Jaffna demonstration backing students demands IC action, appeals to Tamil youth outside

TNA MPs at the demonstration

In an impressive show of solidarity on Tuesday, the TNPF-called demonstration in Jaffna condemning the attack on Jaffna university students and the arrest of student leaders by the occupying forces of Sri Lanka, was actively participated by the mainstream TNA, University Teachers Association, University Students Union, Jaffna Chamber of Commerce, Medical Association, Lawyers Association and other civil society organisations, besides progressive leftist party representatives from the South. The demonstrators demanded the IC to immediately recognize the nation, territoriality and right of self-determination of Tamils in order to ensure their safety and democratic rights.

98% attendance at historic judges meeting ! – resolution passed by one vote to oppose Govt.

The judges all Island who met today had adopted the resolution by one vote to express their opposition to the dictatorial Rajapakse rule which is via the impeachment motion defying natural justice and exploiting the State media to malign , publish falsehoods and denigrate the Judiciary .

Judges give full support to C.J.

The action of the government via the Impeachment Motion Impeachment Motion  is a violation of the principles of natural justice, said the Sri Lanka’s Judges’ Associations yesterday (03), calling for an impartial and transparent inquiryinto the allegations leveled against Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake. In no country in the entire world does the same party which makes the accusations also take a decision regarding the accusations, states the release issued following a crucial meeting attended by  the District Judges and Magistrates .

Sri Lankan judiciary wants impartial inquiry of chief justice

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's judges on Monday demanded an impartial inquiry into charges against the chief justice that have created a standoff between the judiciary and President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government.
The government and the supreme court have been on a collision course since the president's ruling party filed an impeachment motion against Shirani Bandaranayake, Sri Lanka's first female head of the Supreme Court, on November 6.

No matter who we are we cannot disown our dead

Lighting lamps cerebrated on Nov full moon day

Karthiaai Vilakkeedu, Maaveerar Naal and the Lighting of Lamps in Jaffna
MA Sumanthiran M.P.
November 27, 2012 was a busy day for the Government of Sri Lanka. Government agents prohibited routine rituals in temples across the North and East, attacked and arrested peacefully assembled university students, invaded a female hostel, beat a newspaper editor, vandalized the vehicle of a Member of Parliament, abused political prisoners in captivity, injured a journalist and several University Media students, patrolled a cemetery, and found time to scout private properties so as to extinguish lamps lighted for the Hindu festival of lights Karthiaai Vilakkeedu.

Mass grave of Sinhala insurgents? 27 and counting

The mass grave (photo: Sunday Times)

Skeletal remains of sixteen more humans had been found at the site of a mass grave at the Matale Hospital during the past three days, bringing the total body count to twenty seven (27). Authorities involved in the exhumation believe there could be many more bodies at the same site.

The skeletal remains of six persons were initially discovered on 30 November at the site of the proposed bio-gas unit of the Matale hospital. The discovery was made by workers digging trenches for the foundation. Subsequently, remains of five more persons were exhumed by the authorities, leading to widespread speculations as to the number of bodies in the mass grave.

The Impeachment: The unmet task of political Opposition

Political opposition has failed in mobilizing people in defense of judiciary. Photo: CJ flanked by lawyers

Jehan Perera
The government appears determined to go ahead with the impeachment of the Chief Justice. So far the attempts to broker a mutually acceptable solution have not yielded success. Not even the messages sent by the highest religious dignitaries or their joint statements have had their desired impact. There have also been civil society initiatives to find a way out of the growing confrontation. They have sought to convey to the government leadership that it has lost the intelligentsia’s support on the matter of the impeachment and that any good society needs checks and balances as exemplified by an independent judiciary. But it appears that the peacemaking efforts of civil society groups have also come to naught.

Sri Lanka: News paper boasts Sexist remarks by a minister

It is an insult - Rosy Senanayake , M.P.

In a bizarre headline the Daily Mirror indirectly boasted a completely unnecessary remark by a minister made while  answering a question by a female member of a parliament.

The newspaper instead of  making a critical comment gave the head line to the story: Welgama enthralled by Rosy’s charms', 

Here is the news item posted by the Daily Mirror, the English daily of the Wijeya newspaper group.

SC allows BASL petition against impeachment .

BASL president Wijedasa Rajapaksha speaking to media today

The Supreme Court today granted leave to proceed with the fundamental rights petition filed by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) seeking a declaration against the impeachment of Chief Justice Shirani A. Bandaranayake
The Bench comprising Justices N.G. Amaratunga, Priyasath Dep and Eva Wanasundera granted leave for the alleged infringement of the fundamental right to equality and equal protection of the law. The matter is fixed for hearing on January 21 next year.

