‘This is the land of the Sinhalese. If you accept that you can stay, if not, you can go!’

Warring to Police!

by SLB
How maitri (compassion) and ahimsa (non-violence) ended in a shower of stones!

‘My teacher is the Buddha. His teaching is about ahimsa, non-violence. Our actions are also based on that doctrine of ahimsa. As a country in which peace-loving people live, we do not like bloodshed. We do not like transactions that are carried out using arms.’

SL tops SAARC region in Human Development

An UNDP Human Development report said yesterday the country secured first place in terms of Human Development among SAARC countries.

According to the report, SAARC countries, other than India and the Maldives, have not even reached Sri Lanka’s HDI for 1980 which was 0.539.

The report said Sri Lanka has vast potential to further improve the situation compared to Singapore and Malaysia.

Sri Lanka resumes printing money to sterilize forex sales

Sri Lanka's central bank has sterilized a foreign exchange sale injecting 8.0 billion rupees in one-month money into the banking system, ending several weeks of monetary policy that has been favourable of a stronger exchange rate.

On Friday the central bank printed 8.0 billion rupees for one month at 9.81 percent, slightly above the 9.75 percent reverse repo rate at which overnight liquidity is injected into the banking system for 31 days.

EC warns of further depreciation of rupee, trouble in garment sector

A senior advisor to the European Commission (EC) has said that the exchange rate would stabilize at Rs. 138 per US dollar within the next six months.

The warning was given by Dr. Dilesh Jayantha, economic advisor to the European Chamber of Commerce, at a seminar organized by the EC on Oct 3, evening at Hilton Colombo Residence, to discuss the Euro zone crisis and its impact on the Sri Lankan economy.

Frederic Janz- Case dismissed: death threats not persecution

A Sri Lankan newspaper editor - threatened by a senior government official and brother to the President that she would be killed - has had an asylum claim to resettle in Australia rejected.
Frederica Jansz was last month sacked as editor of The Sunday Leader by the newspaper's new owner, whom she described as an ally of the Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, allegedly because she refused to stop publishing articles critical of the Sri Lankan government, and, in particular, the President.

Supreme Court to Rule Whether Governor Chandrasiri Can Represent Northern Provincial Council Opinion on Issues like Divineguma Bill

Chief Justice

S.S. Selvanayagam

The Court of Appeal yesterday ( Oct 4) submitted to the Supreme Court a reference for its interpretation/determination on the question relating to the interpretation of the Constitution whether the expression of the views of the Provincial Council includes the expression of the view of the Governor when a Provincial Council is dissolved.

President of the Court of Appeal S. Sriskandarajah also seeking the determination of the Supreme Court whether a question determining the above fact will fall under Article 124 of the Constitution.

Rise of Buddist Extremism in Sri Lanka and Response of Sri Lankan Muslims

Sri Lankan Buddhist monks stage a protest rally outside the Bangladesh High Commission in Colombo (AFP)

Raashid Riza
The last few months have seen a rapid increase in anti-Muslim sentiment amongst sections of the political class in Sri Lankan society. The situation has yet to deteriorate to the extent that the default image of a Sri Lankan Muslim is one represented by an anti- Sri Lankan or anti-Buddhist element. But the trend that is developing is truly alarming and surely points towards such an inaccurate mental image.

The rise of extremist Buddhists in Sri Lanka is truly disturbing and does not bode well to the sense of national resilience that the government is trying to foster, at least in its rhetoric.

SL military stops renovation of Hindu temple, appropriates Islamic burial ground in Ampaa'rai

Interfering in the religious freedom of Hindus and Muslims in Ampaa'rai, the occupying Sinhala military has appropriated an Islamic burial ground at Koddukkal in Poththuvil division of the district while instructing the administration of an ancient Murukan temple, worshipped by the Saivites for centuries, to stop the renovation of the temple. The head of the Murukan temple administration at Changkaman-ka'ndi in Thirukkoayil, Mr. Nakalingam, on Wednesday said that the SL military personnel who had come from Kaagnchirang-kudaa military base instructed the temple administration to immediately stop the renovation work being undertaken at the temple. The SL Army had told the temple administration that they were acting on behalf of the SL Archeology Department in Colombo.

Stalin, Baalu to hand over TESO resolutions to UN

The Centre has granted permission to DMK treasurer M.K. Stalin and the its parliamentary party leader T.R. Baalu to visit New York and Geneva to hand over resolutions passed at a recent conference of the Tamil Eelam Supporters’ Organisation (TESO) to the UN Secretary-General and the UN Human Rights Council, DMK president M. Karunanidhi said on Wednesday.

