Protesting mother exposes Sri Lanks military’s false land grabing propaganda

I was forced to sign a paper in Sinhala

Protesting mother exposes occupying SL military’s false propaganda

“The SL military never bought my lands. They said I need to provide details to obtain land. Then I was forced to sign a paper in Sinhala at the police station. The SL military moved into my land and has now sent notice to seize the lands permanently from me,” said a Tamil mother who protested against the land surveyors who came to her land situated along the A9 Road, at Mirusuvil in Thenmaraadchi of the Jaffna district. While the protest was going on a group of SL military intelligence operatives entered the house of a Tamil councillor, who was supporting the protesting family, threatened his wife at gunpoint and caused damage to his property.

SRI LANKA: Justice denied to two child victims of rape at the hands of the armed forces

Sri Lanka Navy: Stand accused

A Statement from the Asian Human Rights Commission

There have been reports of an alleged abduction and rape of an eleven-year-old girl by a group of Navy officers, and of another nine-year-old girl treated in a similar manner.  In the first case, the soldiers have been serving at Karainagar Navy base have been deployed to patrol Ureddikulam, Urkatturai, Karainagar city and Kytes. Seven were initially arrested and their names are Ajith Kumara, Rupasinghe Aarachilage Chamara Indika, Nadira Dilshan Ratnayake, Kudabalage Jayaweera, Indika Kumara Vithanarachchi, Ranasinghe Sumith Subash and Vikum Senage Piyasiri Dissanayake, all serving the Karainager Navy base.

Gang Rape suspects [Navy sailors] , identified by the police get political treatment and bailed out

People in the area protests the gang rape

A coordinating secretary of the President has reportedly ordered the police not to take action against the Navy personnel who had allegedly raped an 11-year old girl for 11 days as well as another 9-year old girl.

The reports further indicate that the particular officer has called the Kytes Police on two occasions after the incidents and said that if they were put under remand custody that will cause the losing of moral among the forces.

Sri Lanka: Locals protest against rape of 11y girl by SL navy in Karainagar

Locals in Karainagar protested on Friday against the rape of an 11 year old girl by Sri Lankan navy personnel in the town earlier this week. Marching across the town, locals held placards demanding the Sri Lankan military end their occupation of the Tamil areas. Politicians from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) joined locals in protest. The girl was admitted to Jaffna hospital on Wednesday following the attack.

Tamil civil society urges Pope to call for de-militarisation of Tamil homeland

Military in Jaffna

The Tamil Civil Society Forum has handed over an appeal to Pope Francis on Sunday through Vatican's diplomatic representative to the island, urging the Pope to openly call upon Colmbo Government to stop militarising and colonizing Tamil lands, to restore the troop presence in the North and East to pre-war levels, end violence against women, honestly address the problems of the disappeared and the abducted including Rev. Fathers T. N. Jim Brown and G. A. Frances Joseph, accelerate the process by which surrendered detainees and all those who are in in communicado detention are released and allow people to remember the dead.

The appointment of Major General (Rtd) as Governor NP is a continuation of mlitary rule

G. A. Chandrasiri

‘Lawyers for Democracy’ is dismayed at the appointment of Major General (Rtd) G. A. Chandrasiri as the Governor of the Northern Province disregarding repeated calls by the Chief Minister of the Northern Province Dr. C. V. Vigneshwaran and the TNA to appoint a non military person as the Governor.  The appointment of Major General (Rtd) G. A. Chandrasiri who functioned as the Security Forces Commander of the Peninsula is in the eyes of the people a continuation of the military rule from which the people yean for a change.

Sri Lanka: The Ministry of Defence should not have any power over the functioning of any civil society organisations

SRI LANKA: AHRC’s position on the proposed law for NGO registration under the Ministry of Defence

The Asian Human Rights Commission wishes to clarify its position regarding the controversy about the government’s proposal for a law to force the registration of non-governmental organisations with a National Secretariat functioning under the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence and Urban Development.

Sri Lanka: Bank Accounts of NGOs not registered with MOD are to be closed

Under me - Gotabhaya

New laws to control NGOs

The government is to incorporate new laws to register all not-for-profit or non-profit organizations (NPOs) as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development. The ministry charged that NPOs presently registered under the Sri Lanka Companies Act No. 7 of 2007 are acting out the role of NGOs. Director/Registrar of the National Secretariat for NGOs, D. M. Saman Dissanayake, speaking to Ceylon Today, observed that according to the new Act any organization that does not register with the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development will have their bank accounts closed and obtaining foreign funds will also be expressly forbidden.

Appoinment of Military Governor: President Rajapaksa broken his promis to CM Vigneshwaran

The Northern Province Chief Minister Vikneswaran is accusing the president for the extension of the Governor Chandrasiri’s term of office as the violation of his assurance ensured by him.

The Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Vikneswaran severely condemned the President for re-installation of the G.A. Chandrasiri as the Governor of Northern Province once again. This he had termed it as the violation of the pledge made by the President.

Sri Lanka: Despite TNA's Resistance Gen. Chandrasiri Re-appointed As Governor Of North

General G.A. Chandrasiri

Despite repeated requests made by the TNA to appoint a non-military person as the Governor of the North, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has re-appointed retired General G.A. Chandrasiri for the same position.  Chandrasiri has served as the Governor of the North since the end of war. It is widely known among political circles that the Governor of the Northern Province and Chief Minister of North C.V. Wigneswaran are at loggerheads over many issued concerning the province. The TNA has, on many occasions, requested the President to remove Chandrasiri from the position and appoint a non-military person as the Governor of the North.

