tamil tries is firstly the e volved in paying "
 
 
 

15 JULY 1996
her they are Tamils to win the legitiTamils living in a try, based on the y and power-sharent ethnic groups be disloyal, and s' to the "Tamil
fTamilstoforeign lramatically after l pogrom and it is he ethnic war conA considerable e already acquired or permanent resied vested interests like Great Britain, Switzerland, Holweeden, Norway, nd the U.S.A., and e found a permapresent for themprogeny in the fuies. The others are ish attempt to acady, even substanrly fathers, mothnd mothers-in-law rt of the Tamil attempts to bring e into these counkith and kin still
Ome reports about nkan Tamils pres)f these, the overty are from the from Jaffna. Apart who are doing very or for other reaconomic - who do te, all the indicais a now a craving omehow leave the y are living in the or have moved to in Colombo and ould seem that the has prevented the of the Tamils now s to foreign counxorbitant cost inagents”, and sec
ondly the tightening of immigration laws in foreign countries to which there has been previously an influx of Tamil refugees.
The Tamils living abroad regardless of their residential Status have some links with Sri Lanka, as some of their close relatives still live there. Besides, they (especially the older generation) have an emotional attachment to theirrespective towns and villages in Sri Lanka in which they and their parents have lived before. The concern they have for the safety, security and legitimate rights of the Tamils living in Sri Lanka is therefore not in question. However, among them are some vocal sections who by their uncompromising stand with regard to the resolution of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and display of crude chauvinism - it must be reasised that chauvinism is not always a monopoly of the numerical majority - and whose actions have the effect of being counter-productive to the ultimate aim of assuring the security and future well-being of fellow Tamils in Sri Lanka. Their attitude is apparently induced not largely by love for their fellow Tamils in Sri Lanka, but more by their anger and vindictiveness against the Sinhalese emanating from their own bitter experiences with the past governments or from losing their family members, relatives, friends and assets in the anti-Tamil pogroms.
Secure in their newly found havens and leading a life of relative luxury compared to those back at home, and living in circumstances where normal democratic and human rights are guaranteed, some of these expatirate Tamils are seen, sadly in the name of the "Tamil cause', to rationalise and justify the most appalling outrages and brutalities committed against not only the Sinhalese and Muslims, but also againstfellow Tamils who hold a different point ofview. The dreadful conSequences of continuing Such a vindictive attitude to the long-term welfare of the Tamils seem to have not yet been fully grasped by these sections in these expatriate circles.
The expatriate Tamil must realise that any actions that result in the creation of a situation in Sri Lanka that compel the remaining Tamils there to flee to foreign lands or to the south of the island will only further weaken the case for a Tamil homeland. In that eventuality, it will be hardly justifi

Page 11
J JULT ISSVU
able for insisting that the North-East region must just in case the Tamils settled abroad decide to return in the future.
The "responsible" Lankan Tamils living abroad must recognize these realities and refrain from misleading and giving false hopes to those unfortunate ones trapped in the ongoing self-destructive war. In fact, the utterances of some (the emphasis to be noted) Tamil expatriates give rise to serious doubts about their motives, as these tend to imply a desire to perpetuate the state of war in Sri Lanka. In particular, some Tamils settled permanently abroad with their families, seem to be advocating the creation of a separate state in Sri Lanka for egotistic and nostalgic reasons. They also have stereotyped explanations, motivated by racial pride and prejudice to justify every single action of the rebels, regardless of its adverse effect on the Tamils in Sri Lanka. On the one hand, their sceptical opinion on the proposals of the Sri Lankan Government to settle the conflict through constitutional reforms has the sympathy of many moderate Tamils. However, mere chauvinistic posturing without exploring a practical way to get out of the dilemma, other than giving false hope of success through the military option, will not help the Tamils to end their protracted suffering and assure a better future. It is high time that they reconcile their idealism with realism. In conflict resolution some compromises by both sides are inevitable but these cannot be construed by either party as complete surrender of the position each has taken in the past. This important point is emphasized in case anyone mistakenly thinks that the suggestion is being made here to wave the "white flag” now!
Living Under Illusions
A pragmatic solution to the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka, that will have universal support and serve the interests of all the ethnic groups there has to be within the framework of a meaningful decentralised democratic system, with adequate safeguards to prevent the abuse of powers by the centre that would undermine the principles of devolution and power-shar1ng.
Some expatriates are still under the illusion that by canvassing British MPs or the US Senators and Con
gressmen, diplom exerted on the S ment for it to sett ceding to the de rebels. It is aston expect these poli ferent line from ing pursued stea governments wit flict in Northern I position of the U.K., U.S.A. anc RA should first fire and subsequ paramilitary g decommission its assist in achievi settlement of the Ireland. Its polit Fein has not bec the peace talks b dition has not ye. dom of excludii context of the ai peace in Norther matter. Sinn Fei among the repul border has come Sure after the rece IRA in the centre land.
World opinion
The bombing building in Colon Oklahoma bomb. ceived by many A unaware of the started the confli first place, as a by an extremistg of the foreigners in the perception less minority con they have been t jugated and deni powerful govern the majority Sinh siderably in rece
Considerable to the Tamil caus tants started tar Muslim civilians Surprise attacks. the border villag killed including children. The lat curred in the ea ’96 in the borde in Elavankul Puttalam distric women and chil hacked' to deatl Amnesty Inter

IAMIL. TIMES 11
atic pressures can be ri Lankan GovernLe the conflict by acmands of the Tamil ishing how they can ticians to take a difthat is currently belfastly by their own En regard to the conreland. The common governments of the | Ireland is that, the reinstate the ceaseently along with all roups it should weapons in order to ng a final political conflict in Northern ical wing, the Sinn in allowed to attend ecause the first conbeen met. The wisag Sinn Fein in the m to achieve lasting in Ireland is another n's credibility even blicans south of the under increased present bomb blast by the of Manchester, Eng
of the Central Bank mbo not long after the ingincident was perAmericans, who were circumstances that ct in Sri Lanka in the similar terrorist act roup. The sympathy towards the Tamils that being a powermunity in Sri Lanka, reated unfairly, sub2d equal rights by the ments dominated by alese haswaned connt years.
harm has been done e itselfafter the milieting Sinhalese and , killing hundreds in Sinhalese peasants in es have been brutally innocent women and est such incident octly hours of 11 June village of Lunuoya um (Aruwakkaru, :) in which 14 men, dren were "shot and . In this connection, lational once again
expressed its concern that "Sinhalese civilians appear to have been deliberately and arbitrarily killed solely on the basis of their ethnicity."
"Terrorism" is despised in many advanced countries, including those providing refuge to Lankan Tamils in recent years. The international community as a whole is now increasingly apprehensive of terrorism in whatever form. Many foreign governments are now taking a hard line against the LTTE considering the nature of its militant activities. In this connection, the perception and attitude of the US government is revealed in the the US State Department Report on "Patterns of Global Terrorism - 1995'.
Racial Hatred
The distrust between the Sinhalese and Tamils was initially confined primarily to the domain of politics. The grievance of the Tamils was against the various governments that treated them as second class citizens and denied their legitimate rights. Even the several anti-Tamil riots that took place since 1958 were encouraged or not quelled promptly by the State. Many Sinhalese gave protection to the Tamils in their homes during those difficult days and were also sympathetic to the legitimate rights of the Tamils. After the Tamil."liberation' struggle took a different turn and the killings extended to include innocent people either for revenge or to provoke the government and the military, resulting in retaliatory collective punishment and indiscriminate attacks by the security forces in which the victims were mainly Tamil civilians, the ill-feeling between the Sinhalese and the Tamils began to increase.
This may be a deliberate move by the rebels to convey the message to the outside world that the two Communities cannot live peacefully in one country. But how this will help the Tamils to live peacefully even in a separate region with the Sinhalese as neighbours in the adjacent regions is incomprehensible. This is also unhelpful to reach an amicable settlement of the conflict through constitutional reform, which requires trust between the two communities. In fact, the brutal killing of civilians including women and children would have only hardened attitudes even among the moderate Sinhalese, which the Tamils living in Colombo and other

Page 12
12 TAMIL TIMES
towns outside the North-East know quite well.
It would appear that the Tamil rebels and their backers think by intensifying racial hatred, destroying life and property, destabilizing the elected governments and by other disruptive actions, the separate independent state of Tamil Eelam will ultimately emerge in Sri Lanka. Given the present realities, this is like expecting the resurrection of the dead after the crucifixion.
There has never been any serious open discussions within the Tamil community in recent times on the political goals, their attainability and their long-term implications for the welfare of the entire society in the context of evolving political and economic changes in the modern world, the strategies to win wide support for achieving realistic goals, etc. Conferences and seminars are held in foreign capitals solely to communicate predetermined stances and the organizers invariably expect the participants to praise and support their positions and actions.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu in an interview said very emphatically; " without forgiveness and reconciliation, there cannot be real peace even if the war has ended.'
The leaders of various Tamil groups must give precedence to the interest of the Tamil people over their own political ambitions at this crucial time. This is not the time for engaging in vindictive acts or in power struggles. The last thing the traumatised people in the North-East want now is another round of internecine warfare there that will disrupt again their lives. Arbitrary killings of civilians either by the armed forces or by the Tamil militants of any group should not be condoned by the Government and the people.
In this regard, the urgency for reinstating and strengthening the civil administration that is credible and capable of restoring the rule of law and executing the rehabilitation and reconstruction work in the war-torn regions cannot be over-emphasised. The risk that the resources and energies
spent in these areas would turn out to
be futile, without a viable political solution to the vexed ethnic problem should not be under-estimated.
Intrusion of Viol
The issues ad expressed so far fo actions and attitut which tend to per conflict in Sri Lan under this import incomplete witho shortcomings of th that need concerte instil trust in the people; the lack of the very outset has cantly to the bel Some Tamils.
It is ludicrous that violence has the Tamil culture croached into na extent of this int. clearer with the d concerned person: Presidential Com1 culture of violenc Simhala society. I that the two intru ent; in fact they a clusive in promot tude and intolera ethnic, religious a This retrogression fidence of the pe the way governme "democratic and The credibility o become dubious Sinhalese people.
Political partie very vocal in cond and corrupt practi
but often these pri
when they occupy The violent clim during the JVP u to get rid of "troub blame the killings larly it became c blame the "Tigers some prominent elations ofimporta the Presidential Co the assassination mudali and Lt. Ge. kaduwa to be the v not that of the LT
Buddhism adv. non-violence and sal message and c any kind of violen life. These are in precepts of other poused by Sri Lanl

15 JULY 1996
eace
dressed and views cused mainly on the de of those Tamils, petuate the state of ka. The discussions ant subject will be ut dwelling on the e other warring side d efforts in order to minds of the Tamil f this as observed at contributed signifiigerent attitude of
for anyone to think intruded only into . Violence has entional politics, the usion is becoming isclosures made by before the various missions. Thus, the e has intruded into t is naive to assume sions are independre not mutually exing the hostile attince towards Other nd political groups. has marred the conople particularly in nts function in their socialist' country. f governments has even among the
's in opposition are emning the immoral ces of ruling parties inciples are ignored
the seats of power. ate that prevailed prising, was seized lesome' people and ; on the JVP. Simi:onvenient later to " for the killings of Sinhalese. The revint witnesses before bmmissions indicate
of Mr. Athulathheral Denzil Kobbevork of insiders and TE!
Ocates and preaches peace as its univerloes not approve of ce Or destruction of
harmony with the major religions estans. Religious edu
cation is emphasized in the school curriculum. All the major holy days of the Buddhists, Hindus, Christians and Muslims are public holidays in Sri Lanka. The attendance attemples, churches, mosques and prayer meetings has not decreased. How then the violent culture intruded into the daily lives of the peace loving people of the blessed island? There is only one unequivocal answer The political and religious leaders did not practise what they preached or in some instances advocated violence contrary to the basic principles of their own religion and civilised codes of conduct. It was either power itself that they wielded over the people or the greed for it that made them to ignore the very principles that they expected others to follow faithfully.
The Sri Lankan "Women for Peace' movement in a recent statement drew attention to the fact that "the government in particular has a moral duty towards the people in creating a climate free of fear and terror, instill in people mutual trust and understanding, build faith and confidence which is an essential prerequisite to the long term achievement of unity and ethnic harmony in Sri Lanka." Hopefully, the men will not ignore this as mere expression of sentimentality by the "weaker' sex. In fact, in order to win the peace not physical but mental strength is needed. As often pointed out by this writer, it was the lack of political courage that deterred the leaders from taking the ethically right decisions at the right time. Had they not succumbed to divisive politics, the unity of the people would not have ben shattered and the present distrust of the minority Tamils in the unitary system of government thatbestows overall controlling powers to the majority Sinhalese could not have arisen.
Besides the imperative to find urgently a political solution acceptable to people on both sides of the ethnic divide, the Sri Lankan society as a whole needs the restoration of its traditional cultural and moral values for lasting peace, stability and social and economic progress. Prayers alone are not sufficient, determined efforts of conscientious Sri Lankans are needed to pull the society out of the morass it had got stuck into following blindly the wrong path shown by those leaders, who put their interests and of their parties before that of the nation. O

Page 13
THE UNITARY ST AND DEVOLUT
In the current discussion On the subject of devolution of power in
Sri Lanka the position has been advanced that there can be no Substantial devolution in a Unitary State. The assumption in this appears to be that devolution of power is a device related to a federal arrangement and that the unitary state is too restrictive for its meaningful realisation.
This position, advanced by a group of respected academics who have shown a long time commitment to devolution as a solution to Sri Lanka's ethnic crisis, passes off for a self evident truth. Closer examination, however, exposes its fallaciousness. To allow it to pass unchallenged is dangerous. The obverse of it is that devolution of power if effected substantially in a unitary state will change the unitary nature of that state. This position can therefore feed the "nationalist' at both the Sinhala and Tamil extremes. The word "nationalist' is preferred here because it reaches beyond the besotted that answer to the term communalist.
Classification
The constitutional law which may be resorted to in the task of making a constitution has no ready to hand classification of criteria that relate to "unitary' and 'federal'. The brahmins of the Indian Constitution have added confusion too to this situation. Of them some view that constitution as unitary with a federal potential while others see it as federal with strong unitary features.
The constitutional law that has had predominance in Sri Lanka relates almost wholly to the British constitution. All else is seen very much from the outside. In relation to the flexibility claimed for the unwritten British constitution there is the description "rigid' applied to, for instance, the constitution of the USA which is admittedly federal in character. Its rigidity may however be open to question
By Batty Weerakoon
considering th. worked by tha Presidents and may be said tha mained the fede the federatings ably have want
Multi-cultural
Britain in th administering a described as “fe admittedly unit the House of C “Speaker's Con to consider and ure of federal d ministration of England, Scotla
The 'feder tioned here is n not be said tha the 20's was co the unitary cha constitution/. It tions from avail and practice for of a multi-cultu solution hadaf as no reaSOn tO
The acaden appear to rely o determination ment for their tions of the u devolution.
What the S determine on th to whether it h the People at a became law. Al where entrenc Constitution au Amendment d these provision all purposes in
Particular I of the fact tha clares that the isa Unitary Si trenched. One
 
 
 

