Friday, January 31, 2014

Sri Lanka govt asks more time: to alter the demographic composition and the linguistic and cultural identity of the North a and East - TNA

TNA leader R.Sampanthan

'The I.T.A.K. states that the Government is engaged in implementing a programme, the objective of which is to further alter the demographic composition of and alter the linguistic and cultural identity of the Northern and Eastern provinces. When the Sri Lankan government states that it needs more time, it only means that it needs more time to implement the said programme which is being vigorously pursued by the Government. '

TNA Central Committee decisions 26.01.2014

JHU wants Northern Provincial Council dissolved

NPCThe Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) today called on the Government to dissolve the Northern Provincial Council (NPC).
The Government affiliated political party said that the Governor of the Northern Province should dissolve the council as a result of the recent resolution adopted calling for an international war crimes investigation.

TRC plus 13 A and democratic reforms is the best solution - Natioanal Peace Council

WORK TOWARDS MUTUALLY ACCEPTABLE RESOLUTION TO AVOID FURTHER POLARISATION
The Sri Lankan government and the Tamil polity in Sri Lanka, together with sections of the international community, appear to be getting into inflexible positions vis a vis the allegations of war crimes and violations of International Humanitarian Law. The Northern Provincial Council has adopted a resolution calling for the UN to establish an International war crimes investigation. On the other hand, the government has asserted that the international community has no role in the matter of accountability.

US official arrives in Sri Lanka to push reconciliation

AFP
A top US official arrived in Colombo on Friday to push for reconciliation in Sri Lanka which is under increasing international pressure over rights abuses during its separatist war, diplomats said.
Nisha Biswal, the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, will travel to a former war zone to meet with ethnic minority Tamil leaders as part of her two-day visit, a US embassy spokesman said.

Sihala Ravaya temporarily banned from protesting

Ruwan Laknath Jayakody
President of the Sihala Ravaya, Ven. Akmeemana Dayarathana Thera, including all the monks of the Sihala Ravaya, have been temporarily banned from engaging in protests.
The order was made by the Chief Magistrate, Colombo, Gihan Pilapitiya, during the hearing held on Thursday (30). The order had been made in relation to the protest organized by the Sihala Ravaya that was held on Wednesday (8) in front of the Prime Minister, D.M. Jayaratne's office. The decision to temporarily ban the Sihala Ravaya from protesting would be effective until the end of the trial.

Sri Lanka: Christians protest after attacks by Buddhist extremists

File photo

World Watch Monitor
More than 2,000 Christians gathered in Colombo on Sunday to protest against a perceived lack of religious freedom in Sri Lanka, following recent attacks on Christian places of worship by Buddhist extremists.
Two churches and a Christian prayer centre were attacked on Jan. 12 by Buddhist mobs claiming they were illegal and aiming to take Buddhists away from their religion.

Britain says domestic process should be credible, independent and transparent to be accepted by the international community.

Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Hugo Swire in reply to a question by MP Stephen Timms in the House of commons on 27 Jan stated that “… any domestic process should be credible, independent and transparent to be accepted by the international community. We do not believe that any of the processes established to date by the Sri Lankan Government—such as the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission—meet these standards.”

hopes dashed

Northern Chief Minister claims councillors losing faith in Govt. will to assist with NPC work
Says emotions are being vented through resolutions at NPC
Slams President for refusal to change Chief Secretary of the Province
NPC to send Ananthi to Geneva since she is best suited to speak of disappearances

By Madhava Kulasooriya
The people of Vavuniya have lived through a brutal civil war, and had harboured hopes that they would be able to enhance their standard of living after the conclusion of the war. However, nearly five years post-war, the people live in extreme poverty with little hope for better standards in the immediate future.
The inhabitants of an area in Vavuniya claim that even though they were resettled and have been living in a village for over three years, government authorities have not taken any measures to provide the village with any of the basic facilities necessary to live in relative comfort.

Graphic by Groundviews

(AFP)
Colombo — Sri Lanka's Buddhist hierarchy and other religious leaders accused police Tuesday of failing to prosecute those behind a recent wave of attacks on Christians and Muslims.
A multi-religious group led by Buddhist monks said the country had failed to grasp the threat posed by hate speech and attacks because local media reports had not been "impartial or factual".
"There is at present a public perception that such attacks are taking place due to failure of law enforcement authorities to take necessary action," said the Forum for Inter-Faith Dialogue (FIFD).

