Migrants Start Abandoning Calais Camp Ahead of Planned Demolition





09:13 24.10.2016

Read more: https://sputniknews.com/europe/201610241046649344-migrants-calais-camp/Dozens of migrants in Calais camp in northern France started to abandon their shelters before a planned demolition of the site begins later on Monday, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported.

© REUTERS/ PASCAL ROSSIGNOL Migrants Rob 2 German Journalists in Calais Refugee Camp CALAIS (Sputnik) – Dozens of migrants started gathering at a special hangar in Calais camp earlier than scheduled, at 08 a.m. local time (06:00 GMT). In the hangar, the camp residents will be divided into four groups: men, unaccompanied children, families and vulnerable persons. They then will be moved to other refugee centers around France, a number of which reaches nearly 450.

 On September 24, French President Francois Hollande called on the authorities of Calais to shut down the refugee camp, notorious due to appalling living conditions, with inadequate hygiene facilities, poor security and a lack of basic services, and to relocate refugees to other centers across the country. 

Thousands of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa are living in the so-called Jungle – notorious for its horrible living conditions, located not far from the Channel Tunnel, in hopes of reaching the United Kingdom. The remaining part of the camp is to be closed before the end of October, after the main section was dismantled in March.

China: 19 nabbed for selling nearly 300 tonnes of expired milk powder

(File) A woman carries a child as she shops for milk powder in a supermarket in Beijing, China. Pic: AP.

24th October 2016 

CHINESE authorities have arrested 19 people in Shanghai who allegedly repackaged 276 tonnes (276,000 kgs) of expired milk powder for sale, purportedly to reduce business losses.

According to South China Morning Post, the Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Administration in confirming the arrests, said the suspects separated the product – the New Zealand-produced Fonterra milk powder – into smaller portions and continued selling them via wholesalers and online stores.

The suspects were reportedly operating under the Shanghai-registered trading firm Jiang Di International Trade.

A China Daily report quoting the food safety regulator said police were alerted to the case in March when they discovered repackaged products at a Shanghai retailer’s warehouse.

It said raids conducted later saw the confiscation of 109.2 tonnes of the expired product from Jiang Di’s warehouse. Another 166.8 tonnes had been sold to retailers.

Baby Lynlee 'born twice' after life-saving tumour surgery

Meet the baby 'born twice'

A baby girl from Lewisville, Texas, has been "born" twice after she was taken out of her mother's womb for 20 minutes for life-saving surgery.

24 October 2016

At 16 weeks pregnant, Margaret Hawkins Boemer discovered her daughter, Lynlee Hope, had a tumour on her spine.

The mass, known as a sacrococcygeal teratoma, was diverting blood from the foetus - raising the risk of fatal heart failure.

Baby Lynlee weighed just 1lb 3oz (0.53kg) when surgeons opened the womb.

Mrs Boemer had originally been expecting twins, but lost one of her babies before the second trimester. She was initially advised to terminate her pregnancy entirely before doctors at Texas Children's Fetal Center suggested the risky surgery.

The tumour and the unborn baby were almost the same size by the time the operation was performed. Lynlee was given a 50% chance of survival.

PAUL V. KUNTZ/TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITALImage captionMr and Mrs Boemer are now parents to three daughters

Mrs Boemer told CNN: "At 23 weeks, the tumour was shutting her heart down and causing her to go into cardiac failure, so it was a choice of allowing the tumour to take over her body or giving her a chance at life.

"It was an easy decision for us: We wanted to give her life."

'Her heart stopped'

Doctor Darrell Cass of Texas Children's Fetal Centre was one of the team who carried out the surgery. He said the tumour had been so large that a "huge" incision was required to reach it, leaving the baby "hanging out in the air".

Lynlee's heart virtually stopped during the procedure but a heart specialist kept her alive while most of the tumour was removed, he added. The team then placed her back in her mother's womb and sewed her uterus up.

'Second life' for Indian baby girl left to die

Premature babies' mums want more leave

Mrs Boemer spent the next 12 weeks on bedrest, and Lynlee entered the world for the second time on 6 June. She was born via Caesarean at almost full term, weighing 5Ib and 5oz, and named after both of her grandmothers.

When Lynlee was eight days old, a further operation helped remove the rest of the tumour from her tailbone.

