Sri Lanka falling short of implementing the recommendations of its own Reconciliation Commission - ESTHER BRIMMER, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations of the United States

MORNING

26 February 2013

15 dignitaries address Human Rights Council on second day of high-level segment

ESTHER BRIMMER, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations of the United States, said that the Council had to work to attain universality, dialogue, principles, and truth. In today’s networked world hate, insulting and intolerant speech could be marginalized and defeated only by encouraging positive and respectful expression. The pursuit of an honest, open dialogue among Member States was one of the themes which the United States had pledged to pursue and would continue to do so in the coming years. The Council’s creation of a working group on discriminator impediments to women’s human rights demonstrated its commitment to combating continuing gender bias in all its forms. By formally recognizing that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender men and women enjoyed the same rights as everyone else, the Council helped advance the true universality of human rights worldwide. Nevertheless, significant challenges continued to face the Council, including the outrageous attacks launched by the Assad regime on innocent civilians in Syria, the ongoing violation of human rights in the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka falling short of implementing the recommendations of its own Reconciliation Commission, and the unfair singling out of Israel, the only country with a stand-alone agenda item. The unfair and unacceptable bias to which Israel was subjected had to cease so that progress could be made towards establishing peace among Israelis and Palestinians. 

VIDEO: SL CONTINUES TO FALL SHORT OF IMPLEMENTING LLRC RECOMMENDATIONS - US

The US in its opening address at the UNHRC sessions in Geneva stated that the Council’s work was remains unfinished as long as Sri Lanka continues to fall short of implementing the recommendations of its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).

Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations of the United States of America, Esther Brimmer stated that the Council’s work was not complete as long as Sri Lanka fails to address the underlying sources of its long standing ethnic conflict.

She confirmed that the US will introduce another resolution at the ongoing session on Sri Lanka to ensure that the international community continues to monitor the country’s progress and to once again offer assistance on “outstanding reconciliation and accountability issues”.

She stated finally that the United States hopes that this resolution will be a cooperative effort with the Sri Lankan government.

February 26, 2013  04:39 pm

China Tests Japanese and U.S. Patience

Stratfor

By Rodger Baker
Vice President of East Asia Analysis

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has warned Beijing that Tokyo is losing patience with China's assertive maritime behavior in the East and South China seas, suggesting China consider the economic and military consequences of its actions. His warning followed similar statements from Washington that its patience with China is wearing thin, in this case over continued Chinese cyberespionage and the likelihood that Beijing is developing and testing cybersabotage and cyberwarfare capabilities. Together, the warnings are meant to signal to China that the thus-far relatively passive response to China's military actions may be nearing an end.

In an interview The Washington Post published just prior to Abe's meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington, Abe said China's actions around the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands and its overall increasing military assertiveness have already resulted in a major increase in funding for the Japan Self-Defense Forces and coast guard. He also reiterated the centrality of the Japan-U.S. alliance for Asian security and warned that China could lose Japanese and other foreign investment if it continued to use "coercion or intimidation" toward its neighbors along the East and South China seas.

Abe's interview came amid warnings on Chinese cyberactivity from Washington. Though not mentioning China by name in his 2013 State of the Union address, Obama said, "We know foreign countries and companies swipe our corporate secrets. Now our enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions, our air traffic control systems." Obama's comments, and the subsequent release of a new strategy on mitigating cybertheft of trade secrets, coincided with a series of reports highlighting China's People's Liberation Army backing for hacking activities in the United States, including a report by Mandiant that traced the activities to a specific People's Liberation Army unit and facility. The timing of the private sector reports and Obama's announcement were not coincidental.

Although Washington has taken a slightly more restrained stance on the Senkaku/Diaoyu dispute, reportedly urging Tokyo not to release proof that a Chinese ship locked its fire-control radar on a Japanese naval vessel, clearly Washington and Tokyo hold the common view that China's actions are nearing the limits of tolerance. Given its proximity to China, Japan is focusing on Chinese maritime activity, which has accelerated in the past two to three years around the disputed islands, in the South China Sea and in the Western Pacific east of Japan. The United States in turn is highlighting cyberespionage and the potential for cyberwarfare. Both are drawing attention to well-known Chinese behavior and warning that it is nearing a point where it can no longer be tolerated. The message is clear: China can alter its behavior or begin to face the consequences from the United States and Japan.


Abe drew a sharp response from Beijing, though less from his interview than from another Washington Post article based on the interview that interpreted Abe as saying, "China has a 'deeply ingrained' need to spar with Japan and other Asian neighbors over territory, because the ruling Communist Party uses the disputes to maintain strong domestic support." Tokyo responded to China's complaints by saying the second Post article was misleading but that the transcript of Abe's interview was accurate.

Although the Japanese government did not elaborate on this point, by "ingrained" Abe did not mean Chinese behavior per se, but rather the anti-Japanese undercurrents of China's education system and the use of anti-Japanese sentiment as the basis of Chinese patriotism. 
In addition to being Beijing's standard knee-jerk reaction to any less-than-flattering comments by a foreign leader, the Chinese government and media response represented an attempt to shift attention from Chinese actions toward the "hawkish" Abe as the source of rising tensions in East Asia. A follow-up Xinhua article published after the Abe-Obama meeting cautioned the United States to be "vigilant against the rightist tendency in Tokyo" and said the first- and second-largest economies, the United States and China, should work together "to safeguard the peace and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region and contribute to global development." Other Chinese media reports suggested that Abe failed to gain support from Obama during the visit for his Senkaku/Diaoyu policies or for a unified stance against China. The undertones of China's response, however, reflect less confidence.



