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1. Government 2. War 3. Asylum Seekers 4. Sri Lanka, LTTE, and Sept 11th 5. Other News 6. Articles

A news bulletin on Sri Lanka produced by Australian and New Zealand activists working for peace in Sri Lanka. contact: Australia - Willie mailto:willie@apex.net.auwillie@apex.net.au New Zealand - Malathy mailto:malathy@ihug.co.nz

1. Government ==========

The parliament passed an amendment to the constitution, commonly known as the 17th amendment, with the last minute support of UNP. Tamil parties boycotted the vote saying that the establishment of the constitutional council and the independent commissions would not address Sri Lanka's burning issue, which is the ethnic conflict.

17th amendment is part of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) reached between JVP and the PA as the basis for the one year coalition. The MOU states that the constitutional council must be established by October 5, 2001. Thereafter, the council will nominate persons to four other independent commissions for the police, judiciary, elections and public service with the aim of de-politicizing these institutions.

The constitutional council will comprise of the Speaker, Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition as ex-officio members. The President will be allowed one nominee. Five other members will be independently nominated by the premier and the leader of the opposition. Out of this 5, three members will represent the ethnic communities. In order to appoint these 3 members the prime minister and the leader of the opposition will be obliged to consult members of political parties representing the respective ethnic communities. The three members nominated, will thus comprise of a Tamil, Muslim and one person representing the Indian plantation community. The other two members out of the five, will be nominated by the premier and the leader of the opposition who will individually nominate one person each. Another individual will be nominated to the council by Members of Parliament who do not belong to the two major parties, namely, to the ruling Peoples Alliance or the main opposition United National Party. Hence, the final composition of the constitutional council will comprise of 10 members.

Soon after the voting on the 17th amendment the opposition moved to topple the government through a vote of no-confidence. On Friday Sept 29th, three months after a similar ouster bid led to the suspension of parliament, the opposition submitted the motion of no-confidence. The success of this no-confidence motion depends on the defections of some MPs from the present newly formed coalition. This motion can be heard only when parliament begins sitting on Oct 8th, after a short adjournment. Some analysts speculate that if the no-confidence motion is likely to succeed the President who has the power dissolve the parliament after one year of its formation can do so on Oct 9th when this parliament makes its one year of existence.

UNP also rejected the government's call to extend a joint invitation to the LTTE to come forward for talks saying it was "illogical" because a clause in the MOU between PA-JVP prevented any devolution proposal from being introduced in Parliament for one year.

Also as agreed upon the MOU the government wrote-off farmer's loans of less than 20,000 rupees (220 dollars). A JVP spokesman estimated the total amount to be written off to be around 600 million Rs (6.6 million dollars).

2. War ==========

Bishop Swampillai of the rebel-held eastern Batticaloa region said that civilians often come to him complaining that the Tamil Tiger rebels are forcing their children to fight in the civil war. Civilians are said to be fleeing the area fearing forced conscription. The Bishop had led a delegation of human rights and citizens groups to meet a key rebel leader, S Karikalan to discuss this. The Bishop said the leader had agreed to give serious consideration to the matter and had given assurances that no one under fifteen years would be recruited.

Jehan Perera in his recent article said that at the seminar he attended in Mannar it was reported that on average between 40 to 60 persons were brought monthly with signs of torture injuries to the Mannar hospital. Accounts of people being detained and even killed on suspicion that they were in league with the LTTE were heard at the seminar. He also said that during his visit he encountered elite army commandos who boarded their vehicle who said they wanted peace.

A soldier who was traveling in a civilian bus on home leave was dragged out and shot dead by Tamil Tiger rebels in eastern Sri Lanka, the police and the military said.

Tamil Tiger rebel leader Shankar was assassinated on Sept 25th. LTTE accused the Sri Lankan army of assassinating Shankar. The army has denied the charges. Some sources have speculated that this assassination and a few other similar assassinations of LTTE leaders in recent times may have been carried out by dissenting groups inside LTTE.

The Jaffna Municipal Council Mayor said that during the past six months sixty civilians have lost their limbs due to landmine blasts in Thenmarachchi area in the peninsula. The Mayor Mr.N.Raviraj called on the army to a halt all resettlement programmes in areas considered as not safe for civilians.

