Wednesday, August 14, 2013

By Premalal Wijerathne and Binoy Suriyaarachchi-Wednesday, 14 Aug 2013

The Crime Investigation Unit of the Matara Police has taken into custody four naval personnel and 10 others, on the charge of assisting people to illegally migrate to Australia, on board multi-day fishing crafts. Police said one naval staff member, who was among the suspects, is a civil employee. The unit had received information about the 14 suspects while interrogating a suspect taken into custody on an earlier occasion, who had also been charged with helping people to flee to Australia by illegal means, a high-ranking police officer said.

It is also revealed the other three naval personnel, currently in police custody, are attached to the Signal Branch of the Navy.

A van belonging to the suspects had also been taken into custody at Kantale along with bank receipts worth Rs 1 million. The Matara Crime Investigation Unit arrested the 14 people smugglers after conducting investigations for 11 days in Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Jaffna, Valachchenai and Kantale.

Navy Media Spokesman, Commander Kosala Warnakulasuriya, said the Matara Crime Investigation Unit and the CID are jointly making investigations into the involvement of the suspects in the migrant smuggling racket. Meanwhile, the Navy has taken into custody 111 Sri Lankans who were trying to flee to Australia illegally in a multi-day fishing craft on 9 August. The group was brought to Galle on 12 August evening.

The boat carrying the suspects had been sailing about 200 nautical miles from the coast of Galle.

Commander Warnakulasuriya said, the suspects were residents of Puttalam, Pulmoddai, Vavuniya, Trincomalee and Colombo. "Nearly 4,000 such boat people, who tried to sail to Australia illegally, were arrested by Navy," the Spokesman said.

Eight police officers interdicted

Wednesday, 14 Aug 2013

Eight police officers belonging to the Thanamalwila Police were interdicted for only presenting half of the confiscated marijuana they obtained during a raid, the Police Media Unit stated.

The eight interdicted police personnel include a sub inspector and five constables.(KG)

Rajapakses to import dogs and horses spending over 100 million - to replace those killed in Weliveriya ?

(Lanka-e-News-13.Aug.2013, 11.30PM) The bestial Rajapakse regime which had always shown beastly love to animals (its own kind), and hate for its own people, which was clearly demonstrated by its sending the forces to shoot and kill its own citizens at Weliveriya when they asked drinking water in place of contaminated water supplied to them by the regime, had decided to import dogs and horses spending (rather wasting) over a 100 million rupees of people’s funds, according to reports reaching Lanka e news.

This bestial regime is to import 16 dogs including 5 ‘German shepherds’ from Australia , and towards that a sum of Rs. 25, 484 ,890 has been allocated. Another Rs. 80 million had been set aside for the import of 16 horses ( 7 white , 2 black and 7 brown). These imports are in view
of the forthcoming Commonwealth conference in SL.

The dogs for the official Kennel division and horses for the mounted division of the Sri Lanka (SL) police department are imported from Australia .

Hence police officers, SP Ranmal Kodituwakku , Director of the kennel division, and SSP Vasantha Wickremesinghe , Director of the mounted division and a team of police officers are to leave for abroad in connection with these purchases. Towards their dog and horse purchasing journey, a sum of Rs. 4,36,700 of people’s monies had been set aside to meet the cost of the journey. This expense is over and above their air ticket fares !

Burka Avenger: Pakistan’s Middle Class Gets A Feminist Cartoon

August 14, 2013

While the new Pakistani cartoon “Burka Avenger” has gained media attention due to its combination of Islamic veiling—often perceived as sexist—with overt promotion of gender equality, the show’s most insightful statement may be about change in education, writes Sophia Newman.

