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Thursday, 15 March 2012

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Integration as part of development

One of the most heartening developments in the North-East is the highly beneficial way in which the Armed Forces and the agencies of the state are helping out in the development process, besides being of considerable help to the general populace. These facets in Sri Lanka's onward march need to be constantly focused on by the state and other concerned sections in view of the erroneous notions that are entertained about this country by critical elements on the local scene and abroad.

In fact, widespread ignorance about Sri Lanka and the gains made by it over the past three years in the socio-economic sphere in particular is helping the sponsors of the resolution against Sri Lanka in the current UNHRC sessions. If the record about Sri Lanka is put right constantly, there are bound to be less takers among the publics of the world for misguided initiatives of this kind coming from some of their rulers.

Today, the Security Forces, for instance, are playing a significant role in the development process of the North-East and are proving crucial to the material sustenance of the people. They are not only helping out in the infrastructure development of the North, but are of the utmost assistance to the ordinary citizenry.

Our front page news report yesterday, on the Jaffna Bishop hailing Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa on the help rendered by the Navy to the people of the North during an important religious festival on the Kachchativu islands, is just one case in point.

We also know for a fact that the armed forces are of immense help in the resettlement process of the displaced.

Over the past few months this newspaper has been consistent in highlighting the national integration efforts of the state by way of, for instance, not only rehabilitating one time LTTE cadres and returning them to mainstream society but also through the recruitment of more and more Tamil citizens and Tamil-speaking persons to the Police force.

These are national integration efforts that would go quite some distance in achieving nation-building and national unity.

It is also gladdening to note that more and more school boys from the North and East are going in for cadet training under the Army. This too is a timely measure which would help in further integrating the North-East citizenry into the larger Sri Lankan society.

Hopefully, very soon, it would begin to dawn on the world that the Sri Lankan Security Forces are no longer mono-ethnic in nature but that they are representative of the entirety of the Lankan citizenry.

We hope that these and many more of the positive developments that are materializing in Sri Lanka would help in dislodging from the minds of the misguided and the prejudiced the idea that Sri Lanka is standing still in terms of evolving towards a better order of things for the totality of its people.

At a time when questions are being raised about the progress that is being made towards implementing the practicable recommendations of the LLRC report, these advances by Sri Lanka need to be borne in mind. It needs to be realized that development cannot be spoken of in isolation from national integration. If development in the truest sense of the word is happening in a country, then there also needs to be national integration because development, correctly understood, is the empowerment of all sections of a country's citizenry. This is currently happening to a degree in this country and to that extent we could be said to be ushering development in the truest sense.

We need to move ahead in a positive frame of mind and progressive national integration efforts would prove to the world that Sri Lanka could easily measure up to the standards that are expected of an egalitarian and fully developed society. However, this news must be blared forth to the world.

Does the US value Human Rights?

The world needs to know:

‘Stalking from home to home, a United States Army sergeant methodically killed at least 16 civilians, nine of them children, in a rural stretch of Southern Afghanistan early on Sunday, igniting fears of a new wave of anti-American hostility, Afghan and American officials said,‘ the New York Times reported Sunday.

Full Story

Only for the eyes of Geneva HR Councillors

Everyone is aware that terrorism which existed for over 30 years ended on May 19, 2009 by defeating the LTTE. It is strange and beyond the comprehension of any sane person as to what criteria was adopted to level human rights and war crime allegations against the leaders of Sri Lanka by the Human Rights Council in Geneva headed by biased Navaneedan Pillai taking into account the final stages of the war.

Full Story

 

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