SAVING LOVELY, SAVING HAITI

SAVING LOVELY, SAVING HAITI

She should have died. For six days, Lovely Avelus lay beneath the rubble of her apartment building following the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince. No food, no water. And then sniffer dogs found what humans could not, giving Lovely a chance, again, at life. Her story — which we have updated — inspired a flood of donations from Star readers and this series, Lovely’s Haiti, an intimate look at her, her family and the future of her country.    Read Lovely’s Story

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RESEARCHERS TRACE THE ORIGINS OF HAITI’S DEADLY CHOLERA OUTBREAK

2012/01/09  Megan Ogilvie Health Reporter

A father comforts his son at the Samaritan’s Purse cholera treatment clinic in Cabaret, Haiti after the young boy contracted cholera. The epidemic that began 10 months after the deadly quake struck Haiti two years ago has sickened half a million people.

Naked, he would wander the town of Mirebalais, a small rural settlement an hour’s drive north of Haiti’s capital city.

His neighbours called him “moun fou,” or crazy person, because of the undiagnosed mental illness that caused him to suffer paranoia and auditory hallucinations.

The 28-year-old man would often go to the Latem River, on the outskirts of town, to bathe and drink the water — despite having clean, potable water in his home.

Full Story»>

Two years after quake, Haiti still struggles with cholera

Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Donna Leinwand Leger
USA Today

     

A sleeping child undergoes treatment at a cholera treatment centre run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in November. Cholera has killed more than 7,000 people in the country since October 2010.

SWOAN PARKER/REUTERS

Two years after an earthquake levelled Port-au-Prince, Haiti is in the grip of one of the most devastating cholera outbreaks in modern history.

More than half a million people have become ill with the disease and at least 7,000 have died since the outbreak began in October 2010, said Jon Andrus, deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization. Health providers report about 200 new cases a day. He expects that number to increase when Haiti’s rainy season begins in April.

The disease has spread to Haiti’s neighbour, the Dominican Republic, which has reported 21,000 cases and 363 deaths from cholera, he said.

Haiti’s outbreak “is one of the largest cholera epidemics in modern history to affect a single country,” Andrus said Friday.

On Jan. 12, 2010, a magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck 25 kilometres west of Port-au-Prince, the capital. The Haitian government estimates 316,000 people died in the quake and the dozens of aftershocks that followed. The earthquake left 1.5 million people homeless, and many still live in tents in squalid camps around the capital.

In February, Haiti’s Health Ministry and Partners in Health, a U.S.-based aid organization, will begin vaccinating 100,000 people in a Port-au-Prince slum and a rural community with an oral cholera vaccine, said Louise Ivers, senior health and policy adviser for Partners in Health.

Cholera is a water-borne disease. In Haiti, where most people lack public sewage systems or sanitary latrines, people often drink from the same water source they use to bathe and defecate.

People ill with cholera develop severe diarrhea and, without immediate treatment, can become dehydrated. In the worst cases, it can be fatal.

Ivers, who lives in Haiti, said people in rural areas often live several hours from a water pump that draws from a clean water source. Many people cannot afford to buy soap to wash their hands or fuel to boil the water and kill the cholera organism, she said.

“It’s not a question in Haiti of ignorance. It’s access,” Ivers said.

Since the earthquake, international aid organizations have attempted to restore clean water to the country and build sanitation services, but the efforts fall far short of the need, Andrus said.

“We, as partners, have failed to ensure that every resident has access to safe water and sanitation,” he said.

Building the water and sewer plants and the plumbing that could deliver clean water and treat waste could cost $1.1 billion, he said. Haiti needs “major investments for decades” in sanitation, he said.

Community public health officials have educated Haitians about the symptoms of infection so more people know when to seek help, and cholera centres have the supplies they need, Ivers said.

“There’s some good news: The fatality rate is going down,” Ivers said.

