Laws to take over businesses trampling all rules /regulations passed: Historical black mark –JHU and NFF do not vote

(Lanka-e-News -09.Nov.2011, 11.55PM) The deadliest and dangerous draft bill for the take over of any private enterprise and its earnings which is loss incurring, by the Rajapakse regime was passed just some moments ago in Parliament today, confirming further the despotic trends in the country and extortionist policies of the regime. 122 voted for and 46 against. UNP, DNA and Tamil National Alliance voted against. The JHU and Weerwansa’s party National Freedom Front kept were absent when the vote was taken.

The Parliament sessions was adjourned for half an hour when the draft bill for the take over of loss incurring Institutions and earnings was presented for debate due to legal issues regarding it cropping up. The debate on this was fixed for today. But , MPs Sajith Premadasa , Wijedasa Rajapakse, Plaitha Range Bandara , and Anura Dissanayake opposed this by posing a number of issues on rules and regulations, and claimed that they were in conflict with the standing orders.

They pointed out while petitions have been filed in the supreme court (SC) on this draft bill , taking this matter for debate not only violates the constitution but is also running counter to the standing orders. Nimal Siripala De Silva the Cabinet chief whip said , the SC had given a verdict that this bill is in accord with the constitution . As the Parliamentary affairs are supreme , the debate cannot be postponed because of SC matters.. He insisted that the bill be debated , voting held and it is passed today itself.. Owing to issues pertaining to rules and regulations , the Speaker postponed Parliament for 30 mins.

When the sittings were resumed, the Speaker said, he had decided that the debate shall be held. Dayasiri Jayasekera, at the debate stated the Speaker has today set a wrong precedent. He pointed out so far, matters which are being heard in the court had not been debated in Parliament.

Meanwhile, the SC instead of hearing today the three petitions before it , postponed hearing until 15th November 2011.

Sri Lankan government seizes assets of 37 companies

President Rajapaksa has been accused by critics of becoming increasingly authoritarian (Photo: Nalin Hewapathirana)
The Sri Lankan parliament has authorised the government to take over the assets of 37 firms, including two listed companies.

The move has been criticised by the opposition and some businessmen who have accused President Rajapaksa of turning the country into his fiefdom.

But the government says that it is only taking over loss-making companies which would close down unless it intervened.

It says that the take-overs are a one-off and are unlikely to be repeated.

Ministers say that the asset acquisition bill allows the government to appoint authorities to manage under-performing enterprises and under-utilised assets - including a sugar company owned by an opposition politician.

It says that investors were given the assets many years ago by the state - mostly as an incentive to turn loss-making state enterprises around.

But senior lawyer and anti-corruption campaigner JC Weliamuna told the BBC that the move authorised by parliament on Wednesday was not only illegal but also a human rights violation as some of the companies concerned are profitable.

Critics of the government say the latest move is a further sign of President Rajapaksa's autocratic tendencies, following moves at the weekend to muzzle critical press coverage.

Last year the president altered the country's constitution so that it would be possible for him to serve consecutive terms. Several of his family members also hold senior government posts.

Before the bill was passed on Wednesday, opposition leader Ranil Wickramasinghe warned that it would trigger public protests.

"The government should focus on acquiring assets of the militarily defeated Tamil Tigers," he said, "instead of harassing Sinhala businessmen."

But the government insists it will press ahead with the acquisitions.

"This has nothing to do with investors or the business community. This refers to just [those] companies... which are closed down. You can hardly find their owners," said Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, the younger brother of the president.

SRI LANKA: Cottage industries offer hope in former war zone

Selvakumar Arundha tends to her chickens
Photo: Amantha Perera/IRIN


NEDUNKERNI, 10 November 2011 (IRIN) - Cottage industries such as poultry farming, home gardening and bee-keeping are becoming increasingly popular among returnees in Sri Lanka's former northern conflict zone as alternatives to regular jobs, officials say. 

