David Cameron has to act on threat to Sri Lanka – The Times

 18 November 2013

See below for extracts from the editorial in The Times, published today.

It is easy to be brave when the stakes are low. In Sri Lanka last week for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting, the stakes were indeed low, and David Cameron was, indeed, brave.

During his time in Colombo, Mr Cameron was a walking diplomatic incident. Most notably he unequivocally informed Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan President, that there should be an independent inquiry into the last months of his country’s 2009 civil war, during which numerous abuses and war crimes are alleged, mainly on the part of the Government. If Sri Lanka is not forthcoming in establishing one, he added, he will push for one to be held under the auspices of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Mr Cameron did not stop at strong words. Prior to meeting with Mr Rajapaska, he became the first international leader since Sri Lankan independence in 1948 to travel to the country’s Tamil-dominated north.

The Tamil Tigers were a gruesome terrorist foe, but the suppression of Tamil separatism in all its forms went some way beyond the actions of a civilised state. The country banned journalists from the north at the time, and has refused to investigate allegations of war crimes, torture and brutality since then. For some, it was an outrage that Mr Cameron should have found himself in Colombo at all. For Britain to boycott the Commonwealth, however, would have been the beginning of its disintegration. The Prime Minister had a fine line to tread, and trod it well.

He should not stop there. His threat to challenge Sri Lanka at the UN should be acted upon. He should also give short shrift to the suggestion that British muscularity over the actions of any Commonwealth nation is an expression of colonialism. Bluntly, if member nations resent the spectre of Britain holding them to account, then they should be far better at doing the job themselves.

The Commonwealth has evolved into a disparate collection of nations, and sometimes seems perilously close to an anachronism. Today the diplomatic distance between Britain and many of its former colonies should be a spur towards candour, rather than equivocation. If the organisation is to survive, indeed, it must be.

See here for full editorial (paywall).

Commonwealth Games

David Cameron trod a delicate but robust line in Sri Lanka. If this unlikely family of nations is to survive, it must learn to hold itself to account

Make Efforts To Protect And Promote Human Rights – China Tells Sri Lanka

November 18, 2013 

In a surprise move, China today asked Sri Lanka to “make efforts to protect and promote human rights”, backing calls by India, Britain and other countries at the CHOGM summit in Colombo to address allegations of rights abuses against the country’s minority Tamils.

“Due to the differences in the economic and social development of different countries, there could be differences on human rights protection,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a media briefing in Beijing.

“So what is important is that the relevant country should make efforts to protect and promote human rights while other countries in the world should provide constructive assistance,” he said.

He was replying to a question on human rights issues clouding the just-concluded CHOGM summit and British Prime Minister David Cameron’s statement that his country will push for an international probe by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) if Sri Lanka does not address its human rights issues by March next year.

“This is an issue within the Commonwealth. But at the same time, I believe that on the human rights issue, dialogue and communication should be enhanced among countries,” Qin said. “We always maintained that on the human rights issues, countries around the world should enhance mutual understanding through dialogue and communication and take constructive means to promote the development of the international human rights cause,” he said.

This is perhaps for the first time that China was vocal about Sri Lanka addressing the human rights issue, as Beijing which in recent years has beefed up its ties with Colombo with billions of dollars of aid, voted against the resolutions passed by UNHRC in 2011 and 2012 censuring Colombo for its alleged rights violations during the war against the LTTE.

India, in contrast, had voted for the resolution. Qin’s comments came as China was elected to the UNHRC this year and is expected to play a role if Cameron decides to implement his ultimatum to Sri Lanka to deal with its human rights issues by March 2014 failing which the UK will work with the UNHRC to push for international investigations into alleged war crimes against the Sri Lankan Tamils.

Though not a member of the Commonwealth, much of the infrastructure for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo was funded by China, including a USD 292 million highway connecting the capital’s international airport to the main city, that transported thousands of delegates.

Courtesy PTI

War crimes & human rights: Rajapaksa quizzed at Chogm

JONATHAN MILLER FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT-SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2013
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa tells Jonathan Miller that he is ready to investigate allegations of war crimes - declaring: "We have nothing to hide. It's a free country".

Sri Lanka says it will block UN rights probe

Senior minister says country will not allow UN probe into alleged war crimes following pressure from UK prime minister.

