Sunday, June 16, 2013

Sinhala Video: Thushara Speaks On The Scandal Of Namal Rajapaksa’s Law Final

June 2, 2013

The scandal of Namal Rajapaksa, eldest son of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Member of Parliament, and heir apparent, receiving favoured treatment by the authorities at the Sri Lanka Law College at his attorneys-at-law final examinations grabbed media attention in year 2011.

Thushara Jayarathna, another candidate at the exam, alleged in complaints made to the police, Law College and even the thenChief Justice, that Namal Rajapaksa had been accommodated separately in an air-conditioned room with internet enabled computer facilities to sit for his examinations.

Namal Rajapaksa, eldest son of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Member of Parliament, and heir apparent

In the present political climate of Sri Lanka, the courage of Jayarathna’s decision to go public does not need to be retold. He has not only faced physical harm and intimidation for his trouble, but also received no justice either from the Law College or from the Sri Lankan courts. The Supreme Court has thrown out his fundamental rights case on technical grounds, thereby exhausting all his local remedies.

In this interview with Beyond Boston Thushara Jayarathna explains what has happened to him after he reveled the scandal;

The Final Threat To Sri Lanka’s National Security Is New Media

By Gotabaya Rajapaksa -June 14, 2013 |

Gotabaya Rajapaksa

I welcome you to this lecture under the National Interest Module of the inaugural MPhil/PhD Programme of the Kotelawala Defence University. The topic of this lecture is “Sri Lanka’s National Security Concerns”.As we all know, Sri Lanka is one of the most peaceful and stable countries in the world today. Our citizens are enjoying the benefits of peace and have complete freedom and countless opportunities to build better futures for themselves. At the same time, it must be understood that as with any other sovereign nation, Sri Lanka faces potential threats from various sources. Guarding against these threats and ensuring the safety of the nation is the first duty of the Government, because National Security is the foundation of our freedom and our prosperity. As such, the Government needs to be fully aware of all the issues that impact the country in areas such as Defence, Foreign Policy, Economic Affairs and internal Law & Order. It must formulate a comprehensive National Security strategy to deal with them.

Presidential Offspring Rohitha Rajapaksa Assaulted Rugby Referee In Full Public View

Presidential offspring Rohitha Rajapaksa assaulted Rugby referee Dimitri Gunasekera today (5th May) at the Havelocks Grounds in Colombo after the Navy lost a qualifying match.

The incident took place when the Police A team defeated Navy knocking the latter out of the Inter-club Rugby sevens tournament organised by the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union.

Rohitha Rajapaksa, the youngest son of President Mahinda Rajapaksa was captaining the Navy A team at today’s game. His brother Yoshitha usually captains the team.

Following the Navy defeat, Rohitha Rajapaksa picked up referee Gunesekera by the collar and assaulted him in full public view, eyewitnesses say. The attack on the referee only ceased when Yoshitha Rajapaksaintervened, even slapping his younger sibling when the latter refused to break up the altercation.

With referees refusing to stand to protest against the assault, the tournament was suspended for over 45 minutes. Finally, following a meeting of high level officials with the referees the tournament resumed. Both Rohitha and Yoshitha Rajapaksa were seen regularly in discussions with the referees during the rest of the evening.

The game of Rugby in the country has been severely politicised by the Rajapaksa family in recent years.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s second son Yoshitha is the captain of the Sri Lanka Rugby team and the Navy Sports club.

Social Media Threat: Mahinda & Sons On Twitter And Facebook – Rajapaksas Are Heading To Jaffna

June 16, 2013

The President Rajapaksa’s younger brother, secretary to the Ministry of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa Thursday said that the rapid expansion and development of social media is a threat to national security. He said; “this is yet another threat that needs to be monitored“.

So we monitored.

