Indian FM in Jaffna talks of ‘tri-lingual, united, sovereign, devolved and connected’ Sri Lanka

Salman Khurshid [middle] in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 October 2013, 17:12 GMT]
Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, who visited Jaffna on Tuesday, ceremonially opened two houses of the controversial ‘50,000 House Project’, by visiting Thanthai Chelvapuram village at Thellippazhai in Valikaamam North, after landing in Palaali, meeting SL military officials and paying tribute to slain Indian soldiers in the war 23 years ago. Mr Khurshid then proceeded to lunch with the war-crimes accused Sri Lankan colonial governor in North and thereafter met the Chief Minister of Northern Provincial Council. Salman Khurshid, addressing the beneficiaries of financial asssistance and the journalists at Tilko hotel was talking of devolved Sri Lanka under the 13 Amendment, for a happy, prosperous and tri-lingual Sri Lanka which is sovereign and united and connected with India. 

Indian FM in Jaffna talks of ‘tri-lingual, united, sovereign, devolved and connected’ Sri Lanka by nelvely

President reveals govt. position on national issue to Indian FM:PSC the only way out

October 8, 2013, 12:00 pm 

President Mahinda Rajapaksa told visiting Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid yesterday morning that Parliament was the best forum to address the issue of implementing the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, the President’s Media Unit said yesterday.

The Meida Unit said President Rajapaksa had opined that members of the Parliamentary Select Committee should engage in dialogue and come up with a solution that was in line with what the people wanted.

The President made these comments during a meeting with Indian Minister Khurshid, who is on an official visit to the island, at the President’s House yesterday morning.

The Media Unit statement said: "Indian Minister of External Affairs Mr Salman Khurshid called on President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the President’s House this morning. A number of issues of mutual interest were discussed during the meeting with the underlying objective of developing strategies for the two countries to coordinate more closely towards further strengthening relations.

"Commenting on the recently-concluded provincial elections in the Northern Province, Mr. Khurshid commended President Rajapaksa’s stewardship in holding elections after decades and said he felt it was a very important step for society, one that will likely be viewed as a great historic moment.

"On the issue of the implementation of the 13th Amendment, President Rajapaksa stated that "Parliament is the best forum to address the issue," adding that members of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) should engage in dialogue and come up with a solution that is in line with what the people want.

"The President and Mr. Khurshid also discussed issues that have arisen between fishermen of the two countries. It was agreed that the best way forward would be to facilitate a dialogue between fishing communities of both countries so that the fishermen themselves can find solutions to their problems.

"A similar approach was also proposed for the business communities, to enhance interaction where business men and women of Sri Lanka and India can better work together.

"The High Commissioner of India in Colombo Y.K. Sinha accompanied Mr. Khurshid along with several other officers from the Indian External Affairs Ministry and the Indian High Commission.

"Minister of External Affairs Prof. G.L. Peiris, Minister of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development Douglas Devananda, Minister of Power and Energy Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Monitoring MP of the Ministry of External Affairs Sajin de Vass Gunawardena, Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to the Ministry of External Affairs Karunatilaka Amunugama and Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner in India Prasad Kariyawasam were also present."

Warning To Government From Central Province UPFA Members

October 10, 2013 

A controversy over the chief ministerial slot for the Central Provincial Council spilled over to the council’s inaugural session today when at least seven Government councillors voted for the opposition candidate contesting the posts of chairman and deputy chairman of the council.

PM - DM

UPFA members nominated Councillor S.B. Ratnayake while the UNP nominated its councillor, Rohana Bandaranayake for the position of Deputy Chairman.

Ratnayake, the Government candidate won the contest with 33 votes, while Bandaranayake obtained 24 votes.

The total number of opposition members in the Central Provincial Council is 18. One opposition councillor was also absent at yesterday’s inaugural session making a total of 17 seats.

Bandaranayake’s vote tally proved that seven Government members had voted in favour of the opposition candidate.

The vote for the chairman of the council was even closer with the Government candidate obtaining 29 votes while the opposition candidate obtained 27 votes, proving that 10 Government councillors had voted for the opposition candidate.

