Calling wife ugly may become offence in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, May 28 : Calling one's wife ugly may soon be considered an offence under a Malaysian law that seeks to protect a woman both physically and emotionally.


One of the clauses proposed to be amended in the Domestic Violence Act 1994 pertains to emotional violence against women who are currently only protected against physical abuse, the Star newspaper said Thursday.

Women's Development Department director-general Noorul Ainur Mohd Nur said emotional violence was a form of abuse that scars women deeply and lowers their self-esteem, dignity and self-confidence.

"It could be a case when a husband tells his wife she is ugly or humiliates her until she feels emotionally pressured," she told media at the end of a seminar on how to curb violence against women.

The government is in the process of bringing the proposed amendment to parliament.

--- IANS

ONE ABORTION FOR EVERY FIVE PREGNANCIES IN MALAYSIA

MALAYSIA – THERE is one abortion for every five pregnancies in the country, according to a random survey by several private clinics.

Sin Chew Daily quoted the Reproductive Rights Advocacy Alliance Malaysia chairman Dr Choong Sim Poey as saying that although the abortion rate in Malaysia was not higher than that in the Western countries, it was on par with the figure in developing countries.

"The highest number of abortions among Asean countries is in Vietnam, where there is one abortion for every three pregnancies.

"This is because their awareness on contraception is not very high," he said. Dr Choong said he was disappointed that abortion was not available to women in public hospitals.

"This will cause many women to delay undergoing abortion and encourage the proliferation of such services in the black market. "Due to this reason, many private hospitals are charging exorbitant fees to perform abortions.

"Some private hospitals are charging RM2,000 to RM3,000 while some are asking for RM200 to RM300," he said, adding that according to statistics by the police, there were at least 100 abandoned babies a year.

பிரபாகரன் கொல்லப்பட்டதை விடுதலைப் புலிகள் சார்பாகப் பேசவல்லர் உறுதிப்படுத்தியுள்ளார்

பிரபாகரன் கொல்லப்பட்டதை விடுதலைப் புலிகள் சார்பாகப் பேசவல்லர் உறுதிப்படுத்தியுள்ளார்

விடுதலைப் புலிகள் இயக்கத்தின் தலைவர் வேலுப்பிள்ளைப் பிரபாகரன் கொல்லப்பட்டுவிட்டார் என்பதை விடுதலைப் புலிகள் இன்று வெளியிட்டுள்ள ஓர் அறிக்கையில் முதல் முறையாக ஒப்புக்கொண்டுள்ளனர்.

விடுதலைப் புலிகள் அமைப்புடைய சர்வதேச உறவுகள் பிரிவின் தலைவராக அறியப்படும் செல்வராசா பத்மநாதன் கையொப்பமிட்டுள்ள அறிக்கை இது.

பிபிசி தமிழோசைக்கு இவர் வழங்கிய ஓர் செவ்வியில், மே பதினேழாம் தேதி பிரபாகரன் உயிரிழந்ததாகத் தெரிவித்துள்ளார் என்றாலும், அவர் எவ்வாறு இறந்தார் என்பது பற்றிய விபரங்களை அவர் தெரிவிக்கவில்லை.

இலங்கைத் தமிழர்களின் உரிமைகளுக்காக வன்முறையற்ற வழிகளில் இனி விடுதலைப் புலிகள் போராடுவார்கள் என்றும் பத்மநாதன் தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.

Tamil Tigers admit leader is dead

A statement from the Tigers said their leader had 'attained martyrdom'

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have admitted for the first time that their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is dead.

A statement issued by the Tigers said their "incomparable leader" had "attained martyrdom" and declared a week of mourning.

A spokesman for the group also told the BBC that it would now use non-violent methods to fight for Tamils' rights.

Sri Lanka's army last week released pictures it said showed Prabhakaran's body after its final offensive.

Picture allegedly showing the body of Velupillai Prabhakaran
The Sri Lankan army released pictures it said were of the dead leader

The statement from the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) said he was killed "fighting the military oppression of the Sri Lankan government" last Sunday.

The rebels had made a last stand in the north-east of the island after Sri Lankan troops cornered them in a coastal strip.

The Tigers' defeat brought to an end their 26-year fight for a separate Tamil homeland.

The statement was signed by the defeated group's head of international relations, Selvarasa Pathmanathan. It said that the LTTE had declared a week of mourning for their dead leader, starting on 25 May.

The statement called on Tamils all over the world to "restrain from harmful acts to themselves or anyone else in this hour of extreme grief".

In a telephone interview with the BBC, Mr Pathmanathan said Prabhakaran had died on 17 May but did not give details of the circumstances.

Mr Pathmanathan said the Tigers would now use non-violent methods to fight for the rights of Tamils.

"We have already announced that we have given up violence and agreed to enter a democratic process to achieve the rights for the Tamil (self) determination of our people," he said.

Most of the Tamil Tigers senior leadership is believed to have been killed in the fighting.

Conflicting reports

Sri Lankan officials gave conflicting reports of the death of Prabhakaran.

They initially said he had been killed in an ambush by commandos as he tried to break through government lines in an ambulance.

But the army later said his body was found on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon and he had been shot in scrubland - probably during fierce fighting.

Sick child in Manik Farm displaced persons camp
Sick and injured civilians displaced by the war are crammed into camps

Tamil Tiger officials at first denied Prabhakaran's death, insisting that he was "alive and safe".