Warning to NGOs: MOD says no warning only reminder

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) today played down the instructions issued to Non-Governmental Organisations on the need to stick to their mandate. Defence Ministry spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya said that the instructions were issued as a mere reminder and it was nothing new. “This is not a strengthening of regulations,” Brigadier Wanigasooriya added.He said that there are 1416 NGOs registered in Sri Lanka and all of them follow a set of regulations which have been in place for several years.

Sri Lanka: MOD warning to NGOs: MOD has overstepped its mandate

FMM public meeting

It’s no-go for NGOs! by  Dharisha Bastians
 Sri Lanka’s powerful Defence Ministry has sought to outlaw press conferences and media statements by Non-Governmental Organisations operating in the country, sparking a civil society outcry about an attempt to impinge upon freedoms of speech and assembly.

 A circular issued by the National Secretariat for NGOs, which operates under the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development said certain NGOs were “acting beyond their mandate” by holding press conferences and workshops.

Sri Lanka:The Shadow of Gotabhaya

English Translation of the above in a Sinhala weekly called Ravaya by Victor Ivan:
One named Gotabhaya Rajapaksa happens to enter Sri Lanka politics only after Mahinda Rajapaksa becomes president.  Since leaving the military, for nearly one and a half decades, then he lived in the USA. He becomes a publicly known or powerful figure after his advent subsequent his sibling coming to power as president. With that he is appointed as the defence secretary - a post regarded as powerful- and he becomes the coordinator of the security forces in Eelam war IV that followed.

Sri Lanka: Court summons JMO on Aluthgama postmortem reports

(Photo: Shehan Gunasekara)

 The Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) who submitted the postmortem report on one of the victims killed during the Aluthgama violence has been summoned to court after his report was disputed.

Lawyers had informed the Kalutara Magistrate’s Court today that the report by the JMO noted that the victim had died of cut injuries but there were indications he died of gun-shot wounds. President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) attorney-at-law Upul Jayasuriya said an order was also sought from the court to exhume the body.

Sri Lanka: Victor Ivan reveals Gota's relations to Bodu Bala Sena

Ivan

With the defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa being blamed following the calamity in Aluthgama and Beruwala, it seems that he had informed Gnanasara Thera of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) to call a media briefing and distance him from the organisation, advisor of the Ravaya newspaper - senior journalist Victor Ivan  says.

Army spokesman's attack on opposition MP Mangala Samaraweera: The Army getting involved in politics

Harim Peiris

Late last week we witnessed the scenario where the Army spokesman, a brigadier in rank, made the unusual claim that current UNP spokesman and former Rajapakse Administration Foreign Minister, MP Mangala Samaraweera had compromised national security by alleging at a press conference, that state intelligence agencies or at least some intelligence chiefs, were supporting the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) and that the Aluthgama and Beruwela anti Muslim violence was in fact an organized operation with state intelligence backing.

Medical reports of Muslims killed by gunfire at Welipitiya were fabricated to indicate they were hacked to death to cover up role of “Defence Personnel”

Welipitiya shops burned (Camp4justice )

In yet another instance of a flagrant abuse of the judicial process, the medical and autopsy reports of three Muslim civilians killed at Welipitiya on June 15th 2014 have been fabricated to show that the victims were hacked to death instead of being killed by gunshots. This blatant cover up by the powers that be is aimed at shielding the actual perpetrators who are suspected to be personnel from the Police Special Task Force (STF).  When Bodu Bala Sena (BBS)instigated anti-Muslim violence broke out on a large scale in Aluthgama and Beruwela on Sunday June 15th 2014 ,one of the places affected badly was the ethnically mixed area of Welipitiya which is in close proximity to the Muslim enclave of Dharga nagar.

Sri Lanka heading for military administration ;424 education officers too given military training

424 candidates who passed the education administration examination and were enrolled in the administrative service are being given military training at the Rantembe camp under the guise of ‘leadership training,’ Joseph Stalin , the secretary of the Lanka Teachers union revealed.

Civil activities and freedoms curbed, five years after Sri Lanka's civil war

 Militarisation institutionalised

''Five years after the war, Sri Lanka is still in a post-war phase, the guns have fallen silent, the war is over, terrorism was defeated. However, we haven't moved yet into what I would call a post-conflict phase. And what I mean by that is that the sources of conflict that gave rise to the war are still be sustained, reproduced and even new sources of conflict are being put on the agenda. So in that respect, the trajectory of developments in over the last five years hasn't been particularly propitious, not withstanding the fact that full scale war has ended. ''

An assessment of Sri Lanka, five years after the civil war, says ethnic minorities are no better off and the sources of conflict are still being sustained.

Government Minister wants US leaders be beaten and dragged on the road and killed

Minister wants bush killed!

Government Minister says American leaders must be killed for the atrocities they have committed, particularly in the Middle East. Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake said that Iraq and Libya were doing well till the U.S. invaded those countries and killed their leaders. Speaking at an event in Kandy today, Dissanayake said that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein may have had some shortcomings but he changed Iraq for the better.