Hague war crimes ruling threatens to undermine future prosecutions

Legal experts say proof that accused 'specifically directed' atrocities now required after tribunal acquits Serbian commanders

ICTY quashed the jail sentence of Momičlo Periišć, a former chief-of-staff of the Yugoslav army accused of providing military support for the Bosnian-Serb army between 1993 and 1995. Photograph: Darko Vojinovic/AP

Owen Bowcott

Tuesday 13 August 2013

Generals and politicians could evade responsibility for war crimes in future because of a ruling requiring proof that they "specifically directed" atrocities, say some international lawyers and senior judges.

Hague War Crimes Ruling Threatens to Undermine Future Prosecutions by nelvely

Video: Norwegian Prime Minister Drives Taxi On Hidden Camera

August 14, 2013

The Norwegian Prime Minister has spent an afternoon working undercover as a taxi driver. Jens Stoltenberg says he wanted to hear from real Norwegian voters ahead of his campaign for re-election in September. The Prime Minister wore an Oslo taxi driver’s uniform and only revealed his identity once he was recognised.

Al Jazeera’s Catherine Stancl reports;

Welikade Prison Massacres: The First Massacre: 25th July 1983

By Rajan Hoole -August 13, 2013

Rajan Hoole

Sri Lanka’s Black July – Part 12 -

“Britannicus was handed a harmless drink. The taster had tasted it; but Britannicus found it too hot and refused it. Then cold water containing the poison was added. Speechless, his whole body convulsed, he instantly ceased to breathe. His companions were horrified. Some, uncomprehending, fled. Others understanding better, remained rooted in their places, staring at Nero. He still lay back unconcernedly – and he remarked that this often happened to epileptics [and soon Britannicus’] consciousness would return…After a short silence the banquet continued.

“Britannicus was cremated the night he died. Indeed, preparations for his inexpensive funeral had already been made. As his remains were placed in the imperial mausoleum, there was a violent storm. It was widely believed that the gods were showing their fury at the boy’s murder – though even his fellow-men generally condoned it, arguing that brothers were traditional enemies and that the empire was indivisible.” - Publius Gaius Tacitus, from Histories

An Acknowledgement

In what follows, the basic facts are culled from accounts of the inquest proceedings – the Magistrate’s reports themselves [Mag] and the reports in the Ceylon Daily News [CDN]. Where they differ, it will be indicated. The CDN reports are of value because the reporter has been good at recording the English nuances. Where other sources are used, they will be indicated. To begin with, a special acknowledgement must be made. It was the Civil Rights Movement of Sri Lanka and the Home for Human Rights, which first set out to bring justice to the victims and their families and to put the record straight. At the request of the Home for Human Rights, the Civil Rights Movement in 1985 assisted families of the victims to file 30 civil actions in court. To this end Suriya Wickremasinghe, secretary to the CRM, had carefully sifted the evidence and interviewed outside this country all but one or two of the 19 survivors. She is currently working on a book on the affair. She has kindly made available to us her analysis of the inquest proceedings and certain other materials. Where we have availed ourselves of her notes and analysis, it will be acknowledged by the initials SW.

The First Massacre: 25th July 1983

To be continued..

Part one - Sri Lanka’s Black July: Borella, 24th Evening

Part two - Sri Lanka’s Black July: What Really Happened At Kanatte?

Part three - Black July: ‘Api Suddha Kara’ – JR’s Failure To Declare Curfew

Part four - Sri Lanka’s Black July: The Cover Up

Part five - 30th July 1983: The Second Naxalite Plot

Part six - Black July: The Testimony Of Lionel Bopage, Then General Secretary Of The JVP

Part seven - Black July: Thondaman & Muttetuwegama

Part eight - What Was Behind Tiger Friday – 29th July? -The Significance Of The Pettah

Part nine - Tamil Merchants In The Pettah – Post July 1983

Part ten – Sri Lanka’s Black July: A Family’s Tragedy In Colombo

Part eleven - Sri Lanka’s Black July: The Question Of Numbers

*From Rajan Hoole‘s “Sri Lanka: Arrogance of Power - Myth, Decadence and Murder”. Thanks to Rajan for giving us permission to republish. To be continued..

