Third refugee hunger striker goes to hospital

Friday, 12 April 2013

Melbourne,Thursday – As a third hunger striker was taken to hospital today, Melbourne refugee activists were set to begin a vigil outside the MITA detention centre in Broadmeadows in support of the ASIO-rejected refugees.

The 27 men protesting against their indefinite detention – 24 Tamils, two Burmese Rohingyas and one Kuwaiti – began drinking water today but have now gone four days without food.

The latest man to be hospitalised was one of six who had still been refusing any liquids earlier today.“ He was in a bad way. He could no longer stand up and had to be taken to hospital,” one of the refugees said.

He said that while the hunger-strikers were in a weak condition, and had decided to take liquids, they were fully committed to continuing their protest.

“We slept out in the rain last night but we moved under some cover to dry out a bit this morning,” he said. “We were wet and cold and we are feeling pretty weak but our spirits are still strong.

“We are determined to keep going until there is a resolution one way or the other. We are asking the Australian government to release us and give us a chance. We came here to live, not to die.”

Two men were taken to the Northern hospital in Epping late yesterday, with dangerously-low blood sugar levels.One, a diabetic, initially refused to receive liquids. He was kept under observation overnight and has since returned to the detention centre protest. The other man accepted treatment and was returned to the detention centre last night, where he has also rejoined the hunger-strike.

The hunger-strikers met with an Immigration Department official last night. They asked him to forward a plea for their release to the Minister for Immigration, Brendan O’Connor. “He told us he will pass it on but had no power to do anything but that,” one refugee said.

A spokesperson for the Refugee Action Collective, Feiyi Zhang, said the vigil outside MITA in Camp Rd, Broadmeadows, beginning at 6.30 p.m. today, was aimed at showing the refugees that they have plenty of support in the Australian community.

“We are calling for the immediate release of all refugees with ‘negative’ ASIO assessments” Feiyi Zhang said. “These are Australia’s political prisoners, they have committed no crime, but face indefinite detention. Most have been in detention over 3 years, some for over 4 years”

The 27 detainees began the hunger strike at 2 a.m. Monday in protest against their indefinite detention because of secret ASIO reports that have deemed them threats to national security. Most have been detained for between two and four years, even though the Australian Government has declared them legitimate refugees and able to live here.

There are about 55 ASIO-rejected refugees around Australia in indefinite detention , which has been declared illegal by the High Court.

The ASIO reports on these refugees have come under scrutiny by human rights advocates and media as details leak out, showing that the ASIO judgements are based on weak, compromised evidence.

A spokesperson for the Australian Tamil Congress, Mr Bala Vigneswaran, has called on the Minister for Immigration and the Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, to act urgently.

"The act of indefinite detention is soul-crushing. It squeezes out any hope of a normal life and leads to severe mental health issues. It is utterly inhumane and many of these men, women and children who have already experienced trauma in their home countries do not deserve to be mentally tortured even further," said Vigneswaran.

"It is time to question one's conscience and make policies that are humane. We call on the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship and the Attorney General to act as matter of urgency to bring an amicable solution immediately for those on the hunger-strike and a just solution for all in indefinite detention. The ATC will be ready to provide any assistance to the Department and the genuine refugees so as to avoid any further deterioration in the physical and mental well-being of these people," he added.

A Tamil Refugee Council spokesperson, Trevor Grant, said the Immigration Minister Brendan O’Connor should not allow his Government’s fear of being labelled soft on terrorism in an election year to destroy the mental and physical health of these people .

“He should use his power to release all refugees indefinitely detained because of so-called negative ASIO reports, not succumb to the racist, anti-refugee dog-whistlers in the parliament and the electorate ” he said.

For further information contact Trevor Grant 0400 597 351

Australia's Guantanamo isn't offshore: it's in Melbourne

APRIL 12, 2013

JEFF SPARROW

While America’s indefinite detention policy is kept at arm’s reach from its citizens, the men, women and children that Australia keeps in legal limbo can be found in the perfectly ordinary suburb of Broadmeadows in Melbourne, writes Jeff Sparrow.