Terrible fiscal numbers show only hardship to grow; less money for education more for urban development

Construction on the newly repaired A9 road by JAMES MORGAN

Dr. Harsha De Silva
The very recent fiscal and government borrowing numbers released by the Central Bank fail to inspire confidence in the economy and concerns are mounting that taxes could be raised while key public investments too could be cut as was the case in the past resulting in more hardship for the people.

With the budget deficit showing signs of veering off target, Opposition MP and Economic spokesman for the UNP Dr. Harsha De Silva yesterday reiterated that the government would have to increase taxes, duties and utility rates while sacrificing much needed public investments in critical areas of the economy such as education.

How the Envisaged GDP 6% Allocation for Education Could be Utilized Concretely

Jayadeva Uyangoda
The demand made by the FUTA for increased allocation of annual government expenditure on education has now emerged as a national policy slogan, with many sectors of society adopting it as their own demand. This is a key achievement made by the FUTA in its three-month long struggle'

“Nothing to call our own…” – The plight of the recently returned, resettled and landless IDPs in Sri Lanka’s North

Photo by author

Marisa de Silva 

 Recently returned to Puthumathalan
“As you drive past pile upon pile of corroding vehicles stacked one above the other, past pots, pans, sarees, slippers and plates (that once belonged to the people here), strewn all over the ground, and past the bullet and shrapnel splattered walls of homes ravaged by the war, on either side of the dusty, gravel roads of Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK), you cannot help but feel the deep sadness and hopelessness that pervades the air around us.”

According to the government, Menik Farm has been closed and all it’s inmates resettled. Having visited some of the most recently resettled, this seems to be the case, except for the fact that many have been relocated and not allowed to their places of origin due to military occupation of their lands[1], whilst others who have been returned to their places of origin, have been left without proper shelter, income or basic infrastructure and resources, to fend for themselves.

Take a lead in Sri Lankan Tamils welfare: DMK tells the Centre

No other way of showing anger:
TKS Elangovan on Tamil sentiment on Sri Lanka

"At the same time, we believe that India, by proposing a resolution seeking UN's intervention, will put an end to the present situation (of Tamils' alleged hardships) and enable them choose their rights," it said, adding India should take all efforts in this regard.

Later, speaking to reporters, Karunanidhi called for more cooperation from the Centre to address the grievances of the ethnic Tamils, alleging they had perennially been at the receiving end of the Sinhalese.

As Gota gets lion’s share of budget and rule of law deteriorates, Sri Lanka must learn from other Asian nations

Dr. Jehan Perera 

The increase in the economic rate of growth that has taken place in the Sri Lankan economy since the end of the war puts it amongst the better performing countries. Colombo has now got

Gotabaya

facilities that the more demanding international visitor has come to expect, and indeed it is more pleasing to the eye than many other capitals most particularly in its wider Asian neigbourhood.

Second phase of India’s largest aid project launched

R. K. Radhakrishnan

 

1

This is part of India’s commitment to build 50,000 houses in Sri Lanka

When Santhirakumar Vanitha, an internally displaced Sri Lankan Tamil, received a laminated A-4 size certificate that described her as a recipient of an Indian grant to build a house at Eluthumadduval village on Tuesday afternoon, it marked a new beginning for her.

A beginning that would translate into a new life without displacement and anxieties, she said.

Menik Farm: The tragic end of a bitter saga, from detention to forced relocation

Ruki

“Why can’t the Army go to the jungles instead of taking our lands and sending us to jungles?”
“When will we be allowed to re-start cultivation of our lands?”
“When can we have access to the sea we were fishing before and will we get back the boats and fishing equipment we left behind in our village when we were displaced?”
“Why is there a check point at the entrance to this place?
“Why are there soldiers and intelligence officers all around us, why can’t we still have the freedom other people in this county have?”

Intruders storm Yukthiya.com editor’s boarding room

Kishan

Three persons claiming to be from police had stormed the boarding room of editor of yukthiya.com (http://yukthiya.com/) Krishantha Rajapakse and forced him to answer questions, before making a hasty retreat with the arrival of the owner of the place.

The journalist had been drafting a letter at his room around 1.30 pm, when the intruders had arrived near his room and told him that they wanted to search the room.
When he had objected, they had taken out an identity card, but had refused to hand it over to him to have a look at it.

