JDS

'Black January' marked amidst rival protests

2012-01-25T15:35:00.005+01:00

Photo courtesy: vikalpa.org

BBC Sinhala
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Media organisations in Sri Lanka have been marking 'Black January' while an international watchdog has downgraded the country's rank in Press Freedom Index (PFI).

The annual Press Freedom Index issued by Paris based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has ranked Sri Lanka 163 out of 178 countries ranked. Sri Lanka was ranked 158 in 2010.

The campaign in Colombo, organised by Sri Lanka's Alliance of Media Organizations, to mark killings of journalists and threats and intimidation against media personnel in January, is also supported by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

The protest marks recent attacks in January including the murder of Sunday Leader editor, Lasantha wickrematunga in 2009, the disappearance of political columnist Prageeth Ekneligoda in 2010, the attack on Sirasa media network in 2009 and the brutal attack on television producer Lal Hemantha Mawalage in 2008.

Press Freedom Index

The protest that was to be held in front of Colombo fort railway station was forced to shift to Lipton Roundabout as pro-government groups staged a protest at the railway station hours before 'Black January' protest.

Sarath Kumara Perera, the convener of Free Media Association (FMA) which staged the pro-government protest accused the 'Black January' protesters of being "traitors" and "trying to create unrest in the country" using foreign funding.

Traffic in front of the railway station was disrupted by the protest, co-organised by the FMA and Organisation of Self-Employed.

Chandana Sirimalwatta of Journalists Against Oppression, categorically rejected FMA views.

Media in Sri Lanka has a right to reveal what is actually happening in the country, he said, and accused the pro-government protesters of being involved in media oppression.

Releasing the PFI, the RSF said: "The stranglehold of the Rajapakse clan forced the last few opposition journalists to flee the country. Any that stayed behind were regularly subjected to harassment and threats."

It added though attacks were less common, impunity contributed to self-censorship “by almost all media outlets”.

© BBC Sinhala

Families and activists demand information on Sri Lanka's disappeared journalist, civilians

2012-01-25T12:46:00.005+01:00

Photo courtesy: vikalpa.org

By Krishan Francis | Winnipeg Free Press
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Families, activists and opposition politicians marched in the capital Tuesday demanding information about the disappearances of a journalist and abducted civilians.

The civilians disappeared after they allegedly were abducted by a pro-government militia, and columnist and cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda had criticized the government before he went missing two years ago Tuesday.

The protesters carrying candles and photographs of the missing marched to a church where they prayed for freedom for the victims.

"I have gone everywhere possible over the past two years to know the whereabouts of Prageeth," said Sandhya Ekneligoda, the journalist's wife. "We must join hands and take this struggle together," she told other women who participated in the campaign.

Last year Sandhya sought the help of the United Nations to help trace the journalist, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon announced that the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and UNESCO the world's body's educational organization are looking into the case.

However, there has been no information on Prageeth.

Sandhya chanted prayers at the church calling for "strength and freedom" for her children and husband.

"Give me a family, find my husband and children," read banners carried by the protesters.

Opposition politician and activist Mano Ganeshan accused the government of abductions.

"There is no one else to do it but the government," he said. "We tell the government to explain what happened to these people before trying to defend yourselves internationally."

Foreign governments and human rights groups have heavily criticized Sri Lanka's human rights record, especially during the final stages of the civil war that ended with the defeat of the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009.

Scores of ethnic Tamils suspected of having links with the rebels disappeared after being abducted. Journalists were killed, some imprisoned and others were taken away and severely beaten.

© AP

‘In ravaged times, poets become the voice of the voiceless’ - Tamil Poet Cheran

2012-01-25T12:31:00.009+01:00

By Bhamati Sivapalan | Tehelka
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R.Cheran is a Sri Lankan Tamil poet and academician, born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. He published his first collection of poems Irandaavathu Suriya Uthayam (The Second Sunrise) in 1982. His other titles include Yaman (God of Death) (1984), together with an anthology of Tamil resistance poems, Maranatthul Vaalvom (Amidst Death, We Live), which he edited in 1985, and Miindum Kadalukku (Once More, The Sea), published in 2004. He is currently a professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Windsor, Canada.

A lot of your literature deals with the Sri Lankan Tamil experience. In places caught in ethnic conflicts, we witnesses destruction of cultural identity. In this context, how do you position your work?

My first collection of poetry was titled The Second Sunrise in English. It was written in 1981 after the burning of the Jaffna public library. When I look back, I am reminded of a saying by a German writer and intellectual: “First you burn books, then you end up burning human beings.”

That's very pertinent to what you're asking. I was very close to that library. Every Saturday my father would take us to the library. I would spend 4-5 hours there. I was a young university student in Jaffna at the time of the burning. We couldn't go to the library when it was being burnt but we went the next day. We saw a large number of Sri Lankan soldiers and other agents of the state stationed next to it in a huge stadium. They were laughing and mocking us. That is my very first memory of the library being burnt.

My poem was symbolic. It simply depicts the burning of the library as the second rise, which is unimaginably ironic, right? It’s a second sunrise in the sense that the Tamils were about to resist the cultural genocide. And this was the time when various Tamil militant movements emerged.

In the past 30 years, there has been a systematic attempt by the state of Sri Lanka to ethnically cleanse and culturally subjugate the entire Tamil population. And the culmination of that particular project, ethnic cleansing and pogrom, is the May 2009 genocide of Tamils.

How does your work counter this narrative of cultural genocide?

Well in one sense, in the past 30 years, my eight collections of poetry have been a witness to the ongoing resistance of the Tamils and the genocidal massacres of the Tamils by the Sri Lankan state. So in that sense I became a witness to that history. My witnessing is not just as a historian or an archaeologist or a social scientist. It’s the poet as the witness, which involves a different kind of sensibility. It’s a different kind of imagination that is involved in this particular kind of being a witness, which you can very clearly see in my work.

A lot of poetry that comes out of conflict spaces often tends to be primarily valued as a sociological document. Does its value then, as a craft for the literary devices, run the risk of going unnoticed?

That’s an interesting observation… I would like to mention that the cultural theorist Leo Lowenthal who said that historians, social scientists and sociologists should be prevented or banned from using poetry as raw material for their works. But on the other hand, when public intellectuals like journalists, politicians and academicians are silent to this kind of genocide or ethnic cleansing, the poets step in and articulate a particular kind of resistance. That shouldn't be the primary work of a poet. However, in the absence of all other voices of resistance, in the absence of counter narratives, sometimes it happens that the poets become the voice of the voiceless.

The second point is that, it is not that the poetry I wrote or the ones that my colleagues wrote were simply agitprop poetry. It’s not ‘kavitai koshum’ (sloganeering poetry) as we say in Tamil. But rather this is a different kind of poetry with a different sensibility and speaks to a particular kind of nuance at times of conflict, war, disappearances and genocide. The particular poetic movement that emerged in the north east of Sri Lanka in Tamil greatly impacted the Tamil poetry in Tamil Nadu and in various other parts of the world. When my poetry was translated to Kannada, some of the key Kannada literary critics and poets felt that the poetry from north eastern Sri Lanka had an organic combination of poetry, protest, resistance and aesthetics that was unique. So that is what I think differentiates the kind of poetry that I wrote and my colleagues wrote. That's a very important distinction. We can't simply say that this is a kind of poetry that witnesses an agony and resistance but there is more to it.

Bhamati Sivapalan is a Video Correspondent with Tehelka.com

© Tehelka

Sri Lanka jail riot 'injures 31' in Colombo

2012-01-25T12:20:00.004+01:00

BBC News
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At least 31 people have been injured in clashes between guards and rioting inmates at a prison in the Sri Lankan capital, hospital officials say.

Most of the injured are prisoners who were shot by guards. Police deny claims that three inmates were killed.

Several buildings were set alight in the remand wing of Colombo's main prison before order was restored.

Prisoners say they want better food and conditions. Police said inmates were angry at moves to curb drug smuggling.

The head of Sri Lanka's prisons department admitted that the treatment of prisoners in the jail fell short of acceptable standards.

A local resident told the Associated Press news agency that disturbances had been going on for several days.
Wounds 'not serious'

Throughout Tuesday smoke billowed from the Welikada (Magazine) prison as dozens of inmates demonstrated on the rooftops. Some held up a banner calling for the head of the prison to be removed.

The BBC's Charles Haviland says the air outside the jail was acrid with tear gas and smoke - inside the barrier gate the prison is teeming with police and armed military.

Ambulances have been taking the wounded to Colombo's National Hospital. A senior staff member there told the BBC that 26 inmates and five officers were being treated, although the injuries were not serious.

The prisoners had gunshot wounds, mostly below the knee. The officers had head or leg injuries after being assaulted.

Earlier, one of the inmates told the BBC Sinhala service that three prisoners had been killed when officers at the gates shot at a large group in the compound.

The deaths are unconfirmed and exactly what happened is unclear.

Police spokesman Ajith Rohana said gunfire and tear gas had been used after prisoners rioted over new regulations.

"The new prison administration have launched a massive programme in order to curtail the drugs inside the prison and apart from that to prevent drugs going inside the prison," he said.

"I think this is the reason for this protest."

But the prisoners said the new rules in fact banned food from outside.

Later the head of the prisons department told BBC Sinhala that the treatment of the prisoners was less than ideal and that this would be corrected.

Prisons Commissioner PW Kodippili said food had been sent in but there was no immediate confirmation of this from the prisoners.

He also said that 180 remand prisoners suspected of links with the Tamil Tigers had now been transferred to another jail.

© BBC News

In Sri Lanka, Eknelygoda asks that humanity trump cruelty

2012-01-24T11:00:00.004+01:00

By Bob Dietz - Asia Program Coordinator | Committee to Protect Journalists
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A couple of weeks ago, I described the terrible incidence of anti-press abuse that has come each recent January in Sri Lanka. Media activists have come to call the month "Black January" for good reason, as this email message details:

The Alliance of Media Organizations, spearheaded by the Free Media Movement, has earmarked January 25, as Black January Day on account of the numerous attacks against the media unleashed by the government in the past three years, especially in the month of January. These include the murder of Sunday Leader editor [Lasantha Wickramatunga], the fire bomb attack on Sirasa/MTV studios and the attack on Rivira editor Upali Tennakoon in 2009, [see CPJ's Special Report: Failure to Investigate], the disappearance of Prageeth Eknelygoda, the sealing of Lanka newspapers and the detention of its editor in 2010, and the arson attack on Lanka eNews office in 2011.

January 24 marks the second anniversary of the disappearance of Prageeth Eknelygoda, a cartoonist and columnist for the pro-opposition Lanka eNews website. The case is among several anti-press attacks that are tied up in court hearings without substantive law enforcement action. Eknelygoda's wife, Sandhya, and two sons have gotten no word from any official body of the Sri Lankan government, from the lowest police desk to the highest levels of the ministry of justice, about what happened to the journalist.

On Tuesday, as she did last year, Sandhya Eknelygoda will take another step in pressing the government to conduct an investigation into her husband's disappearance. Here is the plan, according to an email message sent over the weekend:

Women have taken the initiative to commemorate the second year of the disappearance of Prageeth Eknaligoda and of all the other disappeared persons on the 24th January 2012, in front of the Fort Railway Station at 4.30 p.m.

They will sit down in deep silence to make their protest to the murderers and the destroyers of these valuable lives, with the firm determination to eradicate this inhuman and barbarous culture of revenge and criminality against humanity.

The most interesting feature would be the procession of women moving to the church in New Chetty Street, Kochcikade to invoke the blessings of Virgin Mary, Prajapathi Gothami, Goddess Paththini, and Goddess Kali.

All sympathy and support is welcome to share in this symbolic gesture of this heroic effort of these women who are suffering daily with the awful and unbearable loss of their loved ones.

On January 25, 2011, Sandhya Eknelygoda submitted a petition calling on U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other U.N. officials to encourage the Sri Lankan government to investigate the disappearance of her husband. The request to the U.N. has been unmet.

In March 2011, CPJ and four other groups sent a letter to Ban asking him to direct the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and UNESCO, which oversees press freedom, to look into the case of Eknelygoda. There has been no meaningful response from the United Nations. Sandhya Eknelygoda's personal appeal to the president's wife, Shiranthi Rajapaksa, has also gone unanswered.

Consider this vast indifference. What can this soft-spoken mother of two teenage boys possibly do? Yet her words this year invoke a faith in humanity that transcends the cruelty she has experienced, as she calls on like-minded women to "sit down in deep silence ... with the firm determination to eradicate this inhuman and barbarous culture of revenge and criminality."

© CPJ

Sri Lanka: Further repression of media, civil society, minorities

2012-01-24T10:52:00.005+01:00

Human Rights Watch
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The Sri Lankan government in the past year failed to advance justice and accountability for the victims of the country’s 26-year-long civil conflict, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2012. While Sri Lanka’s war-ravaged north and east became more open, the government deepened repression of basic freedoms throughout the country.

The government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa continued to stall on accountability for abuses by the security forces, threatened media and civil society groups, and largely ignored complaints of insecurity and land grabbing in the north and east, Human Rights Watch said. The long-awaited report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), published in December, largely absolved the military for its conduct in the bloody final months of the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which ended in May 2009.

“In 2011, accountability remained a dead issue, the media faced increasing censorship, and the long-standing grievances which led to the conflict were not seriously addressed,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Sri Lankans face a lack of justice, weak rule of law, land grabbing, and a censored media from a government that is increasingly authoritarian.”

In its 676-page report, Human Rights Watch assessed progress on human rights during the past year in more than 90 countries, including popular uprisings in the Arab world that few would have imagined. Given the violent forces resisting the “Arab Spring,” the international community has an important role to play in assisting the birth of rights-respecting democracies in the region, Human Rights Watch said in the report.

The government’s failure to hold perpetrators of abuses accountable remained a key issue throughout the year. No one was prosecuted for atrocities committed during the conflict with the LTTE. The government ignored the findings of a Panel of Experts report, commissioned by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, which found rampant abuses by both government forces and the LTTE, and called for an independent international mechanism to investigate laws-of-war violations. The government insisted instead that its LLRC would be the mechanism to address wartime abuses, though the mandate, composition and procedures of the commission were deeply flawed. The LLRC effectively exonerated government forces for laws-of-war violations, rehashed long-standing recommendations, and took no concrete steps to advance accountability.

The commission’s findings stand in stark contrast to those of the UN Panel of Experts, the UN special envoy on extrajudicial executions, and nongovernmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch. Although the LLRC found that government shelling resulted in civilian casualties, an allegation that the government had strenuously denied, it did not even consider the repeated attacks on civilian areas and hospitals as possible indiscriminate attacks prohibited by the laws of war, Human Rights Watch said.

“The abuses by government forces detailed in the UN Panel of Experts report are strangely missing in the LLRC’s findings,” Adams said. “Even the LLRC’s useful recommendations seem destined to join those of other Sri Lankan commissions that got filed away and ignored.”

Free expression in Sri Lanka was under assault in 2011. The editor of a Jaffna-based newspaper was beaten with iron bars by a group of unidentified youths in late July. Also in July, a team of Radio Netherlands journalists were harassed by police and later robbed and attacked at gunpoint by men in a white van, a notorious symbol of terror in Sri Lanka. The chairman of the Sunday Leader, whose brother Lasantha Wickrematunge had been gunned down in 2009, received a phone call from President Rajapaksa who threatened to attack him personally in response to articles in the Sunday Leader about high-level corruption. In December, two human rights activists, Lalith Kumar Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganathan, disappeared, apparently abducted while en route to a planned protest rally in Jaffna. Weeraraj’s father stated that his son had received anonymous phone calls prior to the protest telling him that he would be eliminated if he continued his political involvement.

In November, the government-owned Daily News announced that the government would issue guidelines and a code of conduct for the country’s media. The Media Ministry called on all news websites to register. At least five websites critical of the government were subsequently blocked inside the country.

“A free media is an essential building block of a democratic state,” Adams said. “The Rajapaksa administration is putting this in jeopardy by reacting to criticism with heavy-handed measures.”

The government says that there has been meaningful progress on reconciliation, but there is little evidence to support that contention, Human Rights Watch said. Talks between the government and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on distribution of powers remained stalled through most of 2011. While campaigning ahead of elections in Jaffna in June, members and supporters of the TNA were attacked by army personnel wielding rods, batons and sticks.

There were some improvements for the Tamil population in the north and east in 2011. Freedom of movement to the north has allowed for greater access by humanitarian, local human rights and media groups, as well as by families. However, the government took inadequate steps in 2011 to normalize living conditions. Security in the region remained poor, with alarming incidents reported of gender-based violence and enforced prostitution. The unsettling attacks mid-year by “grease devils” – unidentified male assailants – exposed the vacuum in the security forces’ ability to respond adequately to civilians’ needs for protection. The heavy military presence in the north and east was a continuing source of distrust among the largely Tamil population.

The issue of land, one of the central problems undergirding the decades-long conflict, remains unresolved. Although the cabinet in April passed a circular intended to address the issue of land ownership and competing claims, particularly for those who fled during the war, little was done to implement its provisions.

Further, the government failed to appoint a National Land Commission, as required under the 13th amendment to the constitution. Reports of land-grabbing by the military in the north and elsewhere in the country increased through 2011. In some cases, the military provided some compensation, but sporadically and only when initiated by the owners, not the occupiers.

“The government has barely made an effort to address the grievances of the Tamil population,” Adams said. “Instead of the government facilitating greater dialogue, Tamil political representatives are subject to threats and harassment.”

Most of the nearly 300,000 displaced persons illegally confined in military-controlled detention centers after the war were able to leave by early 2010, but many have still not been able to return to their previous homes or communities. About 57,000 people live with host families, and another roughly 53,000 remain in the camps, in part because de-mining activities have not yet been completed in their original home areas.

By December, the government had released all but about 1,000 of the nearly 12,000 LTTE “surrenderees,” alleged combatants and supporters that it was detaining without charge or trial, and claimed that those remaining would be released by mid-2012. The government says these former combatants have been rehabilitated and trained to enter civilian life. The government said another 1,000 “hardcore” LTTE members are being held at Camp Boosa. The conditions for all of these detainees are not known.

Allegations of mistreatment and torture in custody have not been investigated.

The Emergency Regulations were allowed to expire on August 31, but the 1979 Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and other laws and regulations permitting detention without charge for up to 18 months leave an abusive detention regime in place.

Local government elections held between March and October further consolidated the hold of Rajapaksa’s United Freedom People’s Alliance party. It won control over 270 of the 322 local authorites contested. As in previous years, the president relied on close family members to strengthen his hold on government. Various Rajapaksa brothers remain as cabinet ministers with important portfolios. Opposition parties were effectively sidelined.

Sarath Fonseka, the former army commander who challenged Rajapaksa during the 2010 presidential election, was sentenced to an additional three years in prison after his current sentence expires in January 2012.

“As the Rajapaksa government has strengthened its grip politically, basic rights protections in the country have deteriorated,” Adams said.

© HRW

Armed men on nocturnal terror visits to deter students’ struggle

2012-01-24T10:34:00.007+01:00

By Leon Berenger | The Sunday Times
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It was around 10.20 p.m. on Monday (16), when a group of students had just finished their dinner and were preparing to call it a day, when it all happened. A group of around 15 to 20 persons, some of them masked and armed with assault rifles and hand guns, stormed the hostel situated in Homagama, and informed the occupants that they were searching for an ‘underworld leader’.

The armed men immediately went around searching the building that also serves as an office of the university student organization, dragging out those already in bed, and assembling all the occupants in the inside verandah.

“Ko Sanjeewa Bandara,” the leader of the group demanded from those assembled. “Oka pathayalaya nayakek, kiyapan koheda inne,” (The fellows is an underworld leader, tell us where he is) the leader of the group demanded from the students.

“We told the men that Sanjeewa Bandara is the leader of the Inter-University Students Federation (IUSF) and not an underworld leader, and also that he was not a resident of this particular hostel,” Nuwan Jayaweera told the Sunday Times.

“We further informed the men that, if it is Sanjeewa Bandara they were looking for, it was easy to trace him as he appeared at news conferences, students protests all over the city at day, and could be easily spotted,” he said.

“This infuriated him, and he warned us to close down the place within a day, or face the consequences, which he promised would be ugly,” Mr. Jayaweera added.
According to the students present, the armed men were widely believed to be from the Army Intelligence, and the motive for their late night visit was purely aimed at intimidating the organisation that is in the forefront of the ongoing student protests throughout the country.

When the armed group left after about 45 minutes, during which time they searched the entire place, the students followed them, only to turn back after the ‘invaders’ raised their rifles and threatened to open fire.