Indefinite detention is the worst form of torture. I am an innocent man. […] But if anyone believes that I have done anything wrong, I beg them to charge me with a crime, try me, and sentence me. If not, release me. Even a death sentence is better than this. Instead of a swift execution, we are being subjected to a cruel, slow, and cold-blooded death.

That’s a man called Musa’ab al-Madhwani. It’s a message smuggled from Guantanamo Bay, where detainees have embarked on a mass hunger strike.

Yet so deep has Australia descended into a moral abyss over refugees that the passage might equally have come from Melbourne and the eerily parallel struggle currently taking place there.

If the … government does not release us, we ask that they kill us mercifully … [we] can’t keep living like this. We are not in detention. We are in a cemetery.

The Fairfax papers yesterday reproduced that snippet from a document written by 27-hunger-striking detainees at the Broadmeadows detention centre.

The similarities are chilling - shamefully so.

There are 166 detainees still in indefinite detention at Gitmo, with no legal remedies available to them. In the public mind, Guantanamo looms as a prison designed for “the worst of the worst”, so that anyone detained in it seems tainted by association. Yet many of the men remaining were simply low-level Taliban soldiers, often sold to the Americans for bounties.

A US government taskforce has already assessed nearly half of them for immediate release. Yes, that’s right. The government has cleared them to leave. But they remain locked in cages because there’s nowhere to send them - the US won’t, for instance, send Yemeni prisoners home, apparently because they might subsequently be influenced by people hostile to America.

By refusing to eat, the detainees have embarked on the only form of protest available to those with nothing whatsoever to lose.

It’s the same in Melbourne.

All 27 of the strikers in detention at Broadmeadows have been assessed as genuine refugees. That means that the Immigration Department acknowledges that they faced persecution in Sri Lanka. But they can’t be allowed into the community because they have received adverse assessments from ASIO.

What do these assessments say? The refugees don’t know. They are not permitted to see the accusations against them, nor can they appeal. Though they have been charged with no crime, they now face detention without end.

As Stephen Blanks, a lawyer for one of the protesters, told Fairfax:

It is absolutely unarguable that keeping these people in detention on national security grounds is one of the greatest injustices Australia has inflicted on individuals.

An ‘adverse assessment’ from ASIO sounds frightening. But what does it mean? Andrew Zammit quotes ASIO director-general David Irvine:

ASIO has, over the years, developed very careful processes that enable us to eventually make a predictive judgement as to whether this person might be a potential security risk to Australia, and the security here being defined in terms of section 4 of the ASIO Act. Someone who might be coming to Australia to conduct espionage, someone who might be coming to Australia to conduct an act of sabotage, someone who might be coming to Australia to conduct an act of terrorism, and so on. [Emphasis added.]

Think about that. These men (whom we know, remember, to be genuine refugees) must remain in custody forever, without trial or appeal, not on the basis of anything they have actually done, but on ASIO’s prediction of what they might do in the future!

Most of us would scream blue murder if council allowed its parking inspectors to write tickets on the basis of ‘predictive judgements’. Yet that’s the basis on which we’re confining refugees for years.

Furthermore, the notion that ASIO - of all people - should be blindly trusted in such matters will seem utterly extraordinary to anyone with the slightest knowledge of that organisation’s dire history. Under the 30-year rule, you can read in the some of its earlier documents now in the national archives. Here is its ‘predictive assessment’ of the Vietnam moratorium and its leader, Jim Cairns:

Cairns’ activities could lead, via civil, industrial and political unrest to the growth of elitism in every sphere, to the manipulation of people by demagogues, to the fascist cult of the personality, to the worship of force, and to the destruction of the democratic parliamentary system of government and its replacement by a form of collectivism … That way lies anarchy and, in due course, left-wing fascism.