Dr Cass said the baby girl was now home and thriving. "Baby Boemer is still an infant but is doing beautiful," he confirmed.

Sacrococcygeal teratoma is a rare form of tumour seen in one out of 30,000-70,000 live births. Its cause is unknown but baby girls are affected four times more often than boys.

Final rites of Jaffna university student Nadaraja Gajan held today



 SUNDAY, 23 OCTOBER 2016

The final rites of Nadaraja Gajan - one of the two Jaffna university students who died in Kokkuvil, Jaffna, was conducted today. 

The funeral took place at Iranamadu public cemetery in Kilinochchi. 

The remains of the late student were brought from his residence at Baradipuram in Iranamadu to the public cemetery in a procession. 

It was reported that the A-9 road was obstructed for one hour, due to this reason.  

A large gathering participated in the funeral of the Jaffna university student including MPs and provincial councillors of TNA. 

Reports indicated that the participants carried black flags, banners and posters in the procession. 

Our correspondent noted that a special police protection was not provided for the funeral procession. 

Two Jaffna University students who were travelling in a motor cycle at high speed were stopped by a group of police officers at a check point in Kokkuvil, Jaffna on the 21st of this month. 

It was also reported that the students did not pull over, ignoring the police orders, which led to the shooting incident. 

Meanwhile, a meeting of Tamil political party leaders is currently held in Jaffna with regard to the death of the two Jaffna University students. 

TNA’s Northern provincial councillor M.K. Sivajilingam stated that representatives of 6 political parties including Thamil Arasu Kachchi, Tello, TURLF and TULF are participating in the meeting.

Sword attack on two Govt. Intelligence officers

2016-10-23

Two officers attached to the Government Intelligence Service were hospitalised today with injuries due to a sword attack by two unidentified motorcyclists who had allegedly stabbed them in Chunnakam, Jaffna.

The injured officers receiving treatment at the Tellipalei Hospital were transferred to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital for further treatment.

The condition of the injured is said to be not critical.

They were identified as Police Sergeant Nawarathne and Police Constable Herath.

Security of the Chunnakam area is tightened with the presence of the Special Task Force.

A special investigation was launched to arrest the assailants of the sword attack. (Selvanayakam 

, Romesh Madushanka)

யாழில் பொலிஸ் புலனாய்வாளர்கள் மீது வாள்வெட்டு: சந்தேகங்கள் தொடர்கின்றன

OCT 23, 2016
யாழ்.சுன்னாகம் பகுதியில் இனந்தெரியாத இளைஞர் குழு ஒன்று வாளால் வெட்டியதில் பொலிஸ் புலனாய்வாளர்கள் இருவர் படுகாயமடைந்த நிலையில் யாழ்.போதனா வைத்தியசாலையில் அனுமதிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளனர்.

மேலும்...

The UN Rapporteur’s Remarks On Sri Lanka Are Against Peace & Pluralism

By Dinesh Dodamgoda –October 23, 2016 

Dinesh Dodamgoda

During her ten-day mission to Sri Lanka, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Rita Izsák-Ndiaye, made remarks on SL and its ‘selected cultural minorities’. Those remarks stand against the principle of Pluralism and thus, will not contribute to build sustainable peace in Sri Lanka.

Rita Izsák-Ndiaye said that the SL government “must put in place some urgent, important and concrete measures to clearly demonstrate its political will and commitment to better protect the dignity, identity, equality and right to participation in all walks of life of Sri Lanka’s minorities”.

She further stated, “Efforts by the Government to implement good and inclusive governance must include guarantees that minorities become part of decision-making processes and have a place in state- and provincial administration. Consultations with minority groups on issues affecting them should be regular, institutionalized and systematized.”[1]

Her statement that was supported by her visits to selected cultural communities (as she visited and emphasised on Sri Lankan and Up-Country Tamils, Muslims, Hindus, Burghers, Christians, Telugus, Veddas, Malays, and Sri Lankan Africans) indicates that she concerns about ethnic and some other cultural minorities. Her position, therefore, intends to encourage the SL government to focus on those and similar kind of selected cultural communities as special groups of people that should be politically privileged. Rita Izsák-Ndiaye’s position itself and her emphasise on adopting an institutionalized approach towards selected cultural-minorities are manifestations of either Minoritarianism directly or Majoritarianism indirectly. Thus, as I will demonstrate, her statement and the presumption behind the statement discourage the application of Pluralism in SL government’s efforts to find a sustainable solution to the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka.

