Surveillance video shows bombing suspect putting bag down, walking away: Mass. gov

• From ASSOCIATED PRESS
• Last Updated: 4:29 PM, April 21, 2013
• Posted: 9:44 AM, April 21, 2013

The infrared camera on a Massachusetts state police helicopter sees cowering bomb suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev clear as day, as the terror suspect hides beneath a boat cover before his arrest Friday.

Patrick said he hadn't viewed the videotape but had been briefed by law enforcement officials about it.

Investigators have determined the bombs were fashioned from pressure cookers packed with explosives, nails and ball bearings and hidden in black backpacks. Three people were killed and more than 180 injured when the two bombs exploded Monday about four hours into the race.

Tsarnaev was captured Friday after being pulled bloody and wounded from a tarp-covered boat in a suburban Boston backyard. He is being guarded by armed officers while he recovers at a Boston hospital. He is in serious condition and hasn't been able to communicate with investigators.

His 26-year-old brother and alleged accomplice, Tamerlan, died earlier Friday after a gunbattle with police.

The brothers are also suspected of killing an MIT police officer Thursday and severely injuring a transit officer.

Patrick said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation" that law enforcement officials believe the immediate threat ended when police killed Tamerlan Tsarnaev and captured Dzhokhar.

The governor said he has no idea why someone would deliberately harm "innocent men, women and children in the way that these two fellows did."

On Saturday, Patrick appeared on the field at Fenway Park with dozens of local and state police before the Boston Red Sox's first home game since the bombings.

Meanwhile, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino told ABC's "This Week" that he hopes authorities "throw the book" at Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

"I hope that the U.S. attorney takes him on the federal side and throws the book at him," Menino said. " These two individuals held this city hostage for five whole days.

"They should not do that -- that's what these terrorist events want to do, hold the city hostage and stop the economy of the city."

Menino also said information he has indicates that the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing acted alone.

Menino tells "This Week" that he agreed with the decision to lock down Boston all day Friday, based on information officials had at the time.

He tells "This Week" that a pipe bomb was found at another location and that another person was taken into custody. The mayor did not elaborate.

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Meanwhile, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino told ABC's "This Week" that he hopes authorities "throw the book" at Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

"I hope that the U.S. attorney takes him on the federal side and throws the book at him," Menino said. " These two individuals held this city hostage for five whole days.

"They should not do that -- that's what these terrorist events want to do, hold the city hostage and stop the economy of the city."

Menino also said information he has indicates that the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing acted alone.

Menino tells "This Week" that he agreed with the decision to lock down Boston all day Friday, based on information officials had at the time.

He tells "This Week" that a pipe bomb was found at another location and that another person was taken into custody. The mayor did not elaborate.

AP

Caught: ATF and FBI agents check suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for explosives and also give him medical attention after he was apprehended in Watertown, Mass., at the end of a massive manhunt.

WASHINGTON — Surveillance video from the Boston Marathon attack shows one suspect dropping his backpack and calmly walking away from it before the bomb inside exploded, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said Sunday.

The video clearly puts 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at the scene of the attack, Patrick said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"It does seem to be pretty clear that this suspect took the backpack off, put it down, did not react when the first explosion went off and then moved away from the backpack in time for the second explosion," Patrick said. "It's pretty clear about his involvement and pretty chilling, frankly."