: manner it has been E country's executive the Supreme Court. It it it has not rigidly reral constitution which tates may understanded it to be.
Polity e 1920's did consider large does of what it deral devolution' to its ary state. In June 1919 Commons appointed a erence on Devolution' report upon a measevolution' for the adits four components - ind, Ireland and Wales. al devolution' menot defined. But it canut post-war Britain of Insidering a change in racter of its state and was looking for soluable constitutional law the political problems ral polity. That such a deral flavour was seen reject it.
lics mentioned above n the Supreme Court's on the 13th Amendposition on the limitanitary state vis a vis
upreme Court had to at Amendment was as ad to be approved by Referendum before it Referendum is required ned provisions in the e amended. The 13th d not remove any of and they remained for act.
hention may be made Article 2, which deRepublic of Sri Lanka ate, is among the enprincipal question that
TAM TIMSS 13
had to be determined, as seen by Court, was as to whether Article 76 was affected. This Article stated that Parliament shall notabdicate or in any manner alienate its legislative power, and shall not set up any authority with any legislative power. Although this Article was not entrenched it was argued that it characterised the unitary state contemplated in Article 2 and that therefore the setting up of Provincial Councils with legislative power affected it.
There is, one would think, a very simple answer to this. That is the fact that despite the Republic being declared Unitary State it became necessary to make the express provision of Article 76 precisely because the Unitary State contemplated in the Constitution, if left without this prohibition, could allow parliament to set up legislative bodies outside of itself. Court, however, did not resort to this answer. Instead, the majority opinion written by Sharvananda J, held, as among its findings relevant to the matter in issue, that Parliament has reserved to itself the right to legislate on "National Policy' even on devolved subjects and that therefore there was no infringement of Article 76. The minority opinion, written by Wanasundera J, held otherwise. The thesis here was that there is a certain pattern of political and legal relations within which the Unitary State created in the Constitution had to function and that any alteration of that pattern affected the unitariness declared in Article 2.
Supreme Court's Determination
Neither opinion attempted to evaluate the matters in issue in the context of any theory of the unitary state. This may have been for the very good reason that there was no such generally accepted theory. Dr Neelan Thiruchelvam, MP, in a recent contribution on Devolution recalled that, "Dr Colvin R de Silva used to say that there is nothing called a unitary constitution which is locked up in some mythical vault in heaven with which one could compare a constitution and say whether it is unitary or not.”
Sharvananda, J, adopted the text book distinction between the constitutional concepts 'unitary' and federal'. He observed that the gist of the federal principle is that through co-ordinate authorities, which are in

Page 14
Ambass
14 TAMIL TIMES
dependent of each other, the federal and state governments exercise sovereignty in their respective fields but that in a unitary state sovereignty rests with the central government.
Where the majority opinion in the SC determination on the 13th Amendment contended itself with the distribution of sovereignty as what distinguished the federal from the unitary state the minority opinion assumed that devolution of power is a mechanism through which regional or provincial units of devolution can be made so autonomous as could change the unitary character within which the devolution is made. It goes on to state that the devolution of power effected by the 13th Amendment gives to the Sri Lanka state a federal character.
Delegation v Devolution
It must be remembered that the principle that is operative in the exercise of power distribution within a federal arrangement is not devolution but delegation. The American states delegated certain powers to a mutually accepted national centre and enumerated them. The balance was kept with the states as residual powers. The na
ture of the latter v if it opted to do
the powers it had taken the extrem The fact that this
the USA and wil pen is no reason t ture of the relatio serting itself in 1 USSR. The fact i COnmenCement ( tory of the Ame individual states son to go back o1 powers or to co strictly their ind They had the po mutual confidenc mises. It was the found wanting in
USSR. The repu resume their dor what they had in mere autonomy been possible no I it was.
The SC deter Amendment cant authoritative on devolution withir was it called up
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tas such that a state, so, could repossess delegated and even 2 step of secession. has not happened in l certainly not hapo deny the basic nanship. We saw it ashe break up of the s that from the very if the 200 year his'ican federation the aw no pressing reatheir delegation of ntinue to maintain ividual unitariness. litical will and the e to reach comprose factors that were the federalism of the blics were able to mant unitariness. If their federalism was his would not have matter how enhanced
mination on the 13th not thus be taken as the possibilities of a unitary state. Nor Dn to pronounce on
that. This is not to say that the SC's minority opinion did not go on to state what it considered as the dangers of devolution. This however is basically the expression of political preference and can have no place in the examination of legal relations and capacities. In fact the discussion on devolution of power in the Sri Lanka context has been dominated by political preference for or against the unitary state with scant regard being paid to the manner devolution can be exercised as an intelligent device within the unitary state it is not surprising that this should be reflected in the SC determination too.
Indian Constitution
As noted above what happens in federalism is the delegation of powers by the federating states to the centre which these states establish for themselves collectively. The centre comes into existence only through this delegation. Devolution of power on the other hand, can have meaning and purpose only as a device that is resorted to for reordering of legal relations within an existing state structure. This invariably is the unitary state. The federal element in the In
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Page 15
15 JULY 1996
dian Constitution comes basically from the fact that the national centre it projects is a creation of the Constitution to serve the purpose of already existing units. What has operated in that context in respect of power is not its devolution but its delegation. The "Unitary" element in it issues principally from the responsibility the Constitution casts on the centre in the refashioning of the units in accordance with the post-colonial challenges, and in the holding of these units together. It is a serious mistake to assume that the political restructuring a post-independent India was the transformation of relations in a unitary State.
In Sri Lanka we are faced today with a completely different exercise which is the restructuring of an existing and functioning unitary state. A restructuring that is adequate to cope with the compelling political needs of the country has to effect a substantial distribution of power to the periphery while maintaining the political and territorial unity and integrity of the country. Devolution of power has been adopted as the method for accomplishing this.
Autonomy
The autonomy that can be given to the province or region through devolution of power has two distinct aspects to it. One has a bearing on the political relationship between the national centre and the autonomous unit. Its outside limitis determined by what is necessary to ensure the country's political and territorial integrity. The right of what is known as "external self-determination” and its related “secession' which are at least nationally basic to the federal arrangement are excluded in this relationship.
The other aspect of autonomy is the legal capacity of the units to manage their own affairs within this relationship. This will necessarily include the powers vested in a unit over state land and other assets within its boundaries, maintenance of law and order, welfare, the administration of justice, the provision of services and facilities needed for the economic and social life of the community, and the collection of revenue.
The 13th Amendment has given to the devolved units a very high degree of autonomy on the devolved sub
jects which extend its utilisation tO | law and order.
Dr Neelan Ti. pressed his stron a unitary constitu the power of ove lative or executi devolved unit.' T the centre to legis! subjects in respect he sees as a mear The extreme dept tre for the finance also seen as han These however a cannot be rectifie the basic relatio system.
Draft Amendme
The draft Cons now before the P Committee addres The centre’s reser tional Policy onal tions' has been gi of the "Concurren tive addition to a
The draft west Regional Council over the devolve States in the sect that Regional Co through which le is sourced in the people is exercis legislative power is not possible un stitution not beca but for the reas mentioned above, tive power too, to required for the Region, is exerci ties in the Region sovereignty of the the Region's Go dent has been rem responsible to the tration. The govel would need to in event of serious di ens the unity and try, and provision this.
Sovereignty
What may be between the cent the draft in regar executive functiol but the powers fl

IL IMES 15
| from state land and he maintenance of
ruchelvam has exg conviction that in tion the centre has [riding either legisve authority of the he right reserved in late on the devolved of 'national policy' is of encroachment. ndence on the cen's of the province is npering autonomy. re not matters that d without affecting ls within a unitary
int titutionamendiment arliamentary Select sses these problems. ve power over 'NaSubjects and Funcvenup. Theremoval tlist' is also a posiutonomy.
s exclusively in the 's legislative power 'd subjects. It also
ion on sovereignty
uncils are a means gislative power that sovereignty of the ed. The exercise of with this amplitude der the present Conuse of its unitariness on that Article 73, prohibits it. Executhe extent that it is (management of the sed by the authorias a function of the ; people. The link of Vernor to the Presioved and he is made : Regional adminisinment at the centre tervene only in the sorder which threatsecurity of the counhas been made for
lescribed as divided re and the units in d to legislative and ns is not sovereignty owing from it. The
1972 Republican Constitution recognised sovereignty as vested in the People and that it is inalienable. There was no alienation of that sovereignty even to what was recognised as the "Supreme Instrument of State Power of the Republic' - The National State Assembly. What was vested exclusively in the National State Assembly was State Power and it was this that was amenable to division and distribution. The 1978 Constitution adhered to the same distinction between sovereignty and the State Power that issued from it. The present draft maintains this distinction.
There is nothing sacrosanct about the form of a state being unitary or federal. Eitherform is adopted according to the needs of a given polity and not as the ideal all peoples must aspire to. It is a way of reconciling divergent and perhaps even competing interests. Neither form has characteristics which cannot be adapted to the purposes of the other.
Devolution of power can be the means by which the unitary state can reach out, through the concept of autonomy to the relative independence with which a state in a federation manages its affairs. Such mutual enrichment is possible and Constitutions develop means to face the challenges of times through means. This is what makes it ill advised for a Constitution to formally describe itself as either "unitary' or federal' as done both in 1972 and 1978. The consequence of this is the importing of theory into the interpretation of the constitution on matters touching this characterisation when, as seen in the SC determination on the 13th Amendment there exists no adequate and authoritative theory or view on it.
The unitary state in countries of the so called Third World purportedly bound for N/C status in year 2000 have shown in the last two decades a strong move to authoritarian government. The Executive Presidential System that has been set up by the Constitution of 1978 has taken Sri Lanka on that path. It is difficult for this system to reconcile itself to the devolution of power which is essentially a democratic process. Misgivings on this scoreare not misplaced. The Constitutional draft that is now under discussion has exercised the Executive Presidential System.3 O

Page 16
16 TAMTL TMËS
re there genuine grounds for class" woman w
questioning Tissa Balasuriya's throw of the p
orthodoxy? What does his book thrones, has bee Mary and Human Liberation actually hydrated Mary' say? Are attempts to discipline him an ful, docile virgi authentic case of ridding the Church has domesticatec of heresy? Or are the issues more po- forter of the dist litical than theological? Magnificat's “di
The book was published by able'.
Balasuriya's own Centre for Society and Religion in 1990 as a double is- Balasuriya i;
sue of the review Logos. Its overriding message is that the liberating Mary of the scriptures, a "strong, working
giam Of a distin most liberation on the work of w
Fr Tissa Balasuriya is poised to take civil action agains his country's bishops for distortion against his country bishops for distortion of his views, writes Robert Crusz in
Sri Lanka and Margaret Hebblethwaite in London.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CD has asked Fr Balasuriya to pronounce before witnesse, a Profession of Faith. If he refuses, he is threatened wit being declared publicly to be no longer a Catholic theo logian, and with disciplinary action under Canon 136. (which deals with the automatic excommunication of her etics and dismissal from the clerical state).
In July 1994 Fr Balasuriya received a list of "Obse vations" from the CDF pointing out his book's allegeden rors. He replied with 58 instances of what he believed t be misrepresentations. In November last year the CDF sai his reply was "unsatisfactory" and enclosed the Profe sion of Faith, with warnings of the consequences if he di not sign. Pope John Paul has given his approval to th decision.
Fr Balasuriya said: “Frankly Idoubt whether the Ho, Father or Cardinal Ratzinger... would sign it in its prese form and publish it as the faith of the Catholic Churc today." He suggests that the treat of excommunication "applied inequitably by the CDF to me from Asia and European theologians writing on similar issues, as in ti London Tablet of recent months.”
Fr Balasuriya's book, Mary and Human Liberatic was first published in Sri Lanka, in English, in 1990 a sold for nearly three years without opposition.
But Fr Balasuriya was then asked to meet the Bisho in January 1993. Bishop Malcolm Ranjith Patabendi
 
 

O looked to the overwerful from their
obscured by a "dean "obedient, faithmother'. Tradition Mary into "the comIrbed' instead of the urber of the comfort
a liberation theolotly Asian sort. Like heologians he draws riters from both third
and first worlds - with references to Elisabeth Schussler Fiortenza and Raymond Brown of the United States as well as to Ivone Gebara of Brazil and Albert Nolan of South Africa - but the particular contribution he has to make as an Asian is to the interfaith question. While the Latin Americans theologise in a setting that takes Catholicism predominantly for granted. Balasuriya is constantly challenged "to rethink the key dogmas of the Christian tradition' in the light of Hinduism and Buddhism: "In Asia we have
f Don readfrom a document basedon the report ofan ad hoc theological commission. It recommended that Fr Balasuriya should be warned against translations and future reprints, and that there should be "disciplinary measures to stop him from engaging in irresponsible and immature theologising”. Fr Balasuriya claims that the document distorts his book. Bishop Ranjith claims that "it contains the views expressed by all the members" of the theological commission. But one has protested that Bishop Ranjith "failed to catch the acuity of points made... and presented them in a simplistic manner,” with a result that
was "slipshod"
In June 1994 the Bishop published a statement in the weekly Catholic newspaper they control, the Catholic Messenger, claiming that Fr Balasuriya had misrepresented the doctrine of original sin, and cast serious doubts on the divinity of Christ, his role as redeemer, and on the privileged position of Mary.
Fr Balasuriya's complaint that he was not given the right of reply to the Bishop's statement, and that one particular misrepresentation be legally challenged.
A public petition is calling for mediation, and the Cond ference of Major Superiors of Sri Lanka has produced a list of possible members of such a panel. "We are deeply hurt", says the CMRS president in a letter to Fr Balasuriya, that a dialogue "has not been conceded
ир to пои. "
FCONDEMNATION
Fr Aloysius Pieris SJ, one of Sri Lanka's most eminent theologians, says: "It was I who persuaded Fr Tissa to resort to civil action as the only solution available after every other means has failed. He resisted this idea for a long time because he loved the Church.'

Page 17
15 JULY 1996
to question the bases of theology that has been hurting our people for centuries”.
It is here that his theology becomes most tricky, as he queries the doctrines of original sin and of the necessity of Christ's redemption. He says that Christianity's idea of "humanity being born alienated from the creator'. With its overarching sense of our helplessness, such that Mary had to be preserved from the common human lot by an Immaculate Conception, is repugnant to other faiths. (Ironically, Fr Balasuriya is a member of the Oblate of Mary Immaculate.) Equally of fensive to them he says, is the belief that “whole generations ofother continents lived and died with a lesser chance of salvation'. It led to an exaggerated missionary zeal to baptise, in the attempt to save souls from hell.
Balasuriya's work is open to selective quotation of an alarmist kind, but it is unfair to pluck Sonndbites out of context. He criticises the idea of Jesus as "unique, universal and necessary redeemer'. Yet he also says that "the concept of the divine grace understood as flowing from Christ need not be a problem for dialogue with persons of other theistic religions provided this grace is seen as graciously available to all human beings." he questions "theology based on the Christology of the Councils (such as Nicaea, Chalcedon and Trent)”. Yet though his language is imprecise it seems he is rejecting the conciliar Christological doctrines as such, but rather theological aberrations that ignore "Jesus as a full conscious human being capable of suffering, being angry and even tempted'. In much the same way, he criticises theology that makes Mary "more of a heavenly being (conversing with angels) than a pedestrian woman of the people.”
In a lot of what he says, Balasuriya is aware of "treading on ground that is delicate', even though his "intention is not to dilute Marian devotion but to help make it more meaningful and truly fulfilling for all". And there are comments on other subjects that might well be predicted to rile the Vatican: He says secularism and Marxism "can have a healthy impact for the purification of religions'; he calls Mary “the first Priest of the New Testament along with Jesus' because of her participation in his sacrifice; and
he calls fora reti the life-long tenu
But the mos lenge of Balasuri Traditional Mari legitimise the cla tions between Lo ordinary woman' citing the rosary thinkingly "may slant of saving without much r human liberatio) Conception app "does not say any ditions of the wo of the day.” still mous harm bein the French milita pansion'. Yet wh to Sri Lankans sl Victories' in the against Turks in And so, despite Our Lady of Gu chowa, “this tra Mary of the cay colonialist, first dom”.
That this lan some annoyance there are not issu left wondering points of doctrine for what is essen pute. When Bala tempts to answ charges against been spurned - m a year, or with th isfactory' - such be fuelled.
So much for dispute - the scru man Liberation. ond leg, in which logical world two-page Profess by the congrega of the Faith, W. been asked to af tion from cor Paul VI's Credo tion's own docu priests, combin Chalcedonian f late Conception pal infallibility, cessity of baptis ity of ordaining
It is a docu

