July 1983, State Racism and Truth Commissions

Image courtesy Sangam-

by Devanesan Nesiah

- on 09/18/2013

To everyone who has not read them I recommend reading Izeth Hussain’s, articles of 31 August and 7 September in The Island, and my article in groundviews and in the Sunday Leader of 4 August 2013. We cannot seek to forget tragedies such as the Burning of the Jaffna Public Library in 1981, Black July 1983, the massacre of Muslim worshippers in Kaththankudi, the murder of six hundred Sinhalese and Muslim policemen in the Eastern province and many other terrible incidents in this once idyllic island, and expect the ill consequences to disappear without trace. They will linger and keep coming back to haunt us all for a very long time unless there is effective closure. The victims and their families and loved ones will not forget; nor should others unless the truth has been told, and appropriate justice meted out. In the South African context Bishop Tutu refers to restorative justice and retributive justice as appropriate following truth telling. In South Africa and many other countries such a process has helped to bring about national reconciliation. Any attempt to prescribe closure without such due process will surely fail and backfire. In each of the countries that had successful truth commissions, their was truth telling by the perpetrators in the presence of the victims; this has never been the case in Sri Lanka.

July 1983, State Racism and Truth Commissions by nelvely

WikiLeaks: ‘Devananda Will Kill You’ President Tells Journalists And Offers Diplomatic Posts

September 19, 2013

“On April 25, talk show host Ranga told us that President Rajapaksa had informed him in front of a witness that Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa was incensed by Ranga’s handling of the abduction issue in his TV talk shows.” the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.

Sri Ranga, Namal and the President

The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeaks database. The cable is classified as “SECRET” and discuses Sri Lanka’s paramilitary operations. The cable was written by the Ambassador Robert O. Blake on May 18, 2007.

The ambassador Blake wrote; “The President, whose son is a close friend of Ranga‘s, insisted that Ranga leave the country, offering him the post of DCM in Oslo as an inducement. Should he fail to accept the offer of exile, Rajapaksa reportedly told him, Devananda would have him killed. Ranga said he also feared assassination by the LTTE, who consider him a Rajapaksa stooge.”

We publish below the relevant part of the cable;

VZCZCXRO9322
OO RUEHBI RUEHLMC
DE RUEHLM #0728/01 1380922

Petition seeks to postpone NPC elections

By Stanley Samarasinghe-Wednesday, 18 Sep 2013

The Supreme Court (SC) which examined the five petitions that were filed, seeking to Court to postpone the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) elections, issued notice on the respondents to appear in Court on 2 October.

The petitions were heard by a three-judge panel comprising the Chief Justice, Mohan Peiris, and Justices K. Sripavan and Rohini Marasinghe, yesterday.

Five petitioners including Dr. Gunadasa Sooriyarachchi Amarasekera of the Deshapremi National Alliance had filed the petitions.
Secretary of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi, Mavai Senathiraja, Chairman of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), R. Sampanthan, Elections Commissioner, Mahinda Deshapriya, and the Attorney General have been cited as respondents in the petitions.

The petitions stated that the TNA that is contesting the NPC elections had made a series of promises to the Northern voters. One of the promises is, if they win, they will be establishing a separate state. Under the Constitution, Sri Lanka is a sovereign state, and under it, a separate government cannot be created, the petition points out.

As it is stated in their list of promises, and foreign and local funding are anticipated, the petitioners seeks a Court order to postpone the election as it is ultra vires the Constitution.

The petitioners have asked Court to make a declaration that the aim of the TNA is to create a separate state.
Attorney-at-Law, Kanishka Wijeratne and Kapila Gamage, appeared on behalf of the petitioners.

Civil Society censures wrong politics of TNA but urges people to vote for it

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 September 2013, 09:13 GMT]
The Tamil civil society in the North, comprising of religious dignitaries, including the Mannaar Bishop, academics, doctors, student leaders and trade union activists, on Wednesday came with an open appeal urging the Tamil people to use the forthcoming Northern Provincial Council (NPC) elections to reject those who have been opposed to Tamil national aspirations and to vote for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). Reminding that it is also essential to be selective on casting the preferential votes to those TNA candidates who have a real attachment and commitment to the Tamil national politics, the civil society appeal also rejected the crucial sections of TNA's election manifesto as sending a wrong message of guidance to the Tamil people and to the international community. 