Sri Lankan officials have said that more than 6,200 security personnel were killed and almost 30,000 wounded in the final three years of the war. Estimates for Tamil Tiger deaths vary from 15,000 to more than 22,000.

About 275,000 Sri Lankan civilians are still displaced because of the fighting, posing a huge problem for international aid agencies.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Sri Lanka on Friday to see the situation for himself.

At the end of his visit a joint UN-Sri Lankan statement said that the government had pledged to investigate claims of human rights violations committed during the conflict.

But the government has rejected UN calls to allow aid agencies unhindered access to refugee camps.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa said authorities had to identify any remaining rebel fighters in the camps.

bbc

PICTURES OF THE LAST DAYS OF SHOOTING IN SRI LANKA!

AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL SRI LANKANS FROM ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

May 22, 2009 AHRC-OLT-018-2009 SRI LANKA: I also mourn for Prabakaran

coffee4-14-09 Following the killings of the entire LTTE leadership there is a strongly expressed feeling among Sri Lankans, within the country or outside, that their deaths particularly that of the leader, Prabakaran, should not be a matter for mourning. I beg to differ!

That there were the most extreme forms of violence practiced by both the rebels and the state forces is the issue of real concern. That the political and legal systems of Sri Lanka have not developed to an extent that it is possible to deal with any conflict, particularly a conflict between the communities living within the country, is a matter that cannot be separated from the way in which all actors in the present conflict have behaved.

The test of civilisation in modern times is the nature of the political and legal institutions within which people live and not their so called traditional cultures. If the situation of Sri Lanka is such that no such civilised political and legal systems exists, the actors for the state and those citizens who have taken to violence must be judged within the framework of this total situation.

Moral and legal responsibilities

This does not remove the moral responsibilities of those who have acted with barbarism either on behalf of the rebel groups or on behalf of the state. Each must answer morally for their actions despite the colossal defects of the political and legal systems within which they have acted.

coffee4-14-09For this each must answer separately. It is not exculpatory for anyone to claim innocence on the basis that such actions were done on behalf of the rebel group or the state if the acts themselves, are immoral or illegal even in the situation of a ‘war’. However, those who have made moral decisions which are wrong and which may have brought them to the ultimate loss of life due to these very wrongs, do not forfeit their human status and therefore they still deserve to be mourned. Prabakaran was a citizen of Sri Lanka and a human being and there is no way of saying in an ultimate sense that he was not ‘one of us.’

I am a Sinhalese by birth and as I reached my adulthood I told myself that this should in no way affect my judgment on anything. In the latter part of my life in particular, I have lived with many races and nationalities belonging to all continents. At no stage the fact of whatever race or nationality these people belonged to has been a matter affecting any judgment, though the ethnic and cultural differences of people have played an important role in the enjoyment and enrichment of each other. And I have asked myself, if this be the case, why should my judgment regarding the communities of my own country be any different to this?

Angulimala

In terms of the strongest cultural tradition of Sri Lanka which is Buddhism, perhaps the story of Angulimala is to the point. Angulimala, a bright student, was treated badly by his guru because of a misunderstanding created by jealous and rival students in the mind of the guru about him. The guru instructed Angulimala to bring him a chain of fingers. The finger hunt resulted in Angulimala having the reputation of being the worst murderer in the region because he killed everyone he met to take their fingers. One day however, the Buddha confronted him, facing the risk of assassination himself. In the process Angulimala was brought to his knees, made to understand his predicament and changed his ways. The moral of the story is two-fold. That Angulimala’s behaviour was conditioned and that despite of his atrocious criminal acts he was still a human being to be dealt with.

coffee4-14-09In the Christian tradition there is the story of the stoning of an immoral woman where the Christ told the crowd, those who are without sin, throw the first stone. This does not imply that the moral and legal wrongs done by the LTTE under their leader should be forgotten or forgiven. All the moral and legal issues of atrocious crimes need to remain the top priority of the national discourse until such time as the whole nation understands the implications of all these issues, so that measures will be developed in order to avoid their repetition in the future. In the case of the rebellions of the JVP in 1971 and 1986 to 1991 no such discussion took place and, in fact, attempts at all such discussions was deliberately suppressed. Therefore the repetition of similar and even worse behaviour happened again through the LTTE.

The problem of dealing with moral and legal issues is that no one can take a holier than thou attitude. It is not possible to discuss and resolve and the moral and legal issues of rebels without discussing the legal and political responsibilities of the state. If the state itself avoids criticism of its own behaviour and has no will at all to change that behaviour with the improvement of political and legal institutions, then the criticism of the rebels become a farce. Such a refusal to discuss state responsibility can only be a ploy to continue with the defective political and legal systems for the benefit of some persons.

The threat of more repression on everyone

Thus, out of the fight against rebels there is the real possibility of the emergence of a state with greater powers of repression which would be used against the entire population. It was the campaign against the communists in Germany which was utilised by Hitler to build one of the world’s worst authoritarian systems. It was the fight against the bourgeoisie and the internal party groups of the left opposition lead by Trotsky that was utilised by Joseph Stalin to create an authoritarian system which was even worse than that of Hitler.

coffee4-14-09In the aftermath of Prabakaran’s death the exhibition of his body and the jubilation that was shown reflect badly on the sort of ‘headhunter mentality’ of some tribes who kept the heads of their enemies, captured in battle as trophies of their strength and glory. When the political and legal institutions fails to live up to required standards a sub-stream of consciousness that remains from the past can surface, as Hannah Arendt in her extensive studies of various authoritarian regimes in the recent past has demonstrated. It was the surfacing of such tendencies which made even the concentration camps possible. Thus, it is not only in countries with less developed political and legal systems that this can happen but even stronger systems can degenerate under certain circumstances. The sub stream of consciousness from the past in south Asian societies, including Sri Lanka is conditioned by the unwritten laws of the repression of the caste system in which disproportionate and collective punishment is an integral part, as amply demonstrated by the recent popular novel, the White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga.