TAM TIMES 17
ement age "to limit e of the papacy".
fundamental chalya is a political one. an piety "helped to is and status distincd and self, Lady and . The practice of rerepetitively and ungive it a particular ouls from perdition :ference to integral I." The Immaculate arition at Lourdes thing about the coniking class in France 2ss "hint at the enorg done in Africa by ry and economic exenMary is presented le is called "Lady of battle of Christians he battle of Lepanto. rare exceptions like adalupe or CzestroIditional Mary is a bitalist, patriarchal, world of Christen
guage should cause is not surprising, but les of heresy. We are whether particular have become a cloak tially a political dissuriya's detailed at'er the theological him appear to have et with delays of over 2 single word "unsatsuspicions can only
the first leg of this tiny of Mary and huNow comes the secthe eyes of the theoturn rather to the ion of Faith produced ion for the Doctrine hich Balasuriya has im. This is a Selecciliar documents, and the Congregament against women ng elements of the rmula, the Immacuand Assumption, paoriginal sin, the nen and the impossibilWOII)ՇՈ
ment written in lan
guage few people speak or wish to speak, let alone to use for solemn oaths about their most deeply held beliefs. Language apart, it forces home the most difficult passages from Vatican on papal authority operating independently of any "reception by the faithful, as well as demanding Balasuriya should assent to those much-disputed words: "the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women.'
What is presented as a doctrinal procedure may have more political than theological intent. A detailed analysis of this Profession of Faith has been made by an Indian Jesuit, Samuel Rayan, who questions the entire literary form of the exercise as self-contradictory. "Ajoyful confession of faith', he said, "can be rich like a flowering forest'. It is an "act of freedom which people choose to make, or may be invited to make, but cannot and may not be imposed. Imposed, it ceases to be an act of faith'.
Some of the paragraphs, as here expressed, are ridden with serious historical, theological and scriptural problems. To propose them as matters of faith binding on believers takes a lot of brashness and religious insensitivity. But to seek to impose them as punishment is downright insolence. What we have is "the voice of the Inquisition of shameful memory, rather than the voice of the Good Shepherd” declares Rayan.
It now looks almost inevitable that the net will close around Tissa Balasuriya. For three years he has struggled to reply with integrity to his accusers, seeking confidential advice from other theologians around the world, keeping as calm as is possible, answering objections painstakingly, doing all he can to keep the case out of the mass media.
But the time of secret struggle is now over. The Sri Lankan Sunday Times published an article on Easter Sunday, the coming issue of the Pakistan journal focus is editorialising on the subject, a petition is circulating in Sri Lanka, and Balasuriya's friends internationally have simultaneously sensed that the story has broken. If Tissa Balasuriya is about to be stripped of his status as a Catholic theologian by the Vatican, the world will soon know of it. O

Page 18
18 IAML I MJI
TREND TOWARDS BETTERR AMONG NEIGHBOUR
By G Ramesh
ll said and done, Atal Bihar Vajpayee of the Bharatiya Janata Party was the best choice for the Indian Prime Ministership that the Pakistani could have hoped for resumption of talks! This might sound strange given the BJP's Hindutva, but Vajpayee was easily the most popular Indian Foreign Minister ever to have visited Pakistan. He went to Islamabad in 1978 and brought off diplomatic coups by resolving several pending problems by talking to Gen Zia Ul Haqʼs men set to change Pakistan to an Islamic regime. It may be that they understand each other's language well
So, when Deve Gowda replaced Vajpayee at the helm of affairs in Delhi, he and the new External Affairs Minister Indar Kumar Gujral outdid Vajpayee by welcoming Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's offer of comprehensive talks, including the vexed Kashmir issue. Pat came Bhutto's positive response. After all, the two countries had to start trade talks, given the new economic situation in the subcontinent. Within a month, Delhi was issuing more visas and the length of the queue before the Pakistani High Commission near Delhi's Niti Marg came down. And the Wagha border between Amritsar, the biggest trading and pilgrimage centre in the region before Partition, and Lahore was opened for more trade. Stunned BBC correspondents were filming bearded Sardars welcoming it, since the move would enable their wheat to be sold in Pakistan. This also signals the possible end of any Pakistani covert support to militancy in the Punjab.
The most contentious issues between these neighbours are the Kashmir issue and rising defence expenditures. The Lok Sabha elections held in Kashmir invited criticism that voters were forced into booths, but the Indian establishment is going ahead
with preparations for state assembly
polls there. Pakistan, on its part, had just held assembly polls in its side of the valley and Bhutto's Pakistan Peo
ple’s Party was re placing the Mu which levelled CO rigging against B
It is thus clea being forced to go "democratic leg under their respe valley. This devel fact that the Uni Western powers, on both countries ude to talks, whi to commence aft polls in the val Kashmiri militan Farooq Abdullah ence are not exp assembly polls. tion in the electic
T'S UP
ORD
Or OVer tW Hasina Wa tiently to av{ foul of her fath Rahman, liberato only the Sheikh Sons, daughters-i wives, children O family friends w by a handful of on that night of g tire family of th and his close rela There were nos often in the case The coup wa of 14-15 August nificant, for 14 pendence Day ol Bangladesh had an independent lost all its signi ter Sheikh Muj lution. He gave ent date to celeb dered him chos
 

lda
15 JULI 1 vso
ELATIONS S
turned to power disslim Conference, mplaints of massive hutto's officials.
that both sides are in for some kind of timation' in areas ctive control in the opment is due to the ed States and other are putting pressure to do this as a prelch India would like *r holding assembly ley. A number of t groups as well as 's National Conferected to boycott the With their participaons, India hopes, the
call for liberation of Kashmir would become redundant. This is evident from the new Home Minister and Communist Party of India General Secretary Indrajit Gupta's assertion that it would be left to the new elected assembly in Jammu and Kashmir to decide on the quantum and nature of autonomy.
That, India is fast building bridges with Bangladesh is clear from Deve Gowda's greetings sent to newly-elected Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed. Having spent several years in exile in India in the early eighties, she is known to be very cordial to Indian diplomats. The contentious issues with Bangladesh include the sharing of Ganga-Padma river waters at the Farakka barrage and the vexed issue of settlers from Bangladesh whom the BJP likes to dub as foreign infiltrators. It remains to be seen how Deve Gowdais going to deal with the three neighbours, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, all led by women politicians in this crucial period in the history of the sub-continent. But the trend seems to be in the right direction of improved relations.
OSHEKHHASNATO SALWAGE STROY HER FATHER'S LEGACY
By Sankar Ghosh
o decades Begum jed has Waited pange themurdermost er, Sheikh Mujibur Ir of Bangladesh. Not , but also his wife, n-law, nephews, their f the family and some ere all gunned down junior army officers hastly massacre. En: country's President tives were wiped out. urvivors, as they say
of plane disasters.
s staged on the night 1975. The dateissigAugust is the IndePakistan from which seceded to emerge as ountry. The day had icance and glory afbur Rahman's revohis country a differate. Those who mur: 14 August for their
black deed obviously to stress their preference for the overthrown regime and their revulsion against Mujib's revolution. He gave his country a different date to celebrate. Those who murdered him chose 14 August for their black deed obviously to stress their preference for the overthrown
regime and their revulsion against
Mujib's revolution. Their aim was to undo the liberation of Bangladesh. The murderers did not spare even the children of the family lest the spirit of the liberation should reassert itself centring on a member of Mujib's family. Sheikh Hasina and her younger sister escaped the murderers' sten gun because they were abroad at the time.
Although the ringleaders of the coup were not more than half-dozen junior army officers, they had an unknown number of supporters and sympathisers in the administration and the army. It is strange that the armoured cars were intercepted by none when they trundled along the streets of

Page 19
حصے _ 15 JULY 1996
Dhaka to converge on the presidential residence at Dhanmundi. Some of these patrons in the army and the civil administration came out in their true colours in the post-Mujib era and occupied high positions in the country.
Allegations of the CIA's hand in the assassination of the Bangladesh President and his family have been widespread. Nobody knows for certain what goes inside the company, what dirty tricks the CIA plays on Third World countries to bring round recal
citrant regimes to interests. Books not only by Bang Americans alleg ment in the Dhar
After Mujib's Indira Gandhi ha had warned him being hatched in subcontinent to S regimes and had careful about his had laughed away
BANGLADESH - A WITH POLITICAL VI
January 10, 1972 - Independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rehman comes home after nine months in jail in what was West Pakistan, and becomes Bangladesh's first President. March 17 1973 - Indian troops start withdrawing. March 7 1973-Bangladesh holds first general election, Mujib's Awami League wins 294 of 300 seats in Parliament. Mujib becomes Prime Minister. 1974 - Bangladesh hit by famine in which thousands die. Resultant economic crisis tarnishes Mujib’s image. January 25 1975 - Constitution amended to revert Bangladesh to presidential system of government from Parliamentary system. August 15 1975 - President Mujib is killed, along with most members of his family, in a coup led by young army officers. Martial law promulgated by Mujib's successor, Khondkar Mushtaque Ahmed, a minister in Mujib's government. September 26 1975 - Mushtaque promulgates ordinance to protect Mujib's killers from trial. November 3 1975 - The president of the exiled Bangladesh government during the independence war (March-December 1971). Syed Nazrul Islam, his Prime minister, Tajuddin Ahmed and two key ministers, Mohammad Kamanuzzaman and Mansur Ali are assassinated inside Dhaka central jail by army officers. November 5 1975 - President Mushtaque ousted by army Brigadier Khaled Mosharraf, a senior commander in the 1971 independence war. November 6 1975- Mosharraf is killed by supporters of Deputy Chief of Army , Major General Ziaur Rahman. November 7 1975 - Zia becomes Chief Martial Law Admin. istrator. April 21 1977 - Zia becomes President. May 30 1977 - Referendum confirms legitimacy of Zia presi. dency. Official results show 95% voted "Yes". June 3 1978 - Zia elected President. September 1 1978 - Zia launches Bangladesh National Party February 181979 - BNP wins Parliament election with 20, seats. Awami League led by Mujib's daughter Sheikh Hasina gets 39 of Parliament's 300 seats. Voter turnout just over 50% April 6979 - Zia amends Constitution to make indemnity or "dinance promulgated by ex-President Mushtaque into a law. May 30 1981 - Zia assassinated in abortive army coup in por city of Chittagong. Vice President Justice Abdus Sattar suc ceeds him. November 15 1981 - Abdus Sattar elected President. March 24 1982 - Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant - Gener Hossain Mohammad Ershad ousts Sattar in bloodless coup. February 14 1983 - Ershad crushes first challenge to his powe by Dhaka University students. About a dozen students kille January 1 1984 - Ershad launches Jatiya Party. March 21 1985 - Ershad wins 94.11 percent vote in referer dum to reaffirm his rule as President.

AVIL I Ivu v s
s
ubserve American ave been written, deshis but also by g CIA's involvehundi massacre,
assassination, Mrs disclosed that she gainst conspiracies he countries of the bvert the existing advised him to be wn security. Mujib
was reported to have said that the people of Bangladesh were like his children and from them no harm could come to him. Within a few weeks the world came to know how misplaced this trust was. All the assassins were known to him personally and at least one of the ringleaders was like a son of the family. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was tragically right. His assassination resembled patricide.
America’s inordinate interest at
the suggestion. He that time in the affairs of Pakistan and
HISTORY STREWN )LENCE AND MURDER
May 7 1984 - Ershad's Jatiya Party wins 153 of 300 sets in Parliamentary elections and Awami League 76. BNP boycotts poll.
October 15 1986 - Ershad re-elected President. V− August 1987 - Bangladesh hit by devastating floods. More than 7,000 people died, millions homeless. November 1987 - Severe tornado batters coast near Sundarban forests, killing at least 3,000 people. March 3 1988 - All major opposition parties boycott Parliamentary elections. Ershad's ruling Jatiya Party gets 251 seats afd Combined Opposition Party (COP), an alliance of lightweight parties, 19. Voter turned just over 46%. June 7 1988 - Ershad amends Constitution to proclaim Islam state religion. His move is considered mainly a political gimmick since nearly 90% of Bangladesh population are Muslims. December 6 1990 - Ershad toppled in popular uprising, led by Khaleda Zia, widow of slain President Ziaur Rahman, and opposition leader Sheikh Hasina, daughter of Mujib. Ershad hands power to Chief Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed and is jailed. February 27 1991 - Khaleda's BNP wins 146 Parliamentary seats in elections billed as country's first free poll. Awami League wins 86 seats, Jatiya Party 35. Voter turnout 54.85%. BNP forms government with support of Jamaat-e-Islami (18 seats). April 29 1991 - Bangladesh hit by its worst cyclone and tidal surge. More than 138,000 killed. August 6 1991 - Constitution amended to bring back Parliamentary presidential system. March 1 1994 - Opposition walks out over alleged insulting remarks by Information Minister Nazmul Huda and never returns. October 13 - November 21 1994 - Commonwealth envoy, Sir Ninian Stephen unsuccessfully tries for government opposition compromise on new elections. December 11 1994 - High Court declares opposition Parliamentary boycott illegal. December 28 1994 - Opposition resigns en masse from Parliament. July 30 1995 - Speaker formally vacates opposition seats. November 24 1995 - President Abdur Rahman Biswas dissolves Parliament. February 15 1996 - Parliamentary elections boycotted by all major political parties except BNP, headed by Prime Minister, Khaleda. Opposition steps up long running campaign of strikes. March 30 1996 - President Biswas dissolves Parliament and Khaleda resigns. Caretaker government headed by former Chief Justice Habibur Rahman takes over until next elections, set for June 12. May 20 1996 - President Biswas sacks army Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General Abu Saleh Mohammed Nasim for alleged breach of military discipline and attempted revolt.

Page 20
20 TAMIL TIMES
the liberation of Bangladesh is no secret. After 25 years of the most significant political development of this subcontinent since partition, the Nixon administration's infamous "tilt' towards Pakistan during those fateful years bears recounting. The contribution of Pakistan's military ruler at the time, General Yahya Khan, towards the solution of his country's deepest crisis was to raise his daily ration of Scotch from one to two bottles. At heart he might not have been a bad man for he was the only general of his time who, having ordered ageneral election, lost it. He had a soldier's dislike of politics and was keen to return to the barracks and his bottles.
It was that wily but unlucky politician of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was the real power behind Yahya's throne. Left to himself, the general might have honoured the verdict of the people of undivided Pakistan and agreed to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman becoming Pakistan's Prime Minister. But Bhutto would have none of it for he had set his heart on that supreme position. He was in Dhaka at the time of Yahya's crucial negotiations with Mujib. He saw to it that the talks failed and the failure was folllowed by a military crackdown. "Thank God, Pakistan has been saved.' was said to have been Bhutto's comment when he left Dhaka after the crackdown. He left the other half of the sentence unuttered, but Bangladesh had been lost.
Mujib was so confident of himself and his charismatic hold on the people of Bangladesh that unlike other leaders of his party, the Awami League, he did not flee his country. He was arrested from his house in Dhaka and taken captive to Islamabad. Other military rulers would have put such formidable an adversary to an immediate death. But the bottle-happy general considered it sufficient punishment to keep him away from politics and mischief.
When Pakistan was running headlong towards disintegration, the Nixon-Kissingeradministration of the United States took upon itself the responsibility for keeping Pakistan's unity unimpaired. The exact nature of the formula the United States was hawking as a political solution is not known. It was certainly different from Indira Gandhi's political solution which culminated in the emergence of Bangladesh as an independentsovereign country.
The Awami League leaders who
had fled the country ernment in exile in administration had : moles in this govern they were not calle Kissinger has descri contacts” in his mer as a conduit for Am for a political settlen can efforts were in v was divided finally rival leaders, Sheikh and Zulfikar Ali Bhu came to a sad end. M a simulated coup. B) the gallows by his ( army chief.
Kissinger has n identity of "our cont tive government of it was widely suspe that Khondakar M. foreign minister of ernment, was the key of contacts establish States, Kissinger has United States had coi ladesh "foreign min of Yahya Khan’s w gage in "secret talks initiative did not su stan was dismember Khondakar Mostaqu killer colonels ran i the assassination of and requested him to try's presidency. He Many political military coups and a ter, control of Bang to the then army chie who became the Pri martial law administ try. Ziaur Rahman himself as the real li ladesh for it was he cast through Chittag declaration of Bang ence immediately al crackdown. He mixe a strong dose of an launched the Bang Party to legitimise hi standably, the regim links and when civi stored, the party's c Khalleda Zia, widov became the country' In many of the T tries, leaders of lib have met with viole ately after their stru to fruition. What i Sheikh Mujibur Gał tion is that the Self-c ers of the country's

