Disquiet over China's unsolicited projects in Lanka

By P K Balachandran - COLOMBO

Published: 09th September 2013 09:51 AM

Last Updated: 09th September 2013 09:51 AM

With the West showing disdain for Sri Lanka, India lacking the political will and financial resources needed to play its role as the regional power, and with Lanka itself entertaining fears of domination by the West and India, China has stepped into the breach with alacrity.

China has become Lanka’s highest creditor since the end of the war in 2009 and the biggest executor of multi-million dollar post-war reconstruction projects.

Besides plying Colombo with loans running into billions of dollars, Beijing has,in the recent past, begun to make “unsolicited proposals” for huge infrastructural projects. The by-passing of tendering procedure on the grounds that these proposals were unsolicited or there are no other proposals to compare has raised concerns in parliament and the media about costing and other aspects of the mega projects.

The government told parliament recently that the US$ 229 million water supply project in Gampaha district had been given to China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Co (CMEC) because no other parties were interested. CMEC got the contract even though its record in the Norochcholai power plant was bad, with the plant breaking down four times since inception. According to Sunday Times the US$ 255 million Trincomalee Outer Circular Road project (given to Hunan Road and Bridge Construction Corp) and the Colombo-Katunayake highway project also followed unsolicited proposals. Contracts were doled out circumventing normal tendering procedure. Chinese projects are funded by credit from Chinese banks and are not governmental grants as was the case with India-aided projects.

On the contrary, Western investments in Lanka are negligible. There is a lack of awareness of Lanka in Europe. “Only four MPs in the European parliament are interested in Sri Lanka,” German expert Dr Joachim Krause told the Defence Seminar-2013 in Colombo recently. On its part, Lanka is afraid of the West. Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa told the seminar that some Western powers were wanting a regime change in Lanka.

SL colonial governor chooses to ‘boycott’ Swiss ‘development’ function in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 September 2013, 21:06 GMT]
A move by the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) inviting the occupying Sri Lanka's colonial Governor in North, Major General (retd) GA Chandrasiri, as chief guest to the opening ceremony of two reconstructed schools in the Jaffna Peninsula on Thursday has ended up in the SL governor ‘boycotting’ the event, news sources in Uduththu'rai said. The controversial move by the SDC had received media attention prior to the event. Tamil politicians also protested against Chandrasiri using the occasion to wage election propaganda in favour of the UPFA government. However, the occupying SL military deployed its soldiers at the venue to demonstrate their occupation of the country of Eezham Tamils and to distribute leaflets canvassing among the public to support SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa's UPFA in the forthcoming PC elections in the North. 

Informed sources told TamilNet that the SL Governor was demanding the SDC to extend invitation to EPDP politician M. Chandrakumar. 

But, the SDC officials, concerned of the reactions, politely declined to invite the EPDP politician. 

Following the dispute, the military governor refrained from attending the event, sending only his provincial council envoys to preside over the event. 

Tamil National Alliance politicians have blamed Chandrasiri for deploying all public resources of the provincial council, including new employees, to wage propaganda for Rajapaksa’s UPFA.

Chronology:

08.09.13  SL colonial governor chooses to ‘boycott’ Swiss ‘d..

03.09.13  Swiss agency brings in genocidal governor to open ..

Mavittapurm, Keeramalai And Some Questions Raised By Place-Names Folk Lore

By Chandre Dharmawardana -September 9, 2013 

Prof. Chandre Dharmawardana

In an  interesting recent internet article published in dbsjeyaraj.com, Ms. Dushyanthini Kanagasabapathipillai  has repeated one version of an old anecdotal explanation of the place-name “Mavittapuram”. This story is somewhat in the same tradition as the story given to “explain” the place-name “Yalpanam” in terms of a blind lute player; the latter story does not find favour with historians as well as older authorities like Fr. Rasanayagam.

