UK: Ian Paisley suspension exposes efforts to assist cover-up of Sri Lankan bloodbath

By Steve James -28 July 2018

Britain’s House of Commons Standards Committee has suspended Ian Paisley, Jr., Member of Parliament for the North Antrim constituency in Northern Ireland, for 30 days from September 4. Paisley was found to have committed “serious misconduct” by actions “of a nature to bring the House of Commons into disrepute.” Paisley is only one of three MPs to be suspended for this length of time since 1949.

The move imperils the fragile British government of Theresa May, dependent as it is for a parliamentary majority on Paisley’s party, the right wing pro-Brexit Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Paisley has even been suspended from the DUP itself, “pending further investigation.”

He is also likely to be the first sitting British MP ever to face a recall by-election challenge. Under the terms of the Recall of Parliament Act, recall petitions must be available for his constituents in North Antrim to sign for six weeks. If 10 percent of voters favour a recall by-election, it must be held unless a general election is less than six months away.

The standards committee found that Paisley failed to register two lavish holidays paid for by the Sri Lankan government. According to the committee, the 2013 trips involved “business-class air travel, accommodation at first-class hotels, helicopter trips and visits to tourist attractions for Mr. Paisley and his wider family.”

Following this, Paisley was amongst the signatories to a letter to then Prime Minister David Cameron in 2014 criticising British support for a resolution to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for an investigation into human rights violations during the final phases of the bloody civil war in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s decades long conflict culminated in 2009, with government forces massacring tens of thousands of mainly Tamil civilians, along with members and leaders of the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) separatist movement. The UNHRC resolution authorised “an international investigation which will uncover the truth about alleged violations on both sides of the conflict.”

The British MPs’ 2014 letter noted “with alarm the decision by HMG [Her Majesty’s Government] to internationalize the internal affairs of Sri Lanka, and its post conflict process.”

Paisley knows whereof he speaks. Paisley is the son of the Protestant demagogue, hard-right sectarian bigot and former Northern Ireland First Minister, the Reverend Ian Paisley. Paisley senior founded the DUP as a political ally and voice for pro-British loyalist paramilitary groups assisting British imperialism’s sectarian “dirty war” in Northern Ireland. His entire career was based on whipping up Protestant prejudice against Catholics to reinforce religious divisions in the working class of Ireland.

Over decades, British armed and intelligence forces conducted a war of great brutality and unparalleled skullduggery, which cost over 3,000 lives. The “Troubles” only ended in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement that paved the way for both unionists and nationalists to share power in the British-controlled administration in Northern Ireland.

The MPs’ letter noted merely that the UK “has correctly and steadfastly opposed internationalization of the conflict in Northern Ireland.” The same approach, they insisted, should be adopted in Sri Lanka.

The letter pointed out that the former British colony “has been a friend of the UK for decades,” whose “Government supported the UK in its defence of the Falklands and we should tread more consistently with them.”

“They have emerged from 40 years of conflict,” the letter continued, and “must be given space to come to terms with the past and encouraged to pursue conflict resolution not brow beaten as appears to be the UN way.”

In other words, investigation of the bloodbath organised and implemented by the Sri Lankan government of Mahinda Rajapaksa in the final stages of the war should have been left to the then Sri Lankan government of Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The UNHRC report the MPs wanted to avoid was published in 2015. The conclusions to its 261 pages noted “harrowing descriptions ... of the carnage, bloodshed and psychological trauma of bombardments in which entire families were killed.”

No full estimate of the number of dead civilians was possible, but “likely tens of thousands lost their lives.” The report described “patterns of commission of gross human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law, the indications of their systematic nature, combined with the widespread character of the attacks” as pointing “to the possible perpetration of international crimes.”

Post conflict, the report warned of “extensive and endemic patterns of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, abductions, unlawful arrests and arbitrary detention, torture and sexual violence committed with impunity by the Government forces over many years, as well as by paramilitary organisations linked to them.”

Paisley was only one of several British parliamentarians apparently junketed during and after the final phases of the civil war. One of the most active was Lord Naseby (Michael Morris), former RAF and NATO pilot, Islington councillor, Tory MP and now a life peer. Naseby has systematically sought to downplay the scale of the Sri Lankan killings and the brutality of the weaponry deployed, which included cluster bombs.

Another leading British Tory involved was Liam Fox, Defense Secretary in the Cameron government and currently Secretary of State for International Trade. Fox was hosted a number of times by the Rajapakse government. He spoke in support of the Sri Lanka government in Westminster. He told the BBC, which investigated his role, that his trips in the midst of the government’s slaughter of Tamil civilians were to “promote peace and reconciliation.” Former British Labour MP Andy Love played a similar role.

Other current and former MPs who have registered expenses paid trips to Sri Lanka, according to the Tamil Guardian, included Tories James Wharton, Aidan Burley, Matthew Offord and David Morris.

The Independent wrote that by 2012, the then 28-year-old Wharton had clocked up four trips to Sri Lanka and met Rajapaksa. Wharton claimed that his lack of any prior connection to Sri Lanka meant he could take an objective view. Nevertheless, he asked the House of Commons regarding an earlier UN report detailing human rights violations, “Is it not clear that, while the report sets out a narrative and raises legitimate concerns, it must not be taken as a factual account?”

Paisley, of course, was not suspended for trying to suppress an international investigation into the Sri Lankan government’s war crimes but for not declaring his holidays. MPs are required to register gifts and perks over the value of £660. Paisley’s two Sri Lankan trips are estimated to have been worth over £100,000.

