JVP rejects Shasheendra’s allegation
July 26, 2014
The JVP today rejected the allegation raised by Uva Province Chief Minister Shasheendra Rajapaksa, on four JVP leaders’ alleged involvement in a bomb attack in Kataragama in 1989.
Former JVP Parliamentarian, Samantha Vidyarathna, who is expected to contest the upcoming Uva PC election, told Ada Derana that the JVP is prepared to have a face-to-face debate with the Chief Minister, on this regard.
“If there is such allegation, in the first place he should take legal actions against us. This is a matter that should be dealt with the judiciary. As they become speechless for our allegations, and as well as fail to bring out practical solutions for public issues, now it has become the usual scenario to level baseless allegations,” Vidyarathna added.
He pointed out that implementation of pragmatic solutions for public matters in a constructive way is significant to have, rather than debates on past happenings.
Leader of the JVP Anura Kumara Dissanayaka refused to comment on the incident.
Former JVP Parliamentarian, Samantha Vidyarathna, who is expected to contest the upcoming Uva PC election, told Ada Derana that the JVP is prepared to have a face-to-face debate with the Chief Minister, on this regard.
“If there is such allegation, in the first place he should take legal actions against us. This is a matter that should be dealt with the judiciary. As they become speechless for our allegations, and as well as fail to bring out practical solutions for public issues, now it has become the usual scenario to level baseless allegations,” Vidyarathna added.
He pointed out that implementation of pragmatic solutions for public matters in a constructive way is significant to have, rather than debates on past happenings.
Leader of the JVP Anura Kumara Dissanayaka refused to comment on the incident.
UNHRC Gaza Vote & Indo-Lanka Ties
By Dayan Jayatilleka -July 25, 2014
Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
The vote in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva last week to institute an International Commission of Inquiry into Israel’s latest assault on Gaza is instructive for the Sri Lankan public in several senses.
It reveals the utter hypocrisy of those who moved a resolution against Sri Lanka and voted for it while voting against the resolution on Gaza or abstaining. At least those who voted against Israel and Sri Lanka show the virtue of consistency if not logic.
The UNHRC vote also exposed the hypocrisy of those Sri Lankan civil society activists and the global human rights lobbies, which hold that what Israel is doing in Gaza is on all fours with what Sri Lanka did in its war against the Tigers. The fact that India, which has close relations with Israel especially under the BJP, voted for the Gaza resolution while having abstained on Sri Lanka and indeed having voted against the international inquiry clause (OP10), and that this was precisely the stand of almost all of Asia on the respective issues of Israel/Gaza and Sri Lanka, clearly demonstrate the firebreak between the attitude towards an occupying power under international law on the one hand, and intrusion into the national sovereignty of a small ex-colonial state fighting a legitimate war against a secessionist terrorist movement on the other.
The Gaza vote also explodes the nonsensical postures of the Sri Lankan administration in the domain of external affairs. The UN Human Rights Council proved that it wasn’t an instrument of the USA and the West. On Gaza, the USA stood against the resolution and could obtain only its own vote! Thus the victory of the resolutions initiated by the US on Sri Lanka at the UNHRC three years running was by no means foreordained. The dice was by no means loaded. Sri Lanka lost the resolutions far more than the USA won.Read More