Rajapaksa’s Tweets;

Namal on his way to Jaffna;

Yoshitha Rajapaksa’s final update;

CID seeks Speaker’s permission to question Wimal

Sunday, 16 June 2013

The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) has sought the Speaker’s permission to record a statement from Minister Wimal Weerawansa on a complaint lodged by Kaduwela Mayor G.H. Buddhadasa.

G.H. Buddhadasa had lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission that the police had not permitted a political march and rally organized by him during the 2011 local government police due to Weerawansa’s influence and that permission had been granted for Weerawansa’s candidate for the Kaduwela Municipal Council election, Buddhika Jayawilal. Buddhadasa has said that his human rights have been violated by the police.

After inquiring into the complaint for one and a half years, the Human Rights Commission has asked the IGP and the Attorney General’s Department to initiate legal action against the Kaduwela Deputy Mayor Buddhika Jayawilal, then SSP for Nugegoda Deshabandu Tennakoon, the OICs of the Nawagamuwa, Athurugiriya, Thalangama police stations at the time and the officers of the Nugegoda SSP’s office.

Buddhadasa and Weerawansa have been at loggerheads in the Kaduwela electorate for some time and President Mahinda Rajapaksa had extended his support to Buddhadasa in order to create a balance in the situation.

Minister Susil Premajayantha has told some of his friends that it was the President who had asked Buddhadasa to lodge the complaint against Weerawansa and spoken to the head of the Commission, Balapatabendi to take action against the Minister.

Legal action against 1200 police personals

Sunday, 16 June 2013,
Legal action to be taken against 1,200 police personals obtained bribery in the country.

Several high ranking police officials were also among them. Investigations are currently underway, sources said.
CID officials, officials of bribery commissions, TID officials together with officials from SriLanka human rights commission conduct further investigations against these suspects.
Police officials who have sacrifices their life to establish law and order in the country have involved in abductions, murders and obtaining bribery, political analyzed said.

138 students suspended within a week – Stop government’s repression of students immediately – SSU

SUNDAY, 16 JUNE 2013

In a statement released to the media the National Organizer of SSU states, “Students who are already in universities engage in agitations and demonstrations not for themselves but to hand down the right of free education for future generations. Minister S.B. Dissanayake who used free education to climb up, made money entering politics and sent his children to foreign universities sees students of state universities as adversaries. He unleashes his wrathful politics on students.”

The complete statement issues by eh National Organizer of SSU:

The government that has made slashing of free education its policy has intensified repression of students’ unions and student activists. By now about 260 students have been suspended and six students’ councils have been banned. During last week alone 138 students were suspended. The government is denying maintaining students’ councils which is a democratic right students have been granted through Universities Act No. 16 of 1978. The establishment of students’ councils at Sri Jayawardenepura, Keliniya, Colombo, Buddhist and Pali universities has been arbitrarily delayed by their administrations.

On 1st June the government deployed police, Army and STF to carry out a savage attack on students of Sabaragamuwa University. More than 60 students were injured while 27 of them had to be admitted to hospital. Ten students, two villagers and a non-academic employee of the University were arrested. The students carried out the agitation demanding the withdrawal of suspensions handed down to students and withdraw the bans on students’ councils. Agitations based on 12 academic and welfare issues including slashing of the number of students admitted to the university by 35%, increasing registration fees by 500% and leasing out the swimming pool to a private company were continuing from January this year at Sabaragamuwa University.

Students boycotted a fraudulent opening ceremony the administration that was mum regarding students grievances attempted to hold with the participation of Minister S.B. Dissanayake. After the incident five students were suspended to pave the way for privatization of education and to give vent to Minister Dissanayake’s wrath. Government’s response for the students who asked the right of these students to sit for the examination was to suspend 47 more students.

The situation that cropped up at the Faculty of Medicine at Sri Jayawardenepua University is similar. The government has begun selling the degree of this Faculty for Rs.7.5 million. 25% of the total number of students in the Faculty is to be filled with fee levying students. The students of the Faculty of Medicine held an agitation on 5th June against selling the medial degree when there are thousands of students in the island who have not been able to enter the Faculties of Medicine merely for not getting 1 or 2 more marks at the examination.

