Tamil youth in East face stiffer racial discrimination: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 June 2013, 23:22 GMT]
In yet another instance of the structural genocide taking place in the country of Eezham Tamils, students from the East stand now to lose the opportunity to learn technical education in their GCE Advanced Level studies since the Colombo government seems to have deliberately ignored Tamil educational institutions in the selection of institutions for introduction of technical education under higher standards. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian Pon Selvarasa has alleged that the Tamil educational institutions from the East have been deliberately ignored by the Colombo government in the selection of institutions for introduction of technical education under the higher standards of general education. 

“200 institutions have been shortlisted for the purpose. But institutions from the East have not been given due representation” the MP said. 

Not a single institution from the Batticaloa district – where about 72 percent of the population are Tamils – have been shortlisted.

It is reported that the institutions have been selected on the basis of constituency. But, a systematic policy has been adopted in sidelining Tamil schools. 

The only schools selected from Kalkudaa Zone, Batticaloa Central and Batticaloa Zone are Muslim schools, civil sources in Batticaloa said. 

The Ampaa'rai district also faces a similar predicament. 

The Tamil students of Batticaloa and Ampaa'rai districts stand to lose any chance of learning technical education because of this discrimination, the MP said adding that his interaction with the SL ministry of youth affairs and skill development had proved futile.

Time magazine stopped at Customs

2013-06-29 

By Sanjaya Dassanayake, Upatissa Perera and Teshari Karanayake

Time magazine, carrying a cover story comparing the Myanmar Buddhist Monk Wirathu and his organization 'Buddhist 969' to the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), has been withheld by customs at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA).
The Myanmar Government has taken steps to ban the July issue of Time, as the cover page of the magazine portrays the Monk with the headline describing him as 'The Face of Buddhist Terror.'

It is reported that as a result of the activities carried out by the 'Buddhist 969' organization against the Muslims of Myanmar, over 140,000 residents of Myanmar have been displaced, and over 200 people have lost their lives.
The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, reports that most of those who died were Muslims, while the 'Buddhist 969' organization carried out attacks against mosques, Muslim businesses and properties, thereafter sticking posters and stickers of their organization over the desecrated property.It is said the article carries comparisons between the BBS and the Myanmar Buddhist organization, and has also cited similarities between self-immolation attempts by monks. The Myanmar Government claims the magazine has been banned ‘in order to prevent the recurrence of racial and religious riots’.

When Ceylon Newspapers queried about the BIA Customs withholding the magazines, Minister of Mass Media and Information, Keheliya Rambukwella said he was unaware of the Customs having done such a thing, and said he would look into the matter and then comment on it.