15 JULY 199s
had set up a govcalcutta. The US managed to find ment. Of course, d moles. Henry ped them as “our noirs, who acted erican proposals ment. The Ameriain and Pakistan between the two Mujibur Rahman Ito, both of whom ujib was slain in huttO WaS Sent to wn hand-picked
ot disclosed the acts' in the fugiBangladesh. But cted at that time ostaque Ahmed, the fugitive govman in the chain ed by the United disclosed that the ntacted the Bangister” to tel him illingness to en.' The American Icceed and Pakied. It was to this e Ahmed that the Immediately after Mujibur Rahman assume the counagreed readily. assassinations, bortive coups afladesh passed on f, Ziaur Rahman, sident and chief rator of the counsought to project berator of Bangwho had broadong radio Mujib's ladesh Independter the Pakistani d his politics with ti-Indianism and ladesh National is regime. Under: had strong army lian rule was reandidate Begum y of General Zia S Prime Minister. hird World coun2ration struggles nt ends immediggles have come s strange about man’s assassinaonfessed murderPresident and his
family were not only allowed to go scot-free but also to boast publicly about their black deed. The fig leaf was dispensed with during General Zia's regime and the killers of the country's President were absolved of their crime by a state decree. Some of them were rewarded with sinecures in the foreign service and were posted abroad. Sure of state support, a few of the ringleaders returned to Bangladesh and launched political parties of their own.
Bangladesh remained out of bounds to Sheikh Hasina for years after her father's assassination. The killers were at large, they still are. It required great courage for her to return to Bangladesh and greater courage to resume political activities and to avenge the vile murder of her father, mother, brothers and other dear ones. She spent the greaterpart of her forced exile in New Delhi but lost no time in returning to her country when she felt she could resume the task that awaited her there. Much is being heard of the defiant courage of another daughter of this part of the world. Aung San Su Kyi. And rightly. Sheikh Hasina also deserves an honourable mention among those who have fought valiantly for the redemption of botched ideals and won.
Sheikh Hasina's first task as Prime Minister of Bangladesh will be to bring to book her father's assassination and rescind the amnesty granted to them by an accomplice regime. She had made her debut in politics with that promise and now she has the opportunity to redeem it. Her father has sought to base the state he created on the four pillars of democracy, nationalism, socialism and secularism. It was these pillars which had prompted Kissinger to reach the hasty conclusion that Mujib's Bangladesh was drawn into Indian and Soviet orbits. Sheikh Hasina's sojourn in India went against her in the previous election. In her dealing with India she may be hamstrung by the natural fear at home of a small country of its much bigger neighbour. It may not be possible for her to return to her father's secularism either, for Bangladesh was made an Islamic republic during the regime of General Hussain Muhammad Ershad whose Jatiya Party has promised unconditional support to the Awami League. Bangladesh is, however, a soft theocracy which will be softer with the total rout of the fundamentalist parties in the just concluded (Continued on page 23)

Page 21
15 JULY 1995
t is indeed amazing that the liberals of India, lurching from nowhere to nowhere for nearly five decades now, should be hoping against hope that a reasonably decent and responsive government would turn up some day.
But then hope does spring eternal from the human breast and the sorry track-record of the politicians down the years does not kill all the hopes in the minds of the incorrigible.
When the BJP government fell, the liberals and the progressives rejoiced. And when the United Front comprising more than a dozen big and small secular outfits, supported from the outside by the Congress, managed a smooth hassle-free election of Mr Deve Gowda as the leader of the UF, there was even more rejoicing. And when a common minimum programme was thrashed out, basically endorsing the liberalisation measures of the previous Manmohan regime but ensuring some protection to the native industry and workers, besides making a commitment to more autonomy to states and for secular values, the cup of joy was almost complete.
But they had celebrated too soon. They had failed to take into account the suicidal instincts inherent in a party like the Janata Dal, the all too weak moral fibre of most of the leaders of this country, cutting across party lines, which makes for the most opportunistic course at the most unexpected time as also the serious conflict of interests among the constituents of the United Front.
Ramakrishna Hegde, a founding leader of the JD, has been thrown out of the party most unceremoniously. Maneka Gandhi, widow of the late Sanjay Gandhi (the controversial son of Mrs Indira Gandhi) a noted environmentalist and elected to the Lok Sabha from the Uttar Pradesh also suffered a similar fate.
Apparently as a price for the continued support of the Rao-led Congress, the Gowda government is ensuring that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) does not proceed too fastin its inquiry into the Rs 133 crore urea 'import scam in which a star figure is Narasimha Rao's son, Prabhakar Rao.
The National Fertilizer Ltd, a government of India undertaking, paid a
non-existent Tu crore in foreign ( for import of two While the entire your breath, paid gle grain has r shores until now
the deal was key-accused has c amounting to ov dollars, Prabhaka the beneficiaries. While quite : been detained in monstrous Swinc that not enough obtained against minister’s son. In indicators which this affair, a hu scandalous and ( much-talked abou be given a quie courts intervene. That the non opposition which ciferous in deno Rao government play down the u Rao’s progeny to telling commenta of the new gover Thethrust oft ister PChidamba votary of the 'sup dictably aroused among the UF co announced a Rs 3 package which w ests of the worker loose, trade ul country wide ag across-the-boar( prices of petrol touched many a the constituents over such decisio fireworks in the session of the pa Easily the mo most indefensibl the leadership of constituent of the of Senior leader, from the party.
 

ARWIL- 4 MESS 2.1
REGIME'S NG START
rkish firm Rs 133 xchange, avovedly lakh tonnes of urea. amount was, hold nadvance, nota sin2ached the Indian , nine months after clinched. The confessed to pay-offs er four million US r Rao, being one of
a few have already connection with the lle, the CBI claims evidence has been t the former prime fact there are some make one feel that Indred times more Dutrageous than the it Bofors deal, might t burial unless the
-Congress non-BJP | had been most vouncing the corrupt should now seek to rea scam and allow get away with it is a ury on the character nIInCInt. he new finance minaram, an unabashed ply-siders', has prestrong resentment instituents. When he ,000-crore austerity sould hurt the inters most, all hell broke nions threatening itations. Also the | steep hike in the eum products has raw nerve. None of had been consulted ns and one could See forthcoming budget rliament. »st destabilising and e act committed by he Janata Dal, prime UF, is the expulsion Ramakrishna Hegde
Hegde, the soft-spoken politician from Karnataka, well known since the days of the Janata party, the previous avatar of the JD, has been one of the tall leaders of the non-Congress secular opposition.
Though he too has faced corruption charges during his stewardship of Karnataka, he has managed to retain the image of a politician who still has some values left in him, who is above the rough and tumble of the plan occupied by the lesser mortals and who is a "thinking leader'.
Aptly did Mr Lalloo Prasad Yadav, that every-inch-a-rustic chief minister of Bihar and the president of the all-India unit of the JD, remark, "Hegde has always been part of the party's think-tank and I am against think-tanks'
But then it was not Lalloo who did the thinking act on the Hegde affair. It was thought of and decided upon by PM Gowda himself as a fitting retribution to his bete noire who had succeeded in getting a supporter of his own installed as Gowda's successor in Karnataka.
Besides Hegde, evidently piqued at Gowda's election by-passing his own claims, has been carping at the 'opportunistic aliance” with the Congress and cast serious doubts over the stability of the UF government.
Hegde could not reconcile himself to the fact that the uncouth Gowda, sans any kind of Savvy or any other political grace, should have beaten him to the top job, the very same man who had almost been marginalised in the state politics but whose career was resurrected courtesy of Hegde.
Hence indeed he went about shooting off his mouth embarrassing the UF no end. There were even suspicions among the UF leaders that Hegde could be working for a split in the JD and ascend the gaddi (the chair) himself with the support of Rao.
But he the peremptory manner in which he was expelled by the party president - acting as he was on the dictates of the PM without being given a chance to defend himself, has sent shock waves everywhere. Though his potential to create troubles is limited he could pose a long-term danger to the survival of the UF government.
Many of his erstwhile followers, supporters and sympathisers in the JD

Page 22
zz VII- ES
including Mr J H Patel, the new Chief Minister of Karnataka, have decided to clam up for fear of losing whatever perks they are currently enjoying and could enjoy in the days to come if the UF government continued in power. But there has been a rousing reception for Hegde in many places in his state and he has now floated an avowedly non-political organisation of his own. He has been receiving feelers both from the Congress and the BJP, it is said, even Maneka Gandhi has publicly challenged Mr Deve Gowda on a variety of environmental issues, accusing him and his colleagues of corruption, thus inviting suspension from the party, only as a precursor to her joining hands with Hegde. Besides an energetic opposition has discovered that the Minister of State for Home, Mr Taslim uddin Mohammed is a history-sheeter, meaning he has been arraigned by the police for a variety of crimes. The man from Bihar is a hand-picked nominee of Mr Lalloo Prasad Yadav and the top leadership is caught with a lot of egg on its face. They are all said to be desperately trying to wriggle out of the mess.
If the aforementioned instances seem to have done some inreparable damage to the JD’s image, the apparent slackening of the pace of the probe into the urea scam has made many UF partners squirm over the way Deve Gowda is bending over backwards to please Mr Narasimha Rao.
Praksh Chandra Yadav, a playboycome-thug type son of former minister in the Rao cabinet, Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav, had pressurised the National Fertilizer Ltd into signing the deal with the Turkish firm Karsan. Documentary evidence proving that his New York-based front company had received two hundred thousand US dollars has been unearthed. He is already behind bars. Incidentally his father was in charge of Fertilizers in the Rao cabinet.
So is Sanjeeva Rao, a brotherin-law of Mr PV Rajeshwar Rao, another son of the former PM. He too was found to have received Rs 32 hundred thousand from the Karsans. Though the high-flying Prabhakar Rao, the third son of Narasimha Rao is known to have had close dealings with Sanjeeva Rao, the CBI is wary of arresting him, pleading of course lack of enough corroborative evidence. However, many strongly believe that the wily former PM is extracting his price for the Congress support to the UFregime. The most scandalous
part of it all, more ev itself, is that none C ship who never mis to rant and rave, talk of the need for prob at the slightest oppor one word on the Sti All that Deve Gowd to say is, "Law wi course." Ironically th ite line of his predec Not even that an other former PM M even the left parties the CPM would de Stern action or the ar. Rao. They are all kee not say or do anythi set the apple car Narasimha Rao into support for the UF.
Incidentally ever Rao has been declari gress’s support coulc granted and a Cong has evendemanded t controversial Taslin union cabinet.
Another flash p
DMK President :
Chief Minister, M K well be charged with to the plight of Sri La fering from war. Bi would be treading an cal course if he dab Tamil politics like ht when he was holdi power last time. Hen to the issue is one of bordering on indiffer was very much behi bandh on 30 Novemb against the latest LaI fensive. Also, in it Conference in Februa elections, the DMK d tion demanding peace resolution to guaran rights in Lanka. The been the DMK beim power in the State as ing an important p United Front governi tre. However, it is ye action the DMK is translate it into actio
 

1o juLT 1996
en than the scam if the JD leaders an opportunity high and mighty ity in public life tunity, would say nking NFL deal. a could marshall Il take its own at was a favour
CSSO.
gel of virtue, the Er V P Singh, or like the CPI and mand speedy or rest of Prabhakar h that they should ng that could upt and provoke withdrawing his
y once in a while Ing that the Connot be taken for ress spokesman he removal of the huddin from the
oint is the eco
D THE LANKATAMIL ISSUE
nomic agenda of Mr Chidambaram. In the face of stiff opposition from his UF partners to his austerity package, he had to beat a hasty retreat and promise that there would be no retrenchment or wage freeze. Even the inevitable hike in the prices of petroleum products, sure to hit the middle classes badly, has been roundly condemned as anti-people and too draconian. The hike is certain to have a spin-off effect on transport and othersectors too, kicking up the inflation rate.
One begins to have an uncomfortable feeling of deja vu, for no one seems to be in control of anything, nor is there any co-ordination, each acting to further his or her own interests. Apart from his mean, vindictive action against Hegde, Deve Gowda does not give the impression of being a strong leader - surviving there only because it suits the interests of his other partners.
No one is willing to give the Gowda regime a chance to survive beyond a year or year-and-a-half. If the government collapses, only the BJP will be the beneficiary. O
TION OR INDIFFERENCE
By G. Ramesh, Madras
and Tamil Nadu ous hold of the new UF government.
Carunanidhi can Even as Mr Deve Gowda was testbeing indifferent ing his strength on the floor of the new nkan Tamils suf- Parliament at Delhi, the wily DMK ut he knows he chief shot off a government order reuncharted politi- storing the higher education facilities
bbled in Lankan 2 did in 1989-91 ng the reins of ce, his approach extreme caution ence. The DMK nd the statewide yer last in protest kan military ofS Tiruchirapalli rylast before the lid pass a resolu2ful and political tee the Tamils' 2 elections have ng catapulted to well as becomart of the new ment at the cent to be seen what going to take to h given the tenu
given to Lankan refugees prior to the fateful year of 1991. As is well known, Lankan Tamil Society accords topmost priority to higher education. Apart from admission rights, Lankan refugees, since 1983, had a few seats reserved for them in medical, engineering and polytechnic courses in Tamil Nadu. Ms Jayalalitha, after assuming power, has listed several conditions for admitting Lankan students, practically suspending these facilities for the last five years.
This gesture might give a hint about what Karunanidhi thinks of the Lankan issue now: refugees - yes, militant groups - no. Karunanidhi has tried to steer clear ofany attempt by political organisations of Lankan Tamils to represent their case back home. The only organisation he would meet was OFERR led by SC Chandrahasan

Page 23
15 JULY 1996
working for Lankan refugees here. This correspondent came to know that several non-LTTE leaders were desperately trying to meet Karunanidhi after his election victory. However, he has denied all this and insisted that none of the five organisations - TULF, EPRLF, EPDP, TELO and EROS - made any attempt, either jointly or separately to meet him after he assumed office. Yes, the five organisations did send him a congratulatory message. TULF leader Sivasithamparam had rang his office up for an appointment. There was no call later. That was about it, he said, while talking to newspersons last month.
Obviously, Karunanidhi has to bide his time if he decides to help Tamils across the shores at all. As of now, he is extremely reluctant to meet Tamil political organisations from across the Palk straits. The LTTE, as well as other militant groups, remain enigmatic to him till date. He just cannot understand the extent of fratricidal warfare among them. After all, in 1990, when Indian troops started withdrawing from Lanka, Karunanidhi was talking to them here, with the permission of the then Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh. Even as he was detailing the nature of the talks to BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Delhi, LTTE suspects massacred EPRLF SecretaryGeneral K Padmanabha and 13 others in the heart of Madras. The net closed in on Karunanidhi after V P Singh himself was voted out in November that year. Karunanidhi has described his eventual dismissal in January 1991 as the price the DMK had to pay for lending political support to the
(Continued from page 20)
election.
As a student leader of Calcutta, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had fought under his political mentor, HS Suhrawardy, for a united sovereign Bengal to prevent partition of this part of the country. Shortly after the creation of Bangladesh, I had an opportunity of interviewing Mujib in Dhaka in the course of which I asked him if he still dreamt of a greater Bengal he had fought for as a student of Calcutta's Islamia, now Maulana Azad, College. Mujib's reply was brief. "I have given you a country and a national language. It is up to you to decide what to make of them.' That decision now rests with his daughter. O
(Courtesy "Asian Age")
Lankan Tamils' cau reservation order, wishes of the Delh course, the price t for the Rajiv Gal must be warningh any move in the ta The ban on the been extended fort came just before Minister Lakshma ited New Delhi to government does back any of the La especially the LTTH a success, ifdiplon be believed. Sri L. first country to kn Delhi after every p( Kadirgamar recalle aratunga's stay in as a "guest schola ies. And Externa IKGujral, a forme made a declaration nce” might mear Prime Minister, Ra on an agreement rights of the Tam island-nation). Guj gamar's suggestio meeting of the Joi Trade, Commerce at Colombo on 28C gamar also invited who has never bee pathetic to armed 1 leftist guerilla activ Ombo.
Among others fulfill his objective nephew and Unio ter Murasoli Mal Gandhi, who wiel fluence Over the C Lanka. Sensing tha ing to a federal sy also spoke of futu four Southern Indi. Tamil Nadu and m to muster goodwill being done by the ment, God knows or further complic nic issue!
Karunanidhi i horns of a dilemm to newspersons at ter returning from did not discuss the Deve Gowda. This gamar has had his Prime Minister. A is under constant eral quarters to tac Tamil Maanila Co