"We have seen a lot of applications for loans for poultry and home gardens," Prem Kumar, area manager for the Bank of Ceylon, one of Sri Lanka's two largest state-owned banks, told IRIN in northern Vavuniya District.
Full Story>>>

'A doubt does arise regarding Chandraswami's complicity and involvement'

By Thirumurugan Gandhi   10 Nov 2011

Posted 07-Nov-2011 Vol 2 Issue 44 Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination cut short the life of a leader who was on the verge of steering his party back to power in the Centre (Photo courtesy: Nakkheeran) Is it fair to hang Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, when the MDMA formed to probe the larger conspiracy in Rajiv’s assassination is yet to submit its report, argues Thirumurugan Gandhi in a two-part article in The Weekend Leader. You can read the first part of this article here. The Justice Verma Commission, which inquired into the lapses in Rajiv Gandhi’s security, strongly condemned the security and intelligence wings of both the Central and State governments for the serious lapses in the security provided to the former Prime Minister. The buzz at that time was that some of the top intelligence officials had been aware about the plot to kill Rajiv, but for some reason had failed to act on the information. Read More

The Critical Situation facing the Tamil People in Sri Lanka

By: Dr. Brian Senewiratne

The humanitarian situation in the Tamil-speaking area in the North and East, more than two years after the so called ‘end’ of the war, between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Tamil people, is the most serious the Tamils have faced in their 2,500 years of recorded history. In the six decades that I have campaigned for the rights of the Tamils to live with equality, dignity, safety, and now to live at all, I cannot think of any period in which they have been in such a dreadful situation.

The Tamil areas are under the heel of one of the most ruthless and irresponsible Armed Forces anywhere in the world, and one the most brutal, racist, and oppressive regimes ever to run Sri Lanka. It is a regime which has no accountability, in Sri Lanka or abroad, and can do whatever it wants, to whoever it wants, anywhere in the country, not just in the Tamil areas.

Dr Winston Panchacharam (Nanuet, New York) in his incomparable book Genocide in Sri Lanka which has just been published sets out some of this. In his opening letter of appeal to “Global Leaders for the Protection of the Vulnerable and those Oppressed by Genocidal Acts”, he refers to the “Dying Race of Tamils in Sri Lanka”. full story 

Crimes against minorities cannot be tolerated

National Post      Nov. 10, 2011 

Re: Sri Lanka's (Nearly) Forgotten Massacre, Jonathan Kay, Nov. 8.

The Tamils' situation in Sri Lanka brings to mind the old legal maxim, inter arma enim silent leges - essentially, in times of war, the law falls silent. Most unfortunate for all Tamils is the continued cynical silence of the international community on this troubling ongoing ethnic conflict.

Sri Lanka is a democracy only in its most slovenly application, and even if it is a full, blazing beacon of a democracy, the category offers no protection or excuse for what that "democracy" so gruesomely did to Tamils. It is time for Canadian leaders to say whether they are or are not willing to take a tough stand against such a sham.

This is a marvellous opportunity for Canada to demonstrate to the world that crimes against minorities cannot be tolerated. Tamils will welcome any new shift in Canadian foreign policy that peruses an agenda of showing support for levelling the playing filed for the disenfranchised in Sri Lanka. It is the only position that is consistent with Canada's own democratic ideals.

We must not allow splattered blood from Tamil victims of Sri Lankan tyranny to stain our conscience forever. The proud flag of this nation must not be allowed to wave alongside countries such as Sri Lanka, whose leaders lust to spill blood in a barbaric frenzy of ethnic fanaticism.

Roy Ratnavel, Vancouver.

Norway peace evaluation comes ahead of LLRC report

November 9, 2011,

By Shamindra Ferdinando

The long awaited evaluation of the Norwegian peace process in Sri Lanka will be presented at Litteraturhuset, Wergelandssalen tomorrow (11), with the participation of one-time US Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Lee Armitage, the then peace negotiator, Milinda Moragoda and top Indian journalist, M. R. Narayan Swamy. Moragoda’s negotiating team included, Prof. G. L. Peiris, present External Affairs Minister and Rauf Hakeem, currently the Justice Minister.

The Norwegian report comes ahead of the scheduled release of Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) findings scheduled to be handed over to President Mahinda Rajapaksa next week.  Full Story>>>

Shavendra not entitled to immunity, argue attorneys for Tamil plaintiffs

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 November 2011, 11:56 GMT]
Attorneys for two Tamil plaintiffs Tuesday filed a formal response to Sri Lankan ex-Major General Shavendra Silva’s motion to dismiss the war crimes lawsuit against him in the Southern District of New York, and international human rights groups united to urge the United Nations to suspend the credentials of Silva, who is Sri Lanka’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Silva is facing allegations in federal court for war crimes including torture, extrajudicial killing and the intentional shelling of civilians during Sri Lanka’s armed conflict. 

