by Kath Noble

Some people would have us believe that the global struggle for human rights received an important boost last week. The United Nations held its annual elections for seats on the Human Rights Council and Sri Lanka was beaten into the runner up position in the Asian region by Japan, Bahrain, South Korea and Pakistan. 

Nothing worries a person more than the feeling that he has no chance of succeeding in life. One may come to terms with a bad hair day or two, but what about two decades of failure? That is too much for one to resign oneself to. What one is in for finally when an enterprise one has invested one’s whole life in teeters on the verge of collapse is frustration. This has been Prabhakaran’s predicament. His two-and-a-half decade long struggle has taken him nowhere near his goal. The dark empire for the establishment of which he destroyed so many lives is crumbling before his own eyes. Its eastern wing is already gone and there has emerged a popularly elected new leader! The LTTE is being encircled on several fronts in the Wanni with his trusted lieutenants falling one by one. He is getting beaten at his own game, something he may have considered impossible in the heyday of his terror.

A memorial meeting organised by Mrs Rajes Balasubramaniam at the London Sivan Kovil Hall in Lewisham for Late Maheswari Velautham has been sabotaged by the LTTE activists. The Shiva temple managed by the LTTE agreed to hire their hall for the event and when publicity was reaching all corners of London, the Board of Trustees wholly consisting of LTTE activists, cancelled the booking.

According to information, the Trustees have said that they cannot allow anyone undermining the LTTE and accused the Late Maheswary Velautham as a traitor to the cause.

On an initiative taken by Major General GA Chandrasiri, the Commander of Security Forces, Jaffna to donate Desktop Computers and school books to schools in Jaffna and the Islands, which produced the most outstanding results at the last GCE (A/L) examination held in 2007, the Peace Secretariat (SCOPP) agreed to facilitate the collection and distribution of goods for school children.