The Central Provincial Council was mired in controversy after President Mahinda Rajapaksa overtook the province’s highest vote taker Anuradha Jayaratne for the post of Chief Minister and appointed Sarath Ekanayake who got only half of the number of Jayaratne’s votes. Anuradha Jayaratne is the son of Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne, a SLFP strongman in the Central Province. The President’s decision, based on the fact that the son of a prime minister could not be made chief minister of a province. The decision was despite several announcements before the provincial elections that chief ministers would be chosen based on the preferential vote tallies. Angry supporters of Jayaratne held a protest in Kandy against the President’s move. In a remarkable turn of events, the Prime Minister also participated in the protest.

The remarkable voting patterns at yesterday’s inaugural session is believed to be a continuation of the crisis in the Central Provincial Council with many of the councillors still displeased that Jayaratne was not given his due.

Ramifications Of 13A Governing State Land

By Sarath N. Silva -October 9, 2013 

Sarath N. Silva - Former Chief Justice

The recent decision of the Supreme Court, coming in the wake of the first ever election to the Northern Provincial Council, has aroused much concern and mixed reaction that it is in the public interest to make with due respect to the court, a realistic analysis of its content.

The appeal to the Supreme Court stems from an application filed by Solamuthu Rasu, a workman in a tea estate, before the Provincial High Court of the Central Province, seeking a writ of Certiorari to quash a notice to quit issued on him purportedly under the State Lands (Recovery of Possession) Act. The land from which he is to be evicted is described in the notice as a portion to Stafford Division of the Ragala Estate.

Rasu claims that he was an employee of the Estate, which vested in the Land Reform Commission in 1975 and that he was allocated the plot of land in question in about 1980 under a scheme of providing workmen with a means of income. He cleared the land which was undeveloped and has been cultivating it since then. On March 12, 1982 the Minister vested the Ragala Estate in the J. E. D. B. which was established under the State Agricultural Corporation Act. The new management sought to eject him from the land and a proceeding was instituted in the Primary/Magistrates Court of Nuwara Eliya under section 66 of the Primary Court Procedure Act. The court made order in favour of Rasu and directed that he could remain in possession until evicted upon an order of a Civil Court. No such case was filed against him.

In 1992, there was another change of management and the business of the Ragala Estate was taken over by a Public Company viz Mathurata Plantation Ltd in terms of an order under Act No 23 of 1987. Subsequently this company was privatised. Several years later the 2nd Appellant before the Supreme Court described as a “Consultant/Plantation Expert” acting apparently on a resolution of the JEDB purported to issue a notice to quit on Rasu, the validity of which he challenged in the application to the High Court. It appears that although the functions and the business of the JEDB had been taken over by the Plantation Company on the order referred above, there remains an insidious and highly questionable practice of recovering possession of land claimed by the company through the summary procedure in the State Lands (Recovery of Possession) Act in the Magistrate Court without going through a regular civil action in the District Court.Read More

Customs Case Against De Facto CJ Mohan Pieris Before HR Commission Geneva

Customs Case Against De Facto CJ Mohan Pieris Before HR Commission Geneva

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Peries at UNHR

A fraud case against Sri Lanka’s de facto Chief Justice and former Attorney General Mohan Pieris has been taken to the Human Rights Commission in Geneva seeking proper inquiry since justice has been denied by the Sri Lankan judiciary now run by Pieris. Customs Officer, T R Ratnasiri who was denied an opportunity to support his fundamental rights petition (SCFR/246/2010 – the case that made very serious accusations against the AG Mohan Peiris and Colombo Dockyard Ltd for criminal misappropriation of public funds of 619 rupees) to the Supreme Court by a Bench selected by the de facto CJMohan Pieris has petitioned the Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

Customs Case Against de Facto CJ Mohan Pieris Before HR Commission Geneva by nelvely

Sri Lanka's economic boom fails to erase painful civil war memories

Sri Lankan military construct the new Thalsewana Holiday resort which is a military venture outside of Jaffna. Photograph: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

