Undergraduates training in 'brainwash' controversy

11 September, 2011
By Saroj Pathirana
BBC Sinhala service

Military training "is not the form of leadership training appropriate for young people who would later play a role as civilians in the country's development," says Friday Forum

The Sri Lankan authorities are accused of trying to brainwash university students through 'leadership training' instead of trying to find solutions to students' burning issues.

Rejecting the accusation, the ministry of higher education says the new three-week 'leadership training' programme is the first step of a wider reforms initiative.

The ministry this year introduced a three-week 'leadership training' in military camps for those entering universities from this year.

The course that was mandatory when introduced has been changed to voluntary after fierce resistance from student leaders.

University teachers say the ministry failed to consult the universities before introducing new training scheme

Full Story>>>

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SRI LANKA GOES BACK ON ITS ASSURANCES

11-Sept-2011

By V. Suryanarayan & Ashik Bonofer 

When the Fourth Eelam War began in early 2006, the main objective of the Sri Lankan Government was to find a military solution to the ethnic problem. The armed forces were given a free hand, they were well armed and well equipped with latest weapons acquired from different parts of the world; and they were not constrained by likely human rights violations. The war against the LTTE was projected as an integral part of the global war against terrorism and, as a result, Sri Lanka was able to mobilize international support in the pursuit of its goals. In that process, Colombo got closer with countries like China and Pakistan, because in Colombo’s perception neither Beijing nor Islamabad ever sought to influence the domestic politics of the island.         Full Story>>>

Haiti Says Lankan Troops Raped Even Minors

Saturday, September 10, 2011


Army insists those found guilty were prosecuted, case closed
Officials in Haiti have said that UN peacekeeping soldiers from Sri Lanka who had been accused of sex-crimes in 2007 had even raped children as young as 7 years old.
The Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN) was quoted by The New American website as saying that most of the 114 Sri Lankan soldiers deported to Sri Lanka from Haiti in 2007 for sexual abuse and rape were not punished. However army spokesman Brigadier H. A. Nihal Hapuarachchi told The Sunday Leader that the soldiers who were found guilty in the case have been prosecuted.
He said that a full inquiry had been carried out over the allegations and the legal process was followed to deal with those found guilty
The military spokesman further added that there was nothing pending in relation to the incident.
“In 2007, it was discovered and reported that girls as young as 13 were having sex with U.N. peacekeepers for as little as $1 in Haiti,” The New American website quoted Ezili Dantò, president of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN) as saying. “Moreover, Sri Lankan soldiers were accused of systematically raping Haitian women and girls, some as young as 7 years old.”
The UN claims “dozens” of its soldiers had been punished for sexual abuses in the country in recent years. But based on publicly available figures, critics say many more have escaped justice, the website said.
“If only a dozen UN peacekeepers were punished for sexual abuse and rape, then that means, for instance, most of the 114 Sri Lankan soldiers deported back to Sri Lanka from Haiti in 2007 for sexual abuse and rape in Haiti did not get punished,” Dantò wrote citing other examples as well.
Several Sri Lankan soldiers are still serving in Haiti as peacekeepers and Brigadier H. A. Nihal Hapuarachchi said that more are expected to be sent from Sri Lanka early next year.
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Saturday, September 10, 2011

Emergency rebranded? New laws grant sweeping powers

Sunday 11 September 2011
By Namini Wijedasa

The Government Press last week printed four sets of regulations under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and backdated them August 29, presumably to cater to the weeklong period of illegality during which these laws were missing.
The regulations have been gazetted by the Defence Minister under Section 27 of the PTA which states that “every regulation made by the Minister shall be published in the Gazette and shall come into operation on the date of such publication or on such later date as may be specified in the regulations.” 
Full Story>>>

It’s Brewing! The Crisis Within Rajapaksa Rule

 Saturday, September 10, 2011

The LLRC is the latest in a long line of failed domestic inquiries. Impunity has been the rule rather than the exception, now exacerbated by a post-conflict triumphalism that rejects all responsibility for abuses, carried out by government forces,”  Sam Zarifi / AI, Asia Pacific Director at the release of the AI Report on LLRC.

Palitha Kohona and Major General Shavendra Silva

All talk of normalcy in the country and Emergency Regulations (ER) allowed to go lapse from August 30  is just junk rhetoric, with three special gazette notifications issued on Monday August 29, by the President. All arrests, detentions and judicial proceedings that were made effective under ER would now continue under the PTA number 48 of 1979. All legal empowerments that come with these gazette notifications, would therefore effect those thousands of Tamil youth who have been detained under ER, being turned into detainees under the much harsher PTA.