Is a Black July being threatened through the State media?

Image courtesy Sri Lanka Guardian

Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka-13 Aug, 2013

“Now intolerance is the badge of the tribe and the scribe. A papier-mâché patriotism is the last refuge of a petrified elite that has lost its nerve, and is alarmed at the prospect of losing its power, its privilege and whatever else it has accumulated. In the name of keeping faith with the past, our undoubtedly fine heritage, this self-centred and nervous elite is now capable of betraying the future, the ultimate treason” – Mervyn de Silva, (‘The Roots of Violence’, Crisis Commentaries, p.104)

Is a Black July Being Threatened Through the State Media by nelvely

Govt. to settle 100,000 soldiers in North

By Our Jaffna Correspondent-Tuesday, 13 Aug 2013

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) candidate contesting the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) polls and former TNA Parliamentarian M.K. Sivajilingam, said the Army in the North is in the process of setting up massive cantonments with Chinese assistance, to permanently relocate around 100,000 troops in the Northern Province, and there is no truth in the Army’s announcement of withdrawing from lands that belong to civilians in the North.

Sivajilingam was addressing a media briefing held at the Jaffna Media Centre on Thursday (8).
He said the Army’s announcement that they would withdraw from lands they currently occupy, owned by civilians in the North was an election stunt and it clearly showed the Army personnel were ‘dancing’ to the tunes of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA).

“In the backdrop of the forthcoming NPC polls, the Army in the North is playing its part beautifully. The government has announced that troops would withdraw from the occupied lands owned by civilians but there are more than 6,500 acres of lands belonging to civilians which are still being occupied by the Army in Valikamam North in the Jaffna Peninsula,” he charged.

In Velvettiturai, the Army is in the process of setting up a huge camp on the 67-perch land that belongs to the Church of South India. Likewise, in the coastal areas of Thondamanaru, the Army is setting up new camps with Chinese assistance, he further said.

He went on to say the government is expediting the building of houses to settle 100,000 Army personnel and their families in the North, and added that it is for this purpose that the road between Weli Oya and Murikandy is being renovated.

“The government has also worked out plans to grab 15,000 acres of land in Batticaloa in the Eastern Province to create settlements for Navy personnel. Therefore, the sole idea behind land grabbing by the Armed Forces in the North and East is to make the Tamils the minorities in the regions where they remain the majority,” Sivajilingam alleged.

Government attacks Jaffna “Sinhala Ravaya” temple-Suresh

digathanews.com

Created on Monday, 12 August 2013 17:43

Written by neyo-

TNA MP Suresh Premachandran says that the TNA denies any accusation leveled against them regarding the attack made upon the Jaffna temple of the "Sinhala Ravaya".

He says that this is an action committed by the Govt to inflame a tensed situation in the Jaffna region.

MP claimed that the Govt is trying to get an advantage in the elections by creating disputes in Jaffna.

Pointing out that the Govt is trying to turn up trumps by reducing the voting percentages, the MP reminded that there have been no bomb attack reported in Jaffna during the last 4 years after the defeat of the LTTE.

He questioned how could an unidentified group be able to come from outside and attack when the whole area is still under army control.

Yet Another Despicable Act

By Kath Noble -August 14, 2013

Kath Noble

It doesn’t take many people to destroy a country. This is a lesson that we have to learn, and we have to do it fast, while the hard won peace in Sri Lanka is still more or less intact.

On Saturday night, a mob attacked a mosque in the Grandpass area of Colombo. The respected journalist DBS Jeyaraj has said that he believes that it was carefully planned. According to his report, thugs from outside the area met at the local Buddhist temple, then made their way clandestinely through land occupied by Sinhalese to the back of the mosque. On hearing the bells of the temple being rung, they started throwing stones and bottles at the building. Another group – led along the main road by monks, shouting that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala Buddhist country and Muslims should be thrown out – joined the attack.