The Northern Ireland politician’s deeply corrupt activities are of a piece with the role of the DUP in Northern Ireland. The party has been mired in a series of financial scandals since coming into power, alongside Sinn Fein in 2007.

Underscoring the complicity of British imperialism in Sri Lankan war crimes, media coverage of Paisley’s suspension focused almost entirely on his shifting claims to parliament as to when he needed to register interests. Very little mention was made of the atrocity Paisley was being paid to cover over. The Telegraph gently chided Paisley to be “more candid with the voters than he was with this newspaper or his fellow parliamentarians.”

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Nine years since Sri Lankan civil war ended in massacre of Tamils [5 May 2018]

Sri Lanka: A Nation of Lost Cause

We still live in the long shadow of 1983. We have been propelled from 1983 to a drastic war which has ruined this country.

by Frances Bulathsinghala-Jul 31, 2018

( July 31, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The July 1983 anti-Tamil riots is a watershed in the recent history of this country, and 35 years later, with a three-decade war over and thousands killed, we are still left asking ‘Quo Vadis Lanka?’

This writer was seven years old when Colombo went up in flames on a seemingly ordinary July day. As a child, I did not know that 13 members of the government military had been killed in an ambush by the then fledging rebel outfit, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Neither did I know then that, twenty years later, I will be covering Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict and the 2002 peace process as a journalist. All I knew was that I was travelling in a school van with four Tamil female teachers wedged in our midst. I remember that these teachers were shaking in fear and trying hard to look nondescript with their pottus removed from their forehead.

To recall now the carnage of that afternoon is like bringing forth a horror movie. Our van was travelling to Panadura, about 25km outside Colombo. The driver drove through flames and often nearly lost his nerve every time mobs asked us to halt, demanding if there were any Tamils in the van. Several times along the way, the driver was asked for petrol. Thankfully, this petrol being used to burn people alive I did not see, as my mother forced me and the other children travelling in that vehicle to ‘sleep’.

Having in July 1983 mourned the deaths of 13 soldiers, by 2003, Sri Lanka had mourned thousands of its youth.

Covering the 2002 peace process for a national newspaper as a staff journalist and for a couple of South Asian publications as a correspondent, I recall the many interviews with parents of cadres, with female cadres and with rebels of diverse ranks, and being amazed at how some of them had grown up in the South and come to the North only after July 1983.

One of the conversations with the then police head of the LTTE, Nadesan, was significant. He was preoccupied with sharing details on how he was a police constable in the ‘Sinhalese police’, as he put it, but which was supposed to be the Sri Lankan police. He was married to a Sinhalese (who lived with him in the North). Speaking in fluent Sinhalese, and insisting that he speak in Sinhalese (and not in English), he began to talk of how earnestly he had served as a police constable officer in the ‘Sinhalese police’. Following is a part of his statement as I remember it:

“I was in the Narahenpita police and was proud of my job. My wife, a Sinhalese, was also working in the police. I would never have dreamed of coming to the North and joining the LTTE if I was not helpless from protection from rioters, even as a police personnel.”

The writer mentions these comments not to take away from the LTTE leadership the accountability they should bear towards the Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslims for having unleashed unprecedented terror for over thirty years until the annihilation of their organisation by the Lankan military in 2009. But, the reason for recalling Nadesan’s words is to understand how a Tamil police constable, married to a Sinhalese police personnel, living an ordinary life in Colombo and until 1983,was a law abiding citizen who was responsible for instilling the law, was made to feel helpless on account of his ethnicity and thus driven to support a group resorting to terror.

How many questions spring up that we do not ask when we think of 1983? One of the primary questions that crop up is of the then political leaders using the Sinhalese people as a cover to arm goons with electoral lists around the country to set about vandalising property and destroying lives and passing off the catastrophe as a spontaneous reaction by the Sinhalese masses. As one veteran Tamil analyst put it,“If it was in actuality 70% of the Sinhalese against the Tamils who made about 12% of the population, there would not be any Tamils left in the island”.

It was the beginning of passing off a politically created problem initiated compounded by weak policymaking and inefficient strategies as a ‘Sinhala-Tamil’ problem.

Many of those who held important positions in the LTTE were educated. Many of them had the suffix ‘Master’ after their name, indicating that they were teachers prior to joining the movement. Could not the country have benefited from them if we did not lose these Sri Lankan citizens to a rebel movement? Why were post-independence policymakers so short-sighted that they did not foresee that unrest would occur and such movements would crop up if sections of the populace were not made to feel equal as the rest?

Did not Sri Lanka suffer its first massive brain drain when it lost the English-educated Sinhala, Tamil and Burgher intellectuals to the West after the Sinhala Only Act in 1956? What can we say of political leaders who failed in governance in 1983 to prevent an entire ethnic group having to pay for the act of a few? Could not wise policymaking have made Tamil/Sinhala intellectuals rise to prevent Prabhakaran or any other like him from creating terror outfits for the purpose of dividing the nation? What was the need to impose a language-based apartheid where a Sinhala child studied in Sinhala and a Tamil child in Tamil and thereby consigned to language-divided segregation? Why was the folly of imposing in 1972 the standardisation of university admission based on ethnic representation that was discriminative of the Tamils not realised before the damage was done?

Did we not lose a dedicated and committed workforce when we prevented the Tamils from entering the civil service by making the Sinhala language a pre-requisite for entering the public service?

