Colombo, Nov 23. (PTI): In the face of renewed violence in Sri Lanka, Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon today met President Mahinda Rajapakse to discuss the worsening situation in the strife-torn island nation.
Menon called on Rajapakse and had a one-to-one meeting with him at his Temple Trees residence, spokesman Chandrapala Liyanage said.
Details of the talks were not immediately known. The parleys had to be conducted with candle and torch light as an electric short circuit caused a black out at the president's residence.
Menon's visit follows serious concern expressed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over renewed violence in the island's embattled regions.
Meanwhile, the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said troops were advancing on positions held by them in the eastern district of Batticaloa, but the Sri Lankan defence Ministry said it was the Tigers who had initiated an offensive.
The Tigers said, they killed seven policemen in the east of the island while the Defence Ministry said they lost only four.
The Ministry said seven more soldiers were wounded in the battle, but gave no details of rebel casualties.
"The security forces sought the assistance of the air force to engage their (Tiger) gun and mortar positions in addition to the use of all other resources available there," the ministry said in a statement.
Fighting in the island nation has escalated in the past year despite a truce that is in place since 2002.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Lanka seeks joint patrolling of maritime boundary with IndiaÂ
Colombo, Nov 24: Sri Lanka will seek greater cooperation from New Delhi to patrol their maritime boundary in a bid to prevent cross-border terrorism and discuss the island's peace process during President Mahinda Rajapakse's five-day visit to India beginning on Saturday.
Speaking to reporters here on the eve of his departure, Rajapakse said he will take up the question of stepping up joint patrolling along the Palk Straits.
"This is something we should concentrate on to prevent not only arms and drug smuggling, but also to ensure the safety of fishermen of both countries," he said.
Rajapakse will also take up economic matters with India during his "working visit" to boost bilateral trade which currently runs at two billion dollars annually.
The Sri Lankan President is due to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss the island's troubled peace process. "India is not only our neighbour, but also our best friend," he said.
"There are possibilities for us to buy electricity from Tamil Nadu," Rajapakse said. He said the country was also keen to seek Indian investments in the power sector as the country was headed for a shortage of electricity.
"What I also want to do is to convey to the Tamil Nadu leadership that we do not consider every Tamil to be a supporter of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). We always look for Indiaâs help and there is a lot that we can learn from them on devolution," he said.
Talks were underway to finalise the shipment of some 7,000 tons of essential food from India to Sri Lanka's embattled North-East.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Anton Balasingham, whose death from cancer was announced on Thursday, was the ideologist of the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka.
Odd news. Thought it was strange enough to warrant posting: http://au.news.yahoo.com/070227/2/12kjv.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Wednesday February 28, 09:52 AM
<b>Sri Lanka wants asylum seekers sent home</b>
Sri Lanka's health minister says a group of Sri Lankan asylum seekers detained on Christmas Island are not refugees and should be returned to their war-torn homeland.
Siripala de Silva said the 83 men, intercepted by the Australian navy in international waters last week, were not genuine refugees but had fled their country for economic reasons.
"These are immigrants of economic nature, they are not genuine asylum seekers," he told ABC Radio.
"Our request is they must be deported back to Sri Lanka."
Australia is considering sending the Sri Lankans to Indonesia if it can secure a guarantee from Jakarta that their asylum claims will be processed in Indonesia by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
But the Australian government says it will not send the men to Indonesia if they would then be returned to Sri Lanka, and may instead process them on Christmas Island or Nauru.
Mr de Silva admitted he knew little about the men, but believed they would have fled to India if they had been in fear of their lives in Sri Lanka.
"Why should they come to Australia? If they were in fear of their lives they should have run to India, which is 15 or 20km from Sri Lanka," he said.
(This is true.)
"How could they finance such a large venture? They have taken a short cut by trying to cheat Australian authorities."