During the raid, the students also observed that more armed persons had ringed the building from several sides. “Shortly after the incident, we made a complaint with the Homagama Police, but nothing has come out of the investigation, and we do not expect any positive results either. Even the police by now, would be aware of the identity of the men,” Mr. Jayaweera added.

The Homagama incident is not an isolated one, with students’ groups and others claiming that such late night, and even day visits by armed persons to private households, are widespread in many parts of the country.

The homes targeted are those of university student leaders and hardcore activists behind the wave of protests that was triggered-off by the proposed setting up of private universities in the country, among other issues.

One such home visited was the one belonging to Miss D.A. Perera, a fourth-year student of the Arts Faculty at Sri Jayawardenepura University.

“Two mufti-clad men entered my shop that adjoins my home and made inquiries about my eldest daughter who is attending Sri Jayewardenepura University,” said K.A. Perera, a staunch supporter of the left movement.

“They were decent in their approach, as they identified themselves from military intelligence. However, they were also giving a message. I suspect, the visit may have been different, if I was not present that day,” he said.

“The two men wanted to know my political affiliations and that of my daughter. I told them that I do not belong to any major political party, but instead, follow the left path, and that would not change,” Mr. Perera added.

“In the meantime, I was expecting such a visit at any moment. Even my daughter cautioned me towards this end, adding that the homes of several students had already been visited,” he said.

The two men later left the Perera home after a chew of betel, saying that they too had a job to do, but not before the grocer spotted a piece of paper in their possession, with a list of names and addresses.

IUSF President Sanjeewa Bandara alleged that some 250 homes from all parts of the country had experienced such visits from the beginning of this month, and that the trend was continuing.

“In most cases, the occupants of the homes were asked to get their children off the street protests, or face the consequences. In some cases, there were repeated visits to a particular household,” Mr. Bandara added.

He said that, the homes targeted belonged mainly to student leaders and other frontline activists behind the protests, and in some cases, even that of demonstrators caught on camera and from television grabs.

He added that, the intruders were working in collaboration with the local Grama Sevakas, where they collected personal information of an individual student, before moving in at night. “In addition to that, they were also in possession of students’ personal files taken from the administration section of each university. What is even more damning is that they spread false rumors among the villagers, that this particular student is connected to international groups sympathetic to the separatist Tamil cause,” Mr. Bandara told the Sunday Times.

Waruna Rajapaksa with the ‘People’s Struggle’ movement and Western Provincial Councillor, warned that the student crisis had come to a frightening point, with the army getting involved to stifle democratic rights.

“Instead of addressing the issues at hand in a democratic and fair manner, the Government has opted for a military solution. “It is like using a sledge hammer to squash an egg”, is how Mr. Rajapaksa described the current approach by the State.

“The students involved in the Homagama case are affiliated with our movement, and therefore, were concerned of the unfolding developments,” Rajapaksa said.

Rajapaksa’s People’s Struggle movement is a breakaway faction of the left-leaning Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP).

However, in this case, the JVP and the dissidents have united to condemn the involvement of the army in suppressing student actions, and have warned, that the issue could develop into a full blown crisis, should the Government insist on a military approach to solve the problem.

“The Government is bankrupt of ideas and solutions, and has therefore, opted for the military approach. This should never be the case. The authorities must have a re-think, before moving in on this particular direction,” JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe said.

He warned that, if the Government has its way with this so-called private universities to be opened in the country, it would mean the death knell of free education, starting from the primary to the halls of higher education.

He added that, the budgetary allowance for free education in the country was just 1.6% of the GDP, a pittance when compared with the allocations to other sections. “Very soon, the parents will be called on to provide the desk, chair and even the piece of chalk to the classroom.

The Government is bankrupt for ideas and solutions to the burning issues faced by the people. It is not only the student crisis, but the increasing burdens forced on the people, like the cost of living and the high unemployment rate are issues the State must look into at the earliest,” Mr. Somawanasa added.

He said that, looking at the present trend the Government is taking towards the university crisis, it will soon bring out the army to stifle anyone who dares oppose the establishment, be it trade unions or whatever.

In conclusion he added that, the students must be allowed to exercise their democratic rights without hindrance, while the Government must make a genuine effort to look into their problems and try and bring about solutions at the earliest.

Dr. Nirmal Devasiri with the Federation of University Teachers Association (FUTA) said that propagating revolutionary ideas was not illegal and is allowed within a democratic framework. “It is ‘madness’ to link the present student uprising to terrorism. No sane person will think of an armed struggle in the present scenario. Young people must be given the opportunity to express their political beliefs,” he added.

He added that, late night visits to the homes of students will only bring out negative results. “We have seen this in the past, and it should not be allowed to happen again,” Dr. Devasiri cautioned.

He said a student had informed him that his house experienced such a visit simply because he was studying at a university. “This is ridiculous” Dr. Devasiri added.

Meanwhile, Leader of the House, Nimal Siripala de Silva informed Parliament that certain international elements were trying to bring about a regime change in the same manner as they did in Libya.

“These so-called international-group-funded forces to take to the streets in Libya and they are making a similar attempt here,” he said without elaborating.

He was responding to questions by the Opposition that the Government was trying to undermine students’ rights In a public statement made earlier, former JVP frontliner and presently a Government minister, Wimal Weerawansa lashed out at the heads of universities for mishandling the situation.

Higher Education Secretary Dr. S. Navaratne said they were not aware of any army involvement- such as the home visits, etc.

He added that, the planned meeting between the university authorities and student leaders on Saturday last week, could not take place, as they- the student representatives, did not show up.

Earlier, Dr. Navaratne cautioned that other interested elements were seeking to ride on the student issue, purely to enhance their personal agendas. “This will never be allowed to be the case” he said.

The Army, however, vehemently denied that soldiers were involved in covert operations such as visiting the homes of university students.

Army spokesman Brig. Nihal Hapuaarachchi said such operations were the job of the police, as it is a civilian matter, and the Army has nothing to do with it. He urged persons who experience such a visit, and suspect it was from the army, to bring the matter up with the nearest police station at the very earliest.

Govt. pits Army against students to block protests

Students and activists belonging to the ‘People’s Struggle’ movement were, this week, furious, after authorities used the Army to block a protest campaign in the heart of the Jaffna Peninsula.

The group made up of some 800 activists had traveled to the north in 12 buses, but was intimidated, harassed and were forced to turn back halfway through their journey, a spokesman for the group said.

He said their convoy was stopped at some seven checkpoints and were told that the road to Jaffna was not motorable as a bridge had collapsed.

At one checkpoint, the group was told that a suicide jacket had been found in the vicinity and that to proceed further was a risk. “It was clear that these foolish stunts were made to prevent us from going ahead with our leaflet campaign to be held in Jaffna town”, the spokesman added.

The group’s campaign was aimed at calling on the authorities to indicate the whereabouts of two of their activists, Lalith Kumara Weeraraju and Kugan Muruganathan, who were abducted late last year in Jaffna.

© The Sunday Times

Sri Lanka’s defence secretary targets workers and youth

2012-01-24T10:29:00.004+01:00

By K. Ratnayake | World Socialist Web Site
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In a recent speech, Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse highlighted the “threat to our national security” posed by attempts to “create [political] instability” as in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

Remarks by the top defence official, the brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse, are an ominous warning that the government is refocusing its police-state apparatus, built up over a quarter century of civil war, against protests by workers and youth.

The defence secretary’s speech, entitled “Future challenges of national security in Sri Lanka,” was delivered in Colombo on January 11 before top military officers, state bureaucrats and others. It was widely publicised and broadcast on all private and state television stations on January 13.

Gotabhaya Rajapakse was chiefly responsible for prosecuting the government’s communal war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), along with former army commander Sarath Fonseka, who has since fallen out of favour and been imprisoned on trumped-up charges. Rajapakse is part of the military-political cabal—including the Rajapakse brothers, senior generals and state bureaucrats—that runs the government.

The timing of the speech was significant. Unrest among workers and youth is growing. In the same week, thousands of university students held demonstrations to oppose the government’s privatisation of university education. Plantation workers also held protests against the imposition of increased workloads.

On Tuesday, university teachers came out again to press for a salary increase and to show opposition to a private university bill. On Wednesday, thousands of the electricity and water board workers demonstrated in Colombo, demanding higher wages. The government is calculating how to suppress these struggles.

Rajapakse began his speech by referring once again to the “threat” of the revival of the LTTE abroad and in the country. Such comments are mandatory as the government needs to constantly stir up anti-Tamil communalism—the chief weapon used by the ruling elite for decades to divide the working class and rural poor, and block a unified struggle to defend living conditions and democratic rights.

The government restarted the war in 2006 and up until the LTTE’s defeat in May 2009 constantly exploited the “threat of terrorism” to justify the suppression of strikes, with the assistance of the trade unions.

The defence secretary warned his audience that although the LTTE had been crushed, “not to take it for granted” that it could not re-emerge. He claimed there were “on-going activities” of LTTE-linked organisations outside Sri Lanka—naming groups such as the Transitional government of Tamil Eelam, the British Tamil Forum and the Tamil Eelam People’s Assembly.

Rajapakse declared that the aim of these groups was “winning international opinion for the separatist cause, increasing international pressure on Sri Lanka in various areas, and pushing for international investigations into war crimes to undermine the efforts of the ‘democratically’ elected government.”

Pro-LTTE groups are engaged in a futile campaign to seek the support of the “international community” for a separate capitalist state of Eelam in the North and East of Sri Lanka. All the major powers, including the US, backed the war against the LTTE. They have rejected the formation of a separate Eelam and virtually dropped any demand for an international inquiry into the military’s atrocities during the war.

Without providing any evidence, Rajapakse claimed that “there is a possibility …terrorists will reorganise within this country.” Pro-LTTE groups abroad, he said, were aiming to “encourage and facilitate the resumption of an armed struggle in Sri Lanka.” There were detainees who could not be rehabilitated, including those whose “terrorist intentions may remain unchanged.”

The purpose of this “terrorist threat” is to justify the maintenance of the country’s huge military machine and police-state apparatus. The defence secretary declared that it was “of critical importance to maintain a strong [military] presence in areas… used by the LTTE for terrorist activities.” He added: “[M]aintaining a sizeable army and establishing camps in strategic locations throughout Sri Lanka is essential.”

Rajapakse then made clear that the government’s real concern was not the re-emergence of an armed LTTE, but the rising levels of social discontent. He declared that the “more realistic potential threat to our national security is the possibility that certain groups may strive to create instability” in Sri Lanka through indirect methods.

The defence secretary continued: “[H]aving seen political change accomplished in countries such as Tunisia, Egypt and Libya through uprising, some parties … might resort to such activities even here…we have already seen certain groups encouraging students to take to the streets in various protests in the recent past.”

The reference to the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt is significant. The revolutionary upheaval in Egypt in particular saw the involvement of broad layers of workers in opposition not only to the Cairo regime’s anti-democratic methods but also to the austerity agenda being imposed.

In Sri Lanka, as in Egypt, there is a deep social chasm between rich and poor. The Rajapakse government is imposing the demands of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for privatisation, deep inroads into public spending and the lowering of wages and conditions. These measures are provoking growing opposition among workers, youth and rural poor.

The government is well aware that the trade unions are increasingly unable to contain workers. At the same time, the main opposition parties—the United National Party and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)—are becoming as discredited as the government. That is why the government is preparing the state apparatus in advance to crush any protests.

The defence secretary declared that Sri Lanka was a “democratic nation” but lectured workers and youth not to exercise their democratic rights to defend their interests. In reality, Sri Lanka remains a police state. All the anti-democratic powers that were employed during the war—including arbitrary arrest and detention without trial—remain in force despite the formal ending of the country’s state of emergency. Thousands of Tamil youth remain in custody without charge, two years after the end of the war.

The Socialist Equality Party warns that the Rajapakse regime will have no hesitation in using the security apparatus against the working class and youth. Just as the opposition parties supported the civil war, so they will fall in behind any crackdown on protests and strikes that threaten the capitalist order.

The working class must prepare for the coming struggles by building a revolutionary leadership directed at abolishing the capitalist system that is the root cause of war, social inequality and attacks on democratic rights and at establishing a workers’ and peasants’ government to implement socialist policies. Such a perspective is only possible by uniting the struggles of working people in Sri Lanka with those in the Middle East, Asia and internationally for a world planned socialist economy. That is the program for which the SEP fights.

© WSWS

Sri Lanka: Tea rich but nutrient poor

2012-01-24T09:58:00.005+01:00

IRIN
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Tea in Sri Lanka is one of the country's biggest cash crops, but families working on tea estates are among the nation's poorest in terms of earnings as well as nutrition, say experts who back regional approaches to tackle nutrition disparity.

One in every five children younger than five is malnourished nationwide and one in six newborns has a low birth weight, one cause of infant deaths, according to a recent study from the Colombo-based Institute of Policy Studies (IPS).

But the situation is worse for children of tea estate workers, with one in three classified as underweight and 40 percent of babies born with too-low weight, IPS noted.

Ramasamy Ramakrishnan, 46, a tea estate worker and father of five, and his wife, who is also a tea harvester, earn US$130 monthly to support a family of seven, including five school-aged children.

"It is difficult. We survive somehow. But I cannot find any other job," he told IRIN.

His family is among the one-and-a-half million people - or some 5 percent of Sri Lanka's 21 million population - who work in the tea sector, according to government estimates.

The most recent national poverty study conducted in 2009-2010 noted that 11.4 percent of these families lived below the national poverty line of 3,028 Sri Lankan rupees per month, or roughly $27.

Income nutrition cycle

Household income plays a major role in determining nutrition levels of under-fives, with those among the country's poorest 20 percent three times more likely to be malnourished as those in the richest quintile, noted IPS.

In the government's most recent demographic and health survey (DHS) conducted in 2006-2007 some 17 percent of under-fives surveyed were stunted - a sign of chronic malnutrition and lack of nutrients.

Nuwera Eliya District - 150km south of the economic capital of Colombo - and the adjoining Badulla District, which both have large tea plantations, recorded the highest stunting rates nationwide that year, 44 and 33 percent respectively.

Angela de Silva, a lecturer at the University of Colombo's Faculty of Medicine and vice-president of the Nutrition Society of Sri Lanka said poverty and poor living conditions created an inter-generational cycle of malnutrition.

"The disadvantaged kid grows up to be a disadvantaged mother, often with early marriage, teenage pregnancies or starting off pregnancy with both micro- and macro-nutrient malnutrition; in turn she has a low birth-weight baby and poor pregnancy outcomes."

Regional approaches

Sri Lanka's government has programmes that promote exclusive breastfeeding in the baby's first six months - recommended by the World Health Organization to boost a child's lifelong nutrition - and provide nutrients and supplements to vulnerable populations, including pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and infants, in government clinics.

There are plans to "fine-tune" this breastfeeding promotion to target regions where malnutrition is high, said De Silva.

Education levels and mothers' knowledge about basic healthcare play a major part in determining their children's nutrition levels, said Kumari Navaratna, a senior health specialist at the World Bank's Colombo office.

"The primary caregiver for a child is the mother and evidence again and again is showing that if the mother is knowledgeable on appropriate feeding and caring practices, she is able to provide the best care to the child."

Regional targets

The Nutrition Society of Sri Lanka and Ministry of Health have advised taking into account regional economic and nutrition disparities as well as varying knowledge levels when tackling malnutrition.

Since May 2011 the government's National Nutrition Council has established a multi-sectoral pilot project in areas with high malnutrition, including Nuwera Eliya District.

District health, agriculture and livestock departments are designing regional nutrition interventions, including growth monitoring programmes and child-friendly clinics.

Government welfare policies dating back to independence in 1948 have largely failed to achieve long-term nutrition improvements, said Muttukrishna Sarvananthan, head of the Point Pedro Institute of Development in Sri Lanka and research fellow at Monash University in Australia.

"Government welfare policies should focus on the quality of outputs rather than the quantity of inputs, which has been the case hitherto."

To tackle malnutrition, policies have focused on handouts, such as nutritional supplements, without considering vulnerable groups' needs separately, or policy efficacy, said Sarvananthan.

© IRIN

Bleak future for Sri Lankan Tamils: Gordon Weiss

2012-01-24T09:39:00.009+01:00

Photo courtesy: Ross Tuttle

Interviewed by G Pramod Kumar | Firstpost Politics
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Eleven months after the bloody war in Sri Lanka that led to the complete rout of the LTTE amid intense civilian suffering, a great piece of journalism shook the conscience of the world: The Cage, authored by Gordon Weiss who was the UN spokesperson in the country at the time.

Written with arresting clarity of purpose and a racy style, The Cage unequivocally overturned the Sri Lankan government’s stand that there were no civilian deaths in the final days of the war. Besides the vivid description of the final phase of the war with chilling details of brutality, suffering and deaths, it provided an incredible perspective of the genesis, evolution and the culmination of the deep-rooted rift between the Tamil and Sinhala sentiments in Sri Lanka, that found violent expression in the decades long civil war.

The extensive references, meticulous documentation, the bold way of directly naming people like the Rajapaksas, and the unrestrained narration of the unique instruments of oppression in Sri Lanka make the book a gripping, but tormenting experience.

It was The Cage along with a sensational Channel Four Documentary (The Killing Fields) that exposed the veil of secrecy behind the war. The book also provided context for the UN Panel report and has been accepted as a reliable account of what exactly happened during the final days of the war in 2009, when a tiny piece of piece of land in the North of Sri Lanka was under siege by military forces. It is prescribed reading in many universities.

Weiss has worked as a journalist and with international organisations, particularly in several conflict and disaster hotspots for two decades now. Committed to a non-partisan stand, he is equally severe in his views on the LTTE. So much so that a Tamil nationalist group recently disrupted the launch of the Tamil version of his book in Chennai, prompting Arundhati Roy, who was present at the event, to say “annihilation of debate is annihilation of politics.”

Firstpost spoke to Gordon Weiss in Sidney last week.

Excerpts from the interview:

It has been seven months since The Cage was published. What was the aftermath of the book? What happened in these seven months?

The book was released a month after the UN Panel report. So it provided the broader description of the whole Sri Lankan conflict on which the report sat. The UN report was a technical report. Since then, it was published in Australia, and the UK and was distributed in Sri Lanka and India. There is now a Tamil version in India. Next year it goes in for a vintage edition in the UK, a US/Canada edition and so on. The book has been picked up widely. Accordingly to a number of a people I spoke to, it is generally an accepted version of what happened in Sri Lanka. That was my intention – that this draft of history should be laid down at this point in time.

Was there a formal or informal reaction from Sri Lanka?

There was no formal reaction. There was only an informal reaction in the sense that that I have generally been damned by the establishment in Sri Lanka and its proxies in Australia. That was always anticipated, no surprise about that.

You had told me earlier that this book was written with a narrow purpose of overturning the false notion that no civilians had been harmed during the final phase of the war. The book established there were deaths of innocent people. Are you satisfied with the impact of the UN panel report, your book and the Channel Four documentary? Are you satisfied with the efforts of redress by the international community?

One thing was to overturn the notion that nobody died, or at least that the government was not responsible for anybody dying. But another thing was to imagine what the future of Sri Lanka is, and how that might be best served. The alternative, which was the government version, that there has been no deep suffering of those civilians in Sri Lanka, is not a recipe for moving forward successfully. That is my personal and professional take on it.

That a great many people died is at least the basis for taking the reconstruction and healing forward in Sri Lanka. Many oragnisations and observers inside Sri Lanka have critiqued the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) process and said that it effectively is a whitewash, even though it is well constructed and well argued. So, quite what the next step would be remains to be seen. But I am certainly satisfied with the fact that this book successfully took head-on, the erroneous notion that only a few civilians had died and that the government was not responsible for any of those deaths.

Do you think there will be some international process to take this forward? Because Sri Lanka has been resisting it all this while saying that they are competent enough to handle this.

I think that it would be foolish to lay any bet on what will happen next. I think the ground clearly exists, for any basis of fairness and equivalence with other similar international situations, for an international investigation, but I think it would be foolish for anybody to bet on whether there will be one. I say this because international affairs are inherently political, and even more so, than domestic affairs. The international judicial process is a far more unreliable creature at this point in time than any domestic legal process. I think it will be foolish for anybody to bet on precisely on what’s going to happen in the next six months, or a year, or two years.

You have referred to the record of the UN Human Rights Council on the issue. Nothing has happened in the Council largely because of China, India and the countries which Sri Lanka is friendly with. Do you think anything could have been done differently or anything can happen now?

Absolutely! And I think its very clear to people who were saying a year and half ago that nothing was going to happen without India or China saying so. It is now very clear to most people that those positions are subject to political evolutions. India has clearly moved its position. It has been explicit in some sense that there ought to be real progress from Sri Lanka in examining what happened. There is a lot of evolution around China as well. China expects to be taken to be a statesmanlike global player and a part of that statesmanship is its role and function in international hotspots. We have seen this evolution in its position in the Arab Spring. So China shows some considerable signs that those people who feel that its historical position of noninterference is monolithic and unmovable are mistaken because there is plenty of room for evolution in China. It will have a knock-on effect on Sri Lanka as well.