Jason Burke in Kilinochchi

Tuesday 8 October 2013

Colombo's hopes of buying off the Tamil 'separatist struggle' with development may prove short-sighted

In a stand of scruffy palms a few yards from a dirt track, two brothers are building their third house in under a decade. They hope it will last longer than the others. They do not want to be identified – for fear of security agencies – but their story is a common one in Kilinochchi, a small town in northern Sri Lanka, once the capital of the de facto state run by the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Sri Lanka's Economic Boom Fails to Erase Painful Civil War Memories by nelvely

New Laws May Fail to Protect Children in Sri Lanka

Experts recommend stricter laws and wider awareness building to stem incidents of child abuse. Credit: Amantha Perera/IPS

By Amantha Perera

COLOMBO, Oct 9 2013 (IPS) - Stricter laws could curb the rising trend of child abuse in Sri Lanka, experts say. However, recommendations like witness protection, special courts and procedures to hear abuse cases and more legal assistance to victims are unlikely to be included in a new draft Child Protection Policy that is to be presented to parliament before the end of the year.

New Laws May Fail to Protect Children in Sri Lanka by nelvely

Status Of Tamils, Women, And Homosexuals In Sri Lanka

By Jagath Asoka -October 9, 2013 |

Dr. Jagath Asoka

Every “emotion-based reaction” is a complex; all fundamentalists and racists react to comments on religion, race, or ethnicity as if their religion, race, or ethnicity is their own mother. When you combine ethnicity and religion—e.g.,Sinhala Buddhist—even the psychiatrists cannot figure out how to name such combined complexes.

When I was ten-years old, I saw what this “mother complex” can do to a person. While my elder brother and I were playing, a teenager from our neighborhood insulted our mother; he just used two Sinhala words; my brother punched the guy in the nose, and the guy left with a bloody nose, weeping like a willow tree. My brother did not even have time to think; he just reacted; literally, he was faster than his own shadow; I stood there, totally transfixed; then I laughed, thinking, “How is he going to do that to my mother?” If you have a complex, it will give rise to abnormal or pathological behavior.

I was somewhat struck by the number of malevolent responses given to my previous article: A Tamil President in Sri Lanka. Contrary to what we see and hear, there are Sinhala Buddhists who would support the idea of a Tamil President in Sri Lanka, provided that he or she is a decent, honorable, erudite person who is fluent in Sinhalese. What do you want to do? Make an amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution to keep cloningMahinda Rakapaksa and his brothers so that they can rule Sri Lanka for forever?

Read More

The UNP’s Strategic Perspective

By Dayan Jayatilleka -October 9, 2013 

Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka

It is Sri Lanka’s good fortune, one supposes, that it is blessed with an alternative government – an Opposition—that is as blind to national realities as the regime is to international (and inter-mestic) ones. Or to amend it slightly, we have a regime that is myopic in relation to the international dimension of reality and an Opposition that is blind to its national dimension.

Consider the essay by the UNP’s communications chief, Mangala Samaraweera, compelling entitled ‘Yes Ranil Can: Why I Support him’  Mr Samaraweera for one cannot be accused of not practising what he preaches. The Sunday Times chose to highlight his call that “It is also imperative that the UNP be reorganised as a non-violent ‘resistance movement’…”TV viewers nationwide saw exactly what he meant when he spearheaded just such a non-violent resistance movement in the South last weekend. If anything is likely to repel voters from the UNP and render less ridiculous the incessant claim of the regime’s security managers that the Opposition is being geared for regime change through destabilisation and street fighting, that display was it!

