Mervyn’s Donald abducted

Saturday, 07 January 2012

One of Minister Mervyn Silva’s closest lackeys Panadura Donald alias Maligawatte Donald was reportedly abducted by a group of unidentified persons this morning.

He had been abducted in Moratuwa while traveling to Colombo from Panadura.

It is believed that the abduction had been carried out by Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s “white van clan” that has been assigned to crack down on the persons involved in large scale extortion rackets together with the Minister.

A senior official from the Defence Ministry said the Defence Secretary had received information that Panadura Donald was involved n extorting monies from businessmen who come for auctions at the Colombo Port. The Defence Secretary had on several occasions asked Donald to stop the extortion racket.

Although an attempt was made to abduct him from near the Odel shopping complex, he had managed to escape with the help of some of his friends.

However, another group of persons affiliated to Mervyn who are involved in extorting monies are to be abducted following information revealed by one of the Minister’s coordinating secretaries, Amal Rodrigo who was also abducted and released last month.

Although the Chairman and several UPFA councilors of the Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha were also in the list of persons to be abducted, they have managed to get “bail” from the Defence Secretary after giving him details about the misdeeds that take place in Kelaniya.

UPFA councilor of the Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha told us that even the President was not aware of some of the details unraveled by the Defence Secretary with regard to the underworld and extortion.

He added that the President has asked the Defence Secretary not to harm Mervyn Silva although there were a large number of allegations against him.

Last Updated on Saturday, 07 January 2012 19:51

Incidents of rape rise drastically in SL--Lack of concern by parents cited as the main reason

Sunday 08 January 2012

By Gayan Kumara Weerasingha

While official records indicate five rape cases per day in Sri Lanka, unofficial figures could be double or treble the number, officials say. Many such cases go unreported, for victims and families do not want the attendant publicity that such unsavoury incidents being in their wake.

According to statistics compiled by the Police Department for the period January 1 to November 30, 2011 the number of recorded cases stood at 1636, while cases are continuing to be recorded on a daily basis.

In the year 2010, the number of rape cases that were recorded by the Police Department was 1054. As such, the number of cases for the year 2011 far exceeds those for 2010 – and could go down as being the year with the highest number of incidents of rape in the country’s history. 
Police Department sources say that one of the most unsavoury developments in this regard is the raping of not only women, but children of both sexes. 
Prior to 1990, the number of cases had been far less, as per official records. In the year 1990, Sri Lanka had 365 recorded cases of rape. Twenty one years later (in 2011) the number has risen to 1636 in the first 11 months. 

Rape of underage children
Taking crimes committed in December 2011, of the overall statistics collated by the Police Department, rape cases amount to 48 per cent while murders were 27 per cent. What is alarming is that of the total percentage of rape cases, 89 per cent are those of girls and boys who are underage.  
Crime scientist (the only such person serving the Police Department) C.S.K. Millavithanachchi explained the situation, and said that the newly opened Crime Analyst’s Bureau (CAB) of the Police Department, mooted by the IGP N.K. Illangakoon – would serve to meticulously record these incidents and address a plethora of issues in this regard. 
According to Millavithanachchi, the isolation of underage girls and boys sans sufficient protection by adults has contributed in large measure to them being victims of rape. Statistics received by the CAB reveal that the majority of cases are from the Anuradhapura and Ratnapura districts while youths in the age group of 20-30 years are the perpetrators of the crime against women, some of who are as old as 70-90 years, as reported last year from Kahawatte in the Ratnapura district. Yet another case reported recently was that of a police officer in charge who had raped a woman within the confines of the police station. Also reported was the case in which a senior army officer had raped a middle-aged woman who had been asleep when the incident took place. Sources say that some politicians are also allegedly perpetrators of rape of women and children.  
Foreigners visiting the country have also undergone the trauma of being raped. The latest incident was reported from Polhena, Matara where on January 3, a Dutch tourist had been allegedly raped by the owner of the hotel in which she had been staying.

Crime escalates 
Head of the Child and Women’s Bureau of the police, IP Manoj Kumara said that rape cases continue to escalate with each passing day, and noted that more women and children were making complaints unlike in the past when they desisted from doing so. He says that if every victim makes an official complaint, then the Police Department would be able to take effective measures to combat the crime, proactively. 
IP Kumara is of the view that the majority of rape cases concerning  underage girls and boys are definitely a crime even if according to the law of the country a girl who is 16 years cn consent to sleeping with a man. He added that in view of modern technology, the number of cases have steadily risen over the years, more so since the 1970s and 1980s. 