Coming hard on TNA over the orientation of its election manifesto, the Tamil civil society denounced the Provincial Council system, both as a political solution and as a starter to a process towards a political solution. 

“We have to be more careful on the election to the PC system that seeks to sabotage the struggle for our rights,” the appeal said stressing that Tamils cannot escape from the protracted genocide by simply replacing the SL Governor or acquiring the so-called powers stipulated in the 13th Amendment. 

“We are saddened to note that the TNA has failed in their election manifesto in clarifying their political approach on the PC system vis-à-vis the political mechanism for arriving at a political solution,” the appeal noted. 

Urging the people to be cautious about the “mischievous propaganda” by some candidates on what could be achieved by the elections, the Civil Society said that Tamils should realize that there are no powers in the provincial council under the 13th Amendment.

Urging for a holistic approach, beyond projecting party politics in taking forward the Tamil national aspirations, the civil society wanted the people to interpret the mandate of their vote to the TNA as a message of rejection of the political parties collaborating with the protracted genocidal programme of the Sri Lankan State. 

After winning the elections for the Northern Provincial Council, the TNA should conceive a time-bound action plan placed open to the people and, if and when failing to achieve anything significant, it should be prepared to re-evaluate its continued participation in the PC system as a tactic to take forward the Tamil course. 

The next stage of our struggle towards our political solution cannot be born through the PC system. The success of Tamil struggle depends on a responsive political and social mobilization of Tamil people, by rebuilding the social infrastructure of the Tamil Nation and by addressing the global geo-politics, the statement said. 

The appeal also called on the people to firmly reject the ‘collaborative politics’ of ‘development’, which attempts to distort the rights oriented politics cause of the Tamils by projecting it that Tamils were only seeking ‘development’ and not their rights. 

The people should realize that the so-called development projects conducted under the auspices of the Sri Lankan government in the Tamil homeland were challenging the independent existence of the Tamil nation, the civil society appeal said. A development, building the abilities of the Tamil people and developing the Tamils as a strong society, is absent in the Tamil homeland, the appeal said. 

While the Eelam Tamils are gagged at home, the only support we have is the mobilization of Tamil Nadu and the diaspora Tamils. Even the meagre safety for our survival today and the global attention on us, are possible only because they are able to voice for our aspirations. The TNA should be thankful to them and find a honourable way to strengthen the Tamil aspirations by seeking to incorporate them [in the struggle]. Only then we can strengthen their real demands. One should not undermine their role, the appeal further said. 

Despite having a signed copy of the statement, the representatives of the Tamil civil society could not release it to their people or media due to the gagged situation of freedom expression prevailing in the North. 

• Tamil Civil Society memo on NPC elections

However, Tamil activists for alternative politics in Jaffna, while welcoming the stand taken by the Tamil civil society, opined that it would have been helpful had the civil society in North come with this stand much earlier. Had the civil society been more direct and vocal in their criticism, that would have contributed to course correct the Establishment-centric approach of the TNA, they said.

The activists for alternative politics also urged the Tamil Nadu activists to take a careful note of some new opinion engineers, orientated to the agenda of the Establishments and are operating in South India in ‘pro-Eelam’ garb. Such opinion makers rushed to eulogise the TNA manifesto as Tamil-centric, while it is a draft of Colombo-centric minds directed by the Establishments, the activists in the island said.

Poster clearing ops to cost public Rs. 10 mn

*With Police LG bodies failing in their duty:

September 17, 2013, 9:15 pm 

By Shamindra Ferdinando

The Elections Department has been compelled to allocate Rs. 9.8 million for the ongoing police operations to remove illegal campaign material ahead of Provincial Council polls in the Northern, Central and North-Western Provinces.

Informed sources told The Island that in addition to the funds released to the police to hire private workers, the Elections Department was spending extra funds for the same purpose.

The Election Secretariat had no option but to use taxpayers’ money for a clearing operation as the major political parties are engaged in a poster war. Asked whether the Election Secretariat had discussed the issue with political parties, a senior official said that polls chief Mahinda Deshapriya had requested them to abide by election laws. Although they had been agreeable to Deshapriya’s suggestions, the laws with regard to propaganda campaigns were being violated, the official said, adding that had the police prevented the putting up of posters, there would have been no need to hire private workers to remove posters and other propaganda material.