That might seem a document from another age, a bizarre screed by some anonymous right-wing zealot. Yet security forces operating with great power and little accountability are notoriously susceptible to going off the rails.

Remember, in 2007, Justice Adams found that, in the case of Sydney medical student Izhar Ul Haque, two ASIO operatives had “committed the criminal offences of false imprisonment and kidnapping at common law”, and engaged in conduct that was “grossly improper” and that they knew was “unlawful”.

Read the reports of how those particular ASIO agents behaved (“a gross breach of powers”) and ask yourself how you would feel about people like that assessing whether you might commit a crime some time in the future!

But it gets worse. The hunger strikers are overwhelmingly Tamil. Last month, the UNcondemned, for the second time in two years, ongoing human rights violations in Sri Lanka (despite efforts of the Australian government to water down the resolution). Human Rights Watch comments:

Since the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution at its March 2012 session calling for action, the Sri Lankan government has taken no significant steps to provide justice for victims of abuse and accountability for those responsible for war crimes and violations of human rights in the country. Instead, over the last year, the Sri Lankan government has continued its assault on civil society, human rights defenders and media.

And where do you suppose that ASIO obtains the information for its “predictive judgements”? Almost certainly, much of this “intelligence” comes from the Sri Lankan state: that is, the very people most implicated in the dirty war against Tamils.

This is the point that Hannah Arendt made about the refugees of the 1930s: the treatment they received was largely determined by their oppressors. “Those whom the persecutor had singled out as scum of the earth […] actually were received as scum of the earth everywhere,” she wrote. The Tamils brutalised and deprived of their rights in Sri Lanka receive more of the same when they get to Australia, almost as if the Sri Lankan regime has outsourced its cruelty to an independent contractor.

Such is the Guantanamisation of refugee policy.

There is, however, one point at which the comparison breaks down. Citizens in the US at least have the excuse that Gitmo is located in Cuba, a long way from the everyday lives of mainstream Americans.

Here, by contrast, the men, women and children that we keep indefinitely detained can be found in the perfectly ordinary suburb of Broadmeadows.

In other words, when future generations ask us how we allowed our government to do this, we will not be able to say that we did not know.

Jeff Sparrow is editor of Overland literary journal. View his full profile here.

ROW

NZ Intelligence alleged of monitoring former Green MP for involvement in Tamil question

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 April 2013, 16:50 GMT]
Mr. Keith Locke, MP, Green Party, New Zealand meeting LTTE Political Head Mr S. P. Thamilchelvan in 2003 at Ki'linochchi [TamilNet File photo]
New Zealand's Security Intelligence Service (SIS), which is part of the so-called Five Eyes intelligence network, comprising the intelligence agencies of Australia, Canada, Britain and the USA, was alleged of monitoring former Green party politician Keith Locke, who has been sympathetic to the Tamil cause. Mr Locke believes the SIS began covert operations on him in 2003, when he travelled to Sri Lanka, reports The Dominion Post. The former Green Party politician has demanded apology for illegal spying and that all 88 New Zealanders who were being spied on should be notified if the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) has illegally snooped on them. 

In 2003, following the ceasefire agreement between the LTTE and the GoSL, Mr Keith Locke, travelled to the country of Eezham Tamils and met the political leadership of the LTTE. 

Blaming the international community for its failure, Mr Keith Locke, in June 2009 said the following at the New Zealand parliament: 

Mr Keith Locke

“While I was in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam capital of Kilinochi, a Tamil proposal for an interim self-governing authority was presented to the Norwegian peace negotiators and was covered by the international media, but substantive discussions on an autonomy solution never eventuated.

“There was probably blame on both sides for that, but most damaging was the failure of the international community to keep the pressure on the Sri Lankan Government to go down the negotiating track and to not resort to war again. To do this, the international community should have consciously taken the conflict out of the context of the Government on one side and the terrorists on the other.” 

