Pictures Of The Kuragala Islam Holy Site Demolition

 

May 17, 2013

“It has also been bought to our notice that a stone inscription dating back to Hijra 300 (over 1200 years old) been Destroyed. Also the Bodu Bala Sena has threatened to 

bring a statue on the 18 th of this month from Colombo in a vehicle parade and place it there.  I would be much thankful to you, if you would give priority to this matter in your busy schedule and intervene to stop causing any further damage to this Holy place of worship.” Azath Salley, the General Secretary of the National Unity Alliance wrote to President.

Azath Salley also wrote to diplomats today. He wrote; “I would be much thankful to you, if you would kindly use your good office with the President of Sri Lanka and bring this matter to his notice on an urgent basis, and help the Muslims of this country to safeguard their historical religious site.”

Azath Salley also wrote to diplomats today. He wrote; “I would be much thankful to you, if you would kindly use your good office with the President of Sri Lanka and bring this matter to his notice on an urgent basis, and help the Muslims of this country to safeguard their historical religious site.”

We publish below the letters in full;

His. Excellency Mahinda Rajapakse

President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

Presidential Secretariat

Colombo.                                                                                                                              16^th May 2013

Your Excellency,

Herewith I am enclosing a copy of my previous letter dated 26^th,April 2013 and a copy of the statement issued by Ms.Roshan Aboosally – Trustee of the Dafthar Jailani Mohiyadeen Masjid-Kuragala, Thanjatenne, Balangoda, and some photographs which are self explanatory.

As you are well aware that the Dafthar Jailani Mohiyadeen Masjid-Kuragala is one of the oldest places of worship for the Muslims of Sri Lanka. This place is facing a severe threat from some hard line Buddhists Who want to destroy the heritage site. On my previous letter I brought this matter to your notice, but since there is no action from Your Excellencies government. Now the Holy place has been demolished under the guise of archeological excavation. According to the statement issued by the trustee this has been done despite the assurance given to Muslim worshippers by the Secretary of Defense.

Sometimes back I brought to your notice that some hard line elements are trying to attack the Dambulla mosque and create chaos among the communities, even before that incident took place, but regretfully that time also no action was taken by the government. This time too  have brought this matter to your notice almost one month before, but again no action is taken.

There is no doubt, that continuing these type of activities only proves that there is no  respect to the sentiments and feelings of the Muslim community which will badly damage the reconciliation efforts by your government to create a peaceful environment.

It has also been bought to our notice that a stone inscription dating back to Hijra 300 (over 1200 years old) been Destroyed. Also the Bodu Bala Sena has threatened to bring a statue on the 18^th of this month from Colombo in a vehicle parade and place it there.  I would be much thankful to you, if you would give priority to this matter in your busy schedule and intervene to stop causing any further damage to this Holy place of worship.

Thanking you

Yours faithfully

M.Azath S. Salley

General Secretary

National Unity Alliance

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Police Vandalized Shelter-Tents of Displaced Rohingyas

 

Police Vandalized Shelter-Tents of Displaced Rohingyas

Friday, 17 May 2013

Police vandalized the shelter tents of the internally displaced Rohingyas at Thay Chaung, Sittwe. The tents were used by the displaced Rohingyas came from Kyauk Phyu Township. Police destroyed the tents as the displaced Rohingyas evacuated them ahead of the Mahasen Cyclone.

“Most of our tents were crude and self-made. The government didn’t even help us in making them. We had left the camps ahead of the storm. Meanwhile, Police destroyed our shelters” said a displaced Rohingya from Thay Chaung.

Having issued the warnings on the Cyclone, the central government and the state government left no stone unturned to force the displaced Rohingyas to the nearest possible places towards the sea.

“The places the government planned for the displaced Rohingyas are the nearest to the sea. We are the people against whom genocide is being committed by the government. On top of that, they wanted to kill us in mass by forcing us to the nearest to the places to the sea during the storm. That’s why we refused to move to such places” he explained.

As the displaced people refused to move to the places nearest to the sea, Police and Hluntin (security forces) vandalized their self-made makeshift tents.

“Those police who were said to have come to help us behaved like murderers. That’s why people became afraid when Police come. As expected, Police destroyed our tents in our absence. Even though we had moved to the places nearest to the sea as the government wanted, we would not have had any places to stay either” he exclaimed about their crises.

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තවමත් රිදුම් දෙන යුද්ධයේ තුවාල වීඩියෝව

 

අවසාන යාවත්කාලීන කිරීම :  2013 මැයි 15 බදාදා – 11:09 GMT

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Disunity – the bane of Tamil politics

Disunity – the bane of Tamil politics

By Maneckshaw-2013-05-14   The Tamil political parties have never demonstrated sufficient unity in the pursuit of a constructive solution to the Tamil question. Alliances were often formed, bringing together Tamil political parties with divergent ideologies under one umbrella. But their political conduct has not resulted in the achievement of their political goals.   It is not just the Tamil political parties but even the alliance formed by the Tamil militants had fizzled out, with the deaths of hundreds of cadres as a result of the rivalries among the Tamil militants.   The first Tamil alliance to be formed was the Tamil United Front (TUF), which later evolved into the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), a political outfit that shot to fame following the Vaddukoddai Resolution, unanimously adopted at the first convention of the TULF in 1976, which demanded a separate Tamil state.   The first Tamil alliance   The Illankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) led by late S.J.V. Chelvanayagam, the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) led by late G.G. Ponnambalam and the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) led by late Saumyamoorthy Thondaman formed the constituent partners of the TULF at that time. However, Thondaman broke away from the TULF, declaring that he was not in a position to support the demand for a separate Tamil state as he represented the Tamils of a different identity, hailing from the central hills of Sri Lanka. Later, following the death of Chelvanayagam, an ITAK stalwart from the Eastern Province, C.Rajathurai, too fell out with the new leadership of the TULF. Leading the TULF at that time was Appapillai Amirthalingam. Rajathurai soon joined the J.R. Jayewardene Government as a Cabinet Minister.   Though the TULF had recorded a massive victory with its campaign for the establishment of an Eelam in the North and East during the 1977 General Elections, a political campaign that also raised the late Amirthalingam to the position of Parliamentary Opposition Leader – and the first Tamil to become so – the younger generation that formed part of his following had already decided on a political course of their own, with a new ideological positioning that was geared towards militancy. It was this generation that sought the power of weapons to pursue their political dream and decided to fight for a separate Tamil homeland. The extremism embedded in the Tamil political scene emerged soon after the 1977 polls, and Tamil militancy began to take wing, which was followed by the infamous ‘Black July ‘communal riots in 1983. However, divisions emerged among the Tamil militants as well, though they had a common goal of creating a separate Tamil homeland for themselves.   As the attacks carried out by Tamil militant outfits against the Security Forces increased in the mid ’80s, the late Lalith Athulathmudali who handled the Defence portfolio for the Jayewardene administration, had once famously remarked that it was fortunate for the Sri Lankan Government to have serious divisions amongst Tamil militants, given that, had they been united, they (Tamil militants) would have been able to reach their goal of creating a separate state without much difficulty. The Tamil militants had even formed an alliance in the mid ’80s, following the political discussions with the Sri Lankan Government, held in the hilly capital of Bhutan, Thimpu – a political process that was initiated by India.   A coalition of militant outfits   The alliance of the Tamil militants at that time was known as the Eelam National Liberation Front (ENLF), and the militant outfits represented by ENLF during the talks were the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) and the Eelam Revolutionary Organization Students (EROS).   Soon after it was taken, a famous photograph of the leaders of the respective Tamil militant outfits – V. Prabhakaran, K. Pathmanabha, Sri Sabaratnam and V. Balakumar – holding hands, to show the formation of the alliance, was published prominently in the media. However, this alliance of the militants was short-lived. By then, the LTTE had sought to establish its supremacy and had not only wiped out the cadres of both TELO and the EPRLF but also their leaders – Sri Sabaratnam and K. Pathmanabha – who were gunned down brutally by the LTTE.   The only member in that famous picture of the ENLF alliance to survive was EROS Leader, V.Balakumar. He was also one of the persons who were initially listed as having surrendered to the Security Forces and later reported missing, when the war finally came to an end in 2009.   Ever since Sri Lanka gained independence from the British in 1948, the Tamil political leadership had been clamouring for equal rights and the recognition of their ethno- political identity. However, neither the Tamil leaders nor their parties had ever shown a united front in the pursuit of securing the political rights for the Tamil community since the time when Tamils began agitating for the recognition of their political rights.   Most of the Tamil leaders from yesteryear belonged to the legal fraternity. It had often been said, that they were carrying out the Tamil struggle with one leg in Hulftsdorp and the other in the Sri Lankan Parliament.   These leaders were shrewd enough to enjoy the best of both worlds – as highly respected politicians representing the North and also as eminent lawyers practicing in the South, while making their political manipulations. Despite Tamil political leaders such as late G.G. Ponnambalam, S.J.V. Chelvanayagam and M. Thiruchelvam expressing their solidarity with the TULF, it was too late. The three leaders did not live long enough to provide the correct leadership or the required guidance.   History repeating itself   History repeated itself when a crucial meeting was held last Saturday (11) in Mannar, headed by the Mannar Catholic Bishop, Rt. Rev. Rayappu Joseph. The meeting was convened for the purpose of reaching a consensus among constituent partners, represented in the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). The TNA was formed in 2001, with the blessings of the LTTE, when the outfit began engaging in peace talks with the Colombo Government, facilitated by Norway.   The former Tamil militant outfits excluding the party headed by Minister Douglas Devananda – the EPDP – along with the TULF, came together to form the TNA. Several TULF stalwarts such as R.Sampanthan and V. Anadasangaree who were at one time on the LTTE hit list had grown closer to the outfit, through the close association of LTTE’s political wing leader at that time, S.P. Tamilselvan.   However, TULF Leader, V. Anandasangaree, kept away from the LTTE backed TNA following serious differences in ideology, claiming that he was unable to express his views independently. He remained the General Secretary of the TULF.   The TNA since its formation had remained politically stable, winning the majority of seats at the Parliamentary elections and at the local elections in the North and East that followed. Nevertheless, the TNA had turned out to be a shaky alliance, following the annihilation of the LTTE. The ITAK headed by R. Sampanthan is the premier constituent partner of the five-party alliance and the other political parties such as the EPRLF, PLOTE, TELO and the TULF are insisting that the TNA should register as a political party in order to gain equal importance for all constituent parties and to prepare for success during future hustings.   The ITAK’s old guard is of the view that being too flexible within the alliance might cause it to lose its grip over the alliance, as the premier constituent party. As the proposed Northern Provincial Council (NPC) polls draw closer, the civil society in the North feel that the TNA should not suffer a setback during the Northern polls, similar to the humiliating defeat it suffered during the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) election last year.   This compelled the Mannar Catholic Bishop, Rt. Rev. Rayappu Joseph, to take some steps to help stabilize the TNA, and to make the alliance a single strong party. This effort appears to have failed as the ITAK led by R. Sampanthan, appears to have misgivings about registering the TNA as a political party, especially in the light that such a move might diminish the importance of the ITAK as a political outfit.   Though the allies have failed in registering the alliance as a political party, it was agreed at the Mannar Bishop’s meeting to work together towards ensuring a convincing victory at the forthcoming NPC polls.   As the Mannar Bishop has called for another meeting with the TNA on 8 June, mostly aimed at dispute resolution to achieve a much higher political goal, the absence of unity among the constituent parties within the alliance is indicative of a greater malady – that even after experiencing severe setbacks and immense loss of lives, the Tamil polity is still unable to learn lessons from the past and to build on those lessons.

 

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Swallowing reports, the govt. way

 

May 16, 2013, 8:45 pm

Sri Lanka is famous for fire-swallowers. They thrust flaming torches into their mouths and, hey presto, fire disappears. But, those traditional dancers playing with fire for a living cannot hold a candle to our politicians who have got swallowing things down to a fine art. A beleaguered president once accused one of his detractors on a campaign to impeach him, of having ‘swallowed ships’ while the latter was the minister in charge of shipping. He also claimed that another political enemy of his had ‘chugalugged the entire Mahaweli Ganga in a few gulps’ during the latter’s tenure as the minister of irrigation. Politicians’ ability to swallow public funds is also amazing. Those currently at the levers of power, from top to bottom, have the proclivity for gobbling reports—voluminous ones at that!

Nobody knows what has become of the reports prepared by several presidential commissions. The Opposition claims they have all been swallowed! Ministers have also mastered that art. The government told us the other day that it had received a report from a laboratory in Singapore which tested the samples of some allegedly contaminated milk powder and action would be taken against the importers concerned. But, now it tells us that milk powder samples will have to be sent overseas for testing again. Tests may be repeated to ensure the accuracy of their results, but what does the report from Singapore say? Mum’s the word on the part of the government as regards that document. Someone seems to have swallowed it in one piece!

If there is an iota of suspicion that any consignment of milk powder, imported or otherwise, contains toxic substances its distribution and sale must be suspended immediately pending laboratory testing. But, nothing of the sort has been done where the milk stock at issue is concerned. All signs are that testing will go on till the cows come home and dollars and pounds will jingle in someone’s pocket.

While steps are taken to ensure the quality of milk people consume, it is high time something was done about misinformation campaigns claiming that the cow’s milk is better than mother’s. A team of British scholars has found that reading classics boost one’s brain power and a local minister tells us that balaya fish helps humans with innovative thinking. Besides, it is being drilled into the heads of the gullible public that bovine lac lactis enhances children’s thought process and problem solving as well as mathematical skills. If so, then calves must be more intelligent than children because they drink more cow’s milk than the latter!

Ordinary Sri Lankan’s survival is a miracle, given the amount of toxins found in their food. Time was when farmers used to swallow poison to commit suicide in the North Central province, unable to make ends meet. No longer do they have to spend money on purchasing chemicals to end their lives. They only have to keep drinking water from tanks and wells in that part of the country! Moreover, textile dyes are used as food colouring and plaster of Paris goes into hoppers baked in some wayside eateries to keep them crispy. Dirty sweepings neatly packed and attractively labelled pass for tea. Various chemicals are used to ripen fruits. Fish is ‘embalmed’ with formalin. Urea is mixed with rotgut to boost the kick. Kerosene is sprayed on gram and Malathion mixed with green gram as preservatives. Vegetables are doused with agro chemicals containing heavy metals. Commercial poultry are injected with growth enhancing hormones and fed with antibiotics and prednisolone. It is an open secret that most parents do not allow their little daughters to consume chicken lest they should reach puberty prematurely at a tender age when they are not emotionally ready for it. But, nobody cares!

While the hapless public is gulping down food replete with toxins, government politicians and their bureaucratic lackeys keep swallowing laboratory reports on contaminated food items. The public has a right to information about milk powder or any other food item they consume and they must not be kept in the dark. The contents of the report the Consumer Affairs Authority has received from Singapore on allegedly contaminated milk powder must be made public forthwith. Let no lame excuses be trotted out!

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In Sri Lanka, a new divide brings back old fears

 

MEERA SRINIVASAN-May 17, 2013

A series of incidents has created anxiety among the country’s minority Muslims that they are being targeted by a resurgent Buddhist nationalism

AGAINST HATE: Disquiet has increased as a Buddhist group fanning anti-Muslim sentiments is allowed to get away lightly.

More than a month after Fashion Bug, a popular clothes store in the Sri Lankan capital, was vandalised, business is back to normal. Shoppers cram into the Muslim-owned store as the Buddhist holiday season for Vesak (in India, Buddha Purnima) begins this month-end.

Six weeks ago, a mob had broken into the chain store’s main warehouse in a suburb of Colombo. Television footage showed the mob cheering as a Buddhist monk flung a stone at a window of the warehouse. The attack left many injured and the warehouse’s inventory ravaged.

The March 28 incident shook Colombo. It came soon after a new Sinhala Buddhist organisation, Bodhu Bala Sena (Buddhist power force), began a campaign against halal certification. The campaign forced virtually all markets and stores in the country to stop selling food items labelled for Islamic food guidelines.

Among Sri Lanka’s Muslims — who make up less than 10 per cent of the island’s population — the attack on the store and the anti-halal campaign have sparked fresh anxiety and insecurity, a year after monks attacked a mosque in Dambulla, in Sri Lanka’s Central Province, protesting that it violated a sacred area for Buddhists.

The incidents — unprecedented in recent years for their targeting of the Muslim community and coming four years after the end of the war against the Tigers — have raised a provocative question: are Muslims the new Tamils of Sri Lanka?

Speaking to The Hindu a few weeks ago, Azath Salley, former deputy Mayor of the Colombo Municipal Corporation and leader of the Muslim Tamil National Alliance (MTNA), said that the police stood by as onlookers during the attack on Fashion Bug. Mr. Salley was recently arrested by the CID on charges of “anti-government activities” under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and later released. “If the police had wished, the attack could have easily been prevented. Instead,” he told The Hindu days before his detention, “they remained silent spectators”.

The incident fuelled suspicions, which Mr. Salley voiced, that powerful forces are backing those fanning anti-Muslim sentiments. After the attack, 17 suspects, including three Buddhist monks held on charges of attacking the store, were released without charges being pressed against them after the store-owner said he was, in the interests of maintaining peace, dropping the complaint as it could erode national harmony.

A couple of weeks later, a group of youngsters banded together as ‘Buddhists Questioning Bodhu Bala Sena’ held a candlelight vigil outside the offices of the BBS in Colombo, only to be chased away by the police minutes after they gathered there. Four participants were taken to the police station and some were reportedly interrogated later on why they participated in the vigil.

Drivers of Ceylon’s growth

Through the decades of Tamil militancy, terrorism, and the call for a separate Tamil state, the Muslims stayed out of the conflict and its leaders focused on sewing up political alliances with the ruling party.

Despite being native Tamil speakers, Muslims have — at least since their en masse expulsion from Jaffna peninsula in 1990 by the LTTE — sought recognition as a separate ethnic group. Mainly in trade, they have driven a good part of Sri Lanka’s economic growth over the years.

As with Fashion Bug dropping its complaint, the halal controversy earlier this year also ended with All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama, the Islamic body that provided the certification, agreeing to withdraw the labelling system in the interests of peace and harmony.

The BBS says it is well within the organisation’s rights to appeal to “true Buddhists” to “boycott” halal-certified meat. “We were misunderstood as having called for a ban. We only appealed to members of our community to boycott such meat and that is within our religious rights,” said Dilantha Withanage, Executive committee member and spokesperson of the BBS.

Another campaign in the works

Confirming fears that Muslim worries have not ended, Mr. Withange said the BBS was now planning to take up another campaign, this time against the niqab, a head-and-face veil used by some Muslim women that leaves only a slit for the eyes.

He said: “We have nothing against any other religion. It is purely in the interest of security. If France can ban [the niqab], why can’t we?”

In March, Gotabaya Rajapakse, the powerful defence secretary and the brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse, inaugurated the Buddhist Leadership Academy run by the BBS.

Mr. Withanage, however, dismissed suggestions that the BBS had supporters in government as untrue. He described BBS as “completely apolitical”, a “philosophical organisation” interested in preserving Buddhism in its purest form to handover to subsequent generations.

But the disquiet in the Muslim community about the campaigns of the BBS, and how it is seeping into everyday life, is palpable.

Intimidation in public spaces

Sona Barnes, who works as sub-editor in a newspaper, said she senses intimidation in public spaces. “I was at the market recently. One of the security persons was asking the other if they should ask me to remove my headscarf. They spoke in Sinhalese. The moment I turned and looked at them, they knew I had heard them and they immediately stopped.”

A senior professional employed in the private sector said the hatred or the discrimination is not explicit but one could sense the fear prevalent among Muslims. “I have not felt threatened in any public spaces so far, but the series of incidents have made me very anxious,” he said.

Religious leaders at the mosques have been appealing to the Muslims to remain patient and not react adversely. “At our prayers every Friday, we are told to be calm and not be provoked by anything the Sinhala fundamentalists say or do,” he said.

In solidarity with the Muslim community and to give voice to their anxiety over what seems like a nascent communal divide in Sri Lanka, over 500 persons gathered at Green Path in central Colombo recently to participate in a rally for unity titled ‘Hate has no place in Sri Lanka’.

There were students, young professionals and a few parliamentarians — from the United National Party, the main opposition party, and the Tamil National Alliance, the umbrella organisation for Tamil parties — holding banners with messages of peace.

“We are hearing about such attacks more often these days. They [fundamentalist groups] should not be allowed to get away with such hatred for others,” said a university lecturer present at the rally who did not wish to be named.

The Sri Lankan government has condemned the attacks. But it has seemed reluctant to acknowledge the insecurity that has gripped the Muslim community.

Earlier this month, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa met Colombo-based envoys of Muslim countries and assured them that there was no threat to communal peace in the country.

Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris, who recently spoke on social integration at a public forum, observed that all communities — the Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims — lived in harmony, sharing their joys and sorrows.

Sri Lanka’s Muslim community, however, seems far from feeling assured.

(meera.srinivasan@thehindu.co.in)

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A Partial Reversal On Electricity Tariffs, CHOGAM, The NPC & Azath Sally

 

By Harim Peiris -May 17, 2013

Harim Peiris

President Mahinda Rajapakse used his speech to the ruling UPFA’s May Day rally to announce a partial revocation of the massive electricity price hike that was announced a couple of weeks earlier. The details of the presidential largess and indeed the revised tariff structure itself will only be clear once

consumers receive their April electricity bills in May.

It was however a reasonably satisfying political week or two for the government.

CHOGAM confirmed while USAID announces budget cuts to Sri Lanka

They secured an important victory, when India decided that having CHOGM in Colombo was something they would through their weight behind and the Canadian efforts to revisit the issue of the CHOGAM venue was unsuccessful at the recently concluded CMAG meeting in London. One up for the rather embattled Foreign Minister, the good Professor GL Peiris, often the butt end of harsh criticism for the increasing international opprobrium that Sri Lanka faces for a worsening human rights track record and the absence of a credible post war reconciliation process, baring a high visibility, slow paced and non consultative and non inclusive public works program in the former conflict areas of the North.