Sri Lanka's democratic deficit: We are a hybrid State

Sometimes, the government's spin doctors tend to forget simple geography - such as those basic Grade 5 Geography lessons that South Asia is part of the Asian Continent, but not the continent itself. Last week, they churned out a report that said Sri Lanka had been ranked 3rd in Asia in the Democracy Index, annually prepared by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Our less discerning scribes gullibly parroted the government report which saw it being reproduced by a majority of print and electronic media. The government's Information Department website, news.lk published the following story on 18 April. Democracy Index ranks Sri Lanka 3rd in Asia "Under the Democracy Index for 2012, compiled by the UK-based Economist Intelligence Unit, Sri Lanka has been ranked third among Asian countries. India and Bangladesh have been ranked in the first and second places." "Accordingly, India has received 7.52 points, Bangladesh 5.86 points and Sri Lanka 5.75 points." "The compilation of the Democracy Index has been based on five categories which are electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation and political culture." Granted that the world's democracies do not revolve around the EIU, but, rather bewildered that an iron curtain had suddenly come down on the rest of the Asia overnight, this writer downloaded EIU's democracy index for 2012. The democracy index of the EIU reveals a story which is the polar opposite of the story that appeared in the Information Department's website. Sri Lanka is not ranked third in Asia. The continent has some of the practicing democracies such as South Korea, which itself was a dictatorship until 1980, and emerging democracies such as Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, and so forth. Sri Lanka is ranked third in South Asia, (not in Asia), behind the World's largest democracy, India (38) and Bangladesh (84), the latter, pretty much a basket case in most spheres including politics in which two dynastic women are at each other's throats, and regularly bring the nation to a standstill in their protest campaigns. Overall, Sri Lanka is ranked 89 and is termed a hybrid state. A hybrid state has attributes of nominal electoral democracy, such as elections and multiparty political system, but such States also manifest a heavy reliance on authoritarian political structures, a heavy concentration of powers at the hands of the ruler and the absence of independent institutes. Sri Lanka is a classic example of how the nominal electoral democracy and associated norms and practices of liberal democracy have seriously been eroded by the authoritarianism that emanates from the Executive Presidency. Nothing to crow about As far as the Sri Lankan Government is concerned, there is nothing to crow about the country's rankings. The 2011 index ranked Sri Lanka among flawed democracies – the term that is used to describe countries which are electoral democracies in theory, but suffer from serious flaws and deformities in practice. EIU's Democracy Index measures democracy under five main indicators: Electoral process and pluralism; functioning of government; political participation; political culture; and civil liberties. In 2012, we have regressed to be a hybrid state. Our downward spiral in terms of democracy and civil liberties is reflected in our rankings. The Freedom House also terms Sri Lanka as 'partly free.' For instance, in the Democracy Index of 2007, we were ranked 57, ahead of Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, among other countries. Since then, our democratic credentials had reversed, and we have been overtaken by all those aforementioned countries. Also, during the subsequent years, we have regressed from a flawed democracy to a hybrid state. But what do those indices mean to us? The obvious answer is that those indices provide insights into our democratic credentials or lack of it, so that the better enlightened public could make their decisions. As for our case, a series of indices have only confirmed what we have experienced during the past several years. Our democratic credentials have eroded and we have regressed towards an authoritarian state. Democracy is not a dichotomous concept – whether a country is democratic or not. And holding regular elections do not necessarily mean a country would be a democracy, in practice. Democracy is a concept that relates to varying degrees of democracy or freedoms in various spheres of public and political life. In theory, regular multiparty elections would make a country a nominal electoral democracy. However, if the political will of the people, expressed in the elections is not respected or reflected in Parliament or by the office of the Executive, such a process would, more or less, become a sham, as manifested in the large-scale crossovers in our Parliament. In fact, such crossovers were made possible by generous financial incentives – which, in other words, are called bribes – and could have been held liable for prosecution, anywhere in civilized, fully-pledged democracies. Democracy is not about an all powerful President who wields enormous power in politics. If that is the case, Mubarak and Suharto could have been democrats. Democracy is not about the concentration power at the hands of one man at the cost of the independent institutions. (That is called an absolute monarchy) Tenet of democracy A fundamental tenet of democracy or of its evolved form, liberal democracy is the separation of power, which functions as a bulwark against the concentration of state powers by an individual. The separation of power doctrine has greatly eroded in Sri Lanka, after the incumbent President made the legislature, a rubber stamp and subjugated the independent Judiciary. Democracy is about civil liberties. The extent of the erosion of our civil liberties manifest in regular extra judicial killings, abductions, attacks on media, custodial death and torture. Democracy is about the rule of law. The prevailing culture of impunity in the country makes a mockery of this concept. The manifest apathy on the part of the government to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of past atrocities tells us that for this government, such concepts are only of academic interest, which is periodically rekindled by the UNHRC sessions. Democracy is about the functioning of the government and how the will of the public is reflected and implemented, and whether its civil servants wield a healthy amount of independence to carry out that mandate. Ours is a government increasingly politicized, though one would also add that its competency has also increased in recent times. Democracy is about the political and social culture; the political participation and degree of social tolerance and fair play, both in politics and other spheres of public life. Our elections and their aftermath are marred by violence. Our politics is acrimonious and the majority of the political actors lack the standards of sophistication and integrity. Democracy is about the majority rule, but it is not the tyranny of the majority. It sets in place guarantees for ethnic, religious, sexual and cultural minorities, and so forth. It encourages political and social participation. Our politicians have decided such niceties are not worth our time and energy. Democracy is about the respect for fundamental human rights, whereas Sri Lanka is one of the worst perpetrators of extra judicial killings, abductions, custodial death, torture and other myriad of grave human rights violations. All above confirm our grim reality. But, who cares, the government would say. However, there is one last utility in those indices. It helps indentify the emerging pariahs and tin pot dictators. It can also help the Sri Lankans to make their own assessments on their own leaders.