I recall wondering at the LTTE Police Chief Nadesan, a ruthless leader who nevertheless sounded nostalgic as he patted the phone next to him and said in Sinhalese that he yearned to talk to his Sinhala friends from his ‘Sinhala police days’. He recalled how his Sinhala friends helped to save his life and the life of his Sinhala wife in 1983.

A question I asked myself then and still do is: “How many more Tamils like Nadesan would have been ordinary law abiding citizens who ended up with the militants/LTTE?”

In July 1983, 371 Sri Lankans lay dead because they were Tamils. More than 100,000 Sri Lankans were made homeless because they were Tamils. Over 150,000 Sri Lankans were turned to paupers living in crowded and unhygienic refugee camps, their own homes and business establishments looted, torched and destroyed, because they were Tamils. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of others left the country of their birth, to return only as foreigners, erasing forever any dreams they would have had of using their skill and their professional expertise for their country. In just over a week in that deadly month of July, a motley group, calling themselves the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) became to the Tamil intellectuals, who would not have hitherto thought of supporting them, their only hope.

We still live in the long shadow of 1983. We have been propelled from 1983 to a drastic war which has ruined this country. And today, nine years after the end of this bloodshed, we have not been able to put the Buddhist philosophy into practice and transgress the misfortune of the past which pitted youth against youth as ‘terrorist’ or ‘war hero’. We have not, as Nelson Mandela did in his country after the end of the apartheid, terror, suspicion and victory, given trust a chance.

We have failed to adequately act on the fact that, by May 2009, the LTTE was unpopular among the Tamil people who had to live under their leadership. We have failed to use this comprehension to instil a trust in the Tamil people as opposed to a sense of high handedness by us, the Sinhalese, the victory bearers, and thereby, we have allowed the West to bulldoze us into a brand of reconciliation that has neither soul nor meaning.

Speaking at opulent conference rooms about reconciliation, we have not spiritually or mentally progressed to a level where we bridge the ‘terrorist’ and ‘war hero’ labels to bring unequivocally a change of heart in a people who have been trained by politics, terror and war to think across these lines.

For nine years, we have had events commemorating the war and our dead from each side of the divide. Government leaders have decried the events organised by the ‘terrorists’ to commemorate their war dead. We have then had State-sponsored events to commemorate the Lankan military, the ‘war heroes.’ Why have we not yet had a State-sponsored event to bring together Sinhalese,Tamils and Muslims who have lost their children to guns and terror? Provided such an event was handled with utmost sensitivity and empathy, would that not have been a move towards reconciliation that would have created human bonding irrespective of whatever side of the divide people may have mourned their dead? Why have we not progressed to the level of discussing with the military and the Tamil citizenry soon after 2009 the holding of one commemoration against bloodshed, and thereby begun the enormously difficult journey of healing?

Poetry was an emotional outlet used by both the youth in the LTTE and the Lankan military to get through the mental trauma of war. Why have we missed the opportunity to have a collective poetry exhibition of the youth of our country who suffered in the war, regardless of what label they had, and thereby lead to the long and difficult path towards forgiveness and reconciliation? The question is have we even tried to give depth to the word ‘reconciliation’? If we had, would the nonsensical protesting arguments that ensued over the Sri Lankan National Anthem being sung in Tamil ever have occurred? If reconciliation was truly the aim, would not wisdom have propelled Sinhala politicians to use a well-coordinated consultative process with the Tamils to discuss issues pertaining to land, language and a post-war policy aimed at a people-oriented development in the North-East? Would not such a consultation have isolated from the Tamil masses any Tamil politician who did not give reconciliation a chance?

It is best that this article is ended with the narrative of a Major in the military. This writer was interviewing him for an academic research paper on reconciliation four years ago. He was from Polonnaruwa and his family, kith and kin had suffered inordinately at the hands of the LTTE, who used to invade their village in the night and kill at sight. Despite this, this youth, in his thirties, had no hate in his heart, a more of a trained trait alongside being from a practicing Buddhist family. He was doing an MA in peace studies and was interested in sharing his narrative for my research.

Here is his narrative verbatim:

“I will tell you a story. Stories like this, people won’t get to hear. There are so many accounts like this. This incident occurred around 2008, when I was leading my men and the fighting was bad. We knew there were female cadres who were shooting at us. Somehow, after some time, the shooting from their side ceased. We thought there was no one living. Suddenly, we saw a young woman struggling to reach up to her neck. Her gun was not with her. I quickly instructed my men not to shoot. She was wounded. My conscience told me a wounded person without a weapon should not be shot. She was badly hurt and I could see she feared us and therefore, struggling to reach for the cyanide round her neck. I appealed to her not to do so and not to harm me as I wanted to give her first aid to stem her bleeding so that she could hold on until her people found her. She was very weak. As she collapsed, I gave her water and bandaged her arm and kept some water and other provisions with her. We waited for a while and left as we heard the rebels approach. I still think of that incident. I hope she had survived the war and that she is leading a normal life now.”

How many such stories may there be, living in the minds of Sri Lankan youth who became either members of the military or the LTTE. Would not State-sponsored opportunity for such voices to be heard have brought forth the truth of humanity that is so badly needed in this country? Would not action by the State these past nine years to expedite cases against those held without charge and being accused of LTTE activities have created a sense of normalcy as due in times of peace? Would not the reconciliation process have been helped if, late as it is, the Government took initiative to mourn the 1983 catastrophe and took responsibility where needed? In this month of July, as we recall the heinous beginning of how we pushed the Tamils en masse to the arms of the LTTE, will we ever see policymaking that is based on Buddhist empathy, compassion and wisdom?