The essay would have been curious even had it been published a week before the violence. It had not a single reference to the most important feature that has shaped voter consciousness and frames our political reality, however negatively one might perceive that to be, namely the military victory over the LTTE. In fact the Tigers and/or Prabhakaran make no appearance whatsoever in the article.  A Martian reading the piece might not know that there was a suicide bombing militia, described by the Foreign editor of The Australian, Greg Sheridan as perhaps the most ruthless and successful in the post World War II era, terrorising Sri Lanka for decades, nor would it know that this movement was defeated in a war waged on Mahinda Rajapaksa’s watch. Analytically this is as intelligent as trying to understand De Gaulle’s or Maggie Thatcher’s political grip with no reference to Hitler and the French resistance or the Falklands war.                    Read More

UK politicians consider genocide of Tamils in SL

Tamil Guardian , 08 October 2013

The British Tamil Forum, in collaboration with the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils, held a forum on genocide at Porticullis House today. Following opening remarks from conservative MP, Lee Scott, the event proceeded with presentations from 4 panel members ending with a short question and answer session, which was chaired by Redbridge Councillor Alan Weinberg.

UK Politicians Consider Genocide of Tamils in SL by nelvely

Sadistic Tendencies Of The Police

The following interview was originally printed in the latest issue of the Torture: Asian and Global Perspectives. 

An Interview with Dr. Sunil Cooray on Torture in Sri Lanka

( October 9, 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Dr. Sunil Cooray is a senior lawyer who is very well known in Sri Lanka. He has been in legal practice for 46 years. He is the author of the two volumes of the authoritative text Principles of Administrative Law in Sri Lanka. Basil Fernando of the Asian Human Rights Commission interviews Dr. Sunil Cooray on practice of torture in Sri Lanka.

Basil Fernando: You have done several cases in Sri Lanka relating to torture. Could you tell us a bit about your experience?

Sadistic Tendencies of the Police by nelvely

A Book That Tells The Story Of Human Tragedy

By Eran Wickramaratne - October 9, 2013

Eran Wickramaratne MP

Basil Fernando’s well researched book documents state perpetrated torture reaching back to 1998 and tells a harrowing narrative of the willingness of state machinery to resort to the most egregious violations of personal security and dignity within remit of the criminal justice system. A large number of cases paint a gruesome picture of dismembered bodies, widespread sexual assault, forced starvation and a repeated denial of medical attention. Strikingly, although the documented cases are spread out over a duration of 15 years. Each story seems resoundingly familiar. Individuals are arrested on fictitious or flimsy charges and brutalized at the hand of the system. In the event that they make it out alive, accountability for the injustices committed are rarely forthcoming and challenges to police perpetrated abuse are often silenced either through unwarranted delays in the court system or the threat of further violence outside it.

Torture victims are almost entirely the poor and marginalized in society. The lack of education, wealth, or political connections makes the victim vulnerable. The victim’s ability to resist torture and fight back false charges are minimal, and makes them easy prey in an unjust system.

In effect, our criminal justice system is seen as failing its victims twice while protecting its perpetrators from being held guilty of violating all that is fundamental in our Constitution, leaving us with a traumatized society and shrinking spaces for democracy and deliberation to thrive. The right to be free from torture is fundamental and universal. The United Nations declaration, the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and Sri Lanka’s own Act No. 22 of 1994 clearly recognizes the legal right of an individual to live in a secure environment as a free agent, free from torture. The right to be free from torture deserves our attention because its abrogation threatens to erode the very the fabric of our humanity. The fact that states engage in official torture cannot be doubted – we have heard numerous examples of state perpetrated torture in recent times (China, Nigeria, Pakistan etc.). However, it is important to stress that regardless of the circumstances, all states believe that it is wrong. All that engage in torture vehemently deny it. No state uses ‘sovereignty’ as a justification for the right to torture its own citizens.Read More

Former Sri Lankan President’s Son Was Given Aegrotat Degree – LSE Admits Today

October 9, 2013 |

Sajith Premadasa, the son of former Sri Lankan President R. Premadasa, was awarded a degree certificate by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) as a Bachelor of Science (Economics) in International Relations after sitting only his first year examinations while his father was the President of Sri Lanka, the Colombo Telegraph can reveal today.

