Video: Against media suppression An Alliance of Media Organisations today staged a protest at Lipton’s circus against the suppression of the media.Pix by Waruna wanniarachchi. -TUESDAY, 29 JANUARY 2013

Opening Statement Delivered by Deputy Assistant Secretary James R. Moore at Tri-DAS Press Event

January 28, 2013

• Read this statement in Sinhala
• Read this statement in Tamil

DAS Moore:  Thank you, Chris.  Thank you all for coming.  It’s really great to be back in Sri Lanka.  It’s also a privilege to travel with two Washington colleagues who follow Sri Lanka quite closely -- Jane Zimmerman, our Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor; as well as Vikram Singh, our Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia. 

We’d also like to thank Ambassador Sison and our Sri Lankan friends for hosting us here.

The United States, as you know, has a long friendship with Sri Lanka dating back to your independence.  We deeply value this multi-faceted relationship and our visit this week is undertaken in that spirit.

We arrived in Colombo on Saturday, January 26^th and we’ve had constructive and candid meetings with the Sri Lankan government, the military, political parties and civil society both here in Colombo and in Jaffna.  Really, our goal has been to hear from many different voices throughout Sri Lanka.

We met with Secretary of Defense Gotabaya Rajapaksa and military commanders, and we look forward to meeting with the Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa, the Minister of External Affairs GL Periris, Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga, and other officials.

The United States’ relationship with Sri Lanka is broad and deep.  From our work on clearing land mines, our humanitarian assistance, and education programs to our cooperation on maritime security and support for civil society and democratic institutions, in all of these we partner with Sri Lanka across a wide range of issues.

In meetings this week we’re discussing Sri Lanka’s efforts to implement its Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission recommendations and as well, the National Action Plan.  We’re also, of course, discussing the importance of accelerated progress to achieve lasting reconciliation and enduring peace.

Key to all of this will be transparent governance as well as following through with a process of accountability for events at the end of the war including civilian casualties and credible allegations of human rights violations. 

We’ve also discussed the importance of a vibrant civil society, an independent judiciary, a free and independent media, and full respect for human rights.

We welcome the government’s intent to hold Northern Provincial Council elections in September and we encourage a resumption of talks between the TNA and the government.

I’d just close these brief opening remarks by emphasizing that our hope as a longstanding friend of Sri Lanka is that Sri Lankans of all communities will soon be able to enjoy equal rights and dignity and share in a future that is secure and prosperous.

We’d be happy to take a few questions.

Media:  Are you satisfied with the progress made in implementation of the LLRC proposals.  Are you satisfied with the progress that has been made thus far?  In the implementation of the LLRC proposals.

DAS  Zimmerman:  We’ve certainly seen progress in many areas including demining, infrastructure, redevelopment, the rehabilitation and release of former combatants, but that said, there’s still a lot more work to do.  There has been a lot that has taken place in terms of process, but we would like to see more in terms of implementation.

Media:  What are the specific areas you think there should be vast improvement?

DAS Zimmerman:  Well, there are still quite a number of families wondering what has become of their loved ones. Whether or not they are being held somewhere.  Whether or not there’s any answer to disappearances.  There’s a desire for accountability when it comes to extrajudicial killings.  In other words, the LLRC is the democratically elected government’s commitment to its own people to heal the wounds of the conflict and to move forward. We certainly support that overall goal.  It’s exactly the right goal.  LLRC has excellent elements, but we would like to see accelerated implementation.

Media:  Did you discuss the matter of impeachment with the government?  And also the appointment of the new Chief Justice who is already the political advisor/the legal advisor to the government/cabinet?

DAS Moore:  We did.  And we noted that we continue to be concerned about the impeachment of the Chief Justice Bandaranayake.  The impeachment proceedings were conducted in defiance of a Supreme Court order, and we believe that the impeachment raises questions about the separation of powers, as well as the rule of law, in Sri Lanka.

Of course as part of our ongoing dialogue with the government we continue, along with our international partners, to urge the government of Sri Lanka to uphold the rule of law and to respect the principles of democratic government.

Media:  Does the U.S. hope to bring another resolution against Sri Lanka at the upcoming United Nation’s Human Rights Council?  Or strengthen the one that it brought earlier?

DAS Moore:  You’re referring of course to Geneva in March, is that correct?

Media:  Yes.

DAS Moore:  The United States has decided to sponsor a procedural resolution at the March 2013 session of the UN Human Rights Council along with international partners.   The resolution will be straightforward, it will be a procedural resolution, and it will build on the 2012 resolution which called on Sri Lanka to do more to promote reconciliation and accountability.  The resolution will ask the government of Sri Lanka to follow through on its own commitments to its people, including the implementation of the LLRC recommendations.