The Elections Department said that for the deployment of the police in the three provinces comprising the districts of Mahanuwara, Matale and Nuwara Eliya (Central Province), Jaffna, Mannar, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi (Northern Province) and Kurunegala and Puttalam (North-Western Province) Rs 150.7 mn had been allocated "This amount included the Rs. 9.8 mn for poster clearing operations.

Sources said that in accordance with existing agreement the Elections Department had to meet the expenses incurred by the police during the campaign and on the day of the elections.

TISL receives 165 complaints

Wednesday, 18 Sep 2013

Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) has up to now received 165 complaints of election malpractices relating to public property being used for propaganda work in the Central and North-Western Provinces, ahead of the elections.

Of these, TISL investigation teams have confirmed 112 to be valid.

The TISL said in a communiqué: The misuse of government vehicles from lorries and double cabs to helicopters by UPFA candidates as well as the physical use of public buildings and vacant land, and the participation of public servants from trainees to Governors, has been endorsed by the investigation teams.

There is evidence to prove that up to now, over 300 vehicles belonging to ministries, departments and other institutions have been used for election propaganda work. This is mainly because of the active involvement of almost all the ministers in the election campaign. Over a thousand public officials and other staff have also been actively involved.

The UPFA candidates are using SLTB buses to transport their supporters for election rallies. To quote one incident, 234 buses were used to commute people for a meeting held at Talawakelle on 15 September presided over by the President. When questioned, the Manager of the Central Province SLTB office said that the buses were released after a Secretary of Minister Arumugam Thondaman came and paid Rs 2.7 million. The release of such a large amount of buses severely hampered the movement of the people.

In order to circumvent the Election Commissioner's circular prohibiting the use of public property for election purposes, a whole series of 'development projects' have been started. In the North Western Province, 114 such projects were launched on 13 and 14 September, and all were in effect election propaganda meetings. On 13 September alone 84 projects were launched in the Puttalam District. Several instances of misusing government vehicles were noticed in several districts in the Central Province too. TISL is in possession of details including the numbers of vehicles, and places where public land and buildings have been used.

Details relating to these instances have been forwarded to the Elections Commissioner.

Military personals attacks TNA supporters in Meesalai, Jaffna

[ Wednesday, 18 September 2013, 12:28.55 PM GMT +05:30 ]

Military personals round up and attacked TNA supporters engage election conversing in the Meesalai in Jaffna today.

Speaking on this attack TNA northern provincial council candidate Kesawan said, Military personals continuously threatened TNA supporters and later on they attacked our vehicles. TNA supporters informed police and election monitors on this attack.

House of TNA politician in Kaarainakar stoned

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 September 2013, 23:25 GMT]
Attackers believed to be operated by the intelligence outfit of the occupying Sri Lankan military in Jaffna stoned the house of the head of the civic council (Piratheasa Chapai) of Kaarainakar, Mr Anaimukan Velayutham, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) politician, in the early hours of Tuesday. In the meantime, Colombo-based Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV), in its communiqué said a 6 member squad was observed at his house on the previous day when Mr Anaimukan returned home from a TNA election meeting. The CMEV noted that the SL police had registered a complaint on the attack the following day, but the police was not aware that the attack was an election related violence. Anaimukan's house has been targeted at least twice, in 2011 and 2012, during the Tamil Heroes Day observations. 

The attack on his house in 2011 came after he was interviewed by the BBC Tamil, in which he had exposed that the occupying SL military had instructed temples in his civic division not to toll bells, not to light lamps and not to use loudspeakers during the Heroes Day observation. 

Last year, he was threatened at gunpoint and a squad set fire inside his house, alleging that he had observed the Heroes Day by lighting lamps and conducting special prayers at the temples in Kaarainakar. 

Full text of the statement issued by the CMEV:

17th September 2013 at 12.45 a.m: Northern Province, Jaffna Electoral District, and Karainagar Electorate at Kovalam. The residence of Karainagar Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Velayudam Anaimugan (TNA) was stoned at about 12.45 a.m by a group of unknown persons.

Mr. Anaimugan stated that while he was returning from the TNA election meeting held near the Sivakamy Amman Temple at about around 10.30 p.m the previous night (16th September 2013) he observed 06 people on 03 Motor cycles in front of his house. Upon seeing him approach these individuals had allegedly fled the location. Mr. Anaimugan stated that he was only able to note the registration number of one motor cycle (VI 6465) but identified several persons in the group as officers attached to the Army intelligence. Mr. Velayudam Anaimugan has informed the Police emergency unit about this incident but has not logged a formal complaint.

