There Seems to be a Collective Paralysis!

News today, Thursday, 15 June 2006, is that countless women, children and others have been killed in a claymore mine attack near the Sri Lankan Holy City of Anuradhapura. The bomb was clearly detonated to coincide with the return to Kilonochchi of the LTTE team sent to the abortive Oslo talks. Claymore mines, one of the most deadly land mine devices used in Sri Lanka, are detonated by remote devices and this one was clearly done knowing the civilians on the bus, women and children, would be killed in large numbers. The Tamil Tigers immediately claimed they had nothing to do with the attack and called it "senseless violence used for political ends," but Government of Sri Lanka air force jets follow with a bombing raid on Tigers controlled Mullaithivu, clearly indicating the Government of Sri Lanka thought otherwise. Whither the peace process?

The Norwegians have fallen short of announcing their suspension of attempts at facilitating more talks, having so conspicuously failed in Oslo last week, but their frustration is evident. Both sides say they are still committed to a cease fire, agreed 2003, but their actions suggest otherwise. The recent spate of massacres by as yet unidentified groups affecting civilians in both ethnic divide suggests that the will to bring about a real peace process just isn’t there no matter what the ‘international community’ does.

The Tigers’ increasing use of the language of a para-state, suggesting a self elective ‘sovereignty’, and the southern Government’s own flouting of its own constitutional provisions suggests the development of a hybrid Sri Lankan state. To talk in this context of a unitary or federal state is almost nonsensical. There seems to be a collective paralysis among many of those engaged in conflict transformation – all avenues tried and retried but we head unhindered back to a massively destructive war.

The Tsunami offered no opportunity to re-think the purpose of nationhood,

Mid June now and peace seems further way following the chaos of the Oslo meetings last week. Or non- meetings as the media portrays it this weekend. Of course as ever each sides blames the other and no one accepts responsibility which is true of the recent spate of horrific massacres, Alaipiddy, Welikanda and now Vankalai.

The LTTE could clearly have said before arriving in Oslo, for what they now say they saw as bi-lateral talks with Norway and the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission countries, that they were not prepared to meet the Sr Lankan Government delegation face to face. They left this to the first day of the meetings. What an enormous gamble wth destiny and what a colossal waste of time. Now who pays for all this waste? And in demanding that the SLMM monitors from EU countries now withdraw from the SLMM as a consequence of the formal banning of the LTTE as a terrorist organisation in Europe, who is supposed to pay for the new monitors? Surely not the LTTE! And why should it be paid for by the much pilloried Norwegians? It is of course the civilians who finally pay with their lives.

The SLMM also choose last week to release their latest report on the Cease Fire Agreement and its findings are fairly damning of both the LTTE and the Government. It makes dismal reading but the Government response shows absolutely no sign of culpability. With such a low level of confidence from both parties how can the SLMM continue? Most observers here feel the CFA is now only honoured in the breach. With seemingly all avenues now exhausted to get compliance to the ceasefire we all wait in dread for the wholesale reversion to war and the tremendous loss of life and development opportunity, which Sri Lanka will almost certainly suffer.

The tragedy of the Tsunami offered no opportunity to re-think the purpose of nationhood, turning it to uniting and not dividing peoples. It seems at the beginning of this week that the real and lasting monument to the many 10s of thousands who died in both the war and the Tsunami, will not be The Peace as we had all hoped, prayed and worked for.

Free Open Source Software is really the way to go for many of our small development partners

WHAT IS FOSS?

Free Open Source Software is really the way to go for many of our small development partners here in Sri Lanka. I learnt this recently at a workshop in May hosted by Lankanet, one of CAFOD’s longest partners in Sri Lanka.

As World Trade Organisations rules get tighter; rules which struggling economies of places like Sri Lanka are impelled to implement, then access to standard software becomes more expensive. However there is really no longer a need for most organisations to run standard proprietary software, such as Microsoft operating systems or MS office packages, and pay the expensive licenses they demand.