Early in the outbreak, 10 per cent of people who became ill died, she said. Now, the death rate is 1 per cent or less.

But, she cautioned: “In April, things will potentially get much worse.”

No-win situation-The government-appointed commission recognises the importance of a political solution, but there seems to be no breakthrough.

GEMUNU AMARASINGHE/AP 

President Mahinda Rajapaksa studying the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, at his residence in Colombo on November 29, 2011.

SRI LANKAN President Mahinda Rajapaksa has a choice to make. Before him is the voluminous “Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report”. The question on many lips is “What will he do with it?” His decision on the report – or procrastination over it – will decide the direction his country takes and what happens to it in international fora. The issue at hand is disarmingly simple. What is Rajapaksa prepared to concede to the Tamils to bring them back into the national mainstream? The LLRC report, in large parts, offers him the way out. It recognises that a political solution is imperative to address the root cause of the conflict and wants the government to provide the leadership to a political process that will ensure sustainable peace and security.

The LLRC was constituted by the President on May 15, 2010, soon after United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's visit to Sri Lanka and the decision to conduct a U.N. probe into the last stages of the Eelam War. Former Attorney General C.R. De Silva acted as the Chairman of the Commission.

REUTERS 

INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS and the temporary structures that accommodate them in the Arunachalam camp at Manik Farm in northern Sri Lanka, an August 2009 photograph. The LLRC suggests ways to tackle the issues of resettlement and genuine reconciliation, including completion of the process of the return of the refugees to their homes and restoration of normal life in the war-affected areas.

REUTERS 

R. SAMPANTHAN, LEADER of the Tamil National Alliance. He says the findings of the LLRC offend the dignity of the victims of war.

“The present situation provides a great window of opportunity to forge a consensual way forward towards reconciliation through a political settlement based on devolution of power. It recognises that a political solution is imperative to addressing the root cause of the conflict and notes that the government should provide leadership to a political process which must be pursued for the purpose of establishing a framework for ensuring sustainable peace and security in the post-conflict environment,” he said.          Full Story>>>

FLASH: Motion against Mervyn Silva

 A motion supporting the actions of the governing party members of the Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha was today passed in the Mulatiyana Pradeshiya Sabha in the Matara District.

Chairman of the Mulatiyana Pradeshiya Sabha, Sunil Elladeniya told The Sunday Leader that a resolution was unanimously passed by the Council extending its support to the Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha members.

Elladeniya said that actions of the Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha members to stand against the misdoings of a government minister were commendable.

“No minister has the right to intervene and usurp the powers vested with the Pradeshiya Sabha,” he said.

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SLFP to probe allegations against Mervyn

SLFP to probe allegations against Mervyn The SLFP disciplinary committee has decided to probe all allegations levelled against Minister Mervyn Silva by a group of Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha members  Read more...

Hands off Mervyn – President tells Gota

Annihilation of debate is annihilation of politics: Arundhati Roy

January 10, 2012 

Arundhati 

Roy.Arundhati Roy reacts to the objection to her attending the fair organised by The Book Sellers and Publishers Association of South India.

“The protest began when The Cage by Gordon Weiss (former UN spokesperson in Sri Lanka) was released.

The book indicts the Sri Lankan government for war crimes, but is also sharply critical of the LTTE’s tactics. The protestors did not mention the book, but accused the publishers of being RSS, anti-Dalit, anti-Tamil, anti-Kashmir and anti-Muslim.

I was a little puzzled, because the books being released were a collection of haunting poems by Cheran, the well-known Tamil poet, a book on Dalits and Water by Ko. Raghupathy, a book on Dalit politics and culture by Stalin Rajangam, Curfewed Night, a memoir about Kashmir by Basharat Peer and Broken Republic about the Maoist insurrection, by me, all of which completely bely the accusations being hurled at the publisher.

On Facebook the protestors call themselves the May 17th Fighters. (May 17th is the day the war in Sri Lanka officially ended.) It appears that their main objection was Weiss’s criticism of the LTTE.