When contacted by CMEV the Kayts Police station confirmed that they received a complaint that the Karainagar Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman’s house had been attacked and had deployed a mobile police team to investigate at about 1.30 a.m. The police further stated that as the complainant refused to give a statement at the time he was asked to make a statement at the Kayts police station within the course of the day but that he had not done so. Police further stated that they were unaware that this was an election related incident or that officers attached to Military intelligence units were involved.

Canadian Tamil Congress calls for free and fair Northern Provincial elections in Sri Lanka

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 17, 2013

Canadian Tamil Congress calls for free and fair Northern Provincial elections in Sri Lanka

Urges Tamil Canadians to encourage friends and family to vote in the elections

The Canadian Tamil Congress calls for free and fair Northern Provincial elections to be held in Sri Lanka. On September 21st, 2013, the people of Northern Province in Sri Lanka will go to the polls in 5 districts and it is crucial that they are able to do so in a free and fair manner.

In this respect, CTC calls upon all Tamils living in the North to exercise their democratic right and take part in the upcoming Northern Provincial elections. Submitting that ballot will send a decisive and explicit message to the Sri Lankan government and the international community.

CTC urges all Tamil Canadians to encourage their relatives and friends in northern Sri Lanka eligible to vote in the upcoming Northern Provincial elections to go to the polls. CTC also urges Tamils living outside the North, but who are registered to vote to ensure that their votes are cast.

The democratic right of Tamils to vote is at great risk due to the intimidation, violence, and the potential of fraud. Recent reports from organizations on the ground including the Centre for Monitoring Elections Violence (CMEV) and Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) have reported several incidents of army intelligence and police intimidating the TNA candidates/supporters. These acts are obstructing the election campaign, particularly that of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). CTC strongly condemns these degrading acts to intimidate the TNA, which enjoys the popular support of Tamils.

"The Tamil community in Sri Lanka should be allowed to exercise their right to vote in a fair manner without the threat of intimidation, violence or fraud", said David Poopalapillai, National Spokesperson for the Canadian Tamil Congress. "It is the duty of the international community to safeguard this fundamental right of people in a country that has systematically violated the rights of its citizens", concluded Poopalapillai.

For more information, please contact (416) 240-0078.

Published on: 09/17/13 16:54

30 Years Ago: Audio recordings of panel discussions

Photograph by Tehani Ariyaratne, from 30 Years Ago

• by Groundviews
• - on 09/18/2013 

To complement the launch of 30 Years Ago and focus on some of the issues the project is anchored to and inspired by, four panel discussions were on the 24th and 25th of August at Park Street Mews, Warehouse D in Colombo.

The inaugural session featured Deshamanya Bradman Weerakoon and Dr. Devanesan Nesiah, both of whom have been featured on Groundviews previously writing or speaking about Black July (see here and here). The panel was the very first time appeared together to talk about their unique experiences around the violence in 1983. The other panels featured some of the Sri Lanka’s best known artists, gallerists, writers, dramatists, activists and journalists.

Details of the panels and the audio recordings are now posted on the 30 Years Ago website. You can also directly access the recordings below.

• 24th August, 10am – 11am | Reflections of ’83: Plus ça change?
• 24th August, 4pm – 5pm | Art and Memorialising
• 25th August, 10am – 11am | Frames
• 25th August, 4pm – 5pm | Media matters

Why did Ambassador Sison call on Ven. Sobitha?

 by Upul Joseph Fernando -Wednesday, September 18, 2013

| by Upul Joseph Fernando 

( September 1, 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The recent meeting between Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera and US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Michele J. Sison, caused a wave of ripples in the top echelons of the government. She had sought an audience with the reverend Sobitha for a specific reason; that is to find out about the proposal to abolish the Executive Presidency, spearheaded by the Ven Thera, with the support of a wide spectrum of social activists, who stand for good governance.

Why Did Ambassador Sison Call on Ven. Sobitha by nelvely

TNA Is Cheating, Mahinda A Man Of Good Calibre To Solve The Tamil Problem- KP

September 19, 2013 

Former Chief Arms procurer for the Tamil Tigers Kumaran Pathmanathan yesterday expressed fullest confidence in President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ability to resolve the problem of SrI Lanka’s minority Tamils.

Kumaran Pathmanathan

Calling the President ‘a great leader’ the former rebel leader said the government could resolve Tamil issues without the help of the international community.