The story  regarding ‘Mavittapuram’ claims that ‘Ma’ could refer to horse in Tamil, while ‘Vitta’ could be construed to mean ‘removed’, while ‘puram’ (Sanskrit, ‘Pura’ and  ‘(p)Ur’ in old Tamil) means city. So the intriguing ‘horse-removed-city’ name is substantiated with the following story:

“A teenage Chola Princess in South India was cursed by a ‘Muni’ (a sage ) who was angered when he was laughed at by the princess – clearly a very spiteful sage! In some versions of the story, the sage had a “horse-like” face and it was this that caused the princess to laugh at the sage. The curse turned the face of the princess into that of a horse. In order to undo the curse, the princess had to come to Lanka and bathe at the Keerimalai  sacred springs, and offer penance to Lord Murugan”.

However, we should consider the old Tamil word ‘maavital’, and also the word  ‘mavita’ in Sanskrit, signifying ‘bound’, ‘marked-of’ or ‘tied together’ (Monier-Williams Sanskrit dictionary) before re-invoking  this traditional but far fetched horse-removed-city name? Perhaps the legendary story fits better with Dushianthini K’s interest in presenting her story associated with the Murugan temple. Nevertheless, it is  important to look at a more prosaic, if less exciting point of view that may be closer to reality. Of course, there is no water-tight proof of any of these explanations about place-names unless we can find clenching literary or archeological evidence. Such support is available only rarely. But it is not difficult to recognize pure folk-lore for what they are.

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Analysis: Mental health cost borne by families of missing in Sri Lanka

Sun sets over northern Sri Lanka, where the weight of past disappearances hangs over former conflict zonei

COLOMBO, 9 September 2013 (IRIN) - Sri Lanka has yet to address the psychological trauma suffered by family members of thousands of missing persons, even decades after their disappearances, by not acknowledging the extent and circumstances of these disappearances, say activists and researchers.

Analysis Mental Health Cost Borne by Families of Missing in Sri Lanka by nelvely

Once again burglars has break in to journalist Mandana Ismail's residence and taken away computers
(Lanka-e-News-09.Sep.2013, 4.30PM) Last night 'unknown persons' had entered the residence of the senior journalist's Mandna Ismail Abeywickreme and taken away the number of computers. This time the buglers had entered the annex of the house, which had been rented to a businessman to use as an office. 

On 24th August a group of buglers that included two army 'deserters' entered her residence and spent three hours going through her documents. Now it has transferred they were looking for some documents related to an underhand transaction worth 400 million rupees between the Krish company and President's son Namal Rajapaksha. The buglers told journalist Mandana Ismail that they were on a contract. According to Lanka-e-News sources the contract was given by Namal Rajapaksha. But buglers were not able to find out the document they were looking for. 

Mrs. Mandana and her family has not lived in the house since 24th because of fear and when her father visited to the house this morning he has found out that the buglers has entered the annex and the computers were missing in the offcie. The businessman has lodged a complaint at the Bambalapitiya Police station. 

It is clear that in a desperate move to find out the said documents Namal Rajapaksha had sent another group of buglers to get the computers thinking that they belong to journalists Mandana Ismail.

One bugler was killed and four buglers who entered the residence of Mrs. Mandana Ismail was arrested by a tip off to the police. But even before any inquiry completed the Police made a statement saying that it was a sheer burglary. It was a cover up. 

Meanwhile the leader of the opposition Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe has told the parliament that the buglers who entered the Mrs. Mandna Ismail's were looking for the so-called ''Krish Files'' which contains underhand transitions by the Company.

'Principled journalism brings danger' - Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema

09 SEPTEMBER 2013

BY ATHULA WITHANAGE
In the early hours of Saturday 24th of August, the 'Sunday Leader's Associate Editor Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema woke up to find a group of armed men in her bedroom. As one threatened her at knife point demanding valuables, the rest browsed through her files and documents. But within hours, tipped off by her journalist husband, the police stormed the house which resulted in the death of an assailant while the rest were taken into custody. Despite their swift action, the police were quick to label the attack as an ordinary case of burglary even before any conclusive investigation was conducted. Among other things, the 'extraordinary interest' showed by the so-called burglars in examining the documents belonging to the journalists were conveniently overlooked while the question why a gang of burglars spent over two hours in her house remain still unanswered.