2013-04-22

Editorial : Govt. hitting world headlines for wrong reasons

FRIDAY, 19 APRIL 2013 

During the National New Year when the Sinhala and Tamil communities came together for festivities of deep unity in diversity it was sad to hear of yet another attack on the Jaffna-based Tamil newspaper ‘Uthayan’. This attack, the 16th since 2006, on the leading Tamil newspaper in the North was a clear sign of the lawlessness or total breakdown of the rule of law in the country and the government’s failure to turn the LTTE defeat into lasting peace, reconciliation and justice for the people in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. The attack on the Uthayan was the second in two weeks after the newspaper’s Kilinochchi office was attacked on April 3 by masked assailants. A crude and blatant government propagandist in the state media tried to imply or deceive the people that the attacks were inside jobs intended to gain publicity for the newspaper and discredit the government. This was similar to the 2009 attack on the Sirasa MTV office in Pannipitiya, two days after the TV station made an official complaint to the police that it had received reliable information of an attack on the TV station. As usual the Police Chief assigned several special teams which went here, there and eventually nowhere until the attack took place. If that was bad enough what followed was worse and scandalous. Government propaganda organs first implied that it was a publicity stunt by the TV station. They then concocted some stories about UNP parliamentarian Ravi Karunanayake’s supporters carrying out the attack for some personal reasons. Whatever happened, the special police teams have made little or no progress in finding the political ghosts who carried out the attack. On Tuesday the Sirasa MTV group complained to the Kompannaveediya police saying they had information of a group of thugs planning to attack the TV station and the journalists because of a particular story highlighted by the station last week. As usual the Police Chief asked the Kompannaveediya police and the Colombo Crime Detection Unit to probe the complaint but Sirasa MTV journalists say if the attack takes place they may say it’s an inside job or was carried out by political ghosts who have returned to political graves in Kanatta.

But scores of other instances where journalists were killed or abducted are still at a dead end where police are concerned though most discerning readers or listeners know what would have happened or who did what.

As for the Uthayan, three employees have been killed in the attacks carried out since 2006 and we congratulate Uthayan for couragesly facing these cowardly attacks by politically-sponsored goons or ‘gundas’.

The impact of attacks on Uthayan has gone beyond Jaffna or Sri Lanka to an international level. The US Ambassador Michelle J. Sison urged the government to fully investigate the attack, while the US government itself has reminded the government that support for media freedom was one of the many recommendations of the LLRC report and a part of the resolution adopted in the UNHRC sessions in March.

The Rajapaksa regime has a notorious record regarding media freedom with Amnesty International reporting that at least 14 journalists have been killed since 2006 and many more have fled the country because of the climate of impunity. If the government does not take immediate steps to restore media freedom and stop the abuse of public funds by the state media which is indulging in the worst ever propaganda, then the government will continue to hit the world headlines for the breakdown of democracy, the rule of law and independence of judiciary, accountability and good governance.