Lack of parental supervision
The fact that parents leave their children without supervision while they are at work, and the lack of monitoring of the type of activities that children engage in have led to the drastic increase of rape of children. If parents supervise and monitor their children’s activities the incidents could be reduced to a large extent, IP Kumara added. 
“Tuition classes have also contributed to this trend. The majority of young schoolboys and schoolgirls get entangled in romantic liaisons while attending tuition classes and some girls end up as victims of rape. This is reality,” he opined. In addition, there have been numerous cases of incest where immediate family members have resorted to raping daughters and granddaughters, IP Kumara explained.

Mass culling of stray dogs opposed

07 January, 2012

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  Nearly three million stray dogs have become a public helath issue, says the Govt

  
  

  Animal rights campaigners in Sri Lanka have urged the government to conduct a proper research on the impact of stray dogs before re-initiating a mass culling programme.

  Health Minister Maithreepala Sirisena has told Swarnavahini television that Sri Lanka would lift a moratorium on killing stray dogs, because of rabies concerns.

  The government attempts to cut down on the 2,000 people that are hospitalised every day after being bitten, AFP news agency reported quoting the minister.

  Dr Kala Shantha, a veterinary surgeon who has long been campaigning against the killing of stray dogs told BBC Sandeshaya that according to her information, it is the domesticated dogs that have bitten most of the people, not the stray dogs.       Full Story>>>

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Sri Lanka's Killing Fields - Channel 4 UK Documentory Jon Snow presents a forensic investigation into the final weeks of the quarter-century-long civil war between the government of Sri Lanka and the secessionist rebels, the Tamil Tigers. With disturbing and distressing descriptions and film of executions, atrocities and the shelling of civilians the programme features devastating new video evidence of war crimes - some of the most horrific footage Channel 4 has ever broadcast. read more...

Sri Lanka’s democratic institutions have metastasized into something dangerous

*groundview journalism For citizens 

Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrematunge    7 Jan, 2012

Photo courtesy Vikalpa

January 8 marks the third death anniversary of Lasantha Wickrematunge a human rights journalist from Sri Lanka who fought fearlessly for the freedom of the press and relentlessly pursued what he believed was right. On January 8, 2009 he was brutally murdered by the Sri Lankan authorities for his journalism.

Three years after Lasantha’s brutal murder despite the vapid assurances of the Rajapakse regime to the international community, Sri Lanka has turned into a lawless state of abductions, rape and murder with at least two of these incidents taking place in the New Year.

Continue reading »

Women of Tahrir: Frustration at revolution's failures

By Hanan Razek
6 January 2012

It was a photograph that shocked the world - an Egyptian military policeman beating a protester in a hijab with sticks and dragging her along the street so that her clothes were torn open. It seemed to symbolise the vulnerability of women in a society that has changed little since last year's revolution.

Many Egyptian women felt they had few rights or protections under President Hosni Mubarak, but the sense of liberation after he fell raised many women's hopes.

Although they were in the front line alongside men during the revolution, a year on there is a clear sense of disappointment felt by many women.

Images of a female protester being beaten by riot police triggered rallies in the capital Cairo

Continue reading the main story

Nada Zatouna: ''I still go the the square..and will keep going there''   Full Story>>>

China syndrome dictates Barack Obama's Asia-Pacific strategy

Obama has no wish to conjure the spectre of a new cold war but is determined to beat back any Chinese bid for hegemony
Simon Tisdall   Friday 6 January 2012

President Barack Obama and General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff (right) outline the US defence strategy at the Pentagon - without mentioning China Photograph: Greg E. Mathieson, Sr/Rex Features

Barack Obama made a special trip to the Pentagon this week to unveil America's post-Iraq, post-Afghanistan defence strategy. But amid all the president's talk about a leaner American military, evolving challenges of the new century, and shifting priorities after a decade of warfare, one particular word was nowhere to be heard: China.

The omission is understandable, but misleading. As a politician running for re-election as a peacemaker, Obama has no wish to conjure the spectre of a new cold war with the only serious challenger to America as number one global superpower.    Full Story>>>

How hard is it to admit fault, Ambassador Wickramasuriya?