“During the 2002-2005 ceasefire, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was made a legal organisation by the Government of Sri Lanka and could freely operate anywhere in that country, yet the US, British, and Australian Governments kept their designations of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as a terrorist organisation and the European Union added the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to its terrorist list. Of course, it is true that the Tamil Tigers have engaged in terrorist actions in the past, including political assassinations, and so has the Sri Lankan Government on an even larger scale according to the statistics of civilian deaths in the reports of human rights monitors like Amnesty International.”
* * *
The GCSB operates wiretaps, intercepts email traffic and monitors other interactions such as internet message boards, another report by The Dominion Post said. 

Security analyst and former US spy Paul Buchanan told the paper that the information of any significance would be passed to the other partners in the Five Eyes intelligence network. 

Waihopai Spy Base

New Zealand houses a spy base, named Waihopai Spy Base, which is said to be part of a US-led worldwide network of spy stations, known as Echelon. 

The government had promised the New Zealanders in 1989 during the launch of the Waihopai Spy Base that this secretive station would not be used to spy on New Zealanders. 

The Echelon spy system is said to be capable of capturing and analysing ‘virtually every phone call, fax, email and telex message sent anywhere in the world’, according to Patrick S. Poole, a lecturer in government and economics at Bannockburn College in Franklin, Tennessee, USA, who previously served as deputy director of the Center for Technology Policy in Washington, DC. 

It remains to be seen whether this network was deployed by an intelligence network of the International Community of Establishments (ICE) in crushing the armed struggle of the Eezham Tamils.

India trashes Sri Lankan official's remark on terrorism

Union Minister V Narayanasamy said New Delhi did not support any kind of terrorist activities in Sri Lanka. (PTI/File)

12th April 2013 

India on Friday disapproved of a top Sri Lankan official's reported remark about it regarding terrorism in that country, saying the armed conflict there was a result of Colombo denying rights to Tamils there.

Responding to Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa's reported remark that India could never absolve itself of the responsibility for creating terrorism in his country, Union Minister V Narayanasamy said the statement was not acceptable.

"As far as India is concerned (late Prime Ministers) Indira and Rajiv Gandhi supported Tamils. We even lost Rajiv Gandhi (in an assassination by LTTE). He sent Indian Peace Keeping Force to help Tamils. Rajapaksa's statement is unacceptable. Sri Lanka is responsible for terrorism as Tamils took to terrorism because their rights were denied," he told reporters at the airport here.

New Delhi did not support any kind of terrorist activities, he said.

India has a duty to protect Tamils wherever they are and it had pressed for independent and credible investigation into alleged war crimes by Sri Lankan army at the UNHRC, he said.

"Unfortunately, state political parties are concealing that. The truth will come out ultimately," the Minister of State in the PMO added.

He also denied the Centre was not acting on attacks on fishermen from Tamil Nadu by Sri Lankan Navy.

Indian consular officials were immediately asked to work for the release of fishermen arrested by that Navy, he said, adding that talks between fishermen of the two countries could ensure a lasting solution to the matter.

The minister also called for more patrolling of Indian Coast Guard and Naval ships in the area to prevent attacks on local fishermen.

