Salem-News.com Sri Lanka articles Page 21

Minister, Toronto MPs Join Canadian Tamils in Exhibition on 1983 Black July in Sri Lanka

The exhibition chronologically highlights what organizers calls `anti-Tamil pogroms’ since 1948.

(TORONTO News East-West) - Senior Canadian politicians, including MPs, joined Tamils in remembering the victims of the July 1983 riots in Sri Lanka – also referred to as Black July – at an exhibition at the Scarborough Civic Centre here on Thursday.

Tracy MacCharles, Ontario minister for consumer services, Craig Scott, MP for Toronto-Danforth, and John McKay, MP for Scarborough-Guildwood, joined Canadian Tamil Congress leaders and others from the Canadian Tamil community in watching the exhibition called Remembering Silent Voices.

Remembering Sri Lanka`s Black July

"There was a first mob of about 80-odd young guys with iron rods and things. They were in a frenzy, obviously under the influence of alcohol - they smashed up and then came the next lot to loot." - elderly woman

(COLOMBO, Sri Lanka) - Thirty years ago, Tamil separatists stepping up militant attacks in northern Sri Lanka and killed 13 soldiers. Over the next few days, mobs of the Sinhalese majority took revenge, killing between 400 and 3,000 Tamils around the country and triggering a civil war that lasted 26 years and sent hundreds of thousands of Tamils into exile.

The BBC's Charles Haviland reports on the legacy of what came to be known as Black July.

30 Years Since Sri Lanka Race Attacks

The 1983 Black July pogroms were the beginning of a history of persecution and racist violence for Sri Lanka's Tamils. Liam Brown reminds our politicians why there are so many Tamil refugees.

(COLOMBO, Sri Lanka) - Today marks marks the 30th anniversary of a watershed moment in Sri Lankan history: the Black July pogrom against members of the Tamil ethnic group.

The pogrom claimed the lives of perhaps thousands of people, displaced thousands more and marked a start to the civil war that would consume the country for nearly 30 years.

Cold Blooded Murder in Maximum Security Jails - 1

Part I – Murder in Welikade Prison, Sri Lanka.

(MELBOURNE) - You may have thought that Mullivaaikkal of May 2009 was the only massacre the Sinhalese inflicted on the Tamils. They had several anti-Tamil riots to their credit, the worst of which was in July 23 and 24 1983 and two massacres in Welikade Maximum Security Prison.

As a result these riots and massacres are referred to as Black July. The following is an account of the two massacres.

A Russian Lady`s Brutal Rape and the Injustice of Sri Lanka

“They started beating me. I fell to the ground….. They killed Khuram and sexually assaulted me…”

(MOSCOW) - According to witnesses, Ms. Tkacheva was discovered in a room, naked and unconscious. The police subsequently confirmed that she was either raped or sexually assaulted: “She had been raped or sexually assaulted and had suffered vaginal injuries, according to a Sri Lankan police report”.

Ms. Tkacheva waived her right to anonymity as a rape-victim because she wanted justice. Sadly, justice, in Rajapaksa Sri Lanka, is the ultimate oxymoron.

`Matter for humanity that justice is done`- Interview with Callum Macrae

This is about human rights, and this is about the rule of international law. And I know that whenever I've shown this film to people who didn't know about the situation - it changes minds.

(TORONTO Tamil Guardian) - Tamil Guardian's correspondent based in Toronto, Canada, caught up with the director of the documentaries 'Sri Lanka's Killing Fields' and 'No Fire Zone - the killing fields of Sri Lanka', Callum Macrae, at the sidelines of FETNA 2013.

He discusses how he viewed Sri Lanka's reaction to the documentaries, himself and others who are speaking out against the massacre of tens of thousands of Tamils.

Housing Crisis for Sri Lanka`s Tamils

Donor fatigue, construction costs, other issues delay building.

(JAFFNA, Srl Lanka) - Four years after Sri Lanka's bitter, 26-year civil war ended in 2009, thousands of permanent homes needed for returnees to northern Sri Lanka are not being built because of a lack of donor funding.

"Although the remaining gap in the housing sector in the north keeps changing due to new returnees, there is a serious funding gap for at least another 30,000 houses immediately," said Laxman Perera, program manager for the UN Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat).

Donating Homes to War Widows in Sri Lanka`s North

As the Thirukural beautifully states, "In the hands of a generous man, Wealth is like a medicinal tree whose healing gifts help all."

(JAFFNA, Srl Lanka) - One generous man in Sri Lanka has created a small village, building 98 houses for war widows in Iyakkachchi (a village located between Elephant Pass and Palai on the Jaffna A9 Road).

Each house cost around $20,000 US dollars, and in the middle of the building complex, there is even a community center.

Lack of Law & Order in Sri Lanka

Appointment of Civilian Governor and Confinement of Army to Barracks Essential for Free and Fair Elections to North-Mangala Samaraweera.

(MELBOURNE) - Mangala Samaraweera writes on the government interference in the administrative agencies, that are supposed to be free.

Please read his letter to Kamalesh Sharma, General Secretary of the Commonwealth, who believes soft power will work in Sri Lanka.

When History is Twisted, Humanity Loses

Many Theravada Buddhists of Myanmar and Sri Lanka try to justify Genocide.

(PHILADELPHIA, PA) - Recently, after the publication of the Time Magazine’s cover page article on Wirathu, the Buddhist terrorist monk of Myanmar, I came across an article in which the Buddhist writer.

He states that the magazine got it all wrong about Wirathu and that the pogroms against Muslims, which was disingenuously called ‘Buddhist nationalism’, are a ‘last resort’ to preserve Buddhist ‘heritage, religion and country to ensure history is not repeated.’