Anura Kumara comments on recent incidents and the rule of law

News1st provided footage of the incident in Divulapitiya to the Minuwangoda police upon a request made by the Police.

The footage was provided to the Minuwangoda Police a few days after the incident took place on June 23, which resulted in the death of an individual in police fire. We provided the footage to a police officer identified as M.B.C. Sampath on June 27  at 5 p.m.

JVP calls for domestic independent inquiry into the alleged violations of human rights

(AFP photo)

 JVP proposes amendment  .

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) today submitted an amendment to the Government motion, which opposes the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) inquiry into allegations of violations of Human Rights during the last stages of the war.  The JVP amendment calls for a domestic independent inquiry into the alleged violations of human rights.  JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake told a media briefing that they had already handed over the amendment to Parliament General Secretary Dhammika Dassanayake seeking an indigenous inquiry into human rights violations and to be completed in three months.

Sri Lanka: The Years of Blood

The following article with images, was originally published by a blogger who blogs at thecarthaginiansolution.wordpress.com, in last year.

 In late 2012, workers digging foundations for a new wing in Matale Hospital unearthed partial skeletons of more than 150 people. Of the various theories that sought to explain how this mass grave came to be, the one that most people instinctively thought might be true was that this was the final resting place of victims of death squads from 2nd JVP insurgency, which from 1987 to 1989 almost brought the Sri Lankan State to total collapse. The counter-insurgency (COIN) campaign, which in turn destroyed the JVP had few equals (except perhaps the 1990s Algerian counter-insurgency campaign and the India’s anti-’Khalistan’ counter-insurgency in the Punjab) for its ruthlessness.

Sri Lanka: JVP condemns attack on UNP MPs

A politcal thug

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) yesterday condemned the attack on a group of United National Party (UNP) parliamentarians, who were on a fact finding tour in Hambantota. JVP Propaganda Secretary Vijitha Herath claimed the attack was not carried out by the masses, but by Madamulana thugs.

 "Parliamentarians are people's representatives. Therefore, any attack against parliamentarians is an attack against the public. This incident is a clear example of the jungle law prevailing in the country," he said.

There is no patriotic-wave lifting the Rajapaksa boat. There is no anti-government wave either.

Ballot boxes for PC elections ( The Hindu)

''If the Opposition is to amount a serious challenge to the Rajapaksas at national elections, it must become more active, more rooted, socio-economically and less fractious. The UNP remains the single largest opposition party (though with a much reduced vote-base); the JVP and DP are in a dead-heat for third place. What is necessary is the broadest possible opposition coalition, which includes the TNA and other minority parties, stands up for all victims of Rajapaksa misrule and opts to focus on political-social-economic distress rather than on patriotic chest-thumping.  ''

Two Verdicts on Rajapaksa Rule  by Tisaranee Gunasekara

Sri Lanka PC elections: President’s downfall imminent: JVP .

JVP has a new leader

While being overjoyed at the results recorded at the two provincial council elections, after suffering setbacks for several years, JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake today said the election results had dismantled the President’s power map planned for the next six years. Convening a media conference at the Party’s head office in Colombo, the JVP leader said the election results in the Hambantota District clearly reflected the downfall of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, since the UPFA vote percentage in the district dropped from 67% to 57%, when compared with the previous provincial elections held in 2009.

Sri lanka Govt. thugs attack street drama troupe; This is not a democracy but a ‘thugcracy’

Hospitalized artist ( Photo LeN)

A gang of government thugs attacked the street drama group of the Society for Socialist Art of the JVP performing at the bus stand at Panadura a few moments ago. The street drama group was performing at the bus stand to apprise the public regarding the situation in the country when government thugs attacked the performers with iron bars. Nine members of the drama troupe who were injured in the attack have been admitted to Panadura General Hospital while the condition of three of them is serious say hospital sources.

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.