Sri Lanka holds India responsible for protracted war with LTTE

Apr 10, Colombo: Sri Lanka Wednesday held the Indian government responsible for the island's protracted war with the Tamil Tiger terrorist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) .
Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, responding to a statement by a former Indian diplomat, said had the then Indian government acted with responsibility Sri Lanka wouldn't have experienced a 30-year war.
In the early stages of LTTE's armed struggle then India's government led by Indira Gandhi funded the terrorist outfit and trained its militants.
Defence Secretary said India could never absolve itself of the responsibility for creating terrorism in the island and some of those subverting Sri Lanka and blaming the Rajapaksa administration for the plight of Tamil speaking people were directly involved in protracting the conflict.
He was responding to former Indian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Hardeep Singh Puri's call for an investigation into specific allegations of war crimes during the last 100 days of military operations in Sri Lanka.
Speaking to The Island newspaper, Rajapaksa said the international community should consider a comprehensive investigation into the issue beginning with the Indian intervention and Puri could help the investigation by revealing India's involvement at that time.
Rajapaksa said Puri had been directly involved in the Indian operation against the then Jayawardena government in the run-up to the July 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord which instituted the 13th Amendment to the Constitution to devolve power.
He said Puri should realize that India's intervention in Sri Lanka had caused a major regional crisis when "Indian-trained Sri Lankan terrorists" raided the Maldives in November 1988.
Following a bloody military campaign Sri Lanka comprehensively defeated the Tamil Tiger terrorists in May 2009.

Fonseka Does Not Have Civic Rights And Cannot Throw Challenge To Anybody – UNP

By Colombo Telegraph --October 26, 2012

“Who says the UNP leadership is threatened by Sarath Fonseka? This is what the Government likes people to believe. General Sarath Fonseka still does not have his civic rights. There is no threat to anybody from him. He cannot pose a challenge to anybody on that account” says UNP Parliamentarian Kabir Hashim

Kabir Hashim

The Parliamentarian made above remarks when asked ”has the UNP leadership seen an emerging threat in Sarath Fonseka?” by Daily FT.

In an an interview with Daily FT journalist Chamitha Kuruppu,  Kabir Hashim said “it is not a technical matter. To be the Leader of the UNP, one has to contest, be in Parliament, and many other things. However, right now there is a very good understanding between General Sarath Fonseka’s party and the UNP. There are many common issues that we believe in. There are discussions going on. I think General Sarath Fonseka himself says that the UNP and a wider section of parties coming together will be for the good of the country. We are aware of the mischief makers who are trying to create a rift among our parties. Most of us don’t want to let that happen; we want to make sure there is a common alliance of likeminded people and likeminded forces.”

The Govt Claim That The International Community Is Against Them For Eliminating LTTE Is Not True – Fonseka

By Colombo Telegraph -April 12, 2013 

“ It is not correct. When we were fighting the war we met them ambassadors – the US Ambassador, the Indian High Commissioner, they came to my office almost every week or every other week and discuss with us. They were also following what was going on. They didn’t have anything against the war. India openly said that it had never tolerated the LTTE. It had no objection in eliminating the LTTE. Other countries had banned the LTTE. Unfortunately the Indian High Commissioner did not handle the situation properly. Even our people were having other relationships with them; giving priority for good times in the evening without discussing the national issue.” says Sarath Fonseka.

Sarath Fonseka | Photo REUTERS/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds

Fonseka made above remarks when asked; “the Government claims that the international community is against them for eliminating terrorism in the country. Is that true?” by Daily FT.

Responding to the question; “A common cry of the Government is that the sections of LTTE with the support of the international community are trying to topple the Government. If you eliminated the LTTE, how can there be remaining sections? Or have you not gotten rid of the LTTE completely?” by Daily FT journalist Chamitha Kuruppu he said; “We basically eliminated the LTTE locally. There were sympathisers outside the country. Such sympathisers could approach certain elements. Then there are other issues such as after the war, certain areas were not looked after properly. People were victimised and not taken care of by this Government. A couple of days ago some politicians in Kilinochchi were attacked. What is the Head of State doing? He has failed in his duties. In such a situation, any section can take the upper hand and they will try to push through. When the situation in the country is volatile, these elements try to take advantage of it.”

“Look at the attacks on the Muslim shops. What is this Government doing? Now they say that they have come to an agreement and the matter is settled. It is not that the matter is settled, whoever who were behind these need to be punished. How can someone does so much damage and say they have come to a settlement? People can’t take the law into their hands.”