‘80 percent SL navy men received training in India’ SUNDAY, 21 APRIL 2013  Navy Commander Jayanath Colombage said that nearly 80 per cent of the Sri Lankan Navy personnel received some of their training in India, the Hindu reported. Recalling his own training stints in places such as Kerala and the Nilgiris, he said: “Irrespective of the other differences that may exist, navy cadets of both countries speak the same language.” He made this remark, at a reception hosted by the Indian High Commission in Colombo on Friday on board an Indian training ship at the Colombo Harbour. On Saturday, as many as 250 trainees with the Sri Lankan Navy were on board the Indian ships for ‘sea experience’, in navy parlance. While two vessels are scheduled to leave late Saturday, the third would return to India on Sunday. Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Ashok K. Kantha said that India, in addition to having a broad-based engagement with Sri Lanka, shared very strong ties that were both explicit and subtle. Part of a training interaction initiative, the experience sought to expose trainees to the rigours of the sea, officials said

If Rajapakse government is sent home, country will get deliverance. Tamil Alliance

Saturday , 20 April 2013

The starvation experienced by the Tamil people will soon be experienced by the Sinhalese people was said by Tamil National Alliance.  It mentioned, country would get salvation if Mahinda government sector is sent home, from power.

United America has decided to reduce 20 percent from the financial assistance granted to Sri Lanka. This idea was proposed by US External Affairs Minister John, will affect the future of Sri Lanka was said by United National party, the opposition party.

However, government refused to accept this said, the financial lessened by US will not affect the economy of Sri Lanka, hence no needs to get alarmed.

Concerning the opinion expressed by Sri Lanka government, Tamil National Alliance in its stance gave the above statement.

Tamil National Alliance media spokesperson and parliament member Suresh Piremachandran concerning this expressed his views to “Udayan" press two days back, said, "People of this country are today tangled in economy crisis. The carelessness attitude of this country frustrated US and decided to reduce the financial aid to Sri Lanka by 20 percent”.

He said, as usual, “Mahinda government in its normal tone says, this would not affect the economy growth of this country. Many statements and opinions are expressed by the government sector that there is no need to get alarm for US threats” says government.

He said, however the financial reduction will create a major impact on the economic growth of Sri Lanka. People of this country will be confined to adversities. In this situation,  Mahinda government is challenging the foreign countries and establishing its arrogance.

How long will this heroic talks continue? In this state, government has increased massive electricity tariff.  Currently people of this country are trapped in the economy crisis, and this action of government is drifting them to a chaotic condition.

Government is attempting to rule the country by directing the people to starvation. Tamil people from Vanni experienced starvation by the activities of forces; similarly Sinhala community to experience this era is very close.

People from the southern Sri Lanka have now realized the disorderly activities of the Mahinda sector in power and its selfish attitudes.

The country will get deliverance, if this government goes home. To send the Mahinda government home, it is in the hands of Sinhala people said Suresh Piremachandran.

Saturday , 20 April 2013

Sri Lanka: US Country Reports on Human Rights Practices For 2012

April 21, 2013 

“The major human rights problems were attacks on and harassment of civil society activists, persons viewed as Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) sympathizers, and journalists by persons allegedly tied to the government, creating an environment of fear and self-censorship; involuntary disappearances as well as a lack of accountability for thousands who disappeared in previous years; and widespread impunity for a broad range of human rights abuses, particularly involving police torture, and attacks on media institutions and the judiciary.” says US state Department.

We publish below the latest Department of State’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012  transmit to the United States Congress by Secretary of State John F. Kerry.

Executive summary – Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is a constitutional, multiparty republic. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was reelected to a second six-year term in January 2010, and the parliament, which was elected in April 2010, share constitutional power. The government is dominated by the president’s family; two of the president’s brothers hold key executive branch posts as defense secretary and minister of economic development, while a third brother is the speaker of parliament. A large number of other relatives, including the president’s son, also serve in important political or diplomatic positions. Independent observers generally characterized the presidential, parliamentary, and local elections as problematic. Elections were fraught with violations of the election law by all major parties and were influenced by the governing coalition’s use of state resources. Civilian authorities maintained effective control over the security forces.

The major human rights problems were attacks on and harassment of civil society activists, persons viewed as Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) sympathizers, and journalists by persons allegedly tied to the government, creating an environment of fear and self-censorship; involuntary disappearances as well as a lack of accountability for thousands who disappeared in previous years; and widespread impunity for a broad range of human rights abuses, particularly involving police torture, and attacks on media institutions and the judiciary.