Media:  You had a resolution before.  You had all kinds of commitments, and you are saying that still more needs to be done.  What’s the pain threshold before you will do something concrete?

DAS Zimmerman:  Again, to reemphasize our point, the LLRC is this democratically elected government’s commitments to its people, to heal the wounds from the past conflict.  We fully support that goal.  The elements of the LLRC are excellent.  They can do a lot to get towards that goal.  We realize there are certain things that are going to be harder to implement than others.  In any post-conflict situation accountability is always one of the toughest issues.  Reconciliation is so critical to ensure that the wounds of the past heal cleanly.

But you can’t really have reconciliation without accountability.  What we’d like to see, is focus on those elements of the LLRC, the actual implementation of them.  We know there are cases that have been moved from the Ministry of Defense to the Attorney General, for example.  We’d like to see some progress on bringing those cases forward. 

Again, these are the government’s own commitments.  We know there has been work on many elements of the LLRC.  We applaud that.  But we want to see more in the way of implementation in fulfillment of these commitments in LLRC.  We do this in a constructive way because we really value our relationship with Sri Lanka.

The three of us are here because we care, the United States cares, very much about Sri Lanka, about our relationship, our bilateral relationship, about the ways that we can work together in the future in the region.  This is a longstanding friendship, a longstanding relationship.

I know right now a lot of attention is focused on March in Geneva, but we’re still going to be here in April.  We’re still going to be working with this government, this democratically elected government, and working on these issues and doing all we can to support Sri Lanka and its people as we build on the relationship and try to move forward in this post-conflict phase.

I should also say another important partner is civil society.  That includes those of you right here at this table.  Media, journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders.  But we can’t help but be worried about the future when we perceive threats to the independence of the judiciary such as the impeachment of the Chief Justice; when we are hearing very credible reports from our contacts in civil society, lawyers, human rights defenders, and journalists such as yourselves about harassment and intimidation and even physical attacks and violence.

Again, we’re in this relationship for the long term.  We’re going to work through some difficult issues together.  That’s a lot of what diplomacy is about.  It’s what friendship is about.

Media:  Did you discuss about the political solution to the North & East with the government?

DAS Moore:  Yes, we did.  We were pleased to hear directly from the government the intent to hold, as I mentioned earlier, Northern Provincial Council elections in September. We welcome that.

DAS Singh:  With everyone we met, we talked  not just about devolution and all those issues , but also the broader aspects of long-term reconciliation.  After 30 years of conflict we understand that Sri Lanka is on a journey of building a durable peace and that it will take time and it’s complicated.  We’re really interested in how we can be a constructive partner in that process.

We went to Jaffna. We saw a lot of progress.  We see the dividends of peace - increased investment, development, the building of roads, freedom of movement, the ability to travel all around the country.  So you can see the baseline growing for what will be a sustainable peace. 

Real reconciliation that gets at some of the root causes of the conflict in the first place is tough.  It involves addressing really fundamental issues of every Sri Lankan having a sense of justice and belonging in a Sri Lanka that is unified and is really moving forward into a bright future.  I think that is going to involve a lot of issues being hashed out over time.  We really look forward to partnering comprehensively in all areas with the Sri Lankan government, people, and civil society as they try to build that really true lasting peace.

Media:  You met the TNA and all the other political parties in the country and what were their response to all these matters?

DAS Moore:  We had very good discussions not only with the government, where we covered a lot of ground, but we also met in the last few days with the TNA and the UNP.  We covered a similar range of issues with them - where the country’s been, where the country’s going, and how in their view the United States could most productively partner with the government and the people of the country.

DAS Zimmerman:  Again, we wanted to hear from as many voices here as possible and engage with as broad a spectrum of Sri Lankan civil society and political parties as possible. We welcome all their views.  We’re really like to see the government and the TNA get back to talking together again.  That would be a helpful step. 

Again, I think each of us have said it one way or another: we recognize that this work is really hard.  We recognize that everybody in this country suffered during the conflict.  Everyone has a lot of hard work to do following the conflict. 

The message that we send here is we stand by the people of Sri Lanka, in terms of doing that hard work.

Media:  It seems that you are talking about engagement with the government and sort of gently nudging them towards various things.  But we heard from the Defense Secretary last week that the U.S. has been misinformed.  That you need to change your stance.  And if you want to have better cooperation then you better start changing.  What’s your response to that?

