Kennedy Assassination, 50 Years On: Memory Of A Lifetime

“By Rajan Philips -November 24, 2013

Rajan Philips

It certainly is not like yesterday, but few among those born before 1957 would fail to remember the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on Friday, 22 November 1963, an event that traumatized all of America and touched the entire world.  The fateful day and the moment have become a point of temporal reference for Americans – ever since comparing notes as to where they were and what they were doing when choking radio broadcasters startled the nation with the news flash that President Kennedy had died.  Not just the Americans, Svetozar Rajak, a Serbian and now Cold War historian at LSE, was six years old in 1963 and remembers his shock watching on television the announcement of Kennedy’s death .  His family was living in Belgrade in what was then Tito’s Yugoslavia and the family had just bought their first television.  Two days later the family and neighbours were cramped around the new television to watch Kennedy’s funeral meticulously choreographed by his grieving widow.  Their street in Belgrade was renamed John Kennedy Street.

I was fifteen, it was Saturday morning in Sri Lanka and I remember coming out of the parish Church after morning Mass and joining others crowded in front of shops listening to the radio news announcing President Kennedy’s death hours earlier in far way America.  Television was still sixteen years away for Sri Lankan homes but the radio and the newspapers were riveting enough over the next two days.  Four years younger, I had followed with equal intensity the death and funeral of Prime Minister Bandaranaike, the first political assassination in my life time.  But for whatever reason the death of Kennedy was greater drama.   Read More

The Trail of Lee Harvey Oswald

“By Ruwan M Jayatunge -November 24, 2013 

Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge MD

In 1988 I went to Minsk - the capital city of Belarus to find some facts about Lee Harvey Oswald who was believed to be the lone gunman in JFK Assassination. It had been 25 years after the President John F Kennedy‘s assassination. The Minsk had almost forgotten the American defector who lived in their city. No one talked about him.  Moreover the Soviet people had no interest in the JFK saga and they had other things to worry about. Perestroika and economic changes have caused dramatic changes in their lives. People were anxious about market economy and other reforms that rapidly changed the Soviet society.

It was mid January and temperature was about minus sixteen degrees Celsius. My Polish winter coat did not fully help me to fight the Russian winter that defeated Napoleon Bonaparte and Field-Marshal Friedrich Paulus. The cold wind was terrible and it was piercing through my bones.

Near the Minsk train station (Vokzal Minsk) I took a taxi cab- a black color Volga which was popularly known as the Russian Mercedes. The taxi driver was a middle aged man who knew the city of Minsk like the back of his hand. Where to? He asked in a polite manner. I immediately noticed his Belorussian accent. I did not know my destination. It was a frantic effort to look for someone who lived in this city some 26 years ago. I had no address, only had a name: Mr. Lee Harvey Oswald.

I need to find the apartment that Lee Harvey Oswald lived many years ago I told the taxi driver. Who? He asked with a surprise. I explained him again, Lee Harvey Oswald the guy who killed the president of the United States of America. The taxi driver had no clue about Lee Harvey Oswald. But he knew who JFK was. So we reached a Police Officer. I posed the same question to him. Instead of answering my question he checked my documents. I was a medical student on my winter vacation and I had obtained a visa to travel to West Germany. My documents were in proper order. So he returned my documents.          Read More   

Opp. leader Mahinda said he’ll wipe out Bandaranaikes from politics - Gamini Jayawickrama

 Saturday, 23 November 2013 

“During the period president Mahinda Rajapaksa was the fisheries minister, he was undercut a lot by his party. When I asked him to join our party and form a government, what he said was – ‘I will stand fast, f--k that c--t, become the party leader and wipe the Bandaranaikes out from politics.’ Now, the Bandaranaikes are being wiped out. So is the SLFP”, said former chairman of UNP Gamini Jayawickrama Perera.

Mr. Perera was speaking at a media briefing, at which he also commented on the Dayasiri Jayasekara’s crossover and the shortcut ways of Sajith Premadasa to become leader of the UNP. A media institution has handed over the audio tape of this discussion to former president Chandrika Kumaratunga.