The Economic Threat

What Abe said in his interview apart from the Chinese media spin is instructive. According to Abe, relations between China and Japan have been suffering due to unintended consequences of moves by the Communist Party of China to retain its legitimacy. China's economic opening led to unequal prosperity, eliminating the Party's main pillar of support, equality. To counter that, the Chinese government pursued a two-prong strategy of economic growth and patriotism. Economic growth required Beijing to expand its sourcing of commodities, moving China naturally onto the sea. Meanwhile, patriotism, tinged with anti-Japanese teaching, has come to pervade the educational system and society.



Abe argued that China is pursuing a path of coercion or intimidation, particularly in the East and South China seas, as part of its resource-acquisition strategy. Anti-Japanese undercurrents in Chinese society due to the inculcation of patriotism have won domestic support for the assertive Chinese actions. But this has strained Japanese-Chinese economic relations, thus undercutting China's own rapid economic growth. And without continued economic growth, Abe cautioned, China's single-party leadership would be unable to control its population of 1.3 billion.

Within this context, Abe cautioned that it is important to make Beijing realize it cannot take another country's territory or territorial water or change the rules of international engagement. He raised the defense budget and emphasized that the Japanese-U.S. alliance is critical for regional security, as is a continued U.S. presence in the region. He also warned that China's assertive behavior would have economic consequences and that although Japanese companies profit in China, they are responsible for 10 million Chinese jobs. If the risk of doing business in China rises, then "Japanese investments will start to drop sharply," he added.

Abe's warnings were designed to strike at the core Chinese government fears of economic and social instability and military encroachment by the United States and a reinvigorated Japan. On the economic front, Japan is one of the top sources of actual foreign direct investment in China and a major trading partner. Although it is difficult to verify Abe's claims of 10 million Chinese employed due to Japanese investments, the implications of Chinese actions on bilateral economic cooperation are more easily observable. In 2012, a year when tensions ran high due to Japan's decision regarding what it called the "purchase" of some of the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands from a private Japanese citizen, anti-Japanese protests flared in China, as did unofficial boycotts of Japanese goods. Total trade between China and Japan fell 3.9 percent year on year, the first drop since the major financial crisis of 2009, with exports falling more than 10 percent. Japanese foreign direct investment, although rising slightly for the year, saw a major falloff in the summer when tensions between the two countries ran high.

Other factors played a role in the decline of trade and investment, including reduced overall Japanese demand and shifts in suppliers for certain key resources (and adjustments in Japan's export markets). And Japan itself would suffer from a major break in trade relations, though Tokyo may be taking steps to cushion against fallout from economic disputes with China. Japanese firms in fact already are beginning to show an interest is shifting some of their manufacturing bases out of China even without the added incentive of anti-Japanese sentiment-driven protests and boycotts. In 2012, the gap between China and the United States as the top destination for Japanese exports narrowed further to just 0.6 percent. Abe also hinted strongly that Japan has finally decided to pursue talks with the United States over the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trading bloc (unofficially) designed to exclude China.

Although Japanese companies are unlikely to flee China en masse, the threat of a slow reorientation toward stronger trade ties with the United States and softening investment in China strikes at one of the Communist Party's major concerns, namely maintaining social stability through employment. Like that of Japan, exports and growth have driven China's economy. This does not necessarily mean profits or efficiency; on the contrary, Beijing has harnessed the constant growth to maintain employment and provide loans to keep businesses operating, even when they operate with razor-thin profit margins or at a loss.

Employment represents China's preferred tool to maintain social stability, and the Party sees stability as paramount to retaining its legitimacy as the unchallengeable and unopposable leader of China. Both the Chinese government and Abe know this, and now Abe is threatening to target Chinese growth, upending the whole system of stability. The Japanese may not really be able to effect or afford any drastic change in economic relations with China, but with the activation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and with a possible Japanese government emphasis on investment to Southeast Asia and Africa (with private investment likely to follow), the economic pressure on China could slowly build.

The Military Warning

The military warning is therefore more immediately troubling to Beijing. Both Tokyo and Washington are reaching their limits for tolerating aggressive Chinese behavior. The United States is pivoting toward Asia, seen by China as a constraining action. Japan is strengthening ties with Russia, Australia, India and Southeast Asia, something China regards as containment. China's emergence as a big power has not been entirely smooth. Any time a nation seeks to alter the status quo between other powers, disruption and resistance are inevitable. China's maritime expansion and its cyberespionage and emerging cyberwar capabilities are closely linked to its economic and social policies. The former is a more obvious concrete action, but one that raises the risk of creating the appearance of being ready for peer competition long before China actually is. The latter at least offers some opportunities for plausible deniability (though Washington is now removing that already-translucent veil) and reflects an attempt to exploit an area where China's overall vulnerabilities are less of a liability; it is the weak taking its best available action against the strong.

For Japan, maritime activity around the disputed islands is manageable so long as it remains in the civilian realm, but the use of fire control radar on Japanese ships and overflights by Chinese aircraft are unacceptable. (Japanese aircraft are shadowing Chinese overflights. In a recently reported case, a Chinese Y-8 surveillance aircraft and the Japanese F-15 interceptor came within 5 meters, or 16 feet, of one another, creating the potential for a collision like the one between a U.S. and Chinese aircraft in 2001.) And while the United States may have tolerated the occasional case of cybertheft and cyberespionage, as Obama noted, such activities become unacceptable in scale and when it shifts to targeting U.S. infrastructure, where it has the potential to disrupt electricity grids, communications systems and other industrial processes. 

