04 Jan 2005

The Tsunami: Some Security Aspects
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, India
Supplied note: "The latest paper of the Institute For Topical Studies, A-2/3, Bharathi Dasan Colony, K.K.Nagar, Chennai---600078, India, on the above subject is now available at the web site of the South Asia Analysis Group (SAAG), New Delhi, at [the URL below] - br."
[Extract: "3. The fact that about a half, if not over a half, of the fatalities in Sri Lanka are of the Sri Lankan Tamils in these two provinces has not been highlighted either by the Sri Lankan authorities or by the media. [...]
4. According to statistics circulated by the web sites of pro-LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) organisations in the West, 16,656 Tamils have been killed---14,212 of them in the Eastern Province and the remaining in the Northern Province. 18,481 are missing--- 13,731 of them in the Eastern Province and the remaining in the Northern Province. [...]
6. The LTTE has been alleging that the Government has not been paying the same attention to the relief and rehabilitation of the minority Tamils as it has been doing for the majority Sinhalese and that the Tamil minority areas are not getting their fair share of the international assistance flowing in.
7. Even if one allows for a certain level of disinformation by the LTTE for exploiting the present situation to win back the loyalty of the Tamils of the Eastern Province, [...], the emergence of perceptions even in some sections of the Tamil population that they are being treated as second class citizens in the matter of relief and rehabilitation would further alienate the Tamils from the Sinhalese and add to the difficulties of finding a negotiated solution to the Tamil problem." - b.raman]
[The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Distinguished Fellow and Convenor, Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Chennai Chapter - ed.]
URL http://www.saag.org/papers13/paper1211.html
Internet Archive (www.archive.org) [the paper was not archived at the time of this abstract. However, in a few weeks time it will be available at web.archive.org/web/*/www.saag.org]
Link reported by: B. Raman (corde--at--vsnl.com)
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