Rita Izsák-Ndiaye

The Fundamental Error

The fundamental error of Rita Izsák-Ndiaye is that she encourages the government to broaden up and institutionalise the privileged representation of selected cultural communities. Her approach limits the application of Pluralism as it discriminates non-cultural communities such as labourers, farmers, consumers, fishermen, graduates, non-graduates, urban communities, rural communities, etc. Rita Izsák-Ndiaye’s presumption behind her adopted position further indicates that she even does not consider non-cultural communities of which some of the groups are minorities are also communities that she is missioned to protect (This is because she may be tasked to embark on her mission with a typical UN mandate!).

This fundamental error is made not only by Rita Izsák-Ndiaye, yet by most of us when dealing with the society. We, unintentionally or intentionally, either try to politically privilege or discriminate Minorities or Majorities in the cultural communities, especially when we pay attention to divided societies that based on cultural cleavages such as Ethnicity or Religion. The danger in this approach is that as the constructivists’ view, “often the politicization of ethnic identities is endogenous to the political process and in the absence of political-institutional constraints identities tend to be more fluid”[2]. Therefore, politicised or politically privileged ethnic or religious groups tend to subsume all other groups and communities and often it creates “pathological situations” as it was in Yugoslavia and Rwanda[3].

The Sri Lankan Experience

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Sri Lanka: Separatists or Minorities?

On October 20, the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Rita Izsák-Ndiaye, urged the government of Sri Lanka not to lose momentum gained by the new administration in 2015, and show its commitment to minority rights through concrete action.

By Cholpon Orozobekova-October 22, 2016

“In order to achieve peaceful co-existence after the long devastating civil war, a comprehensive, well-planned and well-coordinated truth, reconciliation, healing and accountability process must take place, and it cannot be done overnight,” Izsák-Ndiaye said at the end of her visit to the country.

“At the same time, the Government must put in place some urgent, important, and concrete measures to clearly demonstrate its political will and commitment to better protect the dignity, identity, equality, and right to participation in all walks of life, of Sri Lanka’s minorities,” Izsák-Ndiaye emphasized.

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During her ten-day mission to Sri Lanka, Izsák-Ndiaye consulted a large number of minority representatives across the country, including Sri Lankan and Up-Country Tamils, Muslims, Hindus, Burghers, Christians, Telugus, Veddas, Malays, and Sri Lankan Africans.

Izsák-Ndiaye commended the Sri Lankan government for the important progress it has made towards adopting critical laws and policies and in strengthening institutions to better protect human and minority rights.

“However, challenges remain,” she said, noting that among the most pressing and emotive issues, especially for the Tamil and Muslim communities, were disappeared persons, return of occupied land, release of security-related detainees, as well as demilitarization.

“Educational curriculum must ensure teaching about Sri Lanka’s diversity, as a source of strength, and about the different cultural, ethnic and religious identity of its population groups to foster deeper understanding,” she added.

Ahinca, a 27-year-old Colombo resident told The Diplomat that she wants to ask the Special Rapporteur if she knows the history of her country and its problems. Ahinca says Izsák-Ndiaye should think about the unity of the country, not protect those “who are the separatists and want to divide Sri Lanka into pieces challenging its unity.”

A Sri Lankan official, speaking to The Diplomat, pointed out that before discussing this issue it is crucial to understand the history of the country. “We were divided and ruled by the British. [The] Tamil minority had prominence because that was one way that the British could suppress the majority. After independence Tamil elite politicians always struggled to gain that prominence back and never agreed to the building of a common Sri Lankan national identity. They are still against it. This is what the problem is.”

“These terrorists try to bring all kinds of people around and prove that minorities have a problem in Sri Lanka,” the official said. “But among ordinary people we don’t have such a problem. If you come to Colombo or any city in the country (except North) you will see how the majority and minorities coexist happily. There is not a problem between ordinary people. In the North you won’t see it because northern politicians never let the [S]inhalese and [M]uslim people who were chased out of North by the LTTE go back there after the end of the war. They want to show that North is only Tamil.”