The temple continued ringing its bells, drawing an even bigger crowd of Sinhalese from the neighbourhood, who were told by their local priests that the mosque was in the process of being destroyed. They went along to help.

By this time, the gates of the mosque had been torn down.

The Police – who had been assigned to protect the mosque in the wake of a demonstration by the Ravana Balaya – stood and watched. DBS Jeyaraj says that they may even have encouraged the mob.

The mosque was saved by the arrival of local Muslims, who were determined to protect their place of worship.

This is when the authorities decided to intervene.

What concerned them was not the prospect of the destruction of a mosque, even though the Government had agreed after the dispute with the Ravana Balaya that it should be allowed to remain – thanks to the intervention of Deputy Minister Faizer Mustapha, president of the SLFP’s Muslim unit and the SLFP’s co-organiser of the Colombo Central electoral division. (Mahinda Rajapaksa himself was party to the discussions, along with Prime Minister and Minister of Buddha Sasana and Religious Affairs D.M. Jayaratne.) Instead, they were worried about the safety of the Sinhalese gathered outside the mosque.

A very similar thing happened again on Sunday afternoon. Read More

Border division of Mannaar district Sinhalicised

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 August 2013, 19:35 GMT]
After Sinhalicising a border division in the Mullaiththeevu district of the Northern Province as ‘Weli-Oya’ on the eastern coast, genocidal Sri Lanka is now engaged in the Sinhalicisation of a border division, Musali, in the Mannaar district of the Northern Province on the western coast, news sources in Mannaar said. Both the Sinhala colonisations take place as demographic projections from the Anuradhapura district of the North Central Province. Around 400 acres of forest has been cleared for settling 1300 Sinhala families at the Ko’ndaichchi coast of Mannaar district. The families, who have nothing to do with the district are not only brought down hurriedly and settled as ‘re-settlers’, but also are advised to register as voters before the NPC elections.

New Delhi and Washington talking about the NPC elections without recognising and guaranteeing the territoriality and demography of Eezham Tamils, amounts to nothing but blatant complicity in the demographic genocide as continuity of their complicity in the genocidal war, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.

The divisional secretary of Musali, Mr. Ketheesvaran, who was protesting to the ‘resettlement’ hoax and registration of the colonisers as voters, was served with a transfer order, news sources in Mannaar said.

Even the earlier divisional secretary Mr. Raveendran was transferred as he had objections to the colonisation in the name of ‘special resettlement’.

The Sinhala Government Agent of Mannaar, Mr Y.S. Desapriya denied the accusations.

This is a normal ‘resettlement’ he claimed, denying the transfer order to the divisional secretary and the reports that the Sinhala colonisers were brought by buses from Anuradhapura.

The SL Government Agent was newly posted after his predecessor had been removed for not adequately cooperating with Colombo in the Sinhala colonisation programmes.

Sources associated with mosques and churches in the region confirmed the arrival of Sinhala colonisers from Anuradhapura district.

According to news sources, under the SL government project called ‘special resettlement programme’ the Sinhala colonisers were brought from Maavilaachchi and Nochchiyaa-gama parts of the Anuradhapura district to Ko’ndaichchi and Kokkup-padaiyaan coast of the Mannaar district.

Around a 4 Sq.km settlement has been created for them. The Sinhala families are provided with half an acre of land to each and are promised of permanent houses for them soon.

The families were neither affected by the war nor were displaced people. Hence they could not be treated as ‘re-settlers’ and could not be permitted, was the stand of the divisional secretary.

The Musali divisional secretary has also pointed out that the colonisers for whom voter registration in the division is demanded are still registered voters in Anuradhapura district and their registration there has not been cancelled, which is a prerequisite for new registrations.

While on one hand the so-called ‘international aided’ resettlement of war-affected people is abused for demographic genocide by such colonisations, on the other hand, a fraud is committed by bringing in outside voters to the NPC elections for which the 2012 registration is the basis, observers in the Northern Province commented.