DAS Singh:  We had a long meeting with the Defense Secretary.  The message we were bringing was that we want to have forward-looking engagement across all aspects, including in our military ties.  I’m not sure what specifically the references were to.  I think the question isn’t really about what does Sri Lanka want, what do we want sort of from each other.  The question is what do we want to do together as partners?

In that realm, there’s an awful lot that we do together as partners and there are some areas where we have disagreements or concerns which, as countries with such long relations, we are able to discuss very frankly when we sit down together.  So that’s what we did.

We talked about areas where cooperation is strong, from the clearing of land mines, which is virtually complete across the country and for which the U.S. has been the largest donor and the most significant partner, to ways that we could move towards even greater military cooperation as we see progress on the human rights and accountability as outlined in the government’s own views of what it should do under the LLRC and the National Action Plan.

These have been a very constructive set of meetings and I think we really do have a way to have a forward-looking relationship across all of the areas that our government and your government work on together.

DAS Zimmerman:  Again, it’s very much a joint civilian/military effort.  For instance, we have an assistance program to develop livelihoods in conflict-affected areas so that people can have jobs and a stake in the future, the peaceful future.  We stand by ready to help to build the capacity of civil society so that the military will have a strong civil society to which it can pass off responsibilities that it has naturally had to undertake in the post-conflict environment.

Media:  There is this allegation by the Defense Secretary which some newspapers quoted that military assistance in the form of training for Sri Lankan military  personnel was not being provided at your end.  Is there any truth in that?

DAS Singh:  We have a very robust engagement with the Sri Lankan military, including very substantial training.  I think what was being referred to there were some cases of human rights vetting that had resulted in denial of a couple of spots.  It’s important to know that there are hundreds of Sri Lankans who participate in our training and education programs each year. Less than half of one percent ever have any issues.  But we do have a human rights vetting process.  It’s known as the Leahy vetting process that we use around the world for all of our engagements with any security forces, law enforcement, police, whatever it may be. That’s a very important part of how we engage with the world.  Jane’s actually responsible for overseeing that for this region.  I think that was what had come up in some discussions.  We try to keep those discussions government to government and to be very straightforward about what concerns might be arising.  It tends to be when any credible information about human rights violations may have arisen about an individual or a unit in the military.  And then we try to work on and discuss that.

But our overall training and education program in Sri Lanka is still very good.

DAS Zimmerman:  It’s a law; it’s basically one page, and it’s on our web site: HumanRights.gov. It’s a pretty simple, straightforward law.  Basically it precludes U.S. security assistance going to either individuals or units where there is credible information of human rights violations.  What it requires is accountability mechanisms.

It doesn’t by any means stop or prohibit or preclude cooperation between our military or law enforcement working together.  In fact, as a human rights person, I always like to say I want to promote and encourage security assistance and training between any government and the United States within the bounds of that law, because in all of our training, there is a human rights component.  All of our training includes human rights and reinforces professionalization and military ethos, values, and proper rules of engagement.  Believe me, there’s no greater supporter of military training through our security assistance programs than the human rights community.

Media:  A clarification on the resolution in Geneva.  It will be the second one within a year.  What’s the sort of reason for that?  Are you not satisfied with the progress?  Or you think that you need to push them a little more?  Why a second one within a year?

DAS Moore:  Because while there has been some progress on implementation, there is still a great more to do, as contained in the recommendations for LLRC implementation.

Media:  So implementation has been slow, satisfactory, unsatisfactory or how would you characterize it?

DAS Moore:  I wouldn’t characterize it in one or two words.  I would say there has been some progress, but there’s much more progress to be made.

Embassy Official:  I apologize, we have to get them off to the next meeting, but we’ll make sure we get a copy of the statement to everyone, and we’ll have a transcript available.

DAS Zimmerman:  Can we give the female journalist just one more?  [Laughter].

Embassy Official:  It’s your question.

Media:  Can I just ask for two clarifications.  Basically you are saying that cooperation is not forthcoming from the U.S. because there are human rights concerns within the Sri Lankan military.

DAS Zimmerman:  No. We need to make a clarification there.  I’m glad you asked.

DAS Singh:  When we do security cooperation with any country, any government, and security cooperation is forthcoming from the United States, we do lots of activities together.  We have exercises; we have training.  But whenever we do it there is this human rights vetting process that Jane alluded to.  There are a handful of units or individuals where some information has arisen.  That can then be dealt with by us talking about the information, or it can be dealt with by working with others.  There are a lot of ways.  But it doesn’t mean that assistance is not forthcoming in any way.  And it’s not a judgment on Sri Lanka.  It’s not a judgment on these entities.  It’s a mechanism for us to ensure that we’re made aware of accountability steps that are taken, and that there’s a process. 