That there was such violent conflict in our own country is a matter for regret and sadness. That there are no attempts to improve the political and legal systems so as to be capable of dealing with the differences and the conflicts is a matter for even greater sadness. That the defeat of the LTTE is being manipulated so badly as to further destroy whatever remains of the political and legal system evokes even worse premonitions for society. How the workers, farmers, the middle class, those who represent dissent and opposition and those who are engaged in providing public information and creating public opinion through the media will be dealt with in the future in Sri Lanka is even more frightening to think about.

Celebrations of a failure

There is no real victory to celebrate, but instead tremendous failures to worry about. And if the artificial celebrations that are organised are meant to fool the people again then these celebrations will, in fact, be glorifications of failure. The last thing that human beings can rely on is their common humanity and the last thing that the citizens of a nation can rely on is citizenship. The fallen rebels as well as fallen soldiers are, in fact, bound by the bond of humanity and citizenship. They all need to be mourned. That is the least bit of decency that anyone can demonstrate. I mourn for all of them, including Prabakaran.

Yours sincerely,

Basil Fernando
Executive Director
Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong

Tamils in Sri Lankan torture chambers,their hands are tied and left naked

SRI LANKA: A PARADISE TURNED INTO KINGDOM OF VULTURES

SRI LANKA: A PARADISE TURNED INTO KINGDOM OF VULTURES

By Richard Dixon

Land that was known for beautiful beaches and waterfalls has now been turned into a Kingdom of Vultures. Dead bodies of of the innocent Tamils are dragged away by stray dogs and wild beasts while the survivors hide inside the bunkers.

Let the dead bury the dead as the living will be dead if they try to bury the dead. Screams of the innocents can’t be heard to the far away lands because the rulers of Sri Lanka are not even allowing the birds in the sky to carry the messages to the lands of the living.

Mothers cuddle their crying babies and hide in the bunkers all day long. Starving mothers don’t have anything to give for their children. Frightened parents wipe their tears and pretend to be strong in order to comfort their children who are tormented by the demons of war.

Food and medicine are denied for the innocents and many of them are forced into starvation.

Most of the wounded are let to die in the open fields. Those who are fortunate enough to make to the make shift hospitals have their limbs amputated without anaesthesia. Caesarian operations are carried out without pain relievers.

Chinese F7s and Russian MIG fighters fly over the skies of Vanni continuously and they regularly bomb hospitals, schools, churches and orphanages. Cluster bombs and phosphorous bombs are used against innocent Tamil civilians.

Children are dying in front of their parents and the parents are dying in front of their children. Many of the dead have nobody to mourn for them. More than eight thousand innocent Tamils have been killed just within the last three months.

Tamils are now left with nothing. All their homes and farm lands have been made into grave yards. Many families have lost their loved ones. Thousands of orphans and widows are longing for death than suffering from hunger and untreated wounds in the killing fields of Sri Lanka. They have no more comforters left to comfort the victims.

Destruction came upon the Tamils suddenly

People of Vanni in the Northern part of Sri Lanka once had their barns full of grains, children played in the parks and on beautiful golden beaches, fishermen went to the seas, farmers went to their farms and the mothers worked hard at homes. They had the money, resources more than enough even to send their children abroad for education. They were neither prisoners nor hostages.

All came to an end when the Buddhist Sinhala rulers of the country decided to destroy the lives of the minority Tamils in the disguise of “War on Terror”.

As part of the so called deceptive humanitarian and rescue operation, Sri Lankan forces surrounded an area that is almost two times bigger than Singapore, bombed and destroyed all the hospitals, schools, orphanages and homes in this prosperous land that was once flowing with milk and honey.
They destroyed farms, fruit trees and the cattle belonging to the people who have lived there for years. They dropped cluster bombs and killed so many thousands of innocent people including children, women and old people.

They have forced people into starvation and made them to live in tents and bunkers for months. All this is according to them for just to catch or kill few hundreds LTTE fighters that were living among more than three hundred thousands of innocent Tamil civilians.

Tamils are persecuted all over Sri Lanka

Tamils who are forced to live in the open fields are bombed and killed in thousands. Those who leave the war zone are sent to barbed wired concentration camps and torture camps. The ones that live in the other parts of the country, live in open prisons with the constant fear of abductions, extrajudicial killings, torture and rape.
Their hands are tied and their voices are suppressed. Their loved ones living in the lands of freedom have been knocking on the doors of the kings and queens. Nobody has so far come to rescue the Tamils from these man made pits of hell.

Thousands of Tamils are living in the so called safe zone which is the most dangerous place on planet earth

Sri Lankan government had few months ago,declared a safe zone in a tiny strip of land and asked the Tamil civilians to move in. People were moving in and started to live in tents and bunkers. They are no longer protected from the rain, sun and the bombs falling on them.
sri Lankan forces have now reached to the borders of this tiny over populated safe zone and started to use heavy weapons on innocent civilians. People are now getting killed in thousands. They are making the people to starve.
They let them to die with their wounds because people don’t have access to proper medical care. Wounded civilians that are treated in the make shift hospitals are bombed again by a murderous regime that has no respect for human lives.