• Opposing motion to defendants motion to dismiss

• Press release on Silva filing

• NGOs letter to UNSG to suspend Silva's credentials

“The United Nations has a war criminal within its ranks. This is a moral and legal offense,” said Ali Beydoun, director at American University Washington College of Law’s UNROW Human Rights Impact Litigation Clinic and a Senior Partner at SPEAK Human Rights & Environmental Initiative. “As the largest international body protecting peace and justice, the United Nations has a duty to allow a full investigation into General Silva’s war crimes. Silva should not be allowed to manipulate diplomatic immunity to use it as a shield for his crimes.”

Shavendra Silva, retired Army General

Beydoun is lead counsel in the pending lawsuit against Silva for the extrajudicial killing of a civilian in the Army’s bombing of a hospital and for the torture and extrajudicial killing of a person hors de combat in the final stages of Sri Lanka’s armed conflict. 

Arguing that the Court must interpret US statutes in accordance with international law, which necessarily includes jus cogens norms, the attorneys cited, Murray v. Charming Betsy, 6 U.S. 64, 118, "an act of Congress ought never to be construed to violate the law of nations if any other possible construction remains" and added that the Courts should interpret U.S. law, whenever possible, in a manner consistent with international obligations.

Plaintiffs attorneys argued that International law precludes application of immunity to a defendant accused of torture and war crimes raising the following legal points:

• Plaintiffs Base Their Claims on Violations of Universal Human Rights Treaties
• Defendant Silva Bases His Arguments on Instruments that Enjoy a Lower Status in the Normative Hierarchy of International Law
• Defendant Silva Invokes the Protection of Principles that Yield to Jus Cogens Norms and Do Not Immunize Him

“Overwhelming evidence showing that the Government of Sri Lanka perpetrated war crimes and crimes against humanity compels the suspension of General Silva’s credentials,” ten human rights organizations including the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, Human Rights USA, World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), Center for Constitutional Rights, TRIAL, the Yale Law School’s Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic, the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities and the Society for Threatened Peoples wrote in a joint letter addressed to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “Permitting General Silva to retain his credentials would send a message to law-breaking governments around the world that the United Nations will not defend the cause of justice and that it will shelter war criminals and perpetrators of mass atrocities,” the letter to Ban Ki Moon further said, as noted by the attorneys in the Press release.

Instead of investigating the war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan Army, the Sri Lankan Government has been sheltering military officers with diplomatic positions. Sri Lanka has posted 22 former high-ranking military officials to diplomatic posts around the world. This has catalyzed international efforts for justice for Tamil victims in Sri Lanka. Litigation similar to the suit against General Silva has sprung up in domestic courts around the world, including Germany, Switzerland and Australia. A global movement for accountability for Sri Lanka’s war criminals is building, a press release issued by SPEAK and American University Washington College of Law UNROW Human Rights Impact Litigation Clinic said.

An American citizen is ‘Godfather ‘in SL – Mangala reveals

Wednesday 9 of November 2011
(Lanka-e-News -09.Nov.2011, 11.55PM) There are a number of Mafia groups operating in Sri Lanka. There is a ‘Godfather’ who is a chief in the defense Ministry and a n American citizen. It is this godfather who is giving instructions to the Mafia groups and controlling them. We say this with full responsibility. Mangala Samaraweera M P revealed this at a media briefing . 

This Godfather who controls all these Mafia groups also provides State support and security to kudu (drugs) trafficking . A leader of this drug trafficking has been appointed as a monitoring M P and advisor in the defense Ministry. This individual who functions as a defense Ministry advisor and is in charge of this Mafia has been permitted to kill any number of people , and is provided with security by the Govt. to travel abroad any time and any number of times.
The country’s stock exchange is controlled by this drug trafficking Mafia . Because of this, the stock exchange has deteriorated into a money laundering Institution. On par with the stock exchange , there is a land mafia operating in this country. To this a share of the City development Authority had been joined . This entire Mega Mafia is controlled by the ‘American citizen’. This Mafia is operating with the help of the henchmen under the ‘Lanka lands’ which has been established to facilitate their operations, Mangala observed.