Minister S.B. Dissanayake who had seen the agitation while he was on his way on a private matter had got infuriated and got his rump washing vice-chancellor to scold the students in foul language. Later 21 students including 13 student representatives were suspended to pave the way for the degree selling programme of the university and to give vent to the fury of the minister. This is the first time students were suspended from the Faculty of Medicine founded in 1991.

Both these incidents indicate that the government has intensified its exercise of destabilizing the state university system. The active steps of this exercise are selling degrees of state universities, leasing out its assets, slashing the number of the intake allowing admittance to fee levying students.

The students who are already in universities engage in agitations and demonstrations not for themselves but to hand down the right of free education for future generations. Minister S.B. Dissanayake who used free education to climb up, made money entering politics and sent his children to foreign universities sees students of state universities as adversaries. He unleashes his wrathful politics on students.

We call upon all to come forward to protect what is left of free education from the government that destroys state universities and Minister S.B. Dissanayake who has been assigned with this sordid move. Isolating the student movement at this juncture would be a crime history would never pardon.

Plan to assassinate DIG Vass Gunawardena inside the prison

Sunday, 16 June 2013

Attorney at Law Nalinda Indatissa has told court on the 13th attention should be paid to the possibility of DIG Vass Gunawardena, who is currently receiving medical treatment in remand custody, ‘committing suicide’ while in custody.

Indatissa is appearing for the slain businessman Mohomad Shyam. Indatissa has requested courts to pay attention to providing special security to Vass Gunawardena since he had tried to commit suicide on a previous occasion as well.

The lawyer had made this comment in response to comment made by Vass Gunawardena’s counsel, senior lawyer Ajith Pathirana before the Colombo Additional Magistrate, A.M. Sahabdeen.

Pathirana had said that Vass Gunawardena was responsible for apprehending many criminals and that they were all in remand prison. Therefore, he had said that Vass Gunawardena’s life could be under threat in prison. He had observed that the DIG suffers from blood sugar and high blood pressure and that the manner in which he was arrested was illegal.

According to the lawyer, the law states that statements should be recorded voluntarily, but that his client’s statement was recorded after arresting him.

The counsel appearing for the aggrieved party had said there was no objection to the DIG being remanded under the required protection.

Vass Gunawradena transferred to Prison Hospital

Sunday, 16 June 2013

DIG Vass Gunawardena who is currently in remand custody for his alleged involvement in an underworld group that has carried out contract killings has been admitted to the Prison Hospital from the Colombo National Hospital.

Vass Gunawardena was admitted to the Prison Hospital last night.

Colombo Additional Magistrate A.M. Shabdeen remanded the DIG till June 25th and he was admitted to Ward 42.

Vass Gunwardena was taken into custody over the killing of businessman Mohomad Shyam in May.

Although the CID has uncovered details of 14 murders allegedly committed by Vass Gunawardena and the gang led by him, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has order the CID to inquire only into Shyam’s killing.

Criminal Vaas has 3 houses in New Zealand bought out of blood money; son flaunts wealth amassed via crimes

(Lanka-e-News-16.June.2013, 4.00PM) Contract murderer and extortionist DIG Andra Vaas Patabendi Ganendra Gunawardena alias Vaas Gunawardena has amassed many millions of rupees for the last two years via contract murders , and has remitted these monies to his two sons in New Zealand , according to reports reaching Lanka e news. The account of Vaas is in the B N Z Bank in New Zealand , and he has purchased three houses in that country.

Out of these blood monies he had bought two houses , one for each of his two sons Ravindhu and Hasindu and the third is in the name of his wife , Sharmalie Perera. He has also a large villa in Amabalangoda which he had forcibly plundered from a relative of his. That house alone is worth about Rs.10 million.