Barbed wired Concentration Camps for Tamils

While Tamils are being slaughtered in thousands in the war zone, the ones that come out of that area are sent to barbed wired concentration camps where they are kept as prisoners.
Aid agencies, foreign diplomats and Journalists are not allowed to see these notorious camps except to the one that is used only for propaganda purposes. Friends and relatives of the detainees can’t visit these horror camps.

Children are separated from mothers and fathers and sent to different camps. People are treated like wild animals. Food packets are thrown at them from military vehicles. They are forced to drink unclean water collected from irrigation tanks.
Tamils are dying of diseases. Many have become mentally ill. Even the very severely ill people are not allowed to leave the camps and to live with their relatives.

There are fears that many of the young people who are taken away from these camps for questioning, might end up in torture camps and mass graves.
When the Sri Lankan military did a similar operation in the Northern part of Sri Lanka several years ago, thousands of Tamils were taken away for questioning. Many of them were killed and their bodies were dumped in mass graves. The military commander who was responsible for those atrocities, is now overseeing the barbed wired camps.

Tamils in Torture camps

Young Tamil men and women are filtered out and regularly taken for questioning. They are tortured, raped and sometime killed in the torture chambers of Sri Lanka.
Most of them are kept naked in these torture chambers in order to prevent them from fleeing. One of the popular phrase used among the Sinhala forces is about feasting on the women of Vanni while turning the Indian ocean red with the blood of the Tamil men.

Torture camps of Sri Lanka is a well known fact that has been documented by many International rights organisations.

World very well knows how the Sri Lankan soldiers were asked to leave Haiti after they were blamed for rape, while doing peace keeping operations as part of the UN force.

Sri Lanka is under reported

Although the images of the dying Tamils are beamed through the television stations and internet all over the world, many people have only a little knowledge about this internal civil war that can one day even turn into a confrontation between nuclear armed India and China.

How is the world reacting to the current situation in Sri Lanka?

Why are they killing the Tamils?

Are all the Sinhalese people racists?

Who are partnering with Sri Lanka to slaughter the innocent Tamils?

Why do they do what they do?

Who are defending the Tamils?

Who are so far the winners and losers in this dirty War?

Why should we stop Rajapakse from continuing with the War on Terror?

Who can save the Tamils?

Why did the nations wait till it got so worse?

What is the UN doing about the whole crisis?

What would be the consequences, if the Nations didn’t intervene?

What is the Solution for the problems in Sri Lanka?

How is the world reacting to this?

Cries of the dying children and women are reaching to the skies but they haven’t yet touched the hearts of those who have the ability put a stop to this man-made disaster within minutes.

We have the technology to reach out to the injured in North pole in minutes. We have built rockets and space stations. But we have failed miserably to save the lives of innocent children and women in a land that is only twenty miles away from a country that claims itself as the largest democracy in the world
As the scenes of Rwanda and Kosovo are being repeated on their TV screens, the leaders of the free nations have so far failed to bring peace to this troubled Island.

Why are they killing the Tamils in Sri Lanka?

Deception, foolishness, ignorance, arrogance, hatred, pride and greed. All of these evils come together and make people to commit crimes against humanity. Sinhala Buddhist extremists want to wipe out Tamils from this tiny island and they have so far been successful in killing many thousands of them.

Hitler slaughtered millions of Jewish people for a simple reason that they were different. Muslim extremists kill people all around the world that they treat the non Muslims as infidels.
In the same way, Sri Lankan governments that are backed by the Sinhala Buddhist extremists have been persecuting the Tamils in Sri Lanka for more than 60 years.

Muslim extremists use Quran as their source of hatred and the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka have a holy book called Mahavamsa, a book with controversial writings, full of hatred towards the Tamils. Sinhala youth are indoctrinated by lies and deceptions in schools.
This book is very specific to Sri Lanka and not used by Buddhists in other countries. Buddhism in Sri Lanka is not the peaceful one that is preached by Dalai Lama in Tibet. One of the former prime ministers of Sri Lanka was assassinated by an armed Buddhist monk.

In the fifties, sixties and seventies, the Sinhala extremists slaughtered thousands of Tamils with knives and swords. They burned them alive and destroyed their homes. Hundreds of thousands were made homeless and sent to the North of the country in ships.
Now they kill Tamils with cluster bombs and phosphorous bombs. They bomb hospitals, schools and orphanages in Tamil areas.

Are all the Sinhalese people racists?

There are many peace loving Sinhala people living in Sri Lanka. Several academics, human rights activists, journalists, Christian leaders and professionals from the Sinhala community are supporting the Tamils in their struggle for freedom. Some Tamils even tend to intermarry with the Sinhalese.

Although the extremists are only a minority among the Sinhalese, they have been successful in influencing politicians, military leaders and ordinary Sinhala people to incite racial hatred, violence and discrimination against Tamils.

Buddhist extremism has gone to the extreme levels that more than Hundred thousand innocent Tamils have been killed, six hundred thousands are made homeless and forced to live in camps, fifty thousands have become orphans and widows and many thousand Tamils are now disabled and mentally ill.

Majority Sinhalese support the War on Tamils and they elect politicians who come up with racist policies.

Who are partnering with Sri Lanka to slaughter the innocent Tamils?