Whether Weiss is right or wrong in his analysis is not the point. After a war in which an estimated 40,000 Tamils, mostly civilians were killed, I cannot believe that people want to shut out the possibility of debate, of introspection about what went wrong.

It is an insult to the memory of those who were killed as well as to those Tamils who survived and have to continue to live in Sri Lanka.

The annihilation of criticism, introspection, debate, difference of opinion, is the annihilation of politics 

Sri Lanka protesting university students evicted

By Charles Haviland  9 January 2012 


Protests at the university have been going on for days

Continue reading the main story

Thousands of protesting students have been evicted from the campus of one of Sri Lanka's main universities following a court order.

The evictions at the Sri Jayawardenepura campus comes amid disputes between students who have been protesting for days and the government.

Students accuse the government of interfering in their lives.

A senior opposition figure has said that Sri Lanka's entire education system is in a state of collapse.

Sajith Premadasa of the United National Party (UNP), said students were being threatened and their rights violated with the deployment of the army and police at Sri Jayawardenepura. Several other universities are also closed.

The government denies being heavy-handed. It accuses student union leaders of "ragging", or victimising, college newcomers.

Accusations have been exchanged between students and the army and there is nationwide indignation about official bungling in the marking of school leaving exams.

Major disruption

Despite the arrests of many student leaders last year, and their still pending trials, college unrest has returned on a large scale causing major disruption.

At the root of the unrest lie numerous disputes between student activists and the government.

Above all the activists' oppose plans for private colleges, which they say will end young Sri Lankans' entitlement to free higher education.

They blame both university officials and the government for interfering in their lives - for allegedly subjecting some women students to virginity tests; for insisting that all universities engage a security firm linked to the defence ministry; and for sending in the army to thwart student marches.

Last week a monument to dead student leaders was firebombed. Students blamed soldiers; the latter denied it.

Separately, widespread blunders in the recent marking of A-levels have caused many Sri Lankans to lose all faith in the examination system.

Student unrest has had deadly consequences in post-independence Sri Lanka. Such unrest set in motion a brutal conflict in the south of the island 22 years ago which ran in parallel to the much higher-profile war in the north.

One more round of TNA-Govt. talks on political solution this month

R. K. RADHAKRISHNAN
 January 10, 2012

The next round of talks between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), an umbrella association of Tamil political parties, is set to commence in Colombo on January 17, to continue discussions on the contours of a political solution to accommodate Tamil hopes and aspirations.

The three-day talks commence soon after Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, who arrives here on January 16, meets Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the TNA leader R. Sampanthan. Observers here attach a lot of significance to the timing of Mr. Krishna’s visit. A few Tamil leaders said that they were hopeful that there will be some progress in this round because of the overt presence of one of the senior-most Cabinet Ministers from India. Mr.Krishna will be in Sri Lanka till January 19, the day the talks are scheduled to conclude.

The talks, which began in January 2011, has meandered away with the TNA and the government not agreeing on the crucial question of land and police powers to the provinces, as envisaged in the ‘13 Amendment’ of the Sri Lankan constitution. Mr. Sampanthan is on record saying that the TNA’s proposals, outlining the way forward, were given to the government as early as February 2011.

With no response coming from the Government till August 2011, the TNA walked out of the talks. It came back following friendly persuasion by interested parties, and the willingness of the Sri Lankan state to engage with the TNA again. Interestingly, the talks centre around the same issues that have been on the table since 1987.

The Sri Lankan government has genuine concerns on granting land and police powers to the provinces, a standpoint that has been voiced at all levels. No province in the country has these powers, though the Constitution provides for such devolution.

The next sticking point is the government move to appoint a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to go into the entire issue. Mr.Sampanthan says that there had been no talk of a PSC till the TNA-Government talks hit a dead-end around August-September 2011. The TNA has steadfastly refused to name its members to the PSC, while the government believes that a PSC-approved plan, which has the consent of all political parties in Parliament, is the only way forward.