Mr de Silva said the Sri Lankan government had "never persecuted anybody" and he could guarantee the men's safety if they were returned to Sri Lanka, where government forces are locked in a civil war with secessionist Tamil Tiger rebels.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Wow. Hold your horsies there, Silva. Let's not start lyin'. "Never persecuted anybody"?
You know what, I'm too tired to start responding to so blatant a falsehood.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Battles Rage in Lanka</b>
Deccan Chronicle, March 11, 2007
Chennai, March 10: Over 40,000 Tamils fled their homes in the LTTE-controlled Paduvankarai area in Batticaloa district in east Sri Lanka in the last 48 hours as government troops fired heavy artillery and stepped up attacks in what is widely seen as a decisive phase in Colomboâs strategy to weaken the Tamil Tigers by pushing them out of the eastern region, reports reaching here late on Saturday said.
The fleeing families are piling into makeshift refugee camps at schools and other public areas of the district, which is already loaded with over 90,000 people displaced by the current phase of stepped up war, the reports added.
âBatticaloa is experiencing another tragic humanitarian crisis without the attention of the international community,â said Batticaloa district parliamentarian S. Jeyanandamoorthy. TamilNet quoted the MP expressing distress over the âmassive displacement of civiliansâ taking place from Kokkaddicholai area as the artillery barrage by the Sri Lankan military from Batticaloa town, Vavunathivu, Chenkalady, Murakkoddanchenai and Kiran continued since Thursday morning.
âSri Lankan forces are deliberately targeting civilians under the pretext of fighting the Tigers in Batticaloa district,â said the Tamil MP, urging the international community to exert pressure on the Mahinda Rajapakse government to call off the artillery onslaught. Meanwhile, a government spokesman said the strategy of weakening the LTTE by pushing the Tigers out of the eastern region, taking advantage of the Karuna factor, would continue and âall efforts are being taken to minimise civilian sufferingsâ. However, independent reports from the battle zone spoke of terrible turmoil among the civilian population fleeing homes carrying the barest minimum of belongings.
The worst hit were families which had old people and infants among them, said an eyewitness. The LTTE has charged the government with expanding the theatre of war to the whole island âby continuing its policy of war and openly engaging in a massive aggression against civiliansâ in the Tiger-controlled areas of Batticaloa. The LTTE had defeated STF troopers trying to open a third front on Friday from Pullumalai while state forces tried hard to capture Unnichchai area in the district. International relief workers in Batticaloa were finding it tough coping with the increased influx of IDPs (internally displaced persons) since it caused further strain on the limited resources.
Eyewitnesses said the Army was trying to push the IDPs from Vakarai out of their camps to return home, promising that the situation had returned to normalcy in these government-controlled areas. But the people are reluctant to leave as their region had witnessed over 200 civilian deaths and others wounded in the five-month military offensive to âclearâ Vaharai and adjoining areas. While observers expressed fears of a new offensive in the two-decade war that has killed almost 70,000 people (some of them here are even talking of the final war for Eelam), the LTTE last Monday warned of a bloodbath unless the international community persuaded Colombo to hold its fire.