China and Pakistan are giving the weapons and ammunitions. Iran and Libya are providing with low interest loans for Sri Lanka to purchase arms. India is orchestrating the whole war in Sri Lanka by providing intelligence and military expertise.

Why do they do what they do?

All these countries are trying to satisfy the racist regimes in Sri Lanka in order to look after their strategic interests in the region.

China is fishing in troubled waters. Sinhala extremists who have been killing the Tamils all these years wanted to get smart weapons to kill the Tamils in thousands as opposed to knives and swords that can be used to kill the Tamils only in hundreds.

They went and asked India for weapons. India refused. They went to the West and the East. Nobody wanted to give offensive weapons to Sri Lanka. Two countries came forward. It was China and Pakistan. They obviously asked for something in return,

In recent times, China has been actively involved in building ports in the South East Asian countries including Sri Lanka. China is spending 1 billion dollars to construct a port in the south of Sri Lanka.
China is planning use this port as a refueling and docking station for its navy, as it patrols the Indian Ocean and protects China’s supplies of Saudi oil. Ever since Sri Lanka agreed to the plan, in March 2007, China has given it all the aid, arms and diplomatic support it needs to defeat the Tamils, without worrying about the West.

China has so far given six F7 jet fighters free of charge, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Pakistan is also trying to spread it’s influence in the Indian ocean and in order to build a launch pad in Sri Lanka.

Pakistan has transferred huge amounts of automatic rifles, heavy mortars, multi-barrel rocket launchers, artillery and tank shells to Sri Lanka in recent years. Sri Lanka is also getting JY-11 3D air surveillance radars, armoured personnel carriers, T-56 assault rifles, machine guns, anti-aircraft guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, missiles and bombs.

Iran provides low-interest credit to Sri Lanka to help them to purchase military equipment from Pakistan and China and to train Sri Lankan Army and intelligence officers in Iran.
Iran is now very pleased with the anti western policies that are being adapted by the Sri Lankan government. India never wanted to supply offensive weapons to Sri Lanka which is the very reason why the Sri Lankan government went after China, Pakistan and Iran in the first place. Having 65 millions Tamils in India, it will be difficult for India to give offensive weapons to kill the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

However, India faces a real threat from China and Pakistan in its own backyard. Sri Lanka has always maintained good relations with India. In order to look after it’s interests in the region and to deal with the threats from China, India had come up with the clever idea of providing with intelligence and military expertise to Sri Lanka. Many Sri Lankan ministers have recently acknowledged that they wouldn’t be winning the war without the help from India.

There are reliable reports that many Indian soldiers are fighting along with the Sri Lankans on the front lines in Vanni. Several intelligence and military experts from India are helping fifty thousands of Sri Lankan soldiers to cause so much damage in the Tamil Land.

Even the so called medical professionals sent by India to Vanni to treat the wounded Tamils are mostly intelligent officers who are more interested in gathering information from the Tamil civilians than treating their wounded.

This is not because India hate the Tamils and love the Sinhalese but they are not ready to see Sri Lanka going into the hands of China and Pakistan. More than seven hundred Indian fishermen were killed by the Sri Lankan Navy within the last few years but India is willing to sacrifice even their own for a greater gain in the region.

Who are defending the Tamils?

LTTE took arms to defend the Tamils when every effort taken by the Tamils to fight for their rights through democratic means had failed to bring results.

Democracy never worked in Sri Lanka because the majority are the Sinhalese and they always support the regimes that oppress the Tamils.

ay for instance. If a country has eight thousand deadly Muslim extremists and two thousand westerners, Most of the the westerners would be one day sent to the graves under a democratic government because the majority rule over the minority.

When the democratic governments in Sri Lanka were sending the Tamils to mass graves, Tamils had no option but to fight back. According to the recent survey, 99% of the Tamils support the LTTE and see them as their representatives even though they had made few tactical mistakes in the past.

Tamils in Sri Lanka and India, Tamil Diaspora have now emerged as a powerful voice to support their suffering people in Sri Lanka.

Who are so far the winners and losers in this horrible War?

Sinhala Buddhist extremists in Sri Lanka are already celebrating with flags and fire crackers that they have achieved what they always wanted to

More than eight thousand Tamils have been killed, twenty thousands are wounded, three hundred thousands of Tamils have been made homeless just within three months and many thousands have become orphans and widows.

Almost all the Sri Lankan Tamils are now either homeless or they live in homes that are open prisons. This brings joy to the Sinhala extremists whose sole aim is to wipe out Tamils.

China has a lot to rejoice for, because they have been successful in securing their interests in the region. They are now busy building a port in the South of Sri Lanka that will be used as a refueling and docking station for its navy, as it patrols the Indian Ocean and protects China’s supplies of Saudi oil. Pakistan has made enough money by selling cluster ammunitions and fire arms. They have also found a platform in the south of India to launch attacks against India.

India is a loser. India has made a historical blunder by assisting the Sri Lankan government to commit genocide against Tamils. Once the war is over, Sri Lankan government will go after China and Pakistan as they did before. India has now lost credibility both among the Tamils in Sri Lanka and India.

India would have been in a better position if they helped the Tamils to establish a prosperous secular state in order to free them from State oppression and to secure Indian strategic interests in the region. Even now, it is not too late for India to change its mind.

LTTE is now left to fight on their own without any help from other countries. But they are supported by a powerful Tamil Diaspora which means LTTE can’t be defeated by bombing the whole Vanni although they are facing defeat in the Vanni.