*groundview journalism For citizens   6 Jan, 2012

Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the US, Jaliya Wickramasuriya, recently responded to the Crisis Group Report’s assertion that assault on women in Sri Lanka is on the rise. On the one hand, the Ambassador denies the very existence of rape or violence against women in Sri Lanka – “Rapes, this and that not taking any place in Sri Lanka”. On the other hand, he admits that is does exist, by saying that “Like any other country, we have, like couple of cases”. Having thus stumbled his way through with these two contradictory statements, the Ambassador then lists two reasons to support his first assertion. One, that there was no evidence on the increase of violence against women. Two, that Sri Lanka is culturally incomparable because the country has so many women in key positions of authority, it is impossible to think any women are victims of violence. Hence, in his own words, “100% I don’t agree with the report”

The Ambassador however is quick to justify the existence of the ‘couple’ of cases (the ones he first said did not exist) by pointing fingers at the US – “you also have some cases like this”. The logic here seems to be that since its ok and there for you, its ok and there for us too. He then goes on to reassure those listening that “when it comes, the police or whoever will take action against that”.  He tellingly trails off in the end with the word “normally”. Perhaps what he means to say is that ‘normally’, the Police would take action against these things, but sometimes, the possibility exists that they won’t.

I don’t understand this. I don’t understand why our diplomats and politicians continue to bristle defensively, refusing to accept fault, scrambling to cover the massive chip on their collective shoulders. How hard can it be to admit one is wrong? How very different would it have been if Ambassador Wickramasuriya had said ‘Yes this is a problem, but we as a nation are committed to ending it’?

Instead, we have the Ambassador proudly list out that Sri Lanka was the first nation to have a female Prime Minister followed by a female President, that Sri Lanka’s current Attorney-General and Chief Justice are both women, that most organisations are run by women and that over 50% of Sri Lanka’s workforce is female. I don’t get how any of this adds up to his assertion that there is no violence or assault against women in Sri Lanka? If the Ambassador was trying to prove that there is no gender discrimination in the island, he is still wrong. For it is a combination of the right political connections, money, class and education that propelled these women forward, not the absence of gender discrimination. The female workforce he speaks of are those that are the most vulnerable to abuse. These are the women that, for work, often have leave behind their children with abusive husbands. These are the women who spend their days hunched over sewing machines earning dollars for their employers and a pittance for themselves. These are the women that spend their days picking tea leaves by hand.

As I noted in a recent article to Groundviews, the assault, abuse, rape and violence against women in Sri Lanka is not restricted to a particular class. It exists everywhere. I know and appreciate those committed to creating platforms and safe spaces to help women educate and empower themselves. But that progress is hampered when the likes of Ambassador Wickramasuriya and those he represents deny the existence of assault, rape and violence against women. Turning a blind eye to those trapped in that viscous cycle – leaving them alone, unrecognised with little or no recourse – it to prolong and worsen their torture. In denying the existence of assault, rape and violence against women, the Ambassador is denying the existence of women like me, who have been abused. His weak argument that the Police or related authorities would take action in the case of such occurrences falls short of being true, for what I experienced with the Police was further discrimination and sneering, not support.

So what exactly is the Ambassador saying? There is no abuse, but there is some abuse, and when there is some abuse, the Police deals with it… normally.
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Another young foreign tourist , a victim of rape flees Sri Lanka – MaRa's ‘Asian wonder’ truly working!

 

Students accuse authorities of bomb attack

Friday, 06 January 2012 

University students on Thursday held a massive demonstration in Colombo demanding authorities to remove the Vice Chancellor of Sri Jayawardenapura University.

They marched towards the Temple Trees to handover a letter to President Mahinda Rajapaksa but were blocked at Kollupitiya Junction by police.

Having failed to meet the President the students vouched to continue their campaign against the vice chancellor.

Dialogue failed

“If we can not have a solution by means of dialogue, university authorities will also have to face difficulties,” said student leader, Ven.Kimbullewe Chandanada thera.

An explosion on Friday caused damage to ‘Sisu Viru Smarakaya’ at the university premises.

It was a monument put up to remember the student activists killed during the unrest in 1971, 1988 and 1989.

The convenor of Inter- University Student Ferderation (IUSF) said that the authorities who banned student unions have now threatened students’ life by bombs.

However, the Vice Chancellor of the Sri Jayawardenapura University, Prof. L.M.A. Karunaratna has told journalist in Colombo that the attack on the memorial had been done by students themselves to gain media attention.

Hands off Mervyn – President tells Gota

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has told Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa not to take any action that would hinder Minister Mervyn Silva’s political path and not to encourage any such action as well. The Preisdent has also asked the Defence Secretary to take stern legal action against the persons involved in extorting monies using the minister’s name.

The President has issued this directive to the Defence Secretary after the minister had explained that his work is being hampered by the actions of certain security officers.

Minister Mervyn Silva has claimed that he would act against the Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman and councilors who have pasted posters against him in the Kelaniya area. The minister has met the President.

The minister has said the Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha members have been instigated to act against him by a politician from the Gampaha District.