We understand that among security forces there are sometimes problems.  We seek for our own security forces and for those of our partners to be very good about accountability whenever we face a problem.  There’s no security force that doesn’t sometimes find itself with some kind of problems or violations, ourselves included.  We hold ourselves to those standards and therefore we hold our partners to those standards as well, and it helps us build a partnership that’s really comprehensive.

Media:  With regard to the talks between the government and TNA, the government has repeatedly said that it is the TNA that is stalling the talks.  So when you spoke to the TNA what was their side of the story?  And did you discuss this resolution with them? 

DAS Moore:  It’s incumbent on both parties, the government and the TNA, to talk, to sit and talk and meet constructively.  We encourage that. 

As to whether or not the resolution came up in our discussion, I honestly don’t recall.  But I would say that we have discussed the probability of the resolution with your government.  And the reason there would be another resolution this coming March is because we and the other 23 members of the Human Rights Council who voted for the resolution in 2012 believe that the government of Sri Lanka needs to fulfill the commitment that it’s already made through the LLRC to its people.

So this new resolution would reflect our support for those commitments, our continued support.  And for the people of Sri Lanka as they continue to face these important issues.

DAS Singh: I think it’s safe to say that the impeachment of the Chief Justice which was mentioned before as a concern has also contributed to a desire to ensure that the record stays fresh in Geneva. Thank you so much for coming.

U.S. to criticize Sri Lanka at U.N. rights council

COLOMBO | Mon Jan 28, 2013 

(Reuters) - The United States will deliver a sharp public rebuke to Sri Lanka at the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in March for failing to pursue those responsible for abuses as government forces were crushing Tamil rebels in 2009, officials said on Monday.

A three-member U.S. delegation is in Colombo on a five-day visit to discuss issues including progress in implementing the recommendations of Sri Lanka's own official investigation into the war, which called for the prosecution of soldiers suspected of killing civilians.

But Washington appeared dissatisfied enough to announce that it would repeat its action of last March, when it sponsored a resolution at the UNHRC urging Colombo to implement those recommendations.

"The U.S. has decided to sponsor a procedural resolution (against Sri Lanka) at the March 2013 sessions of the UNHRC," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State James Moore told reporters in Colombo.

"The U.S. and the other 23 members of the UNHRC who voted for that resolution in 2012 believe that the government of Sri Lanka needs to fulfil its commitments made to its own people."

Rights groups allege that the Sri Lankan military was responsible for the killing of thousands of ethnic minority Tamil civilians in the shrinking territory held by rebels in the last month before the end of the war.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government rejects the allegation and says it never targeted civilians.

It says it has been implementing the inquiry's recommendations, but rights groups and Western nations say the implementation is far from satisfactory.

Washington has also raised concerns about the removal of Sri Lanka's chief justice and restrictions on freedom of expression.

The government ignored established procedures to subject Shirani Bandaranayake to parliamentary impeachment, after which Rajapaksa sacked her and replaced her with a close ally. Leading jurists from around the world said the action violated international law.

"It is safe to say that the impeachment of the chief justice also contributed to the decision to ensure that the record (against Sri Lanka) stays fresh in Geneva," U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Vikram Singh told reporters.

(Reporting by Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

US to bring resolution against SL

MONDAY, 28 JANUARY 2013

The United States will sponsor a procedural resolution against Sri Lanka at the upcoming United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Sessions in Geneva in March, according to a visiting high level United States State Department delegation.

“The US has decided to sponsor a procedural resolution with its international partners. It is a pretty straightforward resolution that will build on the resolution brought in March 2012. The resolution will be to promote reconciliation and implementation of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) Report,” Deputy Assistant Secretary James R. Moore said.

 When questioned on the need to bring another resolution, within the space of a year, he said the resolution was being brought due to the slow implementation process. He further said that the resolution had been discussed with the government.

The delegation, noted that the resolution was also a means of updating the record and taking note of the impeachment process that took place in Sri Lanka. “We have noted with concern the impeachment that was carried out in defiance of a Supreme Court order and we believe that it calls into concern the separation of powers in Sri Lanka,” Mr. Moore said.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour Jane Zimmerman stated that although there was progress on the implementation of the LLRC report there was more that needed to be done in terms of accountability. “Certainly we have seen progress in infrastructure development, demining, rehabilitation and the release of former combatants. However there are still families who feel that their loved ones are being held somewhere. There is a desire for accountability with regards to extra judicial killings. Therefore there is a need for accelerated implementation. There needs to be healing and there cannot be reconciliation without accountability,” Ms. Zimmerman said.