( The writer is a columnist for the Dialy FT, Colombo, where this piece originally appeared.) 

On Collective Humanity: Remembering Black July

MAATRAM-07/31/2018

“If the majority thinks that a minority community is posing a threat to them or are developing in a manner that creates fear among them, then it is a problem for the majority.”

In this interview, documentary film-maker T Jeyaraj comments on the formation of nationalist movements that resulted in violence in July 1983. He draws parallels to recent riots in March, where Buddhists targeted the Muslim community.

He also draws attention to recent news reports of the leopard-killing in Kilinochchi and the way it was reported by certain media as indicative of cruelty and inhumanity, while the inhumanity displayed in 1983, 2009 and during the riots in Digana and Ampara in 2018 remains unexamined.

This video interview is part of an ongoing series by Maatram reflecting on Black July.

To view more content marking 35 years since Black July, click here.

‘Criminal liability cannot be avoided by private arrangement’

Jaffna UNP MP’s call for reviving LTTE: 

By Shamindra Ferdinando-July 31, 2018, 11:53 pm

Criminal liability couldn’t be avoided by ‘private arrangement’ under any circumstances, top constitutional lawyer Manohara de Silva PC said yesterday.

There was inordinate delay on the part of the Attorney General in dealing with Jaffna District UNP MP and former State Minister for Child Affairs Vijayakala Maheswaran over her July 2 call for revival of the LTTE, De Silva said.

The previous government brought the war to a successful conclusion in May 2009.

The President’s Counsel said so when The Island asked him whether legal action was needed to be taken against the lawmaker in the wake of the UNP promising further disciplinary action in addition to Maheswaran’s resignation from her ministerial post.

Manohara de Silva said that the media, too, was responsible to a certain extent for its ‘poor’ reportage of the developments following Mrs. Maheswaran’s controversial speech at the Weerasingham Hall, Jaffna in the presence of several serving politicians, including Foreign Minister and former Attorney General Tilak Marapana and Public Administration Minister Vajira Abeywardena.

De Silva said that Mrs. Maheswaran quit her portfolio on July 5 following the uproar in parliament while Speaker Karu Jayasuriya sought the Attorney General’s opinion.

"Let me explain. The UNP taking action against Mrs. Maheswaran is an internal matter. But, such action cannot justify the Attorney General neglecting his responsibilities," De Silva said.

Asked whether the Attorney General had to file an indictment in accordance with Article 157 A against Mrs Maheswaran within a stipulated time frame, the President’s Counsel said: "No specific time but within reasonable time."

The senior attorney at law pointed out that a month had lapsed since Mrs. Maheswaran threw her weight behind the LTTE rump. Commenting on Speaker Jayasuriya seeking Attorney General’s opinion on Mrs. Maheswaran’ s statement, the President’s Counsel said the Attorney General could act on his own.

Vijayakala successfully contested the Jaffna electoral District on the UNP ticket after the LTTE assassinated her husband MP T. Maheswaran on January 1, 2008, at Kotahena.

Maheswaran’s LTTE assassin was sentenced to death by Colombo High Court Judge Sunil Rajapaksha on Aug 27, 2012.

Asked whether the Joint Opposition or some nationalist organization could intervene in this matter, Manohara de Silva said now that the Attorney General had refrained from acting in this regard, the Court of Appeal could be moved by anyone.

The Attorney General could be made to fulfill his obligations by filing a writ of mandamus, he said.

The constitutional lawyer pointed out that in accordance with Article 157 A, even indirectly supporting secession was also an indictable offence.

The police could not take action as only the Attorney had the power to indict a person.

The President’s Counsel recently told The Island that as there was sufficient evidence that the primary objective of the LTTE was to divide the country on ethnic lines, reviving the terrorist group therefore amounted to encouraging terrorism.

He said that the government and the Opposition ignored previous attempts by Mrs. Maheswaran to incite people. In Dec 2017, the then State Minister alleged in Jaffna that 200,000 Tamils had been massacred along with their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in the final phase of the war in 2009. Such a claim was meant to influence the Tamil electorate at Feb 10, 2018 Local Government polls, the National Joint Committee member said, asserting the battle among Tamil politicians shouldn’t be at Sri Lanka’s expense.

Manohara de Silva said that Mrs. Maheswaran’s conduct as a parliamentarian should have been scrutinized long before her July 2 speech. Once she compared President Sirisena and PM Wickremesinghe with terrorist leader Velupillai Prabhakaran at a government event in the northern province, the President’s Counsel said. Unfortunately, Mrs. Maheswaran escaped disciplinary action thereby paving the way for the ultimate challenge to the government.

Carcinogenic Kumar: Thanks, But No Thanks

By Grusha Andrews –JULY 31, 2018

In the year 2018, when France has a Macron, Croatia has a Kolinda Grabar and even Pakistan, a country with an estimated literacy rate of just 58%, elected an Imran Khan backed by its army in a moment of dangerous hope, the editor of Colombo Telegraph, Uvindu Kurukulasuriya has shown poor taste in sharing a two year old post from 2017 proposing Kumar Sangakkara for the Presidency of Sri Lanka. This post suggests that Sangakkara is of presidential material based on the fact that he ‘renounced’ the captaincy of the Sri Lanka cricket team. I translate his 2017 Facebook post: “what is needed are leaders who can renounce power. What Sri Lanka lacks is just that. What would happen if someone like Kumar Sangakkara emerges for 2020?”