Associated Press /BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI
Thousands of protesters from opposition parties, human rights groups, trade unions and media groups marched Tuesday in Sri Lanka's capital in a rare show of dissent against the government.
They held separate marches in Colombo, shouting slogans which accused authorities of corruption and mismanagement, and later came together for joint rally.

Sri Lanka's commission on war missing receives over 13,000 complaints

(Xinhua) -- An independent presidential commission appointed to investigate people who disappeared during Sri Lanka's three-decade conflict have received over 13,000 complaints, it said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Presidential Commission has received approximately 13,700 complaints of disappearances from all parts of the country.

Sri Lanka mass grave toll reaches 50

Press Trust of India
Skeletal remains of at least 50 people have been dug out from a mass grave discovered in northeastern Sri Lanka, amid speculation that the remains were of Tamil civilians who had disappeared during the war with the LTTE.
Police spokesman and Senior Superintendent Ajith Rohana said further digging will be continued with the deployment of a team from the crime investigation department to assist in investigations.

Sri Lanka says international war crimes probe would bring 'chaos'

Mass grave informer war zone

Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An international inquiry into war crimes in Sri Lanka would bring "chaos," and the government's national reconciliation process must be given several more years to work, a top aide to Sri Lanka's president said on Monday.

Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
Though I cannot say the same of his companions on the voyage, my friend Lalith Weeratunga embodies a rare combination of intelligence, ability, affability and civility. Going by media reports, he made a valuable presentation of the government’s case, in Geneva and the USA. Mr Weeratunga has made some very valid points on the dangers of an international accountability mechanism. The problem is that the case he presents is, in and of itself, inadequate to deter, defer or rally the support needed to defeat precisely such a dangerous move being made in Geneva.

Mullikulam in huts

Jehan Perera
In preparation for the forthcoming meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva the government has sent its top civil servant, Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga to Geneva to put the government’s achievements into perspective. Since 2012 when the government lost the vote at the UNHRC and had to face a resolution calling on it to implement post-war recovery and accountability measures, the government has been seeking to get the best communicators working for it.

Here is the power point presentation contents of the secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga, which was presented to 70 + diplomatic missions based in Geneva on 21 January 2014.

US to press Sri Lanka again at UN rights council

AP News
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States said Monday it will sponsor a resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Council that Sri Lanka is worried could call for an international investigation into allegations of war crimes during the island nation’s civil conflict.
Hoping to head off that threat, a top aide to Sri Lanka’s powerful president is in Washington this week, trying to persuade the Obama administration and lawmakers that Sri Lanka is on a path toward national reconciliation, nearly five years after crushing a quarter-century rebellion by ethnic Tamil fighters.

Sri Lanka’s Northern Council seeks international war crimes probe

Meera Srinivasan

Sri Lanka’s Northern Provincial Council passed a resolution on Monday calling for an international probe into the alleged war crimes committed during the country’s ethnic conflict.

The resolution comes less than two months before United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay is due to make a written submission to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, on the progress made by Sri Lanka in addressing accountability issues from the war crimes allegations.

Authoritarianism or Democratic Governance? by Friday Forum

There has been, in recent times, public discussion in regard to whether our country is moving towards an authoritarianism that undermines democratic governance. The President, Ministers and government spokespersons have consistently denied this allegation. They refer in particular to the recent elections in three provinces as indicative of a functional and vibrant democracy responsive to the needs of the people.

Sri Lanka: Now it’s 45 skeletal remains; JVP calls for speedy, fair probe on Mannar mass grave


Mannar mass grave

The number of skeletal remains found in the Mannar mass grave increased to 45 yesterday as a special team from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) recorded statements from the officials involved in the excavation of the remains. One more skeletal remain was unearthed yesterday.
A group of CID officers who arrived at the site at Thiruketheeswarm on Friday recorded statements of the Anuradhapura Judicial Medical Officer D.L. Waidyaratne and a forensic expert

25-year corporate tax holiday for US$ 1.3 billion offshore (China - ) Colombo Port City

Government has granted a generous 25-year corporate tax holiday to Colombo Port City, the Rs 172.4 billion (US$ 1.3 billion) project to reclaim more than 575 acres (233 hectares) of sea off Galle Face Green.
The project company, CHEC Port City Colombo (Private) Ltd, will also be exempt from tax on dividends for 25 years as well, as a host of other levies for a lesser period of time. The concessions were gazetted on January 24 under Section 3 (2) of the Strategic Development Projects Act.