They further called on the strengthening of Civil Society; “we can’t help but be worried about the future when we see the decline of the rule of law. We also hear from our contacts in civil society of harassment and violence towards them,” Ms.Zimmerman said.

The delegation expressed satisfaction with the government’s decision to hold Nothern Provincial Council Elections in September this year and noted that they had seen “the dividends of peace”, during their travels in Jaffna. “We see that there is freedom of movement and the baseline growing in these areas,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia Vikram Singh said.

The group also clarified, in response to comments that the US was not forthcoming in military training assistance, that very few opportunities were denied to any country and this denial was based on US laws that required for all individuals and military units to be in compliance with human rights laws. “This is not a judgment on Sri Lanka. We do this with all our partners,” Mr. Singh said.

Ms. .Zimmerman also said that despite the flurry over Geneva, the US had a long standing relationship with Sri Lanka.

The delegation that arrived in the country on Saturday will complete its trip in Sri Lanka and the Maldives on Friday. It met Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the TNA and the main opposition UNP and travelled to the North. They will also meet Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, External Affairs Minister G.L Peries and Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga. (Dianne Silva)

Northern fishermen inconvenie​nce over pass system

[ Tuesday, 29 January 2013, 01:59.45 PM GMT +05:30 ]

Due the implementation of pass system Jaffna fishermen faces inconvenience to engage in fishing in the peninsula.

Specially resettled fishermen in the Mathagal, Keerimalai,Suzipuram face various difficulties from this system. Naval officer announced pass system implement to avoid illegal activities in these areas.

Ampaa'rai Tamil activist killed after protesting demographic changes

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 January 2013, 21:31 GMT]
40 year-old Seenithamby Premanathan, a father of two, was waylaid and cut to death by an unknown killer squad Sunday night around 8:30 p.m., when he was returning home in a three wheeler from his brother’s house located at Malvaththai along a paddy field between Mallikaith-theevu and Malvaththai in Chammaanthu’rai police division. The killing comes a day after he was reported to have voiced concern over the injustice done in the demarcation of boundaries of the local authority concerned, civil sources in Ampaa’rai told TamilNet. In recent days, there were also reports of targeted harassments against Tamil women in Ampaa'rai. 

The SL government in Colombo has been scheming a new Sinhala division in the district while a Muslim minister in the Rajapaksa regime has been carving out new civic boundaries for Muslims. 

Those who question about Tamils losing their lands in the demarcation have been intimidated and threatened with death.

The latest killing comes amidst reports that SL military intelligence operatives had started monitoring and collecting details about political and civil activists attending meetings and those who accompany them.

It is feared that killer squads, which have political backing, are targeting Tamil civic leaders, who are in the forefront to question injustice done to Tamils in Ampaa'rai. 

Establishing new military cantonments, the SL government in Colombo has been working on creating a new Sinhala division ncluding the localities of the Oluvil port and a Buddhist temple constructed at Deegavaapi. 

At the same time, ALM Athaullah, who is a cabinet minister with the portfolio of local government and provincial councils in Mahinda Rajapaksa's regime, has been working on carving out new Municipalities and Piratheasa Chapai (PS) for Muslims at Akkaraippattu and I'rakkaamam. 

The ancient Tamil villages in the district at Kalmunai, Paa’ndiruppu, Natpiddi-munai, Periya-neelaava’nai etc., don’t have their own PS or divisions.

Australian officials met Mullaitivu people

People at the Koppaipilavu area in the Mulliativu district brief their problems to Australian opposition party members today.

People noted they were resettled in forest on last November and for the past four months they all face hardships to full fill their essential needs and also to find job opportunities in these areas. Australian delegates hold discussions with people and monitor their activities for 20 minutes. Members of the military intelligence unit continuously monitor the activities of people. Due to this people face difficulties and fear to brief their problems to Australian officials. People further noted military personals never allow us to visit our own lands and houses. They pledge officials to resettle them in their own lands. At last officials informed TNA Parliamentarian C.Sridharan that necessary steps would be taken to solve problems of these people.

Secretary of the committee probing disappearances under threat

Tuesday, 29 January 2013 

Secretary of the committee probing disappearances and activist of the Nava Sama Samaja Part Sundaram Mahendran is a threat to his life.

An unknown person had followed him yesterday when he was traveling to attend to some of his work. The person who was accompanying Mahendran at the time had been abducted and the abductors have questioned about Mahendran.

The person had alerted Mahendran after he was released by the abductors. Mahendran had then lodged a complaint with the police for his safety.