Japan and the United States have both called their defense alliance the cornerstone of their regional policies and relations. Japan continues to evolve its interpretation of its constitutional limit on military activity, and Tokyo has pledged to Washington to take a greater role in ensuring regional security. The escalation of Chinese naval activity has given the impression of a confident and capable Beijing on its way to changing the balance of naval power in the region. China has built the impression of a strong modern navy backed by land-based missiles, with modern ships and technology and an emerging international reach. China's anti-access area denial strategy is an increasing point of contention in Japan and the United States, where there are warnings that the Chinese navy will soon outpace the U.S. Navy in the Pacific, limiting U.S. naval capabilities with its "carrier-killer" missiles and quantitatively superior fleet.



The Chinese navy has undergone a significant modernization program over the past decade. Still, it is far from ready to compete head to head with the Japanese navy, much less with Japan's treaty ally, the United States. Modernization efforts and the fleet-building program have yet to make for a superb Chinese navy, nor would having superb sailors. A superb navy requires organization, doctrine, principles and most of all experience. The main problem constraining China's navy is not its shipbuilding or recruitment but its limited ability to truly integrate its forces for war fighting and fleet operations. This requires substantial knowledge and training in logistics, cooperative air defense and myriad other complex factors.

There really is only one real measurement for a navy: Its ability to win against its likely rival. Part of determining the quality of a navy depends upon its technology and part on doctrine, but a substantial part is actual experience. China's navy has little war-fighting experience, even in the past. This has substantially limited the number of individuals within the officer corps knowledgeable or capable of effective operations in the highly complex world of modern military engagements. The Chinese navy may have new technology and be building toward numerical superiority, but it faces off against a U.S. Navy with centuries of experience and generations of admirals schooled in combat. Even the Japanese navy has more than a century of experience and a tradition of maritime warfare. The lack of combat experience significantly limits China's naval capability.

The Chinese government officially downplays these capabilities and any talk of a potentially aggressive nature of the Chinese military. But Beijing does little to dissuade such speculation, allowing a steady stream of images and commentaries in the Chinese popular media and the strategic leaking of imagery in China's social media. Beijing likes to appear fierce while saying it is not. But the problem with this strategy is exactly what Abe has pointed out: In appearing threatening, concrete steps are taken to counter China's maritime expansion. Abe is calling China's bluff, exhorting Beijing to reassess the correlation of forces in the region before continuing its aggressive pattern.

Read more: China Tests Japanese and U.S. Patience | Stratfor 

ACJU to transfer Halal certification process to Govt.

By Shabiya Ali Ahlam- February 27, 2013  
The All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) yesterday said it would hand over the Halal certification process to the Government to provide a mechanism that would be acceptable by all stakeholders.

ACJU said the decision was taken with the intention of toning down the prevailing situation with regard to the Halal certification matter that has been grabbing attention since December 2012.
“We feel that the continuous debate on the sensitive Halal issue would only threaten the peaceful coexistence of the people. If handing over the Halal certification process over to the Government would help ease the tension, we are willing to do the same,” ACJU President Ash Sheikh Mufthi M.I.M. Rizwe told a media conference.
Stating that the suggestion would reiterate the ACJU stand that the process was introduced not as commercial venture to generate profit but as service-oriented process to meet the concerns of the Muslim community, Rizwe said that the decision was yet to be formally communicated to the relevant authorities.
ACJU stated that on taking over the certifying process, the Government could adapt the methods modelled by governments of Thailand and Singapore for the issuance of Halal certification. “The ACJU will assist the Government if requested,” Mufthi Rizwe added.
Acknowledging that the ACJU had obtained a fee to render the service it was offering, ACJU said that the Government would also have to follow the same practice to cover the costs incurred during the certification process.
Expressing that its only intention was to facilitate the availability of Halal foods to the Muslim population, the ACJU placed its cash flow in the public domain. A statement released by the ACJU stated that as of 31 March 2012 the turnover generated was Rs. 17 million, whereas a profit of Rs. 2.6 million remained, after covering the cost of issuing Halal certificates to around 150 institutions.
This profit was then reinvested in the certifying process to upgrade it to meet international standards. With the financial statement released, Rizwe stressed that the ACJU once again categorically rejected and denied the baseless allegations of raising funds for dubious purposes.
The ACJU emphasised that it is due to the extremely economical and transparent nature of the certification process that several commercial organisations had voluntarily opted to apply for the certificate for their commercial benefit, which was to increase market share and gain better access to international markets.
ACJU Halal Division In-Charge Shiekh Murshid Mulaffer said that even though false statements had been made, the ACJU certification was internationally accepted and countries such as the USA, UK, and Canada recognised the Sri Lanka Halal logo.
He added that despite the immense pressure faced by companies to withdraw from being Halal certified, only one organisation had expressed its intention of withdrawing from the standard. Mullaffer also said that the ACJU would continue to issue Halal Certification until the Government took over the process.
The ACJU said that while it had been in the country for 87 years and had always been committed to the peaceful coexistence among the communities, it deeply regretted that manner in which the Halal certification process had been used to create divisions and disturbances among the different communities, particularly among the Muslims and Sinhalese.
The ACJU stated that if the legitimate concerns regarding the process could have been placed before the ACJU, a solution acceptable to all communities could have been reached without disturbing the peace and coexistence among the people of the nation.

Muslims in Wayamba feel Insecure as scattered acts of anti-Muslim Violence Increase in Kurunegala District

Muslim traders threatened

The town of Narammala is a busy, bustling one. Although it lies several kilometres away from Kurunegala, it still abounds with shops, eating houses and banks. But beneath the bustle is a layer of tension. Some 30 Muslim-owned shops received a shocking letter in the post around February 11 – ‘Close your shop by the end of March, or you will die’, the letter said, the word ‘maranawa’ scrawled in red ink.
The letter was signed, Bauddha Sanvidhana Ekathuwa with a scrawled sign resembling a sword. The shopkeepers were afraid to speak, and greeted us with wariness. But every one of them has a copy of that letter close to hand.