Why should we stop Rajapakse from continuing with War on Terror?

When the twin towers fell and the innocents died, we declared war on Terror. We have done the right thing and we have been successful in preventing many disasters in our great cities.

Unfortunately,Some of the countries that have been terrorising their minorities for a long time, have started to use the loop holes in the "War on Terror" strategy. to declare war on the vulnerable.
heory of War on Terror has failed miserably in countries like Sri Lanka because the oppressor has got the freedom to declare war on the innocents who are already going through hell in their hands. Many freedom movements that have been fighting for the freedom of the oppressed are now wrongly branded as Terrorists groups.

Some of these countries like Sri Lanka have been spending so much money in doing false propaganda, to convince the world that these freedom movements had links with Al Qaeda. War on Terror is a great idea but the problems come when we wrongly recognise the Terrorists and the ones who are fighting the Terrorists.

When the “War on Terror” strategy is used by a Terror government that is already killing its own citizens, alarms should be raised to protect the vulnerable.

Did we permit Saddam Hussain who was a democratically elected president to wipe out all the Kurdish people? Hitler was democratically elected but he was still responsible for killing millions of Jews.

Rajapakse government, although it is democratically elected, shouldn’t be allowed to use the “War on Terror” agenda to annihilate Tamils.

UK government would never bomb the whole city of Belfast and force people to live in the bunkers without food and medicine for months, if they had to catch few hundreds of IRA rebels. They wouldn’t use chemical weapons against innocent women and children unless they had a hidden agenda of killing the people.
Sri Lanka is doing something what no other governments on this earth would do to their own citizens.

The way how the war is being conducted in Sri Lanka is a clear proof that “War on Terror”, “Humanitarian operations”, and “Hostage rescue” are just the buzz words used by the Sri Lankan government to deceive the international community.

Who can save the Tamils?

India has now got itself into a mess by orchestrating the war in Sri Lanka although India has no enmity with the Tamils. They are doing it to protect their interests in the region as they are becoming very nervous about the threat from China and Pakistan in the Sri Lankan soil. India hasn’t so far come forward to rescue the innocents and they won’t do it in the future because they are ones guiding the Sri Lankan military to fight the battles.

China is obviously fuelling the whole situation by freely giving offensive weapons to Sri Lanka in order to look after their strategic interests.

Tamils can only be saved by the Western countries. US, UK, France and other EU member countries are already pressurising the Sri Lankan government to stop this war. Arrogant leaders in Sri Lanka have so far no not listened to warnings from the free world

Why did the nations wait till it got so worse?

Sri Lankan government has been very successful in demonising the Tamil struggle with lies and deceptions. [ Useful Reference: Lies and Deceptions! Comical Alis of Sri Lanka! ]

They have been so far successful in convincing the world that the military operation was a legitimate “War on Terror” strategy that targets only the rebels and not the innocent Tamils. They have managed to ban reporters and journalists to the war zone in order to hide their war crimes.

Western media also has failed miserably in their duties to give importance to this trouble spot where thousands of innocents are perishing.

What is the UN doing about the whole crisis?

As usual, UN has so far failed to protect the innocents. They failed in Rwanda and they failed in many other countries where millions died of man made disasters. They always waited till it was too late to act.

UN had sent its representatives to Sri Lanka few times in the last few months ,but they couldn’t convince the Sri Lankan authorities to stop the war. UK and the US are working really hard to bring the Sri Lankan issue before the security council. China, being a permanent member is not allowing the war in Sri Lanka to be discussed for an obvious reason that they are also partnering with Sri Lanka.

They don’t want to be blamed for fuelling the war in this tiny island by freely supplying offensive weapons in order look after their own interests in the region.

What would be the consequences, If the Nations didn’t intervene?

We would regret forever for repeating the same mistakes that we did in Rwanda.

Sri Lankan government, would continue to use cluster bombs and phosphorus bombs to kill the remaining innocent civilians left in the safe zone. Many Tamils would continue to die of hunger , starvation and diseases. Young men and women in the concentration camps would end up in mass graves.

Sinhala Buddhists will be settled in the Tamil areas and the names of many Tamil towns and villages will be changed into Sinhala names.

Wounded LTTE with the support of the Tamil Diaspora will continue their struggle for freedom. Nuclear armed China and India might one day confront each other as both of them are competing to dominate the same region.

This trouble spot in the Indian ocean one day would become a threat to the whole humanity if we didn’t intervene to stop the madness that is going on, in this tiny island which has already been turned into a Kingdom of Vultures.

What is the Solution for the crisis in Sri Lanka?

World doesn’t need any more proof to recognise the war crimes that are being committed against Tamils. Hospitals are bombed. People are deliberately forced into starvation and death. Voices of the victims are suppressed. Chemical weapons are used against innocent civilians. Many Tamils are locked up in barbed wired concentration camps. UN should intervene to save the remaining Tamils in Sri Lanka without any delay.

It is time that the Nations should get together and protect the Tamils from annihilation by invoking the Responsibility to Protect clause (R2P). World doesn’t need to sit and wait for millions of skulls and bones to appear on their wide screen TV sets.

Tamils had their own Nation before. This hard working and highly literate community is once again capable of building a secular state like Singapore in the Indian ocean.

It is time for the West and India to support the Tamils to establish a State of their own.

Malaysia's PM vows ethnic reforms

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has outlined plans to dismantle the decades-old preferment system for ethnic Malays.