He has said that his life has been under constant threat due to his continuous work to raise a voice against disappearances. He has added that the threats faced by him have increased after the protest that was held outside the parliament complex to mark the third anniversary of journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda’s disappearance

Condom theory applied to Anura Yapa

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

Anura Priyadharshana Yapa who was appointed as the Petroleum Minster at the Cabinet reshuffle that was held on the 28th is displeased with his new appointment, government sources said.

While in the Environment Ministry, Yapa headed many state institutions, but would now only head the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) as the Petroleum Minister. Earlier institutes like the Central Environment Authority, National gem and Jewelry Authority, State Timber Corporation, Forest Department, Forest Conservation Trust, Marine Conservation Authority and the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau were some of the key state institutes that were under Yapa’s purview.

Yapa it is learnt had expressed his displeasure to the President saying that he would have to face the blame for an increase fuel prices or the importation of low quality fuel. The President had responded by saying that Yapa’s new ministry was the best place to earn money.

However, Yapa had said that politics does not only mean money and walked out.

COMMONWEALTH SECRETARY GENERAL TO VISIT SRI LANKA

January 29, 2013

The Commonwealth secretary general is to visit Sri Lanka next month in the aftermath of a U.S. decision to move a fresh resolution on the country at the upcoming UN sessions for failing to brush up human rights and reconciliation measures.

A statement by the External Affairs Ministry noted that Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma would be in the country to discuss arrangements being made by Sri Lanka to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November.

CHOGM is the highest decision making body of the organization. Sharma is to visit the country on Feb 10.

External Affairs Ministry Secretary Karunathilaka Amunugama said that Sharma will be in the country on a routine visit and will meet External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris and several senior government officials.

Sharma’s visit to Sri Lanka would take place amidst efforts by Canada to push for the CHOGM to be withdrawn from Sri Lanka through the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG).

The Sri Lankan government is expected to raise the issue with Sharma during his visit. The government has steadfastly denied taking any illegal means to impeach Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake who was removed from her post on Jan. 15.

Sharma earlier this month expressed concern the impeachment.

“The Commonwealth’s principal consideration is that the provisions of Sri Lanka’s constitution are upheld with regards to the removal of judges, respecting the independence of the judiciary,” Sharma was quoted as saying in a statement released by the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Meanwhile the United States announced on Monday that it is moving ahead with a second resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN sessions in March, which is likely to call for more work from the government on human rights and reconciliation issues? (Xinhua)

Visiting US team continues ‘counting trees’ in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 January 2013, 23:23 GMT]
The visit of the US Defence and State Department officials to Jaffna on Sunday was marked by denial of issues by the occupying Sinhala military, denials countered by the Bishop and civil society of Jaffna, and comments by the visiting team – all just a bickering on counting trees but deliberate refusal to see the wood, because the ambit has been set by the US-tabled 2012 Geneva resolution that has to now facilitate the 2013 resolution under preparation, political analysts in Jaffna told TamilNet. A stage has been set, knowing how the characters would act and what dialogues they would come out with, so that the play could proceed endlessly to the benefit of the director. Unless Tamils insist on a stage to talk nothing but the fundamentals for any future association with the director, they will be ‘played out’ the analysts further said. 

Normalcy has not come in the North, SL military repression has escalated, said the visiting team, according to news sources.

There is no one ‘missing,’ the SL military says. But we steadily receive complaints on missing people. Still we get such complaints. SL government should have taken efforts to see that such complaints don’t come. It has the responsibility of avoiding such complaints coming, the team commented, news sources said

War has not ended in the island. The repression of SL military has escalated in the last few months. The SL government says that it has ended a three-decades-old war. But even after three years of the war the conflict among the ethnicities in the North and East continues, the team commented further.

The Bishop of Jaffna revealed the views and comments of the visiting team to media, news sources said.

The team arriving at Palaali first met the SL military commander in Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Mahinda Hathurusinghe, who elucidated on the services undertaken by the SL military to the people of Jaffna.

The SL military doesn’t interfere in the civil administration in anyway, the occupying Sinhala commander told the visiting US team.

The SL military increasingly understands the people of Jaffna and a friendship between the SL military and the people of Jaffna is in the making, the occupying commander further claimed.

Later, the US team went to see the Catholic Bishop of Jaffna, who totally rejected the claims of the SL military.

Some development took place in Jaffna, but it is not people-orientated, the Bishop said.

Resettlement has not been completed. People are unable to go back to their own places. In resettled areas housing facilities have not been provided and livelihood has not been assured, the Bishop told the US team.