Pathmanathan said the President was a man of good calibre to solve the Tamil problem.

Hitting out hard against the TNA KP said the main Tamil party that is expected to win Saturday’s provincial poll was cheating the northern people. “You have to work with the majority community that is the only way,” the former LTTE member.

Attacking the LTTE Pathmanathan said both the TNA and the Tigers were always rejecting overtures by the Government. He urged the TNA to join the latest PSC on a final solution.

It was KP’s first press address since his capture. The briefing for the journalists who had been escorted to the north by the army last morning took place at 12 noon at the Sencholai orphanage now run by KP.

No Tiger Symbolism, No Troop Withdrawal

By Dayan Jayatilleka -September 18, 2013 |

Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka

The men of the Sri Lankan armed forces did not die, lose their limbs, their eyesight, their futures, so that the fascist separatist Prabhakaran could be openly hailed as a great hero, his photographs distributed, his songs sung and his organization sanitised in the same battlefields. The revivalism that we have seen in the past weeks could, among other things, trigger a backlash that may initially be subterranean but has far reaching political and systemic consequences.

Jaffna’s Uthayan newspaper, as cited in the political column of the Sunday Times, (Colombo) quotes TNA’s chief ministerial candidate as having said:

“Prabhakaran is not a terrorist. He is a hero and a warrior who fought for the liberation of the Tamil nation. A Sinhala newspaper that interviewed me recently, quoted me saying that I had said Prabhakaran is a terrorist. I told them Prabhakaran is not a terrorist and that he is a great hero. It is the angle from which we look at, that makes the estimation of the person. In my view he is not a terrorist. In Kandy, Keppetipola Dissawe who fought against the whites was declared as a terrorist and punished, but now the Sinhalese have installed a statue and celebrate him as a hero. Once viewed by the Whites as a terrorist, was later declared a hero and warrior. It is in the same manner, Prabhakaran is seen to me as a liberation fighter…” (‘Showpiece Development in North but TNA victory inevitable’, Sunday Times, Sept 15, 2013)

As far as I recall, Keppitipola didn’t murder anyone on the side of the anti-imperialist resistance while the ‘Great Hero’ Prabhakaran slaughtered pretty much the whole leadership of the TNA’s constituent parties—Amirthalingam, Yogeswaran, Mrs Yogeswaran, Neelan Tiruchelvam, Sri Sabaratnam, K Pathmanabha—as well as the former Prime Minister of the world’s most populous democracy, and the grandson of Shri Jawaharlal Nehru! Some ‘Great Hero’ that.

Meanwhile, the respected academic Prof Ratnajeevan S. Hoole, discloses that Read More

Government is attempting to introduce a Casino Economy to the country - Karu Jayasuriya

Wednesday, 18 September 2013 

Incumbent government is attempting to introduce a Casino Economy to the country.  This will lead to the creation of a gun culture; consisting of prostitution, alcoholism, drugs and immorality said by by Hon. Karu Jayasuriya UNP M.P. On 18th September 2013 at media conference

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Government is Attempting to Introduce a Casino Economy to the Country - Karu Jayasuriya by nelvely

The Constitution Undermined: By The TNA Manifesto Or The Sex Trade In Children?

By Rajah S. Rajasingham -September 18, 2013

Douglas Devananda - Leader EPDP

In a most damaging story affecting the already poor government fortunes on the eve of the Provincial Council elections, Colombo Telegraph reported that the then US ambassador Robert Blake had wired Washington in 2007 that “[Tamil] children are sold into slavery, usually boys to work camps and girls to prostitution rings, through EPDP’s networks in India and Malaysia.”

Stephen Sunthararaj, an employee of World Vision, a California-based “Evangelical Christian Humanitarian aid, development, and advocacy organisation dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice,” had maintained that children are often smuggled out of the country with the help of a corrupt Customs and Immigration official at Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo.”  

The then Government Agent for Jaffna, K. Ganesh, who was close to the EPDP and the government, had confirmed the story to the US Embassy saying that young women were taken and forced to have sex with between five and ten soldiers a night.  For his efforts, Stephen Sunthararaj was first arrested and when his release was ordered by court, white-vanned as he walked out in freedom and disappeared.

Nothing could be worse for the government than this news just before elections on September 21, 2013.

When the Jaffna-based Uthayan had reported on this story some time ago, Douglas Devananda, the EPDP leader implicated in this story, had reacted in feigned anger and filed a case for defamation for Rs. 1000 million against Uthayan, one of over 10 cases he has filed to use the courts to suppress news of his doings.