TAM TIMES 23
use and V P Singh's much against the i establishment. Of he DMK had paid hdhi assassination im before hemakes Ingled issue.
LTTE in India has womore years. This Sri Lankan Foreign in Kadirgamar visensure that the UF not clandestinely nkan Tamil groups, E. The visit has been hatic circles have to anka is usually the ock on the doors of blitical change here. :d Chandrika Kumthe Indian capital r" in the late eightAffairs Minister 'r diplomat himself, of "non-interferel, after an Indian jiv Gandhi, signed guaranteeing the il minority of the ral accepted Kadirn that he chair the nt Commission On and Co-operation Octobernext. Kadirl Mr Deve Gowda, n known to be symmilitancy including rity, to come to Col
Kadirgamar met to sare Karunanidhi's Industries Minisan and Ms Sonia ds considerable inongress policy on t India is fast movystem, Kadirgamar re plans to visit all an states including eet chief ministers for "whatever' is Sri Lankan governwhether to resolve ate, the vexed eth
s certainly in the a. When he talked the airport hereafDelhi, he said he ethnic issue with implied that Kadirway with the new lso, Karuna- nidhi pressure from sevkle the LTTE. The ngress of Mr GK
Moopanar and the Congress(I) are known to be hostile to militant activity. The Indian Express has come out with reports of smuggling activities between the LTTE and fishermen of Rameswaram, Jayalalitha lashed out at him. Karunanidhi has responded by sending a senior police official to warn fishermen at Rameswaram, he also held a meeting of defence and intelligence officials to discuss the LTTE's "mischief potential' in the coastline. On the other hand, he is bound to draw flak from smaller parties like the Marumalarchi DMK and the PMK if he decides to listen to Kadirgamar on the ethnic issue.
That the LTTE faces a number of cases in India has also complicated matters for Karunanidhi. The Rajiv Gandhi assassination trial is yet to gather momentum. Tindivanam GVenkatraman, the DMK's lawyer before the MC Jain Commission of Inquiry probing the wider conspiracy behind the assassination, is now in the Union cabinet. The DMK itself has decided to appear before the Commission after Boycotting it for three years. DMK leader Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan is an accused in the Padmanabha murder case and is yet to be made minister in the new Tamil Nadu cabinet. A number of Dravidar Kazhagam activists are being interrogated for helping LTTE prisoners escape from the Vellore Fort prison in August last.
The only instance in which the LTTE has been cleared is the MV Ahat ship case. It may be recalled that the ship, transporting LTTE leader Sathasivam Krishnakumaralias Kittu and eighteen others, suspected to be LTTE cadres, was surrounded by the Indian Coast Guard in January 1993 in the high seas and brought near Madras following which there was a gun battle and Kittu and nine others allegedly committed suicide.
On 28 June last, acquitted the nine persons of any terrorist activity after listening to the prosecution argument that the ship had been captured 440 nautical miles off the Indian coast. He ruled that the Coast Guard was not justified in capturing the ship in international waters. The judge also ordered the Visakhapatnam Police Commissioner to take steps to hand over the ship and the nine persons to the government of Honduras - as the ship had been registered in that tiny country in Central America known to be the abode of Nicaraguan Contras supported by the United States in the eighties! O

Page 24
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(For professionals in health promotion)
CO-ORDINATOR
£15,000 pa inc. (pro rata) 1 Year Contract (with scope to extend) We have an exciting opportunity for a person who is dynamic, innovative and experienced and who has an understanding and empathy for the needs of the victims of war in Sri Lanka.
The role has a specific focus on advocacy and influencing work, aimed at the policies and practices of identified key target groups. In addition part of the work will involve developing health promotion programmes, managing office administration, fund-raising, public relations and to play a key role in the organisational development.
You will have excellent communication skills with a well developed knowledge of health promotion issues.
We can offer you work in a friendly supportive environment. Apply in writing with full CV to:
The Secretary Medical Institute of Tamils C/o Tamil information Centre 720 Romford Road, London E126BT.
For an informal chat, please contact:
Dr. Ratneswaran on 0181 8573472 or
Dr. Ambi on O468 496398 Closing Date: 31 July 1996
 
 

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Page 25
T N Gopalan
arely a month after she led the
AIADMK to its worst electoral
disaster, Jayalalitha, the recently ousted chief minister of Tamil Nadu, finds herself virtually under a siege - the one person she is closest to on this earth, her very "dear friend and sister-like' Sasikala has been arrested for violation of a whole host of the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Regulations Act (FERA), and denied bail time and again. She is languishing in prison for over a month now. So also the 73-year old former Minister SD Somasun- daram, a very senior AIADMK leader and once considered close both to her and Sasikala, is spending time behind bars, charged as he is, with having played a very active role in master-minding the attack on advocate KMVijayan two years ago, he too unable to obtain bail even at the level of the High Court. Acting on a complaint from her friend- turned-foe, Dr Subramnyam Swamy, a sessions judge has ordered
an inquiry into the wealth accumu
lated by Jayalalitha during her five year reign. The party itself is plunged into a serious crisis with many senior leaders and as also cadres demanding that the supremo distance herself from the much discredited Sasikala.
Jayalalitha's cup of woes is indeed filled to the brin - but when worse things befall her, one would be left with at a loss for an appropriate metaphor at that stage, except to say that the cup is overflowing.
The fact remains though that Sasikala's current predicament should be hurting the once imperious queen of Tamil Nadu most acutely - after all ever since 1984 when she came in touch with the former, she became almost inextricably bound to that lady, wife of a lowly official in the public relations department of the government of Tamil Nadu, and their friendship has withstood the innumerable trials and tribulations Jayalalitha has had to go through all these years, even the boot given to Mr Natarjan, Sasikala's husband, in 1990 itself.
And all through the five years of her tenure as Chief Minister, the air
was thick with ru
Sasikala who was that she was almc and that and their themselves at the chequer. Howeve temptuously shrug tractors and chose in the Poes Garde By adopting thi her foster-son ar marriage of the bo geous pomp and pa Seemed to have ce ther and told the w lost. And ever sinc has been a grov Sasikala’s expuls Garden, but Jaya v
What makes cling to Sasikala, able to explain ade ingly. It may be r early 1992 she ha it quits and retire Sasikala stormed c den following a th volving the two fri husband Nataraja State Governor, Singh who had tal such precipitous n she will do now i She called on her jail twice in the ve incarceration -but file visits creating administration, sh told not to do so to ing now, griping au ever cares to listen victim of a politic Briefly Sasikal for the FERA Wiola the JJ TV owned b vate Channel Starte widely touted as J. Sun TV, owned by family, had hired arranged for up through the US-ba imported spares, p million dollars, wi necessary permis serve Bank of Ind under the FERA.
 

mours that it was lording the show, st the Shadow CM clan were fattening cost of the state exr, Jayalalitha conged off all her deto retain Sasikala n household. e latter's nephew as ld celebrating the y with some outrageantry, Jayalalitha mented the ties furforld at large to get e the débâcle, there ving clamour for ion from the Poes would not listen. her so desperately nobody has been quately or convincemembered that in d threatened to call from politics when but of the Poes Garree-way quarrel inends and Sasikala's n. It was then the Bhishma Narain kedher out of any (nove. And so what s anybody's guess. dear friend in the ry first week of her with her high- proproblems for the jail e has been bluntly o often. She is sulkhd cribbing to whothat her friend is a al vendetta. a has been arrested tions committed by y her clan. The prid only last year and aya’s answer to the the DMK's ruling a transponder and linking facilities ised firms and also aying in all over a thout obtaining the sion from the Reia as is mandatory
TAM TIMES 25
(Incidentally the catch here is that when one goes through the RBI, one will also have to explain the sources of money for which the foreign exchange equivalent is sought.) Plus Rs 3.29 crores, a non-resident Indian had remitted to the Madras Branch of a nationalised bank most of the money was subsequently withdrawn and lent to a hotel firm with which Sasikala is associated.
At the end of a series of complicated manoeuvres, the clan bought up a sprawling tea-estate at a cost of over RS 7.6 crores.
Sasikala's defence has been very evasive and unconvincing. Incidentally Sasikala's nephew Bhaskaran, Managing Director of the JJ TV, has already been arrested on the same charges and let out on bail.
Anticipating nervously a similar fate is Jaya’s adopted son Sudhakaran, another director on the Board.
The JJ TV unable to cope with the all-out attack on its operations and hamstrung by a severe financial crunch was wound up, even though avowedly for the nonce, thus bringing the curtains down on yet another notorious Jaya-Sasi show.
In a related development, a sessions judge of Madras has ordered an inquiry under the Prevention of Corruption Act into the wealth amassed by Jaya. As per her wealth-tax returns, her wealth had shot up by a whopping Rs 37 cores in a matter of five years - a mind-boggling jump considering the fact that as the chief minister she was drawing a token salary of only one rupee.
Former minister SD Soamsundaram being behind bars for assault
on a lawyer who had challenged the
AIADMK government's reservation policy (for jobs and seats in educational institutions) is another blow to her image. The incident took place in July 1994 and it was the Central Bureau of Intelligence which brought to light the AIADMK's role in the sordid episode.
The Party is now wrung by continuing dissentions and many are crying for the blood of Sasikala. Some even suggest that Jayalalitha herself step down and hand over the reins to some other leader like former minister, Thirunavukkarasu. She is trying to brave it out, coming out with hard-hitting statements against Karunanidhi's alleged omissions and commissions and by holding a series (Continued on page 28)

Page 26
26 TAMIL TIMES
Are US Green Berets Tra Sri Lankan Soldiers
AG. US Green Berets helping to train soldiers, and is U.S.A. quietly expanding its role in Sri Lanka opening paths for military presence there ?
According to a report published in The Dallas Morning News, 30 June 1996 by Mark Kaufman (Philadelphia Inquirer), on an air base at Wirawila in the south of Sri Lanka, a team of 12 Green Beret specialists is training Sri Lankan soldiers in combat medi-vac techniques, radio work and field engineering. Live fire exercises are next. Since the beginning of June, the special forces team
has paved the way for an expanding US military and economic presence in a nation that normally attracts Americans for its beaches, wild elephant herds and ancient Buddhist ru1S.
The report adds that, unannounced, and unreported, the US military activity in Sri Lanka involves considerable security and political risks. When the Green Berets leave their base, the go under armed guard.
Unlike most joint military exercises, the Pentagon has not publicized the Sri Lanka mission. It has not been mentioned in Sri Lankan newspapers, which are heavily censored by a government sensitive about human-rights abuses laid at the feet of its military.
The training comes nearly six years after Sri Lanka was the only Asian nation to offer refuelling bases for US warplanes during the Persian Gulf war. The mission also comes at a time when the United States is more willing to sell Sri Lanka sensitive "lethal' military equipment, and when construction is underway there for one of the worlds biggest Voice of America Stations.
Until now, the United States has had a small apparent role in the countries war - a bitter ethnic struggle pitting Tamil militants fighting for a separate homeland in the north against the Singhalese majority of the south, who want to keep Sri Lanka whole.
"We have no dog in this fight' said the American military attaché to Sri Lanka, Col. Carl Kockrum, who helped bring the Green Berets over for a mission code named “operation bal
anced style".
But the small-ye quent - presence of sors over the last two formulation may be So does the State ficial determination main Tamil group f pendence - The Lib Tamil Eelam, or Tam rorist group'.
And so does the US human-right mo, Lankan government dressing its unhapp bouring quasi-offic That positive State clusion - which sol groups in Sri Lanka states the governme lows the United Sta closer to Sri Lanka. For its part, the ernment, which ha anti-American Social a friend of the United the new government promise to reject to Voice of America tr; And although a selling US lethal e Lanka remains in plá governments human United States recent boats to Sri Lanka á its discussing the sa them, along with mi Sri Lankan inquirie sion equipment also Although Sri La US satellite imaging turned down, US of Sri Lankans to Israe Vanced surveillance All these steps, U possible because of provement in Sri rights record.
Both US and Sri in Colombo say the gic reasons to be de American military i islands prime local Middle East and the China. And Sri La political counterbal neighbour India.
But both sides a

15 JULY 1996
lining
tincreasingly freJS military adviyears suggest that changing.
Departments of last year that the ighting for indeeration Tigers of il Tigers-isa “ter
recent finding by nitors that the Sri
is seriously ady history of haral death squads. Department conme human-rights Saygrossly overnts progress — alteS tO mOWe eWen
Sri Lankan govs long included lists, is acting like | States. Last year, broke a campaign reject plans for a anSmitter. h official ban on quipment to Sri ce because of the -rights record, the ly sold six patrol und, SOurces Said, le of guns to arm litary helicopters. about night-vihave been made. nkan requests for technology were ficials guided the li suppliers of adtechnology. Sofficials say are the dramatic imLanka's human
Lankan officials e are good strateepening ties. The S attracted to the ion between the Far East and near nka is seeking a ance to its giant
lso say they have
good reason to keep their arrangements low-key. International and political affairs can be perilous business here. Consider the experience of the Indian Army. Saying it was on a peace keeping mission to help solve the Tamil-Singhalese ethnic war, India sent fifty thousand troops there in 1987, with the apparent approval o' all parties. Three years later, and afte 1500 soldiers were killed, India left St Lanka in a Vietnam-style defeat.
Then in 1991, Sri Lankan Tamil militants assassinated Rajiv Gandhi, the Indian Prime minister who sent Indian troops to their country. Tamil militants have also assassinated a Sri Lankan President, several defense ministers, and a long list of other top Sri Lankan politicians and officials.
Late last year, the Sri Lankan military stormed the Tamil north and routed the Tamil Tigers (and many civilians) form their long time stronghold. The Tigers, however, still control hundreds of miles of Sri Lankan jungle and periodically send out teams to attack patrols, villages and some heavy populated sites in Colombo.
The Tigers have their own US connections. Well-to-do Tamils living in the United States sent considerable sums of money to the rebels.
With a blood history like this, its is not surprising that the Green Beret team arrived unannounced. In a recent interview, the Sri Lankan foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar denied that any American soldiers were on active duty in his country. None the less, a second round of joint exercises is scheduled for the fall.
This studied silence is quite a change from the fanfare that usually accompanies similar joint military exercises held by the US commander in chief, Pacific (CINPAC) in Thailand, India, Indonesia and other Asian countries.
Indeed, the policy goal that drives the Joint Command Exercise and Training Program is one of peacetime "engagement' with "sister militaries". In theory, the local military receives valuable training while the US military gains knowledge - for possible future use - about how that foreign military works. The program is also I Supposed to create an aura of good feeling between both sides.
But in those other countries in the joint training program, the local soldiers learning from Americans are not headed off to fight in a civil war.
The commander of the Special Forces team, Capt. George McDonald