The Sri Lankan official said that ordinary Tamils supported the Sri Lankan government, but those who were fighting with government forces are LTTE terrorists. “Ordinary Tamils are our citizens, they were with the government, being engaged in the Army, foreign service, civil service, politics,” he said.

Sri Lanka gained its independence from Britain in 1948. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE or ‘Tamil Tigers’), a Tamil separatist group, was formed in 1975, demanding independence from Sri Lanka. The group operated a civilian government. In May 2009, the LTTE was defeated.

According to research from the Minority Rights Group, despite the fact the war is over, Tamils and Muslims are still living in harsh conditions, dealing with significant economic marginalization. Meanwhile, militarism remains prevalent. Many minority representatives interviewed by the group said that since the end of war, the government has done little to credibly identify and address the root causes of the conflict, despite calls by local minority political parties and many foreign governments for a political settlement acceptable to Tamils and Muslims. All respondents highlighted the lack of an impartial effort to work towards justice, accountability, and reconciliation.

Across the region, many members of Tamil and Muslim communities remain displaced, living in IDP camps or resettled to areas where they have not been provided with adequate housing and have limited livelihood opportunities in violation of international standards. Parts of the region are still designated as High Security Zones (HSZ), meaning that former residents in these areas cannot return.

Chandra J writes to SLAASB, CA Sri Lanka on regulatory reforms for good governance

Monday, 24 October 2016 

Good governance activist Chandra Jayaratne has written to the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board, and the President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka on the regulatory reforms to assure due compliance with laws, transparency and good governance. The following are excerpts.

It is reported by professional analysts and also commonly believed by intellectuals that:

1.The significant fall in tax revenues to gross domestic product from around 20% to around 10%, may be due to a high level of tax, customs duty and excise evasion/avoidance, grant of excessive and unjustified tax holidays and specific exemptions.

2.The share of the informal black economy has increased significantly over the last several decades.

3.A significant extent of money laundering has taken place over the last decade, mainly using proceeds of crime, bribery and corruption.

4.Leading bankers believe that a majority of financial statements and valuation reports presented in securing loans and other facilities, as well as financial facilities supported by project linked estimates submitted to lending agencies, are inaccurate, contain gross misrepresentations and are prepared violating accepted principles and standards.

5.A significant minority of professional practitioners have aided and abetted in the carrying out and concealment of above.

6.A regrettable failure of due enforcement of laws and regulations are visible throughout the economy.

These issues need addressing with essential regulatory reforms.

Good governance champions and investigators have reported significant deficiencies at the individual entity level regarding management action and with regards to external audit review effectiveness:

1.Not having in place strong chains of control and compliance processes.

2.Low effectiveness of professional due diligence, upholding of ethical standards and conduct and application of professional best practices.

3.Ineffectiveness of the operation of audit committees e.g. Audit committee Chairman persuading a highlight on ‘going concern status’ to be removed by the auditors.

4.Use of inappropriate accounting policies e.g. Small business standards adopted in entities with billions of rupees of turnover, profits, assets, etc and these accounts not being submitted for review by the SLAAMB.

5.Audited accounts issued without effective disclosure of related party details e.g. By noting that related party details are to be filled in by the management.

6.Secretarial companies with related party networks to auditors operating as the Company Secretary of audited companies.

7.Misleading tagging of assets to avoid impairment provisions e.g. Uncollateralised REPO’s.

8.Auditors and professionals providing regulatory agencies and investigators with incorrect information e.g. Auditors misrepresenting facts to COPE.

9.Classification of taxable revenues and taxable profits as exempt income and exempt profits.

10.Bankers, professionals and other entities, required to exercise caution in terms of FATF 40 guidelines for control of money laundering and terrorism financing, failing to do so and not obtaining  ‘Know Your Customer’ declaration and not exercising due diligence in crediting proceeds of large cash deposits/inward remittances as well as outward remittances and withdrawal of large amounts in cash.

In the above context, the recently reported market issues and professional challenges, it is essential that the Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board (SLAASMB) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICASL), duly consider and introduce necessary regulatory reforms and oversight mechanisms, to assure upholding of professional standards, best practices, ethics and conduct by professional accountants and business undertakings. Such reforms are urgently needed to assure due compliance with laws and regulations, and in upholding transparency, good governance and anti-corruption by the business undertaking and professional accountants.