As shocking as this incident is, it is by no means the first of its kind. Tensions between the Muslim and Buddhist communities in the area started as far back as a year-and-a-half ago, according to Kurunegala Municipal Councillor, Abdul Sattar.

In a town called R. S. Sinhalawatte, where 30 to 40 Muslim families lived, there was a small mosque constructed (at least 25 families need to be living in an area for a mosque to be built) Sattar said. However, the trustee of the nearby Aluwihare Temple had said that the families could not worship at the mosque, as they had no license to do so. The matter was peacefully resolved, but that was not the end. 15 kilometres from Kurunegala, people began to clamour for the closure of the Deduruoyagama Mosque, even though it had been registered with the Department of Muslim Affairs. A group of monks had gathered in front of the mosque and begun to chant pirith. The frightened Muslims went to the Wellawa Police, who handled the issue.

All was well until the January 24 protest in Kuliyapitiya, when people carried effigies denoting Prophet and placards depicting pigs, in an inflammatory riot. Next in Horombawa, a retired Muslim teacher was beaten as he was walking along the road. Another was followed, when he got on a bus, and assaulted. All these incidents boiled up to the Narammala letters received in early February. The residents had at first been afraid to approach police, thinking that it might worsen the situation. However, the ominous deadline given pushed them to lodge a complaint.

Azad runs a jewellery shop in Narammala. He said that he received the threatening letter on February 12 – the letter arrived without a seal indicating where it had been posted from. The police had visited his shop and had taken the original letter. Three days later, a meeting was held, attended by the head monks in the area. They had told the Kuliyapitiya Assistant Superintendent, who attended the meeting, that there was no organisation known as Bauddha Sanvidhana Ekathuwa in Narammala. Azad was fearful, but determined not to close his shop.

Not far off is a gold bullion shop owned by Jalil. He said he believed the same organisation that had sent the letters had also carried out the attack on the Muslim man who was travelling by bus. “Yes, we are frightened,” Jalil said, but he too said he would not close his shop. The CID had visited him over five times, he added. His letter had borne a Kurunegala stamp, he said. Anfas has been running a small vegetable shop in Narammala along with his father – the shop has been here for 35 years or so. He said he had never heard of the organisation, which sent the threatening letter to him. Their letter also bore no seal. While Anfas was fearful, his father was more pragmatic about the situation.

Shortly after the letters were issued in Narammala, some shops and small roadside hopper stands were damaged by an unknown group near Siyambalagaskotuwa, at the Kilipola junction. Rafeek, whose hopper stand was badly damaged, indicated the shattered glass of his stand. “They came at midnight,” he said, adding that as his shop closed at 9 PM and he had no idea who the perpetrators could be.

Police had come and examined the stretch of road – damage had been inflicted to the Muslim-owned shops all along the stretch, Rafeek said. “This is the first time that something like this has happened,” Rafeek said, adding that even the Sinhalese families in the area had been surprised as well. Yet, when asked if the shop owners thought the perpetrators could be from outside of town, Rafeek said he did not believe this could be so.

The shop owners and even people drinking tea at the shop were suspicious of the press, asking how we had come to know of the incident, begging us not to take pictures of their faces, and saying the issue had already been resolved by the police. Perhaps, this could be because they were afraid of spreading the poison caused by the issue – Sattar said he noticed even young children were asking not to eat halal products – he had even seen school vans bearing ‘no halal’ signs. “We are scared that something will happen as in 1983, when so many people were killed – that an incident happening in one place might spread everywhere,” Sattar said, adding “If this happens, we can’t face it – we don’t know what will happen.”

Sattar also said that contrary to propaganda, the Muslims considered Sri Lanka their home. “Even if they hit us, or tell us to leave, we cannot leave. This is our home, even if we die overseas, our bodies would be brought back here,” Sattar said.

New detention laws only for Govt.’s political opponents: UNP

Main Opposition denounces attack on DIG’s son by Minister’s son

 February 27, 2013 

The main Opposition United National Party denounced the attack on Asela Waidyalankara by the son of a Senior Cabinet Minister yesterday, claiming that the immediate release of the suspects proved that the recently-enacted amendments to the detention laws in the country were only meant for use against political opponents.

Asela Waidyalankara, who is the son of Batticaloa DIG Ravi Waidyalankara, is currently receiving treatment at a private hospital in Colombo after allegedly being assaulted by 13 people, including Minister Maithripala Sirisena’s son, at a holiday resort in Pasikudah.
All 13 suspects were released on Police bail on the night of the incident, even though the victim was receiving treatment in the ICU of the Batticaloa General Hospital.
UNP Spokesman Gayantha Karunathilake told a media briefing last morning that the Government was constantly proving that the law worked in different ways depending on how much political power someone wielded.
“The Government was in a tearing hurry to bring the new detention laws allowing the Police to detain a suspect for 48 hours. But this recent release of suspects including a Minister’s son proves that this law will be applied selectively,” Karunathilake told journalists.
The UNP MP said that the recent violence directed at a senior Police officer’s son and the inaction of law enforcement in the face of it was further proof of the overwhelming politicisation of the Police force.
Karunathilake called for a disciplinary inquiry against Minister Sirisena, who is also the General Secretary of the SLFP, the main constituent party in the ruling UPFA coalition.
“This Minister’s son has taken the law into his own hands – the question the people are asking now is whether the law has completely lost its force and effect on persons in positions of power?” the UNP Spokesman charged.