Unfortunately for Devananda, the court date came up on Sept. 16, five days before polls. Devananda wanted to avoid his own case because the timing in terms of the elections would be bad and give an excuse for further news reports on his activities. So he absented himself from court. Read More

Senior Jesuit priest in East harassed after meeting Navi Pillay

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 September 2013, 23:07 GMT]
60-year-old Jesuit Priest Fr Veeresan Yogeswaran, who is one of the leading human rights activists in the East, is at the receiving end of the SL government's ire after his meeting with UN Human Rights High Commissioner Navanetham Pillay during her recent visit to the island. Pamphlets decrying Fr Yogeswaran, printed in Sinhala and in erroneous Tamil – evidently not written by a Tamil – have been published in Trincomalee, some of which have been left outside his residence. Abusing Fr Yogeswaran S.J., as anti-Sri Lankan and someone who ‘betrayed his country’, the pamphlets also claim that he is living in a palatial house from where he was indulging in ‘conspiracy activities’ against the SL government. 

Navi Pillay who visited Trincomalee during her trip to the island last month had met Sri Lanka’s colonial military Governor of Eastern Province Rear Admiral (retd) Mohan Wijewickrama and the Sri Lankan Government Agents of the three districts in the East and the ruling UPFA’s Chief Minister of the province. She also met and interacted with the general public and human rights activists from Trincomalee. 

Right before her visit to Trincomalee, SL military operatives visited several so-called welfare camps and took away people known for speaking out. 

Fr Yogeswaran who runs the Centre for Promotion and Protection of Human Rights has been handling human rights issues on the legal front, in the Batticaloa district since 1985. He has handled cases of forced disappearances too in the district.

After his meeting with UN High Commissioner, the SL military intelligence has sought explanation from him over telephone. 

Consequently, the pamphlets have been issued on the night of September 14. 

In the meantime, the SL police personnel who visited his house on September 15, removed the pamphlets from the vicinity of his residence. 

Deploying intelligence operatives on one hand and showcasing the so-called rule of law through the dramas of the SL police on the other, has become the order of the day in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils, civil activists in the East commented. 

President furious over Dayasiri’s ‘computer jilmart’ remark!

 Wednesday, 18 September 2013  

A furious president has severely reprimanded North Central Provincial chief ministerial aspirant, attorney-at-law Dayasiri Jayasekara, over his ‘computer jilmart’ remark which he had made during a public rally at Hettipola town yesterday (17), Temple Trees sources say. The president has been informed about the remark by his astrologer Sumanadasa Abeygunawardena.

The president has told Dayasiri Jayasekara, “Do you think we win elections by computer jilmarts? Is it that you are indirectly saying that I defeated Fonseka by computer jilmarts? Don’t you remember that you are now in the government? If you cannot watch your words, you can go and hang yourself.”

The president’s astrologer Sumanadasa Abeygunawardena, who was present there, has said, “Sir, I have told you that Dayasiri is a person without any gratitude. That is why from the beginning I was against his being accepted by you. I will worship your feet, please give him another Rs. 500 million and tell him to leave.”

Chief ministerial aspirant Dayasiri Jayasekara yesterday (17) remarked about computer jilmarts on the basis of information given him by a member of state intelligence. According to that information, a topmost person in the government has ordered that the election result should be in the order of Johan Fernando in first place, Athula Wijesinghe in second place and Dayasiri Jayasekara in third place. Since hearing that information, Mr. Dayasiri Jayasekara is in a serious quandary, according to sources close to him.

Commonwealth wants a free poll

September 18, 2013

A group of Commonwealth election monitors said they hope Saturday’s election in the North will be free and fair.

The monitors, who are currently in Jaffna, will be deployed to all the districts in the North tomorrow (Thursday).

“We are hoping for a free and fair election,”  the delegation said.

Former Kenyan Vice President Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka is heading the Commonwealth election observer mission for the Northern Provincial Council Elections.

Others in the observer team will be the former Electoral Officer for Victoria, Australia Jenni McMullan, former Chief Election Commissioner of Bangladesh Dr Shamsul Huda and Examin Philbert the Secretary of the Caribbean Association of Local Government Authorities Saint Luci.

The Commonwealth monitors are in Sri Lanka on an invitation extended by Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya. (Colombo Gazette)