The following submissions are placed before you, for your due consideration and early reform action, following stakeholder consultation.

1.Take early steps to locally adopt appropriate Auditing Standards mirroring International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) issued new revised.

a.International Standard on Auditing (ISA 700) dealing with  the auditor’s responsibility to form an opinion on the financial statements as well as the form and content of the auditor’s report issued as a result of an audit of financial statements.

b.International Standard on Auditing (ISA701) dealing with the auditor’s responsibility to communicate key audit matters (KAM) in the auditor’s report.

c.With such new local standards being adopted incorporating any essential local application amendments.

d.Be  made applicable to all audits of complete sets of general purpose financial statements conducted by members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (i.e. not limited to audits of listed entities and specified business undertakings only)

2.Take early steps to locally adopt International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESB) designated, international ethics standard for auditors and other professional accountants (PA’s) ( including as appropriate Auditors, Other PAs in public practice, PAs in business who are in senior-level roles—directors, officers or senior employees in their employing organisations and Other PAs in business ), in responding to Non Compliance with Laws and Regulations (NOCLAR),  a framework adopted to guide PAs actions to take in the public interest to disclose to appropriate public authorities, when they become aware of a potential illegal acts, known as non-compliance with laws and regulations, or NOCLAR, committed by a client or employer, (should be adopted in Sri Lanka with any essential local application amendments)

3.Take early steps to expand the scope and terms of reference of the SLAASMB as set out in the  statute, enabling it to be empowered to exercise oversight over SLSQC 1 (Sri Lanka Standard on Quality Control) https://www.casrilanka.com/casl/images/stories/content/business/mba/slsqc_1.pdf and the Code of Professional Practice, Ethics and Conduct of the ICASL.

4.Require the auditors as a part of the audit report to specify that ;

a.They have duly complied with the provisions of the Company Law and have no direct or indirect connections or relationships with the duly appointed Company Secretary of the entity.

b.They have no conflicts of interests or related party connections what so ever with the entity and its directors and officers.

c.They have declared in their report all material non compliances with laws and regulations, that have come to their attention during the course of the audit, including any suspicious transactions connected with purported acts of bribery, corruption, money laundering, terrorism financing, tax, customs duty and excise evasion, fraud, corruption and use of proceeds of crime; as well as any assets held by nominees; assets held as bearer instruments; or investments or financial instruments registered in tax havens and or in orbit or in the cloud.

d.To the best of their knowledge and belief affirm that the statements of account makes an accurate disclosure of conflicts of interests, related party transactions, ultimate parent company and going concern status; and

 e.To the best of their knowledge and belief affirm that the statements of account have adopted appropriate and applicable accounting policies and accounting standards and where appropriate specifically adopt standards relating to consolidation of accounts, impairment of assets and valuation of liabilities including due disclosure of contingent liabilities.

f.To the best of their knowledge and belief affirm that the statements of account discloses the composition of the largest shareholders and confirm that there are no undisclosed nominee holdings and or shares of the entity held in trust offshore.

5.Expand the list of specified business undertaking under the Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board Act to include licensed Primary Dealers, licensed pawning business, any business undertaking or Trust accepting public funds by way of deposits, premiums, contributions for savings, thrift, or other designated purposes, accepting public funds locally and international fund transfers  by way of charitable donations, grants and endowments and further clarify that any Other Company satisfying any one or more of the under noted classifications will be deemed to be a specified business undertaking.

1.Which has a turnover in excess of Rs. 500 million.

2.Which at the end of the previous financial year, had shareholders equity in excess of Rs. 100 million.

3.Which at the end of the previous financial year, had gross assets in excess of Rs. 300 million.

4.Which at the end of the previous year had liabilities to banks and other financial institutions in excess of Rs. 100 million.

5.Which have a staff in excess of 1000 employees.

6.It is recommended that SLAASMB and the ICASL respectively:

a.Make enhanced disclosure on the  effectiveness of enforcement of Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards and due compliance thereof by specified business undertaking and Auditors and Professional Accountants; with specific emphasis on public disclosure duly empowered by statute of any significant non-compliance detected.

b.Make provision in their websites for any person or persons to submit complaints, in confidence, against any business entity or professional practitioner/accountant who may have failed in their accountability/responsibility in terms of Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board Act and or the Code of Professional Practice, Ethics and Conduct of the ICASL.