Page 27
15 JULY 1995
is spending June teaching Sri Lankan junior officers, among other things, how to set up a properhelicopter landing and how to make up a precise pickup.
Captain McDonald and his team enjoy the exotic surroundings - "I never dreamed there would be peacocks wondering the airbase' the Captain said - but they also know that this is no place for easygoing R&R.
As for the Sri Lankan soldiers Capt. McDonalds team is training at the Wirawila air base, many will be soon leaving the peacocks behind and heading for the Tamil battle zone in the north.
American human-rights monitors and others generally report that Sri Lankan human-rights practices began to improve in 1993 just before the ruling party for the last 17 years was voted out of office. The victorious new government of Chandrika Kumarathunga campaigned on a platform of respecting human-rights and punishing those who had not.
In addition to setting up several commissions to investigate death squads, the new government also of fered to negotiate with the Tamil minority - twenty percent of Sri Lanka's 18 million people. The Tamil militants entered into negotiations last year but later resumed attacks on the Sri Lankan army and civilians. The war continues today.
Some human-rights monitors are not convinced that conditions has significantly improved. "Yes, there has been some improvements for the early 1990's, but young Tamils and other people are still 'disappearing all the time”, said Sherine Xavier, an activist for a largely Tamil human-rights group in Colombo. "And the government has yet to punish a single deathsquads perpetrator.'
Other human-rights oficials confirm that although trials alleged death-squads participants are on the way, nobody has been convicted. Some Sri Lankan officers accused of death-squad crimes remain on active duty.
"This talk of great progress is all really wishful thinking on the part of governments like the United States, which want to get more involved in Sri Lanka and has now found a way to do it,' Ms. Xavier said. "Terrible human-right habits don't change overnight'.
Ms. Xavier also said the arrival of American military advisors - word of which, she said, was circulating
around Colombo d censorship - was a
"The message t particular is that th government side,' s a big thing - that's don't want to let it
Should the new known in Sri Lanka. low. There were noi in 1994 over a plan of America relay st alongside the India north of Colombo a
The protests wo Catholic Bishop, a major political pa many marches on th
| TAMIS
nce Upon A Tiu favourite writer of the busiest Town. I had read almost the time of my meet the influences on my Through his writ me to understand the the high caste Tamils dinary, poor untou Jaffna.
When Imet him I mediately as I had st many times in the pi eyes, smiling face, \ expression, slim figur ner made me introd without hesitation.
“What are you di day staring up at the ively, as it was so ho walking by had umbr me deeply and replic am thinking in order t story."
“Well, I nevers construct my stories; thing?' I thought. I it many times since, Kamber or Kalithass fore they commence I am saying that have a certain rule ol narrate, or formulate ( them into writing an ture, carving a sculp drama. Writers do no are often inspired or ers in the way that Ih by Edna O'Brien, Si Virginia Wolf, Ra Jeyakanthan. Creativ
 

TAM TIMES 27
spite newspaper isky step.
Tamil people in US supports the he said. "It will be surely why they but." s become widely protest might folsy demonstrations to build the Voice tion on 400 acres n ocean, 30 miles irport. re led by a local nd taken up by a ty, and featured e VOA site. Dur
Ellilil
ing one protest, police killed one protester and wounded others.
A leader of the 1994 protest was Fenando Newton of the Center for Society and Religion, a church- sponsored group in Colombo. He said that rumours in Colombo that US military may be training Sri Lankan soldiers suggest "that all our initial fears about the VOA situation are coming true."
"Definitely, I think there is something sinister going on with the US and Sri Lanka,' Mr. Newton said. "I hope it is not true, but if we learn there are American soldiers here in Sri Lanka, then we would have to protest. It is a form of intervention in Our internal affairs.' O
by Rajes Balasubramaniam
me I met one of my s by accident on one streets in Jaffna
all of his writing at ing. He was one of writing career.
ing he has enabled : cruel mentality of and the lives of orchable Tamils in
recognised himimeen his photograph apers: his piercing with an intellectual e and friendly manuce myself to him
bing at this time of sky ?” I asked nait that most people ellas. He looked at !d in a soft tone "I o construct my next
ared at the sky to am I missing somehave thought about and I don't think tared at the sky be
their epics. we do not have to style to construct, ur thoughts and put vel, painting a picture or directing a thave teachers but influenced by othIve been influenced mone de Beauvoir, iam Krishnan or e writing is the ex
pression of one's own thoughts which is often the reflection of the society within which one lives.
Most of us learn and modify our behaviour, language, attitudes and creative talents according to the social, political and economic circumstances we live in or are forced to face up to. The ethos of a writer depends on his or her own understanding of the subject about which they write. Art Critics
Creative writing in our Tamil society in Europe is not as developed as it should be compared to the levels achieved in other area of the arts.
The number of dancers in London may reach over a hundred or more, the number of instrumental and vocal artists is increasing by the day. The number of organisations who promote popular cinema songs is expanding.
Most of theses "arts' activities are profit based, and promoting their 'talent in various media is vital to their earnings. To do this promotion there are plenty of writers who write reviews of these performances. They portray them as the most brilliant shows on earth, or the artists as gifted and destined to become part of the Treasure of the Tamil culture. A good cook should know the ingredients to make a tasty meal: an intelligent critic must have at least the basic knowledge of art and its history. Reviewing an art performance as excellent, brilliant, superb, impressive, splendid, grand and so on is acceptable as long as the critic also reviews the other factors in the performance. Are they analysing the art intellectually or emotionally, as most of the performing artists are female and critics are always male?or is it a kind of voyarism?

Page 28
28 TAMIL TIMES
Why do we not encourage females artists who know their subjects to become critics
We all know that art cannot be bought. The beauty of art is reflected through the artist's knowledge of the subject and the way she interweaves her understanding into the performance. A dancer's talent of expressing Bhava, Thala, Lalitham cannot be explained through empty words. The expression of art through symbolic language should be studied and analysed within a constructive framework.
“Paddy Mantram”
These days there is another trend: that of organising "Paddy Mantram' debates based on the epic stories and mythology which mainly emphasises the subordinate role of women and justifies inequality, creating the myth ofan “individual" into an "avatharam". These “Paddy Mantrams' are very popular among young people who want to study leaning about their roots, past history and cultural heritage. The format of “Paddy Mantram” is a very good format to bring out new ideas, skills, and social and psychological development of the younger generation. Good Luck to “Paddy Mantram", but will they include modern ideas for their debates and allow women to take part in them?
Creative Writing
Compared to all these activities creative writing has very little chance of gaining a large leadership, making a profit, or receiving appropriate recognition by the majority of Tamils in Europe, as most Tamils do not regard creative writing as animportant matter for their cultural development. They boast about their passion for the Tamil language and literature, but not very many of them read any literary magazine; they read only commercial magazines. To promote creative writing in Europe we should give a greater respect to Tamil writers rather than undermine their talent and commitment.
Tamil writers, whether in Sri Lanka or Europe group themselves into different factions; there are two main factions currently in existence, one faction is the traditionalists' and the other is the
(Continued from page 25)
of discussions with party functionaries at various levels. She has started talking to the Press too more often these days and seems to give out an impression that she is determined to stay put and fight back and not slink away as has frequently been speculated. But one thing seems clear - the chickens are coming home to roost, thick and fast, for Jayalalitha and the Sasikala clan. O
progessive'faction. ever, that there is anc ers who nevergetint forum and remain un of their gender.
Tamil writers ha ther insulting each ( their friends and rela the quality of their style, political beliefs or cultural understand longs to a certain fact ing a name as a good in our community. W nating people if we their political views, t form, their different selves, or they simp not belong to a certai us are good with gun: with our pens.
Often these factic clusive Gentlemen's promote people who ests to themselves, a masonry”. The chan tions is not open to th ers, particularly won in Europe are at pre recognition and resp nied to themby the “li think their writing is to be given true cons. Exile literature h of some criticism bys believe that exile lite as “true literature”. tify what is “true lit promote various kin being of value accord situation, religious do power and class inter time. So called popul ten mainly by men, a love, lust and power, nary people or social Writing for escap kind of melodrama o stories is not true lite ing from exile more c feeling” than the litera or South India as wri have more freedom c is very wrong forust one else's work with based on envy, or pol cial class differences Exile are often critici gia. Our minds ar. memories: our own in erased so quickly, no past and do somethi ferent. These writers ent dimensions to the as they have different ferent outlook, and f of writing and the sut evitably be different. ing exiled writers w South Indian write Criticism should be i have any meaning or

15 JULY 1996
I should say, howther group of writo the major literary recognised because
ve a tradition of eiother or promoting tions, regardless of writing in terms of , social observation ling. Unless one beion of writers, gaind writer is not easy le are good at elimiare not happy with he region they come Social status to ourly because they do n faction. Some of s: some are brilliant
ons behave like exClubs where they have similar intersort of “literay freece to join such fache majority of writmen. Many writers sent struggling for rect, but this is deterary pundits” who not worthy enough ideration. as been the subject some"experts” who rature hasno value Who are we to juserature” People lds of literature as ling to the political mination, economic est prevailing at the lar literature is writbout men and their
and not about ordi
change.
lism thorough some r cinema style love rature. Tome writlearly reflects “true ture from Sri Lanka ters here in Europe f speech. I think it o undermine someour own prejudices itical, gender or so... Tamil writers in sed for their nostale filled with past memories cannot be r can we forget the ng completely difare bringing differair creative writing experiences, a difreedom. Our style bject matter will inTherefore comparwith Sri Lankan or is is not relevant. in context if it is to
impact.
Four collections of short stories by exiled writers have been published in recent years. These writers must be recognised for their work as their writings are a prime source of information to others about the struggle for freedom in Sri Lanka. These collections were organised mainly by Indian scholars such as Dr Indra Partha- sarathy and Mr S.V.Rajadurai and the magazine "India Today'. The support for Sri Lankan Tamil writers by the late Mr Komal Swaminathan was marvellous. The recognition by the literary magazine "Kaniyazli' shows that exile literature is taking an important place in South India. I think it is time for Tamil writers to be united and have a constructive plan through which to promote creative writing rather than picking on each other like little children who have few social or communication skills.
Young generation Tamils are learning Tamil at Weekend Tamil Schools (22 in London alone I believe). Will any of them become a Tamil writer in future ? How can we help them? Why do Tamil newspapers and magazines not have short story competitions, sponsored by people who are interested in our language andliterature ?Why do wenothave regular seminars or debates on Contemporary Tamil Literature ? Why not have a "Paddy Mantram” on modern art and literature ? Most Tamil writers are independent, but some belong to a political group: that doesn't matter, if we, as writers, only talk about literature in terms of quality and style. When are we going to learn to tolerate and respect other people’s point of view ?
I hope this small article may create a healthy debate on Contemporary Tamil Literature, rather than commence a battle with people who enjoy insultingothers. Computerising the Tamil language through the number of fonts or otherwise commercialising Tamil will not develop the language unless we also use the language in a constructive way at all levels of action.
Obituary
Mrs. Maheswary Cheliah of Punnalakadduvan, Jaffna, aged 69, mother of Sivasubramaniam, Krishnadasan, Theiveegarani, Sister of Nagalingam, Shanmuganathan, Sellathurai, Visuvalingam, Parameswary and Seevaratnam; mother-in-law of Susila, Vasanthi, and Sivanathan, and grandmother of Majuran, Kajanan, Sinthu, Hariharan, Sivaharan, Kamini and Kanthini passed away on 16 July 1996 in Colombo. Funeral took place on 21 July 1996 at Kanate in Colombo. Inserted by C. Krishna dasan (018 I 289 9608)

Page 29
15 JULY 1996
REMEMBERING R
By Cherian George
hen a colleague from the Indian High Commission rang me on 25 March to say that Rita was ill, seriously ill, I tried to get in touch with her on telephone, hardly expecting that I would succeed, international telecommunications being what they sometimes are. By a fluke of luck, I spoke to her on the afternoon of the 28th.
I was startled by how low she sounded. "I feel hugely tired," she said. A satellite echo and a long silence intervened. "Hugely tired, Pray for me, that is all I ask. Good-bye," There seemed to be an eerie, echoing finality about her good-bye. I had never know her to speak like this. Illness was not a subject that she readily discussed. I had the premonition that something was very wrong.
29 March, the next day she was gone. One of her friends who had watched over her during the last hours said that it was as sudden as if she had been kidnapped by the rough hand of fate, leaving those who knew her to mourn the vacancy in their lives.
My wife and Ifirst came to know Rita in the late seventies when she was Editor of the old Sunday Times. She was doing a difficult job in difficult times. "An Editor works under a searchlight," she told me once. "Everything about him or her is discussed. And it is worse when it is a her." She said that her politics were speculated on. On which side of the fence was she on this question or that? Even fellowjournalists rarely do to a journalist as they themselves would like to be done by Though she was hurt by unkindness, more often than not, all that she would bring herself to say was that "gossip is just an indoor sport with some of us in Colombo.' This was typical of her. She had a great capacity for dignified, reticent silence.
The old Sunday Times was not in the best of financial health and there were daily rumours of its imminent demise, rumours that were not always contradicted. The Sunday Times is setting, she used to joke. But, hard times or not, I was struck by how hugely professional she was. She was from all accounts over-worked and not exactly over-paid, but she soldiered on. Soldiered on, is the phrase that inevitably comes to you when you think of Rita.
Even after her illness, she refused to spare herself. Often, she went the extra mile quite literally to get her journalistic stories. She was not willing to settle for second or third hand reports. She said that unless she had every story 'clamped down with bolts of verified fact' her journalistic conscience would never be happy.
With an idiosync of her, she went to J even when she knew less than good. She a isthas tobeplumbin not slough about aw: armchairs. With sor used to mention name to belong to the latter Her description c Kilali lagoon for the full of a strong feel fo her both an electrifyir ing experience. In p) she was terrified wher and heaved about in t cockleshell thing. She in the boat peering th the sea spray, hoping would stay afloat an loose shell would stri ter futility of this war ( Sri Lankan. “War se game," she said, add ness, half-sea sickness seemed to grip, alm during the crossing. T almost a sad metaphol divide.
On her return jou bly sea-sick. The blac thunder. Or was it thi couldn't be sure. Sh fear apart, what shere the terrified eyes of as fear. But there were terror had passed the Rita said that the anim wide open eyes, sum moral devastation of in a family quarrel a same stroke.
To many in the sol bombing, body count mates, but Rita could war without a sense involvement. Bloods than mere journalistic Many of her frie included, used to remo may be she shouldn't work she was doing, S Indian newspaper, a J. and an international ne column in a Colomb written confidentially a column in the Tami not to speak of workfo and the BBC. Beside; mittently, far too inte lamented, on her sho las.
But Rita was no
 
 

ratic courage typical affna in early 1995, that her health was rgued that a journalthe centre of things, ly from it all in safe ne amusement, she s of those who chose
school f the crossing of the Indian Express was r what was to be for gas well as a numbivate she confessed herboat had bucked he lagoon like some said that as she stood rough the night and to God that the boat nothing amiss like a ke it, she felt the utof Sri Lankan against emed such an idiot ing that a great sad, half war weariness, ost overwhelm her o her the lagoon was for the North-South
Irney, she was terrikskies rumbled with 2 echo of guns? She e said that personal membered most was mall girl shook with no tears. The girl's easy relief of tears. alterror in the girl's (med up for her the the war. Both sides re wounded by the
1th, the war was only s and military stalenot write about the of bitter gloom and he said was thicker ; ink. nds, my wife and I nstrate with her that be handling all the tringerships with an panese news agency ws agency; a weekly o Tamil newspaper under a pseudonym; l Times of London, rRadio Netherlands , she worked intersmittently she often t stories and novel
afraid to burn the
TAMIL TIMES 29
candle at both ends and a lot in the middle too. That was how she wanted to live... and die.
Rita had a remarkable capacity for friendship. Her friends, I used to joke, were an international cast. I know how close Klaus Franke, the then German Ambassador and his wife, Christiane, were to her. During the height of the JVP terror, when there were disappearances by the score, threats were held out against Rita for her over-independent style of reporting. Given the poisonous atmosphere in which anything could happen to anyone, such threats could be unnerving. Unprompted by Rita, Ambassador Franks took up the matter with the authorities, without mincing his words in any way and holding nothing back about his fears and suspicious. Much later in early 1995, at Rita's farewell dinner for the Frankes, we could afford to laugh over it all. However, Rita remarked at the dinner in words I remember still, “I wonder what would have happened if I too had abruptly vanished." In retrospect, Rita's oddly prescient words have acquired a great sadness.
Rita used to say that though she had friends in all the right places, they were friends first and last, and not to be cheapened into journalistic sources. She asked nothing of her friends except friendship. As a hard-worked journalist with more than a couple of deadlines a day to keep, she didn't care to be interrupted in the middle of a story she was writing. But very often she used to say that she preferred to catch up with the latest about her friends than catch up with her work, and then she would settle down to a long chat.
Her style in her short stories and novellas was formed by her journalism. It was spare, clear and strong. She disliked pointless stylistic games. Her "Night of the Devil Bird' and "A Father for My Son', show her at her best. Books she said should grow of themselves, not be fabricated like some manufactured product. The strong narrative drive, the characters and situations that seem to breathe into the page, the heartbreak of lives ruined by racial conflict, make her writings some of the most painfully honest things to come out of Sri Lanka. Very often they are charged with personal meaning. Everything she wrote had her emotional fingerprints so to speak on it.
Rita disliked empty phrase-ma- king. Let us say then that her friends will grieve her but that we will also feel grateful that we knew her. And this sense of gratitude will stem some part of the tide of sadness that we all feel so very keenly. We will all of us feel the presence of her absence. However, there is some thin consolation in the thought that a full life is often God's compensation for a relatively short life.
(The author is the present Indian High Commissioner in Botswana, and formerly Deputy HC in Colombo)