That is an interesting observation. So could we expect something positive happening in the Human Rights Council?

I think so. I think that is the next possible step. I think people will wait for that. My personal view of this when I left Sri Lanka, was that any process of any sort would take a very long time. So I think there has been a lot of anxiety from a lot of quarters about how quickly this process will come about, if there is going to be a process at all. I never thought that a process like this will be fast. I always thought that if there was going to be any movement of an internationally led examination in Sri Lanka, it would take between five and ten years. So I continue to hold to that position.

But I have been rather surprised at how swiftly things moved along in some sense. The Channel Four documentary took me by surprise. Channel Four obviously put considerable resources into conducting careful examination of available evidence. I hadn’t expected that when I started writing my book. When I left Sri Lanka, it was all bathed in confusion on as to what precisely had happened in the siege zone in 2009. Now a year and half down the track, after the publication of my book, when I read newspaper reports I see that it is generally accepted that there were very high civilian deaths.

You said there is political evolution happening and China itself is changing. Can you expand on that a bit, because Sri Lanka’s trade and political ties with China are very strong. India, although a long-term ally of Sri Lanka, is struggling to catch up with the Chinese influence.

I can only try and detect signs of movement. What I tried to sketch out in the book was the influences that impelled that movement in one way or another. The examples of Beijing Consensus playing out will not stop. But I think anyone who assumes that what happened in 2009 was because of China’s role in Sri Lanka is an open cheque is mistaken, because I don’t think China’s cheque is ever open or blank. It is always conditional. And it is always a matter of where China’s interests lie at any given time.

So, any examination of Sri Lanka is going to play out in terms of interests. And that is a very complex calculation to figure out. The movement changes in the UN human Rights Council all the time – it changes between the players all the time and it changes according to domestic developments. India is a democracy, its position is based on what happens domestically.

In terms of healing and reconciliation, at the core of the problem is this vicious ideology, the heady mixture of religion, politics, nationalism, irrational fear and xenophobia. In your opinion, how is the process of reconciliation and healing moving? Will there be a fair reconciliation?

I don’t see things changing in Sri Lanka in the short to medium term. I think that my prognosis for Tamils is a reasonably gloomy one. A great deal has happened both in terms of the security situation and economic colonisation of the North to make the movement between Tamils and Sinhalese relations more difficult. At the same time, from what I have read, there is a detectable acceptance amongst a broader segment of the thinking Sinhalese community that the government version of what went on is not the accurate version or the true version.

There are a lot of very decent people in that segment who I think are questioning the cost of that final phase of the war, or at least or second-guessing the cost of the final phase of the war. There is a very broad space in which healing needs to take place. The kind of monolithic narrative of this great conquest of this terrible terrorist organisation of 2009 with almost no blood spilled, as the greatest refugee rescue operation in history – thats been pretty much thrown out of the window by now. That at least creates a better basis for whatever form of healing or whatever form of reconciliation is going to take place in Sri Lanka. Not ideal, but a better basis. But, this is all guesswork in a sense because I have not been to Sri Lanka since 2009. It is only what i am reading from afar. It is essentially unlikely to change in the next 5-10 years.

I have heard reports of “heterogenisation” of the Tamil areas, perhaps to change the demography.

That is one of the things that I guessed in my book. That there would be a lot of militarisation of the north, which they have done, and that they would encourage, particularly military families, to move up into the north. Verifying these kinds of subtle changes in land holdings, the establishment of businesses, in influence of economic life and in control of public services is very difficult. You can see the complexity of it in the Israeli-Palestinian situation. My guess is that “Sinhalisation” is going on, and yes that would make it very difficult for Tamils to have any increased political leverage in the short term

Your informed view on how should the international community move on in terms of a credible enquiry into the alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka?

I think the LLRC gave the answer themselves when they said they were unable to arrive at any conclusions on some of the most important aspects of the final phase of the war. The aspects over which there are big question marks. So, they have never said they were not capable of arriving at any conclusion. Instead, they have argued that the evidence has just disappeared. I think a number of outside observers will say that there is evidence. It is just that the international inquiries being conducted in Sri Lanka have a long history of internal inquiries that don’t go anywhere very much particularly given the fact that there is no witness protection in Sri Lanka.

One thing is what happens there, and the second thing is the progress of the international legal framework that restrains governments from carrying out an unhindered war on their internal population. That is the health of international treaties around the wars of law and humanitarian law as well as the Rome statute of governing the International Criminal Court

The last few days of the war are still unclear. You also didn’t pursue that much in the book. Post the book, or even while writing the book, did you you have some clearer idea of what had happened in the last few days? I am sure some of the people, not only in the command positions, but also outside them knew what happened.

Well, one thing is what happened to the bulk of the civilians there, and I stand by the descriptions that I gave in the book of what might have happened because there was extremely fierce fighting going on over a very small area where there were tens of thousands of civilians. The second thing is what happened to people during the so called “white flag incidence” and there seems to be mounting evidence that there were executions. I myself have seen incontestable evidence of executions. So, I think it is pretty obvious that there was wrongdoing in terms of the capture of some senior elements of Tamil tigers, and the disposal of those people. But, there is a long way to go before we have sufficient evidence of the full picture of what happened to the civilians in those days.

It is clear that there were a lot of civilian deaths. It is also reasonably clear that there was some attempt for the LTTE leadership to surrender but all of them were executed. As you mentioned, it might never come out, unless somebody in the establishment comes out with some revelations. Is there any chance of some evidence or conclusion coming out on that?

I don’t know. As I said, the latest evidence I saw, which was a video showing one particular leader alive in custody and later dead, is sort of incontestable evidence that there was foul play in relation to some captives at least. So, if then one extends that to this story of dozens who were said to have been surrendered and then executed, I think there is very compelling circumstantial evidence to show that it happened. But evidence coming out is one thing and having that evidence presented, tested and assessed to obtain a proper judicial conclusion of that evidence is quite a separate matter.

What do you think about the regrouping of the extreme Tamil elements, the LTTE in different forms? I could see some of that in poetry because there is some fantastic poetry indicating very strong sentiments out there. We can see this happening all the time in different parts of the world and in India, for instance in Tamil Nadu, we have very strong supporters of the LTTE. What do you think is the possibility of this movement regrouping and assuming a different form? What do you think is the future of the whole ideology that was behind the LTTE?

The ideology has been given a fertile ground on which to thrive as a result of 2009. I don’t think the LTTE has just melted away. I think precisely the same LTTE elements play out in the diaspora, a lot angrier, a lot more convinced of the arguments that they always made about genocide in Sri Lanka. I think there is a vastly increased sense of anger out there. Their ability to wage a war in Sri Lanka has been absolutely crushed. I don’t think they have that ability at all.

Instead, I imagine what they are doing now is that they are turning their attention to soft forms of undermining the government in Sri Lanka. One way is through encouraging the international investigation and the so called war crimes trial. Another way is in using relatively sophisticated propagandising, and reaching out to the media and government representatives in countries where they are based. And it ought not to be a surprise given what went on in Sri Lanka in 2009.

I think that one of the arguments that I make in the book is that a lot of the wind might have been taken out of the sails of this resurgence of activity, but if there had been an acknowledgement of what happened at the end of the war, if there had been a frank investigation that said: look this was a terrible war, very bloody, this is what happened, this is why it happened and this is our defence of that position, it would have helped the reconciliation considerably.

If there had been a genuinely good intentioned effort to settle differences between the Tamils and the Sinhalese, the moment was in 2009. They could have said: look a lot of civilians have died in this unavoidable war, we bear our unfortunate responsibility, this is what happened. If there had been a full and frank discussion in Sri Lanka on what had happened, the position would have been different. But since the end of the war there has been a consistent, clever and rather cynical covering up by the government. And that has only served to enrage the LTTE remnants and inflame the Tamil diaspora which supports them. I don’t think I am any surprised. I think that only makes the case stronger for an international investigation.

About six months ago Firstpost interviewed Pathmanathan, the LTTE’s financial and arms man. He appeared to be justifiably pro-establishment and had said: we have to move forward, forget about the past etc. Do you have, at any point in time, any inkling as to what was his role and how he was brought back to Sri Lanka? Also, any idea about his role now and what happened to all the money and assets that he was supposed to handle?

I really don’t have any idea. I wish I knew. It’s an interesting and rather fascinating facet of the collapse of the LTTE, but I really don’t know.

They must have been sitting on a lot of assets.

I imagine so, they must have been sitting on a lot of money, a lot of intelligence and a great deal of expertise, and I think a complex and very smooth running organisation. But, it was centered around a small number of some very competent people and with the death of the military leadership and with the sweeping up of some elements of the diaspora it has been weakened.

But I don’t think it by any means has gone away. Here in Australia, I look at the Armenians, I look at the Assyrians, I look at the Palestinians, at the Jews and Bosnians. Everyone has their historic memories and they pass it on from generation to generation. They don’t just fade away. I am meeting with the Armenians and looking at them – and although it is almost a 100 years after what happened in Turkey, for them the wrongdoing is still fresh.

It may not have been a good thing. It may have been a marvelous thing if they had got on with their lives and forgotten what could have changed years ago. But the reality is that these memories are passed down from generation to generation. So I don’t think that’s going to go away or disappear for the Tamil population.

Whether it is going to matter very much for Sri Lanka in the future is really an open question. I think its not going to matter because the facts on the grounds have changed considerably and it will continue to change considerably. But I doubt that the anger that exists in the Tamil community would disappear for many years to come.

I am curious about the heroes of the book, for example the Bangladeshi UN security specialist. Where are they now, what are they doing?

People tend to disappear and get on with their lives. Going through some experience like that in Sri Lanka has a very profound effect on all the people who were involved. People want to forget about it, partly because they don’t want to deal with it, partly because they want to just go away and lick their wounds. A number of people they will carry it with them for a number of years.

Are you also going through the same emotions? I am reminded of the experience of Lt. Gen Romeo Dallaire who was the Commander of the UN Assistance Mission in Rwanda during the genocide in the early 1990s. His riveting account of what happened in Rwanda in his Shake Hands With The Devil was a mechanism to deal with his anguish and depression.

I think so. It doesn’t leave you. A part of it is left inside you, that is normal. This idea that people who go through awful events somehow heal themselves and get on is patently absurd. We are formed by our experiences, we are changed by our experiences.

It was a very intense effort. I collected materials and wrote at the same time. I didn’t do much when I was in Sri Lanka and it all happened when I was in Australia. So, it was just a solid 11 months before I delivered the final text, including three months for editing. It was an emotionally and physically demanding period. I am still getting my legs back after putting myself there.

I didn’t do it out of some desire to write a book, but I have to say that despite being a very costly exercise personally on a whole number of fronts, I still haven’t regretted one moment, my decision in sitting down and writing the book. I am glad I did it.

© Firstpost Politics

Sri Lanka: Foreign soldiers to participate in ‘Comoran Strike’

2012-01-19T08:17:00.003+01:00

By Supun Dias | Daily Mirror Online
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Four countries have been invited to come with eight man teams to participate in the ‘Comoran Strike’ exercise of the three armed forces to be held in September this year.

All together 68 foreign servicemen attached to the elite special forces will jointly conduct training missions with the special forces units attached to Sri Lanka Armed Forces.

Nearly 2,500 soldiers from the three armed forces including1,600 representing the army Commandoes and the Special Forces participates in the annual exercise which started in 2010.

The previous exercises were held in Silawarthura area in Trincomalee to enhance the striking capabilities especially in amphibious warfare operations.

This year the third SEAL (SEa, Air and Land) training exercise will be held in September but a place to conduct the exercise is yet to be disclosed.

The training focuses on improving decision making, commanding and efficiency in deciding command capabilities at a given situation to enhance the efficiency of the armed forces.

The training exercise is a brain child of the Army Commander Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya.

© Daily Mirror Online

U.S. Government officials to visit Sri Lanka

2012-01-19T08:03:00.006+01:00

US Embassy Press Release
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Over the next two weeks the U.S. Embassy to Sri Lanka and Maldives will host four U.S. government visitors who will meet with government officials, civil society representatives, business leaders and political leaders.

Ambassador James A. Larocco from the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at the U.S. Department of Defense National Defense University will visit Sri Lanka and Maldives from January 15-19, 2012. Ambassador Larocco joined the Center in August 2009, after serving more than 35 years as a diplomat.

Ms. Holly Vineyard, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia at the U.S. Department of Commerce will visit Sri Lanka January 17-19, 2012. Ms. Vineyard directs the Department's regional activities on market access, trade, commerce and compliance with international trade agreements.

Dr. Alyssa Ayres, Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia at the U.S. Department of State will visit Sri Lanka and Maldives January 18-24, 2012. Dr. Ayres assumed her position in August 2010 and her portfolio includes India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Maldives.

Mr. Thomas O. Melia, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the U.S. Department of State will visit Sri Lanka January 20-26, 2012. Mr. Melia joined the State Department in August 2011 after more than 25 years of experience in promotion of democracy and human rights.

© Embassy of the United States

Sri Lanka at risk from global slowdown

2012-01-19T07:57:00.004+01:00

Lanka Business Online
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Sri Lanka's post-war economic rebound is slowing and financial problems in key Western markets could reduce demand for the island's exports and hit earnings from worker remittances and tourism, the World Bank said.

It has also lowered its forecast for economic growth in the island, saying Sri Lanka is now expected to grow at 6.8 percent in 2012 and 7.7 percent in 2013.

Earlier this month, Sri Lanka's central bank said Sri Lanka's economy is projected to grow at 8.0 percent in 2012 after having grown at about 8.3 percent in 2011. The forecast was lowered from the earlier forecast of nine percent in 2012.

The World Bank said in a new report on global economic prospects that the global slowdown has been taking its toll on South Asia, with merchandise export volumes which had been growing very strongly in the first part of 2011, declining almost as quickly in the second half.

" . . . year-over-year exports in October are broadly unchanged from a year ago," it said.

"A deepening of the Euro Area crisis would lead to weaker exports, worker remittances and capital inflows to South Asia," the World Bank said.

"The EU-27 countries account for a significant share of South Asia merchandise export markets, although not as much as for some developing regions."

Moreover, the bank said, export financing from Europe, an important component of the region‟s trade credit, is particularly vulnerable to drying up, as was the experience during the 2008 financial crisis.

"At the country level, Bangladesh, the Maldives and Sri Lanka are particularly exposed to a downturn in European demand for merchandise," the World Bank said.

"With respect to services, tourism sectors could be especially hard hit in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, although greater diversification (with booming arrivals from Asia) should provide a buffer.

However, the World Bank noted that there could be some "countercyclical benefits" for goods exporters - the so-called 'Walmart effect' - for some sectors such as for Bangladesh's garment industry.

The bank also said that a slowdown in global activity would likely translate into lower oil prices that would ease pressures on current account and fiscal balances for the oil import-dependent nations like Sri Lanka.

"Worker remittances inflows could slow markedly through second round effects of weakened domestic demand in migrant host-countries, largely located in the Arabian Gulf," the report warned.

Worker remittances inflows were the equivalent to 7 percent of GDP in 2010.

"Despite a waning of the post-conflict rebound effects, GDP in Sri Lanka is estimated to have grown 7.7 percent in the 2011 calendar year, slightly below the 2010 pace of 8 percent," the report said.

"While growth was strong at the start of 2011, a deceleration became apparent in the second half of the year, on heightened uncertainty and weakening external demand, as reflected in a modest slowdown in industrial production growth."

Given the possibility of further weakening in the global economy, efforts at greater revenue mobilization particularly in countries like Sri Lanka could pay dividends by allowing governments to maintain critical social and infrastructure programs, the World Bank said.

Governments should also look at further improving the targeting of its safety nets and capacity to respond to a crisis to improve efficiency of social safety net programs, it said.

"With markets in the United States and Europe expected to experience prolonged weakness, South Asian countries have the opportunity to re-think and pursue new sources of growth for their countries," the World Bank said.

© LBO

Sri Lanka: Private universities bill halted, for now

2012-01-19T07:49:00.005+01:00

By Dinesh De Alwis | University World News
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After weeks of escalating opposition, Sri Lanka's higher education minister has temporarily withdrawn a proposed Private University Bill. But he is hoping to present a quality assurance bill to parliament related to private higher education providers. Meanwhile, lecturers have joined students in protesting.

At a press conference Higher Education Minister SB Dissanayake said that the new Quality Assurance, Accreditation and Qualification Framework Bill is not a private university bill. Its objective is to monitor and regulate private degree-awarding institutions in Sri Lanka.

The original Private University Bill was intended to pave the way for foreign institutions to set up branch campuses in Sri Lanka, which has ambitions to become a higher education hub in Asia. There are already 59 registered private degree-awarding institutions, according to Dissanayake, and out of them 32 institutions are affiliated to local and foreign universities.

The bill's provisions have never been made fully public although a draft was approved by cabinet last year. A year later, it has yet to be tabled in parliament.

Student demonstrations against private universities, which led to the closure of two universities, had spread to at least seven other universities last week.

And lecturers have joined the protests. The Federation of University Teachers' Associations (FUTA) launched a token strike against the bill on Tuesday 18 January.

"Before the bill is introduced to parliament it should be discussed with all stakeholders including students. The bill should be presented after creating a fruitful dialogue among all these parties," said FUTA spokesperson Mahim Mendis.

Dissent is also growing within government with two senior ministers, Wimal Weerawansa and Patali Champika Ranawaka, strongly opposing the private university bill.

Officials said minister Dissanayake would discuss the bill with several ministers on 23 January before deciding whether it will be presented to parliament. But it appears clear that the bill will not be tabled in it current form.

Meanwhile the ministry has said it is hoping to present the bill to monitor private degree-awarding institutions to parliament. It has insisted that the second bill is different, despite widespread belief that it is the same bill by another name.

Sanjeewa Bandara, convener of the Marxist-backed Inter University Students' Federation (IUSF), told University World News: "The government tries to fool us by changing the name of the bill. The title may be different but the intention is the same."

If the new bill allowed the setting up of private universities in SriLanka, said Bandara, his federation was against it. "The IUSF is aware that this proposed bill has legal provisions to set up private universities as well as to sell degree courses offered in state universities to private students."

According to the IUSF, the government should develop local public universities rather than establishing private ones. "If the government tries to establish private universities in the country, [it will] destroy free education. We are fighting against it," Bandara said.

The chair of the University Grants Commission Gamini Samaranayake said that the "the new wave of student unrest is a politically motivated one. They are trying to create a series of protests in Sri Lanka as an 'Arab Uprising'."

Prime minister DM Jayaratne has also claimed that "foreign forces" are behind protests against setting up private universities. He also said elements such as the separatist Tamil Tigers "want to create unrest in the country".

Dissanayake has described the protests as being "stage-managed to rouse students", and claimed Sri Lanka did not really need an act since private universities already existed in the country. "The private university is not a new concept to Sri Lanka. Private universities have been operating in Sri Lanka since 1987," he said.

"Some of these degree-awarding institutions maintain a good standard, but others are not so good. The proposed Quality Assurance, Accreditation and Qualification Framework Act will streamline and empower the state to monitor these private institutions.

"Our intention is to assure quality and protect the rights of the students. The bill has laws to close down sub-standard institutions."

© UWN

India presses Sri Lanka on political reform

2012-01-18T13:08:00.003+01:00

BBC News
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India's foreign minister has urged Sri Lanka to move forward with reconciliation and constitutional reform on a trip to the island nation.

S.M. Krishna said he hoped that the president would embark on "the quest for genuine political reconciliation".

Sri Lankan government forces defeated Tamil Tiger rebels fighting for a separate homeland in May 2009 after 26 years of civil war.

MPs recently received a report from a domestic inquiry into the war.

The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was widely dismissed by international human rights groups. But the government insisted that it would get to the bottom of human rights violations that may have been committed during Sri Lanka's brutal conflict.

After the war, many observers argued that reform was a crucial ingredient for any kind of political reconciliation.
Reform recommendations

The BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says that India has been keeping an eye on ongoing talks between the Sri Lankan government and the biggest Tamil party - talks which may lead to constitutional reforms including substantial regional devolution, which the Tamil party wants given that the north and east are Tamil-dominated.

Addressing the media with his Sri Lankan counterpart, Mr Krishna said he hoped that Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa would use what he called his vision and leadership in "the quest for genuine political reconciliation".

He added that Colombo should move forward, now that its domestic war commission had made a series of recommendations on reform.

"These recommendations, when implemented, would mark a major step forward in the process of genuine national reconciliation. Sri Lanka must seize this opportunity," Mr Krishna said.