7.It is recommended that the ICASL in its website respond to the specific observations disclosed in the website of SLAASMB  under significant cases detected, observations following review of financial statements and audit reviews, setting out follow up action taken.

It is essential that SLAASMB and ICASL approach enforcement and oversight of accounting and auditing standards, as well as the upholding and due enforcement of codes of professional conduct and ethics from a stand point, that they must consider and place emphasis on the collective interests of all connected stakeholders including the State, the creditors,  lenders and analysts as well as wider society and not be restricted by a narrow definition that they owe a duty and obligation only to shareholders, being the primary party to whom the audit report is addressed.

It is further stressed that the ICASL should take the leadership along with other professional groups to enhance awareness of all connected stakeholders in regard to the issues as highlighted herein.

Please note that copies of this letter will be released to the media for publication and circulated to several of the connected stakeholders.

It is the fervent hope of the undersigned that this submission will receive the priority attention of the leadership teams of SLAAMB and ICASL.

Countering The Eelam Project 1 & 2; Is The Indian Model The Answer?

By Rajeewa Jayaweera –October 23, 2016

Rajeewa Jayaweera

The two-part article by retired diplomat and former Ambassador Izeth Hussain (IH) published recently in the Colombo Telegraph makes very interesting reading and is thought provoking. (Read part one and two).There is much merit in his analysis and proposals. IH is spot on when he states “even though the LTTE is militarily no more, Eelam project is still on”. It’s propagation by some segments of the Tamil community, especially amongst Tamil diaspora groups overseas, its network of overseas offices utilizing front organizations and financial reserves is becoming exceedingly visible. Social media used by nameless and faceless contributors is one avenue to gauge aspirations / dreams of Eelamists and Eelam supporters. As stated by IH, it is not in the interest of the LTTE rump to permit a political solution short of a separate Eelam state or a de facto Eelam in the form of a confederal arrangement. The moderates in the TNA walk a tight rope. They need to retain the upper hand against Tamil extremists within the community while negotiating a meaningful and equitable deal for themselves, not an easy task in view of Sinhala extremists.

IH is also spot on in his assertion, Tamils after the military defeat of LTTE by government forces amounts to a defeated minority community, but for the external dimension of India. Besides the many occasions since early 1980s, events since 09 January 2015 is clear proof of IH’s theory. Prime Minister Nadendra Modi’s lecture on ‘cooperative federalism’ during his speech in the Sri Lankan Parliament, visiting Jaffna and addressing a public rally and meetings with TNA leaders are some such instances. A meeting was even held with a delegation of Upcountry Tamils from Democratic People’s Front and an invitation extended for a delegation to visit Delhi. Suffice to state, India would never permit the Prime Minister of Pakistan to visit India on a state visit, proceed to Kashmir and address a public gathering or permit meetings with Kashmiri leaders on its soil. Even the mention of Hurriyat Conference leaders meeting the Pakistan High Commissioner in Delhi results in India calling off scheduled bi-lateral discussions with Pakistan stating ‘talk to them or talk to us’.

On the issue of an Indian intervention in Sri Lanka, IH is indeed correct in stating it could result from acts by GoSL having serious security implications to India or else, an incident similar to 1983 pogroms which could result in a backlash in Tamil Nadu (even though India will never accept a similar involvement by Pakistan in Kashmir on behalf of their Muslim brethren). However, India would indeed think deep and hard in implementing such an arrangement perhaps similar to the arrangement in Cyprus, divided into Cyprus aligned to Greece and Turkish Cyprus loyal to Turkey. Ramifications of such a project are many, the most critical being, it could eventually transform into a project for a greater Eelam nation, encompassing Sri Lanka’s Northern and part of Eastern Provinces and Tamil Nadu.

In the concluding paragraph, IH opines “in India, over a hundred and seventy-five million Muslims have been living for the most part in peace, amity and cooperation with the Hindus since 1947 without any devolution for the Muslims”, attributing it mainly to India’s fully functioning democracy. He therefore recommends Sri Lanka emulate the model proven successful in India since 1947.

