Maldives Referendum, August 20, 2007

In the referendum on Maldives adopting the presidential or the parliamentary system, the known devil--the presidential system won an endorsement from two-thirds of voters.

President declares victory in referendum, calls for national reconciliation, Haveeru Daily, August 19, 2007.

The validity of the referendum was challenged by not just the opposition parties but also some Maldivian citizens as this report shows.

Some views on what makes an election free and fair:
ACE Electoral Knowledge Network, Guiding Principles of Electoral Integrity.
Common Cause, Election Reform Agenda.
Australian Election Commission, What makes an election free and fair?

Postscript: India is going to give the Maldives anti-terror training. On whom will those guns be trained?

Southern States Update; August 16, 2007.

Police registered a case against the authorities of Calicut University for showing "disrespect" to the national flag, which was hoisted "upside down" on the Independence Day.

Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan claimed that Indo-US nuclear deal was the design of certain ''neo-imperialistic forces, holding sway in the country's decision-making process''.

If caste and language complicate the notion of Indian identity, ethnicity makes it worse. Most of the time, an Indian's name immediately reveals where he is from or what her mother-tongue is: when we introduce ourselves, we are advertising our origins.
Shashi Tharoor, Indian identity is forged in diversity. Every one of us is in a minority, The Guardian, August 15, 2007.

The Kerala Panchayat Raj Act envisages the need to prepare a citizen’s charter and it annual revision. Many panchayats do not attempt to frame a charter and even where it has been prepared, the services do not measure up to the standards mentioned in it.
N.J. Nair, Study finds flaws in Panchayati Raj, The Hindu, August 16, 2007.

Also See:
The CPM’s hardening stance was evident from a stern politburo release that asserted “the Prime Minister’s statement in Parliament does not shed any new light on the India-US Nuclear Agreement that calls for a reassessment on our part” and offered a point-by-point rebuttal of Singh’s claims.
Manini Chatterjee, Bush fuel in Left fire, The Telegraph, August 15, 2007.

Following the split in the Communist Party of India (CPI) in 1964, effective communist movements have been confined to West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. And the CPM has been in the vanguard when it comes to carrying out the peoples’ movement in these red bastions.
Tamal Sengupta, Left is only growing in Right company, Economic Times, August 15, 2007.

One strand in the knot of corruption is the legacy of the License Raj, which ended in the early 1990s. The system created bureaucracies that were all but self-perpetuating.
Will Growth Slow Corruption In India? Forbes, August 15, 2007.

Sri Lanka Update; August 12, 2007.

The UN’s aid chief John Holmes has said that Sri Lanka is among the most dangerous places on earth for humanitarian workers. He called on the government to probe civil war abuses and consider an international rights monitoring mission.
Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, Lanka a top danger spot for aid workers, The News, August 12, 2007.

The Foreign ministry has hit back at his comments by questioning the credibility of the UN office in Colombo, saying that they “have made a practice of hiding from their own headquarters in New York.”
Foreign Ministry hits back at Holmes’ comments, Sunday Times, August 12, 2007.

An escalating conflict in Sri Lanka has hindered plans to rid the country of anti-personnel mines, with both the government and the LTTE reluctant to give up use of the weapon.
Vathsala Yatagamage, Losing Battle, LBO, August 11, 2007.


Unlike those days of propaganda uncertainty so openly expressed by Kittu and Raheem some 20 years ago, the Tigers have become experts at putting over their message. They are not alone, as terror groups around the world now use the internet and the power of television to put across their distorted agendas.
David Williams, From bullets to bulletins, Nation on Sunday, August 12, 2007.

The Tamil community, who blindly worshipped the LTTE as their saviour, have now realised the bitter truth that they can no longer keep faith on them as their liberator as it is not capable of attaining their own liberation.
Tamil community no longer tolerates LTTE demands blindly, Sunday Observer, August 12, 2007.


Also See:
Countries indulge in diplomacy to secure advantages. At a time when the country needs the best of efforts to counter the huge propaganda campaign mounted against the country, and a surreptitious campaign to intervene in this country on so-called ‘humanitarian grounds,’ we appear to be going out of our way to make enemies of friends, particularly the powerful countries whose friendship we do most badly need in this war against the terrorist LTTE.
K. Godage, Diplomacy is too important to be left to amateurs, The Nation, August 12, 2007.