Justice Sriskandarajah

Kishali Pinto Jayawardene
In the wake of the untimely demise of Justice S. Sriskandarajah, President of Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal this week, it may be opportune to look at the state of the Sri Lankan judiciary one year after the 2013 impeachment of Sri Lanka 43rd Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake. The late Justice Sriskandarajah had presided over the Bench which quashed the findings of a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on the impeachment. And has been observed in the wake of his death by others, this was a judge who had been successively overlooked by the President for promotion. At least in public perception, this bypassing was not entirely delinked from the part that the late judge played in that critical judicial process.

Live telecast of Parliamentary proceedings taken off the air to save Govt. skins
A step in the right direction that Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa took last December, to make parliamentary proceedings more accessible to the public, by allowing live telecast of proceedings over a cable network, came to an abrupt end this week, with the announcement that the transmission was being stopped.
Deputy Speaker Chandima Weerakkody, in the absence of Speaker Rajapaksa who is away in Australia attending a conference, announced on Wednesday that the transmission was being stopped, but did not give a proper explanation for the termination.

UK, US working on resolution on Sri Lanka

The United Kingdom and the United States are hard at work trying to garner support for the resolution against Sri Lanka to be submitted at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in March.
UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Mark Simmonds told the House of Commons that the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) network is already hard at work with the resolution’s main sponsor, the United States, to mobilise opinion and the necessary majority.
He also said that the British campaign at the Human Rights Council will be led at ministerial level.

We will use our position on the UN Human Rights Council to work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and call for an international investigation. We will play an active role in building international support for that approach ahead of the March meeting. However, that we face an uphill struggle to secure the passage of an appropriately robust resolution at the UN Human Rights Council, but I assure him that the FCO network is already hard at work with the resolution’s main sponsor, the United States, to mobilise opinion and the necessary majority, and that our campaign at the Human Rights Council will be led at ministerial level. This was stated by the British Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Mark Simmonds in the House of Commons during the debate on the “Fourth Report of the Foreign Affairs Committee” on 23 Jan 2014.

Four years on, the IFJ remembers Prageeth Ekneligoda and calls for overdue action

A one day fast was held calling for Justice

Today marks the four-year anniversary of the disappearance of Sri Lankan journalist and cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is calling on the Sri Lankan Government (GSL) to properly investigate Ekneligoda’s case and prosecute all those guilty of attacking journalists and news gatherers since the Rajapaksa regime came to power.

Sri Lanka: SLFP disregards disciplinary report on Mervyn

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) has not taken any special decision regarding Minister of Public Relations and Public Affairs, Mervyn Silva, even though a report on the disciplinary inquiry conducted against the minister was presented to the SLFP Central Committee.

Europeans clamouring for Human Rights in Sri Lanka are akin to wolves sympathising with goats getting wet in the rain, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said. He said Western countries are talking of Human Rights without an iota of concern for the grievances faced by the people of all communities in the country.

"Certain elements of our country are also supporting them," President Rajapaksa said at the annual prize giving of Ramanathan Hindu Ladies College, Colombo yesterday.

Mannaar Killing Field number rises to 43, site extent still not known

43 human skeletons have been recovered till Wednesday at Thirukkeatheesvaram mass grave in Mannaar, news sources in Mannaar said. The boundaries of the mass grave are yet to be established, according to the Judicial Medical Officer from Anuradhapura D. M. Waidyaratne. The JMO has also gone on record stating that it would take long time to establish how the killings had occurred.

- Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN, Geneva
Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga who briefed Permanent Representatives to the United Nations in Geneva at the Palais des Nations on Tuesday (21st January 2014) on ‘Progress in the reconciliation process in Sri Lanka’, has said the Government of Sri Lanka has done all that was humanly possible to implement the recommendations of the National Plan of Action on the implementation of the LLRC, since its approval by the Cabinet of Ministers in July 2012.

The continuing attacks on religious places of worship by Buddhist extremist mobs, the inaction of the Police and the silence of the mainstream religions and the mass media

23^rd January, 2014

Statement condemning the continued attacks on religious places of worship by Buddhist extremist mobs, the inaction of the Police and the silence of the mainstream religions and the mass media

We the undersigned, strongly condemn the continuing attacks on places of worship by Buddhist extremist mobs, the inaction of the Police in the face of these violent attacks and their failure to take the assailants into custody, and the silence of the established religious institutions and mainstream media.

Sri Lanka: Note on The Commission on Disappearances sittings in Kilinochchi

Brito Fenando

· Inquiry started focusing Kilinochchi District and covered 10 Grama Sevaka Divisions in 4 days.

