Melani Manel Perera

Fr Nicholas Batepola is the founder of the Saravasi Seth Sevana Centre for Higher Education in the Archdiocese of Colombo. Hundreds of young people, who might not otherwise get an education, can graduate and hope for a better future. The school, which is appreciated by local Buddhists, needs however more financial aid to continue.

Two fishermen organisations, the World Forum for Fisher People and the National Fisheries Solidarity, are pushing for changes. For the past month they have been trying to locate three fishermen who went missing out at sea. The latter’s families say the situation is due to the authorities’ failure to act and their continued indifference vis-à-vis the men’s fate.

Sri Lanka’s Bishops’ Conference and the Anglican bishop of Colombo express concern over last Wednesday’s bombing in Buttala that killed 27, al civilians. They call on both government and rebels to put a stop to the violence and go back to talks. Instead President Rajapakse asks for patience in order to launch a final offensive.

The Catholic organisation is committed to raise awareness among women about abortion techniques and its traumatic consequences. Every year some 250,000 abortions are performed in the former Ceylon, mostly by married women. "Limited understanding of the issue” is one its causes.

Sri Lankan Catholics are set to celebrate the ‘Apostle of Sri Lanka.’ Three years of preparation for his tricentennial are scheduled to begin in a few days. Bishops invite the faithful to follow Vaz and renew their commitment to mission.

Nation-Building Minister D.M. Dassanayake is killed in a roadside bombing. Meanwhile international criticism of the country’s deteriorating human rights situation pushes Supreme Court to slap restrictions on night time arrests and searches by the army.

Adviser Dhanapala’s resignation is officially due to “personal reasons” but it comes right after the government announces its intention to pull out of ceasefire agreed with the rebels. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission is also set to be shut down. For years it monitored violations in the country’s war-torn regions. A Tamil MP says the government wants “to rid the North-East of any witnesses of the carnage that it intends” to carry out.

The Catholic Archbishop of Colombo and the Anglican leader in Sri Lanka have both sent letters of condolences for the death of a leading Tamil politician and the January 2nd attack in the capital. Both remind politicians of the urgency to find a negotiated solution to end the civil war and violence, But the government has already announced its withdrawal from the ceasefire with the Tigers.

The attack on a military bus took place one day after the assassination of a Tamil member of parliament, openly critical of the government. The politician was killed inside a Hindu temple. Despite continued threats Colombo had removed his escort weeks ago.

Threats, economic blackmail, cutting power and water supplies are all means by which the government wants to shut down camps for tsunami victims before 26 December in order to be able to say that it solved the problem. Three years since the disaster life in the camps remains precarious, but thousands of families don’t know where to go.

In an interview with AsiaNews, the OMI provincial superior in Sri Lanka, Fr S.M. Selvaratnam, recounts the dramatic situation of the Tamils in the northern part of the country: the widespread culture of war, the paralysis of education, the impossibility even of crossing the street without the permission of the army, the absence of an authority to guarantee the rights of citizens. The general misery compels the suicide of fathers of families who cannot pay for their children's medicines.

In an orphanage in the diocese of Chilaw, run by the Sisters of Perpetual Succour, children of all faiths celebrate the arrival of Christmas with an evening of prayer and song. The young tell of their “joy” at participating in the event and of “finally feeling loved and no longer alone”.