The President had looked at a security report and informed that there were many allegations against the local government members in Kelaniya and that they were involved in drug peddling and extortion.

The President has also revealed that the intelligence units have gathered information that the Chairman of the Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha Prasanna Ranaweera who lived a hut when her entered politics has now built a house like a palace using the monies earned through irregular means.

The President has further noted that the chairman has filled marsh lands adjoining his property and has commenced a business of manufacturing brick and has also illegally acquired lands belonging to the Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha.

According to the President has earned millions of rupees as bribes for approving plans in the Kelaniya area.

Another revelation made by the President was that councilor of the Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha Nishantha Duminda Perera alias Chamila was a well known drug dealer in the area. He was also engaged in extorting monies from street vendors in Pettah.

Another councilor Hasitha Madawala was also engaged in many notorious activities and the intelligence units have found him to be involved in the drug business as well.

The President has also noted that another councilor K.M. Lanka Vijitha who is closely affiliated to Mervyn Silva was involved in sending young girls to overseas countries in an illegal manner after sexually abusing them.

Mervyn Silva had not rejected any of the issues raised by the President about the councilors through intelligence reports.

Rr. cum Dr. Mervyn has given contract to kill Kelaniya miniature (local) body members

(Lanka-e-News -06.Jan.2012, 11.55PM) Because the chairman, Vice chairman and other Govt. members of the local body of Kelaniya had opposed the raging extortionist activities and corruption of Dr. (or rather Rotter) Rr. Mervyn Silva, the latter had conspired with underworld groups to murder these local body members, according to reports reaching Lanka e news.

Rr.cum Dr. Mervyn the infamous vermin had hatched a conspiracy with the assistance of a Hikkaduwa, Galle gang ,and a Colombo Muslim gang

Muslim underworld gang with this goal in mind. Rr. Mervyn had promised a sum of Rs. 10 lakhs or more for each murder committed at his behest.

Mervyn the vermin had also told his henchmen Sarath Edirisinghe alias Singapore Sarath(In the picture) and Gamini Thilaksiri alias Booru Thilak when discussing with them that , he suspects the President as behind the antagonism of the local body members who have turned hostile to him, and his monumentally evil activities. ‘ Otherwise these fellows will not act so high handedly. Anyway , I will teach them a good lesson ‘ he had thundered .

Meanwhile , the group of local body members who are opposed to Mervyn the vermin ,have alleged that there are motor bike riding unidentified suspicious underworld elements hovering about their places of residence . When these members have gone to make a complaint to the police, the station OIC of the police Pushpakumara who is a stooge of Rr.cum Dr. Mervyn the vermin had refused to take down the complaint. ( Lanka e news revealed in its Sinhala edition , on 14th December , in an article ‘how Kelaniya Pushpakumara became station OIC’) .

The Chairman , Vice Chairman and all other Govt. members of the local body of Kelaniya held a media briefing on the 5th to expose the monumental extortion and corruption activities of Rotter (Rr) cum Dr. Mervyn the vermin who has become a menace to all law abiding citizens while parading as a paragon of virtue and as a ‘high and mighty’ supported by the only qualification – MaRa ‘s

‘serapu soopuwa’ (MaRa’s bootlicker). This media discussion video footage can be viewed by clicking on the title ‘members of the miniature bodies strip Mervyn of his clothes’ below here in the Lanka e news.

Appeal to UN over missing Sri Lanka activists

6 January 2012 

Lalith Kumar Weeraraj organised demonstrations on behalf of families of missing people

Campaigners in Sri Lanka have urged the United Nations to intervene in the case of two activists believed to have been abducted last month.

Some accuse the security forces of abducting the men but police say they are doing their best to find them.

Lalith Kumar Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganathan organised demonstrations by the families of missing people.

They disappeared while organising one such rally in Jaffna, a city central to the civil war which ended in 2009.

A campaign group, Students for Human Rights, handed a letter to the UN’s country chief Subinay Nandy asking that the UN Human Rights Council help investigate their disappearance.

Nuwan Bopage, president of Students for Human Rights, said outside the UN building in Colombo: “We have written to all the authorities but so far they have not even responded to us. We still believe they are in military custody.”

Supporters have maintained that they believe the security forces secretly abducted them, not least because Jaffna is firmly controlled by the military and because the wife of one of the victims says she later spotted their motorcycle inside a police compound.

The army and police deny holding the men. A police spokesman told the BBC a special investigation was under way.

He said there was no evidence of an abduction but asked people to come forward if they had witnessed such an event.