The Indian foreign minister said Mr Rajapaksa had assured him of his commitment to implement such devolution.

But Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris did not confirm this, and said it was important to broaden the talks out to include all political parties, our correspondent reports.

India is generally supportive towards Sri Lanka, but sometimes makes mild criticisms of its smaller neighbour on human rights issues - influenced in part by its having an ethnic Tamil population numbering tens of millions.

Analysts say it is also in competition with China for influence in the island, and Beijing is currently funding a series of huge development schemes through loans.

Last year India's Congress Party president, Sonia Gandhi, said: "In our neighbourhood, there is no issue closer to our heart than the Sri Lankan Tamils issue."

© BBC News

Sri Lanka’s game of diplomacy

2012-01-18T13:03:00.004+01:00

By Gibson Bateman | Journal of Foreign Relations
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As promised, the Sri Lankan government made the final report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) public last month. It has also recently released its “National Action Plan for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights: 2011-2016.”

The Action Plan was developed in accordance with a commitment the government had made in 2008, the last time Sri Lanka participated in the UN’s Universal Periodic Review.

Both documents are part of the Sri Lankan government’s strategy to placate international observers and convince people that there is no need for any kind of international assistance because the country’s domestic institutions are working just fine.

Like the LLRC report, the National Action Plan contains some decent recommendations, but it is replete with missing and false information. For example, the section on the Prevention of Torture is laughable and worrisome.

The Sri Lankan government claims that it “maintains a zero-tolerance policy on torture.” This sweeping assertion directly contradicts loads of evidence, including the recent findings of the UN’s Committee Against Torture (CAT).

The fact that the Ministry of Defense has been denoted as the “Key Responsible Agency” for ensuring the prevention of torture is perhaps more disconcerting.

The front-page story in this week’s Sunday Leader, which explains “that that some 500 people have been reported missing in the North and East alone over the past few years” should give people good reason to worry.

The rule of law continues to deteriorate under President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s watch.

The government will present its National Action plan to the UN’s Human Rights Council’s (HRC) 19th session in March.

What Will Happen in Geneva?

In theory, Rajapaksa’s administration has plenty to worry about. Lobbying and debate surrounding the next session of the HRC has already begun.

Many foreign governments recently made strong statements that the LLRC’s final report does not touch on the question of accountability. The Sri Lankan government refuses to look into credible claims that violations of international humanitarian law occurred at the end of the war; government officials are unwilling to go into any detail about what actually happened during the last phase of the conflict.

Strident calls for an international mechanism will be made this spring in Geneva. If no resolution gets through either of the next two sessions of the HRC (another session will be held this summer), then Rajapaksa’s government can probably rest easy as long as they stay in power.

Diplomacy is not always a zero-sum game, but Rajapaksa’s government knows that the final report of the LLRC and the National Action Plan are its two most potent lobbying weapons, as long as government officials continue to bend the truth or promulgate outright lies.

This is ironic because both documents distort reality and should actually be used against the government. They reinforce the notion that Rajapaksa’s administration does not care about human rights.

The processes surrounding the drafting and the finalization of the LLRC and the National Action Plan were deeply flawed and not at all independent. The LLRC’s lack of independence is well-known. (President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed the eight-member Commission himself). The true story about the National Action Plan appears to be less widely understood, especially outside of Sri Lanka.

The government’s drafting of the National Action Plan was quite devious.

A number of civil society leaders, academics and genuinely independent thinkers were included in the eight-committee body during the initial process and the composition of the first draft of the National Action Plan. Yet committee members were not involved in the process after that.

Now, the Sri Lankan government is falsely claiming that the National Action Plan was the result of a thoughtful, inclusive process. This is absurd.

As Rohan Edrisinha (a member of one of the drafting committees) has already indicated, that was not what happened.

Drafting committee members never did approve the final document, only the first draft.

In another clever ploy, this “watered down” version is being heralded as a step in the right direction.

Few people are speaking out about this issue because they are afraid to do so.

Rajapaksa’s government has benefited from a fragmented political opposition for years.

Divisions within Sri Lankan civil society only make the government’s consolidation of power that much easier.

In addition to some lively debate at the Human Rights Council, Sri Lanka’s human rights record will also be examined under the UN’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) this year.

The government’s propaganda machine is already in full swing. Sri Lankan diplomats will welcome many foreign dignitaries in January and February.

President Rajapaksa and senior government officials will use these visits as a platform to prepare a more complete misinformation campaign for Geneva in late February and early March.

The Sri Lankan government will be touting both the LLRC and the National Action Plan as wonderful examples of how just and satisfactory things are in Sri Lanka.

The idea is farcical.

In January of 2010, the IMF declared Sri Lanka a Middle Income country. The war has been over for more than two years. International observers and NGOs are moving on to the next crisis: Libya, Egypt, Tunisia or elsewhere. A new disaster or humanitarian catastrophe is always right around the corner.

Nonetheless, what happened in Sri Lanka in 2009 cannot be brushed aside. One does not sweep ethnic tension under the rug and wait idly by, hoping that it disappears.

Looking Ahead

Again, in spite of the LLRC’s complete exoneration of the military, the report does contain some good recommendations about devolution, land rights, compensation for victims/survivors and demilitarization.

There are some decent recommendations in the National Action Plan as well.

However, the chances that the Sri Lankan government will swiftly move to implement any of the solid recommendations are infinitesimal. Rajapaksa’s government has shown its unwillingness to follow through on almost all the agreements it made during the last session of the Universal Periodic Review in 2008.

It disregarded the LLRC’s interim recommendations as well.

The word “recommendation” in Sri Lankan political parlance is meaningless. Why should anyone be optimistic this time around?

Forget recommendations, the government continues to ignore its own constitution.

To take one example, President Rajapaksa’s intractable position on the devolution of power to the country’s Northern and Eastern provinces, something that is clearly articulated in the 13th Amendment of the country’s constitution, is not helping. Nor is the government’s current dialogue with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which is starting to look more like a scene from Waiting for Godot and less like any semblance of political negotiation with each passing day.

Despite some claims to the contrary, Mahinda Rajapaksa is not (yet) Robert Mugabe and Sri Lanka is not Zimbabwe. But this government has undoubtedly become more authoritarian since the end of the war. Just because the country has a history of “democracy” does not mean that continued democratic governance is a foregone conclusion. The erosion of checks and balances since 2009 has been significant. The passage of the 18th Amendment in 2010 reinforced this, as that legislation pulled even more power to the executive.

Giving Rajapaksa’s government a free pass on human rights empowers aspiring autocrats everywhere. It sends a clear signal to semi-authoritarian governments: Go ahead, do whatever you want; you will face no consequences for your actions.

© JOFR

IUSF convener’s life in danger - MFPS

2012-01-18T12:51:00.002+01:00

Sri Lanka Mirror
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The Movement For People’s Struggle alleges the Terrorist Investigation Division attempted to search its students movement office in Homagama last night.

MFPS coordinator Duminda Nagamuwa told ‘Srilankamirror’ that the TID officers had threatened the activists present, claiming that they were harbouring underworld operatives.

However, they had refused to prove their identities and said they were searching for the underworld operative ‘Sanjeewa.’

The TID has admitted that the person they were referring to is IUSF convener Sanjeewa Bandara.

Mr. Nagamuwa said therefore, the life of the IUSF convener is in danger, adding that a complaint has been lodged with Homagama police regarding the matter.

© Sri Lanka Mirror

Sri Lanka: War panel report a 'fatal contradiction' says Tamil National Alliance

2012-01-16T08:14:00.007+01:00

Read the full response

BBC Sinhala
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The main Tamil political party in Sri Lanka says the report of the government appointed war panel has failed to win the confidence of the Tamil community.

The report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) also reveals “a fatal contradiction,” said the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in its first response to the report.

“On the one hand, the LLRC unquestioningly accepts the narrative provided by the security forces –that they carefully and meticulously planned each attack,” said the detailed response issued by the TNA on Sunday.

The LLRC in its report has admitted that civilian casualties did occur, contradicting initial government statements of “zero civilian casualties,” as a result of military operations.

International investigation

"On the other hand, the Commission concludes that the civilian deaths, which did in fact occur, were unintentional and resulted in from an unprecedented situation where no other choice was possible.”

Saying that the panel “falls dramatically short” of international standards on accountability, the TNA points out that it did not have a proper witness protection programme.

It also accuses the LLRC of failing to call for “crucial evidence” taken by Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), videos of aerial attacks by the military and military log books.

"Such vital evidence points towards a systematic attempt on the part of the government to prevent food from reaching the starving population of the Vanni," it said.

The TNA is also highly critical of the “vague” recommendations by the panel in terms of devolution of power and says the views recently expressed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa regarding the 13 amendment to the constitution reiterates fears of Tamils that the government is "not genuine" in finding a political solution.

Sri Lanka's major Tamil party, however, says it welcomes some positive recommendations including disengaging the military from civilian activities.

But the need for an accountability process that meets international standards is the need of the hour, according to the TNA.

TNA parliamentarian MA Sumanthiran told BBC Sandeshaya that the party calls for an international investigation into Sri Lanka's conflict as the war panel has failed to address the accountability issues.

© BBC Sinhala

Impunity in north, east, south and west

2012-01-16T08:06:00.004+01:00

By Kishali Pinto Jayawardene | The Sunday Times
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The continuing failure of Sri Lanka's institutions of justice is well demonstrated in the most recent Views of the Geneva based United Nations Human Rights Committee (UN Committee) calling upon the Sri Lankan State to effectively investigate and prosecute the murderers of a small time businessman in Negombo after he, his wife and their two children had been repeatedly intimidated and threatened by police officers whom they had angered. The Committee was responding to an Individual Communication filed by the deceased's wife Pathmini Peiris.

It is necessary first to give some background to this discussion. Under the shrewd direction of then Foreign Affairs Minister the late Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lanka was a frontrunner in the South Asian subcontinent in acceding to the First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in the late 1990's. This was a deliberate policy decision meant to signal to the world that Sri Lanka had nothing to hide and that constructive criticism, if it is for the betterment of its own citizens, would be gladly accepted.

Shrewd foreign affairs policy at one time

The Protocol allows persons subject to the jurisdiction of that State to bring an individual communication before the UN Committee alleging a violation of Covenant rights provided that domestic remedies have been exhausted and the matter is not before any other international procedure.

The Committee, (unlike in the case of the United Nations Human Rights Council), is comprised of jurists having no loyalty towards a particular country or state policy but who are selected on the basis of their proven professional and legal competence.

Threats to the domestic judiciary

Interestingly, the Individual Communications procedure was actually not resorted to very much initially. Despite all its turbulence during 1998 and most of 1999, the country's judiciary was, by and large, acknowledged as having the capacity and the independence to respond to allegations of rights violations, even if this meant antagonizing the executive. It was only after then Attorney General Sarath Silva was appointed to the office of Chief Justice by former President Chandrika Kumaratunge in late 1999, heralding what became the veritable twilight of the independence of Sri Lanka's judiciary, that more and more Individual Communications gradually came to be filed in Geneva.

During the years that followed, the Committee handed down more than eleven Views recommending reform of laws as well as urging the judiciary to better balance its constitutional role. Some of these non binding opinions scrutinized direct decisions of the then Chief Justice in respect of the procedure and sentencing in cases of contempt and the arbitrary and intemperate dismissals of lower court judges by the Judicial Service Commission.

None of these Views were implemented by the various governments in power, including during the brief period of the United National Front administration. Even a most salutary recommendation to enact a Contempt of Court Act was ignored.

The Committee's Views were in response to various pleas filed by, among others, a parliamentarian, a journalist, several detainees, a lay teacher of English convicted of contempt of court by the Supreme Court, a judicial officer and several victims of torture. Apart from the successful applications, there were many others which were rejected on procedural grounds as well as applications which were dismissed on their merits.

Unsurprisingly, a Divisional Bench of the Supreme Court presided over by the retired Chief Justice Sarath Silva ruled in the Singarasa Case (2006), that the Views of the Committee had no force or effect in Sri Lanka. The Court also held, quite contestably, that Sri Lanka's very accession to the Protocol was unconstitutional. This was based on an assumption that the UN Committee exercises judicial power within Sri Lanka's territorial boundaries which however, was patently not the case. In any event and in consequence, the far sighted policy reasoning which had led Sri Lanka to accede to the Protocol was wholly negated.

Factual context to latest Communication of Views

But the filing of individual applications before the Committee did not cease as a result of the Singarasa decision. Increasingly the applications had a monotonous tone to them, with the common thread being the general impunity afforded to perpetrators, whether in North, East, South or West (broadly speaking). Pathmini Pieris's complaint filed on 6th February 2009 was distinctly in line with this trend. She and her deceased husband had run foul of police officers of the Negombo police station including a Headquarters Inspector and a Senior Superintendent of Police. A complaint had been filed by them accusing a senior police officer of bribery at the then functional National Police Commission, the Human Rights Commission and the Bribery Commission but no action followed.

Angered police officers meanwhile repeatedly threatened, intimidated and asked them to withdraw the complaint. The applicant's husband was told in no uncertain terms that he would be killed if he persisted in the complaint. At one point, on a routine visit to the police station, the husband, wife and ten year old son were mercilessly kicked and assaulted with obscene behavior being directed towards the daughter. Again, the complaints had no impact.

In desperation, they decided to file a fundamental rights case in the Supreme Court in 2007 which was still pending at the time that the individual communication was filed before the Committee. Thereafter the intensity of the threats increased and in late September 2008, the applicant's husband was shot at point blank range when they were sitting inside their lorry at Dalupotha Junction. He was declared dead on arrival at the hospital.

State under a duty to investigate and prosecute

In concluding the complaint in favour of the applicant (October 26th 2011), the Committee observed that the State was under a strict duty to effectively investigate and prosecute in all cases of violations of life, regardless of who the alleged perpetrators are. Despite several pleas for witness protection, no action had been taken by state authorities. No effective investigation was done. It was opined that the facts before it 'reveal that the death of the author's husband must be held attributable to the State party itself'. In concluding that there had been multiple violations of Covenant rights, the State was asked to bring the perpetrators of the murder to justice or find itself in breach of the Covenant.

But inevitably this Communication, like all the others, would be ignored, no doubt. However, whether the call stems from international juristic bodies, our own judicial institutions, fact finding processes such as the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) or general public opinion, the message to the government is clear and consistent. It must abide by its constitutional and statutory duty to ensure that Sri Lanka's justice institutions effectively investigate and prosecute violations of the law. Until this duty is met, this outcry will certainly persist to our detriment.

© The Sunday Times

Sri Lanka: New wave of student protests

2012-01-16T07:58:00.005+01:00

By Dinesh De Alwis | University World News
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Buddhist student monks have joined thousands of other university students in a new wave of protests to hit Sri Lanka in recent weeks, forcing the temporary closure of at least two major universities this week and widespread disruption of classes.

Student monks at the seminary Buddha Shrawaka Bhikku University in North Central province staged a protest on 11 January, adding to a spate of demonstrations in universities that involved thousands of students in different parts of the country.

Notably, there have been protests at Sri Jayewardenepura University in Colombo and Rajarata University in North Central province. Both have been closed by the authorities since 8 January to stem the unrest.

Student activists claim that the protests were provoked by the government in order to push a controversial private universities bill through parliament, taking advantage of university closures as students would be unable to gather for large protests.

Sri Lanka's Marxist JVP (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna) party agreed, saying that the government had deliberately sowed disruption. In a statement this week, the JVP accused the government of trying to "create an environment that was conducive to the establishment of private universities by creating a crisis in state universities".

Higher Education Ministry Secretary Sunil Jayantha Nawaratne insisted that the government was trying to resolve the crisis. He said a special committee had been appointed that would "find the root causes and suggest the solutions to continue studies without problems".

Higher Education Minister SB Dissanayake is scheduled to meet officials and students of Sri Jayewardenepura University by 14 January to discuss measures to reopen the university as soon as possible.

On Tuesday a magistrate's court ordered police to remove all students from Sri Jayewardenepura's premises. The students, who had been protesting there since the closing of the institution on 8 January, left peacefully.

However, in another escalation parents began protests on Wednesday in front of Rajarata University calling for its reopening by the authorities.

Student anger is still simmering over the bill, which they say heralds the end of free higher education in the country. Students arrested during protests over the bill last year and in 2010 are still awaiting trial.

In the latest wave of unrest, students are among other things demanding the lifting of suspensions on the more than 100 students arrested since November for alleged involvement in protests and taking part in banned student unions.

The ministry outlawed 33 student unions including eight major student councils in December, ostensibly for so-called 'ragging' or ritual bullying of new students, which is forbidden.

Although students have been restive for two months, the latest eruption was sparked by a bomb blast at Sri Jayewardenepura University carried out by an unidentified group on 5 January, which damaged the symbolically significant Student Heroes Memorial statue dedicated to students killed in previous uprisings.

Angry students, demanding the removal of Vice-chancellor NLA Karunarathne, claimed that he and other officials were behind the attack and called on them to admit responsibility.

"The vice-chancellor and his supporters carried out the blast," Buddhist monk student leader Kamburugamuwe Gnanissara Thero claimed, expressing a widely-held but unproven view among students. "They say this statue is not important. No one has been arrested yet for the attack," he said.

The JVP has said people "with a political agenda" have been given leadership positions in some state universities.

The influential Inter University Student Federation, which is affiliated to the JVP, also laid the blame for the bombing at the door of the authorities. Convener Sanjeewa Bandara told University World News: "The vice-chancellor said several days ago that the statue should be removed. We will continue our fight till the V-C steps down."

While the government blames the JVP for seeding dissent in universities, where it still has a following, unrest has grown outside the main JVP strongholds.

Last week the ministry announced that student monks about to begin studies at two Buddhist colleges, Homagama Pali and the Buddhasravaka Dharma faculty at Anuradhapura, would join other students in so-called 'leadership training' carried out at military facilities and opposed by students.

Some 500 students are to begin studies at the two Buddhist universities.

© UWN

Sri Lanka: Lasantha's killers still at large

2012-01-16T07:52:00.006+01:00

By R. K. Radhakrishnan | The Hindu
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Three years after the day-light murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge, editor of Sunday Leader newspaper, “there has been virtually no investigation into this crime,'' his wife has alleged. She wants an international investigation into the murder.

Wickrematunge was gunned down when he was on his way to work on January 8, 2009. Seventeen army personnel and a few others were taken into custody, but the case did not progress much beyond that. All of them were let off.

In a statement issued from New York to the media here, his wife, Sonali Samarasinghe, Journalist-in-Residence at the City University of New York, alleged that in the 36 months since the killing, “police had earlier succeeded in taking into custody five mobile phones, which on the day Lasantha was killed, moved in the same pattern as his phone.

Police say the phones that passed through 11 cellular phone towers that day have not been used before or since the day of the killing. However, they have not been disconnected either.

According to police, one of the five phones appears to have been used to monitor and control the entire operation. A track path of the calls made between the five telephones indicates that they communicated regularly with each other, constantly calling one particular mobile.”

She said:

“In October 2011, the only suspect remaining in custody, Pitchai Jesudasan, mysteriously died.

“As we remember Lasantha and his work and other journalists and activists around the world who have paid the supreme price in the line of duty, I call upon the international community to urge Sri Lanka's government to hold a proper independent investigation into Lasantha's murder, to bring back the rule of law.”

© The Hindu

Sri Lanka’s democratic institutions have metastasized into something dangerous

2012-01-08T10:21:00.011+01:00

By Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrematunge
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Statement by Sonali Samarasinghe, Journalist in Exile and widow of Sri Lankan editor Lasantha Wickrematunge on his third death anniversary.

Today (January 8) marks the third death anniversary of Lasantha Wickrematunge a human rights journalist from Sri Lanka who fought fearlessly for the freedom of the press and relentlessly pursued what he believed was right. On January 8, 2009 he was brutally murdered by the Sri Lankan authorities for his journalism.

Three years after Lasantha’s brutal murder despite the vapid assurances of the Rajapakse regime to the international community, Sri Lanka has turned into a lawless state of abductions, rape and murder with at least two of these incidents taking place in the New Year.

Concentration of power and finances

Even as there is an overwhelming concentration of power and finances in the ruling family, every one of Sri Lanka’s democratic institutions has metastasized into something dangerous and poisonous.

Christmas day was marred by the brutal murder in the South of Sri Lanka, of a British tourist Kuram Shaikah Zaman – a prosthetics expert who had worked for the ICRC in the Gaza strip. His friend a 23-year-old Russian woman was raped with one witness telling the local media that four men “stripped and raped her mercilessly although she was bleeding from her head.” The main suspect in the case is ruling party politician and well-known thug Sampath Vidanapathirana a close friend of the Rajapakse family.