âWe are aware that the Sri Lankan Army has amassed military hardware close to Manalaru in preparation for a major offensive towards Mullaitivu. The consequences of this offensive will be a catastrophic bloodbath across Sri Lanka,â LTTE political wing leader Thamilchelvan said. âWe have exercised tolerance at high cost. We sincerely believe that the international community has realised our tolerance has reached its limits. We warn that Colombo is courting national disaster by misinterpreting our patience for military weakness,â he said. http://deccan.com/home/homedetails.asp#Battles Rage in Lanka<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Tigers in the air</b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Shoot them down before it's too late
Unlike their July 2001 suicide bombings at the Sri Lankan Air Force base adjacent to the international airport near Colombo, in which six civilian jetliners and more than a dozen military aircraft were destroyed, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on <b>Monday carried out a daring raid on the same base with the help of small aircraft. Reports emanating from Sri Lanka suggest that the LTTE used two small aircraft to drop four bombs on the base in the early hours of Monday, killing at least three Air Force personnel and injuring several others</b>. Although the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry has claimed that no aircraft was destroyed in the raid, reports suggest this is not quite true. Apart from causing damage and death, the air raid has shown up Sri Lanka's intelligence gathering system as extremely inefficient and the response time of its Air Force personnel as grossly inadequate. For many years speculation has been rife about the LTTE acquiring small aircraft to set up the 'Tamil Eelam Air Force'; strangely, the Sri Lankan Government, despite evidence about an air strip being built by the Tigers in the Northern Province, failed to take pre-emptive action. Worse, Air Force personnel on duty at the base on Sunday night virtually did nothing to either intercept or shoot down the aircraft although they were detected by the radar. Given the shoddy response of the Air Force, it is not surprising that foreign airlines should have decided to suspend operations to Sri Lanka for the time being. Meanwhile, having taken the Sri Lankan Air Force by surprise, the LTTE is feeling emboldened and triumphant enough to release photographs of the crew who flew the aircraft being congratulated by V Prabhakaran.
It will no doubt be argued that in an asymmetrical war, the Sri Lankan Government is bound to take a few knocks from the Tigers. It will also be pointed out that the Sri Lankan Air Force has been pounding LTTE-dominated areas in the north with devastating results. So, the war against terror in that island nation is neither lost nor adversely affected by Monday's raid. Such post-facto rationalisation serves little purpose other than seeking to minimise the import of the incident. For, the LTTE has demonstrated that it is not impossible for a terrorist group to acquire aircraft and strike targets with amazing ease. It has also shown that for all the big talk over implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1373 - and, more important, monitoring its implementation - terrorist groups continue to have, or be allowed, access to military hardware. It appears that the aircraft in the LTTE's possession are of Czech origin. While it is possible that the aircraft may have been acquired from a third or fourth country, it is not impossible to track down the seller and impose penalties that would send out a message to other potential violators of Resolution 1373. Simultaneously, those who should be alarmed by Monday's tactical shift in terror strikes must now turn the screws on Governments, many of them in the West, that continue to take an indulgent view of the LTTE's depredations. The time for cutting a deal with Prabhakaran is long over. India must now take the lead in pushing for an all-out retaliation, if only to ensure that what happened near Colombo is not repeated in this country. To remain silent would be outright foolish.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
First it was Nepal and now its SL.. <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Here you go <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> <b>Vatican enters Lankan peace process</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Vatican is the latest entrant in the Sri Lankan peace process. That the Papal Establishment is going to play a role in Sri Lanka was indicated in the statement it issued after a meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and the Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, in Rome on April 20.
<b>"The Catholic Church, which offers a significant contribution to the life of the country, will intensify the commitment to form consciences, with the sole aim of favouring the common good, reconciliation and peace,"</b> the Vatican said.
....
Given the differing perceptions between Colombo and the Vatican on the ground situation, political circles here wonder if Rajapaksa's bid to get Rome on board and the Vatican's bid to play a reconciliatory role will succeed.
To add to the problems, <b>Rajapaksa's main political constituency, the Sinhala-Buddhist majority, nurses a deep fear about the organisational tentacles, money power and reach of global Christianity, including the Vatican.</b>
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
India is already in control now take over Srilanka.
<b>Suspected US head of Tamil Tigers arrested in NY</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->New York, April 26: The suspected head of the U.S. branch of Sri Lankan rebel group the Tamil Tigers was arrested in New York on Wednesday and charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
Karunakaran Kandasamy could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors at the federal court in the New York borough of Brooklyn said.
As the director of the U.S. branch of the Tamil Tigers, which is based in Queens, New York, Kandasamy oversaw the organization's activities, including its fund-raising, prosecutors said.