“Some organisation has said that they have stopped the activities because the Defence Secretary had interfered. That means when they do these activities, the Defence Secretary advised them equally. When someone is appearing on behalf of Sinhalese or Buddhists sincerely, how can you stop what you are doing just because the Defence Secretary asked you to do so? We can clearly see that this tyrannical rule is everywhere. The only problem is that people are scared to talk about these things. But I very well know everyone will agree with what I say.”

He also said; “I am also challenging the President. He is scared to face me face-to-face in the political field; that is why he has done this. I challenge him; if he has even half an inch of backbone, he should be able to give me my civic rights and fight me in the political field face-to-face. We will apply pressure and see – the whole world will be behind us. We will save the country from those who are messing it up. We will overcome these obstacles.”

Related posts;

Bribery Chief presiding over private arbitration put in issue in High Court!

 April 11, 2013  
Legal circles already in great turmoil over the impeachment of the Chief Justice are expressing the stern view that the Bribery Chief should also be removed for inappropriate unbecoming conduct as the holder of the highest office as Bribery Commissioner, whose conduct should be above board leaving no room for any perception of suspicion, akin to Caesar’s wife.

This has been upon the disclosures made in a Petition filed in Case No. HC (Civil) WP 64/2013/ARB on 5 April 2013 in the High Court of Western Province by Delmege Forsyth & Co. Ltd. The Chairman of the Bribery Commission D.J. de Silva Balapatabendi had been disclosed to have presided over a private arbitral tribunal and made an Award on 20 February 2013, whist he was at the same time the Chairman of the Bribery Commission.
In an Application to set aside an arbitral award of Rs. 145.5 m, made against it in favour of YCC Exporters Ltd., describing such award as phenomenal and of conjecture, Delmege Forsyth & Co. Ltd. had filed a Petition in the above case through Deepani Wijesekera, Attorney-at-Law. The Petition has stated that such award was against the public policy of Sri Lanka, in terms of the Arbitration Act No. 11 of 1995 and that it warranted such award to be set aside.