Dangerous Memes Inflate Dangerous Men

Little does the editor Colombo Telegraph realize the danger of being an originator of a dangerous meme. It is irresponsible for a senior journalist of his political and professional maturity to propagate the myth that Kumar Sangakkara, ex cricket captain of Sri Lanka merits presidential hopes for an array of reasons. This meme has resurfaced with the election of Imran Khan to the premiership of Pakistan after two decades of tireless political activism and investment. The conversation in the media suggests that the presidency of Sri Lanka should be offered on a golden platter to Sangakkara, cricketer and once national icon perhaps the only traits Sangakkara shares with Imran Khan.

Sangakkara is a human embodying the very concepts of sharp and cunning strategy. His fluent ‘accented’ English and pageantry brand of western sophistication that can be aspired to by the common man only in his dreams making him a ‘can-do –no –wrong” gentleman in the eyes of the gullible Sri Lankans. In a country tragically devoid of heroes, even a cricketer playing for millions of rupees as a salary is a savior prince; a messiah; a resurrected Jesus; an unearthed prophet. The pathetic extent of Sri Lankan tradition of persona worship and western sophistication worship is such. 

Love, Sex, Accountability and Transparency

Sangakkara delivered the 2011 MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture at Lords, popularly considered “the most important speech in cricket history”. During this hall mark speech he stated “accountability and transparency in administration and credibility of conduct were lost in a mad power struggle that would leave Sri Lankan cricket with no clear, consistent administration”.

How sweet? It appears that Sangakkara is a big fan of yahapalana jigsaw pieces such as accountability and transparency. In 2015, an event organizing business called Live Events ‘pretended’ to organize a musical concert titled Love and Sex where Enrique Iglesias was to perform. Live Events, a company formed in the aftermath of Sangakkara’s retirement by himself, Mahela Jayawardena and others executed this event in a fashion amounting to daylight robbery and blatant disregard to any business ethic where the show did not start for over 3 hours and there was gross mismanagement of crowds, ripping off those who paid high prices for tickets .The company owned by Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena was reportedly involved in an estimated 30 million Sri Lankan rupees ($288,123) tax fraud in the form of evaded municipal tax due for this concert to the government. Sangakkara and Jayawardena who command great social and power clout due to their celebrity status wriggled out of this unprecedented entertainment cum business fraud with the following words: “although we know an apology or refund cannot fully satiate your disappointment, we wish to reiterate that we remain fully committed to all of you and our country,” Yeah. Some commitment to the people and the country. Transparency and accountability, anyone? Pity these Sri Lankan who think that such day light fraudsters will take us to a better place. 

Consistent Spokesperson For Cancer Causing Food Industry

From cement, telephone connections, shirts, substandard cars, three wheelers to supermarkets, Sangakkara has been a rampant endorser of goods putting his mouth where money is.

Read More

CID records statement from Lasantha's daughter currently in Australia

JUL 31 2018

Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers had, while in Australia to record a statement from Journalist Keith Noyahr, also recorded a statement from the daughter of slain Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickremathunga, Ahinsa Wickremathunga recently, informed sources at the CID said.

They said that the CID officers, who are currently in Australia to obtain a statement from Noyahr, in connection with his alleged abduction and assault case, which is currently being heard in the Mount Lavinia Chief Magistrate’s Court, had recorded a statement from Ahinsa Wickremathunga in connection with the case concerning the late Editor’s murder.

The CID sources said that details regarding the statement recorded from Ahinsa Wickremathunga are to be reported to the Court when the case into Lasantha Wickremathunga’s murder is heard next on 27 September.

Two suspects who were remanded in connection with Wickremathunge’s killing, former Mt Lavinia Police Crimes Officer-In-Charge, Tissa Sugathadasa and former Deputy Inspector General of Police Prasanna Nanayakkara, were released on bail in Rs 50,000 cash each and on two sureties of Rs 1 million each.

US to ‘support Sri Lanka fulfill UN resolution’

31Jul 2018

The United States said it will continue to “support Sri Lanka as it fulfills its commitments” to a United Nations resolution calling for an accountability mechanism with foreign judges to examine violations of international law committed during the armed conflict.

US Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Robert Hilton met with the Chief Minister of the Northern Province, where he “assured” him of the continued US support to fulfill the resolution.

“Assured Chief Minister Wigneswaran that the U.S. continues to support #SriLanka as it fulfills its commitments under #UNHRC Resolutions 30/1 (2015) and 34/1 (2017),” tweeted Mr Hilton. 

“These commitments facilitate Sri Lanka’s expanded relationship with the U.S. and many others nations.”

Earlier this month the outgoing US Ambassador told the Tamil National Alliance that the UN Human Rights Council resolution on accountability and transitional justice would remain a basis for the relationship between Sri Lanka and the USA,

Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena has repeatedly spoken out against allowing foreign judges into the country to partake in an accountability mechanism – a key component of the 2017 UN Human Rights resolution. Despite this military relations between the two governments have grown.