But campaigners said possible witnesses had been threatened or had gone into hiding, and that they had reported seeing five men taking the activists away in an unmarked white van.

Unsolved disappearances

The father of one of the missing men, Arumugan Weeraraj, said his son only wanted to help people from northern Sri Lanka find their missing family members.

“Please allow me at least to talk to him,” he said.

It has emerged that the other missing man, Mr Muruganathan, once belonged to the Tamil Tigers but left the separatist group 10 years ago.

Several other people have disappeared in unexplained circumstances since Mr Weeraraj and Mr Muruganathan went missing.

The UN says there are more than 5,000 cases of unsolved enforced disappearance in Sri Lanka. The rate has dropped since the end of the war but it has since risen again.

Since the two human rights workers disappeared there have been no more demonstrations for the families of missing people.

Janatha Muruganathan, the wife of one of the missing men, said outside the UN in Colombo: “Please give my husband back. We are suffering without him. He has done no wrong to anyone. Please help us find him.”

Activists say that during his own campaigns for missing people, Lalith Kumar Weeraraj had visited several places of detention and found there two people who had gone missing.

Tamils in Sri Lanka doubtful about latest LLRC report

In December, the report of the Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission(LLRC) was published. It called on the government to investigate war crimes by both sides (government armed forces and the Tamil LTTE army). It also stipulated requirements for long-term reconciliation between Sinhalese and Tamil groups. But are there signs of any form of reconciliation?

Many Tamils doubt the possibility of an unbiased investigation as long as the military continues to kill, abduct, torture or rape Tamil civilians, they say.

“There are around 40,000 troops in Jaffna alone with a population of 550,000. That is a civilian-military ratio of 1:11," says Ramesh, a Tamil academic from the Tamil-majority city of Jaffna. "It will be a joke to suggest that investigations can happen under this climate. He declined to give his real name because of fear of reprisals.

The government has been saturating Tamil-majority areas with military personnel mostly after the LTTE was defeated in May 2009 and its top leadership was killed. Human rights organisations say the manner of some of the rebels deaths are suspicious and could be classified as war crimes. 

While admitting there had been attacks on civilians by government troops, the LLRC report says they were the result of individual misdemeanours and not systematic military policy.

A farceAnandan, a Tamil who also refused to give his name fearing intimidation, was as dismissive as Ramesh of the thought of an unbiased government investigation. “It is a farce and violation of natural justice to say that the culprit will [investigate] allegations against him or herself.”

Anandan believes that the LLRC’s report is aimed at exonerating the military while pinning all the blame for war crimes on the LTTE. He supports his view by giving an eye witness account of a deposition before the LLRC.

Doctor
Dr. Thurairajan Varatharajah was one of the three government doctors who treated Tamil civilians as the military shelled and bombed areas near their makeshift hospital during the final months of the war. During that time he gave an interview to the international media about civilian casualty numbers.

Later, in July 2009, he and other doctors were arrested. While in police custody however, Dr. Varatharajah made a public statement that he was forced to exaggerate civilian casualties by the LTTE to bring to disrepute the military.

Anandan says that Dr. Varatharajah was not only aware of the bombing of civilian areas, but also of the government denying civilians medicine and food.

However, at the deposition before the LLRC, the commissioners had directed their questions only to establish if the LTTE had artillery positions near Dr. Varatharajah’s hospital, thereby justifying the military shelling and bombing the area, rather than to find out what actually happened.

“They were only interested in incriminating the LTTE not in knowing what happened to the civilians,” Anandan claims.

The biggest threatThe LLRC has recommended to the government to disarm Tamil paramilitary groups to reduce violence. Among the groups mentioned by name is the EPDP that works with the Sri Lanka army in Jaffna and is accused by various organisations, such as the UNHCR, of murder, abduction and intimidating the media.

But to Ramesh and Anandan the recommendation is only pulling the wool over the actual culprits.

“Disarming illegal armed paramilitary groups is necessary and will help normalise things. But the biggest threat today is not these armed groups but the army. Will they cut down on the size of the army?”

Tamils like Anandan and Ramesh are convinced the government will not pursue an honest investigation into war crimes by the military. And the failure to do so will inevitably ruin any chances of genuine reconciliation between Sinhalese and Tamils.

“How can you have reconciliation when the culprits who committed genocide and war crimes are at large? That will only promote further crimes and escalate genocide,” said Anandan.

Tamils who live in the most violent and instable regions of the South Asian island feel that enduring ethnic reconciliation is still far away. They attribute this to what they believe is the continuing impunity enjoyed by the Sri Lankan government.

By our Sri Lanka reporter