'Principled Journalism Brings Danger' - Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema by nelvely

The Global Network for a Free Media

The International Press Institute is a global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists. We are dedicated to the furtherance and safeguarding of press freedom, the protection of freedom of opinion and expression, the promotion of the free flow of news and information, and the improvement of the practices of journalism.

Vuslat Dogan Sabanci, publisher, Hurriyet, IPI World Congress in Istanbul

Foto: AP

IPI concerned by declining press freedom in Sri Lanka

BBC journalist questioned by anti-terror police in Colombo 

By: Saloni Sardana, IPI Contributor-.Saturday, 07 September 2013

A member of the Alliance of Media Organization wears a black cloth across his face and holds a placard of murdered columnist Sivaram, during a protest in Colombo January 29, 2013. The Alliance of Media Organization had organized the protest against what it believes to be the killings and abductions of Sri Lankan journalists. It has also labeled January as a Black month for media freedom in which it marks the killings of Sri Lankan journalists. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

VIENNA, Sept 5, 2013- The International Press Institute (IPI) expresses today its concern about recent attacks against journalists and an overall deterioration of press freedom in Sri Lanka.

The Global Network for a Free Media by nelvely

Amid world pressure, SL ‘loans’ itself to China

By Our Political Editor-Sunday, September 08, 2013

• Scores of huge contracts given to Chinese firms on “unsolicited project proposals”
• EAM comes under heavy firing for mishandling Pillay visit; serious repercussions likely

Colombo - Katunayake expressway under construction at the Peliyagoda interchange

Amid world pressure, SL ‘loans’ itself to China by nelvely

Army deployed in India's Muzaffarnagar after clashe

Indian army soldiers have been deployed in Muzaffarnagar in northern Uttar Pradesh state after 28 people were killed in religious clashes.

Several villages are under curfew after violence between Hindus and Muslims.

9 September 2013 

Officials say the death toll is likely to rise as more than 50 people were injured in the rioting.

The clashes were sparked by the killing of three men after they protested against the alleged harassment of a local woman.

Later the circulation of a fake video showing two men being lynched led to more violence, which spread to neighbouring villages in the district.

Among those killed in the weekend clashes was a TV journalist.

A total of 800 troops have been deployed in the area to bring the situation under control and more than 100 people have been arrested on charges of inciting violence.

"A curfew has been imposed in three riot-hit areas of Muzaffarnagar. The situation is still very tense, but under control,'' senior Uttar Pradesh official RM Srivastava told the Associated Press news agency.

'Well planned'

The clashes broke out on Saturday after Hindu farmers held a meeting to protest against the killing of three men who had spoken out against the alleged harassment of a local woman.

Reports say a few participants made provocative speeches at the meeting.

Some of the farmers were attacked when they were returning home after the meeting, senior police official Arun Kumar said.

"The attackers seemed well planned. Some were armed with rifles and sharp-edged weapons," Mr Kumar said.

Within hours clashes broke out in neighbouring villages, officials said.

Uttar Pradesh experienced some of the worst religious clashes in India after a Hindu mob razed the 16th Century Babri Mosque in the holy city of Ayodhya in 1992.

This prompted nationwide rioting between Hindus and Muslims in which more than 2,000 people died.

India has seen a rise in religious violence this year with 451 incidents reported so far compared to 410 for all of 2012, a federal minister has said.

The Weliweriya violence: Documenting the inconvenient for posterity

• by Groundviews 
• - on 09/09/2013 

The archiving of tweets documenting the violence in Weliweriya began after a reader, @apelankawe, asked us to do so.

Vidura @Apelankawe

@groundviews any plans of archiving #weliweriya tweets?