Mr. Gamini Jayawickrama Perera also said, “What I advised him (Dayasiri) was that there are no ladders to go up in politics. There were only two exceptions – Madam Chandrika and D.B. Wijetunga. He had retired and was in a governor position when a MP position came his way due to a past meritorious deed. Mr. Premadasa made him prime minister. He later became president. Chandrika too, went up similarly. But remember, I am telling the president, his people and our people as well, take one step up in the lader at a time. I will tell one thing. Do you remember his (president) playing a role in a tele drama? At that time he was the fisheries minister. He was undercut a lot by the madam president. He was indirectly told to leave. The president played the role in the tele drama under the direction of Samson Kumarage, who was my media director. He told me, “Mr. minister, please book the Kurunegala circuit bungalow for a party for the actors and actresses.’ He also invited me. Mayor Nimal also came. I remember Mahinda Rajapaksa was wearing a sarong. I tried to take him to the UNP. I told him to go to the room. Those days, we addressed each other as ‘machang.’ Those friendships are not there any longer. The mayor too, was watching. I told Nimal to join our discussios. Machang, you are being undercut by Chandrika. Why do you just carry on? Join us. We will give you a good position. Then, he rebuked Madam Chandrika in those raw filthy words. Our mayor Nimal too, will bear witness.”

“Anyhow, the president has real talent. I think that he decided on his very first day in parliament to become the country’s leader. He worked according to a real plan. Those days, his biggest challenge came from Anura Bandaranake. Mahinda planned well and made Anura addicted to alcohol and women. Anura could not survive. Then, his main obstacle was SB Dissanayake. He was given ropes and driven to the UNP. Then, he got Mangala to help him to become the president. Thereafter, he threw out Mangala to pave the way for Namal. No one has realistically studied Mahinda Rajapaksa’s political games. But, there is one thing which the president does not consider. He is making the UNP stronger, not the SLFP. The UNP regime that will be elected next time cannot be shaken until the eternity. That will be the end of the SLFP,” Mr. Gamini Jayawickrama Perera said.

Full Speech: Ranil Wickremesinghe’s On The 2014 Budget

Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe‘s on the 2014 budget at parliament.

Ranil Wickremesinghe

Budget is a scam: Ranil

November 23, 2013 

• No real development since war ended: UNP
• Debt trap is burgeoning, says Ranil
• Lankans pay 41% of income in taxes: Ravi K
• Dr. Amunugama says UNP criticism hasn’t helped Opposition win elections; stresses Budget 2014 focus is development, engagement, and equity