Keywords: Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil National Alliance, Sri Lankan government

Sections of Tamil Diaspora still not reconciled to defeat of LTTE

  Dr. Jehan Perera 

Published on January 9, 2012

LLRC REPORT AND PRESSURES FROM TAMIL CIVIL SOCIETY

The TNA has yet to issue its follow up response to its initial rejection of the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission. In a strongly worded statement the TNA noted that “The report of the LLRC is a serious assault on the dignity of the victims of the war in Sri Lanka, and as such, has not only gravely damaged the chances of genuine reconciliation but has further alienated the victims of the war.” It therefore called on the international community “to acknowledge the consistent failure of domestic accountability mechanisms in Sri Lanka and take steps to establish an international mechanism for accountability.”

International community largely favourable towards LLRC report

However, the initial responses of international governments towards the report have been by and large favorable, especially with regard to the many recommendations on governance and on a political solution that would address Tamil grievances. There are many among the international community who are not aware of the past history of Tamil grievances and broken promises. They are likely to be puzzled by the apparent total rejection of the LLRC report by the TNA. They are likely to see an excessively demanding attitude asking for too much. In responding to the LLRC report, the TNA appears to have considered the expectations of its supporters in the Tamil Diaspora as well as its voters.     Full Story>>>

Tiger stamps: Lanka to defy UPU laws

MONDAY, 09 JANUARY 2012  

Sound of Silent Speech

cted. The Tamil 

Sri Lanka’s postal authorities have decided to defy rules and regulations stipulated by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) when dealing with letters and parcels with stamps bearing the emblem of the LTTE and the image of its late leader, officials said yesterday.

Already, there are reports that members of the pro-LTTE Tamil diaspora have issued personalised stamps bearing the emblem of the beleaguered LTTE in France, Britain and Canada. First, it was reported in France, and the issue was taken up diplomatically.

According to the UPU Treaty, stamps of member nations are accepted for the entire international route of mailing.

Post Master General M.K.B. Dissanayake said he informed La Poste, the French postal authority, not to send any parcel or letter with such stamps to Sri Lanka.

“In this case, we will act according to domestic rules and regulations whatever has been stipulated by the UPU. For us, the interest of Sri Lanka is more important than anything else,” he said.

The LTTE is a banned organisation in Sri Lanka. Accordingly, it is prohibited to use the emblem of the LTTE within the country. Also, the organisation remains banned in several other countries including the European Union.

However, he said he was yet to receive reports about stamps printed in Canada and Britain.

Earlier, the External Affairs Ministry, on behalf of the Sri Lankan government, registered its official protest with the French Embassy in Colombo over the issuance of such stamps. The French authorities admitted later that it was a mistake.

Asked for a comment, a spokesman of the External Affairs Ministry said the stamps printed in France were personalised stamps. The spokesman said these stamps would not be used in that country and therefore any problem would not arise in the future. (Kelum Bandara)

Working Conditions of the Central Hill Tamils: The Ungrateful Tea Plantation Sector

Monday, 09 January 2012 

This is the second post in our three part series on the rights of Hill or Plantation Tamils. The first is available here. All three of these posts take material from a report by Home for Human Rights which we are making available here.

"Unfortunately, the importance of the tea industry to the Sri Lankan economy has not helped to secure a reasonable standard of living for most estate employees." - Home for Human Rights

Under international law, the Government of Sri Lanka is under an obligation to ensure the reasonable treatment of workers. This is far from the case however, with plantation workers enduring a sense of indebtedness to the estate in which they work, which in turn promotes a vicious spiral of discrimination and poverty. Despite the fact that the 2003 Grant of Citizenship to Person's of Indian Origin Act no.35 finally entitled the Central Hill Tamils to citizenship, a poor birth registration system means that a large number of workers are without birth certificates and thereby the necessary documentation required to apply for citizenship.

