Rajapaksa State Media’s Editor Rajpal Justifies Attacks Against Muslims
Editor of the Daily News the Rajapaksa state-owned newspaper has accused minority groups of provoking the violence that broke out in Aluthgama and Beruwala while justifying the attacks against Muslims.
Quite infamous for his controversial stances, Rajpal Abeynayakehas written the ‘incidents’ that occurred in Southern Sri Lanka, which resulted in three deaths and vast property damages, is the result of ‘considerable provocations’.
“The government has submittedthe facts to the UNHRC and the video evidence is available,” he has asserted while adding, the evidence points to what he describes as ‘grievous provocations’ by some minority groups that incited the anti-Muslim violence.
Moreover, based upon his belief that the violence was instigated by certain minority groups, he has gone on to justify the attacks against the Muslims in the Aluthgama and Beruwala areas. “Violence begets violence and that is the eternal verity,” the editorial reads.
He has furthermore written that due to claims, which are being ‘spuriously’ circulated blaming a government-protected group for instigating the anti-Muslim violence, the involvement of minority groups in provoking the attacks have been discounted.
He has continued to state with certainty that it wasn’t this ‘much malinged outfit’ (a phrase Abeynayake has used instead of naming the Bodu Bala Sena that is being accused of instigating the violence) that provoked the violence.
We publish below the editorial in full;Read More
A Presidency Under Threat – II – A Parliament Without Purpose
There are two reasons why I find ridiculous the constant assertion that the Executive Presidency must be abolished. This was made most recently by the most prominent member of the Human Rights Commission, who claimed that it was the root cause of all our problems. But I do not think that he, or all the others who parrot panaceas, have thought about what will replace it.
And the problem with such panaceas is that no effort is made to actually make the current situation better, as for instance the Human Rights Commission could do in its own area of responsibility, by taking forward the Bill of Rights. There is an excellent draft, which we managed to get done before the Ministry of Human Rights was abolished. But the Minister did not agree that it should be put forward, given the then concentration on elections, and since then it has languished. I suspect I am the only who who has even reminded the President of its existence, and the fact that it was prepared in fulfilment of a pledge in the 2005 Mahinda Chintanaya. His answer was that he did not agree with everything there, but the simple solution, to admit those elements, was obviously not thought satisfactory. Read More