Sri Lanka: Punnaku figurines at London conference
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Monday, 08 October 2007 |
This week's lead story in the Sri Lankan government operated weekly Sunday Observer, Sri Lanka's English newspaper with the largest circulation, titled 'UK Tamils Peace Consortium for political solution' has caused much confusion due to the fictional characters who had attended the event.
According to the article, 'British Parliamentarian on Sri Lankan Affairs Alon Lov' had led the event.
A search of the UK directory of parliamentarians found on the web at http://www.parliament.uk/directories/directories.cfm shows that there is no British parliamentarian by the name of Alon Lov.
Further, the article claims that one Councillor Bashir also attended the event. Again digging through directories of Councillors around Britain led us to be able to firmly state that Councillor Bashir is also a fictional creation of Sunday Observer.
As for the rest of the story, on Saturday, 29 September the EPDP paramilitary group leader Douglas Devananda held a meeting with key paramilitary representatives in London.
The meeting was held at a student dormitory at the University of East London, where one Nirmala Raghavan works as an administrative help.
The meeting was attended to by former EPDP head of Jaffna islets Napoleon, Hindu temple owner Dr Rajasigham Jayadevan, unemployed Vishvalingam Sivalaingam, alleged international head of operations for the Jihad group Sayeed Bazeer and TULF starlet Paul Sathyanathan.
Given below is the full article as it appeared in the Sunday Observer of 07 October 2007:
A British Parliamentarian on Sri Lankan Affairs Alon Lov along with members of the Tamils Peace Consortium in the United Kingdom have pledged their support to expedite the political process in finding a settlement to the ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka. They have also denounced LTTE violence.
The Tamils Peace Consortium in London organised a discussion on exploring ways and means of expediting the peace process in Sri Lanka at the University of East London last week.The Minister and the Eelam People's Democratic Party Secretary General Douglas Devananda who was in London after his participation at the UN Assembly Sessions was the key speaker at the consortium.
The Tamils Peace Consortium of UK consisted of several Tamil professionals holding top positions in various fields.
Minister Devananda presented his party's three-phased resolution to the Sri Lankan crisis and called upon the Tamil expatriates in London as well as in other parts of the world to support the initiatives taken by President Rajapaksa to deal with the Sri Lankan crisis.
Devananda also spoke about the meetings President Rajapaksa had in New York with representatives of the international community who have expressed concern over the Sri Lankan situation.
The participants at the event pledged support in finding a political solution to the Sri Lankan crisis unanimously. They said that the conflict could not be addressed militarily and the LTTE should return to the peace process without any reservations.
The participants also expressed concern over the difficulties faced by innocent civilians in the North and East due to the closure of the A-9 highway in the north.
The British Parliamentarian Alon Lov, an observer at the event said that the crisis in Sri Lanka could only be settled politically and the British Government would continue to support the political initiatives adopted in settling the Sri Lankan crisis.
A veteran Tamil political analyst Sivalingam presided. Dr. Bala and Paraman, Councillor Bashir, a renowned writer Rajeswari Balasubramaniam, leftist politicians Gangatharan and Paul Sathyanathan also participated in the discussion.
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