Out of the blood monies accumulated by their father who has been killing innocents , the sons in New Zealand are wallowing in obscene opulence enjoying super luxury lifestyles , both have bought super luxury vehicles. Both of them are supposedly millionaire businessmen running riot gone crazy on so much blood money . The elder son shuttles between New Zealand and Sri Lanka , and has fiscal control over the Father’s blood money .

In the murder of Shyam , the millionaire businessman of Bambalapitiya , it is recorded in the statement of Koralage who is in custody , that Ravindhu also boarded the vehicle along with the constable who were among those directly responsible for the murder , yet Ravindhu had still not been taken into custody. It is significant to note that when everything was in the ready to take into custody , Vaas’ wife and son Ravindhu after seizing their three accounts in the local banks , yet , following orders from notorious Gotabaya , the SL defense Secretary alias criminal offence Secretary, all those moves had to be halted.

In the first photograph is Vaas’younger son who is enjoying life to the hilt with the blood money earned for him and his shameless family by his murderer father by extortions , and murder of innocents after abductions. Here he is without an iota of shame flaunting family’s filthy lucre .The other photograph depicts Vaas’ wife and son together.

Sapugaskanda refinery to shut down tomorrow

Sunday, 16 June 2013

The Sapugaskanda oil refinery is to be shut down again from tomorrow (17) due to the problems that have arisen over the quality of the refined fuel.

Sources from the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) have said that the octane number of the refined fuel has dropped to 88.

The problem has resulted in the CPC being forced to hold back 3,500 metric tons of fuel that have already been refined without releasing it to the local market.

Local vehicles currently use fuel that is either 90 or 95 octane.

According to CPC sources, the Sapugaskanda refinery could refine only Iranian light crude oil and faces problems when ever other crude oils are refined.

This time around, the refinery had used crude oil imported from Oman.

The production capacity of the refinery has dropped to 200 metric tons a day due to the lack of Iranian light crude.

Suspect dies in Hospital

SUNDAY, 16 JUNE 2013

A suspect taken into custody by the Wadduwa Police has died suddenly falling sick, Police media spokesman SP Buddhika Siriwardena said.

The man, a resident of Rathmale in Minneriya, had been taken into custody last evening for alleged house breakings and several thefts including thefts of 46 gas cylinders, according to the Police.

He died after admission to the Panadura hospital this morning.

An investigation has begun on the incident under the direction of an ASP of Nugegoda, he said. The post mortem is schedule to be tonight. (Sanath Desmond)

The Bradley Manning Matter

Private First Class Bradley Manning.

By Ralph E. Stone

June 15, 2013

Bradley Manning, a U.S. Army soldier, admitted sending 700,000 government documents to Wikileaks in 2010. It was the biggest leak of classified information in U.S. history.

Manning is now charged under Articles 92 and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), which incorporates parts of the Espionage Act in Article 106a of the UCMJ. The Manning case is ongoing at Fort Meade, Maryland.

On April 10, 2013 Colonel Denise Lind, the military judge handling Manning’s case, imposed a demanding burden on the prosecution, ruling that prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Manning had reason to believe his actions would harm the U.S. or aid a foreign power.

Basically the government is saying that leaking classified information to a publication is the same as leaking to the enemy. Ironically, a publisher has a First Amendment right to publish leaked information, whereas Manning has no right to leak the information.

The prosecution rejected Manning’s offer to plead guilty to several charges including misusing classified material, which would have meant up to 20 years in jail. The government, instead, is playing hardball, treating Manning like a traitor rather than a leaker. This is the first time that someone is being charged with aiding the enemy simply for leaking information to the press. If he is found guilty of “aiding the enemy,” Manning could receive a sentence of life in prison or even the death penalty.

Clearly, there is a need for some government secrecy. For example, military plans, intelligence sources, undercover agents, and the capabilities of weapon systems.

Trouble is, when an individual decides to release classified documents, it is often done indiscriminately. That is, information that is classified because its release will embarrass the government as well as information that probably should be kept classified.