The rebels, known officially as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, have been fighting for decades for an independent homeland on the north and east of the teardrop-shaped island in the Indian Ocean.
Since 1983 the fighting has killed some 68,000 people, including more than 4,000 in the past 16 months. The LTTE is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States
................<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
05-01-2007, 07:53 PM (This post was last modified: 05-01-2007, 07:53 PM by Husky.)
This in Australia (Victoria): http://au.news.yahoo.com/070321/2/12tsg.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Tuesday May 1, 07:30 PM
<b>Vic men charged for funding Tamil Tigers</b>
Two Melbourne men charged with terrorism offences are accused of channelling money raised under the guise of tsunami relief to Sri Lanka's separatist Tamil Tigers.
Aruran Vinayagamoorthy, 32, of Mount Waverley, and Sivarajah Yathavan, 36, of Vermont South, appeared in a Melbourne court on Tuesday following a series of counter-terrorism raids in Melbourne and Sydney.
Melbourne Magistrates' Court was told the pair faced three charges each of being a member of a terrorist organisation, providing support or resources to a terrorist organisation and making funds available to a terrorist organisation.
However, defence lawyer Rob Stary, acting for one of the men, attacked the Australian Federal Police (AFP) for staging a media conference on the arrests before they faced court, saying the men were entitled to a presumption of innocence.
"(It's) of concern to us the way this has unfolded," he told the court.
The men are alleged to have committed the offences between July 6, 2002, and May 1, 2007.
They were charged after a two-year investigation by the AFP and Victoria Police.
Commonwealth prosecutor Mark Dean SC said the defendants collected money in Australia which was sent through various channels in Asia to the Sri Lanka-based Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), or Tamil Tigers.
The Tamil Tigers have been waging a bloody secessionist campaign against the Sri Lankan government since the 1970s.
It will be alleged the men used tsunami relief appeals as a vehicle to raise funds for the organisation.
Mr Dean told the court a number of payments to the organisation had been identified and more evidence was being analysed.
He said the men, who had been under electronic surveillance for some time, also supported the organisation by providing electronic and marine equipment.
However, Mr Stary argued the Tamil Tigers were not a proscribed terrorist organisation in Australia. <!--emo&:blink:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' /><!--endemo-->
While the Tamil Tigers are not (not) listed as a terrorist organisation in Australia, it is against the law in this country to provide funds to the group.
Mr Stary also said there was not enough information available to enable the charged men to apply for bail.
The prosecution agreed to make more information available within two days and Mr Stary indicated a bail application would likely be made on Monday.
Magistrate Clive Alsop remanded the men in custody until July 24 for a committal mention.
Earlier, AFP Assistant Commissioner Frank Prendergast said there was no evidence the men were planning a terrorist attack on Australian soil.
"The offences that they have been charged with relate to activities which occurred in Australia which were directed at supporting the LTTE in Sri Lanka," he said.
Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe told reporters police were concerned at allegations that well-meaning charity donors may have been deceived.
"We're concerned that that sort of thing is taking place in Australia, that Australian citizens are being duped ... into making contributions to what they believe to be honest fund-raising activities in terms of relief for people in distress."
The two men were arrested during swoops on Tuesday on business and residential addresses in the Melbourne suburbs of Glen Waverley, Dandenong, Burwood East and Vermont.
Police acting on warrants also raided addresses in Parramatta and Old Toongabbie in Sydney.
Several international law enforcement agencies were involved in the operation, police said.
If found guilty, the men face a maximum of 25 years in jail.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>LTTE threat: India decides to mobilise additional air assets</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->New Delhi, May 08: Government today decided to mobilise additional air assets in the south and step up surveillance following fears that LTTE could carry out aerial attacks on Indian nuclear facilities.
The decision to move more fighters and surveillance systems to the south was taken at a high-level meeting here chaired by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, a day after Sri Lanka said there was a possibility of LTTE conducting air attacks, sources said.