Refuge for criminals and rapscallions

Clearly the ruling regime has become a refuge for criminals and rapscallions as the Sri Lankan government fails to maintain law and order and encourages lawlessness and criminal behaviour instead.

Local media has also reported that the suspect Vidanapathirana had earlier been arrested for the murder of an elderly woman in the run-up to the 2010 Presidential elections but had been released on the basis of a mental disability report filed by the police on his behalf. Despite this he continues in active politics under the protection of the Rajapakse family.

Though the police are conducting preliminary investigations into these gruesome crimes, hopes of justice remain slim as with every other bogus murder investigation commenced for public and international consumption under the watch of the Rajapakse regime.

The name of the game

Inexplicably the police did not even arrest Vidanapathirana and waited insteads for him to surrender a few days later. Here’s what the Asian Human Rights Commission – a staunch human rights defender based in Hong Kong, said regarding the surrender. "Due to the publicity this incident has attracted Chairman Vidanapathirana surrendered to the police. On assurance of anonymity, a policeman explained that such surrenders are nothing but a game. All the conditions of how to deal with the situation and the manner in which the surrendering suspects are to be released are all prearranged, he said. The whole process of criminal investigations is so manipulated by the government politicians that in many similar incidents the suspects have escaped any criminal punishment."

Yet tourism authorities and hoteliers in the country have preferred to call this a random act and have advised the media to sweep the incident under the carpet for fear it would hurt the expected tourist boom.

Surely material surplus and economic progress cannot make up for the erosion of our society and the destruction of our moral compass.

Killings

If this were not enough, a 25 year old man Dinesh Buddhika Charitanda was abducted on January 3 this year and his body bearing head injuries was found near the Keleni river close to Grand Pass in Colombo. A week earlier, the body of a fish vender who had been abducted by an unknown group was found dead in the same manner at Mutuwal, Colombo.

On 2nd January a man named Mohammad Nistar, was abducted by a group in a white van as he was traveling in a three-wheeler. Sometime later his body was found with bullet wounds to the head. The Asian Human Rights Commission says Mr. Nistar was engaged in the rehabilitation of drug addicts. No one has been arrested for his abduction and murder.

Abduction after abduction

In early December of last year two young men, Lalith Kumar Weeraju and Kugan Murugan, were abducted and have since disappeared. According to human rights groups these two young men were activists campaigning for the International Day for Human Rights on December 10.

On October 27, 2011 a well-known astrologer Mohamed Sali Mohamed Niyas was abducted by a group of armed men and several days later his body was found on the shores of Akkaraipattu in the East of Sri Lanka.

Even the worst scoundrel is entitled to due process of the law and labels in the media of alleged drug dealing as in the case of young Dinesh Buddhika does not absolve the government from its responsibility to uphold the rule of law.

With a total lack of accountability for the war, a disappointing LLRC report that failed to recognize the importance of accountability and justice, and the failure to properly investigate the murders of journalists like Lasantha Wickrematunge, little wonder the commonly held belief that these continued abductions and murders are taking place with the direct or indirect knowledge of the police and with the tacit approval of ruling party politicians.

Powerful friends

Another example is that of Duminda Silva, a Member of Parliament and a close confidant of Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse. Mr. Silva allegedly a drug dealer was responsible for the attack that led to Baratha Lakshman Premachandra and several others being killed. Yet Duminda Silva remains under the careful protective wing of his powerful friend.

These countless murders, abductions and assaults are not random acts or accidental killings. These are acts of violence that have become emblematic of the current leadership, the erosion of society and the impunity with which the regime now operates.

Any kind of political dissent has been crushed as was demonstrated recently when opposition parliamentarians were assaulted inside parliament itself. Despite death threats and other forms of intimidation of the media no serious investigations into these complaints are ever conducted.

Demonic repetition

When my husband was brutally murdered in 2009, when journalist Prageeth Ekneliyagoda was disappeared in 2010, civil society, the media and human rights organizations said enough was enough. But we have seen that these acts of violence still continue to take place with demonic repetition.

Despite overwhelming evidence, still no investigation

In the 36 months that have elapsed since Lasantha’s murder, there has been virtually no investigation into this crime.

Police had earlier succeeded in taking into custody five mobile phones, which on the day Lasantha was killed, moved in the same pattern as his phone. Police say the phones that passed through 11 cellular phone towers that day have not been used before or since the day of the killing. However, they have not been disconnected either. According to police, one of the five phones appears to have been used to monitor and control the entire operation. A track path of the calls made between the five telephones indicates that they communicated regularly with each other, constantly calling one particular mobile.

One of the five phone numbers indicated on the mobile path shows a call having been made from the spot Lasantha was attacked. According to witnesses, the assassins all rode a uniform make and type of motorcycle. A motorcycle allegedly used in the attack had been recovered the government claimed.

Soldiers arrested and released

During the course of 2010 seven soldiers belonging to the Sri Lankan army's Military Intelligence Directorate--a unit headed by a close confidant of former Army Commander General Fonseka--were detained for questioning by the Terrorist Investigations Department (TID) and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID). The seven soldiers were separated from an original 17 who were taken into police custody. All 17 have since been released.

Suspect mysteriously dies

In October 2011 the only suspect remaining in custody Pitchai Jesudasan mysteriously died. According to the B Report submitted by the Terrorist Investigations Department dated March 30, 2010, Pitchai Jesudasan was arrested for the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge and attempted murder of the then Editor of the Rivira newspaper Upali Tennakoon and previous attack on Deputy Editor for the Nation newspaper Keith Noyahr. With relation to the murder of Wickrematunge police charged that Jesudasan’s national ID had been used to obtain the five SIM cards which were later believed to have been used by the five man hit squad who trailed and murdered my husband on January 8, 2009.

Should be investigated

Jesudasan may have died of natural causes but the circumstances of his death in custody give rise to questions and therefore must be independently investigated.

Moreover, despite the existence of numerous witnesses, no accurate description of the attack on my husband was ever made public by the police. Had there been even the slightest political will to solve this murder the apprehension of his murderers would have been child's play.

Certainly taken together, all this can leave little doubt in a rational mind that Lasantha’s murder has been the focus of an extensive—if clumsy—cover up.

International Community must act

As we remember Lasantha and his work and other journalists and activists around the world who have paid the supreme price in the line of duty, I call upon the international community to urge Sri Lanka’s government to hold a proper independent investigation into Lasantha’s murder, to bring back the rule of law rather than the rule of one family, to delink the police from the defence establishment, to properly disengage the army from civil administration, to restore the Seventeenth Amendment in order to ensure independent commissions for the Police, Judiciary, Bribery, Finance, Elections and Human Rights Commissions and to sincerely effectively and meaningfully deal with issues of accountability that now plague our nation.

Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrematunge
Nieman Fellow, Harvard University, MA
Journalist in Residence, City University, New York
Editor-in-Chief - Lankastandard.com

Remembering Lasantha

2012-01-08T10:04:00.011+01:00

The Sunday Leader
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It is three years to the date when Lasantha Wickrematunge (5 April 1958 – 8 January 2009) was murdered on his way to office along Attidiya Road, Ratmalana. It is three long years since Avinash, Ahimsa and Aadesh lost a father. They grieve for him. The country grieves for the apathy shown by the law enforcement authorities in bringing the perpetrators to book. It is evident to all and sundry why the investigation is at a stand still. They whisper but dare not speak out loud.

Lasantha cut his teeth in journalism at the now defunct Sun newspaper in the early seventies and moved to Upali Newspapers where he made his mark as a journalist covering politics. His writing style and probing pen caught the appreciative attention of opposition politicians and the ire of those in government. He moved to the Times Group to write the political column and in 1994 started The Sunday Leader and was it’s Editor- in-Chief till he was murdered. Lasantha, a lawyer by profession was practising in the chambers of President’s Counsel Ranjith Abeysuriya when he decided to take a break from Law to practice another art which was his first love, journalism. He set a trend in investigative journalism which became the benchmark for other journalists in the country. His Good Morning Show with MTV was very popular and he enjoyed doing that programme immensely. Lasantha was physically assaulted, shot at, the printing presses burnt down twice, and the newspaper shut down under the draconian Emergency Laws prior to being murdered in January, 2009. Not a single of these crimes have been solved.

The public view of Lasantha the journalist differed from the very private man. He was fun to be around with and was constantly making people laugh. Never one to pull rank in office, Lasantha would often whistle out of pitch to make his colleagues giggle. Though a teetotaller himself, he would offer his friends and colleagues a tipple from his vastly untouched but well stocked bar at home. He would give his last penny to people in financial distress nary a thought.

Given an opportunity to settle down in Australia, which many would have grabbed eagerly, he barely kept his qualification alive by visiting when necessary and darting back to be at his desk at the Leader. Being the youngest in the family Lasantha was dealt with leniently by his father who was a stern disciplinarian and like his journalism he used to fly close to the wind playing truant. But with pen in hand Lasantha the journalist was a different man. He favoured none nor feared any. Even relatives were fair game when it came to playing a straight bat. Many a time his father would speak to him to play down an article he was working on without success. Those holding high office became friends when they relinquished their positions. Many raised an eye brow when Lasantha was seen in the company of former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge after she finished her second term. Lasantha was her most harsh critic when she held office but was able to separate the official CBK from the private citizen she became after she relinquished office.

Simple acts such as these demonstrated Lasantha’s personality, but many were the doubting Thomas’, even amongst the industry, who fuelled hate campaigns against him. Lasantha was known beyond the shores for his courage even before his demise. He was awarded the very first Integrity Award by Transparency International in the year 2000 for his fearless pursuit of the truth and in exposing corruption, through his writings.

He was awarded the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Award in 2009 .
The Director General stated, “In awarding the 2009 World Press Freedom Prize to a committed journalist who opposed war, UNESCO, along with media professionals from all over the world, recognizes the important role that freedom of expression can play in fostering mutual understanding and reconciliation, the theme of this year’s World Press Freedom Day celebration.”

On November 17, 2009 Lasantha was posthumously awarded the Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

Lasantha and David S. Rohde were awarded with the 2009 John Aubuchon Press Freedom Awards at the National Press Club (USA). The awards were bestowed on one international journalist and one American journalist who embodied the principles of a free press.

In 2009 he was also awarded the Sepala Gunasena Award for Defending Press Freedom in Sri Lanka.

Lasantha was awarded the special James Cameron Award in 2009 and in the same year he was also awarded the Guardian Journalism Award Wickrematunge was also awarded the 1st Asia Media Award for Press Freedom.

In 2010 Wickrematunge was posthumously declared an IPI World Press Freedom Hero.

The investigation into his death is floundering. Kandegedara Piyawansa a soldier with the Sri Lanka Army Intelligence Unit taken into custody together with Pitchai Jesudasan was released on bail after he accused senior officers in open court. A statement he made in chambers to the magistrate prior to being granted bail by a higher court was forwarded to the Inspector General of Police for a report which is yet to be filed. Pitchai Jesudasan died in remand custody and the JMO has returned an open verdict. Fifteen army intelligence officers held previously by the TID handling the investigation were released when an adviser to the government informed high officials that the soldiers would “sing” about other operations by the Army.

Ministers have given dates starting from March 2009 when the perpetrators would be brought to book. Three years later and with over sixty dates in court, the Police have still not made any headway with the investigation.

The governments of the day ignored one exposé after another which Lasantha published over the years. The Sri Lankan public does not hold a government or a Minister to account over newspaper reports unlike their counterparts in the developed world. The international recognition he received posthumously reflects the unparalleled impact Lasantha had in defending the freedom of expression in Sri Lanka.

“ We would trade all of this for our father’s life,” words expressed by Ahimsa, Lasantha’s daughter, says it all.

© The Sunday Leader

Sri Lanka: Students go over the top over statue

2012-01-08T09:54:00.007+01:00

By Ranga Jayasuriya | Lakbima News
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If there is a thing called the principle of proportionality — it appears to be missing on the part of both the government and the student activists. After an explosion damaged a statue built to commemorate the fallen student activists in the past, thousands of students of Sri Jayewardenepura University swarmed the streets and created hours of vehicular traffic blockages on Colombo streets on Thursday (December 5).

Students marched from the university to Temple Trees — and were stopped at Kollupitiya before they could reached their final destination. Thousands of working hours were lost in traffic jams and angry passengers, stuck on the road were heard swearing at the students.

Later that night, soldiers surrounded the university and armoured personnel carriers rolled on the streets around the University of Sri Jayewardenepura.

On Friday, soldiers allegedly assaulted student activists who protested against their presence wounding three students. An injured student, Saranga Dissanayake was rushed to the hospital, and is being treated at the Sri Jayewardenepura hospital.

A climate of fear

Military presence around the university is intimidating to say the least.

Worse still, student activists allege that the army is engaged in systematic assaults on identified student activists.

“There is a climate of fear in the university,” says the convener of the Inter University Student Federation, Sanjeewa Bandara.

He says the military has been deployed to terrorize students into submission.
There are armoured cars and over 200 soldiers wielding guns. Students are scared to venture out, he complained.

He said the students had launched a satyagraha (a peaceful protest) against military deployment around the university.

He alleged that the purported bomb attack that damaged the ‘Viri Sisu Smarakaya’ in the wee hours of Thursday was an inside job (of the university administration).

“The Vice Chancellor earlier threatened to demolish the statue and we protested,” he said.

He questioned as to how a bomb attack is launched at the statue when hundreds of security guards hired from the Ratna Lanka Security Service, a commercial venture linked to the Defence Ministry, he alleges, are detailed in every nook and corner of the university.

‘Reign of terror’

He vowed that the students would continue with their agitation until the vice chancellor of the university whom they accuse of presiding over a ‘reign of terror’ is removed and the military is also removed from the surroundings of the university, and the services of the Ratna Lanka Security Service are discontinued.

The vice chancellor of the University, N.L.A. Karunaratne was not available for comment. However, in an opinion column published in a Sinhala newspaper, the vice hancellor alleged that student activists were agents of foreign conspirators who aim to ‘sabotage country’s development.’

© Lakbima News

Appeal to UN over missing Sri Lanka activists

2012-01-07T07:29:00.004+01:00

By Charles Haviland | BBC News
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Campaigners in Sri Lanka have urged the United Nations to intervene in the case of two activists believed to have been abducted last month.

Some accuse the security forces of abducting the men but police say they are doing their best to find them.

Lalith Kumar Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganathan organised demonstrations by the families of missing people.

They disappeared while organising one such rally in Jaffna, a city central to the civil war which ended in 2009.

A campaign group, Students for Human Rights, handed a letter to the UN's country chief Subinay Nandy asking that the UN Human Rights Council help investigate their disappearance.

Nuwan Bopage, president of Students for Human Rights, said outside the UN building in Colombo: "We have written to all the authorities but so far they have not even responded to us. We still believe they are in military custody."

Supporters have maintained that they believe the security forces secretly abducted them, not least because Jaffna is firmly controlled by the military and because the wife of one of the victims says she later spotted their motorcycle inside a police compound.

The army and police deny holding the men. A police spokesman told the BBC a special investigation was under way.

He said there was no evidence of an abduction but asked people to come forward if they had witnessed such an event.

But campaigners said possible witnesses had been threatened or had gone into hiding, and that they had reported seeing five men taking the activists away in an unmarked white van.

Unsolved disappearances

The father of one of the missing men, Arumugan Weeraraj, said his son only wanted to help people from northern Sri Lanka find their missing family members.

"Please allow me at least to talk to him," he said.

It has emerged that the other missing man, Mr Muruganathan, once belonged to the Tamil Tigers but left the separatist group 10 years ago.

Several other people have disappeared in unexplained circumstances since Mr Weeraraj and Mr Muruganathan went missing.

The UN says there are more than 5,000 cases of unsolved enforced disappearance in Sri Lanka. The rate has dropped since the end of the war but it has since risen again.

Since the two human rights workers disappeared there have been no more demonstrations for the families of missing people.

Janatha Muruganathan, the wife of one of the missing men, said outside the UN in Colombo: "Please give my husband back. We are suffering without him. He has done no wrong to anyone. Please help us find him."

Activists say that during his own campaigns for missing people, Lalith Kumar Weeraraj had visited several places of detention and found there two people who had gone missing.

© BBC

Tamils in Sri Lanka doubtful about latest LLRC report

2012-01-07T07:24:00.005+01:00

By South Asia Wired | Radio Netherlands Worldwide
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In December, the report of the Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was published. It called on the government to investigate war crimes by both sides (government armed forces and the Tamil LTTE army). It also stipulated requirements for long-term reconciliation between Sinhalese and Tamil groups. But are there signs of any form of reconciliation?

Many Tamils doubt the possibility of an unbiased investigation as long as the military continues to kill, abduct, torture or rape Tamil civilians, they say.

“There are around 40,000 troops in Jaffna alone with a population of 550,000. That is a civilian-military ratio of 1:11," says Ramesh, a Tamil academic from the Tamil-majority city of Jaffna. "It will be a joke to suggest that investigations can happen under this climate. He declined to give his real name because of fear of reprisals.

The government has been saturating Tamil-majority areas with military personnel mostly after the LTTE was defeated in May 2009 and its top leadership was killed. Human rights organisations say the manner of some of the rebels deaths are suspicious and could be classified as war crimes.

While admitting there had been attacks on civilians by government troops, the LLRC report says they were the result of individual misdemeanours and not systematic military policy.

A farce

Anandan, a Tamil who also refused to give his name fearing intimidation, was as dismissive as Ramesh of the thought of an unbiased government investigation. “It is a farce and violation of natural justice to say that the culprit will [investigate] allegations against him or herself.”

Anandan believes that the LLRC’s report is aimed at exonerating the military while pinning all the blame for war crimes on the LTTE. He supports his view by giving an eye witness account of a deposition before the LLRC.

Doctor

Dr. Thurairajan Varatharajah was one of the three government doctors who treated Tamil civilians as the military shelled and bombed areas near their makeshift hospital during the final months of the war. During that time he gave an interview to the international media about civilian casualty numbers.

Later, in July 2009, he and other doctors were arrested. While in police custody however, Dr. Varatharajah made a public statement that he was forced to exaggerate civilian casualties by the LTTE to bring to disrepute the military.

Anandan says that Dr. Varatharajah was not only aware of the bombing of civilian areas, but also of the government denying civilians medicine and food.

However, at the deposition before the LLRC, the commissioners had directed their questions only to establish if the LTTE had artillery positions near Dr. Varatharajah’s hospital, thereby justifying the military shelling and bombing the area, rather than to find out what actually happened.

“They were only interested in incriminating the LTTE not in knowing what happened to the civilians,” Anandan claims.

The biggest threat

The LLRC has recommended to the government to disarm Tamil paramilitary groups to reduce violence. Among the groups mentioned by name is the EPDP that works with the Sri Lanka army in Jaffna and is accused by various organisations, such as the UNHCR, of murder, abduction and intimidating the media.

But to Ramesh and Anandan the recommendation is only pulling the wool over the actual culprits.

“Disarming illegal armed paramilitary groups is necessary and will help normalise things. But the biggest threat today is not these armed groups but the army. Will they cut down on the size of the army?”

Tamils like Anandan and Ramesh are convinced the government will not pursue an honest investigation into war crimes by the military. And the failure to do so will inevitably ruin any chances of genuine reconciliation between Sinhalese and Tamils.

“How can you have reconciliation when the culprits who committed genocide and war crimes are at large? That will only promote further crimes and escalate genocide,” said Anandan.

Tamils who live in the most violent and instable regions of the South Asian island feel that enduring ethnic reconciliation is still far away. They attribute this to what they believe is the continuing impunity enjoyed by the Sri Lankan government.

© RNI

U.S. applies new strategy in Asia-Pacific region

2012-01-07T07:07:00.008+01:00

By Wang Fengfeng | Xinhua
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U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday unveiled a new military strategy that aims to strengthen the country's military presence in the Asia-Pacific region despite fiscal constraints, adjusting troop structure to a new era of austerity.

"We'll be strengthening our presence in the Asia Pacific, and budget reductions will not come at the expense of this critical region," he said at the Pentagon, accompanied by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey.

The strategy directs the U.S. military to "rebalance towards the Asia-Pacific region," asking it to rely on existing alliances and expand its networks to include emerging partners.

Maintaining peace, stability, the free flow of commerce, and U.S. influence in this dynamic region will depend in part on an underlying balance of military capability and presence, according to the strategy.

The Middle East is also taken into consideration. The strategy foresees that U.S. defense efforts in the Middle East will be aimed at countering violent extremists and destabilizing threats, while emphasizing Gulf security and preventing the proliferation of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction.

It also says the United States will "continue to place a premium on U.S. and allied military presence in -- and support of -- partner nations in and around this region."