Maithripala’s Son Released On Police Bail, DIG’s Son Transferred To A Private Hospital

By Colombo Telegraph -February 26, 2013 |

The son of the Deputy Inspector General of Police for Batticaloa, Ravi Waidyalankara has been transferred to a private hospital in Colombo for treatment of extensive injuries received after a group led by the son of powerful UPFA minister and ruling party Secretary  Maithripala Sirisena allegedly assaulted him at a resort in Sri Lanka’s East Coast. 

Maithripala Sirisena

All 13 suspects involved in the brutal assault, including the Minister’s son were released on police bail on Monday night.

Asela Waidyalanka was assaulted by the group of holiday-makers at a high end resort in the east coast town of Passikudah on Monday afternoon. The victim had objected to the allegedly intoxicated group snapping pictures of themselves indecently exposed with Waidyalankara, his wife and other hotel guests in the background.

Eyewitnesses said the attack had been instantaneous and the victim had been bruised and bloodied by his attackers.

Kalkudah Police who arrived on the scene to arrest the perpetrators were also nearly assaulted, witnesses said.

A senior DIG in charge of the Western Province telephoned the Kalkudah Police late Monday to order the release of the suspects, Colombo Telegraph learns. It is also learnt that several of the suspects have also obtained medical certificates in an attempt to prove that they were also injured in the confrontation.

Health Ministry fails to adhere to WHO recommendations

* NCP Kidney diseaseby Ifham Nizam

February 25, 2013, 12:00 pm 

by Ifham Nizam

The World Health Organization (WHO) had made strong recommendations following the completion of its final report on the investigation and evaluation of the Chronic Kidney Disease in Sri Lanka, but the Health Ministry had failed to either come out with the facts or take immediate preventive measures, an official of the Technical Committee, appointed by the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), said.

Technical Committee Member Hemantha Withanage, who is the Executive Director of the Centre for Environment Justice, told The Island yesterday that the disease was spreading to other parts of the country in the form of cancers.

He said that sadly the Ministry of Health had failed to make the battling of the Chronic Kidney Disease a top priority despite stakeholders realising its danger and spending Rs. 100 million on the comprehensive multidisciplinary research project.

WHO Senior Advisor and Coordinator, Chronic Disease Prevention and Management Dr. Shantha Mendis pointed out that the overall prevalence of the disease in the Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and

Badulla districts, in people aged 15 to 70 was 15 per cent.

He recommended the use of alternative fertilizers, reduction of heavy metals in soil or making them less available, developing rice strains which require less fertilizer and resistant to pests, reduction in environmental pollution.

Civil servant cum farmer community head for Hingurakgoda, Kaudulle Jayathissa told The Island that recently they had found it difficult get coffins in Anuradhapura and had come to Colombo to purchase three coffins.

"All three deaths were due to Kidney diseases and on an average there are three deaths now as against one or two in 2004. Most of the patients don’t go to hospitals for a number of reasons, while some believe in cure through age-old rituals and end up dying without any hospital records," he added.

Jayathissa said that the patients in the districts went through unbearable suffering, due to insufficient dialysis equipment; there are only five. He added: "We know the Health Minister, a man from our district and he should do his utmost for the betterment of the people who provide rice to the nation. Sad to say, despite our attempts he was unavailable for a meeting."

Meanwhile, the latest report indicates pesticides and fertilizers are the major causes of the kidney diseases.

DIG’s son speaks of assault

'Any rational man would never take on 15 drunk men'- Asela speaks of ordeal

TUESDAY, 26 FEBRUARY 2013 
The condition of the son of DIG Ravi Waidyalankara, Asela Waidyalankara is currently reported to be stable and he is undergoing treatment at a leading private hospital in Colombo.

Video by - Hafeel Farisz and Darshana Sanjeewa

Asela Waidyalankara, son of DIG Ravi Waidyalankara speaking to Daily Mirror said two Police officers in uniform who were on duty and had intervened during the assault were also allegedly assaulted by the gang which comprised the son of Minister Maithripala Sirisena.

Police sources in Kalkudah confirmed that two Police officers who were on duty at the beach in uniform were assaulted.

Leading Criminal Lawyers speaking to Daily Mirror said the Criminal Procedure Code and the Penal Code was very clear that the above did not conform to offences bailable by the Police and the suspects must be produced before a Magistrate


(By Hafeel Farisz and Darshana Sanjeewa)
 


Watch VedioThe gang of 13 which included the son of the Minister had been released on Sunday night on Police bail without being produced before a Magistrate.

Refuting allegations of prompting the assault, Asela said he was currently nursing a shoulder injury and would had never got involved in an altercation
“Any ordinary person would know that they can’t take on 15 men. I’m nursing a shoulder injury and would never have gotten into an altercation. It’s irrational to even think of fighting 15 men alone,” he said.

“While they were assaulting me, there were two Police officers on duty close by, I ran to them and urged them to help me and they shielded me and in the process they were also assaulted,” Asela Waidyalankara said.

Speaking further in his hospital bed, the soft spoken telecom executive said that he urged the gang not to take lewd photographs with his wife in the background which prompted the brutal assault.

“I just came from a boat ride and went to the room to keep our belongings. As I was coming back I noticed about 15 people standing there, all of them were drunk and one person had removed his swimming trunk and displayed himself to my wife with another guy taking pictures. I’m also an amateur photographer and I knew what they were doing,” he said.

Speaking further, Waidyalankara said that, the gang had then surrounded him and his wife who had rushed to his help was also assaulted.
“I was with my family and didn’t want any altercation so I went up to them and told them very politely.