By Ashwin Hemmathagama
Our Lobby Correspondent
The Government’s Budget 2014 has impoverished 99% of the population, while contributing to the fattening of a measly 1% of the super rich, Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament yesterday, as the debate opened on the UPFA’s ninth annual economic policy statement.
The UPFA Budget proposals were nothing more than a heap of numbers and a stack of heavy documents that had failed to provide relief to a majority of the Sri Lankan people, the Opposition Leader said.
“It’s a scam. It is a budget that effectively sends the people to the electric chair,” Wickremesinghe told the House yesterday.
Sri Lanka under the current Government was transforming into a hub of casinos, drugs and illicit commissions, Wickremesinghe said. “It’s not a five hub policy that the Government is implementing, but a tri-power hub of casinos, drugs and corruption,” he charged.
A real budget would provide a clear picture of the country’s economy and provide insight into which direction the country is headed in, he explained.
The Opposition Leader questioned what the Government had really been able to achieve since the end of the war, when Sri Lanka’s major expenditure ceased and opportunity was created to enhance its citizens’ living standards.“Has there being an increase in livelihood and improvement in standard of living? Have we reduced unemployment? Have we reduced debt? What are the economic enhancements farmers and the ordinary public have received? All that has happened is that the Government has taken the country headlong into a debt trap over the past four years,” he said.
The Government was trapping the entire population in dangerous amounts of foreign debt claiming it was for development but in fact the money was going to line the pockets of individuals, the Opposition Leader said.
“The United National Party only took foreign aid at very low rates on long term. But this government borrows on commercial rates. UNP was not greedy for debt. According to the Central Bank Rs. 80 billion worth Treasury bills and Rs. 317 billion worth of Treasury bonds are now held by foreigners. The Government boasts about sovereignty but this is like being in debt to Shylock,” Wickremesinghe said.
He said 80% of the taxes imposed in this budget were indirect. “By Minister Tissa Vitarana’s own admission, 70% of the population is in the low income category, with an average income of Rs. 30,000 when the average household expenditure is Rs. 47,000 per month,” Wickremesinghe explained.
Responding to Wickremesinghe’s statement, Minister of International Monetary Co-operation and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning Dr. Sarath Amunugama asked the Opposition Leader the reasons for the UNP to get defeated on 25 occasions if development had been so wonderful under the UNP Government.
“Development, engagement and equity was the Budget 2014 theme. It is a Budget prepared having consulted almost all sectors in the society. This is the reason the entire country has accepted it across the board. The GDP growth, inflation, exchange rate, current account balance, debt to GDP ratio, employment generation, budget deficit, the investment to GDP ratio are the parameters used to asses a budget,” the Deputy Finance Minister said.
Amunugama said the Sri Lankan economy had grown 7.3% in 2013 and the Government was expecting it to remain at 7.5% in 2020.
“Sri Lanka is on par with the global economic growth rates. This is not possible if agriculture, industry, and services sectors have failed. Tourism will be a key focus in addition to migrant workers. This is a part of the global remittances.
“We have curtailed inflation at 6%, which is less than the countries in developing Asia. Poverty index is 6%. Unemployment is 5%. Fiscal deficit is reduced to 5.4%. We expect to have the fiscal deficit to 3%. We invest 30% of our GDP to meet these development targets. Unless we get foreign aids it is not possible to maintain a rapid growth in infrastructure,” added Dr. Amunugama.
Joining the debate, UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake said Budget 2014 lacked vision and was essentially a plan to spend rather than earn money.
“The Budget proposals are incomplete. They should have contained the fiscal policy and the monetary policy details, the balance of payment situation, the import substitution policy, the capital fund utilisation.”
He said the Government was planning to reduce the budget deficit through foreign borrowings, which was a dangerous course. “Concessionary loans have reduced and the Government is going in for non-concessionary loans,” he said. Karunanayake said Sri Lankans pay 41% of their income as direct and indirect taxes.
“If the money spent for CHOGM was used for public benefit, you could have reduced petrol by Rs. 50,” he charged.

Govt's CHOGM bill at Rs 15.8 B

By Ravi Ladduwahetty-Sunday, 24 Nov 2013

The government has spent a whopping Rs 15.8 billion on the recently concluded Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), opposition charged in Parliament yesterday. Spending money of this magnitude for a meeting of this nature should have some sense of proportion where 54 Mercedes Benzes were imported for the 54 Heads of Governments, but only 21 arrived, Colombo District United National Party (UNP) MP, Ravi Karunanayake, speaking during the budget debate said.

"This is the amount the government has spent and we want them to come clean about these expenses, which include Rs 5 billion for the limousines and the other expenses include the roads and other infrastructure developments, the payment of hotel bills and all other related expenses," Karunanayake told Ceylon Today on the sidelines of the budget debate.

He also said hosting an international meeting such as CHOGM and the Commonwealth Business Forum was good, but, effectively the businessmen who arrived were not the businessmen from the Commonwealth, but from China!

He also blamed the government for getting commercial loans at high interest rates of 6% and 7%, which were also associated with the NDB Bank's Dollar Bond issue and others, whereas the concessionary loans that the UNP got during its short-lived government of 2001 was only at 0.5% interest.

"It is indeed sad that the government was spending 41% of its revenue on repaying loans and now it has risen to 43%," he alleged.

Karunanayake also said President Mahinda Rajapaksa's budget speech did not outline the strategies to explain the revenue proposals, but the document which was placed before Parliament yesterday was only about government expenses. "It is now the services sector which is bringing in 62% of the revenue, but the President did not spell out the strategies to bridge the Rs 11 billion budget deficit. It was the bad management of the economy which has led to the higher call rates for mobile phones, higher prices for petrol and also the higher interest on bank loans.

"The government has claimed there is a Rs 20 billion decrease in the expenses of the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development, but the actual statistics show something different.

"The government's Rs 1 billion proposal for a Farmers' Pension scheme can cater to only 69,000 farmers, but there are 6.9 million farmers in the country, which means the government should have provided Rs 6 billion for the farmers' pension funds.

