Sri Lankan Army provides opportunities for children of the Eastern Province

Despite the military operations happening in the North and the need to stay the firm won peace in the East, the Sri Lankan Army often finds time for other behavior of benefit to the people. These comprise all from sports festivals and educational shows to trade fairs and developed exhibitions. One regular programme includes the organisation of trips to Colombo for schoolchildren from the East.
More than 1,300 children from 26 schools participated during 2007 and 2008, and the Army hopes to carry on its work in 2009 and beyond. They include Tamil, Sinhala and English medium students, providing an opportunity for all ethnicities to mingle jointly and learn from knowledge the lessons of pleasant-sounding coexistence.
The trips are instructive as well as pleasant, because for most of the children it is the primary time they are embarking on such a long trip and the first time they are visiting the city. It is a new and well deserved knowledge after pain from the crash of decades of war in the East.
Dehiwela Zoo, Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, State Museum, Lake House, Milco organization, Planetarium, Government Department of Information and free time World are in the middle of the places usually visited. Groups of 60 students come with teachers and parents, and they wait in Colombo for three days. Even the adults take enjoyment in themselves, with many of them also visiting the city for the primary time.
Thanks to the Sri Lankan Army, the children have the chance to learn that there is a world further than difference and that people from all communities can live jointly in calm and take pleasure in the simple pleasures of life.

U.S. Government renovates seven schools and one hospital in Eastern Province

U.S. Ambassador Robert Blake prepares to lay the first stone at the groundbreaking at Navatkadu Hospital in Batticaloa District. With funding from the U.S. Pacific Command, USAID will also rehabilitate two schools in Batticaloa District and five schools in Trincomalee District. All facilities were seriously damaged by fighting and neglect during the conflict.
To get better the lives of Sri Lankans affected by the disagreement, the U.S. Government, through the U.S. Agency for global Development (USAID) and the U.S. Pacific Command, is rehabilitating five schools in Trincomalee District and one sanatorium and two schools in Batticaloa District.
U.S. Government officials joined nationwide, local and local teaching and physical condition officials, group of people leaders, school and hospital employees, students and their families, and restricted inhabitants this week for the bureaucrat groundbreaking ceremonies to mark the beginning of the renovation and growth projects in eight communities in Trincomalee and Batticaloa. All projects are listed to be finished by July 2009.
The buildings chosen for repair provide essential communal services to civilians whose lives have been frequently disrupted by armed fighting for as long as two decades. In more than a few of the communities, inhabitants were displaced and not all have returned to the area.
"The U.S. Government is satisfied to support the people of Batticaloa and Trincomalee Districts whose lives have been disrupted by the conflict," stated U.S. diplomat Robert Blake.
"In villages such as Amman Nagar and Arafa Nagar in Trincomalee District, and Pulipanjakal in Batticaloa District, some residents have not yet returned because they are to come for the schools to fully reopen. At other schools, such as Arasadithivu Vigneswara Vidyalayam in the Manmunai Southwest Division of Batticaloa, facilities are overcrowded because classrooms have been badly upset or destroyed. And at the Navatkadu Hospital, facilities for in-patient care are extremely limited, making it hard or not possible for community members to get the health care action they need close to home," Blake continued.
With financial support from the U.S. Pacific Command, part of the U.S. Department of Defense, USAID is rehabilitating these amenities as fraction of the U.S. Government's caring outreach to improve stability and excellence of life in the area. Since 2003, USAID has supported more than 770 small-grant activities promoting community settlement and tsunami revival in government-forbidden areas of the country.
"USAID is pleased to associate with the U.S. Pacific Command to make sure these communities receive better schools and health care facilities," said USAID Mission Director Rebecca Cohn. "Altogether, we are constructing 64 new classrooms and renovating more than 13 damaged classrooms in seven schools, as long as more space for hundreds of students and their teachers. And, structure three new wards at the Navatkadu Hospital will ensure there are 63 beds to take care of local inhabitants when they need medical attention," she continued.
These labors hold up the U.S. Government's wider goal of helping to steady and develop Eastern Sri Lanka so terrorism can never take root in the region again.
The American people, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, have provided growth and caring help in developing countries worldwide for nearly 50 years. Since 1946, USAID/Sri Lanka has invested nearly $2 billion to benefit all the populace of Sri Lanka.

FM urges expatriate Lankans in Australia to unite to build prosperous Nation

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama underlined the fact that Sri Lanka was home to Tamils now as it was for Sinhalese, Moors and other ethnic groups and exhorted all Sri Lankans living in Australia to join together in building a wealthy Sri Lanka.
He made this call during his speech last Wednesday at the Sydney Centre for International Law (SCIL) of the University of Sydney on the theme "From Terrorism to Democracy, Rule of Law and Development: Eastern Province of Sri Lanka."
The Minister traced the history of the disagreement in Sri Lanka, beginning with the murder of Jaffna Mayor, Alfred Duraiappah in 1975, and various attempts by successive governments for negotiations, commencing with the Thimpu talks of 1985, up to the truce agreement of 2002.
One strand that ran through all these talks, Minister Bogollagama stated was the reliable lack of genuine commitment and interest by the LTTE towards a negotiated settlement.
The Foreign Minister provided a succinct impression of the Eastern Reawakening Programme, which has at its core, the rehabilitation of infrastructure, stipulation of livelihood and the reinstatement of democracy.
He elaborated on the successful end of elections in the Province and the appearance of Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, a one-time child soldier of the LTTE as the democratically chosen Chief Minister.
He also cited the entry into Parliament of Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, a former LTTE leader, as yet another significant development. Today, he said, "the rule of law had taken origin in the Province with the legal system and the police being fully operational."
Minister Bogollagama stated that as a result of all these developments, savings from the confidential division were also flowing into the Province.
"It was the Government aim to mirror the developments in the Eastern Province in the North once terrorism is overcome and normalcy is restored," he said.
A vibrant question and answer session followed, with Foreign Minister Bogollagama clarifying a range of issues raised by the Spectators.
Answering a question raised on Internally Displaced Persons, the Minister affirmed that the Government had zero broadmindedness towards civilian casualties, alike to its policy on child soldiers.
Therefore, the military is moving slowly to clear uncleared areas in the Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi districts.
He additional that an alternative route to the A9 had been available for the people to leave these areas and to move into the camps in cleared areas. Minister Bogollagama explained to the audience that safeguarding human human rights was enshrined in the Constitution of Sri Lanka stated that the Government had appointed a Commission of question to look into the allegations of human RIGHTS violations.
However, progress is slow owing to the judicial process involved.
The Minister explained that while engaging the LTTE to liberate the people, other issues will be solved only through a political answer as emphasised by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.