These are the exact words I used “Machang you took some pictures of my wife if you can show them to me and delete them, you’re here to have a good time and I’m here to have a good time, let’s not spoil it”.

Then a few more people started surrounding me and hurling abuses at me. I was shoved and at that point they started assaulting me, my wife who came to save me also was assaulted,” a shaken Waidyalankara said.

Eyewitness earlier confirmed to Daily Mirror that the gang had been heavily intoxicated and were acting in a lewd and obstructing manner
The victim was then admitted to the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital and was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit. Sources said there was severe political pressure on the Hospital to release the victim.

He was later transferred to a leading hospital in Colombo.

Sources meanwhile alleged that Minister Maithripala Sirisena escorted the gang including his son to the Chavakachcheri Hospital where the Judicial Medical Officer had stated issued a certificate to the effect that the group had not been under the Influence of Liquor.

Eyewitnesses to the incident speaking to the Daily Mirror said that the group was under the influence of liquor and this was also confirmed by the resort in which the two groups had been staying at. 

Minister Sirisena’s son, blamed for attacking DIG’s son

* SLFP Gen. Secy. alleges victim provoked incident

February 25, 2013, 10:12 pm 

The police are investigating an alleged attack on Batticaloa DIG Ravi Waidyalankara’s son by a group of youth led by Health Minister and SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena’s son, at the Passekudah beach, late Sunday afternoon. Both groups had been staying at the Malu Malu Resort & Spa, Passekudah late Sunday afternoon.

The victim has alleged that a gang led by Minister Sirisena’s son assaulted him when he objected to his wife being photographed along with scantily clad persons on the beach.

Following a complaint from the victim, police arrested the minister’s son and his friends, recorded their statements and released them on police bail.

Police headquarters said that DIG Waidyalankara’s son had left the Batticaloa General Hospital where he was rushed following the incident.

The DIG told The Island that he moved his son from the Batticaloa hospital ICU to Colombo as some medical tests had to be performed. Responding to a query, the police officer said that Minister Sirisena had met him on Sunday evening.

Waidyalankara said there were lumps on his son’s head as a result of the assault and he was rushing him to Colombo last afternoon.

"My son did not go to clash with a gang," the DIG said asking:

"But which husband would allow his wife’s photographs to be taken in that manner?"

Responding to allegations, Minister Sirisena claimed that the DIG’s son had grabbed his son provoking his friends. According to the minister, the DIG’s son had been aggressive in spite of the boys assuring him that there was no attempt to photograph his wife. The minister alleged that the DIG’s son had got himself admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Batticaloa hospital in a bid to bring charges against his son and his friends.

The minister on Sunday night informed Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa of the incident.

The minister alleged that the police had been unfair and ignored the fact that the DIG’s son had provoked the incident. (SF)

Murderous Tangalle Chairman back in action!

Tuesday, 26 February 2013 

Tangalle Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Sampath Chandrapushpa Vidanapathirana who is on bail after allegedly murdering a British tourism Quram Sheikh and raping his Russian girl friend is back to his old antics, reports from Tangalle state.

Sampath Vidanapathirana had visited the Swasthi Hotel in Tangalle on the 24th with a group of his henchmen in a Defender vehicle without number plates and his lackeys have consumed liquor at the hotel. Sampath and his lackeys have ended up causing damage to properties of the Swasthi Hotel due to an argument that had followed after the group had consumed liquor. Sampath and his goons have stepped out of the hotel after causing much damage to properties and had left in the Defender after firing several shots to the sky.

The Swasthi Hotel is located less than 100 meters away from the President’s house in Tangalle, Carlton. The Presidential Security Division personnel at Carlton had witnessed the incident, but had not intervened since Sampath Vidanapathirana is a close supporter of MP Namal Rajapaksa.

The hotel owners had gone to the Tangalle Police to lodge a complaint about the incident but the police had refused to take down the compliant. They had then gone to the DIG in-charge of the area, McCarthey Perera. The Tangalle Police had then written down the complaint following a directive by the DIG. Sources who gave us the information said that the investigation is being carried out in a slow pace.

Ambassador Asitha Perera’s is involved in human smuggling

Tuesday, 26 February 2013 

The Sri Lankan Ambassador Asitha Perera has accused Sri Lankan authorities of recalling him to Colombo due to his strong objections against human traffickers but we understand that the reality is completely different.

According to our sources in Italy, he is one of the most corrupt among the Sri Lankan envoys abroad.

Although he has tried to paint a picture of a ‘saint’ who strongly objected offers from human smugglers, we understand that he himself is involved in human smuggling.

He is keeping three servants at his residence in Rome without getting them registered at the Italian Foreign Ministry. The objective is to allow them to vanish when Asitha Perera leaves soon. Not only this amounts to human smuggling but it is also a clear violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

By not registering his servants with the Italian authorities, the Ambassador has also violated the rules of the host country which every diplomat is expected to respect.

LanakNewsWeb will be exposing Ambassador Perera’s many more fraudulent activities while serving in Italy as well as in South Korea.

War On Halal-Labelled Products: The Worst Economic Hit Man Now In Town

By W.A. Wijewardena -February 26, 2013 

Dr W.A. Wijewardena

Economic hit men are feared as well as loved

Economic hit men are feared as well as loved. Feared because they hit you without you knowing from where you were hit; loved because they give you so much of excitement that you can talk about them for days without being bored. This was exactly what happened when John Perkins released ‘Confessions of an Economic Hit Man’ in 2004 alleging that the World Bank and US AID, two international agencies that provide development lending and aid to world’s poor countries, have employed economic hit men to destroy the countries which they planned to support.