The quid pro quo of course, was that President Rajapakse and the regime solemnly promised and undertook to conduct the Northern Provincial Council elections in September this year. This undertaking was not only given again to India and the Commonwealth Secretariat but also to the Japanese in return for the State visit invitation to Japan, just when the UNHRC was progressing, the NPC being the major concession that Mr.Akashi believes he wrested from the regime.

On reflection though, President Rajapakse has been extremely astute in promoting his own vision of barely conceding anything to the ethnic minorities and promoting anything that seems even remotely like a political solution to minority alienation from the Sri Lankan State. By holding out on the Northern Provincial Council elections, a measure which many Tamil politicians had rejected as inadequate, he now gets away with holding the NPC election, a basic constitutional requirement and a promise in the Chinthanya (Way Forward 2010) as a major concession.

However on a negative note though, Buckingham Palace was quick to announce that her Majesty the Queen, would not for the first time in over two decades attend the CHOGM, but would be represented by the Prince of Wales, the only down grading of Royal participation that was possible. The signal was unmistakable. Further the US State Department also recently announced a 20% reduction in USAID funding to Sri Lanka for the next fiscal year, while also a USAID project with the Justice Ministry came a cropper when the US Embassy refused to have Mohan Peiris, whose appointment by the Executive through military muscle in violation of Supreme Court and Appeal Court judgments. While the dollar amounts of such grants are small, the signals these send to investors and the business community are much greater than the dollar value of the grants.

Rajapakse regime not immune to domestic pressure   

The government’s partial reversal of the electricity tariff hike, at least to the low end / lowest income consumers was a clear indication that for all its belligerent rhetoric, the regime does remain responsive to public pressure and the public mood, but this only from its core constituency of the majority Sinhala public. Media reports indicated that the national intelligence agencies, who keep a finger on the pulse of popular opinion in the country, had advised the regime of growing unhappiness and the resonance of the public to opposition criticism of it governance, especially based on the electricity tariff hike. Having very unhappy ethnic or religious minorities, whether Muslims or Tamils, does not seem to bother the regime, which in a hardnosed attitude of real politick rightly realizes that it does not draw much support from those quarters. The medium term economic picture is not all rosy for the government. Economic growth forecasts are down, while fiscal slippage creates a widening deficit situation.

The Azath Sally drama

Meanwhile the regime using its politicized law enforcement agencies invoked the prevention of terrorism powers to take into custody Muslim leader and former deputy mayor of Colombo Azath Salley, who had recently become a fierce critic of the Regime in general and the President in particular. Mr.Salley had been public that he intended to bring a private plaint and file action against an extremist Buddhist organization for its rhetoric which he believed was in gross disrespect and blasphemous of the Holy Koran, disrespect to any religion being a violation of Sri Lanka’s penal code.

It is a peculiar feature of the PTA, that opposing and criticizing the government is a crime, an almost essential feature of an even a badly functioning democracy. The PTA bequeathed to the country by the JR Jayewardeneregime. Mr.Salley was detained under a detention order, while a public statement or interview of his was being investigated. He was subsequently released when it was easily established that the said statements had been denied and corrected by him. One wonders why if a violation of law was suspected, why the CID could not convince any Colombo District magistrate of this fact, to remand him in civil custody and also why investigating a public statement requires custodial detention at all.  Mr.Salley is hardly a flight risk from justice. Further the charge was inciting communal disharmony. One might advise the CID to watch Youtube, the last time anyone checked the images, it was not of Muslim’s attacking anyone in Sri Lanka, but rather they, their mosques, their businesses and their women in religious attire who were being attacked. Generally by groups who at best certainly do not seem to have any state constraints on their violence or hate peddling, happily published by elements in the mainstream media, happy to fan the flames of communal hate, thinly disguised as religious fervor. One can be ardently pro your own belief and faith, while providing the space for others to have their own, the absolute essence of a pluralistic and tolerant society. When that very pluralism and tolerance is in itself attacked publicly and not refuted, the very foundation of our society, diverse from pre-colonial times is not only challenged but under serious threat.

Harim Peiris‘s writings may be accessed online http://harimpeiris.com

Boats should not stop a CHOGM boycott

BRUCE HAIGH-16 MAY 2013

Canada says it will boycott this year’s CHOGM in Sri Lanka due to the government’s human rights failures, but Bob Carr has adopted a serendipitous attitude to Sri Lanka. The reason, writes Bruce Haigh, is boats.

In the face of a great deal of evidence to the contrary, Bob Carr has declared Sri Lanka an ideal democracy.

He has declared their institutions sound, and scoffed at the idea of corruption within the ranks of the Rajapaksa government.

He has declared the police, army and navy to be clear of charges of detaining and torturing members of the Tamil minority. He believes that the Sinhalese majority are free of triumphalism and ethnic abuse of Tamils, amounting to state sponsored genocide, following a bloody civil war that occurred because of the very attitudes and practices being deployed against Tamils today.

And why has Carr adopted such a serendipitous attitude to Sri Lanka? It’s called boats, where the curtailment of asylum seekers arriving off Australian shores overrides human rights and all other considerations of compassion and common sense. In order that the bipartisan policy of turning back, preventing or in some other way stopping the boats from sullying our shores, Carr must declare that everything is hunky dory in Sri Lanka and that anyone getting in a boat, risking their lives and spending money they don’t have must be economic refugees; and a range of acolytes seeking government preferment puppet his response.

It is not as if advice is lacking as to the real state of affairs in Sri Lanka and to the treatment of Tamils. Yasmin Sooka, a member of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon’s panel of experts into allegations of war crimes committed at the end of the civil war in 2009, told the ABC’s Fran Kelly on April 29, that targeted attacks against Tamils were still being committed by Sinhalese authorities.

She noted that whilst both sides had committed war crimes at the end of the war, the UN expert panel had concluded that government forces were responsible for the bulk of murders through the indiscriminate killing of civilians, which left an estimated 40,000 men, women and children dead.

Geoffrey Robertson QC, told ABC Radio National, on May 4 the same thing, emphasising the ongoing nature of persecution of Tamils. He also noted Carr’s poor commitment to human rights. Human Rights Watch delivered a similar report in February and Amnesty International in a report, Sri Lanka’s assault on Dissent, has said that Tamils continue to be persecuted by government forces and notes that Rajapaksa is consolidating his hold on power by repression of critics often resorting to unauthorised detention and violence.

As a result of the Sri Lankan government’s failure to investigate war crimes and because of its participation in ongoing repression of Tamils, the Canadian government has said it will boycott this year’s CHOGM to be held in Sri Lanka. Should this meeting go ahead Sri Lanka will head the Commonwealth for the next two years. This is despite the fact that the Rajapaska regime undermines, on a daily basis, the values and principles of the Commonwealth.

Carr has rubbished the stand taken by Canada. The Queen has advised that she will not be attending; no doubt seeking to avoid the controversy that will inevitably surround the meeting should it go ahead. By accepting the mantle as head of the Commonwealth, Sri Lanka could well bring about its demise. Sri Lanka has a human rights record as bad as South Africa under Apartheid. It would have been unthinkable for South Africa to have hosted a CHOGM, so why is Sri Lanka being shoe horned into the job? In fact, so gravely were South Africa’s human rights abuses viewed that the Commonwealth instituted sanctions, followed not long after by the UN.

In February of this year Britain’s High Court ordered the Border Agency to stop the removal of Tamils refused asylum until an assessment was completed about the risk they faced if returned to Sri Lanka.

Which of course begs the question, if the High Court had concerns about levels of risk, why were Tamils asylum seekers being returned?

As part of the same serendipitous equation, ASIO has made decisions on a number of Tamils granted refugee status by Australian reviewers that they pose a security threat and should not be released from detention.

ASIO does not have an independent capacity to gather information on the ground about persons of interest. They must rely on a friendly or cooperative government to provide them with police clearances and checks. We could not do that with Apartheid South Africa, although ASIO did maintain unofficial contact with the ruthless South African Bureau of State Security, and contact with countries behind The Iron Curtin, during the Cold War, for purposes of obtaining security clearances, did not happen.

For ASIO to continue its campaign against persons linked to the LTTE it must go along with the fiction that Sri Lanka is a neat and tidy democracy and is not conducting a post war vendetta against the Tamils and the military wing in that dispute, the LTTE.

In all conscience Australia must also boycott CHOGM.

Bruce Haigh is a political commentator, former diplomat and member of the RRT. View his full profile here.

Posted by Thavam

Four Years Ago The Sinhalam Robbed Our Dignity, Denied Our Right To Life

 

By Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran -May 17, 2013

PM – TGTE – Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran

Vanakkam,

Distinguished guests, fellow members of the Transnational Government, brothers and sisters, holding the sacred memory of our martyrs in my heart, I greet you on behalf of the Transnational Government of Tamil 

Eelam.

Four years ago on this day we witnessed the climax of a genocide of our people in our own land. Four years ago the Sri Lankan government denied our right to life; four years ago the Sinhalam robbed our dignity. Four years ago the Sinhala politico military establishment imposed untold suffering on our people in violation of humanitarian law and civilized norms in an attempt to destroy our political aspirations. The pain and humiliation of those days are still raw in the heart of the Tamil nation. Mullivaikal has etched a permanent place in the collective memory of the Tamil nation just as the word holocaust in the collective memory of the Jewish people. This week’s memorial events are being undertaken centered around the Tamil National Mourning Day.

We are all here with such heavy hearts. We are here not just to pool our collective wisdom and knowledge, but to share among us that knowledge and the refine thoughts of the recent years to strategize for a noble cause. Even though our cause was always a just one, we were overwhelmed in the battlefield due to duplicitous diplomacy. We are here to find ways and means as to how truthful diplomacy can be employed to secure justice that has been denied for us and our departed brothers and sisters. We are here, taking into account the evolving international jurisprudence and the politics surrounding of that jurisprudence to find ways and means to secure justice for our people.

Even though our brethren exhibited immeasurable valor and sacrifices to the utmost kind, we were overwhelmed in the battlefield. Might, however, is not right. We are here keeping in mind the maxim often stated by our National Leader that the world does not revolve on the axis of “tharmam”, but on the axis of interests. We are here to find ways and means how we can coalesce, how we can converge that Tamil political interest and the status quo powers’ geo-political interests. Even though the Tamil nation is now deprived of our hard power – our military power – we are here in the knowledge that power does not necessarily always mean hard power. The question is how we can exercise our soft power of augmented by Mullivaikal ? How we can exploit our soft power in a smart way? We are here to find ways and means as to how we can change the existing ‘Sino-, Indo-, Sri Lanka- Triangular Paradigm’ in which the Tamil nation is an object to a new ‘quadrilateral paradigm’ having four vantage points, namely China, India, Sri Lanka and global Tamils. When we convert our status from object to being a remarkable subject, we will be in a position to influence the course of events.

Distinguished guests who are gathered here are not just intellectuals, professionals and academics, but also activists in their own rights. We will work with unity of purpose amongst ourselves and with others who share our ideals to move our cause forward. With our knowledge and commitment we have in this august assembly can contribute to the birth of a free Tamil nation With dedication and unwavering determination, as an honor to the cries of Mullivaikal, I inaugurate this Conference.
Thirst of the Tamils is Tamil Eelam

*TGTE Prime Minister’s inauguration speech May 15th conference – Tamil Week

India’s investments in Sri Lanka topped $1 billion since 2003

With investment inflows of USD 160 million in 2012, nearly USD 2 billion worth of FDI had been committed by Indian companies for the next five years or so.

By PTI | 17 May, 2013

COLOMBO: Indian companies have invested nearly USD 1 billion in Sri Lanka since 2003 and this figure could rise above USD 2 billion in the next five years, Indian envoy to Colombo Ashok K Kantha has said.

With investment inflows of USD 160 million in 2012, nearly USD 2 billion worth of FDI had been committed by Indian companies for the next five years or so, he added.

Addressing a trade gathering here yesterday, Kantha highlighted that in 2011-12, India’s imports from Sri Lanka went up by almost 45 per cent to cross USD 720 million, making Sri Lanka the largest source of merchandise from the South Asian region for India.

This was a big jump from the USD 45 million imports in 2000-01, when Sri Lanka occupied 4th rank as an import source for India in the region.

Also Sri Lanka’s exports to India had multiplied by over 16 times in this period, while India’s exports to Sri Lanka had gone up by less than 7 times.

“There was thus no doubt that the FTA had brought significant benefits to both sides, but more to Sri Lanka. A number of top Indian companies had displayed high interest in Sri Lanka, investing in the country across sectors such as infrastructure, manufacturing, services, and construction,” the envoy said.

Air connectivity had gone up manifold and there were about 120 flights a week between Colombo and eight destinations in India; almost one-fifth of tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka was from India.

Sri Lanka: The Destruction Of The Bureaucracy

By R.M.B Senanayake -May 17, 2013

R.M.B. Senanayake

It was the Chinese who first realized the importance of a corps of learned men with technical knowledge to run the machinery of the State. They selected a cadre of learned persons on merit to man the State machinery. Such a corps of officials was called a bureaucracy by Max Weber. Plato has

stated the case for a learned and wise ruler who he thought should be a philosopher. But Athens which was the first democracy where the people ran the affairs of the State- government by the people elected representatives to run the machinery of the State.  Even in a small City State like Athens it was not possible for the Assembly of the people to run the State. A set of officials was found necessary and the Athenians elected persons to run the state. They realized the danger of a permanent set of officials exercising power and introduced a system of rotation of officials who held office for a limited period only. But such a body of officials who rotated meant that they could not use their experience for the benefit of the State for with each rotation new persons were appointed as the officials who had to learn on the job but could not pass down their experience to the next set of officials. But if the set of elected persons appointed as officials were to serve permanently then they could not held accountable to the people. The Athenians realized that their people could be easily misled about the wisdom of decisions through mob orators who could mobilize people. So they exiled demagogues by sending them away to the islands and debarred them from returning. Our country is a paradise for mob orators today.

Freedom requires a buffer against the elected politician

The Romans too were conscious of the need for an efficient system of governance but they realized the threat of giving power to a Consul for a long time for to they would become dictators. Then in Britain the barons rose against the arbitrary rule of the king and in 1215 the barons forced King John to sign the Magna Carta by which the King undertook to rule according to the law and to respect the freedom of the people. The Glorious Revolution of 1688 established the primacy of Parliament over the King.

But the King continued to appoint the officials who ran the State machinery. But the Parliament invoked a power to impeach officials who were acting against the interests of the people because of their loyalty to the King who appointed them. This uneasy situation continued into the 18^th century. There was no democracy in the sense of government by the elected representatives of the people. But the British enjoyed the Rule of Law and personal freedoms. Democracy came after the freedom of the people and the Rule of Law were well established. The women were not given the franchise until the 19^th century. This distinction between the Rule of Law and freedom on the one hand and the government by the elected representatives of the people on the other, evolved over two centuries. The ancient Athenians had seen the problem of having elected officials who governed the City State but who would disregard the freedom of the people. Their solution was the rotation of the personnel running the government.

The democratic governance model

A solution to this problem developed with the establishment of a permanent set of officials on merit who were expected to implement the laws of the country and provide a buffer to the politicians exercising power.  Britain was the first to establish a bureaucracy which governed according to law. To ensure accountability of these officials to the people they were made subject to the executive- firstly the King and later with the development of the constitutional monarchy the Prime Minister and the Ministers. The Ministers were to be confined to policy making while the implementation of policy was to be vested with the bureaucracy.  In Britain these relationships were left to conventions. Even up to the First World War this relationship had not come into force in USA where officials were appointed not on merit but on what came to be designated as the spoils system.   But two Presidents were assassinated by disappointed place seekers who had been overlooked. President Wilson realized the need for a competent body of officials to run the modern state which was complex unlike the State a few centuries earlier. There was the dire need for competent officials. A decision is technical if it has to be taken on the basis of modern scientific knowledge. Most decisions in government are of this mature. So President Wilson realized that the spoils system would not produce a competent bureaucracy in an age of modern technology.

Distinction between Policy and Administration

So he and theorists of Public Administration divided government into politics and administration. The elected politicians were to confine themselves to policy making while the detailed execution of policy was to be left to the bureaucracy. It was however realized that some in society would resort to political influence to obtain appointments in the public service and some of those already appointed would use political influence to further their careers. But this would militate against the development of a technically competent body of officials with the necessary expertise.  If such a competent bureaucracy was to be established then the principle of a meritocracy had to be established. The appointments, promotions and transfers in the public service had to be ring fenced from the interference by politicians. The mechanism was to be the independent Commission to carry out the function of appointments, promotions and transfers in the public service.

But what then should be the role of the elected representatives? The convention developed that they should confine themselves to policy making leaving the running of the departments to the Secretary or Permanent Secretary who was to be an experienced career official well versed in administration and management. He was also expected to be equipped with the knowledge of the work of the departments although it was difficult to get a combination of an expert in the subject who was also a competent manager. So the British colonial government had a senior administrative service called the Ceylon Civil Service.

These relationships between the top officials and the President and Ministers of the Executive branch were largely the result of experience. They are contained in Conventions rather than in laws or regulations. But Canada and New Zealand have enacted some written rules on the subject.

Here are the written rules from the Cabinet of New Zealand

Roles and responsibilities

3.5 Ministers decide both the direction and the priorities for their departments. They should not be involved in their departments’ day-to-day operations. In general terms, Ministers are responsible for determining and promoting policy, defending policy decisions, and answering in the House on both policy and operational matters. Officials are responsible for:

1. supporting Ministers in carrying out their ministerial functions;
2. serving the aims and objectives of Ministers by developing and implementing policy and strategy; and
3. implementing the decisions of the government of the day.

Ministers’ relationships with chief executives

3.6 The formal relationship between Ministers and the public service is governed primarily by the State Sector Act 1988 and the Public Finance Act 1989. The relationship is also governed by convention, key aspects of which are set out in this chapter”

The decline and fall of the Public Service.

After 1956 our country was saddled with a set of elected representatives who were backwoodsmen. They were not sufficiently educated but wanted to exercise power – executive power quite outside their role as legislators. They wanted to exercise power at the district level. They could hardly contribute to the legislative process given their lack of education and sophistication. So they began dictating to the officials and when such officials did not oblige them they moved the Prime Minister to have them transferred. Soon there was chaos in the district administration. The SLFP under Sirimavo thought of regularizing this exercise of power without responsibility and instituted the office of District Political Authority. The Sirimavo government instead of realizing the need for decentralization of authority sought to sanction the MPs exercise of power. The Leftists realized the trend and wanted to hasten the process so that the administration would collapse of its own weight and they could take over power without a bloody revolution. So in the 1972 Constitution they threw out the institution of an independent Public Service Commission. The PSC was made subject to the Cabinet of Ministers- a collective body good for decision making but bad for executive actions. When President J.R. Jayawardene took office he continued with this subordination of the PSC to the elected Ministers and the President. He tried to ring fence the Police from the elected MPs but without an independent PSC which was then the appointing authority for the Police as well, he failed to do so.

Public spirited persons and the Organization of Professional Associations sought to restore the independence of the Public Service Commission, the Judicial Service Commission, the Elections Commission and the Police Commission. They succeeded because of the division of the political parties in the Parliament. They succeeded but their success was short lived. The present regime has done away with the Independent Commissions and today we have a politically affiliated public service lacking in competence  and a  Judicial Service servile to the authorities. This situation is not conducive to the maintenance of freedom, the Rule of Law or good governance. Further in the modern age this system based not on a meritocracy but on political affiliation and loyalty cannot produce efficient and competent government either. So the system will sooner or later produce a failed state along with the loss of freedom and the Rule of Law.

India asks Lanka not to take any step regarding provincial powers

 

FRIDAY, 17 MAY 2013

Concerned over reports of Sri Lankan government considering removal of land and police powers from the provinces prior to the elections in the Northern Province, India today asked it not to take any step aga

inst their own commitments relating to the 13th Amendment.

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid telephoned his Sri Lankan counterpart G L Peiris and also raised the issue of 26 Indian fishermen who are in detention in his country while seeking their early release.

According to official sources, the conversation also focused on the elections that are to be held in the Northern Province with Khurshid expressing his concerns regarding media reports referring to some consideration being given to removal of land and police powers from the provinces prior to the polls.

“In this context, he urged the Sri Lankan Government not to take any step in the light of its own commitments relating to the 13th Amendment and their expressed intention to build upon it,” the sources said.

According to reports, a key nationalist ally of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is planning legislative action for the abolition of the country’s provincial councils while opposing local elections in the Tamil-dominated north.

Udaya Gammanpila, the deputy secretary of JHU (Heritage Party), said his party’s policy making central committee last night decided to move parliament within the next two weeks to abolish the thirteenth amendment (13A) to the Sri Lankan constitution.

“We shall move parliament within the next two weeks to abolish the thirteenth amendment,” Gammanpila said.

The 13A and the provincial councils entered Sri Lanka’s statutes in 1987 as part of the India-Sri Lanka Peace Accord which envisaged devolution of powers to the island’s provinces in an effort to end the civil war there involving LTTE and government forces.

Khurshid also referred to some reports about the Lankan army acquiring private land in the Northern Province for high security zones.

“He emphasised that this would not be in accordance with the LLRC recommendations and such a move would not be helpful,” official sources said.

Khurshid raised the issue of 26 Indian fishermen who remain in detention in Sri Lanka under the alleged offences of transgression and sought their early release.

The minister also requested for the release of 5 Indian fishermen who are in detention in Sri Lanka since November 2012 under alleged drug trafficking offences, the sources said. He also emphasised on the need for reviewing their cases and releasing them at an early date, they added.

On his part, Peiris suggested that it would be useful to have a meeting of the two fishermen’ associations to try and resolve issues among the primary stakeholders in the matter.

However, Tamil Nadu government has not responded positively to repeated requests from the Centre to hold such meetings. (PTI)

Posted by Thavam

Provincial Devolution Or Ethnic Unilateralism?