6:11 AM - 2 Aug 2013

Ended up archiving every single tweet containing the hashtags #Weliweriya, #Weliveriya, #weliweriyaclash and #weliweriyaclash.

The final report from the investigation into the incident is in the hands of the Army Commander as well as the President for several weeks, but still unavailable in the public domain. Questions over the inaccessibility of the report posed to Anuradha K Herath, Director (International Media) at the President’s Office and to Charitha Herath, Secretary, Ministry of Mass Media and Information, have gone tellingly unanswered to date.

Groundviews @groundviews

So what about that report on #Weliweriya murders by the Army @presrajapaksa has in his possession? @anuradhakherath #lka #srilanka

1:12 PM - 2 Sep 2013

Groundviews @groundviews

@charith9 Of course, but not a part Govt wants to openly acknowledge. Lest we forget, Army report into murders STILL not public! Wonder why.

10:51 PM - 8 Sep 2013

Perhaps one reason the government doesn’t want to release the final report is because of the nature of those placed in charge of the investigation. As noted in online media,

The Army’s Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Jagath Dias who was put in charge of the army inquiry into a violent military crackdown against civilian demonstrators in Weliweriya on August 1 has been rejected by the United States for training programme on account of his implication in alleged war crimes during the final days of the war.

Much as the government desires it, the public record of the violence and the Army’s murders in Weliweriya can’t be easily hidden or erased. From 1st August 2013 to 9th September 2013, Groundviews archived over 1,750 tweets, linking compelling photographs, videos, articles, eye-witness testimony, citizen journalism and mainstream news reports around the violence and responses to it.

The full archive is now accessible here. This search interface will always show the latest tweets, updated hourly, every day.

Download a complete list of the tweets published till 9th September 2013 as an Excel spreadsheet here.

90,000 arrested since January 2012

By Premalal Wijeratne-September 8, 2013, 8:59 pm 

As many as 90,000 suspects have been arrested by the police in connection with dealing and trading in illegal drugs such as cannabis and heroin, and related offences, from January 2012 to date.

Acting Police Media Spokesman, SSP Ajith Rohana, said that last year, 5,898 suspects were arrested over heroin related offences while another 30,448 suspects were arrested for possessing cannabis. This year, to date, 15,516 suspects had been arrested over heroin related offences and another 25,903 suspects are in custody for dealing in the sales of cannabis.

According to the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board, there are  an estimated 45,000 drug addicts in the country who use two kg of heroin daily. Going by the street value of one kg of heroin, which is valued at Rs 10 million, Sri Lankan drug addicts consume illegal.....substance worth a whooping  Rs 7.3 billion.

On the directions of the IGP, the police, islandwide, are on the alert to apprehend those engaging in the illegal trade and use of narcotics. He added, the police are intent on eliminating crime, the use of narcotics and illicit liquor, while also taking measures to resolve complaints received within 48 hours, reducing the prevalence of road accidents, and expediting the arrest of those who have been absconding appearing in Court.

Deputy Mayor Seneviratne further remanded By Premalal Wijeratne and Gihan Chameera - Nuwara Eliya-Monday, 09 Sep 2013 The National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) yesterday presented three more children before the Court who had been allegedly abused by the Deputy Mayor of Nuwara Eliya, Tissa Seneviratne, when the case was once again taken up for hearing. The suspect was also in Court. The Deputy Mayor is in remand for having allegedly sexually abused several male children, and another 19-year-old youth who had been molested some time ago, and who it is reported, is also suspected of having assisted the accused to molest children. The youth was also produced before the Nuwara Eliya Magistrate. It was revealed in Court that the 19-year-old youth had been financially rewarded for supplying children to the Deputy Mayor, and he had also resorted to relieving the abused children of the money they are paid by the Deputy Mayor, for being forced to succumb to his sexual demands. The Magistrate ordered that three boys who were produced in Court be handed over to their parents, and requested the NCPA to obtain a report from the Probation Officer on their well-being. The NCPA informed Court that several children had been sexually abused by the accused, and in view of the ongoing investigations, requested that he be not granted bail at this juncture. After considering the facts presented, the Magistrate decided to further remand the Deputy Mayor till 23 September.

