American Buddhist Net

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – The United Nations condemned a "bloodbath" in Sri Lanka's northern war zone Monday after two days of shelling that a government doctor said killed as many as 1,000 ethnic Tamil civilians — including 106 children.

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The bitter endgame of Sri Lanka’s civil war may have provided its bloodiest day yet after 378 civilians trapped inside the conflict zone were reportedly killed by a barrage of government artillery. A further 1,100 civilians were said to have been wounded.

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The arrival of Buddhism from India 2,500 years ago brought with it a reverence for all living beings — and a royal decree establishing the world’s first wildlife sanctuary. A quick guide to the popular wildlife reserves today…

It was in 306 BCE that Buddhism first came to Sri Lanka from India when the missionary monk Arahat Mahinda was sent by Emperor Ashoka to convey the Buddha’s message to his colleague, the Sri Lankan king Devanampiya Tissa.

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A British Channel 4 News team has been arrested in Sri Lanka after reporting allegations of abuse in camps for displaced Tamils, the broadcaster said.

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by Dr. Sharif Abdullah

...Fast forward 100 years. Take this doctrine of cultural arrogance to a different continent and a different culture. Have it based not on the color of skin (everybody in Sri Lanka is some shade of brown) but on language and cultural behaviors.

The Recipe for Cultural Arrogance:

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By Mitu Sengupta

The Tamil Tigers are the product, not the cause, of Sri Lanka’s deadly politics.

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Well-worth reading. ABN

KUALA LUMPUR: For the third year, the Sri Lankan government has donated three corneas to help needy Malaysians see again, thanks to the Buddhist Maha Vihara.

The corneas, from the Sri Lanka Eye Bank, were handed to the Tun Hussein Onn National Eye Hospital recently. The hospital will decide on the recipients soon.

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Buddhist mobs have attacked several churches in Sri Lanka, threatening to kill a pastor and ransacking a 150-year-old Methodist church building in the capital. Four Buddhist extremists approached the home of pastor Pradeep Kumara, calling for him to come out and threatening to kill him. The pastor said his wife, at home alone with their two children, phoned him immediately but by the time he returned the men had left. Half an hour later, Kumar said, the leader of the group phoned him and again threatened to kill him if he did not leave the village by the following morning.

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The war grinds to a close, leaving a human catastrophe in its wake

WITH loudhailers hitched to the tallest palmyrah trees, Tamil-speaking soldiers of the Sri Lanka army had for weeks been urging civilians inside a dwindling strip of territory held by the rebel Tamil Tigers to break through their cordon and flee. But since April 20th, when the army burst an embankment at Putumattalan, the authorities have been overwhelmed by the thousands pouring out. The Tigers’ defences were less to keep the army out than to fence the civilians in.

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Artillery shells hit a makeshift hospital in Sri Lanka's northern war zone yesterday, killing at least 64 civilians, according to a government doctor and a website linked to the Tamil Tiger separatists, amid growing international pressure to safeguard thousands of civilians trapped in the area.

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Apr 29, Colombo: Sri Lanka's Buddhist monks today protested against the intervention of United Kingdom in the country's internal problems.

The monks of Buddhist nationalist party, Jathika Hela Urumay staged a peaceful protest campaign against the visit of British foreign secretary David Miliband outside the British High Commission in capital Colombo this afternoon.

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Britain, France fail to halt Sri Lankan war against LTTE

COLOMBO - BUDDHIST monks led a demonstration outside the British High Commission in Colombo on Wednesday to protest against the visit of foreign minister David Miliband, witnesses said.

Monk legislators from the ruling coalition accused Mr Miliband, who arrived in Colombo earlier on Wednesday with his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner, of supporting 'terrorism'. The two ministers are in Sri Lanka to press demands for a ceasefire in the government's war against Tamil Tiger rebels.

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...Downtown Toronto yesterday found itself an unwitting ground zero of a fight thousands of kilometres away in Sri Lanka, where the Buddhist-dominated government is fighting the Hindu Tamil separatists. Morning and evening rush-hour traffic had to find alternate routes, snarling the downtown, but police showed no signs of moving the demonstrators gathered in front of the U. S. consulate.

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The Sri Lankan government is engaged in what it sees as its final battle to defeat the dwindling Tamil Tiger forces in the north of the country. It ignores all pleas, including now from the United Nations, to suspend fighting in order to release thousands of men women and children to safety.

The ghastly civil war in Sri Lanka, that has been raging for more than 25 years, appears to be ending in what an International Red Cross worker called “Nothing short of a catastrophe”. As the Sri Lankan Army broke through what appeared to be the last defences of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on 20 April, tens of thousands of terrorised civilians poured out in a dazed mass. Hundreds of thousands, including an estimated 50,000 children, had been trapped in a tiny strip of land euphemistically called by the government a ‘no-fire’ zone but described by a Human Rights Watch director as “one of the most dangerous places in the world”.

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More than 6,400 Sri Lankan civilians have been killed and 14,000 injured in fighting between the army and Tamil Tiger rebels since mid-January, according to the United Nations.

The figures were not made public by the UN, but were circulated among foreign embassies in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, and released to the media by a foreign diplomat.

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Colombo, April 22 (IANS) Two Tamil Tiger leaders surrendered to the Sri Lankan military as the mass of distraught Tamil civilians fleeing the war zone crossed the 100,000 figure Wednesday, the authorities said.