Page 30
30 TAM TIMES
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Jaffna Hindu parents seek partner for daughter, 38, attractive British citizen, B.Sc. Hons., working as biomedical scientist. Tel: 0171498 6347 (UK).
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Jaffna Hindu parents seek partner for son, 27, 5'8", computer engineering graduate in good employment in UK. Send horoscope, details. M 861 c/o Tamil Tinnes.
WEDDING BELLS
We congratulate the following couples on their recent wedding. Branavan son of Mr. & Mrs. Viyakesparan of 787B Kenton Lane, Middx., HA3 6AH and Ramanthi daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Pathnanathan of 14 Graf. ton Close, Worcester Park, Surrey KT4 7JY on 27.5.96 at Funnymede Suite, Kempton Park, Middx. Somakanthan son of the late Mr. S. Sockanathan and Mrs. M. Sockanathan of Navaly North, Jaffna and Chithra Ananthi daughter of late Mr. C.
ord 50p. Charge for repaymentessentia
Candyah and Mrs. P. Candyah of Vannarpannai, Jaffna on 19th May 1996 at Shri Shiva Vishnu Temple, Carrum Downs, Victoria, Australia.
OBITUARIES
Regis, Anton, dearly beloved husband of Loretta, loving father of Roshini, Anoian and Niranjan passed away on 4th July 1996, after a long battle with cancer. Funeral took place on 10th July at St. Anthony's Church, Edgware, Middx. - 1 Oakleigh Gardens, Edgware, Middx. HA88EA. Tel 0181958 9434.
Mrs. Saraswathy Pushpadevi Selvaratnam, born 16.4.26, retired teacher of St. Clares, ColOmbo; beloved wife of Muthia Selvaratnam (Dept. of Food Supplies, Colombo) of 13/11 Alexandra Road, Wellawatte, Colombo. 6; daughter of the late Mr. & Mrs. Arulampalam Gunaratnam; daughter-in-law of Mr. & Mrs. Veluppillai Muthia of Vaddukoddai; loving mother of Varapirasathan, Senthan
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

and Seyon; sister of Jeyasinglam (UK), late Balasingham UK), Mrs Mahilde vi Paranallingam (Canada), late Tharmarajah (Transkei, South Afria), Shanmuganathan (UK) ind Rajamohan (Colombo) exired on 17th June 1996. The uneral took place at her resifence in Colombo on 19th une.
The members of the family hank all relatives and friends who attended the funeral, sent Tessages of sympathy and owers and generally helped in he funeral arrangements. - F.J. Gunasekaram, 99 landeer Avenue, Manor Park, Lonon E12 6HS. Tel 0181 478 785
Dr. Vythialingam Thangaraasingam, (Retired Medical Practitioner, UK), born
04. 1925, beloved Son of late
Kanthappar Vythialingam J.P.
nd late Thilliamma Vythialing
in of WARD & DAVY, Navalar Kottam, Jaffna, beloved hus
and of Punithavathy, daughter of late Kanagasabai J. P. and Mrs. Nagammah Kanagasabai if Jaffna; loving father of Kaw
ar (Civil Engineer), Kiruba, Dr.
/akees, Kethees and Sibi; ather-in-law of V. Sri ShanmuJanathan (Solicitor), Dr. K. Mohanarathi, Dr. V. SaSithara and K. Sivasothy, grandfather pf Vishnu, Anusuya, Aingaran, Alumi and Eshwari, brother of ate Mutucumaraswany (Retd. Principal), late Sivasubramalium (Proctor), late Sivajoti Engineer), and Anandanadarjah (Retd. Principal) of UK; Seethaluxmi, Kamalanayahi Ranee), Pathmavathi (Baba) of Australia, brother-in-law of ate A. E. Sinnadurai (Overseer) laffna, S. Param Thillirajah Reto. Principal) and Dr. K. Balasingam of Australia, K. Kathirkamanathan (U.K.), and K. Gopalanathan (France); brother-in-law of Mrs. Thangaratmam Multhucumaraswarmy,
15 JULY 1996
Mrs. Thanaluxmi Sivasubramanium, Mrs. Logeswary Sivajoti and late Mrs. Kamalawathy Anandanadarajah of UK, passedaway peacefully in Wimbledon, London. On 11.7.1996. The members of the family thank all friends and relatives for their messages of sympathy and support during the period of grief. - 73 Kingston Road, Wimbledon, London SW19 1N. Tel 018 7154588.
Sabapathy Gunaratnam (75) of lavalai, Retired Census & Statistics Officer; beloved husband of Rajeswary; father of Sivagunenthiran (Canada); father-in-law of Anubama (Canada) passed away peacefully on 30.04.1996 and was Crennated at Kanate, Colombo on 1st May.
The family thank all relatives and friends who sent messages of sympathy and support during the period of great sorrow. - Mrs. R. Gunaratnam, 29 DeanStone Place, Colombo 3. Tel: 573964 (Sri Lanka).
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
August 1 Feast of Transfiguration of Lord Jesus Christ. Aug. 3 Shruthi Laya Shangan & Saiva Munnetta Sangam (UK) present Vocal Recital by Padmashree K.J. Yesudas at Royal Festival Hall, Belvedere Road, London SE1. Tel: 0181 399 784.8/767 2229. Aug. 6 Aadi Sevvai 4. Aug. 7 Kaarthikai. Aug. 8 Feast of St. Dominic. Aug. 9 Ekathasi. Aug. 10 Feast of St. Lawrence. Aug. 11 Pirathosam; 10.00am London Sri Murugan Temple, 78 Church Road, Manor Park, LOndon E126AF. Car Festival. Aug. 13 Aadi Amavasai, Aadi Sevvai 5.
Aug. 15 Feast of Assumption of Virgin Mary.
Aug. 17 6.00pm Norway Tamil Sangham Presents Tamil Dra

Page 31
15 JUNY 1996
mas 'Thunpak Kerniyie' and 'ldai Veli' at Sanfunnhuset, Oslo, Norway. The plays are directed by Mr. K. Balendra of The Tamil Performing Arts Society, London.
Aug. 18 Chathurthi.
Olomew,
Aug. 24 Feast of St. Barth
Aug. 25 Ekathasi.
Aug. 26 Pirathosam; 9.00am J.S.S.A. (UK) Cricket & Netball Festival 1996 at Warren Farm Sports Centre, Southall, Middx.
Tel 0181 743 8289/399 7848/
Aug. 23 Varalakshmi Viratham.
36f 7359.
AUSTRALIAN NEWSLETTER
The Sydney Tamil Manram held its annual competition in Tamil poetry, drama, quiz, elocution etc for Tamil children of all ages to award three prizes in each categOry. The prizes were distributed on 22nd June when the Manram presented an evening of cultural programmes. The items included Mimicry by Prakash Subramaniam, a Dance Drama performed by Mohini Basu, a cine and TV artiste from India, a dance recital by Sneha Rao and Dances by the junior children of the Manram.
Admission was free and the Manran proposes to organise cultural evenings in August and November 1996. Book Launch: The book in Tamil "Mupporul Unmai Villakam' Part 1, authored by Mr. M. Elayatamby was launched jointly by the Tamil Senior Citizens' Association and the Saiva Manran Inc. on 30th June at the Homebush Primary School Hall, in the presence of a large gathering. Mr. M. Arjunamani while welcoming the audience spoke about the services rendered by the author.
Snt Balam Lakshmanan, a well known Tamil scholar, reviewed the book and
lauded the knowledge of Saivaism display
ed by the author, Dr. Venthanar Elango and Mr. N. Mahesan also spoke. Dr. A. Balasubramaniam was presented the first copy and other distinguished guests present were presented with copies. The book then went for sale.
Mr. Elayatamby thanked the associations that sponsored the launch. He was Deputy Principal of Karainagar Hindu College, Mr. Kumar Ponnambalam Wisits Australia: Mr. Kumar Ponnampalam, leader of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress visited Australia in June and addressed meetings in most of the State capitals.
The Sydney meeting took place on June 23rd at the Homebush Primary School Hall. Mr. Ana Pararajasingam of the Eelam Tamil Association of New South Wales introduced Mr. Kumar Ponnambalam and the other distinguished speakers from Sri Lanka - Mr. Vasantha Rajah, former head of Rupavahini and author of the book "The Tamil Exodus and Beyond" and Dr. Sunil Ratnapriya of the NSSP.
Mr. Vasantha Rajah delivered a stinging attack on the Sri Lankan government and its president and recounted his experiences as head of Rupa vahini. He traced the history of the Tamil struggle and outlined the present dilemma of the Tamils. Dr. Sunil Ratnapriya set out his
party's policy on th said that it had alway on the right of the Té own future. His part the Tamils in their Within a unitary sta Separation or seces port their demands. lam addressing th condemned not onl ernment but also
Colombo. He appeal expatriate Tamil pop sidered the Crearr emphasised that T: Outside Sri Lanka ha support the LT TE in
At the end of the , lively question and á
Gayatriʼs V
*x "* 'l started to learn to age of FOUR and kacheri when I was So said the well Prof. T.N. Krishnan as Chief Guest at th Gayatri Kathirka Theatre, Hayes, on remarkable for One family and grew u breathing Karnatic in tage cannot be eve children in this forei Gayatri, eight year (sans holidays) ana the form of Sangee indrakumar came as musical talent on the the repertoire was re ity, and more impor ing and feeling. 7 Pancharatnam, Shya ing Marivere and tit kanni flowed supe presence of Kalaiv Krishnan and his ap added strength to th The accompanyin Muthu Siwaraja, Bhé baranathan gave u violinistand receivec the chief guest Prof.
 
 

Aug. 27 Aavani Onam, Feast of
St. Monica.
Aug. 28 Full Moon; Feast of St.
Augustus.
At Bhawan Centre, 4A Castletown Road, London W14 9HQ. Tel: 0171 381 3086/
AML TIMES 31
Summer School 96 with teachers from India. Aug. 127.00pm Final Show of Music & Dance. Aug. 13 7.00pm Final Show of Music & Dance. Aug. 14 6.30pm lndias linde
4608.
July 21 to Aug. 14 Bhawan's
pendence Day Celebrations. All Welcome.
e Tamil question and ys taken a strong stand anils to determine their V was ready to support struggle for autonomy te, but if they wanted Sion they would supMr. Kumar Ponnambae audience in Tamil y the Sri Lankan govthe Tamil parties in led for unity among the bulation whon he conof the nation' and annis both inside and di no alternative but to these dark days.
speeches there was a answer Session.
iolin Debut
'. *భలు :
play the violin at the began to perform full EIGHT. known violin naestro of Madras, presiding e Violin Arangetram of manathan at Beck 18th May. It is nothing born into a musical p in an environment nusic. Such an advann dreamed of by our gn land. Yet for young s of weekly lessons a dedicated Guru in tha Vidwan Kalaivani s a boon to exhibit her a violin. Every piece in indered with authentic'antly, full understandyagaraja's throbbing ana Sastri's neanderhe ever youthful Kilikrbly. The immediate ani's own Guru Prof. proving head shakes e artiste. g percussion artistes askaran and Chithamnique support to the it a word of praise from
Krishnan.
Violin as a solo instrument is popular no doubt, but in Karnatic concerts it claims pride of place as the main accompaniment, Hence at the Arangetram stage itself the student must be made to show his or her ability to follow the singer's style and nuances. It is hoped instrumental trainees would follow this practice while training itself. Another sad state of affairs is the attitude of the graduated" candidates in being satisfied that their job is done and lock up their instruments and anklets safely. Let us hope for their return to the stage and enjoy the art.
- Sivapatha Sundaram.
A Dancer of Promise
Smt. Menaka Raviraj, an alumnus of Jaff. na's Ramanathan Academy, presented her second successful student Jane Tharani Rasiah at Bharata Natya Arangetram at Ashcroft Theatre in Central Croydon on Sunday, 5th May.
Jane is a student of South London Tamil School, Croydon, and was under the tutelage of Menaka, who is a resident teacher, for four years. Endowed with a supple body and expressive face, Jane Was able to absorb the arduous training and executed a full fledged repertoire of dance numbers at her debut. Guru Menaka seems to have organised her jathi korvais in such a way to suit the artiste's physical capacity, Jane executed the aadavus and

Page 32
32 AMIL TIMES
korvais in full range and her real asset is the abhinaya skill. Her short stay in Madras With a Kalakshetra member reflected a little.
Though Guru Menaka restricted the length of the Varnan a little, the dancer showed slight loss of strength. This was more evident in the Thandava Karana poses. The musical support was given by Ambika Thamotharam, the evergreen vocalist who has been giving a helpful hand to a number of youngsters. Muthu Sivarajah With his team mates executed their support admirably. On the whole Menaka successfully presented her second disciple (the first being Brinda Selvarajasingam, also from the same South London Tamil School).
Dr. Navaratnam in his speech as Chief Guest dealt with the theory of dance as described in Bharata's Natya Sastra. Dr. Sivakumar did a good job as compere, one of the handful available in this delicate art.
- Sivapatha Sundaram.
Mrs. Leela llankanathan: An Appreciation
So much has been said and written of the late Mrs. Leela llankanathan, that my effort to say more would be like attempting to paint the lily. Yet I cannot resist the urge to pen these few lines on our dear departed friend who passed away on 28.04.1996. Among the many friends that my wife - who knew Leela from their days together at Ramanathan College, Jaffna - and l are fortunate to have had from various walks of life, Leela was truly a very special kind of person, 1 first met Leela in 1955 when my wife and l spent our first holiday after our marriage, at Leela's beautiful home, set amidst the picturesque environs of Nuwara Eliya, that was the beginning of a close friendship between our two families that lasted over four decades.
We soon realised, over the years, that we were but one among Countless other families who were fortunate to have been at the receiving end of her never failing kindness, her warm hospitality and her endless good cheer, friendliness and bon homie. Leela is best remembered as One whom God had gifted not only with joyous spirit but also invested her with the rare capacity to spread that joy to all who came in contact with her. Her conviviality was truly infectious, so much so that even those who had something to grieve or worry over, soon forgot their problems when they encountered Leela. Life's burdens, a universal human experience, sat lightly on her shoulders and she soon lightened the burden of countless others.
It is difficult to write about Leela - affectionately known to my children and those of the younger generation as Kutty Mami - in isolation, without referring to her late husband, Kutty Mamal it was indeed Leela's good fortune that in her pursuit of enjoying the simple joys of life, she was gifted with an equally generous warm, charming and cheerful husband. Together they made an ideal couple who were as devoted and dedicated to each other as
they were to their frien have an open home delight as hospitality w thern.
Two years ago the settle down and enjoy UK with their only de Fate had willed othe deeply saddened whe denly passed away or their arrival in UK. The tore away at her he
doubtedly contributed i
Although Leela is no we are the poorer by he Will Continue to live W smiling ever-cheerful loss of a dear mothe irreparable one. We anguish and pain of n Somewhat diminished her grief will be shar families spread acro, countries who will mou, of a truly remarkable la ty guide her in her jou which she truly deserv
Record Levels Help to Sri Lar
A U.K. based Sri Lanka announced record le. relief and rehabilitatic Lanka. The Standing ( Speaking People (S.C. over € 15,000 worth of months for a range ol assisting the plight people.
The charity formed funds through regular members and through and Cultural events in issued an appeal to its friends in December du refugee crisis in the No. was inundated with su tee has well establishe number of local and in carrying out work on Lanka and was able through some of these others were unable to
Fifteen separate gro SCOT's funds and it thousands of people ha ly from this assistan £2,000 was donated to national Catholic charity British Red Cross for im in Killinochi, Batticaloa, Negombo. £1,000 was Service in Batticaloa running costs of their £4,000 was forwarded t cil of Jaffna for urgent t
The Committee gets assistance and has de' yet speedy approach to lishing the credentials before determining whe to Support it.