· Registered victims are called according to the GS divisions.

· The staff interview all the persons who come there and new forms were also filled by the staff.

· Three commissioners inquire the victims , one by one and refer them to the state councilors for recording further details.

Sri Lanka Disappearance Probe to Hear More Cases from North

A three-member panel appointed to probe disappearances during Sri Lanka's three-decade-long civil war will hear more cases in Tamil-dominated northern areas.
The panel had received some 13,000 complaints of disappearances when it began their Kilinochchi hearings.

Rauff Hakeem

Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem yesterday said those who levelled war crime allegations against Sri Lanka should be cross-examined. Hakeem, who is also the leader of the UPFA constituent, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), said that the veracity of allegations had to be ascertained and, therefore, specific allegations would have to be made in a court of law either here or abroad.

SC grants leave to proceed for FR case on violent mob attack against place of worship in Weeraketiya

Statement issued by the NATIONAL CHRISTIAN EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE OF SRI LANKA (NCEASL)
The fundamental rights case (Case Number 19/2013 SCFR) filed on behalf of the Jeewana Alokaya Church in Weeraketiya, which was violently attacked on 09th December 2012 and 18th March 2013, was granted leave to proceed after being called in the Supreme Court on 21st January 2014.

Stating the recent attacks and threats against Tamil activists in North and East who were in the forefront in the protests reprenting the victims of enforced disappearances, the committees representing the interests of the families and relatives of the disappeared persons in the North and East, on Monday urged UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ms Navaneethem Pillay to appoint a Sri Lanka specific international independent UN working group to investigate enforced disappearances and abductions that have taken place in the North and East of the island.

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) released its quarterly human rights report for the last quarter of 2013. In its report it states that the Human rights situation in Sri Lanka had not improved in the last 3 months despite the intensified international focus on the country’s human rights issues. It says, the Sri Lankan External Affairs Minister told diplomats in December that a proposed Witness Protection Bill was nearly at the end of the parliamentary process and that the Commission investigating wartime disappearances extended its deadline to receive complaints.

Promises not kept

Jehan Perera
Shortly after the end of the war in 2009, President Rajapaksa declared that in Sri Lanka there would no longer be an ethnic majority or ethnic minorities but only a majority who loved the nation and a minority who were traitors. Apart from the warning inherent in this statement to those who were political dissenters, there was also the implication that a political solution based on the notion of ethnicities and majorities and minorities based upon them would be unnecessary after the defeat of the LTTE. The logic of this position is that a political solution was only discussed because of the pressure of the LTTE, and now with its destruction there was no need to take that discussion forward.

Sri Lanka: MR says only 12,000 troops in the North

President Mahinda Rajapaksa says the number of soldiers based in the North has been reduced to 12,000 following the end of the war.
He said that around 60,000 – 75,000 soldiers were based in the North during the conflict but now there are only around 12,000 soldiers.

Sri Lanka: PC on Disappearances begins sittings

The Presidential Commission (PC) to Probe Disappearances commenced its sittings on Saturday (18) in Kilinochchi, ahead of the forthcoming UN Human Rights Council sessions, scheduled for March.
The Commission received oral and documentary submissions from 52 Tamils in Vannerikulam and Aanaivilunthan, in the Killinochchi District, yesterday, the second day of the sittings, the Secretary to the Commission, H.W. Gunadasa, told Ceylon Today.

Sri Lanka: Foreign service or family service?

DPL plum posts gone to ruling party relatives and cronies

Namini Wijedasa

An unprecedented number of positions in Sri Lanka’s once-respected diplomatic corps has been parcelled out to friends, relatives and loyalists of the ruling party, the Sunday Times has found.
This extraordinary rise in nepotism and political favouritism has spawned conspiracy theories with several popular websites stating that the Government intends to dismantle the Sri Lanka Foreign Service (SLFS) altogether. Alarmingly, several key missions around the world—including Washington, The Hague, Ankara, Frankfurt and Pretoria—at present have no professional diplomatic officers at all.

Sri Lanka: Protect Articles of Faith from Saffron terror

The Buddha was the first missionary; and the first to set the Wheel of the Dhamma in motion to reach the ends of the earth for the welfare of all beings. By his precept and deed he emphasised the right of every man to propound without bar the tenets of his religious beliefs provided the gospel beating did not trample upon the religious sensitivities of people who held a different creed.