According to Manning testimony, ”Given all of the Department of State information that I read, the fact that most of the cables were unclassified, and that all the cables have a SIPDIS caption [messages intended for automatic Web publishing, according to the U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual], I believed that the public release of these cables would not damage the United States; however, I did believe that the cables might be embarrassing, since they represented very honest opinions and statements behind the backs of other nations and organizations.”

It is important to note that Manning testified “most of the cables were unclassified” indicating that possibly some were not.

Thus, prosecutors will attempt to show that the release of some of the leaked information placed U.S. service personnel in harm’s way or exposed sensitive intelligence activities. For example, the prosecution has already presented evidence that code words and the name of at least one enemy target were revealed, and a leaked video of a U.S. Apache helicopter attack that ostensibly revealed sensitive information that could help enemies plan deadlier assaults. I expect the prosecution will present more such evidence.

Collateral Murder

By his own admission, Manning broke the law by releasing classified information and for that, at the minimum, he probably will face a less than honorable discharge and some jail time. But even if it can show some of the leaked material may have aided the enemy, the prosecution will have to show beyond a reasonable doubt that Manning had reason to believe his actions would harm the U.S. or aid a foreign power. This is a difficult burden for the prosecution.

Manning has been in jail since his arrest on May 29, 2010. He spent his first nine months in a Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia where he was reportedly held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, forced to sleep naked without pillows and sheets on his bed, and restricted from physical recreation or access to television or newspapers even during his one daily hour of freedom from his cell. This maltreatment was all under the pretense that the Manning was a suicide risk. His treatment caused a public outcry as his treatment was reminiscent of the conditions of suspected terrorists held at Guantánamo Bay.

The Manning case, Daniel Ellsberg’s release of the Pentagon Papers, and the recent case of Edward Snowden, the National Security Administration leaker, remind me of Henry David Thoreau’s “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.” Thoreau argued that individuals should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that they have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican-American War.

The government has the right and possibly the duty to prosecute Manning for leaking classified information. However, the government here has overreached by charging Manning with treason for an act that is criminal at most.

If Manning is convicted of treason, will this deter others from engaging in similar acts of civil disobedience? I doubt it. There are about 1.5 million Americans with top secret clearances who work for the government or private contractors. That’s a lot of potential leakers if the public’s understandable distrust of government continues unabated.

Ralph E. Stone

I was born in Massachusetts; graduated from Middlebury College and Suffolk Law School; served as an officer in the Vietnam war; retired from the Federal Trade Commission (consumer and antitrust law); travel extensively with my wife Judi; and since retirement involved in domestic violence prevention and consumer issues.

Catastrophic Results: Gota And A Haven For Criminals

By Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena -June 16, 2013 |

Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s claim during a recent address at the Kotelawala Defence ‘University’ that Sri Lanka is presently enjoying the ‘full benefits of peace’ sits strikingly at odds with the headline of the country’s newspapers on any given day.

Complete degeneration of law and order

And to be clear, I am not talking in this instance of high profile ‘terrorism’ cases or even the military’s excruciatingly intrusive role in the North and East under the guise of so-called ‘civic-military’ activities. On the contrary, this reference is to the South and in relation to what may be termed as ‘ordinary’ law enforcement. For example, the family members of the businessman who was robbed of millions by an armed gang last Saturday while carrying the money to be used for his daughter’s wedding may not quite agree with the Defence Secretary’s comfortable illusions. This businessman who was clearly traumatized by what happened, died of a heart attack not soon thereafter. Such incidents are not uncommon but fill daily news reports with highly disturbing regularity.

Certainly the issue therein is not the occurrence of crimes but the complete inability of the police to solve them. During the worst of the conflict years, though general law enforcement was never at its best, the degeneration that we see now was certainly not evidenced. Ironically enough, it is in the post war period that we increasingly see senior policemen being involved in perpetrating crimes with an astounding degree of impunity.