 Read More »

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Robert Blake Visits And The USA Keeps Up Pressure

Saturday, September 10, 2011

The proposed visit of Robert O. Blake, the US Under Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs, to Sri Lanka  last week was postponed due to the freak weather conditions wreaking havoc along the Eastern Coast of New York. He is now expected to visit on the 12th of this month. Robert O. Blake was the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka prior to Ms Butenis, and is very aware of the political sensitivities of the nation and her recent history.

Someone as senior as Robert Blake does not undertake a visit across the globe on a whim or fancy. The US government has thought it extremely important that Blake gets a “one on one” feel of the Sri Lankan government’s response to the Darusman report, and the efforts if any, to facilitate a lasting political solution to the north – east, after a credible investigation into the final phase of the war, needed for a meaningful reconciliation as stated by the US government on numerous occasions. He is expected to meet with the President,  top government officials, the Tamil political parties and even visit the north during his visit.

Robert O. Blake and Clint Williamson, is currently the Special Expert to the Secretary General of the UN. He was the former 3rd Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues from 29th June 2006 to September 2009.
 Read More »

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University Security Under Gota’s Firm

Saturday, September 10, 2011

By Indika Sri Aravinda

The security of universities has been handed over to a security firm which operates under the Defence Ministry.
Higher Education Ministry Secretary Dr. Sunil Jayantha Nawaratne told The Sunday Leader that the security has been handed over to Rakna Arakshaka Lanka Ltd and another company.

Read More »

Sri Lanka children's homes 'should be shut down

BBC

News South Asia

                         9 September 2011

All children's homes in Sri Lanka should be closed down because of "rampant" abuse, the head of the country's child protection body says.

The National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) says it is already working to replace children's homes with a foster parenting system.

Nearly 20,000 children - orphans or children abused by parents or carers - are housed in 470 institutions.

    Full Story>>>>>>>                           NCPA head Anoma Dissanayake wants chldren fostered instead
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Over 40,000 yet to be resettled in HSZ

09 September, 2011

42,505 people from 11,648 families are still to be resettled in high security zones in Jaffna, says Divisional Secretary More than 11,000 families from High Security Zones (HTZ) are still to be resettled, the government revealed to Supreme Court. The figures were presented to Supreme Court on Thursday in a document prepared by Jaffna Divisional Secretary (DS) when a Fundamental Rights petition was considered. The petition by a group of Jaffna farmers was stating that they have lost their ancestral land due to the establishment of HSZ. 35,000 families resettled According to the document, 42,505 people belonging to 11,648 families are still to be resettled in Chankanai, Chavakachcheri, Karaveddi, Kopai and Karainagar. The DS statement say that there are 6928 families from Tellippalay still waiting to be resettled. Jaffna Government Agent Emelda Sukumar last month told the Supreme Court that 111,199 people from 35,968 families earlier removed from HSZs in Jaffna have been recently resettled. In May 2006, The Supreme Court ordered the government to initially resettle 7456 families in HSZs in Palaly after considering a petition by Jaffna district parliamentarian Mavai Senadhirajah and another displaced.

Cartoon of the day

FRIDAY, 09 SEPTEMBER 2011


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Rights group urges Sri Lanka to end detention laws

COLOMBO — The Human Rights Watch lobby group on Wednesday urged Sri Lanka to scrap draconian detention laws and free thousands of people held under the regulations.

The New York-based body said Sri Lanka's ending of a decades-long state of emergency last week would have little effect as separate anti-terror laws still allowed people to be detained for long periods without trial.

About 6,000 people are being held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), the group said, two years after the end of the island's civil war.

"The Sri Lankan government announced that the state of emergency is over, but it is holding on to the same draconian powers it had during the war," Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch (HRW) Asia director, said.

"The government should repeal all its abusive detention laws and make all laws and regulations related to detention public," he said.

Sri Lanka first introduced emergency laws in 1983 when the Tamil Tiger rebels escalated their bloody campaign for an independent state for their ethnic minority. It ended with the defeat of the Tigers in May 2009.

The laws, which gave security forces sweeping powers of arrest, were renewed on a monthly basis with only brief breaks.

The decision to end emergency rule came ahead of this month's United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva which is expected to discuss alleged war crimes during the last stages of the conflict.

Colombo has denied any wrongdoing and resisted foreign calls for a probe.

Sri Lanka: Open Letter to Commonwealth Foreign Ministers

SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

DOWNLOADABLE RESOURCES: 

Sri Lanka: Open Letter to Commonwealth Foreign Ministers (PDF)

Open Letter to Commonwealth Foreign Ministers                                  

Subject: The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2013

We are gravely concerned about the ongoing discussions on holding the 2013 CHOGM in Sri Lanka.