"Though the government has claimed the public servants have been assured of additional allowances, the increment does not match the inflation rate. "The government has allocated
Rs 6,700 million for education, which was a mere 1.3% of the budget, but a UNP government would have increased to around 4% of the budget."

Karunanayake also debunked the government's claim of Rs 3,100 per capita income, which he said, would have shown that each employee should have received Rs 31,000. But, the reality is that there are employees who are barely drawing Rs 20,000 per month, he pointed out.

"It is absurd for the government to pay the expatriates a mere 2.5% interest on Non Resident Foreign Currency Accounts when the government was paying 9-10% on foreign loans," he charged.

Commenting on the Hambantota Port, Karunanayake said the government's revenue was only Rs 200 million from the 140 ships that docked there to date, but the annual loan and the interest component was Rs 6.8 billion.

Police juniors, without fault, suspended over stale dinner

 Saturday, 23 November 2013 

The Police Department has suspended with immediate effect, on disciplinary grounds, a sergeant and eight PCs of Mathurata Police, who had been in Colombo for the security of CHOGM last week, say department sources.

On the night of November 13, they had been accommodated at Hindu College, Bambalapitiya. The meal packets given them had become stale and leaving those packets in the room they were in, they had gone to sleep on an empty stomach. A group from Nuwara Eliya Police, who had, like them, been accommodated in the third storey of the building, had raised a din, demanding dinner. They had been drunk and one of them had urinated, from the third floor, into the ground.

Hearing the disturbance, the nine men from Mathurata Police had come out to inquire and those who had been shouting, had left.

At 7.00 am on the following morning, SSP Priyantha Weerasuriya had come, packed the group from Mathurata Police into a jeep and taken them out of Hindu College. Without detailing them for any duty that day, they had been kept isolated from each other and statements recorded from each of them. Also, they had been examined by a doctor of the Colombo National Hospital to find out as to whether they had been under the influence of liquor on the previous night. On the same day, they had been sent back to Mathurata Police.

They had been suspended on disciplinary grounds on November 19. According to police sources, the group from Nuwara Eliya Police, the real culprits, had been saved from trouble by minister Arumugam Thondaman, as the SI Ravi Chandran, who had urinated from the third floor, was a bodyguard of his. But, the juniors from Mathurata Police, who had nothing to do with the incident, have been suspended.

Weliweriya And The Right To Life: Is It A Fundamental Human Right?

By Ranil Senanayake -November 23, 2013 

Ranil Senanayake

“We don’t want the right to vote, just the right to live” the villager said, holding his dying child in his arms.

This is the simple truth that seems to elude most development work. The right to life is more intrinsic to humanity than democracy or suffrage.  The more we look to science to validate modern society, the more evident becomes the conclusion that humans share the same evolutionary heritage as all other life on this planet: sustaining genetic information through environments that vary in time. This tells us that adaptation can only be made slowly and within finite limits.  All living things stressed beyond these limits die.  It is as simple as that.

Heat or cool a bacterium, algae or elephant beyond a certain threshold and they die.  The same holds true for all elements of the environment whether they be as innocuous as salt or as toxic as strychnine. The right to sustain conditions that are benign to life is the most fundamental right that can be recognized for any human or any other living thing.  Until this right has been recognized, how can we answer the plea of that parent? Freedom from conditions hostile to life must become a basic right. A right to life!

We address the human condition so eloquently these days, but is it not time to address the human being?  For instance, we are ready to spend billions on the war on poverty.  But, will poverty be defined as a lack of clean water, food and access to health care?  Will it be recognized as an erosion of the right to life? Or will it be defined in handy economic terms pretending that a change in settings will address the problem?

It is in this context that we should examine the right to life. Access to clean drinking water, clean breathable air and clean, non-toxic food must be non-negotiable and fundamental.        Read More

The Star Of The Bethlehem

By Ranil Wijeyesekera -November 23, 2013 

Ranil Wijeyesekera

The star of Bethlehem is important to the Christian Faith. It involves the wise men who probably came from different cultural background. The incarnate Jesus experienced all trials and sufferings of man. The wise men blessing and gifts denotes their experience coalesced  with Jesus giving a worldwide blessing to the King of Kings. The Bethlehem Star shows that even the stars acknowledged the saviors’ of the world’s birth.