David Cameron visited Sri Lanka's war-torn north on a fact-finding mission on Friday [Reuters]

16 Nov 2013  A senior Sri Lanka's minister has said the government will not allow an international probe into alleged war crimes during its 27-year ethnic conflict, despite mounting pressure from abroad. The comments of Basil Rajapakse, the economic development minister and brother of the president,Mahinda, came on Saturday after David Cameron, the British prime minister, pledged to push for a UN-led investigation into alleged crimes committed in the country's civil war, unless Sri Lanka credibly addressed human rights concerns by March. "Why should we have an international inquiry? We will object to it ... Definitely, we are not going to allow it," Basil Rajapakse told AFP news agency. Press  Asked about the March deadline for the Sri Lankans to complete their own inquiry, the minister rejected any talk of a timetable being imposed from outside. "They can't give dates. It is not fair. Even Cameron has said we need time. Even in Northern Ireland it took a lot of time," he said. Denials of civilian onslaught The Rajapakse regime has consistently denied any civilians were killed in the last stages of the war when government troops routed Tamil Tiger rebels in their last stronghold. However, the UN and rights groups have said as many as 40,000 civilians may have been killed in the onslaught. Cameron said he was moved by the "harrowing" testimony of survivors, who he met during his trip to the war-torn northern Jaffna region on Friday to meet local Tamils, only hours after a Commonwealth summit began in Colombo. "We understand some of the things he said were aimed at his home constituency. He was addressing the journalists who travelled with him," said Rajapakse, thanking Cameron for attending the summit. The prime ministers of Canada, India and Mauritius all stayed away from Colombo over Sri Lanka's human rights record.

After the shambles of Sri Lanka, the Commonwealth needs a relaunch

David Blair became Chief Foreign Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph in November 2011. He previously worked for the paper as Diplomatic Editor, Africa Correspondent and Middle East Correspondent.

By David Blair World Last updated: November 18th, 2013

Behind the scenes, this was an ill-attended mess (Photo: Getty)

First, the good news: David Cameron kept his promise to “shine a light” on Sri Lanka’s human rights record when he visited the country for the Commonwealth summit. If President Mahinda Rajapaksa thought this occasion was going to be a chance to showcase his regime, then he will have been sorely disappointed. In particular, Cameron’s tumultuous visit to Jaffna did a great deal of good. The world’s media took the opportunity to bring to the fore the plight of Sri Lanka’s disappeared – with 5,676 “outstanding cases” according to the United Nations – and the unresolved question of the atrocities carried out during the final battle of the civil war in 2009.

Cameron made one specific pledge: if the investigations launched by Sri Lanka’s own government into the above issues do not report by March, then Britain will use its membership of the UN Human Rights Council to press for a full international inquiry. So far so good. The problem is that the Human Rights Council is a pretty ramshackle body, obsessed in the past with condemning Israel and shielding the likes of Sudan and North Korea.

Whether it can be persuaded to place pressure on Sri Lanka remains to be seen. In addition, Rajapaksa’s regime enjoys the diplomatic protection of China, which is building a new port on Sri Lanka’s southern coast. China would, of course, be able to veto any moves against its ally in the Security Council. With the best will in the world, Britain may be unable to deliver a proper international inquiry.

As for the Commonwealth itself, the blunt truth is that the institution cannot afford another summit of this kind. The Sri Lanka “heads of government meeting” was a shambles, boycotted by the leaders of two of the most important members – Canada and India – and overshadowed by the controversy over its location. In the end, only 25 of the Commonwealth’s 53 presidents and prime ministers bothered to come to Sri Lanka – the lowest turnout ever. Some of those who did make the journey chose to leave early.

Thankfully, Malta is the safe choice to host the next summit in 2015. But anyone who cares about this institution must hope that a fiasco of this kind never happens again. The Commonwealth may not be able to survive a repeat performance.

All of this took place on the watch of Kamalesh Sharma, the Commonwealth’s secretary general. He cannot be allowed to evade his responsibility. Few have any confidence in Sharma, an obscure bureaucrat who has shown more interest in revamping the Commonwealth’s website than tackling the human rights abuses of some of its members. After Sri Lanka, the Commonwealth needs a relaunch. It could start by finding a new secretary general.