Celebratory Memoirs of the Life of Comrade Sunila Abeysekera

by Lionel Bopage

Image courtesy One Billion Rising / Beyond Borders

Last Thursday, I was reading an article about Joan Jara, the widow of renowned Chilean activist, singer, songwriter and theatre director Victor Jara, and her family. They are seeking long-delayed justice for the kidnap, torture and brutal murder of Victor in 1973, by the Chilean secret police. My memories immediately went back to November 1977, when all political prisoners including me were released in Sri Lanka. A couple of months later, comrade Sunila Abeysekera and I were discussing at her parents’ house in Nawala, the inspiration Victor Jara brought to those who were working for social change for a better world. This morning, Chitra and I were greatly saddened by the news that comrade Sunila, one of the best, exceptional and inspiring human rights activists of our time had passed away in Sri Lanka.

I first met Sunila in late 1977 at a bookshop in Colombo, to mainly discuss the formation of a grass roots based human rights organisation. My first impression of her is indelibly etched in my mind. I saw an attractive young woman of about 25 years of age, vehemently striking a manual typewriter trying to finish off an article she was writing. I remember her apologetically asking me to wait a little while. That was our first encounter.
Later on, I came to know that she had deep roots in theatre and music. In the 60s and 70s, she had taken the Sinhala theatre by storm with her haunting voice and breathtaking performances. She had been conducting notable performances on stage in her early twenties, in Indian classical and Kandyan dance. In the seventies, she had commenced lending her voice to film music and had also become a familiar figure at concerts. Even to date, the beautiful melodies ‘Udumbara Hinahenawa’ (Udumbara smiling) in ‘Bambaru Avith’ (Wasps are Here) and ‘Hemin Sare Piya Sala’ (Flying Slowly) in ‘Hansa Vilak’ (A Swan Lake) continues to resonate and be in demand in Sri Lanka.

How did such a vibrant artistic career in film and music give way to human rights activism? Human rights had emerged as a major issue in the 1970s, as successive governments in Sri Lanka responded to youth militancy in the south and north with repressive legislation, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and curbs on the freedom of expression, including censorship. She had been active in civil society groups since the late 1970s, untiringly working for the release of political prisoners and advocating a negotiated political solution to the national question.

The 1971 youth insurrection had left an indelible mark on Sunila’s conscience. In her early 20s, Sunila with other young colleagues had started visiting young detainees held in Sri Lankan prisons. Taking them food and clothing, letters from family, she gradually became involved with their legal defence. It was at this time that she left the stage and began her life of activism.

When we finally organised the ‘Human Rights Organisation’ (HRO), its President was Regi Siriwardena, a former LSSP veteran, with Sunila as the Secretary. The HRO opened branches in rural areas, and the JVP was also looking for recruits for the HRO among the clergy and the intellectuals. Sunila had known Chitra before I came to know her. It was while working in these projects that Sunila became the intermediary of my relationship with Chitra leading to our life partnership.

I recollect grabbing Sunila from a film studio in Narahenpita, where she was recording the theme song of the film ‘Bambaru Avith’, to record ‘Vimukthi Gee’ songs at Ogee Studio in Bambalapitiya. On another occasion, I attended her singing, when she contributed to the popular drama ‘Angara Ganga Gala Basee’ (River Angara Flows Down). However, her appearance on the ‘Vimukthi Gee‘ stage in the late seventies and early eighties was very different from her previous role as an artiste. Now she was singing for the ordinary folk in villages and towns where she with other singers and musicians, sang songs of struggle, protest and liberation. She was the best female vocalist in the troupe.

At the time, she was also working as a writer and translator for the journal ‘Red Power,’ which I was editing. She also did political work on behalf of the party in the lower middle and upper-class niches in Colombo. This was the time, when the second wave of feminism had reached a high water mark in Western countries. The JVP manifesto supported the rights of women in terms of a fair wage and appropriate working conditions. The idea of the personal being political, a woman being an independent sexual being, that the home was just as exploitative as the workplace and that patriarchy, not capitalism, was the primary cause of the oppression of women had not touched the political consciousness of a JVP cadre.