Related Articles: 

26 July 2018 : Sri Lankan president claims US General praised army’s 'reconciliation efforts'

19 July 2018 : Sri Lankan army chief tells US of ‘Civil-Military projects’ in North-East

05 July 2018 : US trains Sri Lankan troops as part of RIMPAC 2018

03 June 2018 : Sri Lanka to join world’s largest navy exercise in USA

02 June 2018 : US and Sri Lankan air forces discuss regional security and further training

01 June 2018 : Sirisena appreciates US role in training Sri Lankan armed forces

07 July 2018 : UN resolution will stay as basis for US-Sri Lanka relationship, outgoing Ambassador tells TNA

Need for a democratic political culture

Anil Pagoda Arachchi-Wednesday, August 1, 2018

A group of politicians overthrown by the voters with their cohorts seem to scramble through the present political arena of the country crafting their strategies to grab the power in the forthcoming elections, be it the presidential elections or elections for the provincial councils.

We the general public have got to be politically conscious of their manoeuvres, for their detrimental nature can drag the country into the abysmal depths of chauvinism and anarchy. This must be said because the about-face of the political landscape of the country is more than the indiscipline of expected democratic political culture. The harder truth is that many politicians have no productive options except pouring eloquence on building political images.

Admittedly, this stubborn reality has to be done away with if a coherent democratic political culture is to be firmly established to steer the country out of this stenching political bog. What I mean by a democratic political culture is the genuine political will of both politicians and the people as the basic requirement for democracy to flourish. In a democratic political culture, particularly men or women who lead political parties are not worshipped as idols but they are open to public scrutiny and criticism. To our dismay, what is happening today is not taking ardent efforts or taking appropriate decisions for nation building but venerating their own political leader as a god given personality heaping all the virtues on him as the only saviour of the country. These cohorts act almost impulsively not to speak out about political issues that impact the good governance and development process of the country, but to idolize their leader as the best political figure. In a way, they bring out this hazard for achieving their own political elements, for it is quite clear, many of them will be dumped into the political dustbin by the people if they do not hang themselves onto the colours of their leaders.

Chauvinism

The dirtiest and worst strategy a politician can adapt to get him hooked to the power is to run on the wheel of chauvinism. Some garrulous and unself-conscious politicians who describe themselves as the political whiz kids of the day seem to go to the wilderness of chauvinism merely to evoke emotions among the people depicting a picture that the country is on the verge of being engulfed in flames of yet another internecine war.

There is a high price to pay if we emotionally involve the people in such notions that can kindle their emotions particularly when it comes to the topic of national security and integrity. Therefore, any utterances made towards chauvinism are likely to be fraught with the risk of dragging the country to the shimmers of the turmoil of ethnic disharmony. Elimination and annihilation of any views pertaining to chauvinistic politics must be one of the priorities of the genuine peace loving politicians and the members of the civil society.

Concerted efforts

It is high time we brought in consensus among all the politicians of various hues and all the communities to lay down a common framework for a democratic political culture that will pave the way for establishing a new society to work for the common goal of nation-building without being trapped in communal politics.

Any attempts that deter such a move by any politician or an individual must be looked down upon. Politicians should not degrade themselves to such situations for running on the wave of communal politics for selfishly achieving their personal political goals. It is the responsibility of the existing government to initiate on a campaign with the full cooperation of the other political parties to have a very compressive discussion for the stipulation of the fundamentals of such a framework that can be accepted and followed by all the political parties of the country.

What is badly needed in the post-war period of the country is to work for creating a democratic political culture that can take firm roots in the Sri Lankan society and it will then leave no room for communal tension and disharmony between the ethnic groups. Though attempts have been made by the governments for constructing a bridge for national integration, they have not so far been able to create a conducive political culture where all the masses of the country irrespective of the ethnic group and religious faiths become committed to being active members striving to build a Sri Lankan society.

Voters’ responsibility

It has been a common phenomenon in the Sri Lankan political scenario that the majority of the voters are blindly glued to their respective political parties or allies. They are not used to critically looking into the policies of their political parties and then to decide on the political party to be brought into power. If a stalwart of their political party commits a heinous crime and is convicted by a court, what the voters do is to make big efforts to find excuses to wash him or her of the wrongdoing merely for the sake of winning the elections. Yet what should be the primary duty of the voters in a democratic political culture? Whatever they do or any decisions they take must be to protect the democratic culture.\

If a politician of his party behaves in an undemocratic manner, it is the duty of the voter to reject him even though he is a big personality. But, our political culture does not seem to have grown to such heights. The main repercussion of this situation has therefore been to persistently strengthen the decaying and rotten values that hamper the process of building a democratic political culture for the country.

Tragic story of betrayal of a dignified service

“It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.” ~Aung San Suu Kyi

2018-08-01

eylon Civil Service, later transformed into Sri Lanka Administrative Service, has been a dignified public service.‘It functioned as part of the executive administration of the country in various degrees until Ceylon gained self-rule in 1948. Until it was abolished on 1 May 1963 it functioned as the permanent bureaucracy or secretariat of Crown employees that supported the Government of Ceylon’ (Source: Wikipedia).
Among the great men who peopled this strikingly distinct public service were Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam (The first Ceylonese Civil Servant), Shirley Amarasinghe, Raju Coomaraswamy, Sir Richard Aluvihare, M J Perera, G V P Samarasinghe, Bradman Weerakoon, M D D Peiris and Mahi Wickremaratne.

"Yet, Lalith Weeratunga’s assertions that the Rajapaksa Family is the sole political entity that could serve the needs of the people of Sri Lanka are a gross abuse of his office as a senior member of Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS)."