At the 2009 CHOGM, Sri Lanka’s candidature for hosting the meeting was deferred from 2011 to 2013 because of concerns about human rights abuses by the Sri Lankan government. While war-time abuses have ended, the situation in Sri Lanka continues to be characterised by serious human rights violations, including assault on democratic institutions, such as the media and trade unions. The Panel of Experts appointed by the UN Secretary-General to advise him on the status of allegations of war crimes during the last weeks of the conflict in Sri Lanka has concluded that serious abuses were committed by the government and by the LTTE, and warrant an international investigation. Full Story>>>

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Petition against stay on Rajiv killers' execution

The Times of India   Sep 9, 2011,
NEW DELHI: A petition in Supreme Court on Thursday challenged a Madras High Court order granting stay on the execution of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case condemned prisoners V Sriharanaka Murugan, G Perarivalan aka Arivu and T Suthendraraja aka Santhan. 
Full Story>>>

Sri Lanka LLRC inquiry fundamentally flawed

Sam Zarifi, Program Director for Asia-Pacific Region at Amnesty International, tells us why the Sri Lankan 'Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission' inquiry is fundamentally flawed.

The LLRC was established by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in May 2010 after UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon announced that he would appoint a Panel of Experts to advise him on accountability issues in Sri Lanka -- a move opposed by the Sri Lankan government. The Secretary-General appointed the Panel in response to widespread and credible allegations that crimes under international law including possible war crimes and crimes against humanity may have been committed by both the LTTE and Sri Lankan forces in the final stages of the armed conflict that ended in May 2009.

The Sri Lankan government has recently promoted the LLRC as an effective national accountability mechanism with which to respond to these allegations and has used the LLRC as its primary tool in lobbying against an independent international criminal investigation as recommended by the Panel of Experts in April.
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Rajapakse regime heading towards a Govt. of the Forces seeks to overturn just laws into ‘King Kekille’ laws

thursday 8 of September 2011
Amidst opposition protests debate postponed until Geneva sessions are over(Lanka-e-News -08.Sep.2011, 11.45.P.M.) The Rajapakse regime is getting ready following the lifting of the emergency and transferring police powers to the Forces to establish a regime of the armed forces. After subverting the legal Institutions and eradicating laws of the country it is replacing them with lawlessness so much so that lawlessness is being made the established law.
The Minister of justice today sought to table new enactments in Parliament under the criminal procedure code (special provisions) Act .
The new enactments sought to be introduced were ….
An individual who can be held in police custody currently for 24 hours to be extended to 48 hours.
Vesting of powers in the Attorney General (AG) to file heinous crime charges in respect of certain specific cases.
 Full story »

Human Rights Watch condemns ‘draconian’ Sri lankan laws

South Asia BBC News

Terrorism suspects were held in camps in northern Sri Lanka 

under the emergency laws

Human Rights Watch has urged Sri Lanka to repeal detention laws which the campaign group describes as abusive.

Long-standing emergency laws expired last week, two years after Sri Lanka’s decades-long war against Tamil Tiger rebels.
The laws had given the authorities sweeping powers, including the right to detain terror suspects without charge.
But HRW accuses Sri Lanka of maintaining “draconian” legislation which gives it similar powers.
Continue reading the main story
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Communist Party of SL Hold Talks with CPI Leaders

SEP 09, 2011
A senior leader of Communist Party of Sri Lanka today met the top brass of CPI and discussed issues related to the Tamil question in that country and its political solution.

Dew Gunasekara, General Secretary of Communist Party of Sri Lanka, met CPI leaders D Raja and S Sudhakar Reddy here during which Indo-Sri Lanka ties also came up for discussion.

The leaders of the two parties, which have been working closely on several issues, deliberated at length on the possible political solution to the ethnic Tamil question in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan Government is working on a political solution for minority Tamils after the end of the decades-old civil war and India has been nudging Colombo to "quickly follow-up" the military victory with a political solution.

"The Tamil question came up for discussions. We tried to understand each other's perspective on several issues. The Communist Party of Sri Lanka also wants the issue to be resolved through a political solution based on the 13th Amendment of the 1987 Indo-Sri Lanka accord," Raja said.

Raja said the CPI leaders raised the issue of alleged war crimes committed by Sri Lankan forces during the last phase of the civil war.

"From our side, we also raised violation of human rights by the Sri Lankan armed forces and the issue of people being kept in camps even two years after the end of the war," he said.