Political power and own state only could address structural genocide

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 November 2011, 07:17 GMT]
Contrary to what certain Tamil politicians who are manipulated by India and/or western powers and intellectuals on the payroll of ‘donors’ may claim, the Eelam Tamils did not fight for individual human rights or equality. The structural genocide they face is not a one-time event but is a process, and that it is not an aberration but is inherent to the system of ‘united’ Sri Lanka. Any genuine politics therefore must start from the position that Eelam Tamils as a people are unequal, and will continue to be, unless they have political power in their hands in their own state, writes R M. Karthick, research scholar in political theory in a British university, citing Slovenian Philosopher, Slavoj Žižek, who upholds a thinking that we need a different notion of ideology to understand today’s politics. 

Coming from Tamil Nadu and studied at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, Mr. Karthick is currently a research scholar in political theory at the University of Essex, UK. 

Full text of the article by R.M. Karthick:

Slavoj Žižek [photo courtesy: psychoanalysis.cz]

There have been quite some positions on ‘rights violations’ in Sri Lanka. Among those who recognize that there have been violations of the rights of the Tamils, two general camps can be observed. One are those influenced by liberal human rights discourse, who believe that certain horrific acts were committed in the war, but in a ‘post-war’ scenario, there is an urgent need for ‘reconciliation’, ‘peace-building’ and ‘rehabilitation’. 

The understanding of this camp is that state violence happened as a onetime event, there were a few or many excesses in this event, but there is a possibility of a post-event condition within a united framework of a ‘better’ Sri Lanka. 

On the other hand, the ‘structural genocide’ position contends that horrific violence on the Eelam Tamil body-politics is not a onetime event but is a process, and that it is not an aberration but is inherent to the system of united Sri Lanka. 

The theme of structural genocide of the Eelam Tamil nation has been addressed in various articles, editorials and features on TamilNet. In this regard, the study of Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek on ‘systemic violence’ provides some valuable theoretical insights.

Prof. Zizek, who is a Marxist and critical theorist, writes in his brilliant book ‘Violence: Six Sideways Reflections’ that systemic violence has to be taken into account if at all one is to make sense of visibly horrifying subjective violence. 

Zizek writes that “We’re talking here of the violence inherent in a system: not only direct physical violence but also the more subtle forms of coercion that sustain relations of domination and exploitation, including the threat of violence.” 

The thinker seeks to point out that subjective explosions of physical violence, like in the Eelam Tamils’ case what happened in Black July or in Mulli-vaaykkaal, cannot be seen in isolation from the various forms of psychological and symbolic forms of violence that are part and parcel of the system. 

 * *
For such a system to survive, it needs not just a Weberian ‘monopoly of violence’, it always needs to point out to the subjects it colonizes that it has the will to exercise this violence as and when it deems fit. 

So, acts like land grabbing, assaults on villagers by Sinhala army men and settlers, rapes, attacks on student leaders etc. are all required by the system to function smoothly till a point where the colonized Eelam Tamils themselves are psychologically conditioned by the system to become ‘true Sri Lankans’. 

The Sri Lankan system’s threats of violence through the physical presence of army men in all Tamil localities, the military checkpoints throughout the occupied areas of Tamil Eelam, intrusion of private spaces and its symbolic violence through the desecration of all symbols of Eelam Tamil resistance and identity serve the purpose of this conditioning. 

Writing about such political systems, Zizek argues that, “One of the strategies of totalitarian regimes is to have legal regulations (criminal laws) so severe that, if taken literally, everyone is guilty of something. But then their full enforcement is withdrawn. In this way the regime can appear merciful”. 

This is precisely the case in occupied Tamil Eelam where practically every Tamil is a terror suspect under the draconian laws unless proven otherwise, that is, unless he or she is willing to work within the framework set by the oppressor. 

The Sri Lankan regime makes itself appear democratic by allowing token elections conducted with the full supervision of the armed forces, symbolically hinting that if the Tamils do not vote for the parties whom it is comfortable in negotiating with then the other alternative is force. 

The fact of such functioning namesake elections and kangaroo courts is thrown by Sri Lanka as an argument of its ‘democratic practices’ and to cover up its omnipresent threat of violence against Eelam Tamils. 

* * *
Much of Zizek’s book is also an intellectual attack on the liberal theorists who promote a depoliticised human rights discourse. 

Zizek writes that while they claim to fight subjective violence, such liberals “are the very agents of structural violence which creates the conditions for the explosions of subjective violence.” 