Despite Sri Lanka’s most disgraceful history with a plethora of demonstrably useless Commissions and Committees established by successive Presidents, it is a matter for considerable astonishment that the Rajapaksa Presidency’s near desperate proposal of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission at the turn of this year, appears to have found support in some quarters of our society.

Sri Lanka, Right to Association: SF to HRC over Balapitiya incident

Army Commander Sarath Fonseka says he will lodge a complaint with the Human Rights Commission (HRC) of Sri Lanka over the incident in Balapitiya yesterday.
The police disrupted a public meeting at Balapitiya yesterday organised by the Democratic Party led by Fonseka saying permission had not been obtained to use loudspeakers.

Skull with open mouth adds to Mannaar killing field evidences

One of the skulls, recovered at Thirukkeatheesvaram mass grave in Mannaar had its mouth wide open bearing marks of torture injuries in the mouth. Four more human skeletons were located on Thursday, when exhumation resumed at the site. The SL police at the site blocked Tamil physician from Mannaar G Gunaseelan, who is an elected member of the Northern Provincial Council, from witnessing the exhumation. The Sinhala policemen sent him away from the site, news sources in Mannaar said.

The discovery of a mass grave containing more than 30 skulls in northern Sri Lanka has fuelled speculation that there may be many more like it containing the remains of thousands who went missing during the island nation's nearly three-decade war.

The police have suggested that the Tamil Tiger rebels it defeated five years ago could be responsible for the burial, uncovered near a historic Hindu temple in the district of Mannar.

Assault on other religions by Buddhist monks is an assault on Buddhism

Vishnugupta
"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." ~Martin Luther King Jr. On a widely read website it was reported thus: 'Saffron terror descended upon the coastal town of Hikkaduwa in Sri Lanka's Southern Province on Sunday, 12 January 2014!'
'Mobs led by Buddhist priests launched attacks on two Christian churches while Sunday worship was in progress, demanding that the places of Christian worship should be closed down as they were unauthorized. One was an Assembly of God church and the other the Calvary Free church. The police remained spectators, being either unable or unwilling to prevent or stop the attacks on both churches.'

The Sri Lanka Muslim Council raised concerns over threats faced by religious minorities in Sri Lanka following the latest attack on two churches in Hikkaduwa.
In a letter to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Sri Lanka Muslim Council said that Buddhist monks publicly claim to be the un-official police and continue to intimidate minorities.
“We kindly urge your Excellency to order the law enforcement agencies to rein-in these mobs that infringe on the peoples fundamental right to worship.

A group of construction workers who were laying water pipes stumbled across and unmarked mass grave in the North-Western town of Mannar. This is what has happened so far, and a bit of background.

A group of road workers digging the road to lay pipes stumble upon a six skeletal remains on December 20, 2013. Four more skulls are discovered the next day.

Welikada Prison massacre inquiry report is no less than a whitewash. Here is one palpable case as to why internal investigations conducted by the incumbent government are not worth their salt. The internal inquiry commissioned by Prison Reforms Minister, Chandrasiri Gajadeera, into the massacre at the Welikada Prison in 2012 has now ruled that the 27 prisoners, who were slaughtered in the prison riot, had in fact been killed by the prisoners themselves. Even by the standards of the incumbent government and its previous commissions, the latest commission findings are a bit of a stretch.

Unarmed prisoners shot dead

Ceylon Today editorial
In an editorial in the aftermath of the riots that broke out in the Welikada Prison in November 2012, which left 27 inmates dead and scores injured, we said, "Such a catastrophic security breakdown in the prison system is appalling and the callous and unprofessional way in which this so-called security operation was conducted, must stand the test of transparency and accountability."

Rathika Sitsabaiesan

OTTAWA—It took a day for Rathika Sitsabaiesan to realize she was being followed.
The first person to notice the men on motorbikes was her hired driver. On the day she arrived in Sri Lanka, where the 32-year old MP was born, he told her that people were following them.
“I was slow to catch on, because I didn’t expect it, I wasn’t used to it,” Sitsabaiesan told Torstar News Service in her first interview since returning to Canada on Tuesday.

Govt’s rights violations paved the way for foreign interference - JVP

Anura Kumara Dissanayake

The JVP today charged that the government’s continues violations of democracy and human rights, for the purpose of safeguarding its power, have created the opportunity for Western nations to interfere in Sri Lanka.
The government violated democracy and human rights for its power, JVP MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake said, adding, that security forces opened fire in Rathupaswala, Chilaw and Katunayake not for the country but for the sake of Rajapaksa family and the family’s power.