Unlike the decentralised jihadist movement, the LTTE is a centralised, hierarchical organisation commanded and controlled by its founding leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran.
Omar Karmi, Feeding the Tiger - how Sri Lankan insurgents fund their war, Jane's, August 10, 2007.

Southern States Update; August 10, 2007.

A shutdown call was given by Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Left parties and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the issue of distribution of land to poor in Andhra Pradesh. The opposition parties have been demanding the government to set up an independent body to oversee the land distribution process.

Four persons were killed and eight injured, when the police opened fire as the state-wide bandh called by the Left parties, to protest against police lathicharge on their activists recently, turned violent at Mudigonda village in Khammam district.
Andhra government orders inquiry into police firing at Khammam, Hindustan Times, July 28, 2007.

TDP leader N. Chandrababu Naidu accused the police of using AK-47 and self-loading rifles to fire at protestors. “Never before in the history of the state have such sophisticated weapons been used against political activists,” he said.
Nirmala Carvalho, People continue to die in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal over land, Asia Times, July 30, 2007.

How much compensation the victims’ families will get and when is anybody’s guess. But in the din over compensation and parties vying with each other to trash the government, the real issue has been missed. The state government declined the demand for booking a murder case under Section 302.
Ground to dust, Hindustan Times, July 30, 2007.

India, however, has been unable to handle the growing influence of Maoist rebels who have been striking at will in at least 10 Indian states, killing several thousands of people in last five years.
Kushal Jeena, India`s counter-terror strategy, M&C, August 9, 2007.

Also See:
As a teenager, Sunita herself had been gang raped. The incident made angry more than leaving her shattered. It was then that she started an anti-trafficking organisation, Prajwala.

Maldives Update; August 8, 2007.

The justice minister and attorney general from the Maldives have resigned, saying they were frustrated with delays in introducing democratic reforms to the tiny nation.
Maldives' ministers quit over 'delay' in democratic reforms, IHT, August 6, 2007.

President Gayoom has responded to the resignations by blaming parliament for the slow pace of reforms.
Ajay Makan, President Blames Parliament For Slow Reforms, Minivan News, August 7, 2007.

Maldives has been rocked by the news of four rapists receiving a light sentence after a judge decided that because the raped girl did not shout or scream, it meant she gave consent.
Nihan Zafar, Maldives: Secret Haven for Pedophiles, Global Voices, August 6, 2007.

Two lawyers witnessed police officers beating a detainee on Saturday night, and have submitted formal complaints to Police HQ, the Attorney General’s Office and the Maldives Human Rights Commission.
Ajay Makan, Caught In The Act: Lawyers Witness Police Beating Detainee, Minivan News, August
1, 2007.

The August 18 constitutional referendum is likely to take place without international observers. “SAARC do not have a mandate” for election observation, and “it will be difficult” for the EU and Commonwealth to “send teams at such short notice,” the Foreign Minister has said.
Ajay Makan, Referendum Without International Observers? Minivan News, July 30, 2007.

A UN report into the Maldivian legal system has found “it does not fulfil its fundamental role of administering fair and independent justice and safeguarding and protecting human rights.”
Ajay Makan, Legal System Requires Urgent Reform: UN, Minivan News, July 16, 2007.

Also See:
Warnings from a Warming World: World Meteorological Organization Reports on Extreme Weather Events,

Sri Lanka Update; August 8, 2007.

It is the irony of our times that 'R2P' should stand for the 'responsibility to protect', and not the 'right to protect', as should have been the case in the normal understanding of concepts such as 'State', its right and responsibilities.
N Sathiya Moorthy, Whose 'R2P' is it anyway? Daily Mirror, August 6, 2007.

Human Rights Watch Asia Director, Brad Adams, has said that "the Sri Lankan government has apparently given its security forces a green light to use 'dirty war' tactics," adding that "abuses by the LTTE are no excuse for the government's campaign of killings, 'disappearances' and forced returns of the displaced."
Michael Sung, Sri Lanka government rights abuses on the rise: HRW, Jurist, August 6, 2007.