He told newspapers in Singapore that the long-term benefits of ending the scheme would outweigh the "pain".

The affirmative action programme, launched in 1970, remains one of the most divisive aspects of Malaysia's multi-ethnic society.

It uniquely favours the Malay majority over the Chinese and Indian minorities.

Malays can buy homes at a discount and have privileged access to higher education and certain employment sectors, among other benefits.

'Warlord'

In an interview for Singapore's Straits Times newspaper, Mr Najib said that ethnic quotas damaged his country's competitiveness and ran counter to global trends.

He framed his move in combative terms, describing himself as a "warlord" who would face down opposition from smaller chiefs in his party.

Mr Najib's comments were made to reporters in largely Chinese Singapore, and analysts say his words may have been bolder than they would have been at home.

Since coming to power in March, Mr Najib has already altered the system slightly by removing the obligation for firms in some sectors to have at least 30% Malay ownership.

But if he abandons the policy completely, he is certain to expect anger from the Malay community which provides the bulk of support for his ruling Umno party.

By contrast, his actions may prove attractive with Chinese and Indian voters, who largely support the opposition led by Anwar Ibrahim, and have long denounced ethnic quotas and advantages as racist.

Voice of Mickey Mouse dies

LOS ANGELES – SOUND-EFFECTS specialist Wayne Allwine, who followed in the footsteps of Walt Disney to provide the falsetto voice of Mickey Mouse for the past 32 years, has died, Walt Disney Co said on Wednesday. Allwine succumbed to complications from diabetes at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles on Monday. He was 62.

He was only the third person to lend his voice to the famed rodent. Disney himself started voicing Mickey Mouse in 1928, when he made his talking debut in ‘Steamboat Willie.’ Jimmy Macdonald took over the responsibilities in 1947 and handed over the reins to his protege Allwine in 1977.

Allwine provided Mickey’s voice for such movies as ‘Mickey’s Christmas Carol’ (1983), ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ (1988), and ‘The Prince and the Pauper’ (1990). He also brought Mickey to life for Disney theme parks, television, radio and live stage events. ‘Wayne dedicated his entire professional life to Disney, and over the last 32 years, gave so much joy, happiness and comfort to so many around the world by giving voice to our most beloved, iconic character, Mickey Mouse,’ Disney Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger said.

Born in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale in 1947, Allwine joined Disney in 1966, working his way up from a job in the mail room. He worked under sound-effects expert Macdonald for seven-and-a-half years, editing such Disney films as ‘Splash’ (1984) and ‘Three Men and a Baby’ (1987).

‘Mickey’s the real star,’ Allwine once said of his job. ‘You know you just have to love the little guy while you have him, because he won’t be yours forever.’ Allwine is survived by his wife, Russi Taylor, who provides the voice of Minnie Mouse, and five children from previous marriages. — REUTERS

THE DEATH OF LTTE SUPREMO PRABHAKARAN (PICTURES )

LTTE LEADER PRABHAKARAN IS CONFIRMED DEAD

COLOMBO – SRI Lanka’s president proclaimed victory over the Tamil Tigers on Tuesday after decades of civil war, with state television showing what it said was the corpse of rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. The images were shown after the Tigers announced the guerrilla leader was still alive and well, and that they would continue fighting for a separate Tamil homeland despite President Mahinda Rajapakse’s call to unite the nation.

Under international pressure to reach out to the Tamil minority, Mr Rajapakse vowed in a nationally televised speech that ‘terrorism’ had been defeated and that a political solution to the island’s ethnic divisions would be found. ‘We are a government that defeated terrorism at a time when others told us that it was not possible,’ the president said. ‘The writ of the state now runs across every inch of our territory.’

With the end of a civil war that began when Prabhakaran founded the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1972, Mr Rajapakse stressed that their defeat did not mean subjugation for the country’s Tamils. ‘All should live with equal rights. They should live without any fear or doubt,’ he said. ‘Let us all be united.’ His speech had been shadowed by a Tiger statement insisting that Mr Prabhakaran was not dead.

_45794569_body_grab226 But the army chief, General Sarath Fonseka, responded by reaffirming that Mr Prabhakaran had been shot dead on Monday, and state television showed footage of what it said was his body. The images showed the upper section of a corpse which was dressed in camouflage fatigues. Part of the forehead was covered with a blue cloth, and the head was resting on a bloodstained newspaper.

The face was intact, with the eyes wide open, and bore a clear resemblance to the rebel leader, an AFP correspondent said. The conflicting accounts of the Tiger leader’s fate came after a dramatic day that effectively ended one of Asia’s oldest and most brutal ethnic conflicts. — AFP

Does Realy Prabakharan Died..!

EVEN THOUGH MANY NEWS MEDIA AND BROADCASTERS HAVE POSITIVELY MENTIONED THAT PRABAKHARAN IS DEAD . SRI LANGKAN GOVERNMENT NOT YET SHOWED THE BODY OF OUR HERO YET.EVEN NOT HAVE A REAL PICTURE OR A VIDEO FOOTAGE OF THE DEAD BODY OF PRABAKHARAN. THE ONLY ‘FAKE PHOTOGRAPH’ THEY FLASH OUT IS AS SHOWN BELOW.
THANK GOD IF PRABAKAHARAN NOT DIED...HOPEFULLY LONG LIFE FOR HIM...!