Sudarshana Gunawardena.

Rights Now Collective for Democracy challenged the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) to be transparent about real reasons as to why the previously announced National Inquiry on Torture has been postponed, through a letter to the Chairman of the HRCSL from the Executive Director of Rights Now, Attorney-at-Law Sudarshana Gunawardena.

Sri Lanka: Few jobs for university grads in the north

Photo: Amantha Perera/IRIN
He might get into university,
but getting a job is another matter

COLOMBO, 9 January 2014 (IRIN) - University graduates in northern Sri Lanka, which is recovering from decades of civil war, are looking at a sparse employment landscape with few opportunities on offer, say officials.

“Those from the north face a much more difficult time than those from elsewhere in the country. New jobs are very difficult to find,” Rupavathi Keetheswaran, the government agent for the northern Kilinochchi District, the top public official in the area, told IRIN.

Savitri Goonesekere

Following are excerpts of the keynote address made by Emeritus Professor of Law, Savitri Goonesekere on Monday at the inaugural session of the conference organized by the Sri Lanka Press Complaints Commission (SLPCC) on Self-Regulation and Ethical Reporting, to mark their 10th anniversary:

“The celebration of the 10th anniversary of the SLPCC and the inaugural session of this international conference is a location to declare victories and also to take stock in regard to the realities that confront the professionals of journalism both in our country and others represented at this meeting.

The Defence Ministry is seriously considering accommodating Northern Provincial Council (NPC) member Ananthi Sasitharan at a rehabilitation facility to prevent her from propagating separatist sentiments. She represents the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK), the dominant partner of five-party Tamil National Alliance (TNA) led by R. Sampanthan, MP.

She was elected to the NPC last September.

US urged to reconsider stand on Lanka

The Government today urged the United States (US) to reconsider its position on Sri Lanka and back efforts towards achieving reconciliation in the country.
Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem said that instead of further polarizing the country, the international community, including the United States, must look at alternate mechanisms like encouraging a Truth Commission in order to see reconciliation being achieved in Sri Lanka.

Anti-Tamil political groups must be ousted – Prof. Wijesinha
Excerpts from the interview:
''But unless we get rid of this mindset, and move swiftly on fulfilling the recommendations of our own commissions, we will face disaster on all fronts soon.''
''But we cannot continue to demand trust and patience when there are no signs of movement;''
'' It would be good too if the TNA made it clear to the President that it wants to negotiate with people it can trust, perhaps with facilitation by India or one of the other countries mentioned. But the lunacy of the manner in which government responded to the initial South African initiative, by sending a delegation which then forgot the matter, indicates a myopia that will be difficult to get over. ''

Sri Lanka: Democratizing the North

Justice C.V. Wigneswaran

A dialogue on governance, development and vulnerability

Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, Chief Minister, Northern Provincial Council delivered the opening address at a discussion on "Democratizing the North: A Dialogue on Governance, Development and Vulnerability on January 10th at the Green Grass Hotel Jaffna. The dialogue was organized by the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES). Justice Wigneswaran spoke on the Governance.

New Year 2014 is starting well for us. The War had got us into a cocoon in which we managed howsoever we could, not really appreciating the changes taking place locally and globally all around us.

Sri Lanka: Prayer centre in Homagama torched

A prayer centre in a home in Pitipana, Homagama has been set on fire by an unidentified group early last morning (Jan. 12).
Members of the house has been present when the event took place around 2.00am, police say.
On Jan. 11, a 'final warning' signed by a certain 'Sinha Senankaya' has warned to stop Buddhists being converted into Christianity using funds of World Vision. If not, they will not be responsible for the lives and property, the notice has further warned.

Eranga Jayawardena / the ASSOCIATED PRESS

Attacks on mosques in Sri Lanka have stirred anew religious tensions in this country, where about 9 per cent of the population — 1.4 million — practise Islam. Here a Muslim woman walks past a police barricade outside a mosque vandalized in Colombo in August, 2013. Cellphone cameras captured the ugly scene: Muslims being chased through the streets by maddened Buddhists.
The vandals had just attacked a mosque in the Grandpass neighborhood on the capital’s outskirts, falling upon Muslims at Friday prayers, smashing windows, then pursuing the worshipers with clubs, hurling stones. At least five people were hospitalized.