................<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Prabhakaranâs son Charles Anthony heads LTTE "Air Wingâ, indicates report </b>
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) chief Veluppillai Prabhakaranâs son Charles Anthony is now on the watch list of the Indian agencies after reports that he heads the air wing of the proscribed outfit, according to agencies report. An unnamed central intelligence officer in Mumbai said that Charles may have been trained by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. Reports indicate that the LTTE air wing is a complement of nine pilots and seven light single-engine aircrafts. They also have strength of about 60 airmen to maintain and service the planes mostly operating from secret airfields around Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka. The air wing is useful for carrying out suicide strikes on Sri Lanka security forces and for reconnaissance missions before an attack. Investigations by agencies indicate that apart from Mossad, senior LTTE cadre is also trained by Pakistanâs Inter Services Intelligence operatives. The LTTE owns a fleet of sea-going ships to transport their supplies and arms since 1986.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><span style='color:red'>Tamil Hindu funds Buddhist TV channel</span>
Gautama Buddha may have been born in Nepal, and achieved enlightenment in India, but the only South Asian country where Buddhism flourishes today is Sri Lanka. On the 2315th anniversary of Buddhism's arrival on the island, Sri Lanka's first 24 hour television channel on Buddhism (and possibly the first in the world), The Buddhist, was inaugurated here on Friday by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
"The coming into existence of this channel is symbolic of the inalienable and irreversible ties between Sri Lanka and India," Lalith Weeratunga, the Presidentâs Secretary, told the Hindustan Times.
It was Prince Mahinda, son of Emperor Ashoka, who brought Buddhism to Sri Lanka. Known locally as an Arahant (one whose spiritual status is second only to Buddha) Prince Mahinda had a tremendous impact on Sri Lanka. His sister Sangamitra too is equally revered. The country is a bastion of the Theravada school of Buddhism.
"The relations between Sri Lanka and India may have had ups and downs, but these have only been conflicts between parties or governments. The people of the two countries have had no problems with each other. The bedrock of the relationship has been religious and cultural and this is inalienable and irreversible," Weeratunga said.
The Buddhist will begin its broadcasts in Sinhala, Tamil and English, but will soon have services in Tamil, French and other international languages too.
Politically, the channel will help reinforce Rajapaksa's standing among the Sinhala Buddhists, who are more than 75 per cent of Sri Lanka's population, and who have been his main political constituency, political observers said. Rajapaksa came to power playing the Buddhist card, and has to be seen as being a guardian of the faith if he is to remain in power.
But ironically the financier of this private channel is a Tamil Hindu, Muhundan Canagey, though the prime movers are a Colombo-based Buddhist NGO and some Sinhala entrepreneurs. The satellite is arranged by Dialog, a joint venture with a Malaysian telecom giant.
01-08-2008, 12:51 PM (This post was last modified: 01-08-2008, 01:20 PM by dhu.)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->LTTE And Churches Protect Each Other
William Dalrymple, who projects himself as an authority on issues relating to India, had said that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) in Shri Lanka are a Hindu
terrorist groups. He did this in an article in The New York Times dated January 4, 2008. The article was also reproduced in The Times of India. In this context I am forwarding this article to you.
Namaste
Ashok Chowgule
- - - - - - -
<b>LTTE And Churches Protect Each Other</b>
Asian Tribune March 28, 2005
The history of LTTE reveals a discernible pattern in its relations with religious institutions: it has ruthlessly attacked and killed Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists but <b>hardly ever touched Christians. It has never confronted the Churches the way it has taken on the other three main religionists.</b>
In fact, it has had a very cozy relationship with the Churches. Though the LTTE has raided and taken over Hindu Temples by force in Western countries it has never dared to touch a single Christian church run by the Jaffna Tamils abroad. The Christian churches are considered to be richer than the Hindu Temples. Nevertheless, the fear of severe backlash from the dominant Christian governments and Christian communities abroad has prevented the LTTE from grabbing Christian Churches.