Syria: A game of chicken

Editorial-September 8, 2013

In what may be described as a dramatic turn of events, Russia has pledged to back Syria in the event of a foreign military strike. This undertaking has been given by no less a person than President Vladimir Putin himself, who, addressing the media on the sidelines of the G-8 Summit, dismissed the claim that the Syrian forces were using chemical weapons as a ruse by the anti-Assad rebels to pave the way for a foreign-led attack.

President Barack Obama has not budged an inch. Instead of accepting the UN position on Syria, he is reported to have questioned the effectiveness of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in handling the alleged chemical weapons issue. Has he confused the UNSC’s effectiveness with its willingness to plunge feet first into military action against the countries the US wants to tame? In asking for congressional approval for attacking Syria he has apparently placed the US legislature above the UNSC which has not endorsed his planned move.

The US has already created very bad precedents by using falsified intelligence dossiers to invade Iraq, where hundreds of thousands of people were killed and by causing death and destruction through its intervention to oust Gaddafi in Libya. The Obama administration has lost its credibility even in the eyes of British lawmakers who shot down Prime Minister David Cameron’s resolution to back the proposed US military action against Syria.

President Assad is no angel and he will baulk at nothing to remain in power. He does not want to be beaten to death in a wayside drain like Muammar Gaddafi or hanged like Saddam Hussein following a ‘trial’ by a pro-western kangaroo court. It is being claimed that he used chemical weapons but this allegation has not been convincingly substantiated. The US is looking for a casus belli and what it says of ‘chemical attacks’ cannot be considered the truth because of its WMD lie as regards Iraq.

Ironically, the US is trying to wreak havoc on an already devastated Syria regardless of the huge human cost its military action is sure to entail purportedly to uphold a ban on chemical weapons, while refusing to pay compensation to tens of thousands of victims of its chemical attacks in Vietnam.

It may be recalled that the US was the only country that voted against a UN Security Council statement in 1986 condemning the mustard gas attacks by Iraq on the Iranian forces. America also allowed its companies to export chemicals to Iraq, which used them on humans. All chemical attacks by Hussein on the Kurds as part of his genocidal Anfal campaign, which left more than 150,000 Kurds dead, over 1,000 Kurdish villages destroyed and about 300,000 Kurds displaced had the blessings of the West. The crop spraying helicopters used in those attacks had come from the US! Those massacres, unfortunately, had no impact on the trade that Iraq had with the West. Instead, it increased! He was executed years later but his western confederates went scot free. He, too, would have been safe if he had not ruffled the feathers’ of his former western masters.

With Obama and Putin refusing to soften their positions on the Syrian issue, the US and Russia are engaged in a game of chicken. A US strike on Syria and Russian help for Assad will only take the conflict to a higher level with extremely dangerous consequences. This has to be avoided at any cost as it is fraught with the danger of not only destroying many more lives in Syria but also threatening global peace with the conflict spilling over into other parts of the world and the attendant runaway oil prices plunging many an economy already in trouble into deeper crisis. One way of stopping the on-going carnage in Syria may be for the US and Russia to use their influence to make the rebels and Assad’s army freeze their positions, declare a truce and negotiate a solution.

The Return of the Golems

William A. Cook                 Intifada Palestine-07. SEP, 2013
Image credit: republicreport.org

“AIPAC urges Congress to grant the President the authority he has requested to protect America’s 
national security interests and dissuade the Syrian regime’s further use of unconventional weapons. The civilized world cannot tolerate the use of these barbaric weapons, particularly against an innocent civilian population including hundreds of children.” (AIPAC, 9/3/2013)

The Return of the Golems by nelvely

Swamiji’s lectures shook the world, but failed to spur India 

Swami Vivekananda-September 8, 2013, 8:59 pm

By Saibal Gupta

It was 11 September, 1893 in Chicago. The Parliament of Religions was in session. It was not the 9/11 of destruction in USA, but the 9/11 of creation. Among the delegates was a young monk, handsome and resplendent in his saffron attire and turban, unknown, uninvited and penniless, who spent his first night in America in a wooden crate on the roadside. Rescued and invited to her home by a kind-hearted lady, he met people who arranged his participation as a delegate. Twice his name had been called to come to the podium, but he did not rise. The third call and he heard the loving voice of his Master Sri Ramakrishna: "Will you not rise? Will you not speak?" And he rose and delivered.