Other serious human rights problems included unlawful killings by security forces and government-allied paramilitary groups, often in predominantly Tamil areas; torture and abuse of detainees by police and security forces; poor prison conditions; and arbitrary arrest and detention by authorities. Lengthy pretrial detention was a problem. Denial of fair public trial remained a problem, and during the year there were coordinated moves by the government to undermine the independence of the judiciary. The government infringed on citizens’ privacy rights. There were restrictions on freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, and movement. While citizens generally were able to travel almost anywhere in the island, there continued to be police and military checkpoints in the north, and de facto high-security zones and other areas remained off limits to citizens. Authorities harassed journalists critical of the government and self-censorship was widespread. The president exercised authority under the 18th amendment to maintain control of appointments to previously independent public institutions that oversee the judiciary, police, and human rights. Lack of government transparency was a serious problem. Violence and discrimination against women were problems, as were abuse of children and trafficking in persons. Discrimination against persons with disabilities and against the ethnic Tamil minority continued, and a disproportionate number of victims of human rights violations were Tamils. Discrimination against persons based on their sexual orientation and against persons with HIV/AIDS were problems. Limits on workers’ rights and child labor remained problems.

The government prosecuted a very small number of officials implicated in human rights abuses but had yet to hold anyone accountable for alleged violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law that occurred during the conflict that ended in 2009.

During the year unknown actors suspected of association with progovernment paramilitary groups committed killings, kidnappings, assaults, and intimidation of civilians. There were persistent reports of close, ground-level ties between paramilitary groups and government security forces.

Read the full report on Sri Lanka  here

War-torn Tamil villages continue with kerosene lamps in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 April 2013, 07:55 GMT]
People of several Tamil villages in the Ampaa’rai district, affected by the war, continue using kerosene lamps. While the Tamil villagers affected in the East by SL military operations and were allowed to resettle after 2007 are not provided with any basic facilities, the Sinhala settlers and their villages get all the assistance, news sources in the East said. During the so-called resettlement and rehabilitation programmes in the East after 2007, many of the Tamil villagers were brought and left in the forests. As the “Dawn of the East” programme proclaimed with much pomp by occupying Colombo and eulogised by some world Establishments has been left to its failure, Colombo now talks about another programme “Crowning the Nation” to carry out Sinhalicisation of the East, the news sources further said. 

The then US ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake was one of the first diplomats to appreciate the ‘liberation’ of the East by genocidal Colombo, and to visit the East, promising ‘development’.

While there is much propaganda about assistance coming from several foreign countries, Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, many of the Tamil villages in The East have not changed from their war-affected appearance.

Roads are not developed and several villages are cut off for communication during rains.

A Tamil village Thurai-vanthu-i’rangkiya-meadu in Kalmunai division, resettled after 2007, has not received any basic facilities.

28,374 families in Ampaa’rai district alone continue with kerosene lamps.

Many of such families live in the villages of the war-affected Tamil divisions, Naavithan-ve’li, Kalmunai, Kaarai-theevu, Thiruk-koayil, Poththuvil, Akkaraip-pattu and Aalaiyadi-vempu.

Mullaiththeevu fishermen resist occupation of Sinhala fishermen

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 April 2013, 07:41 GMT]
Eezham Tamil fishermen of Maaththa’lan in Mullaiththeevu district resisted the arrival and occupation of Sinhala fishermen and attempted to set fire to their boats on Friday. As tension prevailed between the two groups, the occupying Sinhala navy rushed to the scene. After deliberations, finally the Sri Lanka Navy advised the southern group of fishermen to leave the area and return to the south immediately to diffuse tension. The Sinhala fishermen have then returned to their areas in the south, vowing that they would return to Maaththa'lan one day. 

The Sinhala fishermen had arrived in 20 boats to Maaththa’lan on Thursday, with an intention of permanently settling and carrying out fishing with the backing of the occupying Sinhala Navy.

The Idiotic Gene

By Tisaranee Gunasekara -April 21, 2013 

“Despotic governments…..all follow the same logic”. Umberto Eco (The Prague Cemetery)

Economic punches and developmental disappointments might have bruised and battered Mahinda Rajapaksa’s once enormous popularity among Sinhala masses. Yet a considerable part of it still endures. There is nothing outlandish about this; despotic leaders are usually popular, for a while, before the devastating costs of their rule become manifest. Vellupillai Pirapaharan was popular in his time. So was Adolf Hitler, until the Americans’ daylight carpet-bombing of German cities and the Red Army’s arrival on the borders of the Thousand Year Reich compelled ordinary Germans to realise the inevitability of a defeat on a Götterdämmerung scale.