Some of the relevant extracts of the Petition are set out below:
“It was highly scandalous and of serious odium for the Chairman of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, exercising executive and quasi-judicial power to investigate and prosecute offences of bribery and corruption, to have involved himself to have chaired private disputes settlements, leaving himself exposed to be compromised by private parties, who make payment for his such services, as Chairman of a private Arbitral Tribunal.
“The ‘public perception,’ which is vitally important of the independence of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, in the foregoing circumstances is susceptible to be seriously put in jeopardy. The foregoing was in serious conflict with the Public Policy of Sri Lanka, warranting the prompt setting aside, as ipso facto ab-initio null and void, the purported Arbitral Awards made on 20th February 2013 by the improperly constituted and functus Arbitral Tribunal. In terms of Section 18 of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption Act No. 19 of 1994, the said Chairman of the Commission, D.J. de Silva Balapatabendi was deemed to be a ‘public servant’, within the meaning of the Penal Code, which at Section 19 thereof defined a ‘public servant’.
“The aforesaid Arbitral Tribunal as had been notified by Letter dated 4 August 2010 had commenced Arbitration Proceedings, with the Statement of Claim dated 31 August 2010 having been tendered, and had proceeded to sit on or about 11 days up to 30 March 2011, at which point of time the Inquiry had commenced with proceedings having been had on two days. Thereafter, the aforesaid improperly constituted and functus Arbitral Tribunal had regardlessly proceeded to continue to conduct the said Arbitration Proceedings, with the Inquiry being continued on 20 May 2011, after the Chairman of the Arbitral Tribunal, D.J. de Silva Balapatabendi had assumed Office on or about 13 May 2011, as a Member and the Chairman of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, as aforesaid.
“Thus, the improperly constituted and functus Arbitral Tribunal had sat on or about 18 days thereafter conducting the said Inquiry, recording evidence, receiving Written Submissions, hearing Oral Submissions, and consequently had made Awards on 20 February 2013, whilst the Chairman of the Arbitral Tribunal, D.J. de Silva Balapatabendi, was at the very same time, also the Chairman of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption.
“The Petitioner is advised that in the foregoing circumstances, the said Chairman of the Arbitral Tribunal, D.J. de Silva Balapatabendi having assumed Office, as the Chairman and Commission Member of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, became a ‘public servant’, as aforesaid, exercising executive and quasi-judicial power, and was thus and thereby ipso facto disqualified from functioning, as Chairman of a private Arbitral Tribunal, involving commercial disputes between private parties, and receiving payments therefor from the private parties.
“The Petitioner ill-advisedly continuing to be a party in such Arbitration Proceedings, did not however or in any manner, whatsoever or howsoever, cure the aforesaid impropriety and the fact that the Arbitral Tribunal ipso facto became functus from around 13 May 2011 as aforesaid. It was the duty and obligation cast upon the said Chairman of the Arbitral Tribunal, D.J. de Silva Balapatabendi, a retired Supreme Court Judge, to have withdrawn from such Arbitral Tribunal immediately upon assuming Office, as Chairman and Commission Member of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption.
“Sri Lanka had ratified the UN Convention Against Corruption on 31 March 2004, which encompassed both the public and private sectors, whereby Sri Lanka stands obliged to duly observe, perform and fulfil the duties and obligations on its part under the UN Convention Against Corruption; more so it is imperative on the part of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption to respect and conform to the duties and obligations under the UN Convention Against Corruption.”
The arbitral award had been made on 20 February 2013 by Chairman of the Bribery Commission, D.J. de Silva Balapatabendi, as Chairman of the private arbitral tribunal, with another Arbitrator, former High Court Judge Dudley Karunaratne agreeing, as stated in the Petition had not taken into account interest payable of 19% p.a. on Loans of Rs. 24 m, advanced by Delmege Forsyth & Co. Ltd., to YCC Exporters Ltd. One Arbitrator, Kushan D’Alwis, P.C., had dissented with the above award made by Chairman of the Bribery Commission, D.J. de Silva Balapatabendi and had taken into reckoning the fact that 19% p.a. interest was payable on these Loans.
The Petition states that the controlling Shareholdings and management control of Delmege Forsyth & Co. Ltd. had been taken over from the former owners, who had entered into this Agreement on May 28, 2007 and had terminated the Agreement on 30 June 2010. Petition further states that Clause 2(4) of the Agreement had provide for the payment of US$ 2 m, which had been in contravention of the Exchange Control Act, thereby rendering the said Agreement to be an illegal contract, which was in conflict with Public Policy.
The Petition also states that no originals of the awards signed by the arbitral tribunal had been given to the Petitioner in contravention of Section 25(4) of Arbitration Act No. 11 of 1995, which stipulates that a copy of the award signed by the Arbitrators shall be delivered to each party. Instead, the Petition states that the Proceedings of 20th February 2013 has stated thus -“The Registrar of the Arbitration Centre is directed to send certified copies of the Award and the Dissenting Order to the parties concerned by the registered post,” and that therefore that the statutory validity of the Award was in issue and that the foregoing being contrary to the laws of Sri Lanka are further in conflict with the Public Policy of Sri Lanka.
Hulftsdorp sources reliably informed the Financial Times that Delmege Forsyth & Co. Ltd. had engaged the services of Consultants 21 Ltd., of the well-known public interest litigator and anti-corruption activist, Nihal Sri Ameresekere, and that they had recommended retaining the services of M.A. Sumanthiran and Viran Corea, Attorneys-at-Law, as Counsel.
It is of coincidence that these are the very same three persons who demolished the infamous privatisation of Sri Lanka Insurance and Lanka Marine Services in the Supreme Court as fraudulent and corrupt. Such fraudulent and corrupt privatisations had been referred by the Parliament of Sri Lanka to the Bribery Commission to investigate and prosecute.
The Bribery Commission however, apparently had not taken any action to-date thereon, whereas the inquires against the former Chief Justice and her husband are on fast track. It is also of significance that Nihal Sri Ameresekere was one of the key persons who supported the impeachment of the former Chief Justice.