Those who followed the Eelam struggle closely will know how certain dubious NGOs and academic institutions minted money out of the misery of the Eelam Tamil people and the propaganda they spread and continue to spread on the possibility of ‘post-conflict reconciliation’ while simultaneously evading the fundamental political question that confronts the Eelam Tamil nation – the right to exercise political self-determination. 

The argument of charitable donations by such organizations is cruel in its apparent benevolence in that it requires that the Eelam Tamils be first reduced to a state of penury so that they can intervene and make their lives better. 

As Zizek notes, “Charity is the humanitarian mask hiding the face of economic exploitation.” Organizations such as these only help providing a system practising structural genocide a good face. 

* * *
Contrary to what certain Tamil politicians who are manipulated by India and/or western powers and intellectuals on the payroll of ‘donors’ may claim, the Eelam Tamils did not fight for individual human rights or equality. 

That is not just a fallacy of missing the wood for the trees, but to actually make a criminal claim that there were ever no trees in a wood that have been razed to the ground. 

Any genuine politics must start from the position that Eelam Tamils as a people are unequal, and will continue to be unless they have political power in their hands, in their own state. 

It is also imperative to point out Zizek’s message to certain genuine humanitarians in the diaspora who are keen on doing ‘something’, without considering the core politics of what they are dealing with: 

“Better to do nothing than to engage in localised acts, the ultimate function of which is to make the system run more smoothly.” 

Unless one has the correct perspective of the needs of the Eelam Tamil struggle and the corresponding political will to serve the same in all actions, one will always be engaged in futile actions and be inevitably co-opted by the powers that reign. 

[Slavoj Zizek cited by Kartik is currently a professor of philosophy and psychoanalysis at the European Graduate School in Switzerland. Born in 1949 in Slovenia in the then Yugoslavia, Zizek served in a number of universities in the West since 1971. He became widely recognized as an important theorist of contemporary times with the publication of The Sublime Object of Ideology, his first book to be written in English, in 1989. His latest publication in English is Hegel and the Infinite: Religion, Politics, and Dialectic (2011). Zizek puts forth that for one to understand today’s politics we need a different notion of ideology. Editor]
External Links:

EGS:

Slavoj Zizek - Biography

Murderers scot free even one month after Bharatha’s killing ! Widow seeks legal action via HRC

(Lanka-e-News-09Nov.2011, 6.30PM) Sumana Premachandra , the grieving widow of late Bharatha Lakshman has lost faith in the investigations conducted by the authorities as the Govt. has so far failed to arrest Duminda Silva or his group who were along with him when Duminda Silva killed Bharatha Lakshman . It is one month complete today ,since Bharatha was murdered in cold blood in broad daylight right before the eyes of high ranking police officers and in the public highway allegedly by Duminda Silva as stated by eye witnesses who gave evidence in court. Sumana Premachandra who is disillusioned , dismayed and disappointed with the on going investigations filed legal action today (08) at the Human rights Commission (HRC) as a last resort.

The full text of the complaint is published hereunder :

Sumana Premachandra
23/A
Summit Flats
Jawatte Road ,
Colombo 05
2011-11-08

Hon. President and Commissioners ,
Sri Lanka Human rights Commission,
Barnes place
Colombo 07


Dear President and Commissioners,

Regarding failure to conduct a proper inquiry into the murder of Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra ,the Presidential advisor on workers unions .

My husband Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra was shot and killed on 2011-10-08 at Mulleriyawa district.

On the day the murder was committed , elections were being held for the selection of candidates for the Kolonnawa and Mulleriyawa district local bodies. My late husband was engaged in activities on that day looking into the needs and requirements of the candidates who were contesting the elections under the UPFA ticket.

On that day between 3.00 and 3.30 p.m , my husband was shot in the Mulleriyawa district ,Himbutana lane by the defense Ministry monitoring M P Duminda Silva. I received this information, and that my husband died following the shooting.

I declare that my husband was elected as a Colombo district M P at the Parliamentary elections held in 1994 ,a nd until his death he was engaged in politics. Besides , he was the SLFP Organizer for the Borella electorate , and prior to that he was the SL Mahajana party Organizer for Kollonawa..My husband was born and bred in Kollonawa district . As a politician he had done yeoman service to the people of the Kolonnawa district . In recognition of this the SLFP party members wished that he shall be their Organizer for Kolonnawa. But , because Duminda Silva who came from the UNP was given priority over Bharatha and since Duminda was appointed , not only the SLFP party members of Kolonnawa , but even the people without party affiliations frowned on this action , and opposed it.