Therefore, Sunila’s journey had several major hiccups.  Being brought up in the better part of Colombo and having received a western tertiary education, her work and cultural ethic was so different to the rural Sinhala, Buddhist, semi-proletarian and lower middle-class background of the average JVP cadre. They were extremely conservative and patriarchal in their thinking on cultural issues. Sunila was passionate, bohemian and demonstrative; we of the JVP were the complete opposite.  Ultimately, the relationship between her and the party came to an abrupt end. Later, in the eighties, I met Sunila a couple of times, but the intensity of our friendship has not been the same. Yet we continued to keep in touch.

In my mind, this did not and should not diminish the role she played in defending human rights including the rights of women and non-majoritarian communities in Sri Lanka. She was a powerful figure not only in the Sri Lanka women’s movement of Sri Lanka, but also of the international movement. She played a major role in the collective effort to draw the UN’s attention to the need to include women’s concerns, voices, and perspectives in peace building and conflict-transformation. Her work extended to the situation of civilians in war-affected areas, the rights of communities such as sex workers, people living with HIV/AIDS, and lesbian, gay, and transgender persons, and sexual and reproductive rights of women.

During the periods of armed conflict in Sri Lanka, Sunila denounced human rights violations committed by all parties to conflicts. She was one of the first Sri Lankans to raise the issue of disappearances in the nineties, when hundreds of young people, particularly in the South were disappearing at the hands of the State and the JVP. She addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council at its opening session in 2006. Being critical of the government, she shrugged off the risks that posed to her own safety. She was branded a traitor and an enemy of the state. A woman from the Sinhala majority defending the rights of Tamils, they could not stand. However, she never wavered. Hers was an uncompromising struggle against the entrenched culture of impunity of withholding accountability of those who had been responsible for enforced disappearances and killings of civilians.

She began highlighting rights violations in Sri Lanka, perpetrated under the guise of the Prevention of Terrorism Act and later through the promulgation of Emergency rule and the various Emergency regulations. Her work also included protection of the displaced due to armed conflict. At peak periods of repression, she arranged to document disappearances, and frequently took this information to the UN and other international agencies. Because of her fearless and tireless advocacy and commitment to human rights and social justice, she faced death threats and had to leave the country, as her life was in danger in the nineties and in recent times. In recognition of her human rights activism, she was awarded the 1998 UN Human Rights Award for Asia and the Pacific.

The last time we sang together as a group was in the year 2008, in Colombo in commemoration of those who laid down their lives during the April 1971 insurrection in Sri Lanka. In 2010, Chitra and I had the occasion to visit Sunila in Malaysia, when she was undergoing treatment for cancer. She was as determined as ever to carry on with her struggle for human rights and social justice.

Sunila was an enormously courageous and inspiring friend, a caring mother, a tireless and committed activist, a professional artiste, writer and critic, and an ardent feminist. She struggled for four decades seeking justice for victims of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka. We, including all those who suffered and continue to suffer human rights violations are going to miss her deeply. The only way to fill the vacuum she has left and her legacy is to further strengthen our role in the protection of human rights and unswervingly commit to the cause of social justice.

We extend our sincere and most heartfelt sympathies to her family and friends. Her friendship, commitment to social justice and activism on behalf of the dispossessed will be solely missed by us all.
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The author was jailed twice and tortured for his roll as a former leader of a mass liberation movement in Sri Lanka in the 1970s and 1980s, called the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (People’s Liberation Front). He rose to the position of general secretary of the JVP but resigned from the group in 1984 over a number of differences, including his principled support for the right of national self-determination for the Tamil people. He was eventually forced into political exile together with his wife, Chitra. They now live in Melbourne, Australia, where they continue to be outspoken defenders of human rights and social justice. (Courtesy Green Left Weekly) / GV

Human Rights Hogh Commissioner Navi Pillay visit to Sri Lanka was part of the internatioal interference.