Mahinda Rajapaksa is popular among Sinhala masses because his promise of ushering a developmental Shangri la is believed, still. He has credibility because the 30 year Eelam War came to a victorious conclusion under his leadership. The non-appearance of the much anticipated peace dividend and the consequent exacerbation of economic hardships have dented, somewhat, the hope of a richer tomorrow. But a huge chunk of the Sinhala South still clings to the belief that the Rajapaksas can and will deliver the promised felicitous future.

The Siblings would know the importance of keeping that faith alive. They would also know that economic outrages, such as the electricity rates hike, can cause serious fissures in that belief.

The Rajapaksa development strategy is an amalgam of economic neo-liberalism and state capitalism. Their stirring populist rhetoric serves to cover a gamut of policies which are iniquitous, viscerally. The Siblings follow a tax-borrow-and-spend approach, with crucial differences. Their taxing is of the indirect variety, targeting essential goods and services; therefore a disproportionate share of the tax-burden falls not on the rich but on those clinging to the bottom half of the income-totem pole. When it comes to spending on popular needs, the Siblings are deficit hawks. But they spend, limitlessly, on megalomaniacal projects with nary a benefit to the economy at large, or to the people in general.

Mihin Air, which never made a profit in its entire existence, is an excellent symbol of the counter-developmental effects of Rajapaksa development. So is the highway craze. The Southern Highway is costing the nation an annual loss of Rs. 5.5 billion; according to Prof. Amal Kumarage of the Transport and Logistics Management Department of the Moratuwa University, “The annual revenue collected from vehicles using the Expressway is approximately Rs 1 billion, whereas the maintenance and debt service cost is around Rs 6.5 billion” (Ceylon Today – 29.3.2013). That Rs.5.5 billion could have been used to improve feeder roads, rural roads and public transportation. But the Rajapaksas are as unconcerned about popular needs as they are blasé about economic logic. All they care about is their power and their glory.

Mattala Madness

Mattala Mahinda Rajapaksa Airport is a metaphor, not just for Rajapaksa development but also for Rajapaksa Rule.

The Mattala Airport was built not to fulfil a national, regional or developmental need but to satiate a Rajapaksa desire. In Rajapaksa Sri Lanka, the premier international airport cannot be named after a bygone ruler (especially since his retired-daughter remains a bit of a headache). Since the name of the Katunayake airport cannot be changed from Bandaranaike to Rajapaksa without creating some unfavourable flutters in the SLFP, the obvious way out is to build a new airport and name it after the new rulers. The long term Rajapaksa plans might include turning Hambantota into Lanka’s administrative capital (after changing its name to Sri Rajapaksa Pura). The plan to shift the National Lotteries Board to Hambantota might be the beginning of a generalised transfer of state institutions to the new epicentre.

A new capital would need a new airport.

Passengers and airlines are not exactly flocking to Mattala. But birds are. Mattale airport is close to the time immemorial flight-paths of migratory birds. Then there are peacocks – the symbol of God Kataragma/Skanda, and sacred alike to Sinhala-Buddhists and Tamil-Hindus; plus elephants and other wild animals.

Already two airlines have had close encounters of the avian kind. If the word gets around, not even the most outrageous concessions would succeed in attracting international airlines to Mattala.

Thus the launching of a new ‘humanitarian operation’, to turn Mattala into a bird-and-animal-free-zone. It includes plans to closedown waterholes and destroy feeding-grounds in the area which have sustained the bird and animal populations for millennia.

The animals, crazed by hunger and thirst, will venture into human settlements. The human-elephant conflict (which has caused so many human and elephant deaths and is threatening to wipe out the already dwindling elephant population) will intensify and become a human-animal conflict. Sinhala farmers, struggling with innumerable problems – including that of severe water shortage – will be confronted with a new menace.

Ordinary humans and ordinary animals would suffer and die in increasing numbers so that the Rajapaksas can embark from and disembark in an airport named after them.