Outside the Civil Service per se, there were some outstanding public servants, who contributed immensely to the enrichment of the public life of the nation. Amongst them were Dr Wickrema Weerasooria, Lal Jayawardene and Warnasena Rasaputra.
All these gentlemen were not devoid of politics. They certainly would have had their personal political thinking and even might have had their personal biases right throughout their careers.
Yet, they did not go before the television cameras and openly canvass public opinion on behalf of their masters.
That is the legacy, in addition to their splendid work as public servants, which they left behind- a total apolitical demeanour before the public.
How does a political bearing of a public servant, especially during the time of an election, matter and how does that particular behaviour colour the public service as a whole?

That is the question each public servant in the country is faced with today and what Lalith Weeratunga, Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Secretary during the eight years of their power, did during those vile years and what he is portraying himself to be is laughable.
Today Lalith Weeratunga is an alleged offender.
The allegation that he was one of the key people in the alleged abuse of State money for the purchase of the infamous Sil Redi in order to sway the voters of Sinhalese Buddhist ilk is a formidable one.

How he would be plotting to extricate himself in courts of law is another matter altogether.
Yet, Lalith Weeratunga’s assertions that the Rajapaksa Family is the sole political entity that could serve the needs of the people of Sri Lanka are a gross abuse of his office as a senior member Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS).
After being a direct beneficiary of the Rajapaksa rule and presiding over a public service that was subjected to total apathy and subservience to one single family rule, Weeratunga now resorts to justifying the rule of the Rajapaksas on grounds of speedy action and decision-making processes that were present during that time.
After being the most dominant public servant during the Rajapaksa regime, the inevitable message sent down the well-structured layers of the SLAS is one of ‘It’s okay to look the other way when politicians resort to looting the Government coffers’.

The grave damage  caused to the once-dignified SLAS is incredible. What is even more injurious is what he has chosen to do after his retirement from serving the Rajapaksa family instead of the country.
Whatever Weeratunga’s defence his lawyers are contemplating, his association with Mahinda Rajapaksa from the outset of the Helping Hambantota fiasco (From which Mahinda Rajapaksa was acquitted by the then Chief Justice Sarath N Silva, whose political allegiances continue to change as the country’s un-forecastable weather), has been solid and unbreakable. Nevertheless, Sarath N. Silva later apologized to the people of Sri Lanka for rendering a ‘wrong’ decision in the Helping Hambantota case.

"The allegation that he was one of the key people in the alleged abuse of State money for the purchase of the infamous of Sil Redi in order to sway the voters of Sinhalese Buddhist ilk is a formidable one."

Rajapaksas have a very obscure and indefinable relationship with facts.
Having been comforted by the luxuries of absolute power from 2005 to 2014, they are still living in that exalted cocoon from which they seem utterly uncomfortable to come out.
This happens to all dictatorial leaders.
Chanakya, the sage of the ancient world said that ‘the ultimate goal of all rulers should be to make their subjects free of fear’. The Rajapaksas have done the exact opposite.
Having installed his own brother in the Ministry of Defence as its administrative and financial head, Mahinda Rajapaksa unleashed some of the worst and atrocious forces against the people who chose to defy them.

Lalith Weeratunga was indeed an integral part of that wheel of fear and terror. A complete public servant like M D D Peiris who was one time Secretary to Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike would have shuddered and handed his resignation if he were asked to look the other way.
Speaking of a public service of the past is utterly useless unless one needs to see where some constructive changes could be introduced and implemented. That public service is gone and is a derelict of the dead past.
The current crop of public servants who are dominating the upper echelons of SLAS might not be unrelenting in carrying out the government policies, but their commitment and allegiance to facts, accountability and transparency seem to have fallen by the wayside.
If there were one person who could be singularly responsible for such a sharp fall in the public service in Sri Lanka, it was Lalith Weeratunga.
His close relationship with Mahinda Rajapaksa made his visibility to the public even more distinct.
Lalith Weeratunga appeared on television and other radio talk shows during the last Presidential Election campaign.

"After being the most dominant public servant during the Rajapaksa regime ..Weeratunga’s demeanour reveals a picture that ‘it’s okay to look the other way when politicians resort to looting the Government coffers’."

They are indeed inexcusable. No public servant has done before and no public servant has done since.
Secretary to the President is an apolitical job. He may have his own personal political allegiances and likes. Yet, those who are chosen to that service, Sri Lanka Administrative Service, are deemed to have ridden themselves of that political garb when they execute government policies.
It is one thing to implement policies and programmes dictated by the Cabinet of Ministers who are politicians but to openly exhibit undiluted bias and prejudices towards a political vision is no embellishment to his professional career.
The writer has chosen a quotation from Aung San Suu Kyi, the charismatic new leader of Myanmar.
She couldn’t have been more correct. The loss of power for Mahinda Rajapaksa was deeply felt by his immediate family and close cohorts. Lalith Weeratunga belongs to the latter category- close cohorts.

That loss of power and a faint hope of regaining that power could be all-consuming. There is no aphrodisiac more powerful than power, so said Henry Kissinger. That love of power has turned into a lust; that lust is driving them into a corner, not of reflection on their mistakes and erroneous decisions; it has turned their attention to a more immediate need- how to regain that power.
In that pursuit of lust, they are trying to legitimize and validate their wrongful decisions not in the way a scientist trying to rectify an entry of wrong facts into a scientific formula but as a hungry predator pursuing a helpless and unarmed prey running for its life. That is the tragic story of a dignified service to which Lalith Weeratunga belongs.