Swamiji’s lectures shook the world, but failed to spur India by nelvely

Black July: Further Evidence Of Advance Planning

By Rajan Hoole -September 9, 2013 

Rajan Hoole

Sri Lanka’s Black July – Part 22

It was not as though the UNP on the 25th morning taking a cue from Cyril Mathew, picked up electoral lists from party offices and went about attacking Tamil homes. In the context of Jayewardene not taking advice from the Police to declare curfew, the methodical attacks with lists had started in Anderson Flats, Narahepita, by 5.00 A.M. (see T. Sabaratnam, CDN 27.7.99). Mobs entered Tamil flats identified from lists, smashed property and threw refrigerators over the balcony, but did not harm the people if they did not resist. It does not seem credible to suppose that taking advantage of there being no curfew, some bright sparks started something that quickly became widespread and moreover, uniform.

The attacks on the 25th were widespread in the Western Province. Thugs from one area went into another area, often to be joined by UNP local councillors with electoral lists taking on lane by lane. T.D.S.A. Dissanayaka himself comments on the methodical thoroughness in Athulathmudali’s electorate of Ratmalana and in Dehiwela. Houses owned by Sinhalese and occupied by Tamils had the furniture dragged out and burnt. Thugs boarded the train from Galle at Attidiya, Ratmalana, and got down at various points in Wellawatte in an organised manner by pulling the emergency chord and went in to attack from the sea front. The attacks started at sharp 10.00 A.M. and stopped at 4.00 P.M.

A particular revealing instance was related by T. Sabaratnam, a Tamil journalist in the state owned Ceylon Daily News (article of 27.7.99). Having received a call from a friend of attacks on Narahenpitiya flats, he locked his house in Dehiwela and moved with his family to Castle Lane, Bambalapitiya. He later learnt from his Sinhalese neighbour that a gang had come late in the morning and asked for Tamil houses. The neighbour denied that there were any in the lane. The article runs, “The gang leader pulled out a list and showed my name…. Around the same time the houses of R. Sivagurunathan, P. Balasingham, K. Nadarajah, K. Sivapragasam, Ponmany Kulasingham and others who held influential positions in the field of Tamil journalism were set ablaze. The suspicion among us at that time was against the JSS, headed by Industries Minister Cyril Mathew.”

This was the case of a special list of prominent Tamils prepared by JSS men in their departments. The gang attacking these houses was one delegated to work on this list. It was not part of the general sweep based on electoral lists. This special list had undoubtedly been prepared well in advance.

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

Part twelve –  Welikade Prison Massacres: The First Massacre: 25th July 1983

Part thirteen –  Welikade Prison Massacres: Testimonies Given At The Magistrate’s Inquest

Part fourteen -  Circumstances Leading To The Magistrate’s Inquest

Part fifteen - Welikade Prison: The Second Massacre: 27th July 1983

Part sixteen - Welikade Prison Massacres: Chief Jailor Observed Army Commandos Coming In

Part seventeen - Welikade Prison Massacres: Postscript

Part eighteen - July 1983: Planned By The State Or Spontaneous Mob Action?

Part nineteen - July 1983: Ranil Wickremasinghe Followed Cyril Mathew

Part twenty - Events Of 24th July – The Eve Of The Holocaust: Who Wanted A Military Funeral?

Part twenty one –  Events Of 24th July: What Were The Army’s Orders?

*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..