Australia's Refugee Shame

Nikki McWatters

 18/11/2013 

Today, as I read the newspapers, I have a sinking feeling in my belly. I realise that I am not proud to be an Australian. Long known for our laid back barbeque and surfboard lifestyle, our friendly mateship and love a cool ale, we are shifting toward a more sinister archetype. If our elected representatives are anything to go by, the typical Australian is fast becoming something shameful and embarrassing - a misogynist, racist, cruel and stupid yokel. We are being reduced to a mob who more resemble southern-cross tattooed Cronulla rioters, shouting bloody towel-heads piss off home.

A changing of the guard in Australian politics has seen a conservative right-wing attitude take hold and the basic human rights of Article 31 of the Refugee Convention are being ignored and people fleeing from persecution are wrongly being labelled 'illegals', a move destined to ingrain a little more hatred and fear of these 'others' who don't look like white men in suits and blue ties.

And now the rest of world is beginning to become aware of how we treat foreign asylum seekers. The appalling story of Latifa, a thirty-one year old woman, seeking asylum from her homeland of Myanmar, has reverberated about the global media. She recently gave birth to a little baby who is suffering respiratory dysfunction. Four days after the caesarean section birth, the mother and child were separated and the mother can only see the child during designated visiting hours. 

This new government has now taken what seems to be an even more diabolical step. In 2012, the biggest source country for refugee boats to my country was from Sri Lanka, a place still reeling from a violent civil war. It is very common for people to be fleeing post-war conditions. It happened in Europe in the aftermath of World War One and Two. The bombs and bullets may have stopped but the conditions that caused the conflict continue to simmer. Bala Vigneswaran, a spokesman for the Australian Tamil Congress, has said 'People disappear, the militarization of the northern east of Sri Lanka continues and people are still in trouble.'

So, given that more than six thousand asylum seekers sought refuge in Australia in 2012, what does our government now decide to do? In an unconscionable piece of arse-holeness, the government under Tony Abbott has decided to give a couple of 'retired' navy boats to the Sri Lankan authorities so that they can nab the very people who are running away from them. Seriously?! That is akin to us giving some big nets to Hitler to help him catch the fleeing Jews so that we don't have to deal with them when they come knocking on our door requesting sanctuary from persecution. And to add insult to injury, it is from within the Sri Lankan navy ranks that the worst of the people smugglers have been weeded out and convicted. So, ironically, Tony Abbott's gift boats might just end up being used as people smuggling vessels. Instead of stopping the boats, he's inadvertently giving them the boats! It would be funny, if it wasn't so not funny.

The UK's PM, David Cameron, is in Sri Lanka visiting the victims of the bloody, twenty-five year long civil war. He acknowledges that people are still suffering and he is using his trip there to highlight and raise awareness of the human rights abuses still going on. Meanwhile Tony Abbott is giving these human rights abusers the keys to his old boats to hunt down and capture those foolish enough to try to flee for their lives. No doubt the persecuted will then be further persecuted for their 'crime' of trying to run. Nice one Tony! Move over Bashar Assad, we've got a new bad boy on the block!

There will always be poor and oppressed people, struggling, seeking safe havens. To stop people from seeking legitimate asylum from persecution is to engage in it and perpetrate it. If you had to stand by and watch Jewish children loaded onto wagons for the concentration camps, what would you do? What could you do? I have no muscle and a small voice. But I'm raising it in anger and frustration.

To those people, men, women and children, from all corners of the globe, who come to my shores seeking aid, just like Mary, Joseph and Jesus did in Egypt during Herod's reign, I say sorry. We are not all monsters here. You deserve respect and empathy, something sorely lacking in our new Australian Ship of Fools Government.

Central Bank As Advisor To the Govt.: How And What It Should Advise?

By W.A Wijewardena -November 18, 2013 

Dr. W.A. Wijewardena

An important role played by a central bank of a country is to advise its government on economic and financial matters.

The expanded role of the Central Bank as government’s economic advisor

This has not been clearly laid down in the case of the Monetary Law Act or MLA under which the Central Bank of Sri Lanka or CBSL has been set up except some provisions relating to selective areas where CBSL’s advice to the government has been mandated. Under these selective areas, one important requirement is for CBSL to submit a special report to the Government, known as the September 15th Report because it is submitted on or before 15 September of every year, for use in the preparation in the budget by the Minister of Finance.