Despite this non appointment as the Organizer , my husband as a politician of that district enjoyed tremendous popularity among the people.

In the circumstances , Duminda Silva M P harbored a grudge against my husband , and on many occasions he had attempted to do harm to my husband and his life. Citing these reasons , my husband has informed the individuals and Institutions noted below urging security beef up for him


1.Ministeral security division
2.The IGP
I aver hereby , based on information received by me , the reasons leading to the shooting of my husband were as follows :
The above mentioned Duminda Silva M P and his group had attacked the wife and mother of former Mulleriyawa district local Body Chairman Prasanga Solangaarachi who was the UPFA candidate contesting the Mulleriyawa district local body election this time.. Prasanaga Solangaarachi has then communicated this assault o my husband and appealed to him to save them . My husband has then proceeded to the venue of the incident. When my husband was on his way to that place , Duminda Silva and his group have appeared before my husband and shot him.
I further aver …
a.At the time of this shooting incident, there was a large crowd around , and many have stated that they have seen the incident with their own eyes. Yet , the CID which is investigating this murder had still failed to take steps to take into custody the real suspect Duminda Silva or those in the group who were with him.

a. Failure to forward information to courts on R Duminda Silva’s criminal liability and accountability
b. .Because the officers who are conducting the investigations pertaining to this murder have been transferred and withdrawn from the inquiring process , the whole investigative process is subject to grave doubts.
c..The witnesses are being consistently threatened and they have no security.
d. As our family is facing threats and our safety is at stake , intensified security is needed for us.

In the circumstances , I most humbly request the following :

1. That the CID is given instructions that a fair and impartial investigation is conducted into this murder.
2. Issue a directive to the CID to arrest prime suspect Duminda Silva , and his security personnel in regard to this murder .
3. Issue an order to the IGP to take appropriate measures to provide the necessary security to my family members.
4. The CID by not conducting proper investigation pertaining to the murder of my husband has violated
section 12 (1) of the constitution which provides for the protection of my fundamental rights under the laws ordinarily. Hence I humbly request court to issue an order declaring that my rights have been indeed violated

Respondents :

The IGP
Director , CID
OIC , of the CID
OIC ,Mulleriyawa police stationThe petitioner

'Secret detention centres' in Sri Lanka

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) quoting human rights organisations says that secret detention centres are in existence in Sri Lanka. The 47th Session of the CAT met in Geneva on Tuesday with the Sri Lankan Delegation where Sri Lanka's commitment to upholding rights was severely questioned. Several committee members accused the Sri Lankan government of not providing detailed information requested in advance. She said that the allegation on 'secret detention centres' suggests the need for an independent investigation. "Sri Lanka Army and affiliated Para military groups have run and made possible to run secret facilities which torture and extra judicial killings, have it is claimed, perpetrated" she said Seven centres She said that Amnesty International had cited 7 torture detention sites in northern Sri Lanka; five in Vavuniya and two in Mullaitivu. Poonthottam Maha Vidyalaya, 211 Brigade headquarters, Vallikulam Maha Vidyalaya, the PLOTE paramilitary detention centre and Dharmapuram as five camps in Vavuniya while two camps were named from Mullaitheevu. Vice Chairperson of UN Committe Against Torture Felice Gaer Miss Gaer said that there are allegedly five compounds in Dharmapuram detaining more than 700 men and women in abandoned buildings and houses, holding 80 top levels LTTE people and 300 civilian supporters. The UN Working Group on Disappearances has identified Sri Lanka as having the second largest most number of disappearance cases in the world, she informed the session. "While many of these cases have been clarified there are more than 5,000 that haven't been" states Miss Felice Gaer. Zero Tolerance Committee Member Alessio Bruni said, "zero tolerance policy for torture in Sri Lanka is not achieved and more effective measures have to be taken". However, Senior Legal Advisor to the Sri Lanka Cabinet former Attorney General Mohan Peiris told the Committee that "There will be no tolerance of torture, no exception to that rule". He said that Sri Lanka is committed to upholding the rule of law. Senior Legal Advisor to the Sri Lanka Cabinet former Attorney General Mohan Peiris "We are committed to a world in which we can live in peace and dignity and you can be sure that we would do our utmost in the compliance of the convention provisions so that Sri Lanka will be an ideal place on this planet in which that everyone who lives there can live as brothers and sisters of the same family" Advisor Peiris added. The Chairman of the Committee who summed up Tuesday's sessions and said that Sri Lanka would answer to the question put before them on Wednesday.