 

 

By Dayan Jayatilleka -May 17, 2013

Dr Dayan Jayatilleka

My thanks to Prof GH (‘Gerry’) Peiris, a scholar for whom I have considerable respect, for his critical engagement (‘Should Sri Lanka persist with Province-based Devolution’, The Island Midweek Review, May 15^th 2013) with my extended remarks on devolution and the provincial councils made at a seminar of the Liberal party (‘Northern Provincial Council: The Devolution Debate’). This is perhaps the most serious political topic and issue for public –policy debate and decision-making in the current stage of Sri Lanka’s history; a debate that will sharpen over the next few months.

Prof Peiris summarily dismisses two of the points I have critiqued, as non-existent and therefore pretty much misleading and irrelevant. Let me address that opening argument before I deal with the substance of his critique.

If Prof Peiris were to read the papers more often he would find, even recently in the pages of this one, arguments against the 13^th amendment and often against provincial devolution as such, and counterproposals for alternative structures and systems to replace it, based entirely on the grounds of economic development, administrative efficacy and empowerment of people irrespective of ethnicity. The case for reversion to district level devolution or the identification of the ‘pradesheeya sabha’ as the optimal unit of devolution rests on this ostensibly non-ethnic perspective. It is such a perspective that I identified and rejected as failing to grasp the nettle.

As for the second point, namely that the 13^th amendment and provincial devolution were superfluous since they had arisen as a response to the LTTE insurgency which had now been decisively put down, such views were encountered by me with some degree of consternation, in statements made sporadically by officialdom at the highest levels in the post war years; statements which were also a source of embarrassment when raised by senior officials, diplomats and scholars in the locations in which I spent the past several years. The fact that this dismissal of the need to persist in provincial level devolution has since been replaced, often in the discourse of the same officials, by a warning about the persistence of the LTTE, has to be taken up with them, not me.

This brings us to Prof Peiris’ main contention. Sadly, to make it, he has followed up an accurate quotation of what I said with a convenient avoidance of my main points.

Contrary to those who claim that provincial devolution was exclusively the product of coercive Indian intervention and reject it on that basis, the points I made and continue to make are the following:

(1) The case for, or issue of, provincial level devolution long antedated such intervention or even the eruption of the Indian factor

(2) That case derives from the need for political coexistence and cohabitation between the Sinhalese and Tamils on this island, given domestic geopolitics and those of the external environment

(3) Had existing proposals for and promises of provincial devolution been implemented, there would not have been a coercive Indian intervention in 1987 and

(4) The Indian factor should not be an argument against provincial devolution because it continues to have salience, is enhanced due to the US-Indian strategic condominium and will in fact loom larger still, in the run-up to and the aftermath of next year’s Indian election due to the militant mood in Tamil Nadu.

(5) While there is a danger of implementing the 13^th amendment (my critique of Mr Sampathan’s speech at the ITAK convention last year and my debate with Mr Sumanthiran on internal self determination demonstrate that I am hardly unaware of this danger), the far greater danger on balance, i.e. the danger of external coercion/intervention which can roll-back our military victory and yield a Tamil Eelam or greater Tamil Nadu, is posed by the unilateral rollback/non-implementation/gutting of provincial devolution.

Prof Peiris addresses none of these. Instead he traces the role of India in the post July ’83 years, in pushing Provincial devolution. Prof Peiris’ recounting not only does nothing to contradict my arguments; it evades some of them and underscores others.

His perspective would be accurate if the issue of provincial devolution had been limited to the post-July 1983 years of Sri Lankan history, or to put it more unkindly, the ethno-nationalities issue (the Tamil issue) had been restricted to the post-July ’83 years.

Far from this being the case, as I have pointed out, it was young SWRD Bandaranaike who lucidly argued in 1926 (perhaps influenced by the debate on Ireland when he was a student in Britain), that he knows of no country which is as non-homogenous as was Ceylon, to have achieved success under a centralised form of rule.

At least one famous progressive observer and perceptive well wisher of Ceylon had also made the point, with an eye to the problems of coexistence between Sinhalese and Tamils in an independent Ceylon. In his memorandum ‘on the demands for reform of the Ceylon Constitution, presented to the Labour party, in November 1938, Leonard Woolf wrote that “Consideration should also be given to the possibility of ensuring a large measure of devolution or even of introducing a federal system on the Swiss model”.

SWRD’s and Leonard Woolf’s were no eccentric assertions within or about Ceylonese politics. Prof Michael Roberts’ excellent anthologies as well as subsequent research by Prof Kumari Jayawardana have brought into focus the strong case for regional autonomy or federalism made by the country’s communist movement ( the Ceylon Communist Party and its trade union confederation the CTUF), at its conclaves from 1944-1947 and in its representations to the Soulbury Commission.

Most crucially, we have the case of the Bandaranaike–Chelvanayagam Pact of 1957, which with its provision for the amalgamation of the regional councils (a unit closer the district and smaller than the province), made for large unit devolution; actually provincial devolution. Thus it is clear that the project of provincial level devolution far antedated and was therefore hardly derivative of Indian intervention. Prof Peiris has evaded that argument.

My additional point was – and it is hardly original—that if the B-C Pact had been implemented, the Indian intervention 30 years later is exceedingly unlikely to have occurred.

This is also my point with regard to the Political Parties Conference of mid-1986, which Prof Peiris helpfully embeds in the matrix of India’s robust Sri Lanka diplomacy of the post-July ’83 years, most specifically from the Parthasarathy facilitation/mediation and annexure C of 1984. Prof Peiris’ attribution of causation is slightly tendentious however. It is difficult to dismiss that conference as a mere fig-leaf or rubber stamp of the agreement arrived at in Delhi in December 1985 on the province as unit of devolution when those who called for and participated in it, namely the moderate or pluralist democratic Left as led by Vijaya Kumaratunga, belonged to a progressive political tradition in which such devolution had long – if not always consistently—been advocated.

Though Vijaya was of a different generation, his explicit advocacy of provincial devolution in the form of the Bandaranaike – Chelvanayakam Pact, including in the pages of this paper, antedated the December ’85 agreements between HW Jayewardene and the Indian officials. Since the proceedings of the PPC were transparent, recorded and published at the time – with televised interviews of the participants conducted on Rupavahini by Prof Tilak Ratnakara– the evidence of deliberation hardly supports a version of a rubber stamping by puppets, of documents produced by or in India.

Prof Peiris conveniently evades my more central argument, namely, that had the agreements announced at the PPC of mid-1986 or at the APC of 1984, which were primarily domestic processes, been implemented, there would have been no opening for Indian intervention in mid 1987. Put more sharply, had Operation Liberation of 1987 been preceded by the 13th amendment, it would have been far less likely that Indian intervention would have taken place to abort it, and that amendment would not have had to be shoved down our throat as an outcome of a humiliating intervention. The presence of the 13^th amendment and the promise to implement it was a crucial factor in securing Indian support for, at least in neutralising Indian objections to—our final thrust against the Tigers in 2009. The abolition or terminal weakening of provincial devolution, which would be an ethnically unilateral process, risks the return of India, this time in strategic alliance with a USA  that is increasingly critical and a global civil society increasingly hostile  to Sri Lanka, to its dangerously adversarial/interventionist stance of the latter half of the 1980s. If there is external intervention this time around, it may prove ineradicable. To my mind it is hardly a risk worth taking.

For a Realist, the only circumstances in which the unilateral abolition of provincial level devolution would be conceivable would be if the Sinhalese had been alone on this island or this island had been alone on the planet. Neither is the case.

US Ambassador discuss with Sambanthan

US Ambassador discuss with Sambanthan

Thursday , 16 May 2013

United States Ambassador for Sri Lanka Michele J. Sison had an expanded discussion with Tamil National Alliance parliament members concerning the land crisis in north which has now become a phenomenal crisis, the Northern Province council election, discussions for political settlement including the contemporary political conditions.

.

This meeting  was held two days back at the Tamil National Alliance office located at Colombo Bambalapitiya, was attended on behalf of Alliance by  Leader R.Sambanthan and parliament member Sumenthiran.

Lands confiscated in the north  carried out  in a systemized manner has cropped up crisis, excessive interference of army, ongoing atrocities  in the name of resettlement and activity advanced by government  to convert the ethnic dissemination, was in detail expressed to US Ambassador by the Alliance.

Alliance expressed its stance concerning the northern provincial council election notified by the government of holding in the month of September and pointed out that the northern provincial council should be held amid international scrutiny

SLFP Mayor declares war on Weerawansa

*Pushes IGP, Polls Chief, AG to act on HRC report

May 16, 2013, 9:46 pm

by Dhammika Salwathura

 Kaduwela Mayor G. H. Buddhadasa yesterday vowed to launch a protest campaign, involving 1,000 people, at the Kaduwela junction, unless the government initiated immediate action against National Freedom Front (NFF) leader Wimal Weerawansa and SSP Deshabanda Tennakoon, accused of election malpractices during the last parliamentary polls in April 2010.

Kaduwela Municipal Council is controlled by the SLFP-led UPFA.

Addressing the media, at the Kaduwela Municipal Council, Buddadasa said that after investigating a complaint lodged by him, the Human Rights Council of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) had ruled that Weerawansa and Tennakoon, as well as several other police officers, had violated elections laws.

The veteran politician said that there had never been a previous case in the HRCSL finding fault with a minister for violating election laws.

Responding to a query by the media, Biddadasa said that it was the responsibility of the IGP, the Attorney General and the Elections Commissioner to initiate action against minister Weerawansa.

Buddadasa said that unlike Weerawansa, he wouldn’t stage a bogus hunger strike like the one opposite the UN mission in Colombo. Instead, his protest would continue until those responsible for law and order took action against Minister Weerawansa.

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Hindus Shocked And Perturbed By BBS Statement – ‘Sri Lanka Is The Country Of Sinhala Buddhists’

 

May 17, 2013

“We are shocked and perturbed to read a News item appearing in the front page of a Tamil Newspaper on Friday (today) under the heading ‘Sri Lanka is the Country of Sinhala Buddhists. There is no place for those who do not accept this’.” says the All Ceylon Hindu Congress.

Rajapaksa and Kandiah Neelakandan

“All Ceylon Hindu Congress wish to point out that such an outrageous statement by “Bodu Bala Sena” is an act which may create further social and religious hatred among the citizens of this land. We are also constrained to observe that this statement is not only in violation of the Constitution but also in breach of the laws of this country. Therefore immediate steps should be taken to put an end to this sort of propaganda.” issuing a statement they further said.

We publish below the statement in full;

We are shocked and perturbed to read a News item appearing in the front page of a Tamil Newspaper on Friday (today) under the heading “Sri Lanka is the Country of Sinhala Buddhists. There is no place for those who do not accept this”‘.

All Ceylon Hindu Congress wish to point out that such an outrageous statement by “Bodu Bala Sena” is an act which may create further social and religious hatred among the citizens of this land. We are also constrained to observe that this statement is not only in violation of the Constitution but also in breach of the laws of this country. Therefore immediate steps should be taken to put an end to this sort of propaganda.

Having experienced, during the last few decades, the unfortunate consequences and repercussions of ”Sinhala Only” cry, needless to point out that “Buddhism Only” cry will only further deteriorate the situation in this country and affect the nation badly. Therefore we appeal to His Excellency the President, the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and all other Parliamentarians to forthwith put a full stop to this dangerous trend of propaganda.

On behalf of the Hindus and all other citizens who value peace and harmony in this country, we urge all Tamil Ministers and other Tamil Members of Parliament also to make note of this and take all necessary steps in that direction.

KANDIAH NEELAKANDAN  - PRESIDENT
MUTUaTT KATHIRAGAMANATHAN - GENERAL SECRETARY

17 th May,2013

Read the original statement here

ALL CEYLON HINDU CONGRESS

(Federatlon of Hlndu Rellglour Asroclatlonr and HlnduTompler ln Srl Lenka)

AUM

Erbdl.E6rr6t:J GlurqLursnf Ee)uE E6)o)ott pioniof

Chairman ofthe Board ofTrustees

V,Kailasapillai

Phone:2575566 (Res)

Fax : 2575472

hariomal@gmaiLcom

Presldent:

Kandlah Neelakandan

Phone: 25E0807 (Res)

2371 100 (Otfi – Fac: 23711 I I Fax: 236l3El

neel@nnlaw,lk

Hony. General Secretaryl Hony, Treasurer:

MutlahKolhlrgamanalhan V,Kandasamy

Phone: 2582139 (Res) Phone: 2586620 (Res)

Moblle: 071.5349150

mknathan2l@Stahoo,com vkandasaml@gmall.com

AN Uncnxr Apprcal gv ALL CBvLox Hlxpu CoxcRnss (FBprRAtloN oR tHB HlNnu RrLrclous

ASSOCIATIONS AND HINDU TEMPLES IN SRI LANKA)

We are shocked and perturbed to read a News item appearing in the front page of a Tamil Newspaper on

Friday (today) under the heading “Sri Lanka is the Country of Sinhala Buddhists. There is no place for

those who do not accept this”‘.

All Ceylon Hindu Congress wish to point out that such an outrageous statement by “Bodu Bala Sena” is

an act which may create further social and religious hatred among the citizens of this land. We are also

constrained to observe that this statement is not only in violation of the Constitution but also in breach of

the laws of this country. Therefore immediate steps should be taken to put an end to this sort of

propaganda.

Having experienced, during the last few decades, the unfortunate consequences and repercussions of

“Sinhala Only” cry, needless to point out that “Buddhism Only” cry will only further deteriorate the

situation in this country and affect the nation badly. Therefore we appeal to His Excellency the President,

the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and all other Parliamentarians to forthwith put a full

stop to this dangerous trend ofpropaganda.

On behalf of the Hindus and all other citizens who value peace and harmony in this country, we urge all

Tamil Ministers and other Tamil Members of Parliament also to make note of this and take allnecessary

steps in that direction.

MUTUaTT KATHIRAGAMANATHAN

GENpRaL SpcRgreRy

KANDIAH NBBT,ax,INpax

PReslopNr

lTth May,2013

Bodubalasena. I 7.5/HINDU

‘Sri Lanka’s human rights record as bad as South Africa under Apartheid’: Haigh

‘Sri Lanka’s human rights record as bad as South Africa under Apartheid’: Haigh [TamilNet, Thursday, 16 May 2013, 11:41 GMT] Criticizing Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr’s support to holding the CHOGM in Sri Lanka, former Australian diplomat Bruce Haigh opined that Sri Lanka at the head of the Commonwealth would bring the institution’s demise, arguing that “Sri Lanka has a human rights record as bad as South Africa under Apartheid.” In an article for ABC News on Thursday, Mr. Haigh further said that despite evidence to the contrary, Bob Carr “believes that the Sinhalese majority are free of triumphalism and ethnic abuse of Tamils, amounting to state sponsored genocide, following a bloody civil war that occurred because of the very attitudes and practices being deployed against Tamils today.” Asserting that the Rajapaksa regime undermines the values of the Commonwealth, the author further called on Australia to boycott the CHOGM. Excerpts from Bruce Haigh’s article ‘Boats should not stop a CHOGM boycott’ published on ABC News follows: “In the face of a great deal of evidence to the contrary, Bob Carr has declared Sri Lanka an ideal democracy.” “He has declared their institutions sound, and scoffed at the idea of corruption within the ranks of the Rajapaksa government.” “He has declared the police, army and navy to be clear of charges of detaining and torturing members of the Tamil minority. He believes that the Sinhalese majority are free of triumphalism and ethnic abuse of Tamils, amounting to state sponsored genocide, following a bloody civil war that occurred because of the very attitudes and practices being deployed against Tamils today.” “And why has Carr adopted such a serendipitous attitude to Sri Lanka? It’s called boats, where the curtailment of asylum seekers arriving off Australian shores overrides human rights and all other considerations of compassion and common sense. In order that the bipartisan policy of turning back, preventing or in some other way stopping the boats from sullying our shores, Carr must declare that everything is hunky dory in Sri Lanka and that anyone getting in a boat, risking their lives and spending money they don’t have must be economic refugees; and a range of acolytes seeking government preferment puppet his response.” “As a result of the Sri Lankan government’s failure to investigate war crimes and because of its participation in ongoing repression of Tamils, the Canadian government has said it will boycott this year’s CHOGM to be held in Sri Lanka. Should this meeting go ahead Sri Lanka will head the Commonwealth for the next two years. This is despite the fact that the Rajapaska regime undermines, on a daily basis, the values and principles of the Commonwealth.” “Carr has rubbished the stand taken by Canada. The Queen has advised that she will not be attending; no doubt seeking to avoid the controversy that will inevitably surround the meeting should it go ahead. By accepting the mantle as head of the Commonwealth, Sri Lanka could well bring about its demise. Sri Lanka has a human rights record as bad as South Africa under Apartheid. It would have been unthinkable for South Africa to have hosted a CHOGM, so why is Sri Lanka being shoe horned into the job? In fact, so gravely were South Africa’s human rights abuses viewed that the Commonwealth instituted sanctions, followed not long after by the UN.” “ASIO does not have an independent capacity to gather information on the ground about persons of interest. They must rely on a friendly or cooperative government to provide them with police clearances and checks. We could not do that with Apartheid South Africa, although ASIO did maintain unofficial contact with the ruthless South African Bureau of State Security, and contact with countries behind The Iron Curtin, during the Cold War, for purposes of obtaining security clearances, did not happen.” “For ASIO to continue its campaign against persons linked to the LTTE it must go along with the fiction that Sri Lanka is a neat and tidy democracy and is not conducting a post war vendetta against the Tamils and the military wing in that dispute, the LTTE.” “In all conscience Australia must also boycott CHOGM.” Video: UNP turns down Daya Master’s request FRIDAY, 17 MAY 2013 The main opposition UNP yesterday said it had rejected a request made by Velayutham Dayanithi alias Daya Master and his supporters to contest the Northern Provincial Council on the UNP ticket. UNP Colombo District MP Ravi Karunanayake told a news conference that the group met the UNP leaders during their recent visit to the North. The UNP MP made this point referring to a statement by Daya Master that former LTTE cadres should be allowed to contest elections. He said the party informed them that the UNP had decided to keep away from LTTE associates as various allegations had been levelled against the party linking it with Tamil Terrorists. “We turned down their request as the party had suffered in the past due to mud slinging campaigns linking us with the LTTE,” he said adding that anyone who is charged with serious offences could get all charges cleared if he or she contested an election on the UPFA ticket. Mr. Karunanayake said this was how former LTTE combatant Pillayan (Sivanesakumar Chandrkanthan became the Eastern Province Chief Minister and Vinyagamurthi Muralitharan (Karuna) became the Vice President of the SLFP. (Yohan Perera and Lahiru Pothmulla)   Video:

Posted by Thavam

TUs at Hambanthota ready for 21st

FRIDAY, 17 MAY 2013

The trade unions in Hambanthota District are fully prepared for the strike action on the 21st called by the Coordinating Committee for Trade Union Alliance to protest against the increased electricity tariffs and they would unconditionally support the trade union action say representatives of trade unions.

This was stated at a special media conference held at Sarath Reception Hall at Tangalle today (17th).

Representatives of Lanka Teacher Services Union, All Ceylon Health Services Union and Lanka Postal Services Union addressed the media.

Azath Salley ‘affidavit’ illegal 

(10 May 2013)

Azath Salley was arrested under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and he has been now released due to the campaign for his release by national and international democratic forces.
The unlawful arrest and detention of Azath was thus defeated though he has been a vocal critic of the extremist group Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) and the anti–Muslim activities of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), and had been actively involved in efforts to initiate legal action against both groups. 
He has also promoted the minorities to unite against the racist rhetoric and actions of such groups. In addition, Azath has been publicly critical of the indirect support given to these elements by the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. Yet these forces failed in their conspiracy to cage him.

International campaigns

Many organizations both local and foreign were deeply concerned with the treatment meted towards Asath which appeared to be a result of his position against racism and opposition to extremist groups. 
Whilst these democratic organizations recognized the responsibility of the State to investigate hate speech and other actions aimed at inciting communal disharmony, they highlighted the lack of fair and due process on the part of the State in the unlawful arrest and detention of Salley. 
They indicated further, sadly this incident was yet another reminder that the Government had resorted to strong-arm tactics to silence and harass critics, while turning a blind eye when actual incidents of violence occur.

Bankrupt Mahinda regime

Government claims that Azath gave an affidavit pleading mercy. This is a bankrupt attempt to cover up their defeat from the mass campaign to release him. Any document, attestation or statement obtained from a prisoner who was arrested and kept illegally under the terror of draconian laws, are illegal and of no worth. 
Azath as a free man could explain his view to the public and he is not bound by so called affidavits taken under terror and duress. We wish that Azath will join the struggle soon at the point where he left.

Vickramabahu Karunarathne   
NSSP 
10-5-13

Posted by Thavam

UK: Mass Rally Tomorrow On The 4th Anniversary Of The Mullivaikkal Massacre – British Tamils Forum

 

May 17, 2013

The British Tamils Forum is coordinating a rally and a meeting on Saturday 18 May 2013 (the 4th Year Remembrance of Mullivaikkal Genocidal Massacre). Saturday commencing from North Carriage Drive, Hyde Park at 1pm (Closest Station: Marble Arch) and terminating in Waterloo Place at 5pm (Closest station: Piccadilly Circus).

Tamils all over the world will ever remember that the Mullivaikkal massacre was the climax of the continuing genocide inflicted on Tamils by the Sri Lankan government since independence.

 

The blatant refusal by the Sri Lankan government to give ear to the recommendations of the UN, together with its gross arrogance towards international institutions like Amnesty International, Human Rights watch andUNHCR has created an impasse in delivering justice to the victims and finding any meaningful solution to the Tamil grievances.

The BTF; having focused its attention on the current political situation in Sri Lanka, emphasises the need to boycott CHOGM to be held in Sri Lanka. BTF’s main concern is that if CHOGM-2013 is convened in Sri Lanka, automatically allow Mahinda Rajapakshe , who is already accused of Human Rights violations , War Crimes and ( a continuing ) Genocide to hold the chair of the Commonwealth for the next two years. This will not only be disgraceful to the Commonwealth and Britain, but will also create a permanent blot in their history. BTF demands that Sri Lanka be “suspend”. from the Commonwealth outright, in the backdrop of its records on human rights, war crimes and the continuing genocide.