The statutory requirement is to cover in the report only the current monetary situation and the policy of the bank and how the government’s budgetary policy affect the bank’s ability to attain its monetary policy objectives. However, in practice, the bank has been submitting a very comprehensive report on all aspects of the economy including the international developments and their impact on the country’s economy.  Apart from this, a healthy tradition has been established ever since the Central Bank was set up in 1950 for governments of all hues to consult the Central Bank on important economic and financial issues facing the country.

Consultation of the Central Bank even on hilarious matters  Read More  

UNP Colombo Mayor Backs Rajapaksa CHOGM; Flouts UNP Boycott Decision

November 18, 2013 

The UNP Leadership Council is being urged to launch a disciplinary inquiry into the conduct of its Colombo Mayor, after the latter flouted a party decision last week.

Colombo Mayor A.J.M. Muzammil attended the CHOGM opening ceremony on Friday despite a decision by the UNP Leadership Council to boycott Commonwealth proceedings due to the recent attacks on its party headquarters by Government goons.

Dammika, Mahinda, Muzammil and Basil / File photo

Muzammil has feigned ignorance about the party decision, arrived at on Wednesday after a human rights festival at its Sirikotha headquarters came under attack by Government sponsored demonstrators.

However, earlier the Mayor told the media that inspite of the incident, he had participated in the opening ceremony “displaying the spirit of patriotic cooperation and to fulfill the duties that have traditionally been bestowed upon the city of Colombo’s first citizen.”

But party insiders say Muzammil, made the calculation that it was safer to flout his Party orders rather than risk the wrath of Defence and Urban Development Authority Ministry SecretaryGotabaya Rajapaksa. He is now seeking the UNP’s forgiveness for attendance.Read More

Causing deliberate hardships, compromising poverty to aligning people

 by Robinhood

( November 18, 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Unable to provide economic relief to the people as promised after the completion of the war the Rajapaksa regime is soon plunging into despair and unpopularity. To regain the popularity the regime is sorting the community; deliberately weakening the public, destructing the democratic choices of its people by selectively exercising and implementing its rule of law and equity. The regime is indirectly persuading the people to become its stooges in the name of synthetic patriotism. The regime does this by causing deliberate hardship to its community and persuading their support to regain its popularity. By causing hardships the poverty is used as a trump to weak the general publics thereby align peoples support and suppress the rest who rejects the Rajapaksa administration by various political intimidations.

People in North are prevented and obstructed in exercise their political rights by freely allowing them to engage in political activities. People in the north are often under the surveillance of the military and the civil defense force recruited by the regime.

In the post war torn areas in the North of Sri Lanka the regime is forcibly influencing the ethnic Tamil community to render their support by indirect intimidation. This is conducted in a systematic way by reducing the reliefs given to the war affected people who are currently being resettled. In other words, relief and incentives are given only to people who support the Rajapaksa regime. The remaining dissenting political voices are given a step mother treatment or deliberately plunge them into a difficult state or indirectly intimidate them by delaying the reliefs and incentives. Intimidations are exercised in multiple forms against the northern people such as delaying their reliefs and development, obstructing livelihood, not providing jobs, prevent access to properties and delaying their wages etc etc.

As I stated in my previous articles, the reliefs are distributed in a selective and an incentive basis. By doing this the regime is taking away the democratic choices of the people by burdening them with economic hardship and compromising their support by fowl means. The Rajapaksa government is increasing the cost of living and burdening the people by imposing more taxes and plunging the people into poverty thus by offering perks and benefits to a faction of people who support him. This is an illicit way of gaining support of the people by selectively debilitating them. The regime by giving an assurance to the International community in the last UNHRC session that it will implement the LLRC that it would create a conducive environment for the Tamil refugees living outside Sri Lanka to come to their motherland to meet their loved ones and access their properties instead has started a witch-hunt against Tamils national who are deported from Europe by detaining them in the airport when they arrive by using the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). By doing this the regime systematically prevent the Tamils coming and settling in Sri Lanka and accessing their properties. The regime systematically colonizes new people from the south to the north to create a synthetic vote bank in border villages where ethnic Tamil lived before the next General and Presidential Elections.

Many private electronic and print media organizations support the Rajapaksa regime by reporting partially or help the regime to conduct its smear campaign against opposition politicos. If any organization or individual unable to counter the repression and undemocratic conduct of the Rajapaksa Regime, instead of combating the violations, inequity and impunity promote and support the regimes authoritarian administration in order to remain free from persecution and threats imposed by the Rajapaksa regime.