Sri Lankans driven into fool’s paradise by moronic and demonic regime.

(Lanka-e-News -08Nov.2011, 8.00PM) The exposure of the regime’s true colors has begun . As the cherished Democratic Institutions are being dismantled one by one, so are the Rajapakse regime’s Despotic and demonic traits becoming increasingly manifest. In broad daylight before the open eyes of the SSP s , the regime’s own advisor was brutally killed using the regime’s kudu (drugs) trafficking murderers ; then , not only the regime’s chief pays a visit to Hospital to see the kudu trafficker cum murderer in Hospital , but goes so far as to defend the criminal by telling the media that he is not a kudu trafficker. Every Minister is stalked so much so that they are living in constant fear that they may also have to meet with the same fate like Bharatha .

This is the ghastly , gruesome and evil climate in which Sri Lankans are made to live by this moronic and demonic regime today.

Laws are being enacted to take over the business and assets of any Businessman any time. In addition to the extortion mechanisms to extract money from the Businessmen by frightening them , another system is introduced - a businessman is deprived of the means to rescue his own business .Legal enactments are being introduced to legally commit extortion on the businessman if he is to be allowed to continue with the business .

If the regime is to take revenge on a retired judge , it has adopted measures to do so by using weapons under the sly from behind and pointing it at the head of the judge.

If the people come to know of these criminal and despotic activities , the people will knock the hell out of the regime . Hence , to avert this situation , the media are stifled and gagged by murders , abductions and disappearances committed on the journalists. Website Editors are harassed by the CID or Millions of rupees are offered as bribes. If not , the website journalists are abducted and they go missing. Editors are made to flee the country. Websites are set on fire. Website journalists are remanded.

When all these actions fail , where the international chain which gives out the truth cannot be destroyed ,the stupid regime resorts to blocking the website using the nincompoop professors , the hired unscrupulous elements who merit jailing for these activities .

There is nobody in the whole wide world who can block a website no matter how capable he thinks he is. The Regime’s morons think , because their brains are slightly above and not exactly below between their legs , it is possible for them to block it. Herein are a number of proxy servers via which any forbidden website can be accessed. Through the proxy server , the website one wishes can be accessed after indicating the website address thereon.

Fools are thriving not realizing their success is a flash in the pan . These fools who block websites haven’t the capacity to understand this simple truth.

TNA relays US-India paradigm for ‘nondescript’ model of solutions

TamilNet, Monday, 07 November 2011, 07:21 GMT]
Addressing a diaspora gathering in London on Sunday, The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) politicians elucidated on trying a ‘nondescript’ model of solution for the national question of Eezham Tamils. The TNA relay on the paradigm comes after conditioned for long by New Delhi and after conferring with ‘creative thinking’ in the US State Department on the models for solutions. The TNA leaders didn’t hide the fact, but said it is worth trying, as the UN, EU, India and the USA are watching and any failures could be suitably addressed. Commenting on the nondescript nature of the model, Tamil political observers said that it is ideal for imperialism to get leverage and time for ‘development’ inroads and would provide more legitimacy, time and bartering power for genocidal Colombo to complete the annihilation of Eezham Tamils as a nation, while engaging them in a prolonged day-to-day struggle. 

Full story >>

-------------------------------------------------

Remember that powers need Tamils too: Gajendrakumar

Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 November 2011, 12:58 GMT]
Just as Eezham Tamils need international recognition for their cause, the powers that make moves in the island for a world order also need Tamils. What the Tamil politicians should keep in mind is that there is no reason for them to compromise on the fundamentals of the cause upheld by the people, said Mr. Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam of the Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) in writing to Colombo-based Tamil Daily, Thinakkural, Sunday. In the changing current context, even if one of the competing powers take up the national question of Eezham Tamils as means for its leverage, the others can’t refuse it but have to follow suit. Tamil leadership shouldn’t miss the opportunity by abandoning the cause to pre-emptive tactics of any single power and thus excluding other international possibilities, he further said. Full story >>

Sri Lanka 'still torturing' Tamils

Monday 07 November 2011 

Foreign Affairs Correspondent

 Jonathan MillerSri Lanka's civil war ended with "credible" evidence that war crimes were committed. Now Channel 4 News can reveal mounting evidence that the government is still torturing Tamil prisoners.