This rebalancing will occur at Europe's expense. The strategy calls for an "evolved" U.S. presence in Europe. It says European countries have become "producers" of security rather than "consumers." Meanwhile, the United States will also maintain engaged with Russia, as well as its Article 5 duty as a NATO member.

"The new strategic guidance nicely balances the demands for continued U.S. global leadership with the reality of fiscal constraints. It correctly reorients U.S. military forces towards Asia, while simultaneously preparing for potential threats from the Middle East," said Dr. Nora Bensahel, deputy director of studies and senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a Washington think tank.

This rebalancing doesn't mean the United States is giving up its military supremacy.

"Our military will be leaner, but ... agile, flexible and ready for the full range of contingencies and threats," Obama said.

The U.S. military should be able to ensure national security with smaller conventional ground forces, the U.S. president said. He vowed to get rid of "outdated Cold War-era systems" while investing in the capabilities needed for the future, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, as well as counterterrorism, among others.

Despite fiscal challenges, defense spending will continue to grow albeit at a slower rate, the president said, noting the country still ranks number one in defense spending. Its defense budget "continues to be larger than roughly the next 10 countries combined," Obama said.

The new strategy is likely to shift the emphasis from the Army to the Navy and Air Force as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq wind down. While the former military focus was fighting and winning two wars simultaneously, experts say that the military will now be focused on winning one war, while spoiling the military aspirations of another adversary in a different region of the world.

Yet speaking at a press conference Thursday, Defense Secretary Panetta said that the United States could still conduct two military operations at the same time.

"The nature of warfare today is ... as you engage, you have to look at how you do it, what forces do you use to be able to confront that enemy, what exactly is involved," Panetta said. "You could face a land war in Korea, and at the same time face threats in the Straits of Hormuz. We have the capability, with this Joint Force, to deal with those kinds of threats, to be able to confront them, and to be able to win. That's what counts."

Budget wars

The strategy foresees some 487 billion U.S. dollars of defense spending reduction in ten years. However, a Congressional "supercommittee" failed to reach a compromise on how to cut 1.2 trillion dollars in spending over the next ten years, meaning if Congress can't find a solution this year, a sequestration method would be triggered, splitting the cuts evenly between civilian and military spending.

Panetta has warned the Department of Defense would face "devastating, automatic, across-the-board cuts that will tear a seam in the nation's defense," should the sequestration take place.

Although Obama urged Congress to reduce the deficit in accordance with the Budget Control Act passed last year, the new strategy didn't mention how this would affect the military, should it come to pass.

Travis Sharp, Bacevich fellow at the CNAS, was critical of Obama's strategy.

"The Obama administration's new strategic guidance assumes that the Department of Defense will absorb 487 billion in cuts to its budget over the next decade. Yet that assumption does not match the current law of the land, sequestration," Sharp said.

He said if sequestration occurs, the Pentagon "will not be able to execute this new guidance." That would further reduce capabilities that provide insurance against uncertainty while preserving capabilities that protect against the most pressing threats facing the nation.

"The new guidance seems to identify ground forces and nuclear weapons as two 'insurance' capabilities that the Department of Defense might cut further if Congress doesn't undo sequestration," Sharp said.

© Xinhua.net

Sri Lanka’s truth commission ignores torture and evades accountability

2012-01-06T08:37:00.006+01:00

Freedom from Torture
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Read he report: Freedom from Torture’s Evidence of Ongoing Torture

The Sri Lankan government’s unconvincing efforts to demonstrate that it is ready to deal with atrocities committed by both sides during the end of the brutal civil war reached the end of the line last week with the publication of the final report by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).

The Commission, established by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in a bid to stave off international scrutiny, has taken small steps towards exposing a fuller picture of what happened during the gruesome final stages of the conflict. Its report puts to bed outlandish claims made previously by the government that there were no civilian casualties in the war, acknowledges that hospitals were indeed shelled and is critical of disappearances which continue to cause pain and suffering for many Sri Lankan families.

But on the all important question of accountability, the Commission has completely failed to deliver. While conceding individual incidents may require further investigation, the Commission declares itself satisfied that protection of civilians was given ‘the highest priority’ in the military strategy and that civilians were not targeted, thereby ducking the central issue of command responsibility for international crimes that are widely suspected to have occurred. In a move that highlights the unbalanced nature of the report overall, the Commission makes much stronger findings in relation to specific violations of the laws of war and human rights by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

On the fact that the 388-page report makes not a single reference to torture in Sri Lanka, Freedom from Torture CEO, Keith Best, commented:

The remarkable failure to acknowledge at all, let alone address, widespread use of torture by the Sri Lankan authorities – either during or following the conflict – makes a mockery of the Commission's objective to promote reconciliation by recognising the losses and suffering of the past. Either the Commission has chosen to paper over any testimony of torture that it received, or such testimony was withheld because the Commission lacked the confidence of Sri Lanka's countless torture survivors and their families.

“As the UN panel of experts pointed out in its report earlier this year, the lack of any victim or witness protection scheme was just one of the Commission's many structural failings. Either way, the exclusion of torture issues fatally undermines the Commission’s credibility.”

The audacity of this omission is obvious when read against Freedom from Torture’s evidence of ongoing torture and the concerns voiced recently by the UN Committee Against Torture about ‘continued and consistent allegations of widespread use of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of suspects in police custody’ and reports suggesting that ‘torture and ill-treatment perpetrated by state actors, both the military and the police, have continued in many parts of the country after the conflict ended in May 2009 and is still occurring in 2011’. The contrast is well demonstrated by comparing the concerns voiced by the UN Committee about allegations of torture and ill-treatment of those detained in military-run internment camps against the findings of the Commission that the authorities should be congratulated for their 'caring attitude' towards those detained following the conflict.

Keith Best concluded: The UK government has insisted that Sri Lanka demonstrate ‘progress’ on accountability for international crimes by the end of 2011. The LLRC report has been issued on the eve of this deadline but there is no getting around the fact that the necessary progress has not been achieved. Accountability remains elusive and robust international action supported by the UK to achieve an ‘independent, comprehensive and credible inquiry’ is now unavoidable. The next session of the UN Human Rights Council provides an opportunity that must not be missed.”

© Freedom from Torture

Sri Lanka: Sivaram murder case postponed

2012-01-06T08:02:00.004+01:00

BBC Sinhala
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The trial of the murder of journalist Dharmaratnam Sivaram (Taraki) scheduled to begin on Thursday, six years after the assassination has been postponed until April.

Colombo High Court judge P. Surasena postponed the hearing as six witnesses including two policemen failed to present themselves at court.

The judge also dissolved the Sinhala speaking jury called in for the hearing.

State Counsel told court that proceedings could not continue as six important witnesses were not available for the hearing.

Witnesses not present

The court instructed the state counsel to produce the witnesses on April 25.

Arumugam Sri Skandharaja, also known as Peter who was arrested and released on bail in connection with the murder was also present at the court on Thursday.

The Attorney General had filed charges against him in 2006. But the case did not proceed further despite having taken for hearing few times for over five years.

Taraki, the founding editor of TamilNet was abducted in Colombo on 28 April 2005.

His body was found dumped in Sri Jayawardenepura, a high security zone, a day later.

International and Sri Lankan media watchdogs have voiced anger over lack of progress in murder investigation.

© BBC Sinhala

Lanka sends slain British tourist''s body back home

2012-01-06T07:51:00.006+01:00

PTI | MSN News
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The body of Khuram Shaikh, the British tourist murdered in Sri Lanka on Christmas eve has been sent back home, the UK High Commission said here today.

Shaikh, a 32 year old working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the Gaza strip was on holiday at a hotel in the southern resort of Tangalle.

He died as a result of a deep stab wound and a single firearm injury to the head and multiple cuts.

He was accompanied on holiday by a Russian national, Victoria Rustkacheva, who was seriously injured in a subsequent attack.

The British officials said the victim''s brother was in Colombo meeting local officials to inquire about the investigations towards bringing to book those responsible.

At least six people including the ruling party''s chairman of the local council in Tangalle are under arrest for the murder.

The government here has stressed that there will be no cover up in the investigations despite the involvement of the ruling party''s local politician.

"From the assurances I have received today I am confident that the Sri Lankan authorities have what they need to bring those responsible for the brutal murder of my brother, and the vicious attack on Victoria, to Justice," Nasir Shaikh, the slain tourist''s brother has said.

The attack on the British tourist deeply hurt the industry officials who feared large scale cancellation of bookings.

Sri Lanka looks up to tourism as an engine of growth in the island's post conflict phase since the defeat of the LTTE''s campaign for separatism in May 2009.

© PTI

Sri Lanka: Students march against damage to 'student heroes' monument

2012-01-05T16:07:00.015+01:00

Sri Lanka Mirror
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Students marched from Sri Jayewardenepura University to protest the bomb attack that damaged the student heroes statue at the university.

The protestors occupied the entire lane towards Colombo before reaching Pamankada area.

IUSF convener Sanjeewa Bandara told ‘Srilankamirror’ that they would march to Colombo Fort.

No casualties have been reported in the explosion, which occurred during the early hours of Thursday (05) .

A special police team has been deployed to provide protection to the university.

Rakna Arakshaka Lanka security firm, operating under Sri Lanka's Defence Ministry, was made responsible for providing protection to all universities causing student unrest.

Vice chancellor Prof. L.M.A. Karunaratne alleged students were responsible for the blast.

© Sri Lanka Mirror

Sri Lanka wants UN to lift embargo on evidence

2012-01-05T15:49:00.002+01:00

Photo courtesy: UN News & Media

By Shamindra Ferdinando | The Island
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The government expects the UN to lift an unprecedented 20-year embargo on both written and oral material in its hands pertaining to alleged war crimes committed by GoSL troops and the LTTE to help domestic investigations into complaints.

Authoritative sources told The Island that those sceptical of a domestic investigation process as recommended by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) should make available whatever evidence in their possession to facilitate inquiries.

A UN imposed embargo shouldn’t be an obstacle to Sri Lanka’s inquiry, ministerial sources said.

Responding to a query, a senior official said that those wanting to haul up Sri Lanka’s political and military leaders before an international war crimes tribunal should make use of the opportunity and make available information they claim to possess. In fact, such a move could strengthen their case against the GoSL.

The Report of the UNSG’s Panel of Experts (PoE) on Accountability in Sri Lanka declared that written and oral material wouldn’t be accessible for a 20-year period.

The PoE emphasised that nearly all of its records had been categorised as strictly confidential with additional protections regarding future use in some cases.

The PoE comprised Marzuki Darusman, Steven R. Ratner and Yasmin Sooka.

Military sources said that the UN should tell the GoSL whether the embargo on evidence applied in the event Sri Lanka faced charges before an international tribunal. Against the backdrop of the International Crisis Group (ICG) demanding the establishment of an independent international investigation in 2012, it would be pertinent to ask all those wanting to punish Sri Lanka when evidence in the hands of the UN would be made available, sources said.

The PoE is on record as having said that it has received over 4,000 submissions from 2,300 persons.

Success of a local or international inquiry would largely depend on the availability of the required evidence, both written and oral, received by those conducting a particular probe, government sources said referring to the UK’s Iraq war Inquiry. The investigation team is on record as having said that it needs time till summer this year as it had to negotiate the declassification of a significant volume of currently classified material with the government to enable this to be quoted in, or published alongside, the Inquiry’s report.

© The Island

Sri Lanka to hold first post-war census in March

2012-01-05T07:44:00.004+01:00

AFP | The Gulf Today
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Sri Lanka will hold its first post-war census in March which will cover the entire Indian Ocean island for the first time in over 30 years, officials said on Wednesday.

The Department of Census and Statistics will launch the initiative on March 20, gathering information on demographics, education, computer literacy, migration and sanitation in homes.

"It will be our first full survey since 1981," the statistics office Director General Suranjana Vidyaratne told reporters.

"The war in the north and east had earlier stopped us from doing detail island wide census."

The Tamil Tigers were crushed in a military offensive in May 2009 that ended 37-years of ethnic bloodshed, which the United Nations estimated claimed some 100,000 lives.

The department had originally scheduled the census for July last year, but Vidyaratne said they needed more time to complete their work.

Some 80,000 people will be deployed across the country to collect preliminary data in February ahead of the main census day.

© AFP

Tangalle victim 'raped' - AHRC

2012-01-05T07:40:00.001+01:00

BBC Sinhala
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Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) says the companion of the murdered British tourist Kuram Shaikah Zaman was sexually assaulted after the brutal attack on the couple. Russian national Victoria Alexandrovna, 23, is being treated in Karapitiya hospital, Galle at the intensive care unit.

Chairman of the Tangalle Pradeshiya Sabha, Sampath Chandra Pushpa Vidanapathirana, was arrested as the main suspect of the assault and murder of the Red Cross employee on Christmas eve in Tangalle.

Found naked

"After the attack Victoria was found naked by the time the police arrived to investigate. According to an eye witness she was raped even as she lay bleeding from the head wound". The chairman of the AHRC Basil Fernando told the BBC Sinhala Service.

The AHRC says the eye witnesses who gave statements are now being threatened and are expressing concern for their own safety.

"Meanwhile several journalists who have reported the incident have also received death threats and reported the matter to their media agencies", says the AHRC.

Not conclusive

"A government spokesman's first reaction to the media was to deny the rape. This is the usual pattern of government spokesmen who tried to defend government politicians even when they are involved in serious crimes". Fernando told the BBC.

However the police spokesman says the evidence about a sexual assault is not conclusive as the final medical reports are yet to be received.

"The final medical reports on the bodily fluids taken from the alleged victim and the suspects will be submitted in court on the 6th of January", Police spokesman SP Ajith Rohana told the BBC Sinhala Service.

Victim moved from hospital

After initial medical treatment at Karapitiya National Hospital, Victoria Alexandrovna was transferred to Lanka private hospital in Colombo.

All her medical expenses are paid by the government of Sri Lanka, Deputy Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardhana told the BBC Sinhala Service on Thursday.

“A criminal investigation was launched by the concerned local authorities to follow-up on the circumstances of the incident”. Spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told the BBC Sinhala Service.

“The ICRC has no further details on the specific circumstances under which Mr. Shaikh was killed. The ICRC is following-up on the matter with the concerned authorities”. Christian Cardon Media and Public Relation officer - South Asia region for the ICRC, in Geneva said.

© BBC Sinhala

A President with a jumbo ego

2012-01-02T13:33:00.004+01:00

By Imaad Majeed | The Sunday Leader
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In a country which prides itself on being ‘A Land Like No Other’ Sri Lanka has set yet another precedent. By passing local council rules and regulations, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has seen fit to name buildings, a cricket stadium, a school and a port after him showing scant regard for local authorities to actually approve these name changes.

More recently the impressive new performing arts theatre has been named after the President – and if that is not bad enough, at the entrance you find a large mugshot of Rajapaksa. On the foundation stone, of which there are two, his name is found, not just once but four times, in English, Tamil, Sinhala and even Chinese! Making sure it is shoved down the throats of this nation irrespective of whether we find it offensive or not.

In the instance of the naming roads etc., after individuals, there is due procedure to be followed. First a proposal is made by a counselor, if it is seconded it must then go before the local council committee, and subsequently brought to the attention of the departments concerned. If all parties agree it will then be published in the local media for anyone who sees fit to object. None of these procedures was observed in the cases mentioned above, with each instance being handled by their respective ministries, ignoring all accepted procedures.

The following of due procedure and naming convention is a matter of principle. It is when the masses come to a consensual agreement to remember the services rendered to the country by an individual, that anything of this sort should take place. Homage is not the pet ego of any individual, but is expected to be paid to show respect, usually after the person concerned is dead.

In Colombo it is not uncommon to find streets named after individuals who have made a significant contribution to the country. From Anagarika Dharmapala Mawatha, to De Soysa Circus, many of the more commonly used roadways have been named after such persons to pay homage to their memory. D. S. Senanayake College, named after the first Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, was named so after his death. Looking back at past presidents, there have been many instances where buildings were to be named during their tenure. In the case of the Keththarama cricket stadium, Ranasinghe Premadasa vehemently opposed the use of his name. It was named after him following his assasination. Both J. R. Jayawardane and Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge refused to have buildings named after them during their time in power, ignoring requests of those around them who wished to glorify their names, although there is a road named after Kumaratunge in Battaramulla.

However, though this is the norm there have been exceptions. Tyronne Fernando had the De Soysa Park cricket stadium named after him while he was still alive, as was done by Stanley Tillekeratne when a connecting road in Nugegoda was named Stanley Tillekeratne Mawatha.

When it comes to Mahinda Rajapaksa, since his re-election in 2010, the President has gone on to write his name into the Mahawamsa, and subsequently make sure his name is flouted freely in the South. In his hometown in Hambantota there is the Magampura Mahinda Rajapaksa Harbour. While there has been much criticism over the actual usefulness of the port, the fact remains that it serves the purpose of glorifying Rajapaksa’s name. One does not have to look far to find another. The Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium, also in Hambantota, is yet another instance where the President decided (a decision entirely at his discretion) that his name must be inscribed on stone. There is more. Post tsunami, a pavilion at the Galle International Stadium was also named after him and called the Mahinda Rajapaksa Pavilion. Then there is the Mahinda Rajapaksa National School in Homagama.

Mahinda Rajapaksa has also succeeded in stifling dissent on the issue. When The Sunday Leader tried to speak with numerous people in relevant Authorities and obtain their comments on the issue they all steadfastly refused. Colombo Mayor A. J. M. Muzammil, and Chairman of the Urban Development Authority, Janaka Kurukulasuriya, both shied away from commenting.

© The Sunday Leader

Sri Lanka: India cannot dictate terms says Govt

2012-01-02T13:24:00.004+01:00

BBC Sinhala
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The Sri Lanka government has denied it is under pressure from India to devolve more powers to provinces.

Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, who heads the government delegation for talks with Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said its apparent U turn over land and police powers has nothing to do with India.

"No no no no, there was no pressure. Neither India nor other country can dictate how our country is governed," he said in response to a question by BBC Sandesaya.

The government, he said, is "always prepared to discuss land and police powers as well as the re merger of the north and east."

'Only SLFP'

The minister, however, clarified that the team led by him only represents the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the main constituent of the ruling coalition.

The TNA that left talks with the government citing the government's failure to respond to a ten-point plan submitted in March, later re-initiated talks on the government's request.

In a statement issued on 4 August, last year, the TNA called on the government define and state the government's policy on the structure of governance, the division of subjects between the centre and the devolved units and fiscal and financial powers before continuing the dialogue.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa in a recent meeting with newspaper editors has said that the government was not willing to devolve land and police powers to the regions, in line with the 13 amendment to the constitution.

The Indian government, responding to the release of the war panel report, urged Sri Lanka to fulfil it's continuous pledges to implement the 13 amendment that devolved land and police powers to the provinces.

A Sinhala nationalist partner of the coalition government has, meanwhile, criticised the response by India to the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), which was submitted to the parliament on 16 December.

Saying that the present government has not given any assurances to India to devolve more powers to provinces, the Jathika Hela Urumaya asked India "to clarify which Sri Lankan government has given this assurance."

© BBC Sinhala

Sri Lanka’s ghosts of war

2012-01-01T12:12:00.006+01:00

Courtesy: Karen Barbour | The New York Times

By Namini Wijedasa | The New York Times
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The Sri Lankan government’s defeat of the separatist Tamil Tigers in 2009 ended a three-decade war that took tens of thousands of lives. But only now is the government beginning to acknowledge its huge human cost. Two weeks ago, a government-appointed reconciliation commission released a long-awaited report, giving voice to the war’s civilian victims for the first time.

From August 2010 to January 2011, hundreds of people appeared before the commission in tears, begging for news of their loved ones, many of whom had last been seen in the custody of security forces. A doctor spoke of how they managed to survive under deplorable conditions in places “littered with dead bodies and carcasses of dying animals.”

In October, I visited a rural school just 6 miles from Mullivaikkal, on the northeast coast of the island, where the army finally crushed the Tigers — an area still off-limits to civilians. The government says there are too many land mines to allow resettlement; critics say there are too many bodies in mass graves.

The classroom had a new roof, but more than two years after the war ended, its walls were still pockmarked with shrapnel, a window was shattered and the floor was cracked. Most students’ uniforms were discolored; many wore flip-flops and carried tattered bags. A 7-year-old with a deep scar across his back stared at me. A shell had landed while his family slept and his sister was killed, he told me in a thin voice.

One child after another spoke of injuries and deaths caused by shelling; of lingering wounds; of forced conscription by the Tigers; of poor widowed mothers; and of family members missing after being taken into state custody.

Since Sri Lanka’s independence from Britain in 1948, members of the island’s Tamil minority have insisted that they face linguistic, educational and employment discrimination from the Sinhalese majority, which controls the government.