All the standard, and many not so standard, software needs can now be satisfied by FOSS, Free Open Source Software. This is truly free software often developed by a global network of enthusiasts seeking to promote access to IT for all levels of society and really bridg the digital divide.

CAFOD’s partners in Information Technology in Sri Lanka, Lankanet, have taken this a step further. They have developed a whole office network, (one server and up to 10 clients), which can provide a fast and efficient modern networked office at a fraction of the price of a standard network of office PCs. This is known as a Thin Client Network where only one Pentium 4 PC is necessary and up to 10 old Pentium 2s or 3s can be networked using LINUX based software.

Included in this package is the Fedora Operating System, which is now almost indistinguishable from Windows XP, and ‘openoffice.com’ which provides a package of software that rivals MS Office. The big plus here is to be able to run on low memory and old PC at speeds, which make them seem practically new. This is simply done by running each of the clients (the older PCs) directly off the main Pentium 4 or equivalent, PC using a router and special LINUX networking software. The second major bonus is the whole system is practically free of virus attacks.

Now the time has arrived when free software can really bring free access nearer to reality but convincing people to change is not easy. Well the people attending this opening workshop were convinced – now to get them trained up to set up networks in their own offices is the next task. Good luck lankanet!

Sugandhini had suffered from asthma - a message from a CAFOD friend

Dear Friends

Really thank you! I was only able to read your mail around 10 pm June 6th . That was the time I was finally able to sit and read through emails. I was in and out for the whole day for very a important reason.

I was really disappointed having the experiences around injustices and very few even care those who try do some work for justice.

Just I want to share my day………

Yesterday, June 5^th 2006, we received news about a girl who had died, that morning, in the Negombo prison due to asthma.

Sugandhini, aged 26, from Jaffna, was a Tamil and had been on her way to Europe when she was deported from Amman, Jordan, back to Sri lanka on the 31^st January 2006. Since then she had been in the Negombo prison together with another 400 detainees being held on similar cases.

Sugandhini had suffered from asthma for a long time, according to her relatives so her parents had tried several times to get bail but each time it was rejected. Earlier morning on June 5^th, according to her friends, she was in her prison cell screaming and begging for help. She continued for nearly 3 hours, her two cell mates also made knocking noises on the cell windows yet no officer came.

Then finally around 4.20 am she was admitted to the Negombo hospital but according to the doctors there they said it was too late, they couldn’t do anything, she was pronounced dead.

Sugandhini’s mother and here relatives came from Jaffna this morning for the postmortem. It’s really sad that none of her relatives could speak The Sinhala language and the doctor couldn’t speak Tamil. But still there must be an inquiry. It was really good that I and our Tamil edition coordinator were available and volunteered to translate.

After the postmortem the body was brought to a funeral parlor in Negombo town and around 10pm was taken to Jaffna.

Since 10am we were fully engaged on this issue.

We actually heared, in the funeral parlor, that some RS 25000 had been given in payments for the officers from the police to the prison. This was according to the relatives. As a Sinhalese I really felt ashamed and just cannot believe how these persons can do such inhuman practices to such people.

According to them the payments were, for the special vehicle to transport the body to Jaffna RS 30,000.00, for the funeral palor RS 45000.00 but then bribes of RS 25,000.00

What a world?

I was just thinking whether I should share some very personal things ….. During the course of all these journeys today my motor bike stopped. It had run out of petrol. I had only RS 40 in my pocket which is not enough to fill the tank with petrol. Then Sahaj, our Muslim friend, offered some money which solved the problem.

During the day there had been no time to even have lunch but around 4pm we went to a hotel, in the Muslim area of Negombo, just to have tea. We then saw a few people reading our Tamil news paper. Our friend approach the people reading the paper and asked about the newspaper not saying that we had any link with it. They said they very much appreciated it and even directed us where to buy one. We went to the shop they had directed us to but no more papers! All were sold.

Then with all these feeling and tiredness sat on the chair in front of the computer to read emails then I so your mail.

That’s why in the very beginning that I wrote Really thanks.

I feel free now, the time is 4 am on June 7th .

In solidarity