The issue of missing people has not been resolved. The families of the ‘missing’ people are not provided with answers or remedies to their woes. But new instances of people go ‘missing’ come up, the Bishop said.

On the detention of the Jaffna University students, the Bishop said that the arrests were arbitrary and unwarranted.

The recent escalation of SL military repression brings back the milieu of war times, the Bishop further said. 

The visiting US team later met the civil society representatives and others at the American Corner in Jaffna.

The civil society representatives were explicit in talking on the ground realities and the meeting was meaningful, commented a civil society representative speaking to news sources in Jaffna.

The current ground realities in the North and East, and all kinds of oppression carried out by the SL military on the people of the North and East, were thoroughly expounded to the US visitors, the civil society representative said.

The team of civil society representatives included representatives from the Jaffna University community, who provided a first-hand account on the university episode, news sources in Jaffna said.

Meanwhile, the US team has also met a group of ex-LTTE cadres at the IOM office in Jaffna. The former fighters, who are now ‘declared’ as released, have detailed the visiting team about the continued violence and repression unleashed against them, refusal of permission for them to get back to normal life, refusal of aid and about their orphaned situation, informed circles said.

What the visiting US team had commented in Jaffna and relayed through the Bishop of Jaffna to media, has created anxiety in Colombo over the trend of the moves that might take place at Geneva in March; opinion sources in Colombo present a picture. 

The eight-member US team that visited Jaffna included three US Deputy Assistant Secretaries, Mr. Vikram Singh from the Defence and Mr. James Moore and Ms Jane Zimmerman from the State Department.

Whatever the US team now counts in Jaffna are results of the knowingly defective resolution passed in Geneva in 2012 that didn’t recognize the urgency and need to protect the nation and territory of Eezham Tamils facing genocide, but on the contrary green-signalled the genocidal state, political activists in Jaffna said. 

Discovered ballot papers cause for concern-Karu

By Lashane Cooray-Tuesday, 29 Jan 2013

The discovery of 430 valid ballot papers in the vicinity of a school in the Gampaha district, used in the 2010 Presidential election, is a cause for great concern, especially since these ballot papers belong to the Nuwara Eliya District, Gampaha District MP and former UNP Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya, stated.

Addressing the media in Kirulapone, Jayasuriya said, “We also have in our possession 64 ballot papers that were found in a canal near the Technical College, Ratnapura, adding the ballot papers that have been burned in several places to this number, gives us cause to wonder at a hidden agenda behind these grave incidents. The government had claimed these papers were just samples when asked. First the government said they were samples, and then they said they were papers that had been invalidated, after we had sought a professional opinion to confirm the authenticity of these papers and had presented our findings,” Jayasuriya said.

“When such underhand dealings are witnessed, we as democratic people must stress the need for independent, unbiased elections. We ask the current election commissioner to be very strict about such issues. This is an election year, and the faith of the people on the system must not be lost,” he said, alleging irregularities had taken place in the last Presidential election as well, quoting examples from several districts.

“In the Anuradhapura district, the Returning Officer reported 78%, while the final district result for Anuradhapura was 78.35%. The same irregularities can be seen in Polonnaruwa, Moneragala, Badulla and Galle districts. These are problems that must be looked into,” Jayasuriya said. (Ceylon Today Online)

SF raises ballot paper issue with polls chief

TUESDAY, 29 JANUARY 2013 

Democratic National Alliance Leader (DNA) Sarath Fonseka today raised issue with Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya regarding the 500 ballot papers found discarded near Kalagedihena.

Mr. Fonseka also asked Mr. Deshapriya about the non-registration of his party and said it was the Elections Commissioner who should ensure democracy in the country by permitting the DNA to be registered as political party.

He told the media that there was a court case pending with regard to the ballot papers marked with the ‘swan’ symbol found near a school at Kalagedihena.

Mr. Fonseka said until the court decides otherwise he still believed that the incident was connected to the robbing of the ballot papers.

Speaking about the registration of his party the Democratic National Alliance, Mr. Fonseka said though the Commissioner had requested for audit reports they don’t have any because it is a new political party. He said it had been more than three years since they applied for registration as a political party and added that the matter has been referred to the Human Rights Commission as well.

The Election Chief also expressed regret over the incident where marked ballot papers were found near a school. He said two committees had been appointed to investigate how such an incident occurred and to recommend ways of preventing this type of incident happening again. (Sarasi Paranamanna & Darshana Sanjeewa)

Savage Years (1) – The Nineteen Seventies

By Basil Fernando -January 29, 2013

Basil Fernando

In the seventies Sri Lanka’s descent into savagery took a qualitative plunge and since then things have become even worse.