Late President R. Premadasa

The London University has given him what is known as an Aegrotat degree on August 01, 1991, the LSE today told Colombo Telegraph. The relevant LSE regulation states: “the candidate may be offered an Aegrotat degree if satisfying the School under Regulation 45 but not recommended for an Honours or Pass degree. The candidate has the right to accept or decline the offer within a reasonable time specified by the School from time to time. In the event that the candidate has re-entered for examinations, the offer will lapse. An Aegrotat degree will be unclassified.” This means that Premadasa’s degree is not even equal to an Ordinary (Pass) degree.

When Colombo Telegraph made enquiries from LSE on October 02, it said, “Our records show that Sajith Premadasa graduated from LSE with an undergraduate degree in international relations in 1989. We do not allow students to graduate who have not completed their course of study.”

Today, however, the LSE confirmed that the former President’s son was given an Aegrotat degree in 1991, and not 1989. The LSE said they had read the Colombo Telegraph story, “Exclusive: Sajith Premadsa Only Has Sick Degrees From UK And US, London Uni Carrying Out Further Investigations” and apologized for giving wrong dates previously and the delayed reply.

In his Facebook page Sajith says; A graduate of the London School of Economics (LSE) and Political Science of the University of London, his degree covered the areas of economics, politics and international relations, an education that served him in good stead later when he launched himself as a grassroot politician.

 Read More

Buddhist Monk attacked by Bodu Bala Sena and Police inaction

Image courtesy News First

History of threats-

by WATCHDOG

- on 10/09/2013

Venerable Watareka Vijitha Thero is the Chief Incumbent of the Rotalawela Mahaweli  Maha Viharaya in Mahiyanganaya, in the Uva province. In July 2013, the Mahiyangana Pradeshiya Sabha of which Vijitha Thero is a member had discussed the destruction of a building above the shop in Mahiyanganaya, where Muslims used to pray, as this was deemed to be an illegal construction. The Thero had opposed the destruction, as it was a period of religious festivities for Muslims. Vijitha Thero had also pointed out that there were other illegal constructions in the town, and that it was wrong to only destroy a place where Muslims prayed.

Buddhist Monk Attacked by Bodu Bala Sena and Police Inaction by nelvely

Hudson kept mother at elders’ home, but 'marketed' her death

 Wednesday, 09 October 2013

With a faked grief following the death of his mother, R.M. Podihamine, on Friday, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation chairman Hudson Samarasinghe is, these days, singing praises of motherhood instead of his customary share of raw filth to start a bad day for SLBC’s listeners, according to SLBC sources.

Being sorrowful over the loss of a mother is a noble quality of a good offspring, but the SLBC chairman has done even that by misleading the world. Being a person who is subjected to the worst possible denunciation by listeners of the SLBC, he has used the loss of his mother to earn some sympathy from the world. This son does not at least know the age of his own mother. Although she died at the age of 92 years, Hudson the son had told those who had attended the funeral that she was 100 years old.

The SLBC chairman had come to understand the value of his mother just one week prior to her passing. Until then, she had been looked after by her youngest daughter at her home at Yakkala in Gampaha. After that daughter had domiciled in Australia, Hudson’s brother who lives in Peradeniya, and his wife had come to stay in Yakkala in order to look after the mother. All this time, Hudson had had no time at all to inquire about the woman who had given birth to him. He does not have any connection at all with his own siblings, but gives lectures over the SLBC about the value of love among siblings.

Hudson’s sister-in-law, who had been caring for Mrs. Podihamine, fell ill and Hudson had suddenly entered the scene and brought his mother for a few days from Yakkala to Colombo, where he stationed her at an elders’ home. But, she died there a few days later. From then on, Hudson began ‘marketing’ the death of his mother. Hudson brought the remains of the mother, who had been kept at elders’ homes on four different occasions, to his No. 255/E/11, Torrington Avenue home with the sole intention of getting the president, ministers and other VVIPs to visit his house. The body was brought there at 11.00 am on Saturday (05) and an hour later, the president came, placed a wreath and paid his last respects. Hudson Samarasinghe, fabricating a falsehood, said the funeral should take place within 24 hours according to her last wish, but what he wanted was to prevent his brother and sisters from taking part in the funeral of their mother.