Mass graves surface along bunkers in Mu'l'livaaykkaal

Mu'l'livaaykkaal bunker area.

An official who recently visited the outskirts of Mu'l'livaaykkaal with the soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army told TamilNet this week that he had personally witnessed skeletal remains of hundreds of slain people surfacing along the few kilometers long, L-shaped bunker, running from Vadduvaakal to northwards along the land of the genocidal onslaught. A vast area is still not cleared and is strictly prohibited from access to anyone except SL military officials. “There are booby traps and UXOs. Rotten automatic rifles and RPG ammunitions are lying around in the area. When I walked across a bunker, I was able to sense that it was a bunker of mass slaughter.

Independence of the Judiciary is Under Threat

 Laksiri Fernando
“They see governments come like water and go with the wind. They owe no loyalty to ministers, not even the temporary loyalty which civil servants owe…” – Jag Griffith
The judiciary in Sri Lanka is under threat. There cannot be any doubt about it. The extent and gravity might be the dispute, if any. First it was a Minister threatening the Mannar Magistrate. Now it is the President insinuating threats to the Supreme Court. This should be a concern of all right minded Sri Lankans, including the so-called ‘patriots’ and those who live abroad, and also the ‘international civil society,’ if anyone is allergic to the so-called ‘international community.’

OPA calls on the executive not to undermine judiciary

No country can survive for too long without respect for the rule of law, the Organization of Professional Associations Sri Lanka says.
In a press release titled ‘Independence of Judiciary’ the OPA calls upon the Executive to act in a manner that would prevent any undermining of the independence of the judiciary.

Sri Lanka: The National Security State and Vanni IDPs

forced relocation (photo GV)

Ranga Jayasuriya
The National Security State reigns supreme even three and a half years after the end of the war. A military camp erected in a remote hamlet of Keppapulavu in Mullaitivu has prevented 110 families among the last batch of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP), who were released from Menik Farm from returning to their original village. This misguided decision, which betrays the current regime’s over-reliance on the doctrine of national security state, has now landed the very government in a controversy over its handling of the IDPs.

Wages in the Central Bank and universities - Academics deserve a fair deal

''We have learnt from Professor Amal Kumarage of Moratuwa that from October 2012, a Senior Professor, the highest level of employment as an academic in a university, will be paid about Rs.150,000 per month. A senior professor has one or more higher degrees, often including a Ph.D. degree, which is not true for staff in the Central Bank. That difference in wages does not seem fair and certainly seem wrong incentive-wise. An assistant lecturer in a university, often with no more than a good first degree, will receive, Professor Kumarage assured us, close to Rs. 50,000 a month, a far cry from what a new recruit to the Central Bank must be receiving.''

Usvatte-aratchi

SRI LANKA: Too many jobless youth in former war zone

A young man looks to the camera in Jaffna, .

Finding paid work - especially for youths - is still difficult in Sri Lanka’s former conflict zone in the north even after three years of peace and massive infrastructure projects, experts say, pointing to the region’s anaemic private sector as a main cause.

Although official employment data for the region is unavailable, experts in the area estimate that up to 30 percent of the north’s population is unemployed, as opposed to a national rate of 4 percent. Based on the most recent census in 2001, 28 percent of the country’s population is between the ages of 10-24, and there are some 280,000 youths in the former war zone, according to a 2012 government estimate.

Scrap death Penalty - SL-HRC in UPR report

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL), in its report, which is to be taken into consideration during Sri Lanka's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), has recommended that the country should abolish the death penalty, officials said yesterday.
The HRCSL encouraged the government to enact the Right to Information Bill with necessary changes. The HRCSL and the External Affairs Ministry have produced their separate compilations on the human rights situation -which are to be evaluated during the country's UPR on November 1 in Geneva. Besides these, the Centre for Policy Alternatives, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and a media group have made their submissions.

Sri Lanka Navy had intercepted nearly 2400 Sri Lankans bound to Australia this year

Reaching australia

Sri Lanka Navy had intercepted nearly 2400 Sri Lankans bound to Australia from 1 January 2012 to date, Navy Media Spokesperson Commander Kosala Warnakulasuriya told Asian Tribune.

Accordingly he said all such persons bound to Australia who had been arrested by the Navy had been handed over to Criminal Investigation Department after lodging records of their basic information for further investigations.