There is nothing pro-people about Rajapaksa economic policies. On the contrary they can be best summarised as counter-Robin Hood; they take from the poor/middle classes and give to the rich. Consequently Rajapaksas economics will enrich the rich, pauperise the poor and cause the middle classes to become mired in debt (including credit-card debt) to maintain their living standards. This trend is indicated by the fact that Sri Lanka’s HDI for 2012, when discounted for inequality, falls from 0.715 to 0.607; this loss of 15.1 is due to ‘inequality in the distribution of the dimension indices”, according to the UNDP. (It cannot be accidental that the poverty/inequality figures for Sri Lanka are unavailable).

The recent electricity hike which imposes punitive increases on low-end and mid-level uses while shielding high-end consumersi should suffice to prove to the Sinhala masses that Rajapaksa economics cannot bring about the richer tomorrow of their dreams.

If the Rajapaksas are to retain their Sinhala base, they must prevent the Sinhala masses from focusing on economics and drawing logical conclusions. So long as the Siblings can retain their Sinhala base, they need not to use generalised violence to win elections or generalised repression to maintain order. And so long as the Rajapaksas can manage with targeted violence and repression, they can keep some parts of the democratic façade intact.

That is where the minority-bogey in general and the Muslim-bogey in particular become indispensable.
The old myth of rich Tamils preying on poor Sinhalese, of Tamil students from privileged homes hogging the universities and professions while Sinhala students from underprivileged homes languish in unemployment has been recast to suit the new Muslim bogey. Today it is the ‘wily Muslim’ standing in the way of Sinhala prosperity; the ‘fecund Muslim’ conspiring to occupy Sinhala lands and monopolise Sinhala resources; the ‘violent Muslim’ readying to turn the Sinhalese into a cowering minority.

Creating minority-bogies is a standard despotic ruse. Its purpose is to create a target into which the just Sinhala anger at the growing economic predicament can be displaced; to make the Sinhalese masses forget the real authors of their suffering and focus their hatred on the Muslim scapegoat.

Are we inane enough to fall for that lie, again? Is our national trajectory to be determined forever by an Idiotic Gene?

Key political risks to watch in Sri Lanka

By Shihar Aneez

COLOMBO | Wed Apr 17, 2013 

(Reuters) - President Mahinda Rajapaksa is under fire from the U.N. Human Rights Council, which has adopted a second United States-sponsored resolution demanding that Sri Lanka ensure government troops who committed war crimes during the final stages of its war against Tamil rebels are brought to justice.

Washington and London are trying to exert more pressure on Colombo, expressing concern at continuing attacks on journalists, activists and lawyers.

Meanwhile, simmering antipathy between the government and the judiciary threatens a destabilising confrontation.

Rajapaksa's opponents say he has carved the country up into a family fiefdom, a situation which is discouraging foreign investment.

RATINGS: (Unchanged unless stated)

S&P: B+/B (Affirmed March 1 with stable outlook)

MOODY'S: B1 (Affirmed March 13 with positive outlook)

FITCH: BB- with stable outlook

Following are the key political risks to watch:

WAR CRIMES, U.N. RESOLUTION, RIGHTS SQUEEZE?

This year's resolution, similar to one in 2012, has urged Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of an official Sri Lankan probe. That commission called for the prosecution of soldiers guilty of misconduct.

The government said last July it would take up to five years to try those accused of atrocities, a step critics said would lessen international scrutiny.

Though the U.S. has acknowledged that progress has been made, it says there is still much work still to be done and Sri Lanka must take meaningful action on reconciliation and accountability.

Tens of thousands of civilians were killed in 2009 in the final months of Sri Lanka's 25-year civil war, a United Nations panel has said, as government troops advanced on the northern tip of the island controlled by Tamil forces fighting for an independent homeland.

Washington along with some other Western nations wants to force Colombo to address allegations of war crimes as part of wider reconciliation to prevent renewed conflict, while Sri Lanka wants more time to pursue its own domestic process.

Adding to worries that the government is taking a heavy-handed approach to human rights, it has said it would tighten its media law to regulate all websites, not just printed material.

Attacks over media critical of the government have continued. Armed men set fire to a Tamil-language newspaper office in mid-April, just days after gunmen attacked another office of the same paper in northern Sri Lanka.

In March, Sri Lanka's security forces blocked hundreds of mostly ethnic Tamils from travelling to Colombo for a protest about relatives missing after the war.