Quite unexpectedly for the SLBC chairman, his brother who had been caring for the mother, and his son, came to the Jawatte Cemetery and appealed that they be allowed to have one final look at their dear departed mother. The SLBC security men and the henchmen of the chairman drove them away, saying “You came to remember your mother only now. All this time, it was our sir who had done everything. Now, you are coming here with a false love.” The duo then went to Plantation Industries Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe and the DIG in charge of Colombo who were present, and asked them to intervene and get them an opportunity to pay their last respects to the mother. However, by that time, her remains had forcibly been placed inside the crematin chamber.

Saying “You’re a good-for-nothing, you will be struck by lightning without rain for this crime. It was us who had looked after mother all this time. You are playacting now,” Hudson’s only brother and his son left the cemetery, both in grief and anger.

The person who told us this story about Hudson’s façade although being part of a tragedy, recalled an incident in Matugama some time ago, where a man who had never cared for his mother had come to know of her death, came wailing all the way, requested that he be allowed to hold the funeral according to his wish and kept the remains at his home for seven days. It later transpired that the man had practically sold the body of his mother to the village’s gaming baron and had held a gaming parlour at the funeral home for the full seven days. The only difference between that son and Hudson the son is that Hudson’s home did not have a gaming parlour during the funeral, he said further.

MaRa’s Matara violence unending : Sirasa Mudalali takes over duties of ordering police

(Lanka-e-News -09.Oct.2013, 7.30PM) The MaRa police had carried out an obnoxious operation in pursuance of a hidden agenda to arrest the UNP members of Matara and even a florist (having no party affiliations) who were not involved in the Matara violence which was an evil fallout of a Rajapakse –Kili-Sajith-Shiral conspiracy, according to reports reaching Lanka e news.

The most evil and sinister part of the police action are the arrests made by them guided by the photos in the CD cassette forwarded by Kili Maharaja and published in newspapers . Policemen had raided 40 houses of the Matara opposition members in the night (yesterday).

When an individual is taken into custody by the police there must have been a complaint or evidence , yet in these instances without any of those , they have been arrested merely based on the photos in a CD cassette and those published by newspapers. As the MaRa regime follows jungle laws so the MaRa police are ignorant of these basic legal provisions .Even to analyze a photograph there must be a court permission, yet none of these procedures have been followed by the JaRa law enforcers of MaRa.

The irregularity and falsity of these arrests had been testified to in the case of the arrest of Senaka Mahanama on the flimsy ground that he was depicted in the CD cassette produced by Kili Maharaja’s ‘Sirasa’, when Mahanama had truly gone to take his two children from a Matara library at that time .

The same brutal lawless police had gone to the house of an innocent seller of flowers near the Matara Bodhiya who had nothing to do with politics , to arrest him , but since he was not in the house , they have threatened to arrest his wife.

It is to be noted that the police are engaged in this hunt only in the middle of the night to arrest individuals like during the terror period in the past . In the circumstances , every man , woman , youth (boy and girl) of the opposition in Matara is gripped by a fear psychosis , reports say.

Mangala Samaraweera told Lanka e news that the OIC of the Matara crime division who visited him in the night (today) had told him openly that they are taking individuals into custody based on the photos displayed in the Sirasa CD cassette and ‘Mawbima’ newspapers , whereupon Mangala Samaraweera had questioned whether the Sri Lanka police are there only to dance to the tune of Sirasa Mudalalis.

The OIC had told Samaraweera to produce to the police those in the CD cassette police are searching for . But when some individuals were produced to the police to record statements , the police instead of recording their statements remanded them. Hence , if need be , they would be produced to court and not to the police , Mangala Samaraweera had told police. 

While the Rajapakse regime is in mortal fear following the people’s fierce protests and from the Matara episode it has become very clear , the double tongued Sajith Premadasa has told the BBC that Shiral and Maithri are UNP members . Sajith has forgotten that after the stoning attack on UNP headquarters , they were ousted from the party after a long drawn out disciplinary inquiry, Samaraweera pointed out.