The Tigers — a sophisticated, well-financed guerilla group that formed in 1976 and pioneered the technique of suicide bombing — sought to redress their grievances by violent means, with the goal of establishing an independent Tamil state. They routinely recruited child soldiers, killed Tamil dissenters and massacred Sinhalese and Muslims. In 1991, the group went so far as to assassinate the Indian prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, for having sent Indian troops to Sri Lanka in 1987 to enforce a peace accord. The Tigers held out against the Sri Lankan military until they were decisively defeated in May 2009.

Some journalists called Sri Lanka’s final battle with the Tigers a “war without witnesses.” Aid workers were asked to withdraw from the conflict zone months before the government defeated the Tigers. Only handpicked reporters, mostly from state media, were allowed to embed with troops. Those journalists knew what they must not write, for fear of losing access. The others relied on organized tours that were meticulously choreographed by the army — producing sanitized war coverage with the gory bits tucked away. As a result, there was no outside scrutiny of the controversial war.

But that did not mean there were no witnesses. As the army attacked, hundreds of thousands of civilians were trapped in between. They were the Tigers’ “human shield,” and a source for forced conscripts, including children. They were also witnesses.

More than 950 people testified before the commission and nearly 5,000 submitted written statements. Survivors spoke of displacement, incessant shelling and morbid fear. The commission’s report depicts a country where the rule of law is crumbling and where abductions, enforced or involuntary disappearances, protracted detention without charge and attacks on journalists continue. It proposes depoliticizing the police, disarming illegal armed groups and allowing a more independent media.

While the commission makes sensible recommendations and exposes grave atrocities committed by the Tigers against ordinary people, it also demonstrates that government troops shelled no-fire zones in order to neutralize rebel attacks from within.

The report is a valuable document, but regarding the war’s terrible final weeks, it is largely an apologia for the army. The commission admits only that “civilian casualties had in fact occurred in the course of cross-fire,” and blames the Tigers for most of them. The commission asserts that the government was confronted with an unprecedented situation — a massive human shield — that left it no other choice but to respond as it did.

However, on three separate occasions the government declared no-fire zones, giving the illusion of safety to hundreds of thousands of terrified civilians who fled into them. The rebels also went in, set up their heavy weapons among innocent men, women and children and proceeded to attack the military with gusto. The army retaliated and large numbers of civilians were killed.

Sri Lankans no longer need to pretend that the army didn’t shell zones where civilians were encouraged to gather, or subscribe to the fantasy that no innocents died when shells landed on or near hospitals.

If Sri Lanka wants true reconciliation, simply blaming the Tigers is not enough. The government, and the country, must take responsibility for the dead, mend the lives of the survivors — whatever their ethnicity — and stop the vicious cycle of ethnic strife by arriving at a political solution that meets, if not all aspirations, most of them. Until then, the end of the war will not bring true peace.

© The New York Times

Corruption as a tool of Rajapaksa rule

2012-01-01T11:56:00.005+01:00

By Tisaranee Gunasekara | Deccan Chronicle
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In October this year, President Mahinda Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka used his constitutional powers to grant a special pardon to a politician convicted of misusing public funds. The Appeal Court and the Supreme Court had upheld the conviction of Kesara Senanayake, a former mayor of Kandy. Rajapaksa’s timely pardon saved him from a year in prison and made him a free man.

This November, a bipartisan parliamentary committee accused a state entity, controlled by Presidential sibling minister Basil Rajapaksa, of massive financial malpractices. Last year, environmentalists accused the then air force commander of building an eight-roomed luxury house on a Unesco heritage site. Instead of being prosecuted for breaking the law, Air Marshall Roshan Gunatillake received a promotion, as the Chief of Defence Staff; he also got to keep his illegally constructed house.

Former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka, who became transformed from Rajapaksa-ally to Rajapaksa-foe within six months of winning the Eelam War, was found guilty by a military court of financial misappropriation, stripped of his rank, honours and pension and sentenced to a 30-month imprisonment. There was no presidential pardon for him.

These incidents are symbolic and symbiotic of a new Lankan reality. Under Rajapaksa rule, corruption has become systemic. It is ensconced at the core of the Lankan state as an indispensable tool of governance, a way to reward allies and punish enemies, a method of strengthening familial rule and promoting dynastic succession.

The Rajapaksa brothers, President Mahinda, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya and economic development minister Basil, occupy the commanding heights of the Lankan state. Blatant tolerance of official corruption is a key characteristic of this Rajapaksa-controlled state. Though corruption, including in very high places, is not alien to Sri Lanka, the current, openly blasé attitude is rather unprecedented. This attitudinal-shift has created a permissive atmosphere, in which official corruption, freed of the stigma and empowered by impunity, is flourishing.

In 2007, the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) contracted hedging deals with five foreign banks. A ministerial sub-committee subsequently revealed that that the contracts were seriously flawed and if enforced would lose the CPC around US$800 million. The CPC chairman who made and defended the deal, Ashantha De Mel, is a Rajapaksa family connection. No legal action was taken against him even though the Supreme Court voided the deal as illegal, and blamed the government for appointing “an unqualified person who had not even passed the GCE Advanced Level examination to a responsible position like the CPC chairmanship”.

The Rajapaksa-tolerance of corruption, by their own, is encouraging opposition politicians to switch sides in order to evade legal action for financial (and other) misdeeds. Milinda Moragoda was a senior minister in the 2001-2004 UNP administration. In 2009, the Supreme Court accused him of acting in a manner “flawed and marred by various improprieties” when privatising the state-owned insurance giant, Sri Lanka Insurance. Despite this damning pronouncement, no legal action was taken against Moragoda. By then he had switched sides and become a minister in the Rajapaksa regime.

In its latest findings, the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) accuses Maga Neguma (Improving Roads), a state-funded entity under control of Basil Rajapaksa, of defaulting road-contractors of “a massive Rs 1.2 billion”. The defrauded contractors have not sought legal redress because they fear Rajapaksa’s ire, according to a COPE member: “We learnt that some of these contractors have paid huge commissions to certain politicians. They are unable to speak against this injustice openly. If they speak, they will be harassed in various ways…”, he told a newspaper.

The officials of Maga Neguma act as if they are above the law. They do not submit their accounts to the Auditor General; according to a COPE member, “they even produced letters from the Attorney General’s department to support their argument that the COPE has no powers to probe them”. Such arrogant insouciance is natural in a familial state. Lankan officials, like Lankan politicians, know that they can break laws and contravene rules with impunity, so long as they do not commit the cardinal sin of opposing the Rajapaksas.

The 17th Amendment to the Constitution set up seven independent commissions to promote good governance. The independent Bribery Commission so born was the entity which investigated the actions of former Mayor Senanayake (who visited Singapore with his wife, using municipal funds granted to him to attend a workshop in Taiwan). By the time the convicted Senanayake got his presidential pardon, the Bribery Commission that enabled his successful prosecution had lost its independence. The Rajapaksa-introduced 18th Amendment turned independent commissions into presidential appendages by empowering the president to hire and fire their members at will.

The 18th Amendment also placed the Elections Commissioner (and the inspector-general of police) under presidential control. The Elections Commissioner was disempowered from acting to prevent the misuse of state resources by government-politicians during election times. As the deputy elections commissioner explained, “With the passage of the 18th Amendment, the commissioner no longer had constitutional powers to appoint a competent authority to ensure balanced media coverage”. The 18th Amendment has thus rendered corrupt electoral practices partially legal, making it easier for the Rajapaksas to win elections.

Under Rajapaksa Rule, Sri Lanka is a state-in-transition from a flawed democracy into a One-Family State. Creating a new legality is an essential component of this transformation. This includes institutionalising and normalising corruption. In the emerging state, corruption is an instrument wielded with impunity by the Rajapaksas to enhance their power.

When rulers tolerate corruption and protect the corrupt, corruption, while remaining a crime in law, ceases being a crime in fact. As corruption flourishes in open sight and the corrupt get away scot-free, public perception of corruption too undergoes a radical transition. From a social-solecism corruption becomes a new norm. People begin to regard corruption as an esoteric issue which is of little relevance to them.

Such a public perception can become an insurmountable impediment to the creation of a mass movement against corruption, unless, and until, people realise that corruption impedes development and undermines their own living standards.

© Deccan Chronicle

Sri Lanka 'wheelchair tax' condemned by UK charity

2012-01-01T11:01:00.006+01:00

BBC
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The head of a UK charity that sent a consignment of wheelchairs to Sri Lanka has condemned the decision to impose customs duties of over $8,000 (£5,180).

Peter Thompson, of the Yorkshire-based PhysioNet charity, said the shipment for Tamil war victims also took more than three months to clear customs.

The Sri Lankan authorities said the delay was because paperwork for the shipment was not properly completed.

They said all shipments arriving in Colombo are subject to duty payments.

But Mr Thompson said the $8,000 (1m Sri Lankan rupees) that had to be paid in customs duties and port storage fees was unacceptable.

He argued that the delay in clearing the shipment - which contained 322 wheelchairs and other mobility items for disabled Tamil war victims - meant that the bill had to be paid before it was allowed to be transported to the north of the country.

The shipment was sent by PhysioNet in conjunction with a Sri Lankan Tamil charity based in the UK and the Roman Catholic church; together they met all of the costs of getting the consignment to Sri Lanka.

"But problems arose in Colombo when it took three months to clear the docks," Mr Thompson told the BBC.

"This is a record for the longest time one of our shipments has languished on the docks of a recipient country - and that includes some of the most corrupt and inefficient countries in Africa."

Mr Thompson said the Sri Lankan authorities appeared to put up obstacles every step of the way to prevent the shipment from being speedily delivered.

"Only following endless paperwork and the payment of $8,000 was the container released and allowed to be transported to the north of the country," he said.

"During the three months it took for these problems to be resolved, the demurrage charges were building up substantially in Colombo.

"It's difficult to conclude that this is anything other than a glaring example of the Sri Lankan authorities victimising the Tamil community."

The Sri Lankan government in May 2009 defeated Tamil Tigers rebels fighting for independence in the north and east of the country after a bitterly-fought war spanning two decades.

Mr Thompson said his charity hoped to send another shipment to Sri Lanka next year, "but only if there are some assurances that this unhappy experience will not be repeated".

A spokesman for the port authority in Colombo that handled the consignment said all imports - including those brought in for charitable purposes - are subject to import duties.

He said the delay in clearing the wheelchairs was because various government ministries had to give their permission before shipments to the north were allowed to go ahead.

© BBC News

‘The Tamils demand impossible things’ - SL President

2011-12-28T10:06:00.001+01:00

Interviewed by R. Bhagwan Singh | Deccan Chronicle
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Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), ending the 30-year-old ethnic war. But a political settlement eludes the country. In this interview with R. Bhagwan Singh at his Temple Tree residence in Colombo, the President spoke about relations with India and China, and the difficulties in relation to the Tamil question.

The Western countries are demanding a probe into “war crimes” in Sri Lanka. How are you going to deal with this issue?

The LTTE remnants in these Western countries are bringing pressure on political leaders there to raise baseless issues against Sri Lanka. Western countries talk about Kashmir and Sri Lanka in their Parliaments, but keep mum about what they did in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and so on.

After the 1880 uprising in Ceylon’s Uva (in the south), the British rulers killed every male aged above 14, and destroyed all water reservoirs to force the people into starvation. They took away land. They did that in India, too. And they talk of human rights now. The West wants me to be their lackey and I refuse to be that.

There is a feeling in India that you are leaning towards China, and that could hurt India’s geo-political position in this part of the Indian Ocean.

For me, India is first, and others come only after India. As soon as I came to power, I went to India and got their support; after that, I did not have to bother about the UN, UK, US, and so on. In fact, we got help from the US by way of vital information about LTTE ships which made it possible to destroy them at sea.

As for China coming here with major infrastructure projects, I must tell you that every project that we gave the Chinese we first offered to India, including the big port project in Hambantota, but there was no response. Even the Colombo port expansion was advertised but only the Chinese came.

The war ended more than two and a half years ago. The LTTE has been eliminated but the Tamils’ demand for autonomy still seems strong as the victory of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in the last parliamentary election shows. How do you intend addressing Tamil concerns? The Jaffna Chamber of Commerce (JCC) has said that the Tamil diaspora will not invest in the country until there is a political settlement.

These elections were held under the proportional representation system. There was also a substantial number that voted against the TNA. You must note that 54 per cent of Tamils live outside the north and the east. The JCC is free to have its opinion, but there are Sri Lankan Tamils abroad who have shown interest in investing in the north. We are keen on a sustainable political settlement. But it must have wide acceptance, especially in the context of the post-conflict situation.

Regional autonomy was a slogan used by the terrorists and their apologists. The need is for strong unity in diversity, for which regional autonomy is not the only way. A better approach would be equality of opportunity, and the spread of democratic freedom and rights, together with speedy economic development of the north, in tandem with other regions of the country.

How do you propose to address the question of devolution?

As for devolution, we have already elected provincial councils in all provinces other than the north. It will be established there, too. There must be discussions on how the provincial administrations could be strengthened and improved, with greater economic and development activity devolved. This is a process of democratic expansion in which all communities and political groups, as well as the key economic players, should participate.

Many say that the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) you have proposed will not be useful because there have been many such committees before, but the political problem has remained the same.

The PSC is a good approach to what has been a vexed problem because in a democracy it is Parliament that will ultimately have to agree to any solution. Unfortunately, the TNA has not named its representatives to the PSC. They (TNA) have the same attitude as the LTTE.

They demand impossible things — merger of the north and the east, land policy and police. See what happened in your country when Rahul Gandhi was travelling in Uttar Pradesh. Chief minister Mayawati tried to get him arrested. Do you think I want to get arrested by these people (by giving the Tamils a police force)?

The TNA seems to be driven by the Tamil diaspora, which does not want peace and political settlement, as they fear that their host countries might then send them back home. The TNA cannot represent the same separatist agenda of the LTTE, which will not find acceptance with the majority population. I want to work towards a solution but the TNA is not cooperating.

The local body and Parliament elections have been held in the north even during the conflict. So why does the government not hold provincial council election there now?

Elections will certainly be held in the near future. But one must realise the importance of the elections to a provincial council, which gives genuine opportunity to the people to participate. It is no secret that in the parliamentary elections that were held during the conflict, the people of the north were not allowed to exercise their franchise.

The LTTE acted against such democratic expression. Another fact is that the voting was on an old and outdated register, which makes the TNA’s success not as big as it seems. The LTTE prevented the conduct of a census in the north. Once proper electoral registers are prepared, we can hold election to the northern provincial council.

The Tamils are complaining that the north remains highly militarised even now. There are over 100,000 troops policing about 300,000 people. It is said that the Army’s permission is required even to hold a library association meeting or a school function. When do you propose to bring down Army’s involvement in the civil administration there?

There are more than 300,000 Tamils in the north. The military presence is not worked out in proportion to the population but the security needs of the region. The presence of the military in an area that has seen brutal armed conflict for nearly three decades does not amount to militarisation.

The military is playing a significant role in building infrastructure as the locals lack skills. Also, large sections of the north are yet to be de-mined. It is not true that school functions or library meetings and such activities require the permission of the military. But there could be cautious surveillance, knowing the nature of the defeated enemy. We are still getting hidden arms caches of the LTTE. The presence of the military will be phased out in keeping with security needs.

The Tamils suspect that their lands are being taken over to set up new Army camps or to be given to Sinhalese businessmen.

It is the LTTE rump which spreads these canards. The armed forces and their camps are present throughout our country. This is necessary to ensure Sri Lanka’s territorial integrity and to protect its sovereignty.

In Jaffna, there were many Muslims and Sinhalese before the LTTE chased them away, committing the first ethnic cleansing. Whether it is the Sinhalese, Tamils or Muslims, anyone who has been chased out of their traditional homes must be given their lands back. The majority status enjoyed by the Tamils in the northern province will not be changed by any actions of the
government.

© Deccan Chronicle

Red Cross grieves loss of Briton killed in Sri Lanka

2011-12-28T10:05:00.007+01:00

BBC News
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A British man killed on holiday in Sri Lanka has been described as a "committed" Red Cross worker.

Khuram Shaikh, 32, of Milnrow, Greater Manchester, was a physiotherapist for the International Red Cross in Gaza.

He died early on 25 December after an attack on him and a colleague in the tourist resort of Tangalle. Four people have been arrested.

The Red Cross said it was "deeply shocked... and grieved by the loss". His colleague remains in hospital.

Mr Shaikh was the manager of the Red Cross's physical rehabilitation programme in Gaza, providing prosthetics for people who have lost limbs, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said. He had been there since September 2010.

A spokeswoman at the Jerusalem office said: "He went on holiday to Sri Lanka with a colleague and unfortunately this has happened.

"We are deeply shocked and the International Committee of the Red Cross is grieved by the loss. He was a very committed member of the Red Cross team in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem."

A post-mortem examination showed Mr Shaikh had been attacked by a sharp weapon and shot, police said earlier.

His colleague, Russian Victoria Alexandrovna, 23, was being treated in Karapitiya hospital, Galle.

The ICRC spokeswoman added: "We cannot give any specific details of the circumstances of what happened because the criminal investigation is taking place.

"We are in contact with the local authorities and will follow it up with them."

She added that the organisation is making efforts to support Mr Shaikh's parents and his colleagues in Gaza.

There are also efforts under way to assist the family of Ms Alexandrovna.

© BBC News

Lankan lessons: War crimes and Rajapaksa regime

2011-12-27T11:24:00.006+01:00

Photo courtesy: CHR Sri Lanka

Editorial | The Economic Times
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Given scepticism about the intentions of the Rajapaksa regime, the big question mark over Sri Lanka's Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was if it would impartially probe alleged war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan army during the last phase of the war with the LTTE or if it was part of Colombo's prevarication.

On the war crimes front, the LLRC's report, made public recently, is a disappointment. It has attracted criticism from UN-affiliated and other international rights groups, citing doubts about the LLRC's mandate and impartiality. The report virtually exonerates the Lankan army from the charge of deliberately targeting civilians, including using heavy artillery in the No Fire Zone.

Pertinently, Colombo had, then, after some nudging by New Delhi, sought to allay fears of a massacre by promising not to use heavy weaponry in the zone. Indeed, the LLRC's report even suggests that given the foggy nature of events during the last stages of the war, it is impossible to find out exactly what happened. This is bunkum.

Closure, as the report itself notes, is part of the process of reconciliation. And that means an independent, impartial enquiry into these alleged crimes is vital for that process to be meaningful. On some other counts, like, say, on missing persons and detainees, language policies, land issues, demilitarisation and so on, the report proposes some sensible measures. It also stresses that the devolution of powers issue is central for a reconciliation based on a political solution.

The murderousness of the LTTE was to blame too but, as the report notes, the whole conflict is rooted in the sense of grievances of the Tamil people. In that context, there have been fears the LLRC was set up as part of an effort by Colombo to stave off international pressure and buy more time while really not doing much on most issues in reality.

The Rajapaksa regime actually has been consolidating the Sinhala majoritarianism responsible for much of the conflict. Whether it will move, credibly and with visible effect, on even the forward-looking aspects of its own LLRC's report is the key question.

© The Economic Times

Concern grows for Sri Lankan activists

2011-12-27T10:56:00.008+01:00

Photo courtesy: vikalpa.org

Amnesty International
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New information concerning the disappearance of Sri Lankan political activists, Lalith Kumara Weeraraju and Kugan Muruganandan, indicates that they may be held in official custody. Despite several complaints lodged with local authorities, no credible action has been taken to investigate their disappearance.

Lalith Kumara Weeraraju and Kugan Muruganandan were last seen leaving Kugan Muruganandan’s residence in Avarangal, Jaffna, northern Sri Lanka, at around 5:00 pm on December 9. There were preparing a press conference to be held the following day, aimed at publicizing a protest highlighting human rights violations.

Family members report they later received an anonymous phone call saying that Lalith Kumara Weeraraju had been killed.

On 14 December, Kugan Muruganandan’s wife visited Atchchuveli Police Station to collect a copy of a complaint she had lodged regarding his disappearance. She saw the same motorbike on which he and Lalith Kumara Weeraraju had last been seen, with license no NP GT 7852, inside the police station grounds. Police officers at the station told her that it had been found by the Kopai Police on 13 December, parked near a Hindu temple in Kopai. On 15 December, Sri Lankan Cabinet Spokesperson, Minister Keheliya Rambukwella stated to media that “Mr Weeraraju and Mr Muruganandan have not been disappeared, they are there,” viewed by some as an acknowledgement that the two men are currently being held in official custody.

Following the disappearance, a local parliamentarian lodged a missing persons complaint with Jaffna Police, who denied they were holding the two men in their custody. The same parliamentarian also submitted a written complaint to the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and the National Human Rights Commission. However, despite these concerns being raised, no credible action has been taken to investigate the disappearance.