The man who led the Tamil Tigers' 26-year revolt, Velupillai Prabhakaran, has been shot dead by goverment troops, state TV says, as the army claims the Tigers have been defeated.To his followers, Vellupillai Prabhakaran was a freedom fighter struggling for Tamil emancipation.

To his adversaries he was a secretive megalomaniac with a complete disregard for human life.

Under his leadership, the Tamil Tigers became one of the world's most highly-disciplined and highly-motivated guerrilla forces.

But in recent months they fought a desperate rearguard action as the Sri Lankan military inflicted defeat after defeat on them, ending their dream of a separate homeland in the north and east.

The youngest of four children, Vellupillai Prabhakaran was born on 26 Nov 1954, in the northern coastal town of Velvettithurai on the Jaffna peninsula.

Described as a shy and bookish student, he became involved in the Tamil protest movement after being angered by what he saw as discrimination against Tamils by Sri Lanka's majority Sinhalese population.

He claimed he was influenced by the lives of two Indian leaders, Subhash Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh, both of whom were involved in the armed struggle for independence from Britain.

Cult of martyrdom

In one of his rare interviews he also said that he was fascinated by the lives of Alexander the Great and Napoleon and had studied many books on the two commanders.

It is believed that Prabhakaran founded the Tamil New Tigers in 1973 or 1974, although the exact date is unknown.

It was just another in a series of pressure groups and organisations protesting against what they saw as the marginalisation of the Tamil people in the post-colonial Sri Lanka.

In 1975 he was accused of the murder of the mayor of Jaffna, who was shot at point blank range while he was about to enter a Hindu temple.
Velupillai Prabhakaran, pictured in his family album (Photo released by Sri Lankan government)
Prabhakaran dedicated his life to his dream of a Tamil homeland

The killing was said to be in response to an incident in Jaffna the previous year when a police attack on a crowd led to the deaths of about seven people.

A year later Prabhakaran's group was renamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), commonly known as the Tamil Tigers.

The Tigers became a formidable force numbering upwards of 10,000 soldiers, including women and children.

They were also well-equipped with weaponry funded by Tamil expatriates and, according to some reports, by sympathisers in India.

Always outnumbered by the Sri Lankan army, Prabhakaran led his forces in a series of guerrilla actions against a range of targets.

He encouraged a cult of martyrdom among his followers which led to the first use of suicide bombings as a common form of attack, often against civilian targets.

Central Bank bombing

He was also reputed to carry a cyanide capsule around his neck to be swallowed in case of capture, a practice soon emulated by many of his soldiers.

In 1991 he was accused of involvement in the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was killed in a suicide bomb attack near Madras (Chennai).

It was alleged Prabhakaran had personally ordered the attack in revenge for Gandhi's posting of Indian peacekeeping troops to Sri Lanka in the mid-1980s.

Prabhakaran
Under Prabhakaran's leadership the Tigers were branded a terrorist group

An Indian court signed a death warrant in his name and Interpol issued a wanted notice on the grounds of terrorism, murder and organised crime.

Under his leadership the LTTE was branded a terrorist organisation by many countries and he was wanted by Interpol, the global police network for murder, terrorism, organised crime and conspiracy.

He was a shadowy figure, constantly under threat of arrest or assassination.

At one of Prabhakaran's very rare press conferences, in 2002, he refused to answer any questions about Ghandi's murder, referring to it as a "tragic accident".

Instead he repeated his demand for self-determination for Tamils and said he was prepared to die in the fight to achieve it.

Secretive figure

In 1996 more than 90 people were killed and a further 1,400 were injured when a suicide bomber crashed a lorry through the gates of the Central Bank of Colombo and detonated its cargo of explosives.

Most of the casualties were civilians in what was then the Tigers' deadliest attack, with a number of foreign nationals among those killed and injured.

In 2002 a Sri Lankan court issued a warrant for Prabhakaran's arrest in connection with the attack and, in his absence, sentenced him to 200 years in prison.

When the latest attempt at peace talks broke down in 2006, the Sri Lankan army launched a huge offensive against Tiger strongholds, eventually capturing large areas of what had been Tiger-held territory.

In early 2009 Prabhakaran suffered a major reverse when the Sri Lankan government captured the Tigers' administrative capital of Killinochchi and there were rumours he had fled the country.

Vellupillai Prabhakaran remained a secretive figure throughout his life, his movements between his various jungle hideouts carefully planned to avoid capture or assassination.

At the height of its powers at the end of the 1990s and the early years of this decade, the LTTE controlled nearly one-third of Sri Lanka.

But Prabhakaran was unable to translate this authority into his dream: an autonomous Tamil homeland in the north of the country.

His single-minded determination in pursuit of his goal never wavered: he once claimed he had ordered his own men to shoot him if he ever gave up his demands for a Tamil state.

இலங்கை தமிழர்களுக்காக போர்க்கொடி உயர்த்தி, இப்போது உள்ளங்கைக்குள் மறைந்து போன உதய சூரியனே...

பலியெடுக்கத் தயங்காத ஆதிக்க அரசின் கால் அடியில் சிக்கி உன்னையே நீ மாய்துக் கொண்டாயா....

வன்முறைக் கடலில் இன்னமும் தத்தளிக்கும் இலங்கைத் தமிழர்களுக்காக குரல் கொடுத்த தன்மான சிங்கதின் உயிர் பிரிந்ததே

....ஐயோ.............

நெஞ்சு கனக்க்கிறதே ..!
இனி இழ மக்களின் கதியை
எண்ணி பார்ப்பவர் யாரோ...?