However, it cannot be said that citizenship alone will solve the Hill Tamil's problems. Home for Human Rights reports that no efforts have been made by the Government of Sri Lanka to elevate their working conditions. Plantation workers receive no wage increases, thereby becoming consumed under the rising cost of living. This again reinforces their dependency upon the cruel plantation sector; crucial as it may be to the Sri Lankan economy. Indeed, the tea plantation industry in Sri Lanka is the third highest foreign exchange earner and provides Sri Lanka's largest agricultural export.

Due to the culture of dependency and lack of education endured by the Hill Tamils, men and women are forced to endure horrific conditions at work; including the use of sexual harassment as a control tactic. Home for Human Rights reports that significant amount of women regularly tolerate such harassment within the workplace, as leaving the estate is far from simple. Indeed as a survey conducted by HHR showed most respondents' freedom of movement outside of their estate was subject to authorisation by estate owners. 52% said that they were prevented from leaving the estate completely. Of course such a practice stands in direct contravention to the civil, political and human right of the “liberty and freedom of movement.”

It is time the government paid respect to the workers who maintain the strength of the tea industry which is so vital to the economy of Sri Lanka. Positive action to halt the endless cycle of entrapment and indebtedness must be started immediately. When will the Government of Sri Lanka appreciate its workers rather than address them as its subordinates?

Vijay channel interrupted in Sri Lanka after predictions about the President

Monday, 09 January 2012 

The telecast of India’s Vijay channel has been interrupted in Sri Lanka after telecasting an astrological predication about President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

A live programme telecast on December 31st night had given astrological predications for the Indian politicians in 2012. Six well known Indian astrologers had participated in the programme.

The presenter of the show had asked the astrologers to give predictions for 2012 for state heads in countries neighboring India. The presenter has asked the head of the panel of astrologers to make a prediction about President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The astrologer had then taken a copy of Rajapaksa’s horoscope and had given a detailed explanation. He has said the President would have to leave his office before the end of 2012.

The rest of the astrologers have also agreed with the prediction.

Dialog Cable TV has the rights to telecast Vijay TV in Sri Lanka. Therefore, the respective programme had been telecast live on December 31st and then several recorded episodes had also been telecast in the channel.

Soon after hearing about the matter, the President had shouted at the Director General of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), Anusha Pelpita and had asked him to ensure that the programme is not telecasted again.

The President had then informed of the matter to the CEO of Dialog, Hans Wijesuriya.

Therefore, Dialog had taken a precautionary step by blocking the signal of the station when the respective programme was being telecast.

STF mastermind of kidnap drama absconding

January 8, 2012, 

By Jayantha de Silva

When the kidnapping and ransom demand case involving a juvenile student of Royal College was taken up for hearing on (5) Wednesday, Police informed the Mt.Lavinia Chief Magistrate Nirosha Fernando that the principal suspect, a former STF member is still absconding.

The Magistrate rejected the bail application of suspects Rangajeewa Kumarasiri, Aruna Ruwansiri, Upul Ranjith and Suranga Wijesiri and re-remanded them till January 19.

Police further informed that the absconding suspect, by virtue of being a former member of the STF possessed fire arms training.

This aspect had been taken into consideration in apprehending the suspect.

The van used for the kidnapping was owned by a rent a car company and had been earlier enlarged on bonded bail by the Avissawella Court in connection with a separate case, the police said.

Replying to a query as to why the mother had not been listed as a witness, police explained that the mother of the boy had been gagged and bound in a room.

Hence it was the boy who was privy to the incident. Accordingly he should be listed as the principal witness.

In this case, the suspects are alleged to have being involved in the kidnapping of the student from his Mt. Lavinia residence after trussing up his mother, before fleeing in a van.

The abductors had later demanded a ransom out of which Rs.2, 80,000 had been paid by the boys father.