In any case there has been no necessity for the LTTE to act against the Churches because they have been the backbone of LTTE politics in Western countries. The LTTE does not want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. <b>Some of the leading Christian priests have acted as front men for the LTTE in Western countries. </b>Fr. S. J. Emmanuel, former Vicar-General of Jaffna, who is now residing in Germany, is a prime example of the Church joining hands with the LTTE. He is on record saying that he is first a Tamil and then a Christian. Once he compared Prabhakaran to Jesus. He not only campaigns for the LTTE abroad but he is also the first to claim that he is writing a theology for Tamils only. <b>Imitating the radical priests of Latin America he is supposed to write a new "liberation theology" praising Prabhakaran. </b>He was followed by S. Jebanesan, Bishop of the Church of South India (CSI), who said that he too was working on a theology for the Tamils. A theology only for the Tamils excludes Sinhala Christians.The object of their theology is to tie Christianity with the brutal ethnic politics of Prabhakaran. Emmanuel rushed to Bishop Desmond Tutu and managed to convince him to write an foreword to his booklet, Let My People Go. But to where -- Into Prabhakaran's hell?
The close links between the Church and the LTTE was revealed when Jebanesan brought in LTTE muscle-men to influence the vote of the last annual general meeting of the CSI that was to decide on an extension for Jebanesan as he has reached retiring age. He wanted an extension to mark time until another pro-LTTE candidate comes of age to contest. Pro-LTTE Bishop Jebanesan thrown out by young Church delegates in Jaffna. Despite the LTTE agents speaking on behalf of Jebanesan, the young turks in the Church refused to give pro-LTTE Jebanesan another extension. As he has reached retiring age he will be thrown out unceremoniously from the Bishopric of the CSI.
<b>Quite early, LTTE joined hands with Radio Veritas, a worldwide Catholic broadcasting station. </b>The Hindustan Times (May 25, 1999) reported that the Voice of Tigers (VOT) "has established on Sunday 23rd 'a coordinating office' to tie up Radio Veritas at St. Sebastian Church in Mallavi located in the Wanni. "The rationale behind the tie-up is that it will give VOT access to the vast audience of Radio Veritas. Nearly 850,000 Shri Lankan Tamils living as refugees or migrants across the globe ro tune in to Radio Veritas, because it gives sensational "Eelam Tamil"news, often ahead of the BBC Tamil service Tamil Osai, said the Hindustan Times. <b>Radio Veritas is a Catholic outfit run by the Asian Catholic Bishops' Conference. </b>The Tamil wing of the Catholic church in Shri Lanka has been active agents of Tamil separatism. They have been in the forefront manufacturing excuses and covering up for the political crimes of the LTTE.
Tamil Christian priests have infiltrated the Churches in Western countries and through them they propagated pro-LTTE politics. A good example is that Prof. S. Chandrakanthan attached to the Theology Department of the Toronto University, Canada. He is a political fundamentalist disguised in Christian robes. To him Christianity is merely a vehicle to propagate separatist politics and white-wash
LTTE crimes against humanity.
In Australia, for instance, the LTTE got a foothold in the Uniting Church through Prof. Christie Eliezer who was a lay preacher of the Uniting Church. His proxy was Rev. Dick Wootton who was viewed as card-carrying member of the LTTE. He had an office in the Headquarters of the Uniting Church in the city of Melbourne. Finally, the Uniting Church eased him out after strong protests from Shri Lankans who demanded that the "Uniting Church must Unite and not Divide".
<b>The Anglican Church is not far behind the Catholic Church and CSI. </b>Bishop Kenneth Fernando returned from a visit to Prabhakaran, with Charles Abeysekera and Jayadeva Uyangoda and announced to the media that "Prabhakaran is humane". It shocked the Shri Lankan community, Christians and non- Christians alike.