It is ridiculous as well as painful to find that Cameroon has decided to attend CHOGM in Sri Lanka, hosted by Mahinda Rajapakshe, who acts with a dictatorial attitude (in the name of democracy) in every aspect.

Dignitaries and leading politicians from India, Sri Lanka and parliamentarians along with their counterparts in the UK will grace this occasion.

*A statement by British Tamils Forum

Thug attack on President of Peradeniya University Students’ Council

FRIDAY, 17 MAY 2013

The President of Students Council of Peradeniya University Janaka Nilanga Madhushan has been abducted, detained, assaulted and threatened with death say reports.

He was detained at Kandy bus stand on the 15th at about 5.45 p.m., taken to an abandoned building nearby, assaulted, questioned, threatened with death and released after about one and a half hours.

The abductors have said that they were responsible for the deaths of Janaka and Sisitha, who were killed in a road accident on 27th September, 2013 and has told Madhushan to carry out agitations in the university if he wanted to die likewise or disappear.

An agitation was held against the abduction and assault of the President of the Students council.

Posted by Thavam

Opposition march draws unprecedented crowds; reaches Fort defying obstruction ; govt. hooligans flee

Opposition march draws unprecedented crowds; reaches Fort defying obstruction ; govt. hooligans flee

(Lanka-e-News-16.May.2012, 11.00PM) An unprecedented mammoth crowd over ten thousand in number participated in the protest march staged against the electricity tariff hikes introduced by the despotic regime which gave the already abysmally suffering people a most rude shock. The MaRa’s Medamulana ( mahajanaya mulakarana) government lackeys , stooges and pimps who assembled to disrupt the march ,witnessing these milling crowds realized that defeat is seething with fury and staring in the face of their government , were forced to retreat.

The long winding protest march which began yesterday (15) from Campbell park , Borella and headed towards the Fort was staged with the participation of the UNP and opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe ,Tissa Attanayake, Daya Gamage, Ravi Karunanayake, Ruwan Wijewardena, Karu Jayasooriya, Dr. Harsha , John Amaratunge, Joseph Michael, Sajith Premadasa, Dayasiri Jayasekera, Ranjith Madduma Bandara, Mujibur Rahman, other UNP party leaders, Gen. Sarath Fonseka, Vasantha Samarasinghe, leaders of trade unions affiliated to the JVP , Sumenthiran and TNA leaders , leaders of parties who are with the opposition , Dr. Wickremabahu, Mano Ganeshan ,Siritunge Jayasooriya, Hemakumara Nanayakkara, Sarath Manamendra, trade union leaders of the people’s campaign opposing the electricity tariff hikes, University lecturers , Attorney at laws, Srinath Perera , C Weliamuna, Lawyers ,Negombo Fisheries Organization and many civil Organizations .

It was specially worthy of note that never has there been such a massive protest with the participation of all political parties jointly.

What was even more specially significant was the participation of hordes of people not belonging to any political party. In other words this procession was a true common man’s protest march against a despotic government heaping ruthless burdens dictatorially on the people.

When this protest march which began from Borella was proceeding towards Maradana , women in their home attire were seen rushing to join in the march. A large crowd of Tamil speaking Muslims along with local body member Mujibur Rahman joined the protest march at Maradana. This was a rare historic march never witnessed before.As usual and in keeping with the practice of this despotic government , plans were in place to stifle and foil this massive protest of the people , people’s representatives and trade unions , at its very place of commencement – Campbell place .On Gotabaya’s orders , thugs and hooligans were lodged at the Maradana police station with the patronage of DIG Anura Senanayake and SSP Ranagala . Though Thilanga Sumathipala was entrusted with this task of supplying these marauders and murderers , Thilanga who had got himself stabbed in the back by going too far to lick the boots of Rajapakses did not care much about this task. Moreover , as this unconscionable electricity tariff hike is also afflicting his thugs and underworld group , a majority of them had not come forward and have not heeded Thilanga’s request.

Anura Senanayake seeing with his own eyes the crowds swelling rapidly at Borella where the march began turned jittery and abandoned the idea of attacking them there. After allowing them to proceed and at the Technical junction launch the attack where the government goons and gangs were lying in wait , with supporters of the government.

Meanwhile the corrupt Rajapakses had organized a protest march in support of electricity tariff hikes from the Fort to Maradana using their lackeys , stooges and scoundrels who are also robbing public funds in league with the Rajapakses, led by Somaweera Chandrasiri ( the notorious Rajapakse lackey who is robbing public funds) and Mahinda Kahandagamage another scoundrel. In any case the number of hired participants who attended that protest march was hardly 500 to 1000 .

When the protest march of milling crowds in many thousands of the opposition was obstructed at Technical junction from proceeding further by the police , the opposition leaders and the people decided to defy orders and continue with their march . The pro government scoundrels and pimps having realized they are outnumbered and cannot cope with the opposition crowd gave up the planned attack , thereby signaling the Rajapakse regime’s humiliating defeat in the future.

The police scoundrels Anura Senanayake and his henchmen had only one choice , to send back those few hired government protestors by boarding them into the moving buses after stopping them, and evicting the hired attackers from the Fort.

It was Gotabaya ‘s order to the IGP to somehow sabotage the march to the Fort and disperse the crowd , and Gota had got ready to provide three contingents of the Forces to accomplish that , but the IGP had not approved of that decision stating that this protest is not violent . The protests of Gota’ scoundrels under the instructions of Anura Senanayake was of course violence prone.

To achieve the sordid agenda of the government and Gota , Anura Senanayake had enlisted the support of his subordinates , SSP Ranagala SSP Colombo south , SSP Palitha Siriwardena SSP Colombo, R S D Dayananda SSP Colombo north , but before the mammoth crowd of marchers , all of them singularly or collectively could do nothing against the protestors or people. Consequently they gave up their atrocious plans.

When the massive march arrived at the Fort , a group of the hooligans in the buses began hooting, the only thing they could do well. . The people who congregated had taught them an unforgettable lesson.

After the procession reached the Fort , opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe , General Fonseka, Wickremabahau , Siritunge, Perera , Saman Ratnapriya, Joseph Stalin , Dr. Maheem Mendis and Sajith Premadasa addressed the crowds.

A participant of the March had an interesting story to tell this writer : ‘When the electricity tariff has been raised 100% most unconscionably and unreasonably , it is useless trying to talk about some scoundrels who are that foolish to stoop that low as to support this cruel action of the government .

‘When people are asked to come to safeguard their jobs , they come. In this case , the people who are in distress and despair are certainly going to hurl excrements at the homes of Kahandagamas and Somaweeras the self seeking rascals selling national interests to earn benefits from the equally selfish power greedy government ‘ the participant in the march who was in anguish and abysmal suffering said.

Posted by Thavam

Police enters Janarala office

 

Friday, 17 May 2013-TheIndependent

(TheIndependent) – Police attached to the Peliyagoda Crime Division have entered the office premises of the Janarala weekend publication a short while ago (May 16).

Police have informed the Chief Editor of the newspaper – Chandana Sirimalwatta that they have arrived to question about a news article pertaining to a gold racket, which was published in the paper. Several persons including four policemen in uniform have arrived thus.

Earlier in the day, they had gone to the Janarala press in Rathmalana and had accompanied the printer with them before going to the office premises. On arriving at the press, police have informed Mr. Sirimalwatta to arrive at the Mount Lavinia Police Special Investigations Unit to obtain a statement.

However, noting that it was the day that the paper went to print, Mr. Sirimalwatta had said that it was necessary for him to be at office today and asked the police to arrive at his office to obtain the required statement.

Posted by Thavam

IPL spot-fixing: The D-gang connection

May 17, 2013 Three of the alleged bookies arrested by the Delhi Police in connection with the IPL spot-fixing scam were reportedly in touch with Sunil Dubai, a Mumbai-based businessman who allegedly manages D-gang’s betting operations in India, sources have told NDTV. Delhi police press release on IPL arrest Friday, 17 May 2013 In April 2013, a secret information was received by Special Cell, Lodhi Colony, Delhi that some members of the Mumbai underworld are involved in match fixing in the ongoing Indian Premier League matches with the active participation of some unidentified conduits / bookies/ players some of who are based in Delhi/NCR. The suspects were kept under watch, during which it was revealed that match fixers and bookies from Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab etc and some players participating in IPL were conspiring to indulge in spot fixing. Accordingly, case FIR No. 20/2013 dated 09.05.2013 U/s 420/120B IPC PS Special Cell, Delhi was registered on 09.05.2013 and investigation taken up. During investigation it was found that a group of bookies was in touch with various groups of match fixers who were involved in spot fixing in connivance with some team members of Rajasthan Royals namely Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankit Chavan. The modus operandi adopted to spot-fix during the progress of matches included asking the bowlers to give pre-decided signals with the help of their accessories like wrist watches, wrist bands, neck chains, towels etc. at the time of starting the over. The bowlers were asked to concede at least a given number of runs in a pre-determined and mutually decided over. After receipt of the signal from the bowler, the bookies would bet heavily and make huge profits. Some instances of such spot/ over fixings are as follow:- a) Jaipur:– Pune Warriors v/s Rajasthan Royals (5.5.13): In this match, as already agreed upon, Ajit Chandila gave 14 runs in the second over of his spell. However, he forgot to give the pre-determined signal as a result of which bookies could not bet in this match. This led to a lot of arguments and demand for return of money advanced to the player (Ajit Chandila). b) Mohali – Rajasthan Royals v/s King’s XI Punjab (9.5.13): In this match, it was decided that Sreesanth will put a towel on his trousers before bowling the second over of his spell and also give enough time to bookies to indulge in heavy betting. As decided Sreesanth bowled the first over without wearing the towel. In the second over, he put a towel on his trouser and then in order to give bookies time to indulge in betting, he did some warming-up / stretching exercises. In this over he gave 13 runs. c) In the Mumbai match on 15/05/2013 between Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians, Ajit Chandila motivated Ankit Chavan to take Rs. 60 lacs for one over and perform as per the direction of bookies. He was asked to give 13 or more runs in the second over of his spell. He gave 2 runs in his first over and in his second over, he was hit for a six on the first ball, two runs on the second ball and another six on the third ball (6+2+6=14), after which he controlled his bowling and gave one more run in the remaining three balls. In all he gave 15 runs in his second over. A Delhi Police team was camping in Mumbai for making arrests of the players and bookies who were indulging in spot/over fixing. Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila, Ankit Chavan (all players of Rajasthan Royals), Chandresh Patel r/o Andheri East, Mumbai, Amit Kumar r/o Ahmedabad, Manan r/o Ambavati, Ahmedabad, Jiju Janardhan @ Biju r/o Karnnur, Kerala were arrested from Mumbai. The players were staying in Hotel Intercontinental and Trident. Meanwhile, another team of Special Cell, Delhi Police carried out arrest of bookies stationed in Delhi. Those arrested are- Deepak Kumar s/o Shri Dhani Ram r/o Patiala, Punjab and Rakesh @ Rocky s/o Shri Mohinder Pal Oberoi r/o Rohini, New Delhi and few others whose identities are withheld in the interest of further investigations. In all 14-persons have been arrested which include four, who were working in the bookie exchange of one of the bookies. Preliminary searches were carried out in Mumbai, Delhi and Gurgaon. Among the items found during the search include 51-mobile phones, 5-laptops, 1-recording machine etc. which have been seized. More arrests of bookies are likely. PRESS RELEASE DATED : 16.5.2013 Posted by Thavam

BUSINESSMAN KIDNAPPED IN PILIYANDALA

 

May 17, 2013

A businessman has reportedly been kidnapped from the Siddamulla area in Piliyandala by an unknown group.

The kidnap victim’s wife has lodged a complaint with the Piliyandala Police over the incident, the Police Spokesman’s Office

said.

The complaint states that a group of individuals had arrived in a car and kidnapped the businessman yesterday.

Piliyandala Police have launched investigations.

ARMY CORPORAL DIES, 18 SOLDIERS INJURED IN ACCIDENT

May 17, 2013

An Army corporal was killed and 18 other soldiers were injured after a lorry toppled near the Settikulam Railway Station on the Settikulam Road, Mannar.

A lorry transporting soldiers to the Pudukulam Army Camp from the Maradamadu Army Camp was involved in the accident which occurred this morning.

Sixteen of the wounded soldiers are being treated at the Settikulam Hospital while the rest have been admitted to the Vavuniya Hospital.

MOTHER JUMPS INTO WELL WITH 3 DAUGHTERS

May 17, 2013

A woman attempted to commit suicide by jumping into a well with her 3 children in Vavuniya this morning.

Neighbors had managed to rescue the mother, however the three children had already perished by then, police said.

The woman’s three daughters -aged 1, 3 and 4, had drowned inside the well.

The mother of three, a resident of Thandikulam in Vavuniya, has been arrested while Vavuniya Police is conducting further investigations.

Posted by Thavam

Bahrain’s “Blogfather” emerges from hiding

 

By Jason Stern/CPJ Middle East and North Africa Research Associate

Ali Abdel Imam (AP/Hasan Jamali)

For two years, Bahrainis have been asking “Where is Ali Abdel Imam?” And now finally, they have an answer.

The prominent opposition blogger suddenly emergedfrom hiding last week, announcing he had been granted asylum in the United Kingdom, news sources repor

ted.

He had not been heard from since March 17, 2011, when he cryptically tweeted, “I get tired from my phone so I switched it of no need for rumors plz.” The Bahraini government had just declared a state of emergency, as massive reform protests rocked the island country. Abdel Imam, who had already been arrested twice before for his work, feared the government would arrest him again in an impending crackdown. So when they came for him the following day, Abdel Imam made sure he wasn’t there. He had not been heard from since–until last week.

The story of Abdel Imam’s escape from Bahrain, as reported by The Atlantic, reads like a Hollywood script, complete with outlandish plots involving body doubles, code names, and secret compartments. The news electrified the Bahraini opposition and human rights defenders across the region. His first tweet since his disappearance, simply reading “online,” was retweeted 257 times and favorited 74 times.

There was one group clearly not entertained by the news: the Bahraini government. In astatement to CNN, the government accused Abdel Imam of “inciting and encouraging continuous acts of violent attacks against police officers.”  The government also expressed its surprise that “certain NGOs have taken it as their mission to aid and abet fugitives from justice.”

In the strictest sense of the term, Abdel Imam is in fact a fugitive. In June 2011, Abdel Imam was sentenced in absentia to 15 years imprisonment for attempting to overthrow the regime by an extraordinary tribunal established under martial law. Some of his co-defendants–bloggers, activists, and opposition politicians–received life sentences.

In April the following year, CPJ was one of 50 human rights and press freedom groups that sent a letter to King Hamad bin Issa Al-Khalifa in support of Abdel Imam and his 20 co-defendants–all convicted for their political beliefs and activism.

Despite such pressure, a civilian court upheld Abel Imam’s convictions in September 2012. At the time, CPJ slammed the court decision, and our executive director, Joel Simon, said, “The expression of critical opinion is protected by international law and can never be a crime.”

As such, Abdel Imam is not so much a fugitive as an opposition voice in exile. The U.K.’s decision to grant Abdel Imam asylum indicates the British too believe the charges against him amount to political persecution.

The Bahraini government makes clear in its statement to CNN that it considers Abdel Imam a serious threat to security, explaining he is the”founder of Bahrain Online, a website that has repeatedly been used to incite hatred.”

To be sure, anger towards the government is readily apparent on Bahrain Online. Founded almost 15 years ago, Bahrain Online became a central hub for opposition voices, hosting blogs and an immensely popular discussion forum. With opposition voices largely excluded from the traditional press, dissent in Bahrain went digital years before YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. Abdel Imam became known as the “Blogfather of Bahrain,” and he helped pave the way for netizens across the Arab world to establish their own blogs and online forums.

As the hope of the 2011 Pearl Revolution devolved into repression and street clashes, anger in some corners of the opposition grew. Today, a banner on Bahrain Online reads “No dialogue with you” next to a picture of a vampiric King Hamad and a massive fireball. Some threads now discuss how to battle riot police in actions described by the posters as self-defense. The government calls such operations–usually involving molotov cocktails, stones, and iron rods–acts of terror.

Yet such posts apparently came from website users and not Abdel Imam, who was in hiding, and they are essentially part of an ongoing intra-opposition debate over how to seek change in Bahrain. In an interview with Al-Jazeera last week, Abdel Imam blamed the increase of violence by protesters on the regime “because they didn’t provide any proper channel for change.”

Asked about his new life in exile, Abdel Imam told Al-Jazeera, “I didn’t plan it, but if it’s the price of the freedom for my country and for the people I love to have their rights then I’m willing to pay.” Separated from his family, at least now Abdel Imam is safe, physically and legally–unlike so many journalists and activists still in Bahrain.

Just yesterday, a Bahraini court jailed six people for insulting King Hamad on Twitter, and another court once again delayed the trial of photographer Ahmed Humaidan, accused of “using violence to assault police” after he covered anti-government demonstrations. In the past month, three international journalists were asked to leave the country for covering unrest coinciding with a major Formula One race, and police continued to harass professional photographers working for outlets like The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, and others.

Not everyone under threat can choose exile. Now, the opposition voices that remain will at least once again have an essential advocate to amplify their message.

Jason Stern, research associate for CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program, has a master’s in Middle East Studies from George Washington University and a bachelor’s in government from Cornell University.

Posted by Thavam

Nigel Farage barricaded in Scottish pub and rescued by police riot van

Nigel Farage has been barricaded by police in a pub before being whisked away in a riot van after his visit to Scotland was hijacked by hard-Left independence supporters.

By Simon Johnson, Scottish Political Editor

16 May 2013

TELEGRAPH.CO.UK

The Ukip leader was left stranded in the middle of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, surrounded by around 50 nationalists and socialists calling him a racist, but demanding that he: “Go home to England”.

Police officers attempted to persuade two taxi drivers to take Mr Farage away from the trouble but both refused as the protesters continued to barrack the MEP with chants of “racist Nazi scum”.

A shaken Mr Farage told reporters: “We have never had a reception like this anywhere in Britain before. Clearly, it’s anti-British and anti-English. They hate the Union Jack.”

Police officers then insisted for his own safety that he enter the Canon’s Gait pub, the wooden doors of which were then locked.

The protesters continued to jeer and shout abuse, with some unveiling a 20ft banner that, referring to next year’s referendum, stated: “Vote Yes for Scotland”.

Others among the mostly young crowd serenaded Mr Farage by telling him where he should “stick your Union Jack”.

It was not clear how the stand-off would end, with some enterprising nationalists disappearing round the back of the building to check Mr Farage did not sneak out the rear entrance.

One wag joked that the Ukip leader would have to come out for a cigarette sooner or later. However, a Lothian and Borders Police riot van was spotted making its way up the usually genteel Royal Mile and stopped directly outside the pub.

After a delay of around ten minutes, the doors opened and the crowd surged forward while police ‘kettled’ Mr Farage from the building and into the vehicle safely.

video

The protesters cheered as the vehicle sped away. The Ukip leader could be seen behind the grilled windows speaking on his mobile phone.

Speaking in a radio interview afterwards, he said: “Normally I would love to be locked in a pub, but it was pretty unpleasant. If this is the face of Scottish nationalism, it’s a pretty ugly picture.

“This was dressed up as an anti-racism protest but it was nothing of the sort – it was anti-English thing.” Mr Farage said the protesters were “not prepared to have a conversation” and praised the police, saying the situation could have turned “very nasty” if they had not been present.

He was visiting the Royal Mile to meet the Scottish press, but some Left-wing nationalists and socialists discovered the arrangements and posted them on their Twitter accounts.

They included members of Radical Independence, a representative of which shared a platform with Nicola Sturgeon, the Deputy First Minister, at the launch of the official Yes Scotland campaign in Glasgow.

The trouble started when Mr Farage was speaking to television, radio and newspaper reporters in the Canon’s Gait about his hopes of replicating UKIP’s English success in Scotland.

About a dozen protesters entered the pub only to find their target surrounded by journalists and photographers. They appeared upset that they could not get to their quarry but as the interviews continued grew increasingly restless.

Mr Farage initially attempted to debate with them, denying vehemently that his party is racist or had any links with the British National Party. However, they responded with increasingly vitriolic abuse.

As the protesters started chanting and singing, the pub’s management asked everyone to leave, forcing Mr Farage onto the street and giving his team a major problem in trying to extricate him.

Before the trouble started, the Ukip leader told reporters his hopes of making a breakthrough in Scotland had been improved by next year’s independence referendum.

“The SNP is selling an entirely false prospectus to the people of Scotland. They talked about independence within the European Union – don’t make me laugh,” he said.

“If the SNP position was they wanted to be out of the United Kingdom and out of the European Union, at least intellectually, you could respect that position.”

He said the independence debate has prompted a discussion on EU membership, saying: “We’ve got some things to say about how Scotland might be outside the European Union with a reinvigorated fishing industry. There’s a gap in the political market for Ukip in Scotland that didn’t exist last year.”

But Mr Farage admitted the “immigration argument” was not as potent in Scotland because there has not been the same influx of foreigners north of the Border as in the south of England.

The Ukip leader, who is standing a candidate in Aberdeen Donside by-election for the Scottish Parliament, said he favoured the wholesale devolution of tax powers to Holyrood.

A spokesman for Yes Scotland said: “We had no knowledge nor any involvement in this incident. Yes Scotland seeks to run a positive campaign, and we would condemn any form of intimidation.”

A spokesman for Radical Independence Edinburgh said: “Farage came up to Scotland to spread his racism and bigotry here – we showed he’s not welcome.

“His party Ukip have always achieved a derisory vote in Scotland but Farage thought that could change after their recent local elections successes in England.