Critics of Perkins were very quick to point out that he was a person infected by ‘conspiracy theory ailment’ and he had presented a dramatised story without facts or documentary evidence. Yet his book became so popular that it was on the top of the bestseller’s list for many years. Since then, it has become fashionable to label those who are disliked as ‘economic hit men’ because it tells a whole story in just three words. But, Perkins made history by coining a popular term to describe a great danger that is to befall on an economy due to orchestrations or wrong moves of men and not due to natural events. In that sense, there is an economic hit man today in town and that economic hit man is, by any comparison, the worst kind of economic hit men which Sri Lanka could have ever encountered.

The war on Halal is an economic hit man

That hit man is no one but the campaign orchestrated by some in the majority race against the economic interests of minorities, brought to surface for the time being in the form of declared war on Halal certified products, foods which are permitted by Islam for consumption by its followers. Halal is so sacred to Islamiststhat they would not even set their eyes on any food which is not Halal. This is not an odd behaviour because every religion has similar type of faiths deeply rooted to the minds of their followers. In a society with multiple religions, one should learn to respect the religious practices of others, however much they seem to be odd or unacceptable.

Emperor Asoka: Religious tolerance a must

The best advice in this respect has been given by a Buddhist Emperor in ancient India, Emperor Asoka, when he pronounced in Asoka Rock Edicts that people should never denigrate the other sects of religions but inform themselves of their core values. In the same Rock Edict, he went on describing his wisdom further by announcing that “other sects (of religion) should be duly honoured in every way on all occasions. By doing so, he not only promotes his own sect, but also benefits other sects”.

Towards the end of this Rock Edict, he castigated those who make disparaging utterances about other religions while upholding their own. He firmly said that a person who “disparages other sects with a view to glorifying his own sect, injures his own sect very severely”. Emperor Asoka praised those who restrain themselves in their speech and advised that “people should learn and respect the fundamentals of one another’s Dharma” (Rock Edict XII). Hence, the age old Buddhist tradition passed down by Buddhist leaders like Emperor Asoka to posterity has been to practice religious tolerance and live coherently in a multi-faith society.

Cultural police versus the State police: Who is more powerful?

The war on Halal has been declared by two organisations, one called Sinhala Ravaya or the ‘Roar of the Sinhalese’ and the other called Bodu Bala Sena or the ‘Powerful Army Protecting Buddhism’. The two combined together can be christened ‘the Rising Power of the Sinhalese Buddhists’. This rising power of theSinhalese Buddhists has identified Sri Lanka as a Sinhalese Buddhist country and therefore, all other faiths and ethnic groups have to live in the country recognising and respecting this view.

If anyone is found to be violating the dictions, the powerful Buddhist army has vowed to function as a ‘cultural police’ and stop such wrong practices forthwith. This would mean that there would be two police forces, one operated by the State at the expense of the tax payers and the other operated by this powerful Buddhist force. The people in the country will therefore be confused to which police force they should submit themselves and to which government they should pay taxes. Naturally, people will choose not to pay taxes to the government.

An economy is made up of many

How could this war be an economic hit man set upon destroying Sri Lanka’s economy? It could be understood by identifying interrelationship, interconnectivity and interdependence of millions of segments in a vast economy.

An economy is a wonderful creature made up of a large number of people belonging to many different religions, ethnic groups, races, castes or classes. All these people are interconnected and interdependent and organised to fulfil one objective: That is, to provide the maximum wellbeing to everyone. Each person is a cog in a massive cogwheel that turns constantly to produce goods and services needed by people in an economy. Each cog is important and needed for this production process. One cannot give undue importance to one particular cog and downplay the role played by others; they all are equally important and needed for the massive cogwheel to turn smoothly.

Every organ in the human body is important

This process can be equated to the functioning of a human body consisting of many different parts and organs. Nature has seen to it that all those parts and organs are needed for the perfect working of the body. There is no a single organ or a single part that does not provide a useful service to the overall working of the body.

For instance, till recently, many believed that the appendix in the human body does not provide any service and therefore could be excised without any loss to the body’s functions. But the scientists at Duke University in USA have now found that the appendix is a depository of beneficial bacteria that are needed for the proper digestion of foods in the stomach and whenever those bacteria are depleted due to illness or medication, the appendix releases such bacteria from its stocks. Thus, removing or constraining the working of a single organ or a part of a body makes it imperfect and the person owning the body will feel its adverse effects forthwith.

Hand cannot fight with leg without destroying itself

Then, what happens if one part, say the hand, declares war on another part, say the leg, alleging that the leg is trying to take over the body making the hand unimportant? Surely, this war will not be beneficial to the overall functioning of the body because the war will make it impotent and imperfect. Both the hand and the leg are interconnected and interdependent; one cannot function without the other.

If the hand is successful in paralysing the leg, then, the hand too gets paralysed and the body becomes dysfunctional. Fortunately, in such a disastrous conflict, there is a supreme arbiter who will discipline the wrongly moving hand. That arbiter is the brain which does not take sides and functions only with the objective of maintaining the stability and sustenance of the overall body. In other words, the brain views the overall picture and sees beyond the narrow vision of the hand.

Adam Smith: Conflicts to be settled by an impartial spectator

Similarly, in an economy, when one segment declares war on another segment for whatever the reason, the overall economy takes the beat and becomes malfunctioning. The segment that declares the war will look at only from its point of view which according to that segment is perfectly justifiable. It may not see the harm it may inflict on the overall working of the economy and thereby the danger it will bring to itself. To understand, one has to see beyond the narrow view of the segment that has declared the war on the other segment.