The regime by the name of rehabilitation and providing jobs to the former LTTE carders has formed a civil monitoring team and trained the ex LTTE carders to work as informants and spies to provide information about civilian movements to identify people who work against the regime and to identify people working with TNA (Tamil National Alliance) and inform about their activity to the government intelligence. When the civil monitoring team refusing to do so will be victimized by the regime. Whoever is a challenge or threat to the regime is militarily intimidated and politically victimized by the Rajapaksa regime in power.

People in North are prevented and obstructed in exercise their political rights by freely allowing them to engage in political activities. People in the north are often under the surveillance of the military and the civil defense force recruited by the regime.

In the south of Sri Lanka the regime systematically breaking all major political parties by politically victimizing the opposition party politicos by selectively enforcing the bribery and corruption charges against them leaving the most wanted. By doing all this and by the name of ushering peace the regime is portraying a predicament environment where freedom of expression and association is barred. In the recently concluded Northern provincial council elections it is learnt many polling booths are angled in such a way that people casting their vote is visible to the polling agents. This is a clear violation of unable to protect the privacy in using their franchise against their preferred party or candidate as stated in the constitution. This is a kind of an indirect threat against the northern people to monitor the voting pattern of each district secretariat division which supports the TNA. By identifying the people who support the opposition TNA the regime start its which-hunt or oppress that community by selectively and casually implementing the basic infrastructures and the rule of law.

In order to protect the regimes existence the only slogan the regime can carry forward to gain power in the coming elections is nurturing communal hatred to the hearts and minds of the majority Singhalese community against the minorities. By instigating this, the regime tries to preserve the major vote bank from the majority Buddhist Singhalese which is 75% out of total population of SL.

Iraq's Kurdistan backs Turkey peace efforts

Masoud Barzani made the announcement during his first visit to southeastern Turkey since 1992.

17 Nov 2013 

The president of Iraqi Kurdistan has called on Turkey's Kurds to back a flagging peace process with Ankara, in a show of support for Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s bid to overcome a three-decade conflict.

Masoud Barzani made the announcement on Saturday during his first visit to Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast, in two decades.

Ankara hopes to use Barzani's influence as a respected figure among Turkey's Kurds to bring the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) back to the negotiating table.

"This is a historic visit for me ... We all know it would have been impossible to speak here 15 or 20 years ago," Barzani said, as members of the crowd waved green, white and orange Kurdistan flags.

"Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has taken a very brave step towards peace. I want my Kurdish and Turkish brothers to support the peace process," he said.

Ankara seeks to kick start the stalled peace talks since a ceasefire declaration in March. PKK is saying reforms announced by Ankara last month, meant to boost Kurdish rights, had fallen well short of expectations.

Turkey's effort to make peace with the PKK has been given a sense of urgency by Syria's 2-1/2 year civil war in which Kurds have made major territorial gains, paving the way for their long-declared plans for independent governance in parts of Syria just over Turkey's southern border.

Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan share concern about the growing clout of Kurdish militias in Syria, particularly after their announcement this week of an interim administration that aims to carve out an autonomous Syrian Kurdish region.

Both Turkish and Iraqi Kurdish officials in Arbil have criticised the declaration, which lays out plans for a regional government similar to that of Iraqi Kurdistan, seeing it as part of a deal with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Kurds, often described as the world's largest stateless ethnic group, number about 30 million, concentrated in parts of Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq. While they have had partial autonomy in Iraqi Kurdistan since 1991, nationalist movements have long been suppressed in Turkey, Syria and Iran.

Channel 4 News returns to Sri Lanka
Sunday 17 Nov 2013

A team from Channel 4 News has returned to Sri Lanka, having not been allowed in for four years, in order to cover the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm).

Channel 4 News has, since the end of the Sri Lankan civil war, reported on and revealed convincing evidence of war crimes allegedly carried out by the Sri Lankan regime and military. We have been allowed into the country because the British prime minister and foreign secretary insisted that a full complement of British media attend Chogm.

The return of Channel 4 News, as well as Callum Macrae, award-winning director of films on Sri Lanka’s alleged human rights violations such as No Fire Zone and Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields, is being closely monitored by the Sri Lankan media.

On arrival in Sri Lanka, international journalists are being handed a 222-page book entitled Corrupted Journalism: Channel 4 and Sri Lanka – an out-and-out attack on the journalism of Channel 4 News.