Sri Lankan artists hold pooja against Indian protests

11 April 2013

In an apparent response to protests by the Tamil Nadu film industry against the genocide of Eelam Tamils, dozens of Sri Lankan held a 'Adhisthana Pooja' in Colombo on Thursday.

The Buddhist pooja was held in response to the Tamil Nadu artists protesting, reported theDaily Mirror. Held outside 'Independence Square' in Colombo, hundreds gathered to hold the pooja, with Sri Lankan flags flying.

'No Fire Zone - The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka   W.C

An 'Adhisthana Pooja' was also held in March of this year with the participation of Defence Secreary Gotabaya Rajapaksa against a resolution that was passed at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

See report from Sri Lanka's Daily Financial Times, entitled "Seeking Divine intervention" here. 

Also see our earlier posts:

Kollywood stars gather in solidarity (02 April 2013)

Buddhist monks fight for Kollywood films to be banned (08 April 2013)

South Indian film industry joins protests (20 March 2013)

Tamil Nadu film industry to protest against genocide (18 March 2013)

‘Adhisthana Pooja’ by artists

Sri Lankan artists today held an ‘Adhisthana Pooja’ outside Independence square against the protest held in Tami Nadu by the Indian artists urging them to come to Sri Lanka and witness the real situation here. Pix by Kushan Pathiraja-THURSDAY, 11 APRIL 2013

In Remembrance Of Lakshman Kadirgamar

2 Responses to In Remembrance Of Lakshman Kadirgamar

1.When one is well-off enough not to be affected by discriminatory governments, we cannot say if that person is really nationalistic or not. What about the poor among the discriminated?

2.Gosh, nothing about the rulers and the voters who determine the hell the ‘other’ are forced to live in.

If the Rajapakses know the virtues of good governance, no UN reports/resolutions, no Channel4 videos, no Diaspora, ……

By the way, is Kadirgamar’s case over? where is the report?

LTTE were given arms to fight the IPKF
LTTE were given money to stop Tamils voting in 2004 Presidential Elections.
LTTE were given money to kill Kadirgamar.

3.Dear Mr Jayatilaka, pl get the reports released:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/85007346/A-List-of-Commissions-of-Inquiry-and-Committees-Appointed-by-the-Government-of-Sri-Lanka-2006-%E2%80%93-2012

These will churn the society and help us move forward.

One thing I completely agree with you is , if Kadirgamar was alive , he would have done much better to cover up the regime in the issues like channel 4 videos and UN panel report.Your statement clearly answers the following
1) Who you are?
2) Who Kadirgamar was?
3) Why he was killed?

Newton - April 12, 2013
9:44 am
Reply

eureka - April 12, 2013
9:53 am
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By Tissa Jayatilaka -

Lakshman Kadirgamar

Tissa Jayatilaka

Given the shrillness  of the nature of  public debate in recent times, especially postwar, most Sri Lankans I know have avoided getting involved in them.  The latter   have resorted to ‘quiet discussion’ with fellow citizens who are not uncomfortable with points of view that are not in harmony with their own and who indeed are looking for  such carefully articulated alternatives. The late Lakshman Kadirgamar was one such Sri Lankan with whom I could trade ideas and opinions with utmost ease even when they did not necessarily mesh with his own. He had the emotional  intelligence and the humility of the truly educated human being to be open to such give and take at all times.  In an exchange similar to the ones I used to have with the late foreign minister that I now have with a few very close friends, we happened to discuss, among other issues, what Lakshman Kadirgamar would have done to extricate Sri Lankafrom the unfortunate predicament it is in had he yet been with us today.  I thought it might be useful to reflect and expand on this particular theme as a tribute to the man whose seventh death anniversary falls on Friday the 12^th of August.

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