“In 2014 we finally have the chance to get rid of the political system at Westminster that pours fuel onto the bigoted fire of Farage and Ukip Scotland wants to be a country that welcomes immigrants – but we need independence to make that desire a reality.”

Posted by Thavam

Sally has been released! But now the lying game starts

16/05/2013 Click here to join the campaign against the Summit in Colombo. Kind regards, – The Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice http://srilankacampaign.org You can donate to the campaign here Posted by Thavam

The Spectre Haunting The Rajapaksas

 

By Tisaranee Gunasekara -May 16, 2013

Of all the spectres the Rajapaksas fear, Oppositional-unity would arguably be the most terrifying.“Never will tyrants freely consent to the extirpation of servitude….” - Thomas Raynal[i]

The Rajapaksas began getting jittery when it became evident that the May 15^th demonstration against the electricity hike would be supported by both the UNP and the JVP. The usual bag of tricks was deployed: the shrill screams about undead-Tigers, incoherent rumblings about NGO-cum-international conspiracies; and a hastily organised counter-demonstration.

None of the ploys worked; the demonstration on the 15^th was a success. If the UNP and the JVP continue their c

ooperation and the plantation workers join in, the token strike on May 21^st too can become equally successful. And these twin successes might inject some much needed life into the Opposition and help inculcate the habit of cooperation in the oppositional ranks.

The Siblings would know that one demonstration and one token strike, however successful, is no threat to their power in the here and now. But the Rajapaksa project is an epochal one; therefore they regard even long term threats with a certain degree of immediacy and urgency.

A dispirited and a disunited opposition is a sine qua non for the continuance of Familial rule. If the Siblings look at this rare moment of oppositional unity and see in it a microcosm of a certain unhappy future, they would be correct.

In the coming days, the Rajapaksas will redouble their efforts to ensure that the token strike is a failure. They will try to induce oppositional disunity; they will use propaganda with a heavy hand and engage in targeted acts of repression. If the opposition can withstand all these, an important politico-psychological threshold would have been reached and breached.

There is a pithy Sinhala proverb which can be translated, inelegantly, as ‘one does not pluck a honeycomb just to lick one’s fingers’ – meaning when a man attempts a difficult/dangerous task, he does so in anticipation of ample reward. The LTTE took on the Lankan state not to create a Tamil Eelam but to create a Tiger Eelam. Similarly the Rajapaksas successfully took on the task of defeating the LTTE not to create a unitary Sri Lanka but to create a unitary Sri Lanka under Rajapaksa rule. Their plan was to defeat the Tigers militarily, without making any political concessions to the Tamils, thereby winning the eternal gratitude of the Sinhalese and, as a mark of that gratitude, their freely given consent for long term Familial Rule.

Economics is the serpent in this land the Rajapaksas promised to themselves.

The electricity hike is not the work of Treasury Secretary PB Jayasundara, Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi or the Public Utilities Commission. The huge rates-hike obviously had Presidential approval; it was certainly motivated by the Rajapaksa need to extract the maximum from the public (it may also have been a conditionality imposed by the IMF for a new loan).

Clearly the regime thought that the opposition was too busy navel-gazing to take up this issue with the vigour it deserved; and that media/public attention could be diverted with artificial crises, such as the Muslim threat (including the unjust arrest of Azath Salley) and political pantomimes, such as the curious case of Duminda Silva.

Excess has become a Rajapaksa habit; indulgence a norm The electricity hike could have been handled with more finesse, but the Siblings have got away with so many economic hammer-blows they did not see any need to use a scalpel this time. That perhaps was their main miscalculation. The hike was so crudely gigantic, that it gave the lie to Rajapaksa rhetoric about developmental miracles in a way that no amount of oppositional propaganda could.

Unravelling Rajapaksa Lies

Lies and dissembling, false promises and mendacious declarations, illusions and delusions form the bedrock of Rajapaksa governance. The Siblings are master-illusionists; they excel at using words to create a totally unreal counter-reality. They did that when they called the Fourth Eelam War a ‘humanitarian operation with zero-civilian casualties’ and open prison camps ‘welfare centres’; they did it when they called the 18^thAmendment a democratic measure, the Impeachment travesty a legal recourse and the arrest of Gen.Fonseka a patriotic act.

They are implementing a similar hoax when they hail their particular concoction of state-capitalism and economic neo-liberalism as ‘progressive economics’ and ‘pro-people development’. That lie has worked so far and will continue to work, in fits and starts, for a while more. But the electricity hike, thanks to its chainsaw-like effect, has caused an unprecedented dent in the hitherto smooth façade of Rajapaksa developmental-lies.

Given the nature of the Rajapaksa project, the Siblings have no choice but to continue to impose economic burdens on the masses. The huge outlay on defence must be maintained to ensure the survival of familial rule; megalomaniac projects must go ahead to satisfy the family’s desire for glory.

So the Rajapaksas have to continue their policy of tax and borrow, even at the cost of causing Southern discontent. Creating a fear psychosis by demonising minorities and equating legitimate, democratic and peaceful acts of opposition with treachery constitute their way out of this conundrum. They want an unthinking, uncritical mass; a stupid mass incapable of seeing the obvious and willing to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to facts.

Trying to ignore or gloss over facts in order to maintain the inviolability of a belief is a practice which is neither new nor uncommon. When the geo-centric model of universe pioneered by Ptolemy and embraced by the Catholic Church failed to fit in with the observable planetary movements, instead of ditching the model, the theory of epicycles was added to it, to bridge the gap between Biblical theory and cosmic reality.

So far the Sinhala South has opted to accept the Rajapaksa myth about a dawning developmental miracle. But as shocks akin to – and worse than – the electricity hike accumulate it will be harder for the South to ignore the truth – living conditions cannot improve, so long as the rulers spend scarce resources on defence and on such wasteful projects as the Mattala airport or the Commonwealth Summit.

A Sinhala South capable of removing its ‘patriotic-blinkers’ and seeing the world for what it is would be the worst Rajapaksa nightmare. The Rajapaksa-days would be numbered if and when the Sinhala South asks itself whether it makes sense to spend the largest chunk of national income on defence, in the absence of a war; or why 40 million rupees should be spent annually on maintaining a category of individuals called ‘senior ministers’; or even ponder the connection between the dispossession of the Sinhala villages of Ampara and the Tamil villages of Jaffna.

Is having a mammoth cabinet in national interest? Is giving those innumerable ministers uncountable perks/privileges in national interest? Is allowing the powerful to ignore/break the law with impunity in public interest? Is wasting borrowed money on airports, harbours and other prestige projects which bring very little benefit to the county, economy or the people in national interest?

A people capable of seeing and hearing, questioning and understanding; a united opposition: for the Rajapaksas that would be hell, incarnate.

---

[i] Quoted in ‘A Revolution of the Mind’ by Jonathan Israel

Posted by Thavam

Statement On Annual Tamil Memorial Week

16 May 2013

The following is a statement by Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak on Annual Tamil Memorial Week:

“As Leader of the Ontario PC Caucus, I would like to join the province’s Tamil-Canadian community in observing the fourth anniversary of the end of the decades-long civil war in Sri Lanka.

“Annual Tamil Memorial Week ensures we never forget the innocent civilians who were killed during the war, including the tens of thousands of people who died during the last weeks leading up to May 18, 2009. It also gives us the opportunity to once again demand accountability for those who died, the families still living in the country, and their loved ones abroad.

“Ontario is home to the largest diaspora community of Sri Lankan Tamils in the world, many of whom chose to build new lives here in order to escape the imminent danger of the war. In doing so, the community has enriched our province’s cultural and economic landscape, while continuing to advocate for justice.

“These efforts have led to a greater awareness around the world of the struggles still facing civilians in Sri Lanka, and the need for continued vigilance in order to stop human rights abuses.

“I’m proud that my federal conservative counterparts – Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird in particular – have taken a strong stance on this issue. We also have two Ontario PC candidates from our Tamil Canadian community, Ken Kirupa for Scarborough-Guildwood and Shan Thayaparan for Markham-Unionville, who are not only successful businessmen and leaders, but also strong advocates for accountability and justice.

“Once again I would like to extend my support to the Canadian Tamil community as you observe this solemn occasion, and thank the National Council of Canadian Tamils for their work with this year’s annual memorial week.”

Tamil Memorial Week 2013 – Ontario PC Leader

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The master and his puppets: Some comments on ‘Tamil Moderates’

 

16 MAY 2013 BY KRISNA SARAVANAMUTTU & KARTHICK RM

Around Geneva, the Rajapaksa regime and its mercenaries raise some self-righteous noise against the ‘neo-colonialists’ in the West. Quarter

s in the US-led West, tired with Rajapaksa’s intransigence wrt the human rights situation in the island and his supposed inability to provide a stable liberal democratic regime, have been releasing this report and that resolution criticizing the current state of affairs in the island. This contradiction will grow. The US will get angry with Sri Lanka for being unable to provide stability. Its natural allies then will be the Tamils, who are inherently free-market capitalists. And voila, you will have Tamil Eelam on a platter. 

Or so some Tamil pundits in the West fantasize. And thus, they believe that it is in the best interest of the Tamil nation to adopt the narrative of ‘reconciliation and accountability’ that is chanted as a prayer in the hallways of Geneva. You don’t want to disappoint your large hearted allies after all.

We wish we could share such colorful dreams, but realpolitik is sadly very sober and requires a ratiocination of the most rigorous kind. Trust ‘Taraki’ Sivaram, senior editor of TamilNet and military analyst, an exemplar of parrhesia, the courage to speak truth to power, and who was assassinated for the same virtue.

In the feature he was working on at the time of his death, ‘US’s strategic interests in Sri Lanka’, noting the defense cooperation between US-Sri Lanka, Sivaram argued that “Stabilizing the Sri Lanka state was considered critical for the US at this juncture to consolidate and cement its strategic interests here. The LTTE was a stubborn impediment to achieving this end – particularly the constant threat to Trincomalee and Palaly. Containing the Liberation Tigers and making them more malleable were also identified as priorities.”

A year later, the west managed peace process collapsed, LTTE was criminalized in Europe under US-UK pressure, and Sri Lanka got a free hand to continue its war on the Tamil nation to the best of its potential. And oh, the Sri Lanka signed the Acquisition and Cross Service Agreement with the USA in 2007, a deal to secure exchanges in logistical support, supplies and services. On another front, the Tamil diaspora was extensively studied by US based defense corporations like RAND in studies like the 2001 publication “Trends in Outside Support for Insurgent Movements” or the 2007 article by William Rosenau ‘Subversion and Insurgency’, where the author describes the LTTE as “Subversion on five continents”.i The internationally coordinated COIN ops against the Tamil struggle that led to the climax of the genocidal war in 2009 have been discussed earlier.

But why criticize American concern for human rights now?  Doesn’t Uncle Sam have a heart after all?

In his feature referred above, Sivaram had said “The ‘management’ of the ethnic conflict, among other things, is also important for the US to “sufficiently” expand and consolidate its military and intelligence relations with Sri Lanka as an important security partner in the region.”

One portion of this ‘management’ was the internationally coordinated war on the LTTE. And the US is pretty honest on this – Ambassador Michelle Sison in an event in Sri Lanka on March 2013 affirmed “The U.S. also helped the government and people of Sri Lanka in every way we could to try to end the LTTE’s reign of terror”. She also talked about reconciliation and accountability.

Moreover, to properly analyze the current American engagement with the Tamil liberation struggle, we must objectively establish the history of US engagement with the island’s politics.  To this end, Jeffrey Lunstead, former US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, provides an insider’s perspective in his report The United States’ Role in Sri Lanka’s Peace Process. Though the US publicly espoused its support to a politically negotiated solution, in actuality it provided a “commitment to strengthening the Sri Lankan Armed Forces”.ii The American strategy marginalized the LTTE in the international arena (i.e. maintaining the LTTE on the Foreign Terrorist Organization list, excluding the LTTE from the Washington Donor Conference) and intensified the US military-to-military relationship with the Sri Lankan government.

Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn in on 19th November 2006. Two days later Under Secretary Burns said “We also believe that the Tamil Tigers, the LTTE, is a terrorist group responsible for massive bloodshed in the country and we hold the Tamil Tigers responsible for much of what has gone wrong in the country. We are not neutral in this respect. We support the government”.iii

The Americans provided the Sri Lankans with training, education, and weapons infrastructure. The US played a key role in cutting off the LTTE’s own financial networks yet it handed over millions in foreign military funding to the Sri Lankan government. And Paul Moorcraft, a British military analyst, in his recent book on the war in the island notes the level of assistance that the US gave to Sri Lanka, including the advice to use cluster bombs against the Tamil population.iv All this while the US insisted that it sought to deter war and not encourage it.

The other portion of this ‘management’ is best observed at, what one diaspora grassroots activist so poignantly termed, ‘the Geneva thiruvizha’. Introducing the US sponsored resolution on Sri Lanka, 2013. No talk on Tamil nationhood. No talk on Tamil genocide. No mention even of the word ‘Tamil’. But yes, “reconciliation and accountability.”

In order to pacify the Diaspora, the backers of US based resolution give the false impression that it is against Sri Lanka and its adoption would somehow benefit the Tamils. The resolution, whose only implicit reference to the Tamil struggle is ‘terrorism’, harps on reconciliation and the LLRC as a solution to the ongoing conflict. The undeniable fact, however, is that the LLRC was conceived as an escape route for Sri Lanka. When legitimate criticism does emerge about the LLRC based approach, the knee jerk reaction of its lobbyists is to simply argue that the UNHRC resolution is a ‘first step.’ A fine ‘first step’ indeed. Towards a political disaster, perhaps.

After the Mullivaaykaal genocide, Sivaram’s analysis of COIN remains critical to assessing American engagement with the Tamil Diaspora. A key COIN tactic Sivaram addressed was “the promotion and propagation of the conceptual/political dichotomy of the moderate and the militant/terrorist”.v Today the Diaspora seems to be a target in US COIN strategy, wherein “the global proscription regime is an institutional, structural violence which criminalizes diaspora politics and affective connections to the idea of Tamil Eelam”.vi  Unfortunately, some sections of the Tamil lobby Diaspora developed selective amnesia regarding US intervention to tilt the parity of status earned by the Tamils in favor of the Sri Lankan war machinery.

First, any serious observer of the Tamil Liberation struggle cannot deny the role played by the global Tamil Diaspora. After all, it was the same Diaspora that was criminalized through the US led proscription of the LTTE in the western world due to its moral, political and economic support of the liberation struggle. The U.S. Army & Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual 3-24 (2007) advises, “Victory is achieved when the populace consents to the government’s legitimacy and stops actively and passively supporting the insurgency”. Thus, to establish victory over the Tamil independence struggle on the international front, the Tamil Diaspora must be conceptually and politically demobilized from its primary objective.

The pro US lobbyists may argue that the Americans looked away in a ‘war without witnesses.’ The sad truth, as seen above, is that the Americans and their allies provided the weapons and the diplomatic cover for Sri Lanka to commit the 2009 genocide. The defeat of the LTTE and the 2009 genocide are an example of what Herman and Peterson called a “constructive genocide” that served the major US interests of stabilizing the island by getting rid of the stubborn LTTE impediment.

With the defeat of the military force of Tamil independence, the US fixed its aims on the Diaspora political force by seeking to reshape and moderate the terms of the debate. Classical COIN theorists like Galula have stressed the importance of the counterinsurgent to work on appropriating and diluting the cause of the insurgent so as to eradicate support while contemporary theorists like Kilcullen have stressed the importance of creating an alternate narrative that excludes the narrative of the insurgent.

To distort and dilute the cause of the Tamil liberation struggle, the LLRC based approach is attempting to change and moderate the debate from sovereignty, freedom, and self-determination to accommodation, integration and co-existence, thus moderating the perception of the oppressed about the conflict rather than helping end the system of oppression itself. The debate shifts from genocide and national liberation to individual human rights problems and political devolution, which can be rectified under a more liberal, democratic Sri Lankan regime.  A recent TamilNet feature raised a question whether resolutions and HR reports that fail to recognize genocide or Tamil sovereign nationhood is the other side of a coin where military minds hail the ‘Sri Lanka model’ as a successful addition to COIN theory.

The lobbyists in favor of the US resolution are given the bait of political recognition while those who reject it on principled grounds are deemed as radicals and leftists. The ‘moderates’ are seen to be effective because they can invite their political masters in the west to their meetings and engage in photo ops with them. Yet, the ‘moderates’ can only beg for scraps of justice from their masters but remain powerless to halt, challenge or even address western complicity in the structural and protracted genocide that the Tamil homeland endures.

Why does this same lobby not reject the US approach and demand a more concrete political program of an international investigation and a referendum to establish a sovereign Tamil Eelam? Hair-splitting and claims of being pragmatic aside, the answer is that the pro-US lobby will lose its utility in the eyes of its political superiors at the US State Department. Some take up the ‘reconciliation for all citizens’ narrative as conscious agents, getting perks, grants, and funding. Others do it as unconscious agents, in the best of intentions that by bending over backwards, the world powers will pay heed to Tamil suffering and deliver justice. Either way, the effect is the same.

Of course, the liberal lobbyist brigades will argue that they are keenly aware of the broader strategy at play. These ‘moderates’ insist that they are politically savvy and clever enough to navigate through the western agenda and secure Tamil liberation. Sadly, it is one thing to think like an American and an entirely different thing to think the way the American wants you to think. Confused and impotent, they forget that the dog can wag the tail but the tail can never wag the dog.

Through the use of a resolution that is impotent as far as the Tamil nation is concerned and reports that do not address the crucial questions facing the Tamil nation, the US is pushing for a more user-friendly regime in Colombo. Emphasizing the paradigm of human rights and reconciliation over liberation and justice will in the end only help Sri Lanka rehabilitate itself in the world when a more liberal regime takes over from Rajapaksa.

Like the butchers Pinochet, Pol Pot or the recent Efrain Rios Montt, it can be argued that the US may someday discard Rajapaksa when his usefulness to them is over – or it may not. Rajapaksa’s personal fortunes or misfortunes are of no concrete concern to the Tamil nation. The point is whether Tamil Eelam is to be or not to be. And those who choose to obscure it are by definition against it. It is that simple.

But do puppets ever see the strings attached?

Krisna Saravanamuttu serves as spokesperson for National Council of Canadian Tamils and a founding member of the Coalition for Tamil Rights. Karthick RM is a research scholar at the University of Essex, UK

Posted by Thavam

UK Sikh group calls for solidarity in anti-genocide rallies

 

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 May 2013, 08:04 GMT]
1984 Genocide Coalition, a UK based Sikh group, has called for solidarity among diasporic Sikhs and Tamils for anti-genocide rallies on 18 May and 9 June in a release on Thursday. Stating that such protests “are an opportunity for these heroic struggling nations to unite their power of protest and unite their campaign resources”, the release further said that “the enduring, courageous struggles of Tamil and Sikh peoples against brutal states like Sri Lanka and India; epitomise the struggle of small nations around the world.” The activists from the Coalition and Nations Without States further urged small nations across the world to unite in a common movement for global justice and freedom. 

“The struggles of the Tamils, Sikhs, Baluch, Tuareg, Tibetan, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Sikkim, West Papuan, Karen, Catalan, Basque, Kurd: represent a sample of the huge and diverse, global spread of liberation movements across the world for true democractic self-determination, people recognition, empowered and self-government,” the statement said.

Criticizing big states for their violent repression of nations, the statement further said “Nations were not born to be suppressed and subjugated and locked and subordinated to big states. They were born gradually, organically and naturally out of historic struggles; to share, contribute and input as equals into regional and global affairs. Our struggles are for a truly democratic world, which is composed of a plurality of true, natural nations.”

The name of the ‘1984 Genocide Coalition’ is derived from the memory of Operation Blue Star and anti-Sikh pogroms that happened in the year 1984.

Operation Blue Star was an Indian military operation against pro-Khalistan Sikh rebels from 3-8 June 1984, which involved the storming of the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The Golden Temple is considered to be the holiest Sikh shrine.

The military operation is criticized by several Sikh and independent human rights sources to have involved hundreds of civilian casualties, besides physical destruction to the Golden Temple.

Likewise, the 1984 mass pogroms against the Sikhs organized by Congress party led mobs in several parts of North India followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi in October that year.

It is estimated that over 11,000 Sikhs perished in the massacres, with over 3000 being killed in the Indian capital New Delhi alone.

Several Congress leaders who were known to have been active participants in the pogroms are still in high positions in the party.

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There Will Be Consequences If The Conduct Of The Sri Lankan Authorities Does Not Change – Nick Clegg

 

May 16, 2013

“I think that we all accept the controversy and unease about this matter, but by attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Sri Lanka we will be using the opportunity to cast a spotlight on the unacceptable abuses there. As I said earlier, of course there will be consequences if the conduct of the Sri Lankan authorities does not change. The Commonwealth matters to us all, and it is based on a number of values.” Nick Clegg the Deputy Prime Minister of the UK said today.

Nick Clegg made above remarks at the Prime Minister’s Questionstoday. As David Cameron is currently overseas, PMQ’s was conducted by Nick Clegg. The questions and answers from Hansard are available below.

Simon Hughes (Bermondsey and Old Southwark) (LD):

I have to tell my friend that I cannot support the decision of the Prime Minister to go to the Commonwealth Heads of Government conference in Sri Lanka because of the human rights record of the Sri Lankan Government. What can the Deputy Prime Minister tell us about how we can respond to that terrible regime’s record? What can we do to make sure that in future the Commonwealth does not just say it believes in human rights, but does something about it?

The Deputy Prime Minister:

We are all aware that the decision that the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary will attend the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Sri Lanka is controversial, especially in the light of the despicable human rights violations during the recent civil war. But I assure my right hon. Friend that the Government condemn those violations, the way in which political trials, regular assaults on legal professionals and suppression of press freedom continue, and the fact that too many recommendations of the lessons learnt and reconciliation commission have not been implemented. If such violations continue, and if the Sri Lankan Government continue to ignore their international commitments in the lead up to the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, of course there will be consequences.