The area selected for the Sinhala colonisation is the coast of a fertile bay, which was once the centre for pearl diving traditionally conducted since time immemorial by Eezham Tamil coastal folk called Paravar and Mukkuvar.

Meanwhile, 2500 Tamil-speaking Muslim families who were displaced during the war have also now returned to Musali as 6000 families.

They also complain that the 5-acre per family settlement plan of theirs is also misused for Sinhala colonisation.

While SL minister Risard Badurdeen appropriates Tamil lands for the colonisation of Tamil-speaking Muslims, his government is engaged in colonising Sinhalese brought from Anuradhapura, observers in the district said.

‘You want your land back?’ The Geo-Politics of Military Bases, Empire and Independence

The Ministry of Defence's latest threat to keep Faslane as sovereign territory in the event of Scottish Independence should be seen in the context of Britain's imperial history of maintaining military bases against the wishes of local people across the world.

By Philip Miller-NEW IN CEASEFIRE - Posted on Thursday, August 1, 2013 14:39

It looks like a normal Scottish Loch. A picturesque valley with a sparkling expanse of water. Except that lurking in the corner is a harbour with watchtowers, police patrol boats and mysterious sheds. This is Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde, better known as Faslane. It is home to Britain’s strategic nuclear submarine fleet, and a key issue in the Scottish independence referendum campaign.

‘You want your land back The Geo-Politics of Military Bases, Empire and Independence by nelvely

Former Norwegian peace envoy calls for international probe into right violations in Sri Lanka

Aug 12, Colombo: Former Norwegian minister and peace envoy Erik Solheim, once a key negotiator in Sri Lanka's Oslo-mediated peace process, has called for an international investigation into alleged human rights violations in the island.
In an e-mail to China's Xinhua News Agency, Solheim, whose facilitator role in the peace process was questioned by the Sri Lankan government, has said that the United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner Navi Pillay should pass on a strong message to the Sri Lankan government during her visit to the island later this month.
"Tens of thousands of humans perished in the last phase of the Sri Lankan war. Time has long passed when the international community will close its eyes and allow impunity for alleged war crimes. As long as there is no credible domestic process in Sri Lanka, the international community should start an international enquiry," Xinhua quoted the ex-Norwegian minister.
"The diaspora should come together on a platform of nonviolent struggle under the leadership of Tamils resident in Sri Lanka. They should reach out to Muslims, Singhalese and others to restore democracy and promote economic and social progress," he said.
Solheim, who is considered as a LTTE supporter by a majority of the country, has stressed that with four years passed after the war ended in Sri Lanka, there can be no excuse to delay the restoration of democracy in the country.
He has told Xinhua that the huge Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora can play a key post war role on Sri Lanka which includes fighting for legitimate political rights for the minority Tamils.

Norway brokered the 2002 ceasefire agreement between the Sri Lankan Government of then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe and the LTTE Tamil Tiger leaders. President Rajapaksa's government abrogated the defunct ceasefire agreement in 2008 and launched a military operation to liberate the North and East from the LTTE. Although Norway has not had a specific role since the end of the war in May 2009, it continues to work for a political solution in Sri Lanka.

Red Alert: Is A Black July Being Threatened Through The State Media?

by Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka-Tuesday, August 13, 2013

-------

( August 13, 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) A spectre is haunting Sri Lanka: the spectre of Cyril Mathew. Are the Tamils of the Western Province regarded as potential hostages in the event of a TNA victory in the Northern Provincial Council and a legitimate assertion of Constitutional rights by that Council? Is a veiled threat being issued through the state media that Tamils in the Western Province will be targeted if the TNA and the Northern Provincial Council do not behave with due obsequiousness?

Red Alert is a Black July Being Threatened Through the State Media by nelvely

The Forgotten Four Drivers Of Reconciliation

By Salma Yusuf -August 13, 2013

Salma Yusuf

Central to post-war reconciliation efforts is undoubtedly the political aspect. However, there exists in Sri Lanka, four key strategic points of intervention which ought to be mainstreamed into the national reconciliation project by all stakeholders involved in furthering the imperative of nation building.