PC 34879 Hemantha Hettiarachi prosecuted.

Internment continues unchecked in Sri Lanka, as an era ends in US

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 January 2012, 02:54 GMT]
During the final assault in Mu'l'livaaykkaal, Sri Lanka's armed forces herded nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians, including close to 50,000 children and elderly, and LTTE non-combatants, in 21st century version of over-crowded internment camps encircled by barbed wire fences. While GoSL manipulates its demographic politics with the captive internees, in the U.S., an internment era, where 70 years ago more than 100,000 Japanese Americans were interned after the bombing of Pearl Harbor (7th Dec 1941), ended with the death this week of the famous internee, Gordon Hirabayashi, who leaves a legacy that still resonates whenever individual citizens force a Government to live up to its highest and best ideals. 

• Beyond Lawful Constraints: Sri Lanka’s Mass Detention of LTTE Suspects

Hirabayashi, a young University of Washington senior in 1941, refused to report to an Army internment camp, and instead he turned himself in to the FBI, and in so doing, changed America's history.

Military supervised internment camp in Vavuniyaa (Photo: The Times, UK)

Vavuniyaa internment camp

Tamil refugees in internment camp

Tamil refugees in internment camp

Manik Farm Internment Camp

Tamil IDPs struggling without proper shelters in Vavuniyaa

After Pearl Harbor attack, Army Lt. Gen. John DeWitt deemed the Pacific Coast vulnerable to attack, leading the government to prohibit people of Japanese ancestry from being anywhere near the coastline. Hirabayashi refused to evacuate. 

A federal court sentenced Hirabayashi for violating the evacuation order. Supreme Court left his conviction intact as the Government convincingly argued that internment was a military necessity.

"The nation was at war, and it needed to keep Japanese Americans away from the coasts, to prevent espionage and for the safety of the country," the US justice department said. War was still on. Seventy years later Sri Lanka held the thousands of Tamil civilians not so much for island's safety but as a collective punishment to the Tamils. War was already over in Sri Lanka.

In the US, the Government withheld from the court a key report that contradicted the military necessity argument. The report concluded that “the entire ‘Japanese Problem’ has been magnified out of its true proportion, largely because of the physical characteristics of the people” and that “it should be handled on the basis of the individual, regardless of citizenship, and not on a racial basis.”

In the 1980s, when a federal court of appeals learned that the solicitor general had suppressed evidence in Hirabayashi's case, it overturned his conviction — more than 40 years after the Supreme Court upheld it.

Spokesperson for Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), an activist group seeking legal redress for Tamil war victims said, "We note former US Assistant Solicitor General Neal Katyal, who argued for Bin Laden's driver Hamdan, on his Guantanamo detention against the US Government, saying "You can hear echoes of his [Hirabayahi's] fight in the respectful protests against (and counter-protests for) Roe v. Wade. You can hear them in Thurgood Marshall’s long quest to desegregate American schools. And you can hear them in the voices of so many others who fight — within the system — for what they believe is right." TAG is also in the business of litigation for very much the same reasons," TAG spokesperson said.

"At a young age, Hirabayashi realized something profound: Our American system is strong enough to admit its mistakes and to correct them. He knew that silence posed a greater danger than any challenge, and that giving up on the system of law posed the greatest threat of all," Katyal, currently a Professor at Georgetown Law school says of Hirabayashi's legacy.

"Contrast this view with Sri Lanka's judiciary and societal obligations of Sri Lanka's intellectuals. The strata of self-confident intellectuals are conspicuously absent, either overcome by fear to life or simply blinded by patriotism unsupported by deliberate reason. This intellectual vacuum, together with the politicized judiciary, portend a long an arduous journey for the Sinhala majority to develop a vision for a just and fair society. In the meantime, Tamil diaspora has to employ all means in its power to ensure that the struggle for enlightenment continues," TAG spokesperson said.