15 JULY 1996
ds and relatives. To was their greatest as Second nature to
y came together to f their retirement in ughter Urmila. But wisel We were all n Kutty Mama sudtly two months after loss of her husband artstrings and unto her early demise. more with us - and er parting — her spirit fith us in the everUrmila fo whom the will indeed be an hope her deep ind will at least be by the thought that ed by innumerable SS Continents and rn the passing away dy, May the Almighirney to moksham’
S.
T. Pathmanathan.
of Charity kan Tamilis
an Tamil charity has (els of support for on projects in Sri Connittee of Tamil
O.T.) has provided
funds in the last ten projects aimed at of Tamil-speaking
in 1977 raises its donations from its organising social the London area. It members and their le to the worsening rth of Sri Lanka and pport. The Commitd links with a large ernational Charities the ground in Sri to channel money groups when many do so. ups have received is estimated that we benefited directCe. For example, CAFOD the Inter7 and E2,000 to the mediate relief work TrinConnalee and sent to the Jesuit to help with the orphanage, and O the Hindu Counhelp in the North.
egular requests for veloped a rigorous vetting and estab
for each project ther and how much
Mr. T. V. Arumugam, President of SCOT said: "The events in Sri Lanka have led to previously unheard of levels of loss of life and livelihood amongst our people. As a registered charity, our role is to lend a helping hand in overcoming people's welfare needs and improving their life chances. I am pleased that the last few months have seen a wave of support from our members and friends, and that the Committee have put considerable effort into ensuring that the money collected got to those who needed it most.
We do not have any paid officers so virtually everything that is collected is passed directly to the Tamil communities in Sri Lanka. Our Committee of men and women spanning three generations has a long track record in offering this help, but we could do with more help, more members and of Course more funds.
I am aware that in the UK the Tamil community has grown in recent years and there are large numbers of people who may not have heard of SCOT and our work. It you would like to become involved or just want to find out more, please do get in touch with us'. SCOT can be contacted through any of the following people: Mr. T. V. Arumugan, tel: 0181 907 9486. MS. Pathmaseni, tel: 018 1 8709897 Mr. Ariaratnam, tel: O181 952 7249. Dr. Balakrishnan, tel: 0181 9520983.
The address for correspondence is: The Secretary, S.C.O.T., 107 Coleman Court, Kimber Road, London SW184PB.
Award for Jaffna Tamil Writer
Appadurai Muttulingam was recently judged the best overseas Tamil writer by the 'Lilly Thevasikamani' award committee of Kovai in South India. The judgment by a panel of eminent Tamil writers was for his collection of short stories published in 1995 under the title "Thikadachakkaram'.
Muttulingam, a Chartered Accountant and a Computer Programme Specialist hails from Jaffna in Sri Lanka and is at present working with United Nations Afghanistan Rural Rehabilitation Programme based in Pakistan. Earlier he had been

Page 33
IMMIGRATION, ASYLUM, NATION
CAL US FOR FRIENDLY UNDERSANDING GALADVICE
O8 T-478 5797
ܥܸܠ
stationed in different countries in Africa.
Muttulingam's stories make extensive use of his experiences in the various countries, the innumerable characters he had come across and the incidents he had astutely observed. His style of writing is seen as setting a new trend in Tamil short story writing. Each story is a composite picture spanning time and space and invites readers' contemplation well beyond the last line.
His interest in writing was evident during his childhood days with a hand written 'magazine' titled "Chori Amuthu'' which passed from hand to hand among his class-mates and contributions for publication in the school magazine.
In late 1960s his stories were regularly published in a Sunday Newspaper in Colonbo. His first collection of short stories was published in 1964 under the title Akka'. After joining the World Bank in early seventies he needed time for his professional and family life. As a result his Creative writing was in abeyance for quite a few years. Those duties having been almost fully attended to, he has re-entered the writing arena and it is expected that more literary Creations would follow in the years to come. Another collection of short stories under the title "Vamsa Vruthi" is to be published in Madras in the latter part of July 1996.
Bharatha Natya Arangetram In Norway
The Bharatha Natya Arangetram of Selvi Thushya Amerasingam and Selvi Kalyani Sivagnanam, disciples of Smt Malathi Yogendran of "Shivanjali Narthanalaya" took place at the prestigious Konserthus Hall in Oslo, Norway on 29th June 1996. Thushya and Kalyani are the first students
Rengan N. Devarajan
SOCTORS
EMERGENCES MOBILE O836 54.429
1ST FLOOR, 128 LFORD LANE, ILFORD, ESSEX
ALSO:
O ANDLORD - o WELFARE/HO O MARIMONAL o POLICE STATIO e PERSONALINJ
of Shivanjali Narthana arangetram. The Guru dran had been a lectu Vipulananda Music an caloa, Sri Lanka before Thushya and Kaly formed the main items waram, Varnan and Pathans were execu facial expressions anc the Javali 'Kellyai' in Thushya excelled in t "Nadanan' in Kethar intricate foot movemer Sion Solkattus.
The Chief Gues Gunaseelan complime, cers and their Guru performance and wish programme was comp Sockanathan. It was a tion and was well recei as it was a rare OCCurt
The accompanying Malathi Yogendran (Os Smit Ambika Tharmoth Sri Pon Subash Chanc Sri K. Sundaramoorth gam, Smit Sivashanth (Oslo) - Violin, Sahadevan (UK) - Sivaraja (UK) - Tabla anathan (UK) — Senda
Library Hosts
& Book
The Ealing Road Libra de, Wembley hosted a Fayre and variety 23.6.96 and attracted not only from Brent London, Hertfordshire It was also planned to staff to meet their cus few Orpes.
The bazaar featured saris, travel informa ments, VideOS and which helps in the te language. It was open Honour, Dr. Nagersy uished archaeologist a chi University in Tamil and the other guests w Patel, Brent's Mayor, o officers of the Ealing C
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

ENANT ISSUES USING
ISSUES NADVICE URY CLAIMS
G 2LE
ALITY & CRIMINAL SOLICTORS N
LEGA AID
laya to perform the Smit Malathi YogenIrer in Dance at the dArt College, Batti} moving to Norway. sani together perPushpanjali, Jathis
Thilana and the ted solo. Kayanis Bhava excelled in Behag ragam, while 7e Sivan Kirthanan agowla ragam with Its to varied percus
Ft Smit Pathminj nited the young danfor the excellent led thern well. The pered by Sri Wimal Well attended funcved by the audience ence in Oslo.
artistes were Smt slo) — Nattuvangam, aram (UK) - Vocal, fran (Oslo) — Vocal, y (Oslo) - Mirdany Sachithananthan Smit Sivat ha ranj Veena, Sri Muthu , Sri K. Sithampari Morsing.
Tamil Bazaar fayre
ry in Coroner ParaTamil Bazaar, Book entertainment on Over 2000 VisitorS but also from East and far away Wales. enable the library stomers and attract
Tamil food, books, ion, music instru2omputer software ching of the Tamil ed by the Guest of amy, the disting7d historian of KanNadu, South India ere Councillor Lata her Councillors and Ouncil.
During the afternoon, a programme of dance and music by the Brent Asian Academy and Brent Tamil School, who put on an orchestral recital of Veena, Violin, Flute and Miruthangam was featured. Mrs. Gnanapackiam Balasubramaniam gave a Tamil cookery demonstration and Mrs. Surabi Viswanathan of Tamil bridal wear. The grand finale was a Veena recital by Vathani Varatharajan accompanied on the Miruthangam by the renowned musician Karaikudi Krishnamurthy.
Full marks go to Yamuna Tharmendiran, the popular Customer Services Manager of the library who organised this hugely successful function.
Complexed issues
demand simple solutions!
"Strategic Prayer' Intercessors’ Action Group for Sri Lanka.
Tel/Fax: 0181 251 8325 Pastor Barnabas Alexander Or Elizabeth Thulasi
Tamil Performing Arts Society
TPAS performs in London again at
two theatres after their successful
tours to Australia, Canada, Norway,
France, Switzerland and Netherlands.
Tamil Performing Arts Society
presents
London Tamil Drama Festival 96 (2)
with new productions Directed by K. Balendra.
On Sunday, 8th September 96 at: The Secombe Theatre, Cheam Road, Sutton.
and on
Saturday 28th September 96 at Waltham Forest Theatre, Winns Terrace, London E17.
Donation: E5.00
(Funds collected will be used to publish a book on Tamil Drama). For details:
0181 459 4335 or 0181 470 7883 or 0181 240 0211 B.M. Box 577 London WC1 N 3XX.

Page 34
14: AML TIMES
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é, TRANSCO)
'Ye shipPING &
இலங்கையின் கப்பல் போக்குவரத்து களஞ்சியங்க * கொழும்புக்கு அர்ப்பணம் மிகுந்த உன்னத சேவை. (1 * தேயிலைப் பெட்டிகளிலிருந்து, முழு அளவிலான தனி * கார், மற்றும் 20அடி , 40அடி முழு வர்த்தக சரக்குகளு * மின்சார உட்பத்தியந்திரம், யந்திர வகைகள், உபகரணி * சலவை யந்திரம், குளிர் சாதனப்பெட்டி போன்ற வீட்டு உங்கள் பொருள்களுக்கு இலங்கையர் பலரும் விரும்பும் மு;
LONDON-VADRAS
TRICHY-TRIVANDRAM
AR ANKA AIRLANKA AR INDA MALAYSA GULFAIR
நீங்கள் தொடர்புகொள்ளவேண்டியவர்கள்: Harry Mah
Woodgreen Bussiness Centre, 235 High Road, Woodgreen, Lo
0181-889 8486 MOBILE: O9565,
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

15 JULY 1996
est in India!
nome to retire! ill suit all your needs
fastest growing Company,
LOPERS (P) LTD
ng you need -
ESIDENCES
BLUE FOREST
eloped with foresight and thought, the modern family.
HIGHILIGHTS PURPOSE HALL, 24 hr WATER SUPPLIED, ARDENS, AMPHITHEATRE & MUCH MORE
tact DHARMESHI CHAUHAN n office on:
Fax: 0181 470 3591
O AVAILABLE IN PUITAPARTHI)
VITINENTAL 6
TRA VEL LTD *ớ
ளுக்கு கிரமமான, நம்பிக்கையான சேவை. 6 தினங்கள்)
ப்பட்ட பொருள்கள் வரை.
நக்கு விசேட கட்டணம்.
ணங்கள். ப்ெபாவனை மின்சார உபகரணங்களுக்கு வரிவிலக்கு.
தல்தர துரித விடுவிப்பு வசதிகள் அளிக்கப்படுகின்றன.
LONDON -
SINGAPORE
KUWAIT AIR N AIR AIRLANIKA
endran Asoka Fernando or Nagabalan(Nags)
OPEN Suite 412, Ashley House, SEVEN
Indon N22 4HF DAYS
NCLUDING
24500 FAX: 0181-889 2676 SUNDAYS

Page 35
15 JULY 1996
GLEN EXPRES
72
ve457 155 Nottina HII G g Hill G. IATA Tel: O7251 849
TWice a
BRITISH
scheduled flight
Depart Tuesday & S
at 11.3O
| From Gat
Arriv Wednesday Return poSSib
Competitive hotel
Major rest
Fares tO AuS
 
 
 
 
 
 

TAM L TIMES 35
STRAVELLTD
ate, London W11 3LF 8 Fax: O171243 8277
a Week
AIRWAYS —gr
S to Colombo
ure aturday p.m.
Wick Via Abu Dhabi
al & Sunday
ViaMarras on EA
rates in Sri Lanka
ETOrTTJ
AMERECEN Dimerx Club SS
ferrorifinal
ards accepted
ralia available

Page 36
SHIPPING - AIR FR
UNACCOMPANIED BAGGAGE — PERSON WEHICLES, MAC
T COLOMBO AND OTHER
MAN AGENT FOR \ò Passenger Tickets and Unac Please Contact Us For Wa
To Colombo And C Destina
GLEN CARRIE
14 Allied Way, off Warple
Telephone: 0181
Fa}{: 0"
BONDE Laksirisewa, 253/3 Awissa We
PREMIER WATCHES
SPECIALIST WATCH MAKERS SINCE '972
WE OFFER HIGH LALITY FEPAF SER WICE ON ALL C)))
ALTWATCHES ❖1ሇ'ሥ'፳፰ )'ዚ ዛEዛ} 'Wጳ'Y
罩雷彗 IN SOMME CASES WE EWEN OFFEF 'WWWO) PAFTELHAMSE OEÄL M NE" XV. MK,
TCHES.
PHOWE FAMA FOR FLUFTHER l DE ALSDN
E FAL: J3F3F3F
WESPEĊIALISEN OWEGA &
SE
PEER WATCHES
PO SK) ES
EPSO
5L'HH''F'''
寓T醇岛臂它
FELLOW CF THE BHITISH HOROLOGICALINSTITLITE HOLDERS OF W.O.S.T.E.P. DIPLCMASWITERLAND
 
 
 
 
 

EIGHT - TRAVEL
NAL EFFECTS, HOUSEHOLD GOODS HINERY ETC.
WORLD WIDE DESTINATIONS ? AIRLANIKA
Companied Baggage Y
rious Discounted Fares Dither World Wide ations
RS LIMITED
2 Way, Acton, London W3 ORQ 740 8379/O181749 0595
81 740 4229
D WAREHOUSE Illa Road, Colombo 14 Tel: 575576
TRICO
SSINTERNATIONAIL teisPN)
TROCO STIPPING SCHIEDLULE
LGLLLLeLL0LL0LLL LLLL LL LLLLLLLaaaL CL LEaLLGLLLGLELEaLaLaaLLLLLLLS
Wessel Nane Closing Date Sailing Arrival
Hanjin Rotterdarn 29.07.95 208.95 B.O.B.96 Hanjin Wan Couwer 11.8.9 6,0B.596 O 109.96
CANADA ALUSTRALA
Trico Shipping - 685 Lansdowne Av, Unit 8, 24-28 Carrick, Suite 202, Toronto, Ont, M6H3Y9. III-III, Tol|Free: 1-800-565 ES90 ictoria 3:03 Te: 15535OOB Tes
CML LLeLeLLaaL LLLLLaLCLaaa00LL CCC LLL0L LLaa aaaaLLLLC CCCL GLLL LLLLLLL caaML car parking lacilities where our customers have the extra benefit of packing their goods the Tselves with our assistance. We ofter a friendly and professional service at competitive rates. Once your goods are in our hands, we guaranted a sale and efficient delivery to your destination. We also offer FREESTORAGE to our customers for a period of ONE MONTH in our bonded Warehouse in ColorTito, THE LEADINGSRI LANRAN SHIPPING AND FREIGHT
FORWARDING COMPANY IN THE UK Trico International Shipping Ltd
Unit d, Building "C"The Business Centre at Wood Green,
Clarendon Rd,Ilondon N226X
Te: 781-8888787 Fax: 08I 3895445