Siobhain McDonagh (Mitcham and Morden) (Lab):

In answer to the question the right hon. Member for Bermondsey and Old Southwark (Simon Hughes) asked on Sri Lanka, the Deputy Prime Minister gave a long list of atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan Government. Why, then, are his Government going to the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit in Sri Lanka, why are they announcing that six months ahead of time, and why do they want to see an alleged war criminal as Chair of the Commonwealth?

The Deputy Prime Minister:

I think that we all accept the controversy and unease about this matter, but by attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Sri Lanka we will be using the opportunity to cast a spotlight on the unacceptable abuses there. As I said earlier, of course there will be consequences if the conduct of the Sri Lankan authorities does not change. The Commonwealth matters to us all, and it is based on a number of values. Where I accept the hon. Lady’s implicit criticism is in relation to this point: all Commonwealth Governments should do more to not only talk about those values, but ensure that they are properly monitored and enforced.

UK warns Sri Lanka on abuses before Commonwealth summit

LONDON | Wed May 15, 2013 9:28pm IST

(Reuters) – Britain said on Wednesday there would be “consequences” for Sri Lanka if its leaders did not address international concerns over human rights abuses, ahead of a Commonwealth summit scheduled to be held in Colombo in November.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg told parliament “despicable human rights violations” had taken place in Sri Lanka, but that Britain still planned to attend the Commonwealth meeting there, a stance that has drawn heavy criticism from rights groups.

Sri Lanka has repeatedly rejected calls for an independent, international investigation into accusations of war crimes committed during the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam that ended in May 2009.

Tens of thousands of civilians, mostly Tamils, were killed in the final months of the war, a U.N. panel has said.

“All of us accept the controversy around this, accept the unease around this, but what we’ll be doing by attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka is using the opportunity to cast a spotlight on the unacceptable abuses in Sri Lanka,” Clegg said.

“Of course there will be consequences if there is not a change in conduct of the Sri Lankan authorities,” added Clegg, standing in for Prime Minister David Cameron during parliament’s weekly question and answer session.

Britain’s Foreign Office was not immediately available to outline what consequences Clegg was referring to.

Sri Lankan government officials have repeatedly rejected accusations of human rights violations.

Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague are expected to attend the bi-annual Commonwealth meeting, and in a break with tradition, Prince Charles will represent Queen Elizabeth, who usually attends but is now, aged 87, cutting down on long-distance travel.

The summit is a meeting of leaders mostly from former British colonies, where issues including trade, development and human rights are discussed.

As well as human rights violations, Clegg said media freedom had been suppressed and legal professionals attacked.

Last month, Human Rights Watch called on the summit to be shifted from Sri Lanka, warning the Commonwealth will face “ridicule” if the meeting goes ahead.

Amnesty International has said Sri Lanka is intensifying a crackdown on critics, creating a “climate of fear”, an accusation the Sri Lankan government rejected.

(Reporting by Mohammed Abbas; Editing by Alison Williams)

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Freedom of assembly in post-war Sri Lanka

 

Sandya Ekneligoda, wife of missing journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda, center,  speaks to reporters during a protest rally out side the parliament in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013. Relatives, colleagues and opposition activists staged a protest rally Thursday demanding that the Sri Lanka government hold proper investigation to find out what happened to Ekneligoda who went missing in January 2010. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena, via Inquirer News)

Groundviews

Ruki -16 May, 2013

The war in Sri Lanka ended on 18^th May 2009. During three decades of war, civil liberties were severely curtailed, often in an arbitrary manner, without possibilities of challenging them or seeking remedies through independent bodies. The Ministry of Defense, the military and police reigned supreme. Even judicial discretion was curtailed, with the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) compelling Judges to obey wishes of the Ministry of Defense and the police through the Attorney General’s department when it came to remanding people, bail etc. The PTA remains as a dreaded legal weapon in the hands of the government to use against it’s peaceful opponents. It was strengthened after the end of the war, incorporating provisions from the Emergency Regulations that were allowed to lapse. Asath Sally, a former Deputy Mayor of Colombo and former government politician, now a prominent critic of the government, was arrested and detained under the PTA.[1] It is widely believed that he was later released due to widespread domestic and international pressure.

The provisions of the PTA directly contradict key fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution of Sri Lanka including the right to peaceful assembly protected under article 14(1) (b) of the Constitution.   The right is also protected by article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which is part of Sri Lanka’s international human rights obligations. Suppression of fundamental rights and freedoms including the freedom of expression and freedom from torture during and after the end of the war has been well documented in Sri Lanka including in a recent article I wrote to mark World Press Freedom day[2].

It is pertinent to note that although the Sri Lankan constitution and the ICCPR allows restrictions to be placed on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, any such restrictions must be proportionate to the need, time bound and very importantly, be in conformity with the law and be subject to review by independent bodies such as the judiciary. Restrictions must remain the exception, unlike what Sri Lanka has seen for 30 years.

Through three decades, of war, peace talks, ceasefires and even after the war, freedom of peaceful assembly and other rights and freedoms have been severely curtailed by the Sri Lankan state.  It is important to note that the right to freedom of assembly is intricately linked to the enjoyment of other fundamental freedoms such as freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of movement etc. For example, restricting freedom of movement has been an effective way of restricting freedom of assembly and restricting freedom of assembly has been used as a means of restricting freedom of expression in Sri Lanka.

The annual government crackdown on small, peaceful, cultural and religious events to commemorate the end of the war by the Tamils in the North is amongst the indicators that the end of the war was not going to herald freedom of peaceful assembly. Families and friends of those killed and disappeared have had their freedom to assemble peacefully to mourn, grieve and observe cultural and religious rituals taken away from them, rejecting the government’s own reconciliation commission which recommended a national event to remember all the victims of war.[3]

Four years after the war, freedom of peaceful assembly remains a distant dream for Sri Lankans who are not supporters of the government. But freedom of assembly – peaceful and violent – is there for those who are supporters of the government and those supported by the government.

The Northern part of the country seems to be the worst affected in terms of suppression of the right to peaceful assembly. But incidents of suppression – including the suppression and attacks on mass protests by political parties, student groups, trade unions and civil society, as well as other peaceful events deemed anti – government have also been reported from the capital, Colombo, and other Southern and Central parts of the island. Police have arrested and dispersed peaceful protesters, sometimes violently and stood by watching when violent mobs attacked peaceful protestors including lawyers, religious clergy and students.[4] People have been stopped from attending gatherings;[5] and police have sought and obtained court orders to prevent or limit peaceful rallies and marches from taking place.[6] Police permission is sometimes outright refused for some peaceful protests.[7] Many protests and events which are deemed anti-government are subjected to surveillance by the state’s intelligence services.[8]Organizers and participants at peaceful events and protests have also been attacked before and after the events, by those alleged to be government groups and supporters.[9]

In the North and in the South, police and military have tried to block funerals that are considered to paint a negative image of the government, such as when political prisoners and opposition party supporters have were killed. They have ended up as “guarded” funerals under heavy military / police guard and surveillance.[10]A crying and angry mother was compelled to wait for weeks, and go to the Supreme Court, simply to bring the dead body of her son (who was killed in custody of the authorities) home for the last time and have the funeral rites in their own hometown.

Significant cases since May 2012 in the North and East

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Stranded in Dubai: Tamil refugees live in ‘constant fear’ of deportation

 

16 MAY 2013 BY FRANCES HARRISON

So desperate for clothing, they fashioned dresses from bed sheets, pulling out individual threads to use as cotton and improvising a needle from pins nailed to wooden crates. Men, women and children live in the searing desert heat in a camp used for unloading aluminium, where everyone else has a safety mask for protection against the metal dust. There’s only one bathroom for all of them and it’s impossible to sleep because of the noise of trucks arriving around the clock. These are survivors of a brutal civil war who’ve been locked up since October; a baby was even born during this time. Shockingly they’re in one of the wealthiest city-states in the world – Dubai. And they’ve also been recognised as refugees by the United Nations.

Far worse than the dreadful physical conditions is the uncertainty. Human rights groups have received assurances that the refugees are in no danger of deportation but they’re currently in limbo until a third country accepts them. This is little comfort to people for whom fear has become a constant companion. They allege they’ve been told they are to be re-interviewed and if their stories change they will be deported. “We live in constant fear that we would be sent back at any time,” explained one of the men contacted by clandestine mobile phones, which they are not allowed in the camp.

Several members of the group allege the Dubai police previously threatened them with forcible deportation if they refused to sign papers agreeing to go quietly. ‘If you are not going to sign, we will put you in chains and send you back,’ the refugees were reportedly told. They’re alarmed because six members of their group who were not accepted as refugees have already been deported

Human rights groups have confirmed the refugees are at risk of torture and persecution if sent home – three individuals say they were already tortured in Sri Lanka in 2011. News from relatives back home also suggests that the Sri Lankan authorities have already started tracking down family members and asking questions about the refugees.

The Tamils are the remainder of a larger group of 45 who boarded a boat in southern India heading for Australia. When the vessel broke down and started taking in water, they panicked that they were all going to drown and used the satellite phone on board to contact Australia. After five hours of drifting, they were saved by a ship in the area, the Singapore-registered Pinacle Bliss, which brought them to Dubai. Twenty-four refugees have been accepted by the United States, Sweden and Finland for settlement and one young man is technically stateless because he was born while his Sri Lankan mother was illegally in India and she’s no longer alive.

Talking to journalists abroad, one elderly man broke down in tears on the phone. The stories of escape are quite harrowing – one man who feared imminent arrest in India boarded the smuggling boat in such a rush he left behind one of his children: “The agent assured that if we get into the boat, the rest of the people who are also supposed to join us will bring my daughter. I trusted his word. So, I got into the boat with my wife and the youngest daughter. Until the boat left no one brought our daughter. My wife started to cry. At the same time, we could not go back as police were waiting”.

The couple had left their eldest child asleep and it haunted them to think how she must have felt when she awoke and found herself alone. For four hellish months they had no news. Then they learned she was being looked after by her uncle, also in India. Another man was separated from his wife while fleeing Sri Lanka for India. “It was terrible to get separated after surviving a massive war; I looked for her all these months without any success,” he explained. Only recently he learned that she was back in Sri Lanka but still didn’t dare return to his country.

Among the 15 is also a former Tamil Tiger TV presenter, Rathimohan Lokini, who has given interviews saying how terrified she is that she could be raped and killed like another well known colleague, Isaipriya, who was identified among the half naked female bodies in trophy photographs taken by the victorious soldiers at the end of the war.

© Asian Correspondent

---

Frances Harrison is a former BBC Correspondent in Sri Lanka and the author of Still Counting the Dead: Survivors of Sri Lanka’s Hidden War, published by Portobello Books (UK), House of Anansi (Canada) and Penguin ( India).

More articles by Frances Harrison:

Sri Lankan newspaper attacked for 37th time
Priests demand tougher action on war crimes
Sri Lanka’s killing f

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Radhika Coomaraswamy Under Consideration For UN Women

May 16, 2013 |

Radhika Coomaraswamy‘s name is among the nominations for the Executive Director of UN Women.  Yesterday was the deadline for nominations for Executive Director of UN Women. The candidates will succeed the organization’s first head, Michele Bachelet, who resigned suddenly in March to return home and stand for election to Chile’s presidency. At least six candidates are rumored to be under consideration, according to the Global Memo. Global Memo which covers the processes and actors involved in the selection of high-level multilateral leadership named them as follows;

Radhika Coomaraswamy

Rebeca Grynspan is considered a strong contender and possibly the front runner for the post. Grynspan is the former Vice President of Costa Rica and currently serves as an Associate Administrator at UNDP. An elections official at the Costa Rican permanent mission in New York stated to Global Memo that the Latin American and Caribbean region is eager to keep the post.

Lakshmi Puri is the current Acting Executive Director, stepping in shortly after Bachelet’s resignation. A source with a leading U.S. human rights group however suggests that few women’s rights groups see her as preferred successor to Bachelet. In December, her husband, Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri, wrapped up his presence on the UN Security Council as India’s 2-year term on the body concluded. What impact his influence will have his wife’s candidacy and the selection is of particular interest.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, the former special advisor to the Secretary General on Children and Armed Conflict, is looked upon more favorably by women’s groups, according to the same source. She had been under consideration in 2010. From Sri Lanka, she is currently a visiting scholar at New York University’s Center for Constitutional Transitions.

Tarja Halonen, former President of Finland, is also rumored to be a nominee. Like Coomaraswamy, she had also been nominated in 2010, but was not seriously considered as the Secretary General was reportedly seeking a woman from the Global South to head up the new agency initially.

Kim Campbell, the former and first female Prime Minister of Canada, confirmed she has been nominated by her government in mid-April after its leaked in Azerbaijani media reports. Ms. Campbell was the former board chair at the International Women’s Forum and the Council of Women World Leaders. She now sits on the board of the International Crisis Group.

Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda is currently the General Secretary of the World YWCA. She is a trained human rights lawyer from Zimbabwe with extensive experience in conflict resolution and mediation, including 20 years experience on issues of women and children’s human rights, with a special focus on crisis countries.

If the process unfolds as it did in 2010, the Secretary General’s senior appointment team will vet the nominees and present to Mr. Ban a short list of three candidates. Following interviews with each, Ban will make the final decision on whom he will appoint to take over the post. The 2010 vetting process and selection was wrapped up in 7 weeks, in part to have the first Executive Director in place before the General Assembly convened. Last month, John Hendra, Associate Executive Director at UN Women, noted that a new search could take up to three months.

But if this year’s process is less competitive, i.e. fewer than 25+ candidates as in 2010, we may see a nominee before the body’s Executive Board meets at the end of June or shortly thereafter.

Unlike in 2010, women’s groups have been very unengaged in regards to the transparency of the Secretary General’s selection or qualifications of any of the candidates. Women Thrive is not active on the race this year, nor is the GEAR campaign, which spearheaded efforts in ensuring the 2010 candidates were highly qualified for the post.

The only NGO known to be engaging in any meaningful way this year is theAssociation for Women in Development (AWID), which plans to interview each candidate. William Pace, Executive Director of WFM/IGP, stated that “it would be best if the SGs process were more transparent.”

As expected, the Secretary General’s office is officially tight-lipped on the candidates, refusing even to confirm the final number of nominees received.

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Short film featuring Isaippiriya reproduced

 

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 May 2013, 06:18 GMT]
Remembering the heroes of the Tamil cause, civilians and journalists, who sacrificed their lives this week in 2009, TamilNet reproduces a short film featured by the slain journalist Ms Isaippiriya.

The short film titled “Veali” appeared in an album released by the LTTE in 2008.

Related Articles:
01.12.10   Woman victim in Channel-4 video identified as Journalist Isa..

Three Judges absent at ceremonial sitting

THURSDAY, 16 MAY 2013

Three Supreme Court judges were absent at the ceremonial sitting held to welcome the newly appointed Supreme Court judge, Justice Rohini Marasinghe at the Supreme Court yesterday (15th) say reports.

Out of the ten existing Supreme Court judges, only seven judges graced the sitting with their presence.  Justices R. A. N. Gamini Amaratunga, Chandra Ekanayake and Eva Wansundera PC  were not present at the event.

Ms Rohini Marasinghe, who was a judge of the Court of Appeal, was promoted to the Supreme Court on 26th April by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Sri Lanka Bar Association had opposed the appointment and had not been invited for the ceremonial sitting.

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The consequences of political representation or the lack of it

 

Image from AsiaNews.it

Groundviews 

Devanesan Nesiah-16 May, 2013

The focus of  my article in the Sunday Leader of 5 May was on the need for Northern Provincial representation. It now looks as if those elections may be held in September 2013. I will elaborate on the likely consequences of representation, or the lack of it, drawing on past experience in Sri Lanka, India and the USA.

All over Sri Lanka the bulk of the Muslim population are Tamil speakers. It was so almost 100%  at every socio- economic level when the Official Language Act was enacted in 1956. But at that time the political leader ship of the Muslims were mostly Members of Parliament representing Sinhalese majority electorates. All these voted for Sinhala only, as desired by their mostly Sinhalese voters, even though they were themselves Tamil speaking.  The Muslim MP’s representing Eastern Province electorates voted against the Bill, as desired by their voters, nearly all of them Tamil speaking. In the Senate, AMA Azeez, who was not elected by Sinhalese voters, not only opposed the Bill but quit his party on this issue. One of the objectives in forming the SLMC, much later, under the leadership of Ashroff, based in the Eastern Province, was to ensure the election of Muslim MPs responsive to the wishes of the Muslim population.

In India, the Dalits / Harijan /Untouchables and Tribals have enjoyed quota reservations in political bodies and public institutions at all levels for close to a century. The practice had been that the reserved seats had been rotated from election to election with only Dalits standing for elections in the seats reserved for them.  In the 1930s, about the same time as the Donoughmore Commission in Sri Lanka, a dispute arose between the Dalit leader Dr.B.Ambedkar    and Mahatma Gandhi as to whether electorates should hitherto be purely territorial or whether Dalits should have separate electoral registers. Gandhi wanted the former, and Ambedkar the latter, but there was no dispute regarding the need for reservations. Under Gandhi’s proposal even in electorates for Dalits, the majority of the voters would be non- Dalits. Dr.Ambedkar argued that the Dalit candidates would then tailor their manifestos to suit the majority non- Dalit voters. In fact Dalit candidates seeking High Caste Hindu votes would often stand respectfully outside the house, declining any invitation to enter the house or to sit on a chair or to accept a cup of tea. Such practices helped to win High Caste votes.  Dr.Ambedkar wanted Dalit candidate to adopt radical manifestos for 100% Dalit electorates. The British Colonial Government suspended progress towards independence till this issue was solved. Gandhi started a fast to death and was close to death when Ambedkar caved in, and agreed to purely territorial electorates with both Dalit and Non-Dalit voters in exchange for increased quotas for Dalits. It is this compromise that was embodied in the Indian Constitution drafted two decades later under the Chairmanship of Dr.Ambedkar.

In the USA, Governor Wallace of Alabama, perhaps the most racist of the Southern leaders, had Presidential ambitions. His state was Black majority but he had ensured that, as in most Southern states, most of the Blacks were denied voting rights on some pretext or the other, such as illiteracy. The Whites all over the South were fearful of being swamped by Blacks if they gained voting rights. His 1962 campaign slogan was, “From the cradle of the Confederacy, this very heart of the great Anglo- Saxon Southland … Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever! He bitterly and violently opposed the Voting Rights Act, but when he found that he could not stop it, he did a U-turn on many issues. He there after supported many Black causes because his vote base was now more Black than White, though he remained as racist as ever.

Hopefully the NPC elections will not only bring about changes in the administration of the Northern Province, but also compel Colombo to take into account the NPC leadership, which may be why these elections have been long delayed. The elections and their likely outcome will surely have a positive impact on the politics of Colombo and also on National Reconciliation.

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A Reply To Minister DEW’s Question

 

By Hema Senanayake -May 16, 2013

Hema Senanayake

Rajan Philips observed that the regime is fast becoming a victim of its own. This is more so in the management of economy. Minister DEW Gunesekera openly acknowledged that this was the case at present.

“DEW has warned that “the SLFP-led alliance could become a victim of its

own propaganda unless tough corrective measures were taken instead of boasting of unprecedented growth in the post-war era. The country is in peril due to economic mismanagement rather than international conspiracy.” (The Island, May 11, 2013).

It has been reported that the Treasury Secretary Dr. Jayasundera took the visiting IMF delegation to meet with Minister DEW Gunesekera who is the Chairman of COPE. The minister posed an interesting question to the IMF delegation.

He had asked IMF economists to explain “why the GDP and per capita income increases were not being reflected in state income”.

According to Central Bank figures, the GDP rose by Rs. 1 trillion in 2012 … while the per capita income rose from Rs. 313,000 to Rs. 373,000. At the same time the government’s revenue has fallen to 13% of GDP. In 1978 the state revenue was 24% of GDP. According to the Minister the current revenue is barely sufficient only to pay salaries of 1.4 million public sector workers and 510,000 pensioners, and pay interest on loans and pay subsidies.

In this context, it seems, the Minister’s question is very valid. I am not sure whether the IMF economists have answered the question duly because their answer/s had not been reported.

Therefore, I thought it will be appropriate if I can provide a credible answer to the Minister’s question. This essay is to serve for that purpose.

Some people might think that the correct answer is that the Central Bank had manipulated its statistics in order to show an economic progress that was non-existent. Rajan Philips writing an article to The Island had questioned the credibility of the Central Bank. Referring to the independence that the Central Bank enjoyed under Dr. N.M. Perera in early 1970s Rajan wrote “His period in office was also remarkable for the healthy distance between the government and the Central Bank. Quite frequently, NM would question the periodical assessments of the economy by the Central Bank. NM attributed the Bank’s negative assessments to its orthodox ideology but never tried to coerce or co-opt the Bank to fall in line with the government’s political direction. The Bank was left alone and, right or wrong, it was able to maintain its independence and credibility. How things have changed.” (The Island, May 11, 2013).

Yet my reply has a different dimension. There is no correlation between government tax revenue and GDP growth. This means tax revenue may go up or may go down but that has no bearing on GDP growth. Republicans in the United States are fighting a losing battle that tax cuts spur growth. But the statistics point out that there is no such correlation and sometimes GDP had grew considerably when high income earners pay more than 60% income tax. What affects to GDP growth is the positive change in the economic system’s healthy demand for consumption. (Some economists may rush to argue here that it is not the consumption but the investments that matters to GDP growth. I reject this notion because healthy demand for consumption creates the due demand for investments. I leave this subject for another day if any reader envisages so).

I said above that there is no correlation between tax revenue and GDP growth; and also said that from empirical data this lack of correlation has been proved. But this does not explain why there is no correlation between tax revenue and GDP growth. Let me explain this point as simple as possible.

An economic system allocates certain amount of funds (money) for the use of consumption from all entrepreneurial activities. This allocation is done by the revenue generating business entities. These entities may be private owned or government owned. Most of the households get their consumable income directly from businesses. And now some of these households pay income taxes to the government. In turn the government uses that money to pay the rest of the households as wages, salaries (of government employees) and subsidies.

