"Mother Country" or "Devilish Country"?

When the Tamil Nadu assembly passed a resolution calling for Pirapakaran's arrest and deportation to India Nehru lost his temper. He described India not as "Thainadu"(Mother Country) of the Tamils but a "Pei Nadu" (Devilish Country). He also threatened to bring Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalitha Jayaram to trial under the Tamil Eelam penal code. Chandranehru: Patriotic son of the Eastern Soil By D.B.S. Jeyaraj

''He represented a brighter future for the LTTE and the Tamil people because he was so eager to learn and to adapt to acceptable ways,''

''He represented a brighter future for the LTTE and the Tamil people because he was so eager to learn and to adapt to acceptable ways,'' said a source with a multi-national agency working in Batticaloa. ''Kausalyan was a decent and soft-spoken man who was tired of war''. -IPS

''Kaushalyan is not an ordinary man, he was an emerging leader,''

''Kaushalyan is not an ordinary man, he was an emerging leader,'' M K Eleventhan, Member of Parliament, told IPS. At the time of his death Kaushalyan was coordinating the tsunami relief work in areas under Tiger control in the two districts. The Amapara and Batticaloa Districts were the two worst affected areas in the country with more than 15,000 deaths, when killer waves on Dec. 26 lashed the coastlines of Sri Lanka and a dozen other countries in the Indian Ocean rim.

"We have always provided them helicopters when they request it.''

``I don't understand why such a senior leader was traveling this way,'' said Ratnayake, ``We have always provided them helicopters when they request it.'' - …not without any bureaucratic and political bungling, even in the recent past there were problems with providing helicopters!

"The Tamil people world over, humanitarian workers and the international community..."

"The Tamil people world over, humanitarian workers and the international community should now recognise the elements that are working hard to weaken Tamil unity," Killing of LTTE members engaged in political and humanitarian relief work, travelling across a Government Military controlled area, is a serious violation of the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) that provides for the travel of unarmed LTTE members. The location, its proximity to two SL military check - points and the uniformed position of the attackers are indicators to the nexus the assailants have with the military. - LTTEPS.org

``It is a military-supported group, the Karuna faction,''

Daya Master, the Tamil Tiger spokesman, said today in a phone interview from Kilinochchi in rebel-held territory. ``They have been attacking us even after the tsunami.'' - From Bloomberg Kousalyan was killed when his vehicle carrying nine people was attacked at about 7:45 p.m. local time on the road to Batticaloa in government-controlled territory, the army said in a statement. The ambush took place between two army posts. Kousalyan was returning from a meeting in the town of Vanni on expanding the aid program for victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami that devastated two-thirds of Sri Lanka's eastern and southern coastline, the rebels said. .....some websites demonstrate that many (Sinhala) hardliners under the pretext of opposing the Tigers are trying to restrict aid reaching the affected Tamil people. -Sri Lanka: The State that failed its people

"Kaushalyan came under attack about five or six kilometres from the nearest army checkpoint."

- It is unclear who carried out the attack, which took place about 40km (25 miles) north-east of Batticaloa, BBC - Mr. Kousalyan is the most senior LTTE official to be killed after Colombo and Tigers signed a cease fire in February 2002. He was returning from Vanni after discussing the expansion plans for Tsunami rehabiltation in the east, LTTE sources said, reports Tamilnet

"The buck starts here."

If only 30% of affected people were getting state aid after five weeks then that blame or responsibility has to be borne by none other than the President who was in overall charge of the relief work and is also head of government. Former US President Harry Truman had a sign plaque on his table in the White House oval office "The buck stops here." If the game of deflecting blame or passing the buck stopped with the White House in Washington the situation in Colombo is the reverse. "The buck starts here" is more appropriate at Janadhipathy Mandhiraya. - DBS Jeyaraj, in Sri Lanka, The state that failed its people