3. Asylum Seekers ==========

On Sept 20th 119 Afghan and Sri Lankan asylum seekers who were initially picked up off Australia's coast and were being transferred to Nauru island landed there. They followed an initial group of 100 who arrived there earlier. Naru, the tiny pacific republic has agreed to accept 200 of these refugees.

On Sept 29, 116 Sri Lankan asylum seekers who had arrived in Yemen earlier by ship were deported. The captains of the ship are now on trial for entering the port illegally. Yemen authorities said that Yemen is being used as a staging post in smuggling illegal migrants from Asia to Europe.

On Sept 30 a group of 26 Sri Lankan asylum seekers were found in a "poor condition" in the back of a van at the port of Dover in UK. Police said they could have died in the cramped conditions they were discovered in. "It does not bear thinking about what could have happened to these people had the ferry they were on or their onward journey been delayed," a Kent Police spokesman said. The driver of the van, a 27-year-old German woman, was arrested on suspicion of facilitating the illegal entry of the group into the UK. The woman has denied the charge. Australian government introduced new laws with increased penalty for "people smugglers". The legislation was also supported by the opposition Labor Party. Also in Sept, the captain and eight crew members of a ship which carried twenty four illegal Sri Lankan immigrants to Australia in April were sentenced to 5 1/2 years and 3 1/2 years in prison.

4. Sri Lanka, LTTE, and Sept 11th ==========

September 11th attack and the threat of conflict in Afghanistan plays itself out in many ways on the Sri Lankan scene. Sri Lanka's tourism industry already facing problems after the LTTE attack on Sri Lanka's airport may face further difficulties if U.S. strikes on targets in Afghanistan. When US issued its list of 27 Islamic organizations, against whom it is to direct its war against terrorism, Sri Lanka accused US of double standard for omitting LTTE from this shorter list. US ambassador to Sri Lanka issued a statement confirming that LTTE is still designated as a terrorist organization in US, but US believes that the Sri Lankan government should begin negotiations with the LTTE. However, in other situations such as that faced by Moscow in Chechnya the West is suggesting that Moscow should have a freer hand in dealing with the rebels.

Many media and other officials in the West have highlighted the funding that is being raised in the West for terrorism quoting LTTE and IRA as prime examples. Sri Lanka is hoping that the U.S campaign to freeze funds of rebel organizations and a get-tough United Nations resolution on terrorism will turn the screws on LTTE.

5. Other News ==========

At the Asia-Pacific forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF), held in Colombo, Sri Lanka was unanimously elected as the first chairperson of the forum.

The Asian Development Bank has approved a US$10 million loan to Sri Lanka for a project to increase the efficiency and competitiveness of its major port at Colombo.

Sri Lankan Air Line restarted flying after a few hours of grounding because the insurers placed a seal on the amount they are willing insure. The government of Sri Lanka stepped in to guarantee a further 1.5 US$ billion thus enabling the airlines to fly again. Later the Sri Lankan state media reported that the government was absolved of this pledge, following the airlines' successful negotiations with a consortium of overseas insurance underwriters. The Sri Lankan state media said that the government and LTTE agreed to two day temporary ceasefires to allow children in the northeastern war zone to be vaccinated against polio as requested by United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF. Later the defense ministry claimed that the LTTE broke the temporary trice by firing mortar bombs at army positions. TamilNet reported that out of the 200 Principles promoted by the Ministry of Education to Grade One post only one is a Tamil that too from a school in the central province. No Tamil medium Principal in the north-east province was promoted. The report said that about 850 vacancies exist in north-east Tamil medium schools and that on the whole about 1,500 vacancies exist throughout the island for Tamil medium principals in all grades. The Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union has called for the cancellation of the Grade One principal appointments immediately. The Sinhala daily LakBima reported the following as told by the Chief Inspector of Bandarawela police at the hearing of the Bindunuwewa Commission, which was established to hear the killing of young Tamil detainees in October 2000. "As soon as I got the information, I rushed to the Bindunuwewa rehabilitation camp and there was a large number of civilians holding all sorts of arms. Many wounded inmates were in gutters while some were bleeding profusely and I saw policemen on duty at that time just watching these people."

6. Articles ========== Noam Chomsky Interview on America's New War

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0109/S00225.htm

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