The government employees produce products and services for the common interests of the society but these services are not sold. For an example the government produces judiciary service which cannot be sold. Therefore judicial service is, economically “consumption” and produced by tax money which is part of the already allocated consumption money in the economic system. Therefore if taxes are increased or reduced that won’t change the total money allocated for the consumption. If taxes are increased (and properly used) then the government would produce more things for the common interest and private consumers consume less. On the flip side, if taxes are reduced then the government produces lessor amount of things for the common interest and private consumption might go up.

However, if the GDP is increased as a result of the increase of revenue generating activities then the total allocation of tax revenue must go up. If we assume that tax structure did not change and the efficiency of tax collection did not change, then if the government’s tax revenue is not increased with increase of GDP we can conclude that increase of GDP has not been resulted from the revenue generating activities of the economy. This means there should be some other reason for the increase of GDP. That reason is the government’s deficit spending or in other words the government’s spending over the budget. I will try to explain this point as simple as possible.

Let us first see how GDP is calculated. GDP = C+I+G+NE. In this simple equation “C” is consumption, “I” is Investments, “G” is government expenditure and “NE” is for net exports (Exports-imports). Accordingly any expenditure of the government except the repayment of loans and interest will represent in GDP. Government expenditure consists of (1) tax revenue and (2) deficit spending (the amount borrowed and spent).

Let us now assume that the government’s revenue is Rs. 100. In the above we have already discussed that this amount of tax revenue is consumable income already allocated by the system, hence spending of this amount will not change GDP. But if the government borrows another Rs 100 and spends then that amount is extra and will represent in the variable of “G” in GDP equation. As a result of deficit spending, now the GDP will go up by Rs.100.  But as we noticed above the government’s spending in macroeconomic terms is consumption and hence will not contribute to increase the revenue generating activities; as a result the real consumable income does not increase. Without the increase of the total consumable income allocated from the revenue generating activities of the economy, the tax revenue can’t go up but the GDP has gone up due to deficit spending.

What does this mean? This means if the increase of GDP is equal or close to the deficit spending (budget deficit) then the government revenue will not go up even if GDP is increased. I think this is the answer to Minsiter DEW Gunasekera’s question.

This is theory. Now readers are invited to compare the percentage of the GDP increase and the percentage of deficit spending for the past few years. For example in 2011 GDP growth was around 8% and the deficit spending was almost 8%. I think in 2012 GDP growth is 6.5% and the deficit spending is 6.5% (I am not sure). If both figures are equal or close then you may realize the accuracy of my answer. This is the very reason that I am not against if the government spends to facilitate revenue generating businesses than spending by it; but IMF may disagree. Convincing the IMF is partly the job of the Treasury and the Central Bank in the today’s world.

VIDEO: UNITED AGAINST THE ELECTRICITY TARIFF..

May 16, 2013

The protest march organized by the People’s Movement Against Increased Electricity Tariff took place this afternoon (May 15) at 2pm at Campbell Park in Borella. Several political parties and trade unions came together to protest the recently increase electricity tariff and demanded the government to reduce the tariff immediately. (Pics by Sanjeewa Lasantha)

Posted by Thavam

Paralyzed by protests

Paralyzed by protests
By a Staff Reporter- Thursday, 16 May 2013

Colombo, the nerve-centre of commercial activity in the country, was totally paralyzed yesterday for several hours as people swamped the streets from Borella to Fort and Lake House Roundabout to Fort, in a series of protests.

More than 10,000 people, representing some 200 trade unions, marched from Borella to Fort under the banner of the People’s Movement Against the Increased Electricity Bill (PMAIEB) and the pro-government trade unions held another march from Lake House to Fort.

PMAIEB protesters said the march was the first step towards abolishing the recently introduced electricity tariff plan and threatened to topple the government, if it failed to address the concerns of the people.

Pro-government protesters claimed they were marching to question those who try to destroy the progress of the country.

The government-sanctioned protest, which commenced at the Lake House Roundabout, ended at the same destination as the anti-government protest.

Confrontation was avoided by the police, who managed to prevent the two protest bodies from meeting in front of the Fort Railway Station by ensuring that they arrived there at separate times.

Earlier attempts made by the police to restrict the anti-government protest march to the Maradana Technical Junction failed, as the masses continued to march towards Fort.

Addressing the crowd in front of the Fort Railway Station, President of the Government Workers’ Trade Union Federation (GWTUF), D.M.D. Abeyratne, said the union will have another meeting today (16) to decide on the future course of actions to abolish the new tariff.

“We tell the government the people of this country have taken to the streets to abolish this electricity plan. The GWTUF will continuously work toward achieving this goal,” he said.

Attorney-at-Law, Chandrapala Kumarage, representing the Lawyers for Democracy said, “This is just the first step against a government that has suppressed the people of the North as well as the South for so long.”

President of the Government Nursing Officers’ Association (GNOA), Saman Ratnapriya, charged, “Under the pretext of providing relief against the increased bill for a section of society, the government stood to make a further Rs 214 million for themselves.”

Referring to the simultaneous protest march organized by the pro-government trade unions and organizations, he said, “We taught the henchmen of the government a valuable lesson, and they haven’t been able to interfere in our protest actions, as was hoped.”

Ministers, Dinesh Gunawardane and Kumara Welgama, and Western Province Governor, Alawi Maulana, were among the politicians who addressed the crowd that marched in support of the increased electricity bill.

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Vesak: What The So Called Buddhist Balavegaya Is Doing In Sri Lanka?

By Basil Fernando- May 16, 2013

Basil Fernando

The people in Hong Kong will be celebrating what they call Buddha’s Birthday tomorrow (May 17). The term ‘Buddha’s Birthday’ is similar to what is referred to in Sri Lanka as Vesak. However, the overall emphasis here is on birth and it is a sober celebration of life.

The Chinese are imbibed with the philosophy of Confucius who helped them to develop their moral principles. These principles are very deeply embedded in the Chinese mind. In Buddha‘s Birthday too, what they see are the important teachings relating to morality.

Hong Kong is one of the very few places in Asia which was able to overcome bribery and corruption. Perhaps one of the reasons that enabled such a radical transformation may be their attachment to moral values.

In India a similar approach to Buddhism was taken up by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar who, more than anyone else contributed to the revival of Buddhism in India which was wiped out by Brahmanism many centuries ago. Before that, for several centuries the most widespread philosophy was Buddhism.

For Dr. Ambedkar, whose sole aim in life was to eradicate the caste system of India the revival of Buddhism signified the creation of a moral foundation for liberty, equality and fraternity. As the chief of the drafting committee of the India constitution, he made every attempt to incorporate these values to have a practical meaning to Indians who were deeply divided and fragmented due to the caste system which had been entrenched for centuries.

Dr. Ambedkar as a young and emerging leader in India declared in 1936 in a famous speech to enlightened Hindus that he was born a Hindu but would not die a Hindu. By this he gave an indication of his wish to abandon the Brahmanical philosophy in its totality. On Buddha Jayanthi Day in 1956 he openly declared that he would embrace Buddhism. On October 14 of the same year with about 500,000 adherents he embraced Buddhism in a public ceremony.

In a radio broadcast made the same year he declared his fundamental philosophy thus:

“My Personal Philosophy”

“Every man should have a philosophy of life, for everyone must have a standard by which to measure his conduct. And Philosophy is nothing but a standard by which to measure.

“Negatively, I reject the Hindu social philosophy propounded in the Bhagvat Geeta based as it is, on the Triguna of the Sankhya philosophy which is in my judgement a cruel perversion of the philosophy of Kapila, and which had made the caste system and the system of graded inequality the law of Hindu social life.

“Positively, my social philosophy may be said to be enshrined in three words: Liberty equality and fraternity. Let no one, however, say that I have borrowed my philosophy from the French revolution. I have not. My philosophy has roots in religion and not in political science. I have derived them from the teachings of my master, the Buddha. In his philosophy, liberty and equality had a place but headed that unlimited liberty destroyed equality and absolute equality leaves no room for liberty. In his philosophy, law had a place only as a safeguard against the breech of liberty and equality; but he did not believe that the law could be a guarantee for breaches of liberty or equality. He gave the highest place to fraternity as the only real safeguard against the denial of liberty or equality or fraternity which was another name for brotherhood or humanity, which was again, another name for religion.

“Law is secular, which anybody may break while fraternity or religion is sacred which everybody must respect. My philosophy has a mission. I have to do the work of conversion: for, I have to make the followers of the triguna theory to give it up and accept mine. Indians today are governed by two different ideologies. The political ideal set out in the preamble to the Constitution affirms a life of liberty, equality and fraternity. Their social ideal embodies in their religion denies them.”

Dr. B R Ambedkar

(All India Radio broadcast of speech on Oct. 3, 1954).

During the public ceremony of his conversion to Buddhism he and his followers took 22 vows. They are as follows:

I shall have no faith in Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh nor shall I worship them.

I shall have no faith in Rama and Krishna who are believed to be incarnation of God nor shall I worship them.

I shall have no faith in ‘Gauri’, Ganapati and other gods and goddesses of Hindus nor shall I worship them.

I do not believe in the incarnation of God.

I do not and shall not believe that Lord Buddha was the incarnation of Vishnu. I believe this to be sheer madness and false propaganda.

I shall not perform ‘Shraddha’ nor shall I give ‘pind-dan’.

I shall not act in a manner violating the principles and teachings of the Buddha.

I shall not allow any ceremonies to be performed by Brahmins.

I shall believe in the equality of man.

I shall endeavour to establish equality.

I shall follow the ‘noble eightfold path’ of the Buddha.

I shall follow the ‘paramitas’ prescribed by the Buddha.

I shall have compassion and loving kindness for all living beings and protect them.

I shall not steal.

I shall not tell lies.

I shall not commit carnal sins.

I shall not take intoxicants like liquor, drugs etc.

I shall endeavour to follow the noble eightfold path and practise compassion and loving kindness in everyday life.

I renounce Hinduism which is harmful for humanity and impedes the advancement and development of humanity because it is based on inequality, and adopt Buddhism as my religion.

I firmly believe the Dhamma of the Buddha is the only true religion.

I believe that I am having a re-birth.

I solemnly declare and affirm that I shall hereafter lead my life according to the principles and teachings of the Buddha and his Dhamma.

For Dr. Ambedkar the rejection of every aspect of Brahmanism was essential to embracing Buddhism. Perhaps it is in this that the Buddhism he understood and the so called Sinhala Buddhism differs. What the so called Buddhist Balavegaya is doing in Sri Lanka is only a demonstration of how much Sinhala Buddhism rejects the most fundamental aspects of Buddhism and how much the Sinhala Buddhist mentality is rooted in the Brahmanical tradition.

On the very last day of his life the last thing Dr. Ambedkar did was to dictate a preface to his book on Buddha’s teachings. After dictating the preface he went to sleep and the following morning he was found dead by his wife. When his book Buddha and His Dharma was published, Mahabodi Society in Madras stated that the book represented Dr. Ambedkar’s ideas and not Buddhism. The Society was run by Sri Lankan Buddhists,

FUTA condemns all acts of intimidation and aggression against the academic community including students.

 

Thursday, 16 May 2013

The Federation of Peradeniya University Teachers’ Associations (FPUTA), comprising eight sister unions, was profoundly disturbed by the report that the President of the Peradeniya Student Union (PSU), Mr. Janaka Nilanga Madushan, was threatened with his life by a group claiming to be o

f the CID yesterday, May 14th, 2013, at 6:30pm.

According to the statement made by Mr. Janaka Nilanga Madushan to the police, the individuals first made contact with him while he was meeting with his father in Kandy town. He was subsequently taken to an empty room above a shop where he was interrogated and told to refrain from engaging in union related activities. If not, they threatened, he would meet the same fate as `Mathalan’ (Mr. Janaka Bandara), the Kelaniya University union leader who was killed in a roadside accident last year while engaged in a protest march.

We see the reported incident as a serious threat to fostering a democratic ethos fundamental to the creation of a vibrant academic environment at the University of Peradeniya. Further, because such threats thwart social movements and activism, which are a part of any democratic society, we are concerned that they will further harm the social fabric of Sri Lanka. Finally, we are concerned about the safety of Mr. Janaka Nilanga Madushan.

In light of these concerns we ask that the university authorities and the police, who have been informed of this incident, prevent such incidents from taking place in the future and ensure that swift action is taken to investigate and charge those involved. In light of these events, we stress that it is the responsibility of the police and the authorities of the university to ensure the safety of Mr. Janaka Nilanga Madushan

Video: UNP says no abolishing of Executive Presidency

THURSDAY, 16 MAY 2013
The UNP said today that they would present a draft Constitution which includes an Executive President, although the UNP previously were vehemently campaigning for the abolition of the Executive Presidency.

Responding to a question raised by the media at a news conference held to introduce a draft Constitution UNP MP Wijeydasa Rajapkshe said that in the proposed draft Constitution of the UNP, the executive presidency would feature.

“It will not be an only ceremonial president unlike in some countries. The president will also be liable and responsible when making decisions. However, the executive power vested on present presidency will be curtailed,” he said.

The UNP proposed draft Constitution is to present to the public in order to seek public opinion and ideas on May 29 after having discussion with party leaders in the Parliament regarding the draft.

According to the proposed draft Constitution a person would have to end his\her political career and be independent once elected as the president and would not be able to hold any Cabinet portfolios.

The Prime Minister and the Cabinet would take a major part when making political decisions according to the draft Constitution. (Lahiru Pothmulla)

 

Video

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Tamil schoolchildren sing ‘patriotic War Hero song’

Tamil schoolchildren sing ‘patriotic War Hero song

15 May 2013 Tamil schoolchildren in Killinochchi sang songs honouring the Sri Lankan Army at a ceremony earlier this week, in front of the Ranaviru Smarakaya monument.  Witness – Photo                  Witness Video The ceremony was attended by the Governor for the Northern Province, the now retired Major General Chandrasiri, as well as several other commanders from the Sri Lankan Armed Forces including  Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe, Commander, Security Force Headquarters – Jaffna (SFHQ-J), Major General Udaya Perera, Commander, Security Force Headquarters – Kilinochchi (SFHQ-KLN), Rear Admiral D.S Udawatte, Naval Commander for East. According to the official Sri Lankan Army website, Tamil schoolchildren from the area presented gifts and bouquets of flowers to the Sri Lankan Army ‘War Heroes’. The website also stated, “A special feature of the memorial service was the recital of a patriotic War Hero song by students at Kilinochchi Tamil Vidyalayam”.

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Part 2: Worries Of Bodu Bala Sena

 

By Rifai Naleemi -May 16, 2013

Dr. Rifai Naleemi

I take extra precaution when I write this series on Bodu Bala Sena. It is not my aim to hurt feeling of any religious groups or sects in Sri Lanka rather I try my best to understand the problems, challenge and social issues of Sri Lankan communities.  It is my primary objective to examine these issues

objectively with sympathy and empathy from different perspectives: The majority community ought to understand the concerns, and challenges of minority communities from the perspectives of minority communities to appreciate their concerns and worries. This should be done with empathy to their feeling and needs.  At the same time minority communities ought to understand the concerns and worries of the majority community.   They should look at into them from the perspectives of the majority community with empathy to their feeling and sentiment.

I will try my best to be impartial and neutral in writing without any prejudice in my argument. I will try to substantiate my writing with some rational and logical evidence as much as possible. It is not my objective to create more divisions and more disunity among Sri Lankan communities.  Rather I would like them be united as Sri Lankans.  Sri Lankans should live as one family with Lankan Identity with diversity in our faith and culture. Multicultural nature of our communities in Sri Lanka should not be an obstacle and barrier to build a strong Srilankan identity.  It should enrich our nation.  It should bring prosperity and economic growth to our nation.  This could help each community to flourish in this Island of Paradise.

While I’m writing this series I may be wrong in my perception of some sensitive issues.  I shall be more than happy to correct or amend my perception.   Once the incorrectness and wrongness are duly and appropriately highlighted by our readers with logical and rational arguments I shall be happy to amend them.  It is my firm conviction that we need unity, peace and communal harmony among Sri Lankans today than any time in Sri Lankan history.  To that end we all need to adjust our mindsets and behaviours beyond narrowness of communal thinking. Creating that broader Lankan identity with diverse cultural identities should be the number one priority of Sri Lankans today.   If we do this collectively, all community could live in peace and build a prosperous Sri Lanka in a few decades.

It is argued that since the early periods of colonization Sinhalese Buddhists were subjected to alien cultural onslaught.  Indeed, there is no doubt that the Sinhalese Buddhist people were marginalised and deliberately neglected by the colonial powers for different political, economic and religious reasons during colonial periods.  While those who converted into Christian faith relatively enjoyed all educational and employment opportunities, the rural Sinhalese Buddhist people were totally neglected during the colonial period particularly during the Portuguese colonial period of Ceylon:  Prof. Tennakoon. Vimalananda argues that Portuguese arrival was a Dark Age in Ceylon history.

They changed the cultural heritage of Sri Lankan Buddhist history in very sense.   This process of marginalization of Sinhalese continued even during the British rule under the divide and rule policy of British Empire.  Anagarika Darmapala raised his voice against this injustice but he went further extreme to spread hatred campaign against minority communities in Sri Lanka. He tried his best to instil and infuse Sinhalese nationalist feeling among Sinhalese public.  He was in deed succeeded to some extent in his radical ideas. His speeches and writings were full of hate instigation. This nationalistic campaign was further proclaimed by SW Bandaranayke in 1958 when he made Sinhala as one and only official language of Sri Lanka.  This time it was for  a pure  political reason.

Moreover, after the independence the entire political authority of Sri Lanka was given in the hands of Sinhalese population. As they are the majority of population they have been holing the grip on the political power in Sri Lanka without sharing it with minority communities. It seems that they feel they had been victimised for more than five hundred years in Sri Lanka by successive colonial powers.  Now they feel the pinch and wanted to marginalise all minorities for tit for tat stratagem. Even in pre-colonial periods the relation between Sinhalese and Tamils was not that good. This historical enmity once again re-emerged after the independence.

Though Tamil and Muslim members of Parliament are being elected, the fundamental rights, aspiration and needs of these communities are not rightfully met to some extent.  Tamil issue is still not being solved.   Tamil language has not been yet given any official status, No Tamil/ Muslim members of Parliament has been elected as  a PM in Sri Lanka yet, this shows political marginalization of these minorities communities.  Moreover, Now Tamil and Muslim culture, language, religious heritage are in a great danger because of the Budu Bala Sena’s anti-minorities campaign in recent times. It seems that BBS is following the path of their spiritual Guru and intellectual mentor Anagarika Dharmapala in their anti- minority campaign.

BBS has got many concerns and worries in their minds. Some of these concerns are against the successive Sri-Lanka governments which they claim have failed to protect and promote Buddhism in this country.  There are some concerns in the minds of these BBS members about Sinhalese community itself for its failure to follow pure Buddhism in Sri Lanka. They have concerns about economy and population growths of Sinhalese community. Some of them wrongly assume that their race is in the brink of extinction. These are some of the internal concerns of BBS.  No doubt these may be genuine concerns of BBS and yet, they should know how to address these concerns in a democratic and polite way in this modern world.

One hand, the minorities are complaining that their culture and religious identity are in danger in Sri Lanka. They argue that after defeating the LTTE Sinhalese people are invading the North and East.  Moreover, they are occupying the cultural and religious sites with support of three forces: Sri Lankan army, navy and police. On the other hand, Budu Bala Sena argues that Sinhalese heritage and sacred places are being destroyed in the North-East.  They argue that Buddhism and its heritages are danger in all other part of country.  BBS feels that their religion, culture and heritage are threaten by all alien religious practices from Muslim, Christian and Hindu cultural invasions while Tamils in North East feel that their culture and religions are invaded by Sinhalese Buddhists.

This is indeed a paradoxical situation.  How do we reconcile between these ironical and two countertrading arguments. How do we see these contrasting arguments objectively without bias and subjectivity?   Is it true that Buddhist culture and religion are in the brink of extermination and extinction in Sri Lanka as it was claimed by BBS and its cohorts?  Is it true that Tamil culture and heritage are being destroyed by Sinhalese in the North East parts of Sri Lanka?  To what extent these arguments could be justified and to what extent these arguments are true?  Who should be blamed for these ironical situations in Sri Lanka?  Who are the  people responsible for the decline of Buddhism in Sri Lanka as it is claimed?  Is it the politicians? Is it Buddhist monks? It is Sinhalese public who want to go away from Buddhism? Or is it minority communities?  These are some of the fundamental questions that BBS and its cohorts should evaluate and gauge objectively. They should not blame other communities for the decline of Buddhism in Sri Lanka rather they should evaluate shortcomings of teaching and preaching methods of Buddhism in Sri Lanka.

It is generally argued by BBS and its cohorts that once many Asian countries were Buddhist countries in history. Countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives and other parts of Asian countries were Buddhism countries.  Now people of those countries have become Muslims. They predict and over exaggerate that in 2050 Sri Lanka would become a Muslim country. They argue ostensibly unless necessary steps were taken to curtail rapid increase of conversion into Islamic faith and expansion of Muslim population growth this could happen in 2050.  What a superficial argument is this? This argument does not have any logical credibility rather such an enigma has been deliberately created to spread false alarm and panics in the minds of public. These are some of mere assumptions and prediction.  There is no solid evidence to suggest this would happen in three decades.  I think that this fear or phobia is unnecessary and illogical in every sense.  We shall deal with this issue next week.

Tamil genocide then and now

 

Wednesday, 15 May 2013

Remembering Tamil Genocide Exhibition atCollingwood Gallery, 292 Smith Street, Collingwood, Vic. in May 17-30, 2013.

Official Opening: Sunday, May 19, 2-4pm.

 

A Photographic Exhibition by a Tamil refugee living in Australia.

Exhibition Curator: Ron Guy.