Chaminda Priyantha Kumara, 32, was tortured over
a period of two days at Kalutara South Police Station

Critics decry brutal, corrupt criminal justice system

Chaminda Priyantha Kumara, a 32-year-old amputee, was about to begin a 130 km journey to deliver heart medication to his wife when he was surrounded by men at a bus stop in Kalutara, accused of theft, attacked and then arrested by police.
Kumara, who was initially accused of stealing a mobile phone and 680 rupees (about US$5.20), says that on the night of May 21 last year and the following day he was brutally tortured, publicly shamed and accused of additional crimes including petty theft, burglary and murder.

Sri Lanka: Monks lead protest on churches

A protest was staged in Hikkaduwa by monks and area residents today against Christian churches operating in the area. The protesters blocked a section of the Galle – Colombo road during the protest and our reporter in the area said that some property was also damaged. The monks who led the protest said that two Christian worship centers were operating without authorization and demanded that they be shut down.

‘After the heavy rains, some wetness remains’

The wholly reprehensible quotation which this column borrows for the title this week comes verbatim from the November 2011 report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). This is where it quotes the head of the government linked Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) when the LLRC questioned him in regard to specific allegations of enforced disappearances, extortion and extra-judicial killings leveled against the EPDP by Tamil civilians living in the North after the close of the war in 2009, (see at p174 of the LLRC report).

Increasing foreign debt burden despite improved external finances

In spite of the Central Bank announcing that “Gross Official Reserves increased to US$ 7.1 billion (provisional) by end 2013″, the Government intends to borrow US$ 1.5 billion this year from international financial sources.
External finances have been improving owing to increased export earnings, large amount of workers’ remittances and higher tourist earnings.

Add caption

The government of the United States today encouraged the government of Sri Lanka to seek the truth over alleged human rights abuses through independent and credible investigations, and where relevant, have prosecutions.
The US Embassy in Colombo said that the US Ambassador-at-Large at the Office of Global Criminal Justice, Stephen J. Rapp, during his recent visit to Sri Lanka met with government and political leaders, civil society, and also toured former conflict zones.

Sri Lanka: Lawyers’ Collective marks impeachment, blasts government

Stanley Samarasinghe
The Lawyers’ Collective held a media conference, at the Nippon Hotel in Colombo yesterday, to mark the first anniversary of the impeachment of the 43rd Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake.
They named the day as ‘Black Friday’. One year ago today the Parliamentary Select Committee report, on the charges set out in impeachment motion against Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake, was accepted.

Sri Lanka: 5 years after the War no Water nor Electricity in Northern and Eastern villages

Gotamini Hathurusinghe
It can be safely said that 5 years after the war many villages, well over 60% have no basic utilities supplied to them by the government. There are huge implications for the well being and safety of these people as a result. The following are excerpts of a list of GNDs only in Vavuniya and Kilinochchi Districts, which have been provided to the writer by the villagers. The writer has an indepth knowledge about the North and East. Details of the other Districts will follow.

Low income earners in Sri Lanka living on one and a half dollars a day

Senior Minister Amunugama tells SAARC PCSCs
Don Asoka Wijewardena
Most low income groups in Sri Lanka are eking out an existence on just one and a half dollars a day and poverty is common among some local social segments, Senior Minister for International Monetary Cooperation and Deputy Finance Minister Sarath Aminugama said.

Risk Assessment: THE RISK OF MASS ATROCITIES IN SRI LANKA

The Sentinel Project for Genocide Prevention/January 2014
1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The risk of mass atrocities in Sri Lanka reached a critical threshold from January through May 2009, when the government of Sri Lanka intensified efforts to militarily eliminate the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who had been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland since 1983. As hostilities escalated in the conflict zone, cinilians trapped between the LTTE and Sri Lanka government's armed forces became victims of mass atrocity crimes.

Sri Lanka: US repeats call for ‘credible probe’

Ranga Jayasuriya
The US Embassy yesterday reiterated the calls for ‘an independent and credible investigation’ into allegations of war crimes during the final phase of the war as US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues in the Office of Global Criminal Justice, Stephen J. Rapp, toured the former war zones and met with the survivors.

US asked SL to use cluster bombs against Tigers

Shamindra Ferdinando
Even though the US recommended that the Sri Lankan government swiftly acquire cluster bombs to target the LTTE, the country never felt the need to do so, an authoritative official told The Island.
The US made the recommendation in the wake of the Oslo arranged Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) between the then Premier Ranil Wickreme-singhe and LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. It was among a series of recommendations made to the Sri Lanka Army, Sri Lanka Navy and Sri Lanka Air Force to strengthen their capabilities during the CFA.

