TNA making a ‘mountain out of a molehill’

Sunday 03 July 2011

- Dr. Amarasekera By a special correspondent

Veteran political commentator Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera says that recent allegations made against the government by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) that one of their political rallies had been attacked by security forces in the North, could be far from the truth.
Speaking to LAKBIMAnEWS he said that the TNA was indulging in a gross misrepresentation of facts and charged that the party was trying to gain petty political mileage, being in a political limbo, domestically.
“The TNA is trying to twist the facts, and they are doing nothing but distorting the truth for their own political advantage,” Dr. Amarasekera, who is also the head of the Nationalistic Patriotic National Movement (PNM), said.
“You need to go there (North-East) and see for yourself whether the environment is conducive or not for both the politicians and the civilians to indulge in their day-to-day activities.
“The TNA is only trying to put into play the agendas of their political masters in the form of the United States, the UK, France and the overseas Tamil Diaspora.”
Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera said that the current climate in the former war-ravaged areas of the North, ahead of the first local government polls to be held there in 26 years (since the end of the war) is not one in which fear permeates.
“The government is trying its utmost to hold the first-ever local government polls in 26 years in the former war zone, since the end of hostilities,” he averred.
“And what does the TNA do? Instead of helping the government to bring about a climate that is conducive to hold elections they level all kinds of ridiculous allegations against the government because they are dancing to the tunes of their political masters in the US, UK, France, and the Tamil Diaspora.”
Dr. Amarasekera dismissed the suggestion that the government was using violence in the North in order to prevent the TNA from making an impact at the LG polls due to be held there on July 23.
“To my knowledge there is no truth to the comment that the government is trying to prevent the Tamil parties from contesting the election on a level playing field.”        Full Story>>>
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Sri Lanka tour a delicate assignment

ESPNcricinfo

Daniel Brettig

July 8, 2011

Australia's tour of Sri Lanka is going ahead as scheduled, but the tourists are becoming acutely aware of the significance of their visit. Players and officials were equally moved by the footage shown in the Channel 4 documentary about the closing days of the Sri Lankan civil war and its aftermath, aired on Four Corners in Australia this week, but are resolved to carry on with their first Test series in the island nation since 2004.

The documentary showed graphic evidence of rape, torture and murder of civilians during the final months of the war. A United Nations investigation concluded last year that there was credible evidence for as many as 40,000 civilian deaths during the conflict.

The Australian department of Foreign Affairs and Trade raised no objection to Cricket Australia's plans during their most recent briefing. Central to CA's thinking are the ideas expressed by the former Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara, who spoke of cricket's capacity to unite communities and countries during his Cowdrey lecture to the MCC in London.     Full Story>>>

Posted by Thavam

Posted by Thavam