The world gasped when it discovered the full horror of the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s. Presidents, politicians and diplomats said it would never happen again. So much for promises from presidents, politicians and diplomats.

According to the UN Human Rights Commissioner, Navi Pillay, genocide was, and is, being repeated in Sri Lanka, and once again the world is averting its’ eyes. “Rwanda’s lessons were not implemented in Sri Lanka,“said Pillay, whose authority on this matter comes from her position as president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

During the last days of the 28-year Sri Lankan civil war in May, 2009, the outside world was shut out when the remaining monitors from the UN left the war zone fearful for their own safety.

However, the world is finally awakening to the Sri Lankan military atrocities against the Tamil civilian population through the stark, vivid images recorded by survivors, and smuggled out of the country.

One of those photographers is now a refugee in Australia. “*Nilavan”, who worked for Sri Lankan media, covered the war for many years and was there until its very last days in the north-east, where, according to UN estimates, at least 40,000 people were deliberately slaughtered.

Nilavan took more than 500 photographs as the Sri Lankan military pursued its’ genocidal actions, which a UN special commission has demanded be investigated as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

These haunting images offer proof – along with notable works as the UK documentaries “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” and “No Fire Zone” – of the military’s pre-meditated campaign to target innocent civilians and will not allow history to hide the truth of this murderous regime.

As yet, no-one has been brought to account for what happened towards the end of the war, and the international community, including Australia, continues to compounds its’ disgraceful inaction on the events of May, 2009 by ignoring the on-going Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka. (The exhibition also has images that show undeniable evidence of recent torture of Tamils).

The war crimes of 2009 and the continuing genocide are the reasons why people flee Sri Lanka and seek asylum in Australia. Yet the Australian Government and the Opposition not only remain silent on these crimes but have a policy of engagement with the Sri Lankan Government in order to stop the boats.

It is not only cruel and inhumane, but also self-defeating. By turning a blind eye and “engaging”, our Government is giving the Sri Lankan regime the go-ahead to continue the terror that forces people to flee.

It is as plain as the scars on the backs of so many Tamil torture victims that the only way to stop the boats is to stop the terror. It is time to acknowledge the truth of the genocide in Sri Lanka, then and now; a truth told in graphic reality in this exhibition.

(*Not his real name).

Warning: Images may cause distress.

Donations towards exhibition costs welcome.

Exhibition supported by the Tamil Refugee Council.

Contact :

Ron Guy 0428173970, Aran Mylvanagam 0404 431 913, Trevor Grant 0400 597 351

Women protest against electricity tariff hike

THURSDAY, 16 MAY 2013

Women for Rights movement today staged a protest in front of the Fort Railway station against the recent electricity tariff hike. Protesters carried electric equipments to the protest and later on they smashed them as an act of protest. Pix by Kushan Pathiraja

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BBS And Wimal Weerawansa’s Big Mouth

 

By C. Wijeyawickrema -May 16, 2013

One would expect Wimal Weerawansa (WW), the minister, to be different from chracters such as Mangala Samaraweera, SB Dissanayaka, Vasudeva or Amunugama when it comes to Sinhala Buddhist affairs.  If he is not acting as a reasonable person then one would wonder whether his brain is in his head or his rearend.

He has done so many good things such as supporting MahindaR in 2005 and thereafter, but he has also done so many foolish things. Going to Egypt in August wearing a three-piece suite can be fulfillment

of a childhood desire not knowing how hot the summer in Egypt. Attacking America without sorting out facts is like what Norieaga did in Panama or Sadam Hussein did in Iraq and got killed at the end. We know in present days ministers are so dum and stupid. For WW to come out of this category he must first study an issue before he make public utterances.

I refer to what he said about the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) and his silly answer to when he was promptly challenged by BBS. WW said that Norway was using BBS to make attacks on the Muslim community in Sri Lanka. His answer when confronted was that it was all in the AsianTribune website.

Asian Tribune website did not say BBS is an agent of Norway or BBS got money from Norway. It was true that those who later formed BBS went to Norway and met LTTE agents just like BBS leaders met Tamils in America when they visited USA recently. WW must be a fool to think such acts by Buddhist monks are anti-Sri Lankan acts.

WW must understand that BBS never attacked Muslims. WW must understand that BBS pointed out Taliban and Wahabi behavior in Sri Lanka aimed at bringing Sharia law to Sri Lanka and force it upon non-Muslims. WW’s government has failed to take action on such acts due to its greed to keep some Muslim leaders happy and BBS happened to come to know Halal game by accident. BBS is not formed to work on halal-haram matters. BBS is formed to fight for Buddhist rights ignored by WW’s government.

BBS is based on the Lichchavi principle of Buddhist India. Just like Buddhism says “Come and examine” (not come and believe), Buddhists say come and discuss. This is what BBS is doing.  WW should have met with BBS and discuss his concerns so that he will not become a public joke at least in the minds of reasonable thinking people in Sri Lanka.

May be WW does not know that Norway was funding hundreds of Buddhist temples. Does he think Norway’s Erick Solheim is doing that to seek Niravana?  WW is jealous of the sudden upsurge of BBS in the Sri Lankan political climate, taking WW and his government to the task. Only Gotabhaya Rajapaksa realized the gravity of BBS power. For WW some Muslim votes in Colombo may be a life and death issue but BBS world is a different world. WW should peruse the BBS website and avoid making a foolish confrontation with BBS as BBS is reasonable and WW is not.

BBS suggests Wimal learn English

By Umesh Moramudali-2013-05-16 The Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) yesterday asked Minister of Construction, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities, Wimal Weerawansa, to learn the English language before attempting to read statements issued by the Norwegian Embassy. BBS General Secretary, Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera made this comment when a journalist raised a query regarding the allegations made by Minister Weerawansa saying the BBS is funded by the Norway. He said, Minister Weerawansa and his advisers, have not understood what the Norwegian Embassy has stated. “We don’t want to waste our time replying allegations of such people,” he said. Earlier, BBS Executive Committee Member, Dilantha Withanage, strongly denied the allegation that the BBS is funded by Norway, adding the Norwegian Embassy in Sri Lanka has also denied such allegation. Recently, Minister Weerawansa said Buddhist monks of the BBS should challenge Dilantha Withanage and the officials of the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo to reveal that the organization is funded by the Norwegian Embassy.

2013-05-16

The Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) yesterday asked Minister of Construction, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities, Wimal Weerawansa, to learn the English language before attempting to read statements issued by the Norwegian Embassy.

BBS General Secretary, Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera made this comment when a journalist raised a query regarding the allegations made by Minister Weerawansa saying the BBS is funded by the Norway.

He said, Minister Weerawansa and his advisers, have not understood what the Norwegian Embassy has stated.

“We don’t want to waste our time replying allegations of such people,” he said.

Earlier, BBS Executive Committee Member, Dilantha Withanage, strongly denied the allegation that the BBS is funded by Norway, adding the Norwegian Embassy in Sri Lanka has also denied such allegation.

Recently, Minister Weerawansa said Buddhist monks of the BBS should challenge Dilantha Withanage and the officials of the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo to reveal that the organization is funded by the Norwegian Embassy.

Full Video – Sinhala: BBS On Wimal Weerawansa And Azath Sally Affair

May 16, 2013

Bodu Bala Sena special media conference on visit to Norway & USA, Minister Wimal Weerawansa’s allegation and the issue of Azath Sally – 13 May 2013 

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Tamil Eelam Freedom Charter to be Declared on May 18th – the 4th Anniversary of Mass Killing of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

• Several renowned international personalities and dignitaries are attending this event to give their support.

• As Tamils envision the future and look forward to the fruition of Tamil Eelam, the Freedom Charter containing the Freedom Demands of Tamils worldwide, would be a cornerstone of Tamil’s Freedom.

- Tamil Eelam Freedom Charter will be declared on May 18, 2013. May 18th marks the 4th anniversary of the killing of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians and sexually assaulting Tamil women by the Sri Lankan Security forces during the final months of the war.

Tamil groups from around the world, coordinated by the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), initiated the process of drafting the Freedom Charter, through extensive consultation from Tamils worldwide.

Several renowned international personalities and dignitaries are attending this event to give their support for this initiative. A three day conference will take place in the run up to the declaration, where several research papers dealing with varies issues relating to Tamil’s freedom, are going to be submitted by leading academicsfrom around the world.

This declaration will take place in the historic city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania in the USA, where Mr. Thaddeus Stevens played a leading role in legally abolishing slavery. He was also instrumental in US President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves.

“As Tamils envision the future and look forward to the fruition of Tamil Eelam, the Freedom Charter containing the Freedom Demands of Tamils worldwide, would be a cornerstone of Tamil’s Freedom,” said Mr. Rudrakumaran, the Prime Ministerof Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE).

“Aspiring to take the Vaddukoddai Resolution – which called for the creation of Tamil Eelam – forward, taking inspiration from Britain’s Magna Carta, the Freedom Charter of the African National Congress (ANC) and the Palestinian National Charter, the Tamil Eelam Freedom Charter will enshrine the Freedom Demands of our people”, continued Mr. Rudrakumaran.

Rs.6000 million loss to country by importing luxury cars for VVIPs

THURSDAY, 16 MAY 2013

The government has taken steps to import 12 Rolls Royce cars and 100 BMW cars stating it is for the transport facilities of state leaders who are scheduled to arrive here for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to be held in November in Sri Lanka say reports.

Normally a Rolls Royce car would cost Rs. 60 million and a BMW 7 Series Sedan would cost about Rs.18 million.

Accordingly, Rs.2500 million will be spent to import cars for the summit. The figure is without taxes and if taxes are added the cars would cost the country Rs.8750 million.

There is no clear decision as to what would be done with the cars once the CHOGM is over but the talk going round in political circles is that the cars would be taken over by strong men in the government.

However, the tax lost to the public in importing the cars would be Rs.6250 million. Cars were imported in this manner for the IFFA festival held in 2010 but no one knows what happened to those cars.

Recently, ultra luxury racing cars including Lamborghinis were imported without taxes and in import papers it was mentioned that the cars would be taken back once the races were over.

Getting down luxury cars spending billions for a summit that is limited only for three days is an unnecessary spending say political analysts pointing out that limousines could be got down on hire to be used for such occasions. They say the decision to get down luxury cars without taxes has been taken by several individuals who are at the helm of the government.

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Winning a War in the Era of Unwinnable Wars: The case of Sri Lanka

 

by GUY GABRIEL on MAY 13, 2013
In Total Destruction of the Tamil Tigers: The Rare Victory of Sri Lanka’s Long War, Paul Moorcraft recalls a Buddhist saying: “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.” In Sri Lanka, if history is to be written by the victors – President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his followers – then the island has arrived at butterfly status. This book is less one that describes the price paid for this (though the bill is presented for inspection), more one about how it arrived at that status.

Wars of counter-insurgency (COIN), such as those (now) fought in Afghanistan and (previously) in Iraq, frequently get cast as battles which pit those with the watches against those with the time. Briefly, this amounts to the non-indigenous side leaving the theatre of war before defeating the indigenous side, simply because the pressures on them to do so are greater than the imperatives that caused them to become involved in the first place. Indigenous forces stay put.

In describing Sri Lanka, Moorcraft offers us a thought-provoking perspective when those with the time are pitted against those also with the time, bringing in to focus something so rarely achieved but dearly sought after by various powers: the absolute defeat of an insurgency, an uprising, a rebellion or whatever term is used to describe it.

Ultimately, Sri Lanka’s narrative is about the costs involved of defying the conventional wisdom that counter-insurgencies cannot be won militarily, set against the (Long) War on Terror discourse which offers little outside evidence that wars today are winnable.

The author quotes an Indian defence expert summarising the ‘Rajapaksa model’ of COIN:

• Political will

• ‘Go to hell’ (ignore international and domestic criticism)

• But keep important neighbors in the loop

• No negotiations

• Control the media

• No ceasefire

• Complete operational freedom

• Promote young and able commanders

Naturally, this neat wish list could never be quite so neat when being played out in a real scenario. But for the Sri Lankans prosecuting this war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Tigers (LTTE), certain elements came together at the right time, meaning that when final victory was sensed, the President felt secure enough to inform a very concerned Indian ‘top-level security troika’: “Even if you invade my country, I will not stop this.”

By this stage of the game, Sri Lankan leadership was tight and almost impenetrable: President Rajapaksa had one brother, Gotabaya, as Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence, and another one, Basil, as a senior and advisor and then Minister of Economic Development.

By contrast, the LTTE, despite being adept at using the media and Diaspora networks for support and funding, committed some serious strategic errors and was led by a dictatorial leader who believed his own hype. Using the fanatical Black Tigers, the suicide attack division, they assassinated Rajiv Ghandi of India, the regional powerhouse who through the state of Tamil Nadu had some constituent sympathy for their cause. While the Tamils alienated India, Sri Lanka kept good relations with Pakistan and China, through whom they had a friend on the UN Security Council. On the ground, profiting from armed peace during periods of supposed ceasefire bled the Tamils’ local support.

Matters reached a head in ‘The Cage’, an internationally-brokered no-fire zone which only really served to concentrate combatants and civilians into one area so that opening fire could most conveniently be undertaken. In fact, by this stage, the only shots fired in anger were fired in The Cage. No rear bases in neighbouring territory were possible. Despite the outcry resulting from the civilian loss of life, the Tamils were in effect pushed into the sea, a bellicose figure of speech used on the eve of battle that on this occasion was enacted.

Since then, peace seems to have paid dividends: the state of emergency has been lifted, the growth rate of the economy has been 7-8%, and the tourist industry is rebounding strongly. But this is the time when you find out just how ‘total’ the victory was. Given the dominant presence of the military in so much of Sri Lanka’s history, its peacetime politics are inevitably militarized.

Still, as Moorcraft muses, what would a political settlement have achieved? “Another North-South Sudan at worse or a divided Cyprus at best?” This is undoubtedly a difficult question, one which runs counter to the moral sensibilities with which we tend to view and discuss conflict today. Certainly, no outside observer or diplomat could be willing a total victory – but their influence was deflected at the crucial times.

In discussions about whether the ends justify the means, the formula rarely features an end quite so definitive as that experienced in Sri Lanka. The net result, which the author leads us to, is that when there are so few voices decrying what they see as the end of the world, observers, unaccustomed to victory, are left wondering quite how they arrived at the butterfly they are presented with, in places agonising over the costs – but nonetheless, it is still a butterfly.

Tagged with: Sri Lanka

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Thousands of monks bless Rajapaksa and army

Thousands of monks bless Rajapaksa and army

15 May 2013

Sri Lanka held a ‘Jaya Pirith’ ceremony earlier this week, which saw thousands of monks gather in Colombo this week to invoke blessings upon Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Sri Lankan Army.

The ceremony was initiated in 2008 and described by the Ministry of Defence as the ‘brainchild’ of Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa to ‘invoke blessings on marching victorious troops in defence of the country’.

This is the 6th consecutive year that the ceremony is being held, with over 3,400 monks in attendance, alongside several senior members of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces.

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BBS To Destroy Kuragala Islam Religious Site – Alavi Mowlana Asked MR To Intervene

“There has also been threats by the Bodu Bala Sena to bring thousands of Buddhists in vehicle parade to place a Buddha statute and destroy our religious site on May 18^th 2013.” Alavi Mowlana, the Governor of the Western Province wrote to Mahinda Rajapaksa today.

 

We publish below the letter in full;

 

 

 

 

 

REHEARSALS FOR V-DAY…

May 15, 2013 

 

Victory Day Parade displaying military might of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces will be held on Saturday(18) in Colombo, to mark the 4th Anniversary of the end of Eelam War against the LTTE. Pictured here rehearsals underway on Galle Road opposite the Galle Face Green. Pic by Osanda Daham Nimsara

 

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Four Norwegians liable, Colombo court rules * UK, Norway funded peace project goes sour

 

Four Norwegians liable, Colombo court rules

* UK, Norway funded peace project goes sour

May 15, 2013, 9:48 pm

by Shamindra Ferdinando

A major diplomatic dispute is in the offing with the District Court of Colombo ruling that four Nor

wegian foreign ministry officials, including its former Ambassador in Colombo, Hilde Haraldstad, are accountable for multiple banking transactions undertaken by local NGO, the Foundation for Co-Existence, in support of ‘peace projects’ underwritten by the governments of Norway and the UK during eelam war IV.

The ruling comes in the wake of Norway warning of breaking diplomatic relations if Sri Lanka went ahead with the case. The dispute has sent shock waves through the local NGO community, with Norway insisting those recipients of its funding should throw their weight behind them.

At the fifth hearing of the case, Additional District Judge Amali Ranaweera has said that of the 11 defendants, four persons, namely first defendant Ms Haraldstad, fifth defendant State Secretary Espen Barth Eide, sixth defendant Deputy Director General Kjersti Anderson and ninth defendant Foreign Service Control unit director Erik Glenne, were liable in Sri Lankan court.

The decision was given on April 30th. The hearing will resume on August 2.

NGO guru Dr. Kumar Rupesinghe had moved the District Court of Colombo against 11 Norwegian officials, including former minister Erik Solheim, who had spearheaded the Norwegian peace initiative here. According to the plaintiff, Norway had failed to honour the tripartite agreement, signed in June 2008, under which the Foundation for Co-Existence was to be paid by both the Norwegian and British governments.

The signatories to the agreement were Tore Hattrem, the then Norwegian Ambassador in Colombo, on behalf of Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tom Owen–Edmunds, Head of Political and Development Section of the British High Commission, on behalf of British High Commission in Colombo and Dr. Kumar Rupesinghe, on behalf of the Foundation for Co-Existence.

The agreement covered a three-year period.

The court was told that Norway had suspended payments, though the British fulfilled their part of the agreement.

Rupesinghe is seeking compensation from Norway to the tune of Rs 98,528,065.69 on the basis he obtained bank overdraft facilities on the strength of the Norwegian undertaking.

There hadn’t been any previous case similar to the ongoing legal dispute involving a local NGO and its foreign partners.

Interestingly, Norway was to fund the projects to the tune of 75 per cent with the remaining funding coming from the UK.

Having made some payments, in accordance with the agreement, Norway suspended further payments in early May 2009, just weeks ahead of the conclusion of the conflict. However, the UK met its full commitment in keeping with the agreement.

Well informed sources told The Island that Norway had strongly voiced its concern over the attempt to haul its representatives up before a Sri Lankan court. Norway through local lawyers representing the country’s interests asserted that all Norwegians cited as defendants enjoyed diplomatic immunity hence legal action couldn’t be instituted against them. Norway went to the extent of warning that diplomatic relations between the two countries could be at stake unless the case was dropped.

At one point the External Affairs Ministry intervened on behalf of Norway, though it subsequently changed its position.

Evaluation of Norwegian peace efforts in Sri Lanka, during the period of 1997 to 2009, revealed Norwegian funding for a range of NGO-run projects, with Rupesinghe being identified as the recipient of the lion’s share of Norwegian finding amounting to $ 6 mn (NOK 35 mn).

pic

Dr. Rupesinghe

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Bank takes over Deccan Chronicle press

 

The HinduThis Jan. 8, 2013 photo shows a notice pasted on the gate of the Deccan Chronicle press at Kondapur. The notice was served by Kotak Mahindra Bank states that it has taken “symbolic possession” of the property. File photo: Nagara Gopal

HYDERABAD, May 16, 2013

Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited (DCHL) suffered another jolt on Wednesday when Kotak Mahindra Bank took possession of the premises of its printing press located at Kondapur on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

It is learnt that bank representatives, along with the police, descended on the printing press and sent away employees before locking and sealing the premises. This action follows notice served by the bank, which lent the media house close to Rs. 100 crore, for default on payment of Rs. 50 crore.

Earlier this year, the bank served a demand notice on DCHL, asking it to wipe out the entire liability within two months. The bank also served a possession notice under the provisions of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act 2002. Accordingly, it pasted a notice at the Kondapur press, indicating a “symbolic taking over” of over 9,800 square yards of land.

DCHL, it is learnt, has shifted the entire printing operations to Kompally.

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1474 Northern Tamils Petition Appeal Court To Help Prevent Grab Of Their Homes By Rajapaksa Regime

14May 15, 2013

1474 Tamils of the Northern Peninsula have filed writ application No. CA (Writ) 125/2013, pleading for relief from the Appeal Court, against steps by the ruling Rajapaksa regime to grab an area of approximately 25.8 square kilometres (6381 acres), including their traditional homes. The Colombo Telegraph reliably learns that hundreds more are to follow suit in desperation.

The petitioners state that the so called land acquisition is flawed in several ways, and point out that proper procedures have not been followed, and that there is no proper public purpose to be served for which their land is to be taken over, as set out in the petition.

The petition demonstrates that the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo City itself spans an area of 37.21 square kilometers and that the approximately 25.8 square kilometres of Jaffna Peninsula lands to be acquired is about ‘two-third the entire land area on which Colombo City is established’.

Here is a map of the Colombo area with approximately 6384 acres depicted as the extent enclosed within 3 marker points, which is annexed to the petition (marked “P3″) and presented to court to demonstrate how massive the land extent being acquired is.

The petitioners say they have repeatedly interacted with State functionaries and are easily identifiable. The petition also states that a large number of the petitioners have been listed by the State as ‘displaced’ and are languishing in ‘welfare camps’ established by the State and languish there after being refused permission to return to their lands. The petitioners complain that in these circumstances, the challenged acquisition notice wrongfully claims that “Person claiming ownership over the land: cannot be identified”.

The petitioners urge that the Appeal Court quashes the acquisition notice marked “P1″ and prohibits action being taken based on it and plead for an interim order till the case is heard, that would effectively prevent further steps being taken to dispossess the petitioners of their lands, pointing out that grave and irreparable loss, harm and damage would otherwise be inflicted on them.

Here is the full petition dated 14/05/2013 filed by lawyers, Sinnadurai Sundaralingam & Balendra settled by – K. Kanag-Isvaran (President’s Counsel), M. A. Sumanthiran, Viran Corea, Lakshmanan Jeyakumar, Bhavani Fonseka and Niran Anketell.

Read the petition here

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