‘Have you ever addressed accountability issues in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan?’ Gotabhaya asks Ambassador Rapp:

Rapp

Shamindra Ferdinando

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa yesterday alleged that the US was undermining the post-war reconciliation process by strengthening the hands of those who had been propagating unsubstantiated war crimes allegations against Sri Lanka.

The US had made common cause with them for some strange reason at the expense of US-Sri Lanka relations, Defence Secretary Rajapaksa said.

Members of the Federation of National Organization
(FNO) gather in front of the U.S.

Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal | Reuters

By Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal

COLOMBO (Reuters) - The U.S. embassy in Colombo posted a photograph on Twitter on Thursday which it said showed a site where the Sri Lankan army killed hundreds of families towards the end of the civil war in 2009, prompting an angry response from the military.
The final few months of the 26-year conflict were by far the bloodiest, and the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels blame each other for the deaths of tens of thousands of mainly Tamil civilians.

Sri Lanka: Parliamentarian offsprings to contest en masse

Anuradha Samuel
The progeny of a large number of parliamentarians – both in the government and the Opposition – will be contesting at the upcoming Southern and Western Province elections.
Representing the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) will be novices Minister Jeevan Kumaratunga's daughter Malsha Kumaratunga, Minister Kumara Welgama's son Senal Welgama, and Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena's son Pasinda Yapa Abeywardena. Also contesting will be Minister Piyasena Gamage's son Provincial Councillor Randima Gamage and former Minister Mahinda Wijesekara's son Provincial Councillor Kanchana Wijesekara.

Catholic bishops tell US: probe Sri Lanka's alleged use of cluster munitions in civil war

KRISHAN FRANCIS , Associated Press

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Roman Catholic bishops in Sri Lanka's former war zone have called for an international war crimes investigation into the country's civil war including whether government forces used cluster munitions and chemical weapons in densely populated areas.

Enforced Disappearances in Sri Lanka: 2006-2013

This is a summary of a longer report. Please read it download it as a PDF from here or read it online here. All photos taken and provided by the author.
Introduction
According to Article 7, paragraph 2(i) of the Rome Statute[1], an Enforced disappearance is defined as “…the arrest, detention or abduction of persons by, or with the authorization, support or acquiescence of, a State or a political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation of freedom or to give information on the fate or whereabouts of those persons, with the intention of removing them from the protection of the law for a prolonged period of time”.

A list of Commissions and Committees appointed by GoSL (2006- 2013)

The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) has produced a table that contains basic information pertaining to Commissions of Inquiry (CoI) and committees appointed by the Government since coming into power in November 2005. Section I of the table examines the CoI and Section II contains information pertaining to key committees established during the specific time period. The Commissions listed in this document do not include those established by the National Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka except for the special hybrid inquiry proposed in collaboration with the Commonwealth Secretariat.The commissions and committees listed in this document are limited to those where information was publicly available as of 9 December 2013.

Download the full list from here or read it online here.

The pallbearers’ legacy

Lasantha Wickrematunge may have been killed, but his spirit lives on in those he left behind. Lasantha’s tribe, some of them exiled in far off lands, others – brow-beaten, hunted and still pushing the boundaries at home, continue to be a thorn in the side of the rulers and remain keepers of the flame
On 12 January 2009, a short distance away from the entrance to the Borella General Cemetery under a blazing afternoon sun, a photograph was taken. The crowded image shows throngs of mourners, wearing black or white, arms raised in protest as far as the lens could capture.

TISL wants Heads of Parliament to appoint Select Committee to probe national socioeconomic data

Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL), the national chapter of the global anti-corruption movement,has requested Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa and all the party leaders to take immediate action to appoint a Parliamentary Select Committee to investigate allegations against the accuracy and genuineness of national socioeconomic data released by the two official agencies of the government, the Department of Census and Statistics and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

Dilrukshi Handunnetti
Five years is a long time, when one waits for justice. But all of us have waited – family, friends, colleagues, citizens, readers, the rights groups and many others. It had been one painful wait, more so, because within the deep recesses of our hearts, we are aware of the identities of the wrongdoers.
There are of course, many others who have had to wait for justice much longer than we have and one might even argue that it is 'normal' to experience the kind of violence we had to deal with, in a country that was devoured by war for nearly three decades. But, for those individuals, families and communities affected by such murders and violence, those who yearn for normalcy and closure, each day is painful and a denial of justice.

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