© AI

The LLRC Report: A masterpiece of contortions

2011-12-26T11:07:00.008+01:00

By Tisaranee Gunasekara | The Sunday Leader
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“… From the very beginning there was a very clear military plan and in parallel…a plan for humanitarian assistance” - Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (Testimony before the LLRC)

“….the Commission is satisfied that the military strategy that was adopted…was one that was carefully conceived, in which the protection of the civilian population was given the highest priority.” (The LLRC Report)

A perceptive analysis of past errors and some judicious recommendations for the future constitute the strongest aspects of the LLRC’s much-awaited report. The Report, for instance, warns against disallowing the singing of the national anthem in Tamil, because such a ban will “create a major irritant which would not be conducive to fostering post-conflict reconciliation”. Its final recommendations argue that “the practice of the National Anthem being sung simultaneously in two languages in the same time must be maintained and supported…”

‘The practice of singing the National Anthem in two languages’ ended early this year; under orders from Colombo, provincial authorities compelled students of Jaffna Hindu College and Vambadi Girls School to sing the National Anthem in Sinhala. That order was a result of a cabinet decision (of 8.12.2010) which banned the singing of the national anthem in Tamil. President Mahinda Rajapaksa justified his ‘Sinhala Only National Anthem’ proposal with the factually incorrect argument that “in no other country was the national anthem used in more than one language”; he defined the practice of singing the national anthem in Tamil as a “shortcoming that must be rectified” (The Sunday Times – 12.12.2010).

Was the LLRC unaware that the ‘practice of singing the National Anthem in two languages’ is dead, has been dead for almost a year? Did the Commissioners not know that this practice was killed on Presidential orders? The Commissioners could not have been ignorant of this reality unless they suffered from collective and targeted amnesia. But acknowledging the truth about the national anthem would have been tantamount to an indirect critique of the President, the Commission’s appointing authority. The fate of Gen. Fonseka teaches that that hell hath no fury like a Rajapaksa opposed/criticised, especially when the dissident is a former official/acolyte. Caught between the rock of reality and the hard place of Rajapaksa ire, the LLRC turned contortionist; it warned of the danger of abandoning the bilingual national anthem as if this is a future pitfall and not a Rajapaksa-wrought fait accompli.

This episode is symbolic of the LLRC and its report. The Commission’s real mandate was to provide the Rajapaksas with a plausible fig-leaf. Last week, President Rajapaksa “…filed motion in the war crimes suit against him in the District Court of Washington DC” (Lanka Standard – 18.12.2011). This is one more indication of the Sibling’s desperate need to make peace with the West, without undermining their project of Familial Rule and Dynastic Succession. The LLRC too was born out of this desire; its job was to deflect international criticism and forestall a UN inquiry. Conscious of this raison d’être, the LLRC seemed to have worked while looking over its collective-shoulders at the Ruling Siblings. The Report faithfully reflects this anxious concern to please the powers-that-be. Minister Professor GL Peiris was dead right; the Report is a ‘true mirror of the humanitarian operation’ because that was what the Rajapaksas wanted it to be.

Most depositions by civilian Tamils mentioned in the Report present a picture which is almost totally at variance with the ‘humanitarian offensive’ myth. They detail the atrocities of the Tigers; they also tell of how No Fire Zones became Free Fire Zones. Tamil after civilian Tamil maintains that they were shelled by both sides. One civilian states that “there were aerial attacks by the air force” on the third NFZ. But true to its real mandate, the LLRC ignores this civilian evidence and embraces the myth of a ‘humanitarian operation’ peddled by its star (and most quoted) witness, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. Unsurprisingly; if the LLRC is chary of telling the truth about and apportioning responsibility for something as relatively innocuous as the scrapping of the Tamil language national anthem, will it have the courage to tell the truth about far more dangerous issues, especially if that truth discredits the Commander-in-Chief and his Brother?

By toeing the Rajapaksa line shamelessly, the LLRC deals a body-blow to the claim that the Rajapaksas can carry out an unbiased investigation of their own deeds. The LLRC’s pussyfooting approach thus inadvertently justifies the demand for an international investigation. Perhaps aware of this lacuna, the Commissioners juggle desperately to intersperse a largely incredible report with some credible insights and comments. So the Report advocates devolution while carefully refraining from mentioning the term ethnic problem, a Rajapaksa anathema. It is outspoken in its criticism of the EPDP and the TMVP for engaging in rights-violations, but religiously omits to mention that this impunity is granted and guaranteed by the Lankan Forces and the Rajapaksa Siblings. Post-war, these outfits have become key cogs in the Rajapaksa politico-electoral machinery, as symbolised by the transformation of Mr. Iniyabarathy, convicted criminal and alleged abductor, into a Rajapaksa-electoral organiser in the East. His ‘Deshamanya’ title, bestowed by President Rajapaksa this November, is symbolic and symbiotic of this amoral nexus.

Unfortunately the LLRC’s efforts may prove futile. A key witness in the Washington case against President Rajapaksa is reportedly a former Lankan major general who had ‘high security clearance and close contact with some of the army’s most powerful figures’. He had already given a deposition stating that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa passed on “some instructions to a field commander to get rid of those LTTE cadres who are surrendering without adhering to normal procedure…” and that “Mr. Rajapaksa sanctioned the creation of a ‘hit squad’…..” (Daily Telegraph – 18.12.2011).

By vindicating the Lankan Forces (and by extension the Rajapaksas) on all essential counts, the LLRC discredited itself and defeated its own purpose. A less blatantly partisan report could have been more successful at countering international criticism. But such a report would have infuriated the Rajapaksas and, that is a risk none can expect the LLRC to run, given the fate of Gen. Fonseka.

Abduction, Rape and Land-grabbing

19 months after defeating the LTTE and despite a mammoth defence budget, existence remains unsafe, unjust and brutish for many Lankans. This month human rights activists Lalith Kumar Weeraraj and Kugan Murugandan disappeared in Jaffna. In the South the regime is planning the next logical step in its land grabbing exercise. According to Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, “Lands given to farmers under state grants, Mahaweli and Swarna Bhoomi deeds would be acquired if they have not been developed and used productively” (Sri Lanka Mirror – 21.12.2011). The Rajapaksas and their local minions will decide which lands are underutilised – an ideal way of acquiring fertile land for foreign agribusinesses and of threatening/punishing anti-government farmers.

December’s toll of this climate of impunity included a seven year old child who was abducted and raped; “The girl, who is a resident of the Kodikamam area was at her home with her family when she was abducted around 11 p.m. by a group” (Sri Lanka Mirror – 20.12.2011). If we are not outraged by this horror, and undisturbed by the deadly future it portends, will we not deserve that future?

© The Sunday Leader

Sri Lanka: Protest in Jaffna over “disappearances”

2011-12-26T10:33:00.006+01:00

Photo courtesy: Tamilnet.com

World Socialist Web Site
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Amid police and military threats, about 200 mothers, wives and other relatives of disappeared persons held a protest on December 10 in Jaffna, northern Sri Lanka, to demand information about their loved ones.

Hundreds of Tamils “disappeared” during the 26-year communal war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), particularly during the military offensive before its defeat in May 2009. Despite their denials, the military, police and associated paramilitary groups are directly implicated in these abductions and murders.

Such disappearances occurred not only in the North and East, but also in other areas, including Colombo. The security forces turned a blind eye as squads of thugs, often operating from white vans, seized people, mostly Tamils. The victims simply vanished and were likely murdered. These methods were bound up with the government’s police-state measures to silence political opponents and critics.

The protest was organised by several organisations, including Right to Life and the International Movement against Discrimination and Racism (IMADR). It was backed by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), a bourgeois Tamil-based party, and several ex-left organisations, including the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP).

Although the protesters genuinely wanted information about their loved ones, the organisers had their own agenda. TNA secretary Mavai Senathirajah told the gathering: “The UN should inquire into the Sri Lankan government’s human rights violations. These inquiries should be done publicly. Only that way people will have confidence.”

The TNA’s appeal to the UN for an investigation is a continuation of its futile appeals in the final months of the war for the “international community” to ask President Mahinda Rajapakse to end the military offensive. The US and other major powers are not defenders of democratic rights in Sri Lanka, but are using the issue of disappearances and other abuses to advance their own strategic and economic interests.

The TNA is seeking the support of these powers to pressure the Rajapakse government to grant it a role in administering the North and East on behalf of the Tamil ruling elite. The NSSP has stepped in to boost the TNA’s tattered credentials as the TNA seeks to re-establish itself within the Colombo political establishment.

The protest was held near the Jaffna central bus-stand and involved people from various parts of Jaffna Peninsula, Kilinochchi, Mullaithivu and Vavuniya, as well as Colombo. The army set up checkpoints at several junctions to harass and intimidate people going to the venue. People travelling the 30 kilometres from Point-Pedro to Jaffna had to pass through eight checkpoints.

Police vehicles patrolled Jaffna town. A squad of riot police was stationed about 75 metres away from the protest. Dozens of police and military intelligence officers were seen watching the area. Police had been mobilised at the bus-stand to threaten protesters and tried to drive them away. People refused to leave, arguing with police that they had the democratic right to conduct the agitation.

Police arrested Socialist Equality Party (SEP) member M. Kamaladasan while he was distributing an SEP statement on its campaign to demand the release of all political prisoners. He was kept at the Jaffna police station for more than one hour and only set free after SEP General Secretary Wije Dias spoke to the officer in charge and insisted on the party’s democratic right to campaign. Police also tried to harass journalists covering the protest.

Participants chanted slogans, including “Release our children, Release our loved ones. Where have they gone?” They displayed pictures of the disappeared persons.

SEP member Nadarajah Wimaleswaran, 27, and his friend, Sivanathan Mathivathanan, 24, disappeared in the Velanai area in Kayts while travelling from Punguduthivu Island on March 22, 2007. All the evidence pointed to the involvement of the Sri Lankan navy, but the military, police and judicial authorities covered up the crime.

The response of the security forces to the protests underlines the government’s fear over the mounting anger among Tamils to the continued military occupation of the North and East. During the final months of the war, the military’s air and artillery bombardment killed thousands of civilians. Around 300,000 men, women and children were herded into military-run detention centres and held without charge for months before being “resettled” into tents or makeshift shelters with little or no financial assistance.

There have been several protests in recent weeks. Jaffna university students boycotted classes for one week demanding the arrest of military personnel who attacked student leaders, including the student union president. Volunteer teachers have held a demonstration to demand permanent jobs. On December 6, unemployed graduates picketed outside the provincial governor’s office calling for jobs.

The WSWS spoke to several of the participants in the latest protest. A mother of three children explained her plight: “My husband went to obtain a pass to travel to Colombo in January 2007. At that time, the army unit stationed near the Sinhala College issued the passes. My husband did not return. I came to know that my husband was seized by the army there. I still search for him, going from one place to another. I am demanding his release. I work as a housemaid and struggle to bring up my children. We are terribly poor and helpless.”

One mother held up a photo of her daughter, Nadarajah Navaranjini, who was 27 years old when she disappeared in the Vanni area of northern Sri Lanka in 2009. The weeping mother made a desperate appeal to know her daughter’s whereabouts. The former was held at the military-controlled Manik Farm camp, where more than 250,000 civilians were incarcerated after the war. Now she lives as a refugee in Jaffna.

Another woman said: “On May 18, 2009—the final day of the war—we surrendered to the army at Vattuvaikkal in Mullaithivu with a group of other people. My husband, Mahendran Murugathas, 33, was arrested by the army. When I begged for his release, the soldiers said they would free him after an inquiry. They asked me to go to the camp. In front of my very eyes, the army took my husband, along with 40 others, onto a bus. I wandered to several camps in search of him. Still I have no news about him. The army arrested him. They should release him.”

© WSWS

Searching for the boy with the violin

2011-12-26T10:24:00.004+01:00

By Priyath Liyanage | BBC News
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In the last months of Sri Lanka's civil war, nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians - driven out of their homes with the retreating Tamil rebels - were trapped in a small strip of coastal land in the north of the country.

While some people were released, others escaped. There was no choice but to walk through the raging battle towards the advancing government forces. It is still unclear how many people were killed in the shelling and crossfire.

This stage of the country's prolonged war was fought without independent witnesses. The story of these civilians who reportedly became a human shield for the Tamil Tigers is largely untold.

The only news of their plight was through the reports filed by embedded reporters of state media. Independent and foreign media, along with most international aid agencies, were removed from the battle zone.

One night, as I was going through reels of footage, I caught a glimpse of a young boy picking his way across the battlefield with a violin case slung over his shoulder.

His choice intrigued me: at a time when people were in fear of their lives and took the one thing they could carry, why was his instrument so precious? I wanted to know his story.

So, armed only with a blurry photo of this boy, I went back to Sri Lanka determined to find him.

I began in Vavuniya, a border town 160m (258km) north of the capital, Colombo. A major checkpoint there once divided the former rebel-controlled area from the rest of the country. More than two years after the war's end, the checkpoint is still active - the identity of every visitor is diligently checked.

From there I travel up to Jaffna, Sri Lanka's northernmost city and the centre of its Tamil community.

The best lead I have is a tip from a former music director who lost all his instruments during the war, and now works at a school. He doesn't recognise the boy in the photograph, but identifies the well-groomed man walking with him as a musician called Sri Khugan.

But all attempts to contact Sri Khugan fail. He doesn't want to speak and has switched off his mobile phone.

With its heavy military presence, some describe Jaffna as an "open prison".

The Tamil rebels didn't tolerate any dissent and although the power balance has changed, people are still afraid of the consequences of careless talk.

'Total impunity'

Well-known film director, R Keseverajan is open about the intimidation in the north.

"Only politicians say there is normalcy," he says. "We still have wounds in our hearts, those are not healed.

"A man who lost a leg at war will think of the war every time he tries to walk."

With his extensive contacts in the arts industry, Keseverajan suggested that the man in the picture could be Veera - a presenter on rebel TV. Disappointingly, this was another dead end - Veera was also reluctant to talk and after many attempts to get in touch, we heard he had left the north.

Keseverajan wasn't surprised. He told me about a recent attack on a university student. A young man was assaulted by masked motorcyclists in broad daylight - right in front of a military checkpoint.

"People are scared. There is total impunity here," he says.

I try my luck with another artist, Parvathi Sivapatham, a concert singer with a huge fan base and once engaged to sing propaganda songs for the Tamil Tigers. I imagined a musician of her stature to be living in a mansion but her home was a tiny house with a tin roof. She lost everything during the war - including her books and instruments.

"We are artists. What could we do but sing songs? In those days I sang songs for the Tamil Tigers," she says. "Now I sing traditional songs. I don't even think about those other songs. Life has to go on."

Like so many others, she too was wounded on her journey from the front and was able to save only one instrument.

"I managed to bring this shruthi box [a kind of harmonium]. I carried it in a little bag," she recalls. "Bullets were flying everywhere, but I was determined to bring it.

"It was the closest thing to my heart. I don't think I had any choice."

The boy with the violin remains elusive, but it is possible he could be one of the 7,000 people still held in the Menik Farm refugee camp. However, the defence authorities do not allow us in. People there are still waiting to be allowed to return home.

I meet Siva Ruben, a musician who had been a refugee in Menik Farm, but he doesn't recognise the boy or the man next to him. Siva now lives in a tiny tin-roofed shack with his wife and one-year-old daughter; he lost many of his family members during the war. His journey through the battlefield was traumatic.

"My sister got left behind in the crowd. I never saw her again," he tells me. "We had to leave many of the wounded to die. We walked over so many dead bodies. You can't choose who to help.

"I got shot in my arm, and was carrying my friend on my back - he had lost his leg. With all that, I still took my nadeswaram [oboe]. I left all other instruments behind. I only brought this. I can make a living playing this."

Our last attempt to identify the boy in the photo was to try an orphanage, home to hundreds of children who had lost parents during the fighting.

There we found a boy with a violin, but not the one we were looking for. He remains a glimpse on a newsreel.

The search for him took me across the north of the country. Along the way I met many musicians who came through death and mayhem.

More than two years since the end of war, the wounds in Sri Lanka are still fresh. When the music ends, what is left are laments they have inherited from the pain they have suffered.

© BBC News

Rights group: Sri Lankan Tamil women exposed to sexual violence, trafficking after war

2011-12-26T10:05:00.005+01:00

By Associated Press | The Washington Post
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Ethnic Tamil women in Sri Lanka’s former war zones face abuses including sexual violence, trafficking and forced prostitution, an international human rights group said Wednesday.

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group said there have been credible allegations of sexual violence against women in those areas at the hands of both security forces and men from their own communities.

The group said many cases go unreported in the country’s north and east, where a 25-year civil war ended in May 2009 when government troops defeated separatist Tamil rebels.

Scores of Tamil women live alone, or with young children or elderly parents because their husbands are dead or in government detention.

“The fear of sexual violence in the home is widespread in part because the military’s access is unfettered and women often have no choice but to interact with them,” the group said in a statement.

“There are also alleged incidents of sexual violence when women go to the security forces for information about their detained husbands. These cases are especially difficult to corroborate, perhaps in part because these victims would put their husbands at risk if they came forward.”

Military spokesman Brig. Nihal Hapuarachchi said he has been monitoring events in the former war zones but has not come across any such incident.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

© The Washington Post

Insurance penetration low; not seen as an investment: Fitch Ratings

2011-12-26T09:37:00.005+01:00

Sunday Times
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Fitch Ratings Sri Lanka has said that insurance penetration in Sri Lanka is low in relation to other Asian countries particularly because insurance is viewed as ‘a risk management tool rather than an investment vehicle’.

Another reason is that Sri Lanka’s relatively low per capita income. Total premiums/GDP is 1.2% versus a regional average of 6.2%3. The number of life policies/population was 10.9% at end-2010, and is rising.

It said the availability of a pension scheme for state employees has resulted in a lower appetite for insurance (investment policies) from this segment. However, investment-linked policies are gaining popularity, and the second-largest insurer in the market for life generated over 50% of its life premiums in 2010 from unit-linked products.

These comments came in the agency’s overview of Sri Lanka's life and non-life insurance sectors which it said is stable, indicating that most ratings are likely to be affirmed in the next 12-24 months.
This reflects the sound operational and financial performance of the insurers rated by Fitch, as well as their healthy capital position, while taking into account the challenges in maintaining market share and underwriting profitability in the non-life segment, the ratings agency said in a press release.

On improving capitalisation, Fitch said industry capitalisation should strengthen in the medium term; with capital requirements set to increase for existing companies, and mandatory listing requirements.
On intense competition in the motor sector, Fitch noted that as in most countries, price competition remains high in the motor segment, and new entrants have been eating into the market share of the larger, more established companies. As such, underwriting profitability remains under pressure, with many companies posting combined ratios1 of over 100%.

Aside from a contraction in non-life premiums in 2009, the sector has developed steadily over the preceding six-year period. In Fitch’s view, this growth is likely to be sustained due to the potential in the life segment. Life is still relatively under-penetrated, and prospects will brighten for the non-life segment with a sharp increase in new vehicle registrations – as well as overall economic prospects for the country.

On weaker capitalisation or solvency, the agency said a sharp decrease or sustained weakening in capitalisation or solvency ratios could lead to the outlook being revised to negative. On motor profitability, it said intensified competition in the motor segment which could further weaken underwriting profitability – owing to higher claims ratios – could be negative for ratings. Healthier competition with reduced pricing pressures and fewer concerns over market share, could be ratings positive.

Fitch said it believes that higher premium growth in 2010 and H211 is sustainable over the medium term given improving lapse ratios and growth potential in the life segment, as well as higher vehicle demand and trade activity supporting non-life growth prospects. Fitch’s forecast for GDP growth in 2012 is 7.5%-8.0% for 2012.

It said the Sri Lankan insurance market has seen steady (albeit slow) growth over the 2006-June 2011 period, with the exception of a contraction in 2009. Non-life premiums shrunk by 3.1% in 2009 owing to a weak macro economy, a slowdown in vehicle demand and weakening of import/export segments. However, with improved growth prospects since the end of the Sri Lanka civil war in mid-2009, lower interest rates and higher disposable income supported growth in both segments in 2010 and 2011.

It said in most countries, the motor segment is fiercely competitive – with competition mainly in price form. As such, underwriting profitability has come under pressure and claims ratios in this segment are the highest – averaging 64% in 2007-2010, with companies relying on investment income to compensate for underwriting losses. Investment income increased in 2009-2010, but is unlikely to be maintained at similar levels in 2011-2012. So pricing would need to improve to enable the sector to maintain non-life operating profitability at the current levels. Prices could stabilise as companies attempt to focus on a more service-oriented approach, and compete on other aspects of the product.

© Sunday Times