Jaffna under UPFA: A grim reminder of LTTE days

Prof S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole
Travel to Jaffna: Then and Now
When I returned home in 1995 with our pet Dalmatian with its spots, hostile crowds gathered around us at Katunayake with shouts of Koti-Balla (Tiger-Dog). On other trips I had been taken straight to the Katunayake Police Station, and held up at Vanuniya and released after my friend travelling with me was arrested. I have been held up at Omanthai by the STF for four hours with fellow bus passengers and told that there was a change of guard at Elephant Pass and we would be held till the men from Elephant Pass arrived on foot and if they failed to arrive we would be shot.

Another Example of Army Rule in Jaffna

Laksiri Fernando

November has been an eventful month, not very good omen for the Rajapaksa regime. First it was their rush for the impeachment against the Chief Justice, with much resistance emerging from the legal fraternity and the public. Then came the brutal killing of 27 inmates at the Welikada Prison; a blatant murder than anything else. The month ended by the military and the police desperately attacking the students at the University of Jaffna who were engaged in peaceful activities; revealing to the whole world that the minority Tamils are still under the military yoke.

The three human rights issues emerged were (1) the independence of the judiciary, (2) security of the persons under state custody and (3) the rights of minorities to dissent and protest peacefully.

Who can now believe that the military did not indulge in war crimes during the last stages of the war?

Eye-witnesses say 11 Prisoners were Taken out of Cells and Summarily Executed by Police Special Task Force at Welikada

Welikada killings - Cold blooded murder

Jayantha Sri Nissanka
More and more incriminating evidence of summary executions of inmates in the Welikada Prison by the Police Special Task Force (STF) and a special police unit (SPU) that took place after the army commandos took full control of the prison on the night of November 9 have now been revealed, despite an officially sanctioned cover up of the massacre.

Provincial Councils together with the 13th Amendment must go

S L Gunasekara
Sri Lanka has been plagued by Provincial Councils (PCs) for the past 24 years. The debate about whether the 13th Amendment which gave birth to these Provincial Councils should remain or not continues and has now gained some momentum with proposals being made by persons who are supposedly influential that it should be repealed. What is interesting to note in the ongoing debate is that hardly anything that is said on either side has changed in any significant manner despite the bitter experience we have had with these `White Elephants’.

Sweeping powers vested with Ranil; A sad day for the UNP

A dictator within the party 

UNP Leader Ranil Wcikremesinghe who out-manoeuvred party dissidents to extend his term by six more years has also secured sweeping powers to handpick members to any position in the party, according to the new amendment to the party Constitution.
Wickremesinghe extended his leadership of the party by six more years at the 54th National Convention held at Sirikotha yesterday. Accordingly, he is vested with the power to appoint any member to key posts including deputy leader, assistant leader, general secretary, party chairman, vice chairman, national organiser, and other posts.

Jaffna university Students’ Union leader, four others arrested in midnight raid

27th Nov Jaffna: P. Darshananth explains their right to association

Stepping up their terror campaign against the Jaffna students’ society, Sri Lankan police on Saturday (01) has arrested four Jaffna University Students, including its union leader P. Darshananth and his colleague, in a midnight raid.

According to media sources in Jaffna, a four-member team in police uniform has raided the house of the 24-year old Darshananth in the early hours of Saturday and taken him and another Medical Faculty student to the Jaffna police station, claiming to record a statement from them.

Racket-busting Customs chief fired; transferred to Treasury;CID questions Sunday Times journalist

Customs Director General Neville Gunawardena has been removed from his post and transferred back to the Treasury with immediate effect amidst a CID probe on who leaked to the Sunday Times news regarding the Treasury chief’s interference in investigations into huge rackets.

He will be replaced from tomorrow by Jagath Wijeweera, Commissioner General for Registration of Persons.
 The move comes amidst probes by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) as to how details of an order by the Treasury to halt a Customs inquiry into an excise racket had leaked to the media.

SRI LANKA: Legality of government actions rendered politically irrelevant

Kishali Pinto Jayawardena
This week, a committed New Delhi based civil rights advocate and incidentally a good friend, observed in a dispassionate aside to an otherwise entirely different conversation in that country that ‘this situation that Sri Lankans are facing regarding the political impeachment of the Chief Justice is quite alien for us to grasp here, even in the abstract. How could checks and balances in your constitutional and legal system break down to that terrible extent? Even with the war and all its consequences, how could the centre of judicial authority implode with such astounding force?’