Meanwhile Sri Lankan Government’s Peace Secretariat Head, Rajiva Wijesinha, has retorted stating that, the Human Rights Watch report on Sri Lanka is misleading, rife with contradictions and could be used by organizations like the LTTE to disrupt the democratically elected governments like Sri Lanka.
HRW report misleading says SL Peace Sec. Chief, Daily Mirror, August 8, 2007.

Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe added that the international community should offer constructive help instead of making ‘sweeping and subjective’ statements.
Manjula Fernando, Global community should offer constructive help - Human Rights Minister, Daily News, August 8, 2007.

India has sent more radars to Sri Lanka to help it ward off the threat of airborne attacks by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Sri Lanka is looking to bolster its military capabilities and the Air Force's share of this planned build up is worth nearly USD 300 million.
Iqbal Athas, Situation Report, Sunday Times, August 5, 2007.

"Sampur has been taken, Vakarai captured and the feather in the government’s cap, Thoppigala is ‘ours’ again. But elsewhere in this country, 17 families grieve for loved ones lost, for crimes gone unpunished, for disclosures never afforded to them. On behalf of my ‘elected representatives’, I hang my head in shame."
Dharisha Bastians, Have we no shame? Nation on Sunday, August 8, 2007.

Before taking the drastic step of stepping up the war in the north, the Rajapaksa government has a duty to present a reasonable political package that could be the basis for a just solution to the ethnic conflict, and is acceptable to moderate Tamil opinion. Only if such a political package is rejected by the LTTE should an offensive military campaign on the lines of the eastern campaign be contemplated for the north.
Jehan Perera, Pre-Condition for taking war from east to north, Daily Mirror, August 7, 2007.

President Rajpaksa has two options now to get out of the tight situation he is in parliament:
(1) he can mend his fences with the estranged Marxist and radical Sinhala JVP
(2) he could try and get three or four more defectors from the opposition UNP.
PK Balachandran, Indian Party's quitting puts Rajpaksa in a spot, Hindustan Times, August 3, 2007.

Five days after the government announced that Thoppigala, the last stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, had fallen and two days before Rajapaksa’s celebrations, the Eastern Province’s chief secretary, the topmost government official in the province, was shot dead. The crime sent a chilling message to the government that the battle was not over yet in the east.
Ameen Izzadeen, What does freedom really mean? Khaleej Times, July 24, 2007.

Sri Lanka Update; July 29, 2007.

The Indo-Lanka Peace Accord between India and Sri Lanka was signed by President J.R. Jayewardene (JRJ) and Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, 20-years to this date, on July 29, 1987. An analysis of the security situation in the past 20 years.
Keith Noyahr, Devolve or disintegrate, Nation on Sunday, July 29, 2007.

It was hailed as India's biggest diplomatic coup when it was signed amid violent street protests. 'Though the agreement is a dead letter, though neither government wants to give any life to it, there are some fundamental principles advocated in it that still remain a source of inspiration,' said S. Sahadevan, a South Asia expert at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Two decades of India-Sri Lanka peace accord, Zee News, July 29, 2007.

Indian troops deployed in Sri Lanka's northeast under the terms of the accord ended up fighting the Tigers for well over two years, losing nearly 1,200 men, before they returned home in March 1990.
M.R. Narayan Swamy, 'Why no memorial for the IPKF in India?', M&C News, July 29, 2007.

"It was a golden opportunity missed by the Tamils in fulfilling their political aspirations due to the war waged by the LTTE against the Indians." says The Eelam People's Democratic Party leader and Minister of Social Services Douglas Devananda.

In an interview on July 12, 2007, the LTTE political wing leader, S.P. Tamilselvan, declared "our targets would be in the future major military and economic structures of the Government. They will be targets which help the Government sustain its military operations."
Ajit Kumar Singh, Vigilance the key as LTTE suffers serial defeats, Daily News, July 27, 2007.

Amidst war euphoria and celebrations, Colombo’s Anglican Bishop Rt Revd. Duleep de Chickera has strongly warned against the investment of the war agenda in the lives of our children.
Nikhil Mustaffa, Fighting the good fight, Daily Mirror, July 26, 2007.

Also See:

Neelan: Why did LTTE kill him? Sunday Times, July 29, 2007.

Neelan was one of the very few Tamils who dared to provide an alternative to Eelam says Sydney Knight in Tamil Week.

International Aid and Human Rights Violations in Sri Lanka, Human Rights Features, SAHRDC, June 15, 2007.