The writer can be contacted at vishwamithra1984@gmail.com

Gota’s conspiracy hatched in Vihara: his ‘military junta’ to create an LTTE ‘ghost’ under guise of searching for buried LTTE weapons !

(Lanka e News -31.July.2018, 11.45PM) The search  for the arms and gold  hidden by the LTTE which is being  carried out by digging at various places. Though nothing was found these  operations are well planned and conducted by the pensioned military major General junta who are now  moving heaven and earth to propel Gotabaya to power.

During the initial stages  following the good  governance government coming into power , based on  spurious information employing various individuals searches for  weapons and gold  of the LTTE were conducted in the North. It is specially noteworthy , this is now a futile  routine operation so much so it is being carried out weekly.

The latest of this series of  excavation  was that conducted in the Ammankulam tank , Nallur , Jaffna on the 29 th by the security division on the information received that there was a large quantity of LTTE weapons there. However nothing was found. The previous week another search was conducted in the Maniyathottam tank in Jaffna town , based on information received that an LTTE plastic  barrel of war equipment was thrown into  that tank . There too nothing suspicious was found.

There is a  most perplexing side to  this racket : This area was captured by the army in 1996 during the period when Ratwatte was the defense minister , and not after the war was won in 2009.  The information which was not  received  during the 19 years -from  1996 until 2015 that is until  the Rajapakses were thrown out lock ,stock and barrel from power , is most intriguingly being received only now.  When it was  probed who these informants are ,…… That was the time Gotabaya had fled to America in fear of the war to work in Seven Eleven shops.

Following the conclusion of the war in 2009, five international organizations including Dash, Hello Trust , Sharp, as well as the SL army cleared the entire war zone - North and East of the claymore mines , killer bombs, tank destruction bombs  which were buried by the LTTE  , and now there remains only a small 27 kilometers area to be cleared. According to that team , the entire area can be cleared and completed by 2020.

While this is the true position , every week digging is being done  in vain for  hidden weapons despite the fact  the team which was digging in search of bombs hidden  one inch beneath could not find.  In the end nothing is found . Yet no punishment has still been meted to any informant who is providing false tip offs.

Discovering two bombs buried  in the zone where a war raged for  30 years is understandable.  .  Bombs which were left behind during the second world war are still being found in Europe.

Nevertheless , one need not be a war specialist to realize it is a waste of time,  money  and a direct  sabotage activity , to go on excavating  the tanks based on mere  spurious information , only to finally conclude  , nothing could be found.

The masterminds behind the search  for LTTE weapons inspired by bogus tip offs ..

The masterminds behind these sabotage stupid activities are none other than the retired  ‘ military junta’ of Gotabaya.

Gota’s ‘military junta’ is conducting these excavations employing their henchmen giving massive media publicity only  to  instill the fear  in the minds of  the people that ‘the  LTTE is rearing its head again’. The other lie they are propagating simultaneously is , the forces will be  evacuated from  the north.  The army commander of the north in response to that recently said , no camp of the forces will be withdrawn , neither are the forces going to be trimmed down  in the north.

Gota’s ‘military junta’ has formed a new organization under the name ‘ Hela Jathika Bala Muluwa’ . The meeting of this  group which was  held at Sambudhaloka Vihare , Lotus Road , Fort on the 3 rd, was joined in by retired major general Kamal Gunaratne alias Handikadal Kamal ,retired Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera , former air force commander Roshan Gunatileke and Elle Gunawansa Thera a notorious  culprit who is accused of collecting large sums of cash  from the Chinese , and was exposed  openly by New York Times.

This abominable group at the meeting discussed how to use the LTTE  ‘ghost’ to achieve their deadly and despicable goals , and the excavation  of tanks for LTTE weapons drama is an outcome  of the conspiracy hatched at the discussions.

Another retired major General W.A.R.Soysa , a former Petroleum Corporation Chairman  had also newly joined the ‘military junta’ . Under the name of ‘Ranaviru power for a united country’ he has originated another ‘creation’

Military Junta has already made Gota the president !

The military junta has planned and plotted  not only to topple the good governance government but even to crush the Lotus Bud  opposition , with a view to reinforce its own strength. Nevertheless , the Lotus Bud leaders Basil , Welgama and Vasu who are working  within the Democratic framework have started their campaign overtly and openly against the pressures exerted by the ‘military junta’.

‘From that side , a Prabhakaran is being demanded, from the South a Hitler is being demanded. Then where is the country headed ? In that event can the people live?  Can you sleep? Welgama openly questioned.  Vasu too  pointed out in public ‘ it is the need of the retired military officers to  form a military government’  .

It is a pity the ‘military junta’ that shows  no concern for national interests  has made Gota the ‘president’ already. They are even treating   the Rajapakse’ s MPs with disdain. While a former deputy minister was seated in the front row at Hotel Shangrila recently  when Gota delivered a lecture , the members of the junta told him to take a seat  in the rear row , and offered his seat to a former chief of the forces. The deputy minister who was enraged by this had remarked , ‘ if these fellows are like this even before seizing power , how will it be if they come to power?’

The major generals – the chiefs of Gota’s military junta treating the lower rank officers  and clashes resulting thereby have also become a common scene . These military junta members accustomed to their characteristic swelled headed ways disregard the lower officers. Consequently one major is already disillusioned with the military junta of Gota.

We can only say one thing about Gota’s journey ‘ he arrived too early’

-By a special correspondent-

-Translated by Jeff-

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by     (2018-07-31 22:09:49)