The death of Freedom of Assembly, Expression and Religion in the North of Sri Lanka

WATCHDOG 

 

 

Every 26^th[1] and 27^th of November since the end of the war (2009), we hear of people in the North not being able to moan their dead, not being able to carry out peaceful assemblies, not being able to partake in religious festivals or observances in public or at home, and every year it falls on deaf ears. Also noteworthy is the fact that such incidents are most often reported only in the Tamil media and sites or non-main stream news websites. This raises the question as to what “makes news” in the South, and what the mainstream media considers priority. The North not being one of them it would seem.

SLMC opposes any move to scrap 13th Amendment , While NFF, JHU, MEP lobby for abolition

The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), a coalition partner of the UPFA government, has forwarded a letter to President Mahinda Rajapaksa expressing its stand on the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in the backdrop of the controversy created by the Muslims on the Divineguma Bill and the impeachment issue.
This was whilst the another coalition partner of the UPFA, the Leader of the National Freedom Front (NFF) Minister Wimal Weerawansa together with two other allies Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) and the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) lobbied for the support of the other parliamentarians for the abolition of the 13th Amendment, political sources said yesterday.

Editors’ Guild demands action against Uthayan editor’s attackers

Editor T. Thevananth

The Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka yesterday demanded action against those responsible for a recent attack on the Chief Editor of Uthayan, M. A. Kaanamylnaathan, a member of the guild.

The following is a statement issued by the association: The Chief Editor of the Uthayan, Mr. M. A. Kaanamylnaathan, a member of The Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka, has brought to our attention an incident where the Editor of the newspaper, Mr. T. Thevananth has been brutally attacked while engaging in his professional duties this week.

Sri Lanka taxi drivers support removal of top judge ( Rajapaksha Vs CJ = Taxi drivers Vs Judges, Lawyers, Intellectuals & Religious leaders )

Hundreds of government-supporting rickshaw drivers choked the capital demanding the sacking of Sri Lanka's chief justice on Friday as the supreme court debated the legality of moves to impeach her.
Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake has been accused by the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance party of financial and professional misconduct in a case which has raised fears that the government is trying to control the courts.

Impeachment: Weliamuna varies on Speaker’s ruling; Only President has legal immunity

 ■Only President has legal immunity; all others subject to jurisdiction
 ■Claims Privileges Act only restrains court action of freedom of speech and proceedings, not validity of Standing Orders
 ■Anura B’s ruling not a binding precedent
 ■Ex parte ruling by SC will be damaging to Parliament
All laws including the Parliamentary Power and Privileges Act should be interpreted subject to the Constitution, Constitutional Lawyer and former Executive Director, Transparency International Sri Lanka, J. C. Weliamuna said yesterday.

War - losers using Judiciary ( hulftsdorp);Some representing NGOs, foreign govts - President Rajapaksha

President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday said some elements with vested interests, who could not achieve what they wanted through 30 years of conflict, are trying to achieve their sinister moves through Hulftsdorp.
President Rajapaksa said he as a lawyer, has the highest respect towards the Judiciary and is committed to protect and promote its dignity.
The President said members of the judiciary should protect the dignity of their profession.

UN Internal Review Panel’s findings during the final months of the war in Sri Lanka: An Analysis

Usha S Sriskandarajah
The internal probe commissioned to examine the conduct of the United Nations during the final months of the war in Sri Lanka with a view to putting its house in order is to be commended for being forthright about UN’s own failures.
However it’s findings must also be seen as a scathing indictment on the Rajapaksa Government’s conduct of the war; the revelations contained in it conclusively making the case for the genocidal state to be put in the dock, indicating that the time has come for its senior political and military leaders and President Mahinda Rajapaksa to be hauled before the International Criminal Court and tried for genocide.

Destiny of a Weerawansa referendum (Abolishing the 13 A)

Sunanda Deshapriya
 Minister Wimal Weerawansa, nicknamed as the ‘eldest son of the President’, during the 2010 presidential election campaign, came up with a rather serious proposal some two months back: To have a referendum to abolish the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, the constitutional chapter that deals with devolution of power. Sinhala extremist parties and groups immediately expressed their support to the proposition, and some Colombo-based media still write editorials emphasizing the need for the abolition of 13 A. The suggestion does not merely convey the removal of 13th Amendment; but also means the elimination of devolution of powers, as a concept, from Sri Lankan politics.