The UN has already found that evidence of the killing of up to 40,000 civilians amid allegations of serious human rights abuses amounted to "credible allegations" that war crimes had been committed during the last days of the civil war in 2009.

Now ahead of a United Nations meeting tomorrow, human rights groups are calling for an urgent investigation into the allegations that human rights abuses are still rife in Sri Lanka.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government dismisses all that as "preposterous". He has embarked on a charm offensive to help repair his island nation's tarnished reputation.

But Channel 4 News has spoken to two men who say that behind the smiles, there still lies a vengeful, sadistic regime.

The Tamil Tigers stand accused of war crimes too. Suspected fighters were rounded up at the end of the war, but it is claimed suspects are still being detained - and tortured - today.

'It felt like I was breathing fire'

"Nimal", whose identity we have concealed, claims he was tortured by Sri Lankan security forces in June this year because of his association with the Tamil Tigers.

"They used to beat me with a steel cable. It would peel away my skin. The pain would be simply unbearable. They would hang me upside down and dunk my head into water. They covered my head with a polythene bag soaked in petrol and tied it tightly round my neck. When I tried to breathe in it felt like I was breathing in fire," Nimal tells me.

They would tie me upside down and dip me into a barrel of water.'Nimal'

"I had no medical treatment. I couldn't sleep because I had to lie face down so I wasn't laying on my wounds. You can't sleep in that much pain. They would tie me upside down and dip me into a barrel of water.

"My wounds would feel like they were burning as soon as they touched the water. When I screamed in pain they would come back with the confession and try again to make me sign it," he continues.

"Maaran" says his treatment at the hands of the government made him want to die.

"They hung me upside down and shoved my head in a barrel of water. They laid me face down on a table and hammered me with wires, poles and rods. They burned me with cigarette butts and when I asked for water to drink they gave me urine. I thought it would have been better if I died at the end of the war rather than to have survived to face this."

The men I met have now been granted asylum in the UK. Both had past associations with the outlawed Tamil Tigers. Both were tortured in Sri Lanka this summer.

It can take years to be granted asylum. The two men I met were approved within weeks because the government accepted their stories. Both had past associations with the outlawed Tamil Tigers.

Calls for 'urgent investigation'

"Nimal" and "Maaran" are not alone. Tomorrow a United Nations committee meets to consider mounting evidence that Sri Lanka is in breach of the UN convention against torture, to which it is legally bound.

Among reports submitted to this committee from 12 international organisations, the most detailed and damning is from the UK-based group Freedom from Torture.

Sri Lanka seem to have employed the full range, pretty much, of torture methods.Juliet Cohen, Freedom from Torture

Its Sri Lankan caseload is based on forensic medical documents compiled from 35 men and women, tortured, it says, since the end of Sri Lanka's civil war. It says torture perpetrated by the military and the police is still occuring in 2011.

The evidence, the group concludes, is sufficiently serious to merit urgent investigation.

Juliet Cohen of Freedom from Torture, says the effects of torture can last for years.

"People have been through overwhelmingly terrifying experiences, and these in Sri Lanka seem to have employed the full range, pretty much, of torture methods.

"People seem to be having a very high concentration of torture within quite a short time frame, and they're very damaged by it and theyve got physical and psychological scars."

Turned back

This year, the British government has forcibly removed an unknown number of failed Tamil asylum-seekers to Sri Lanka.

The UK has signed the UN convention against torture, which states that no-one should be deported if there are "substantial grounds" to believe they would be tortured.

The government bases its assessment of that risk on the UK Border Agency's country of origin information reports.

The latest COI report on Sri Lanka is dated July this year. Under the section on torture, it quotes international human rights groups, other governments and the UN as stating that torture is still rife in Sri Lanka.

Having said all that, the report then cites a letter, in paragraph 8.35, from a British diplomat - our man in Colombo - who writes: "I asked the Senior Government Intelligence officials if there was any truth in allegations that the Sri Lankan authorities were torturing suspects. They denied this was the case."

The Border Agency told us that it only returns those whom they are satisfied are not at risk, in line, it says, with a European court ruling that not all Tamil asylum-seekers do require protection.

Human rights groups contend that failed Tamil asylum-seekers are all at risk.

From the evidence we have heard from those who have made it out of Sri Lanka's torture camps, the long war is not over yet.