To begin with, the only state with a Muslim majority is Jammu & Kashmir which has been in turmoil since independence. It is the 20th largest state in India. It has a population of 12.5 million, roughly four times the size of the Tamil population in Sri Lanka. 68% are Muslims and 28% Hindus. Kashmiri is the most widely spoken language besides Dogri and Hindi. With half a million Indian security forces based in Jammu & Kashmir and laws much more restrictive than Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in force, if J&K would qualify as a part of a fully functioning democracy is debatable. Lakshadweep, an archipelago of thirty-six islands and a population less than 75,000 inhabitants has a Muslim majority. It is a Union Territory administered directly from Delhi and the language spoken is exclusively Malayalam.

India consists of a landmass of 3.2 million sq.kms with a population of 1.2 billion persons. It comprises of 30 states and 6 Union Territories. Indian states are divided on linguistic lines. As a result, each state recognizes the most commonly used national language (that of the majority community) in the state to conduct its business. For example, Tamil is the predominant language in Tamil Nadu. Tamils, non-Tamils, Hindus, Muslims and all others living in Tamil Nadu have to accept the Tamil language for state business, in courts, in schools etc. (English is used in superior courts and universities). For example, Telugu and Kannadi (majority languages in border states) as well as Urdu speaking Muslims living in Tamil Nadu have to adopt Tamil language. Their children will attend schools with Tamil language as the medium of instruction or private schools. They may use their mother tongue at home. In Tamil Nadu, the mother tongue of Sunni Muslims in Tamil and of Shia Muslims is Urdu. The mother tongue of Muslims in West Bengal is Bengali and in Jammu & Kashmir, it is Kashmiri. They may also have a knowledge of Urdu in view of religious scripts. On the other hand, a Tamil living outside Tamil Nadu even in border states such as Kerala has to adopt the language of the majority of that state (Malayalam).

Language wise, Hindi in 10 states, Bengali in 7 states and Gujarati in 3 states are the major languages. However, the 19 other national languages are state and secondary languages in different states depending on geographical locations.

Hinduism is the religion of 79.8% of India’s 1.2 billion population. Hindus are most numerous in 27 states/Union Territories. Religious minorities are spread across India as per below chart (refer chart 1). Figures indicated are percentages in terms of each state’s population.

India has been devoid of massive concentrations of a particular religious minority group in any one state or part of the country with the exception of Muslims in Jammu & Kashmir.

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The Story of a Brief Marriage by Anuk Arudpragasam review – love and war in Sri Lanka

Government troops in the war zone near the town of Mullaittivu, Sri Lanka, in 2009. Photograph: Ho New/Reuters

Randy Boyagoda-Saturday 22 October 2016

The opening sequence of Anuk Arudpragasam’s debut novel, in which a six-year-old child with a shrapnel-shredded arm is brought to an open-air operating theatre, feels horribly timely. The young man carrying the listless little boy finds a strange solace in discerning the child’s prospects: “Soon the doctor would arrive and the operation would be done, and in no time at all the arm would be as nicely healed as the already amputated thigh … According to the boy’s sister [that] injury came from a land mine explosion four months before, the same accident that killed their parents also.” It brings to mind the images of stunned, bloodied children now coming out of Syria and other war zones. The novel both implicitly and explicitly raises crucial questions about the aesthetic and ethical stakes involved in regarding the suffering of others.

Arudpragasam uses placid, even poetic prose, with results that range from brilliantly unsettling to questionably indulgent. The novel is set approximately seven years ago, in the Tamil-majority north of Sri Lanka. Its action takes place over a few days during the harrowing final months of the island’s vicious civil war. Recalling José Saramago, The Story of a Brief Marriage takes a fraught political-historical moment and creates out of it a fable-like novel: a boy and girl meet and get married. These are humble characters known only by their first names, Dinesh and Ganga. They live in an unnamed village and in a makeshift camp in lush woodlands that are thick with tropical heat, artillery smoke and the constant threat of sudden death.

Accepting the impossibility of his own survival, Ganga’s father decides to do what best he can for his daughter and proposes that Dinesh marry her. Given their collective horrible situation, Dinesh is surprised by this offer. But in keeping with the muted feeling and fatalism that mark every character in the book, he accepts, as does Ganga, though neither seems particularly excited about it. The carnage surrounding them is too much for a newlywed couple to overcome, given how much each has already lost: “But if they couldn’t talk about their pasts, what could they say to each other at all, given that there was no future for them to speak of either?”