Powerful policemen untouchable by the law

The arrest of a much feared Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Vass Gunewardena for complicity in the contract killing of a businessman some weeks ago is just one symptom of a general pattern of politically powerful policemen and army personnel involved in criminal activities for sheer profit. This is a senior policeman who had been repeatedly implicated in instigation as well as cover-ups of torture and killings in the past but who received powerful patronage and was never brought to a reckoning. His unprecedented threat to the policemen who came to arrest him that he was a murderer and that he would deal with those who opposed him, shows how untouchable by the law he is. Understandably, many are cynical about this arrest, predicting that it will be quietly shelved when public interest in the case drops.

In its post-war years therefore, Sri Lanka resembles an exceedingly dangerous haven for politico-criminal activity rather than a peaceful island paradise as is sought to be made out by the country’s Defence Secretary. Mr Rajapaksa’s explanation, at this same event, that the Department of the Police remains within the supervision of the Ministry of Defence as part of a comprehensive National Security strategy, is therefore highly unconvincing.

His stand also continues to be directly contrary to the recommendation of the Lessons learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) as pointed out in these column spaces in the past. The LLRC’s recommendation was not tossed into the report to fill up its pages. Rather, there were very good reasons as to why the Commissioners recommended that the police revert to its civilian authority without continuing within a military structure. Capturing the public goodwill through divesture of its military image, restoring civilian command and reorganizing effective internal disciplinary control within the Department were part of these reasons, no doubt.

The prevalence of breathtaking impunity

Indeed, the near total lack of internal disciplinary control within the Police Department has been one reason for international scrutiny into Sri Lanka’s law and order status. As the United Nations General Assembly was informed in February 2008 ‘statistics relating to departmental lapses show that disciplinary proceedings are almost exclusively initiated against low-ranking officers; there is a determined unwillingness to hold police officers with command responsibility accountable for torture and killings engaged in by their subordinates, whether at the disciplinary or at the criminal level; this applies to both internal and external accountability mechanisms; in 2001, constables were found responsible for 86% of departmental lapses; superintendents were found responsible for only 0.04% of such lapses’ (Sri Lanka Administration Report, 2001) quoted by the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Philip Alston; Mission to Sri Lanka, 28 November – 6 December 2005, E/CN.4/2006/53/Add.5, 27 March 2006, at para. 57, footnote 38).

What was prevalent in 2005 when that Special Rapportuer’s report was written, has now increased a hundredfold. The extreme politicization cum militarization of police structures is impacting on ordinary people in a way that no one, not even the economically privileged, can protect themselves from. Moreover, the sheer impunity that prevails is breathtaking. So when thugs carrying bicycle chains and iron rods stormed the hostel of the University of Kelaniya in broad daylight to assault students last week, no perpetrators are arrested. There is no expectation either that effective investigations will follow. This is what is most frightening. In that context, how does the Defence Secretary justify the effectiveness of the supervisory control extended by his Ministry over this Department?

Catastrophic results of remaining silent

Some years ago, when a constitutionally functioning National Police Commission tried to discipline the police force, it was met with stiff resistance by the police establishment (retired as well as serving) along with politicians. The NPC was then systematically stripped of even a modicum of its integrity by the unconstitutional appointment of its members prior to being virtually done away with altogether under the 18th Amendment which condescendingly allowed its powers in regard to public complaints remain as a sop. As currently constituted, the NPC has no real authority whatsoever against corrupt and politically powerful policemen who act in tandem with underworld groups and criminal military figures.

Currently and quite contrary to the comfortable illusions that the Defence Secretary appear to be labouring under, what predominates is a general breakdown of law and order in Sri Lanka from the purely inane to the intensely serious. It is a heavy but inevitable that we have had to pay for remaining silent when the 17th Amendment was virtually abolished and the National Police Commission (NPC) was ruthlessly emasculated by this administration. And each and every one of us is liable at any given moment of the day, to suffer from its catastrophic results. In truth, this is the reality.