- See more at: http://blogs.channel4.com/world-news-blog/channel-4-news-returns-sri-lanka/26354#sthash.M7VOEhjh.dpuf

An open letter to Sri Lankan journalists

Jonathan Miller on Foreign Affairs

Sunday 17 Nov 2013

I definitely detected a delicious sense of “schadenfreude” from among you brave – but mischievous -  Sri Lankan journalists, over the relentless harassment of me and my Channel 4 News colleagues by state intelligence, police and immigration officers.

I’m not referring to the ranting rottweiler “reporters” who do the regime’s clunky propagandist bidding, although I have no doubt that they enjoyed it too.

An Open Letter to Sri Lankan Journalists by nelvely

Channel 4 Team Quits Sri Lanka Citing ‘Unacceptable Intimidation’

November 17, 2013 

The controversial British broadcaster Channel 4 has decided to leave Sri Lanka due to “unacceptable intimidation” that prevents them from reporting, the channel’s news editor says.

Channel 4 Editor Ben De Pear

A Channel 4 crew headed by Ben de Pear has been in Colombo since last week where they have been bombarded with protests and placed under severe surveillance by the defence authorities.

“As it is impossible to operate as journalists due to unacceptable levels of control and intimidation @channel4news are leaving Sri Lanka”, De Pear tweeted a short while ago.

It is also reported that Channel 4 CorrespondentJonathan Miller was pelted with stones earlier in the day.

The crew were dogged by demonstrators accusing them of being LTTE mercernaries and prevented from travelling North by protestors who flooded the railway tracks in Anuradhapura last week. Police shoved them into a vehicle and forced the crew to return to Colombo. The driver of their vehicle later accused the team of not paying the van hire and filed a police complaint at Slave Island police.

Crimes by the LTTE do not justify alleged crimes by the Govt. – Macrae

By Jayantha Sri Nissanka and Sulochana Ramiah Mohan-Monday, 18 Nov 2013

The controversial Channel 4 director of the documentary, No Fire Zone: Killing Fields of Sri Lanka, Callum Macrae, is in Sri Lanka to cover the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). Speaking to Ceylon Today, the father of two children who is happily married, said he had visited the country two years ago, having arrived here under cover, and went on to say that Sri Lanka is a beautiful country with lovely people. He however said, he and his C4 team have had to put up with a ‘tough time’ during their stay in the country.

Excerpts:

Q: Did you meet President Rajapaksa?

A: No, I did not meet him, but my colleague, Jonathan Miller, met him.

Crimes by the LTTE do not justify alleged crimes by the Govt. – Macrae by nelvely

BBC Sinhala Head Suspended: Non Sinhala Bosses Appointed, Liyanage’s Reports On Frances Harison’s Documentary Removed From BBC Web

November 17, 2013 

Head of the BBC Sinhala Service, Priyath Liyanage, has been suspended, the Colombo Telegraph can exclusively reveal today.

A non-Sinhala outsider has been specially appointed to look after all BBC Sinhala Service activities for the first time of its history and the Sinhala Service staff has been informed about Priyath Liyanage’s suspension in writing, the Colombo Telegraph learns.

Priyath Liyanage

Unprecedentedly, the BBC Sinhala Service reporters have been asked to translate all their reports into English to be checked by higher authorities.

The Colombo Telegraph sent an email to the BBC Press office [worldservice.press@bbc.co.uk] asking several questions related to the suspension of its head of Sinhala Service. Strangely, the message we received said: “Delivery has failed”.

Early this year the BBC Sinhala head was sent to follow a BBC course on Journalistic ethics after he was caught giving letters of recommendation to Sri Lanka government to approve interest free loans  to his deputy Chandana Keerthi Bandara and to the  Colombo reporter Elmo Fernando.

Colombo Telegraph reliably learns that the Sandesya programs related to Frances Harrison‘s recent BBC documentary on Sri Lanka have been removed from the BBC website after investigations.

Related posts;

The Portrait of a People

by Tisaranee Gunasekara

“It shows that something is wrong with the system of government that injures the felicity by which society is to be preserved”.

Paine (Rights of Man)

( November 16, 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) A majority of Sinhalese are less extremist, more rational and more humane than their Rajapaksa-saviours, according to the latest opinion survey by the Centre of Policy Alternatives (CPA) .

The Portrait of a People by nelvely