They try to make a shared life, and their efforts produce the novel’s most moving material. Never mind the constant probability of death, wounding, forced conscription, starvation and rape: Ganga and Dinesh are shy, uncertain and tentative – just as any other sudden new young couple would be. He proposes a stroll, which they take silently; she makes him a small meal of rice and dhal that he revels in, not least because she made it for him. Arudpragasam describes each gesture and thought, all the way down to the “shape and taste of the soft grains” that Dinesh savours, “cleaving the rice into separate sections in his mouth”. Only at chapter’s end does Arudpragasam reveal that all this haute literary deferring enacts the young couple’s own unspoken interest in delaying the inevitable: “Dinesh licked the last grains of rice off his fingertips … aware that it was time now for them to spend their first night together.”

Soon enough, Dinesh and Ganga’s bleak expectations are fulfilled, though it’s here that the novel’s aesthetic and ethical ambitions fail to cohere. Shells fall once more, and amid the infernal “smoke and sulphur”, Dinesh searches and searches for Ganga. Eventually, he discovers her: “Her left eye was half-open and the right corner of her parted lips was kissing the dirt.” The cheaply evocative wording of this image suggests a literary immaturity at odds with the restraint and poise found elsewhere in this often formidable novel.

Randy Boyagoda’s Beggar’s Feast is published by Penguin.

Fiscal reforms: An imperative for sustained growth

Above 7% growth is needed to sustain the economy

Monday, 24 October 2016

Sustained growth is normally viewed from two different angles today. One is from the point of environment and depletion of non- renewable resources. The other is from the point of a country’s ability to sustain a high economic growth based on technological advancement, infrastructure and quality of human capital. Economic growth involves the delivery of an ever increasing high volume of material goods and services to people.

Fiscal reforms An imperative for sustained growth.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

MEMBER OF SRI LANKA POLICE COMMISSION OPPOSES HRC-SL AND BASL POSITION ON SUSPECTS ACCESS TO LAWYERS

(Mr. Chandila Padmakumara Gurusinghe (35), of Kiripedda, Babuwo Kanda, Karandeniya in Galle District was illegally arrested, tortured and humiliated by officers of the Karandeniya Police Station; File photo – AHRC)

Basil Fernando-23/10/2016

The basic premise of Frank de Silva’s article ‘Proposed change to criminal law – now withdrawn’ which appeared in the Island newspaper recently is summed up in the following paragraph,

“The difference is also that the opponents – the HRC and the BASL going by media reports – are conscious only of rights, not of duties. The police are deeply conscious of duties; of duty to the victims of crime and to the community.”

By opponents he means those who opposed the ‘amendment’. This position is an expression of the ideology which prevailed in colonial times. It is opposed to the ideology of the police under a democratic constitution. A democratic constitution does not separate rights and duties in the manner he has done.

The most important idea in a democracy is that the state must PROTECT the rights of its citizens. This protection role can never be abdicated by anyone acting on behalf of the state. Protection means the protection of human rights and nothing else. A policeman who forgets this cardinal principle, fails to act as an agent of the state. A police man/or woman, must be deeply conscious of ‘rights’ and not just about ‘duties’; He or she is not a special agent to protect ‘victims of crimes and community’. He or she is just like any other state officer and required to act within the constitutional frame work.

It is the right of judges to decide who is guilty of commission of crime and the police should not usurp this role which belong to the judiciary. Police must look on victims of crime and the suspects as citizens.

This is why the role of investigating police officers and the role of lawyers are complimentary and not opposed to each other. Both are empowered by the same constitution

In other words, it is not within the police officers powers to place obstacles to lawyers performing their constitutional role.

The lawyers role cannot be taken away by a mere amendment to the criminal procedure. It can be done only by changing the constitution itself.

The police officer who does not understand his or her constitutional role cannot protect the ‘community’; in fact he or she can only harm the community. Violation of rights and failing in the protection role is seriously harmful to the community.

It is this ideology of protecting ‘victims of crimes and the community’ that has led to causing of large scale enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka. It is a dangerous ideology.

That said, the writer does have a right to hold any views, even constitutionally wrong ones. The problem is that he now holds a high role as a member of the National Police Commission (NPC). He should have qualified his statement by stating that his views expressed in the article are his personal views and does not, in anyway, represent views of any public position he holds.

– AHRC