Politics By Other Means

At a cursory glance, the links between sport and inter-state reconciliation seem abundant. Some pundits credit Ping-Pong Diplomacy with facilitating the subsequent thaw of U.S.-China relations in the 1970s. Others point to Table Tennis Diplomacy and the attempted Olympic Diplomacy as effective difference-bridges between the two Koreas in the latter decades of the 20th century. More generally, there has been a widely held sense that sports, as Jeremy Goldberg states in his ground-breaking work titled ‘Sporting Diplomacy: Boosting the size of the Diplomatic Corps,’ serve as “a ‘safe’ way to ease a country out of isolation, acting as a first step of engagement.”

This transformation of conflict-laden bonds is not limited to inter-state rivalries. In 2007, the apparent success of the Côte d’Ivoire’s national men’s football team in rallying the country and ending a five-year long civil war between Northern rebels and the government-controlled South was hailed as a testament to the remarkable power of sport in peace-building.

Judging from both the Ivorian example and the images of a celebrating multi-ethnic Iraq following that country’s victory in the Asian Football Confederation Championship, it would seem that sport has at least a temporary ability to create intra-state linkages between conflicting factions.

In both Côte d’Ivoire and Iraq which experienced either “cold” (potential) or “hot” (open and violent) inter-state and intra-state conflicts, there have been concrete examples in which at least a segment of those involved point to sport as a significant factor in obtaining reconciliation. Read More

No More Shanie Column

August 13, 2013

Colombo Telegraph is sad to announce the death yesterday (Aug. 11) in London of one its recent and most respected columnists, Lankanesan Nesiah. As a writer he used the pseudonym Shanie, a pseudonym derived from all six letters of his surname Nesiah, saying he did not wish to be “white-vanned.” His precision and the use of language through elegantly employed turns of phrase, were clearly from his father, Kunasekaram Nesiah. who was Head of the Department of Education at Peradeniya and, as a school boy at St. John’s, the proud recipient of the runner-up prize for essay writing in the British Empire.

Lanka leaves behind his wife and first cousin Malathi (née Somasundaram), daughter Sangeeta (married to Benoit Pasquereau with their daughter Arundathi) and son Nagulan (married to Dhushyanthi Jayawardana with their daughter Aanya). The youngest of Mr. K. Nesiah’s children, Lanka’s siblings in order are Devanesan Nesiah (married to Anita Seevaratnam), Pushpadevy Seevaratnam (married to Frank Seevaratnam) and Nimaladevy Joseph.

Born on May 17, 1940 Lanka schooled at Chundikuli Girls’ College to Grade 5 and moved during grade 5 to St. Thomas’ College when his father moved from St. John’s College Jaffna to teach there. Lanka excelled in sports (boxing and swimming) and studies at St. Thomas’ and read sociology honours at Peradeniya.

Lanka’s father K. Nesiah, based on his wide writings and newspaper observations on the education scene while a teacher at St. Thomas’, had been invited by first Vice Chancellor Sir Ivor Jennings to teach at the university which was on temporary premises in Colombo. Then just before Lanka entered the university, as if to keep him under his mother’s loving care, the department shifted to Peradeniya in September 1957 according to his sister Pushpadevy’s recollection, and after a brief stay in the St. Thomas’ hostel, Lanka was back at home for his four year undergraduate sojourn at Peradenya. He graduated in 1964 or 65 with the last English medium BA class, the last class of BA graduates to secure high level positions. He is remembered for his comment that while studious Buddhist monks mugged through several books day and night to get an ordinary pass degree, he enjoyed life reading Time and other current affairs material that helped him understand society well-enough to get a class. Read More

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Wednesday, August 14, 2013

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Tuesday, August 13, 2013

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