A new line of confrontation has opened after Rajapaksa in January sacked the country's first woman Chief Justice, Shirani Bandaranayake. Rajapaksa appointed his ally and Cabinet lawyer as her successor despite protests by lawyers, a move that has raised concerns about the rule of law and judicial independence.

The government also barred a panel of lawyers from the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute visiting Sri Lanka to assess the rule of law after Bandaranayake's removal.

What to watch:

- How Sri Lanka will respond to this year's U.N. resolution, and whether it comes under greater international pressure if it fails to address its poor human rights record.

- Whether Sri Lanka fully implements the local commission's report, and if international pressure recedes when the government implements some of those recommendations.

- Whether the government investigates the recent media attacks, and what its findings are.

- Judicial independence and the rule of law under the new Chief Justice.

- Tension between the judiciary and government, which may rise further.

BUDGET, IMF WARNING, ENERGY REFORMS

In its annual budget announced in November, Rajapaksa said Sri Lanka aims to reduce its fiscal deficit to 5.8 percent of GDP in 2013, while attaining 7.5 percent economic growth.

Sri Lanka aims to speed growth of its $59 billion economy by pumping money into post-war infrastructure works.

In April, the central bank last week conceded the country has missed its 2012 budget deficit target of 6.2 percent.

Construction and rebuilding projects in ports, roads, railways and other infrastructure, worth around $21 billion, are lined up over the next three years.

Another key lender is Beijing. In August 2012, the government said it would borrow more than $1.12 billion from China for a new port and railway construction.

Last month the government said China will lend another $278.2 million to Sri Lanka to help lay a railway line to a port which Beijing is building, and which has stoked concern in India.

At street level, higher costs of living have led to greater demands from trade unions for pay rises. Rajapaksa announced higher pay for public sector workers in the budget, though much less than they have demanded. The opposition, weakened by Rajapaksa's two-thirds parliamentary majority, has some traction with the public on the issue.

The central bank kept policy rates unchanged for a fourth straight month in April as expected.

Sri Lanka is seriously considering raising electricity tariffs, having hiked diesel and gasoline prices twice since December as a result of losses at state-run energy firms.

The central bank has shrugged off concerns over a spike in inflation due to expected increase in power bills, saying annual inflation in April is estimated at 6.3 percent, easing from last month's 7.5 percent.

Inflation accelerated to a near record high of 9.8 percent year-on-year in January and stayed there in February due to a lack of vegetable supply after flash floods in major farmlands in December.

In early 2013, the International Monetary Fund warned that Sri Lanka's economic growth is slowing more than the government expects, and faces additional risks from high inflation, lower tax revenue and slow structural reforms, factors which could endanger its strong post-war growth.

Ratings agencies S&P and Moody's echoed those concerns.

What to watch:

- Appetite in global capital markets for lending to Sri Lanka.

- Whether the government can find a balance between growth and fiscal discipline.

- How quickly the government can address the cost of living issues.

- Impact of a power tariff hike on inflation and the cost of living

THE TEHRAN-WASHINGTON OIL SQUEEZE

Oil import-dependent Sri Lanka reduced its Iranian crude deliveries by more than 20 percent in 2012 but disagrees with Western sanctions which are punishing countries that rely on its oil, Sri Lanka's foreign minister said last October.

Officials at the state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) say that despite U.S. exemptions from sanctions on Iranian crude imports, in practice it is unable to bring any cargoes from Iran as a result of difficulties obtaining insurance and letters of credit.

Last year CPC was forced to shut Sri Lanka's only refinery for 10 days, restarting it after receiving a crude shipment from Dubai. The refinery is configured to run solely on Iranian crude.

The central bank has said the cost of oil imports rose 5.1 percent to a record $5.04 billion last year, mainly because the price of refined oil products also rose after sanction on Iranian crude were imposed.

In 2011, Sri Lanka imported 93 percent of its crude from Iran. Sri Lanka has raised its gasoline price three times since the sanctions were imposed last January.

What to watch:

- How Sri Lanka reduces Iranian imports further, and how it pays for imports from elsewhere. Deals with other nations for crude cargoes.

- If it increases purchases of refined products.

- If Sri Lanka further raises fuel prices, and the popular response to that.

(Editing by Daniel Magnowski)