<b>The LTTE and the Churches maintain this lovey-dovey relationship because it serves their mutual interests. LTTE has found in the international network of the Churches easy access to Western media, politicians, churches and other powerful lobbies to cover-up their crimes against humanity.</b> The pastoral letters written by Shri Lankan bishops and priests are distributed world-wide. No Churchmen has ever said that a Sinhala-Buddhist leader is "humane" though some of the world's biggest welfare schemes have been implemented by them within a democratic framework that respects all religions.
The Churches too find it necessary to tie up with the LTTE
<b>
(1) to weaken the Sinhala-Buddhist community for conversions
(2) to prevent the Church breaking up on ethnic lines
(3) to win converts to the Churches in the guise of being their best political allies and
(4) to break up the state which would help them to establish a separate church
and hierarchy of their own. </b>
Under (4), for instance, the Tamil Catholic need not go the Pope through the Sinhala
Bishops in Colombo. Under (4) the ambitions of the Church and the LTTE coincide. In this and in other respects, both fulfill each other's needs. The Churches in Shri Lanka
which could have acted as the most effective instrument in uniting both communities through the channels of the common churches established in both communities took sides and worsened the ethnic enmities.
Though the separatist movement claims to have its roots in the Jaffna Hindu Tamils, it has always had a strong element of Christians either leading it or influencing it. <b>Its very first leader, S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, was an Anglican.</b> However, when the Church of South India established its branch in Shri Lanka he switched over from the Anglican to CSI because of its ethnic leanings. Chelvanayakam preferred to be linked with Tamils of South India than with the Anglicans, most of whom were Sinhalese in Shri Lanka. Chelvanayakam mono-ethnic politics extended to every aspect of his life. He did not want to buy a house in Colombo fearing that his children would be influenced by the multicultural forces that would liberalize their thinking and attitudes. He did not want Tamil public servants to learn Sinhala fearing that the Sinhala influence would make them less amenable to separatist politics. He did not want
to attend the Christian God's church fearing that the God in Sinhala-dominated Churches would dilute the Tamil identity and make them children of a Sinhala God rather than a Tamil God.<b> In short, he was the arch symbol of racism designed to separate communities.</b>
<b>The seeds of dissension sown by Chelvanayakam saw his political descendants blow up the Sacred Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, </b>massacring Muslim praying in Kathakudy in the East, shooting in broad daylight a Japanese Buddhist monk who went on a mission of peace in the north, spraying bullets on Buddhist pilgrims at the Sacred Bo Tree in Anuradhapura and ... the list is unending. But his political children dared not touch the Christians. They are too powerful and the backlash against them would be too hard to bear.
End of forwarded message from Ashok Chowgule <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
04-23-2008, 01:21 PM (This post was last modified: 04-23-2008, 01:27 PM by Bodhi.)
see above post by dhu.
---
- Why suddenly anoint Raul as the yuvaraaj, and talk abt next PM? (Remember who proposed it - Arjun Singh - the relative to the Rana family of Nepal - which is partly to share the credit to bring down the Hindu empire.)
- Why is Raul Gandhi holding secret meeting with crusaders and maoists in Orissa?
- Why is his sister meeting secretly with her father's assassins in TN?
post # 97 and 98 would provide more than many a hints about why the sudden pang of foregiveness and peace for LTTE in the hearts of Sonia-Raul-Priyanka. This is the southern front in the overall strategy for the 'sucker punch'. After fateh in Nepal, next is Operation Lankavijayam! What Maoists did for them in Nepal, Ultras did in NE, LTTE would do in SL. Meanwhile, their overlords shake up a little bit the other heathen lands in the neighbourhood - the Tibet, Myanmar, and yes of course Bhutan (with a new found democracy there!)
Almost forgot to mention - the scandenavian middlemen and the NGOs...
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Rediff now says that the Vadras wish to have their children baptized and SPG has checked out the venue of a Delhi church in this regard.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Is there some requirement for confession before baptism?
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->