By way of explanation I should say that by ‘savage’ I do not mean the noble savage that Jean Jacques Rousseau spoke about, but rather a person living without a civic sense and responsibility. It also means savagery by the government, meaning the disrespect for the civic rights of the citizens and the abandonment of the government’s duty to promote and to protect civic rights.

Here, I am talking about a form of alienation that the citizens suffer when a government descends to the use of violence without limitation and without any sense of proportionality. In this instance, the government’s use of violence is not to protect the overall framework of the decent living of the population but rather to protect itself from the people.

When the government is no longer the expression of the general will, meaning the will of the people as a whole, who have entered into cooperation with it to create a way of life that is best for everyone, but becomes a destructive force acting to devastate the very fabric of society itself, a citizen cannot feel being a part of that society. There is a rift between the citizen and the government.

The decisive point at which this happened was in 1971 when the then ruling coalition government used violence without any restriction to crush a rather insignificant rebellion. The main opposition party expressly gave its fullest support to the government to use any sort of violence on the very people of the soil. According to statistics which emerged at the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) the JVP was responsible for 41 civilian deaths and the killing of 63 and wounding of 305 members of the armed forces. In retaliation, the government allowed the security forces to kill as many as 5,000 to 10,000 persons and arbitrarily detain 15,000 to 25,000. The killings were done, for the overwhelming part, after the security forces secured arrest or persons surrendered to them.

Thus, a practice was established which legitimised killing without any legal process after arrest. This is one of the greatest acts of savagery.

The governments, meaning any of the government that has existed since then, have never made a public apology for these killings.

The lack of the public apology implies the legitimation of these killings and by such legitimation, permissiveness towards such killings by the security forces was established. Such permissiveness is nothing less than savagery.

With this arose the mentality of the security forces being regarded not as protectors of the people but as mercenaries that could be used against the people. This change had a tremendous impact on the psychology of the security forces as well as that of the people. Above all, it had a tremendous psychological impact on those who held power, the ruler. The ruler felt that it was permissible to kill its own citizens without any regard to any convention or law. That also led to the rulers to regard every person who held a different view as an enemy and a traitor. The word traitor began to be used loosely.

It was not only the weapons that were used against people but also the government’s propaganda machinery. When it comes to anyone that is labeled a critic, the state media was allowed to use whatever language and engage in whatever kind of propaganda it wished. The use of bullets and the use of the state media thus, were combined and no rules or conventions were observed.

I offered my own apology to my fellow citizens who were so barbarically killed by my poem ‘By the Wayside’.

By the wayside

(Translated from Sinhala)

This wreath

with no name attached

is for you

who have no grave.

As the place of earth

which embraced you

could not be found,

this wreath was placed by the wayside.

Forgive me.

Forgive me

for placing a memorial for you

by the roadside.

(Published in 1972)

By 1972 the government went further to attack the very thought process of the nation and incorporated its rights to violate the people into the constitution itself. Thus began a constitutional form of savagery. The constitution abused the phrase ‘peoples’ sovereignty’ to mean the very opposite of what it originally meant when Rousseau used it in his social contract. The people’s sovereignty meant a collective form of governance where the best interests of the people were served through conventions which assured the common good. But in contrast, in Sri Lanka, the word was used to break the conventions and to give arbitrary power to the government under the name of the supremacy of the parliament. The supremacy of the parliament was a displacement of the supremacy of the law. To use the word ‘peoples’ sovereignty’ to enable the capacity of the government to ignore the rule of law is not sovereignty but slavery. The people get together to form a government not in order to destroy their freedom but to protect their freedom. When the idea of the ‘peoples’ sovereignty’ was used in 1972 to take away the entrenched rights of the minorities and to take away the power of judicial review from the judiciary it was not the peoples’ freedoms that were protected by the ruler’s power to enslave the population.

This constitutional savagery took an even more absolute form in the 1978 Constitution. Here a single man called the Executive President emerged as the master. The power of the legislature was trampled under his foot including whatever remained as the independence of the judiciary. This also was named as the ‘peoples’ sovereignty’. A funny conception was developed to say that by voting, the people have alienated their power and given it to the Executive President and now the power of the Executive President is what was meant by the ‘peoples’ sovereignty’. That the people of Sri Lanka allowed this to happen will remain a slur on their political intelligence. Such use of words was nothing but pure bluff and this bluff is at the core of the supreme law of the country, its constitution. It is a constitution where the people are supposed to have voluntarily enslaved themselves.