Engineer immolates self for Sri Lankan Tamils' cause
--thehindu--
April 19, 2011 23:25 IST | Updated: April 19, 2011 23:31 IST TIRUNELVELI, April 19, 2011

A young engineer from a poor family of a sleepy hamlet in Tirunelveli district immolated himself on Monday, apparently as an expression of sympathy to Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Though 23-year-old R. Krishnamurthy, an electrical and electronics engineer from Sundaresapuram under Kuruvikulam police station limits, had not discussed anything about the Sri Lankan issue with his friends, according to his cousin Suresh, also an engineer, he was very disturbed after coming to his birthplace from Rajasthan, where he works.

Suicide note

The suicide note stated that the Tamils, who were tortured by the Sinhalese, should be compensated adequately.

“The new government in Tamil Nadu should not assume office until a separate State for Sri Lankan Tamils is ensured.”

The letter admired the “valour” of Muthukumar, who killed himself in Chennai in protest against the killing of Sri Lankan Tamils.

According to Krishnamurthy's mother R. Subbulakshmi, her son asked her to prepare tea around 5 a.m. Even as she was preparing it, Krishnamurthy poured petrol and immolated himself. She tried to save her son and suffered burns.

“Even after sustaining serious burns all over the body, my son was saying that the Tamils in Tamil Nadu should do something to save the Sri Lankan Tamils,” she said.

Arrangement for mother's treatment

Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary Vaiko, who met the bereaved family at Seegampatti on Tuesday morning, made immediate arrangements for taking Ms. Subbulakshmi to a Madurai-based multi-specialty hospital.

Sri Lanka's Vindictive Peace
BY SOMA ILANGOVAN | MAY 17, 2010
--ForeignPolicy.com--

Last May, Sri Lankan soldiers captured the final piece of land held by the separatist Tamil Tigers, killing hundreds of rebel fighters, including the group's leader, and definitively ending a 26-year civil war that claimed as many as 100,000 lives. On May 19, the first anniversary of the war's end, however, there is little to celebrate. As many as 93,000 Tamils remain in detention camps and transit centers, while 11,700 more (of which 550 are children) are being held as ex-combatants without charges, denied access to an attorney or their families. Conditions in the camps and prisons are appalling, with human rights groups documenting cases of torture and rape, in addition to poor housing, health, sanitation, and education facilities.

This is not what peace is supposed to look like. And the centers and camps are only the most visible symptom of the Sri Lankan government's apparent disinterest in genuine reconciliation. Far from ending the root conflict, the end of fighting has left the island as ethnically divided as ever, undermining the prospects for a durable peace and regional stability. In many ways, Sri Lanka has simply traded the horror of war for conflict of another, more tedious, continuous sort: a two-tiered society in which Tamils are kept at the bottom. (cont...)

According to an ancient Sri Lankan source, the Mahavamsa, Greek monks seem to have been active proselytizers of Buddhism during the time of Menander: the Yona (Greek) Mahadhammarakkhita (Sanskrit: Mahadharmaraksita) is said to have come from "Alasandra" (thought to be Alexandria of the Caucasus, the city founded by Alexander the Great, near today’s Kabul) with 30,000 monks for the foundation ceremony of the Maha Thupa ("Great stupa") at Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka, during the 2nd century BC:

"From Alasanda the city of the Yonas came the thera ("elder") Yona Mahadhammarakkhita with thirty thousand bhikkhus." (Mahavamsa, XXIX)

--wiki--

Eireks saga víðförla
--wiki--

Eireks saga víðförla is a legendary saga on a Norwegian who travels to Miklagard and then to India and beyond in search of Údáinsakr (the Deathless Acre), and returns. It merges the Údáinsakr of Norse mythology with the notion of heaven in Christianity.
The two Eireks, a second friend joins the Hero from Denmark, to Constinople, India, Sri Lanka and on.

Sri Lanka execution video authentic - UN envoy
19:17 GMT, Thursday, 7 January 2010
--bbc.co.uk--

Video apparently showing extra-judicial killings by Sri Lankan troops is genuine, a UN envoy has said. UN special rapporteur Philip Alston said three independent experts had confirmed the video was authentic, renewing calls for a war crime inquiry. The footage - which Sri Lanka says is fabricated - shows a man dressed as a soldier shooting a man in the head. It was allegedly filmed in January during the final stages of the bloody conflict with Tamil Tigers rebels. The government in Colombo said it concluded the video was fake after conducting its own investigation.

Bodies on ground

But Mr Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extra-judicial killings, told reporters: "The conclusion clearly is that the video is authentic." He said the video had been examined by three US-based independent investigators. He named them as Peter Diaczuk, an expert in firearms evidence, Daniel Spitz, a prominent forensic pathologist, and Jeff Spivack, an expert in forensic video analysis. At the same time he noted that there were "a small number of characteristics of the video which the experts were unable to explain". "Each of these characteristics can, however, be explained in a manner entirely consistent with the conclusion that the videotape appears to be authentic," he added. The UN official also called on the Sri Lankan government to hold an independent inquiry into possible war crimes committed by both sides of the conflict. It is not clear where the footage, which also shows other bodies on the ground, was taken. The video was provided to the BBC and other media organisations by a group called Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, which said it showed "the reality of the behaviour of the government forces during the war". Government troops finally defeated the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) last May after months of fierce fighting. Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka said the video had been taken in January 2009 using a mobile phone. Sri Lankan troops finally defeated the Tamil Tigers last May - after nearly 40 years of ethnic bloodshed that left more than 70,000 people dead.