Adam Smith, the founding father of modern economics, in his Theory of Moral Sentiments published in 1759, assigned this function to a natural force in a free market economy called “an impartial spectator” whose job is to observe everything objectively from the above and pass judgments, favourable or unfavourable, depending on the case in hand. But it would give rise to a series of causes and effects that would bring about a beneficial or a vicious cycle within the economy depending on the nature of the initial impact. When one segment of the economy declares war on another segment, it will certainly be a vicious cycle that would be generated and the economy will start shrinking due to the removal of the segment which is being fought by the other segment.

Kautilya: A king who promotes conflicts will end losing revenue

Prior to Adam Smith, more than 2,000 years ago, Indian economist and statesman, Kautilya did not want to rely on such a fictitious force to bring stability to an economy because the final outcome of such natural forces would be disastrous to the smooth functioning of a state. Hence, he assigned that job to the king. If there is a calamity arising from conflicts among different segments in a state, Kautilya advised his king in The Arthashastra that “in the interest of the prosperity of the country, a king should be diligent in foreseeing the possibility of calamities, try to avert them before they arise, overcome those which happen, remove all obstructions to economic activity and prevent loss of revenue to the state”.

Kautilya’s advice is equally relevant to a modern economy and accordingly the arbiter of conflicts among different segments in an economy should be the state. If the state shirks its responsibility or fails to foresee the ill effects of the calamity, it will be the ultimate loser because as Kautilya has pointed out, it will lose its revenue sources.

The state should have an overall vision

Hence, the arbiter, in the present case the state, has to take an overall view of an economy in order to avert harmful conflicts that arise among different segments. The brain in a human body and the impartial spectator as pronounced by Adam Smith do so, because in each case, it is hard-wired to gathering information and capable of evaluating the same taking an overall view of the system it deals with.

But the king and the state have to learn it in the hard way by gaining capability of seeing beyond what they see with their naked eyes which give them only a very narrow vision. They have to understand and appreciate the useful roles played by different economic agents and the millions of economic transactions that have taken place in order to produce a given economic outcome. You remove one transaction from the chain and the whole process gets paralysed and you are the loser at the end.

Buddha could see beyond the naked eye

The Buddha has been such a personality who had cultivated the capability of seeing beyond what the naked eyes would present to him. In the Aavaasa Sobana Sutra in the Anguttara Nikaya, he advised the Bhikkus to learn many Dharmas and gain capability of seeing beyond those Dharmas.

In the Dhajagga Sutra in the Samyuttha Nikaya, his advice to Bhikkus who are fled in fear of presumed evil forces present when they practiced meditation in forests was not to seek refuge from God Shakra because the God, not having rid himself of greed, hatred and delusion, was inflicted with fear himself; instead, they should reflect on the Buddha who had rid himself of these defilements. Ridding oneself of these defilements actually means seeing the reality from its overall perspective.

Prince Siddhartha: Producing rice involves millions of people

The Buddha had this capacity even before he attained the Buddha-hood. According to a story relating to Prince Siddhartha, his father, King Suddhodhana, had once asked the Sakya Princes whether they knew how cooked rice comes. One prince had said that when he sits at the table, rice is served to his silver plate with a golden spoon from which rice comes. Another had disputed him saying that rice comes to the golden spoon from a silver bowl. A third had explained that rice comes to the silver bowl from a copper pot in the kitchen. None of the Sakya princes could give a proper answer to the question raised by the king.

It was only Prince Siddhartha who had explained it fully: He had said that people in such and such village bring uncooked rice to the Palace kitchen in carts drawn by bullocks. Those bullocks had been trained by people in another village and carts had been manufactured by people in yet a different village. Then, people in another village had de-husked paddy into rice for those carters to transport to the Palace. Those people had got paddy from farmers from a village further down by preparing fields for its cultivation. The implements which the farmers had used for preparing the fields had been manufactured by blacksmiths in another village. The iron for the blacksmiths had been supplied by miners in another village. Thus, it was not a simple exercise of cooked rice serving with a golden spoon. There were millions of pre-activities that had enabled rice to be served in that manner.

Think of declaring war on blacksmiths and eliminating them because there is a fear that they would take over the farmers. First, the blacksmiths will disappear and then the farmers will disappear because farmers do not have the skills which the blacksmiths have cultivated in manufacturing those implements. Any attempt by farmers to manufacture these implements by themselves will result in less output in the field as well as at the smithy.

Mugabe doctrine: Promote conflicts and destroy yourself

This was shown amply in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. In order to remain in power forever, Mugabe pampered the nation’s nationalistic sentiments and promoted the taking over the farms of white planters by the native black people. But they did not have the skills to run commercial farms and pretty soon they ended in destroying the commercial viability of those farms.

The result was catastrophic: A country which had supplied beef to the UK and Europe prior to that ended as a nation that begs foods from others. The subsequent wrong measures of Mugabe to correct his initial mistake had earned Zimbabwe a historical record: That is, as the nation that had had the highest ever hyperinflation recorded in the recent history. Economists call such leadership “destructive leadership” because such leaders, blinded by narrow objectives, drive their nations to complete destruction.

The silence of those who know is the strangest in a Buddhist land

It is strange that a nation with a majority of Buddhists has not understood properly what the Master has preached. It is stranger when some in that nation commit unwholesome acts in the name of the Buddha for the protection of the esteemed Dharma he has left behind for the posterity to follow for their own good irrespective of whether they are his followers or not. But it is not the strangest thing to observe here in this Buddha’s land. That is the silence of those erudite Buddhists who know of the Master’s Dharma properly and failure to speak up when they see the worst type of economic hit man being armed and released to prowl freely.

*W.A. Wijewardena can be reached at waw1949@gmail.com.