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The JVP today accused the government of failing to safeguard the sovereignty of the country by supplying the information some countries need to interfere in Sri Lankan affairs.
JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva said that the international community has been interfering in Sri Lankan affairs in the recent past and the visit by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay to Sri Lanka was part of that interference.

Jaffna militarised says JVP

The opposition Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) says Jaffna has been fully militarized after the war with the army engaged in civil administration.
Member of the Central Committee of the JVP and National Organizer of the Socialist Youth Union (SYU) former Parliamentarian Bimal Rathnayake noted that even the governor of the north is also a former army officer.

President appoint a Commission on Matale grave

President Mahinda Rajapaksa today announced the appointment of a special commission to investigate the Matale mass grave. President’s secretary Lalith Weeratunga said that the commission will be led by former Justice S.I. Imam, Retired High Court Judge Bandula Atapattu and former Secretary General of Parliament Dhammika Kitulgoda. Weeratunga told media heads at a breakfast meeting that the commission has been asked to investigate all angles into the mass grave.

JVP insists on scrapping Provincial Councils

The JVP yesterday urged the government to scrap the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and do away with provincial councils without wasting time in making amendments to the existing Provincial Council Act.
JVP Propaganda Secretary Vijitha Herath told The Island that the government’s draft amendment to the Provincial Council Act had been postponed for two weeks, when it was presented to the Cabinet yesterday.

Magistrates Court accepts 13 petitions for Matale mass grave

A mother who gave a affidavit speaking to media

13 petitioners presented affidavits when the hearing regarding the Matale mass grave was heard in Matale magistrates court today (8th). They asked through affidavits to carry out a test regarding the skeletal remains unearthed from Matale mass graves as they suspect the skeletal remains could be their relatives who disappeared during the 88 – 89 period.  

Matale Mass Grave: Skeletons in the closet

N.Sumanthiran, M.P.
The discovery of the skeletal remains of what is reported to be more than a hundred people has dominated the press for some time. It is now clear that the mass graves were of victims of summary executions during the second Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) insurrection. It is also clear that the appointment of a Presidential Commission of Inquiry to probe these crimes – which are demonstrable crimes against humanity – is to protect those responsible for these crimes to begin with.

Matale mass grave: No 'humbug' commissions, what is needed is a special court – JVP

President's humbug commission would not be allowed to conceal mass murders at Matale, despite various commissions have been appointed, people have not heard of any reports of those commissions nor anyone punished for their crimes and the party would never believe justice would be done by such commissions that have been cast to the garbage of history states the JVP. 

Murdered then tossed into a mass grave: Sri Lanka unearths 150 decades-old skeletons and promises to uncover the truth

• President appoints commission to seek answers to grisly find
• The bodies date back to a Marxist uprising in the 1980s
• Presidential commission will run alongside ongoing police investigation

Attempts to frame Gota over Matale

Attempts are being made to frame Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa over the human skeletal remains found at Matale, Director of the Media Center for National Security Lakshman Hulugalle said.
Hulugalle said that the sudden interest of opposition political parties in the Matale mass grave is with an ulterior motive.

He said that the Defence Secretary was the coordinating officer in Matale during the time the people were said to have been buried in the mass grave.

Minister Wimal Weerawansa calls on UN to probe on human skeletons in Matale

Construction, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities Minister Wimal Weerawansa said that a full-scale investigation should be conducted on the human skeletons found in a mass grave at Matale which have been identified as those disappeared during the 1988-1989 insurrection.
 
The UN says that the Government should conduct credible investigations on the alleged human rights violations. Why can't the UNHRC conduct a similar credible investigation on the mass grave at Matale, the Minister told the Sunday Observer.

A special court should investigate the Matale mass grave and all stakeholders who were holding authority at that time - JVP

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) established a special committee yesterday to collect details of its members who had gone missing between the years, 1987-90, in the Matale District and requested the families to come forward with the information, in order to identify the perpetrators.