Stunned by the continuing human avalanche out of Puthumathalan area in Mullaitivu district, the government hurriedly sent 25,000 food packets by helicopter from Colombo to feed the hungry civilians, whose welfare has raised global concern.

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(CNN) -- The Sri Lankan offensive against the faltering Tamil Tiger rebel movement has killed or wounded "significant numbers," and thousands are trapped by the fighting, the United Nations said Wednesday.

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NEW DELHI, India -- The Sri Lankan government gave the Tamil Tiger rebels 24 hours to surrender Monday after as many as 35,000 civilians, allegedly being held by rebels as human shields, poured through a broken rebel barricade to flee the last Tiger stronghold, officials said.

The Sri Lankan air force released videos showing harried families traversing lagoons and swampy fields to a nearby beach, while others headed south to heavily restricted government camps for food, shelter and medical care.

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PARIS, April 20 (Reuters) - Around 180 people were arrested and four injured in Paris on Monday during an unauthorised protest by Tamils that turned violent, a police spokesman said.

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A Sri Lankan police officer is seen here standing outside the Norwegian embassy in Colombo on April 20, 2009. Demonstrators, led by the all Buddhist party, the JHU, demanded that Colombo shut down the embassy following the government's decision to dismiss Oslo as a peace broker. The demonstrator's demands also comes after an attack on the Sri Lankan embassy in Norway by Tamil demonstrators on April 12.

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Monks demand closure of Norway embassy in Sri Lanka

Tue Apr 14, 2009: Sri Lanka says Norway out of peace talks after attack

Release International has received reports of death threats against a Christian pastor and intimidation from Buddhists and Hindus aimed at preventing worship services from taking place.

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COLOMBO: Demonstrators led by a handful of Buddhist monks staged a protest in Colombo yesterday demanding the shutting down of the embassy of Norway, the former peace broker in Sri Lanka.

The small group of activists shouted anti-Norway slogans outside the compound, which was protected by armed police.

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High level professional parents, G/B, seek suitable partner for their daughter, age 37, height 5’2”, medium complexion, young looking pleasing personality, highly qualified with Ph.D in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, presently holding post-doc position, both prestigious universities in U.S.A. Horoscope essential.

Respectable Buddhist D/G professional parents seek academically and professionally qualified partner for their pretty fair complexioned daughter 27 yrs. 5’6” tall. She had her education at a leading private girls’ school. Professionally qualified (BSc MBA) and employed in a private bank as an executive. She owns a car and will inherit a three bedroom house in Colombo. Reply with family details and copy of horoscope.

Buddhist Deva wealthy parents directors of a large group of companies in Colombo seek a suitable partner below 30 years teetotaller with sober habits for their only daughter youngest in the family 24+ years 5’ slim medium complexion medical graduate currently undergoing internship training. Caste immaterial. Reply with horoscope and family details.

Respectable Govi Buddhist mother seeks academically and professionally qualified partner below 42 with sober habits for fair attractive daughter 37, 5’4” IT qualified owns modern house at Battaramulla cash 7.5 million coconut rubber and paddy lands worth millions. Stable income. Respond with family details and horoscope.

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Apr 13, Colombo: A top Buddhist delegation from Thailand will arrive in the country today on an invitation from the Sri Lankan government.

The delegation comprising 150 members including university professors in Thailand will visit Sri Lanka on an invitation from Urban Development and Sacred Area Development Minister Dinesh Gunawardena.

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Not even 25 years of war in Sri Lanka has changed the Sinhalese conviction that their society is unitary, not plural

David Cameron

For decades, Sri Lanka has been living through a tragedy of its own making. Its modern history is a cautionary tale of lost opportunity and self-inflicted damage. When it achieved independence from Britain in 1948, the people of Ceylon, as it was then called, had every reason to believe that their country would be a leader in South Asia, setting the pace for economic development and the improvement of the lives of its citizens. Wantonly beautiful, endowed with a well-educated population, a glorious climate and abundant resources, and located strategically on the major sea lanes of the region, the country seemed to have everything going for it. People could have been forgiven for believing that the next 50 years would bring unparalleled national growth and prosperity.

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Colombo, April 9 (DPA) A Turkish ship transporting sulphuric acid sank off Sri Lanka’s north-eastern coast Thursday, three days after attempts to repair a leak in the vessel failed, a navy spokesman said. The ship had sailed from Tuticorin in India.

Sulphuric acid is widely used for lead-acid batteries for vehicles.

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The Minnesota Buddhist Vihara has made elaborate arrangements to impress the cultural significance of the Aluth Avurudda (Sinhala and Tamil New Year) upon the expanding Sri Lankan diaspora, as well as their local and foreign friends, in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, including the many surrounding cities constituting the metropolis.

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Colombo -- Exuding confidence that LTTE will never "raise its head again" after it suffered a string of military defeats at the hands of the Sri Lankan Army, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has asked the rebels to surrender, promising to "rehabilitate" them as "good citizens".

"Ninety nine per cent of the LTTE, its leaders, cadres and infrastructure have been destroyed. There is no way the LTTE can raise its head again," Rajapaksa said.

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Six people have been arrested during clashes between the police and Tamils who are staging an ongoing protest outside the Houses of Parliament.

Scores of police officers boxed in hundreds of demonstrators to move them off the roads and into Parliament Square, sparking minor scuffles.

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Sri Lanka's military says it has taken all rebel-held territory in the north-east and pushed the Tamil Tigers into a no-fire zone set up for civilians.

The government-designated safe zone is estimated to be about 20 sq km of coastal area in Mullaitivu district.

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