Predestination, incarnation had a role to play in God’s Plan before the Creation of the World. We should understand the son of man, Jesus is hundred percent divine and hundred percent human. Jesus Birth, life and death and resurrection were the cornerstone in God’s Plan of a New Creation.  Let us consider this in the background of Jesus’ birth and life. Permit me to meditate on the word of God. Let us test theories and prove them in life’s journey with the prompting of the Holy Spirit..

Jesus the word was present at Creation. The Universe was created by the Word spoken by God. God the Holy Spirit was also present at Creation. The Father, Son and Holy Ghost are divine and equally God. There are no other Gods. Satan is Lucifer a fallen Arch Angel and a created being. The Trinity are not created beings but were always in existence.

The Trinity consisting of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit act as the perfect team sharing in Creation, Saving Grace and Sustaining. Each of us is uniquely knit and molded in the Womb with a Divine purpose in mind. God knows what everyone will do even as he gave us free will. He will however make use of all of us to further reach nearer his Divine Plan. Likewise Gods plan include a multi ethnic and multi cultural society. Man is called to multiply and reach the furthermost places on Earth. Different locations call for different groups to adjust for the conditions on the ground. God promised Abraham to be a Father to many nations. The Jew and Arab have been a Blessing in many ways to all of us. Christians are as Abrahams spiritual children are blessed and have become a Blessing to many. The wise men are example where the east and west meet. All cultures kneeled down to Jesus.                                                              Read More       

Rathupaswala aftermath

Editorial-November 23, 2013, 9:14 pm 

Four months have passed since the Weliweriya – Belummahara shooting where several people, including two schoolboys, died in what to all intents and purposes appears to have been a military over-reaction to protests against suspicions of contamination of wells in the Rathupaswala area where the Dipped Products’ rubber glove manufacturing facilities are located. The factory has remained closed for production since July 30 and an industry, painstakingly built over a long period of time is ``crumbling day by day,’’ its owners said last week. Very few people realize that the Rathupaswala plant which is now closed accounts for over one percent of the country’s export revenue. Ironically, the second largest shareholder of Dipped Products is the Employees Provident Fund with hundreds of thousands or working people in its membership. The EPF stake in the company had grown from 12.6 percent in fiscal 2012 to 13.1 percent a year later. So a lot of ordinary people, quite apart from the national economy, are paying a price for what has now been established as a misperception that the factory is responsible for the low pH value of well water in the area.

What has the Government Analyst got to say about this? ``Analysis shows that the low pH in neighborhood wells cannot be due to the factory effluent,’’ a report filed on Aug. 13 said. The Central Environment Authority was more cautious but the direction in which it pointed was unmistakable. ``It is not possible to establish that treated effluent of the factory has influence low pH in wells.’’ The Water Board has also said that ``there is no clear evidence to show that the low pH of the area is due to factory effluent.’’ So there is a strong basis to establish that Dipped Products is not the polluter and the concerned authorities have given in to agitators who, with the government’s meek acquiescence, have arrogated to themselves the power to even stop the Chairman of the owning company and it’s Managing Director of entering the factory premises! The police have said that this is necessary to maintain peace in the village and only people from an approved list, checked at the gates by a group including village nominees, can enter to carry out essential maintenance.

All this makes a mockery of Sri Lanka’s drive to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) and make the country a hub of all kinds of economic activity. DPL has even offered to truck in the water used for production until an industrial water connection is obtained, and haul off water used in the process to the disposal facility of the Board of Investment at Biyagama despite the huge cost. But no, the villagers or at least a group of agitators believed to be a minority will have none of this. DPL is a company founded by the Hayleys Group nearly four decades ago to become one of the world’s leading manufacturers and distributors of protective gloves accounting for about five percent of global production. The company owns and operates seven manufacturing subsidiaries here in Sri Lanka with five of those plants located at Rathupaswala. While the villagers of the area are entitled to clean water and any factory located there cannot be permitted to pollute ground water supplies, the regulatory mechanisms including quarterly tests of factory effluents has been in force over a period of many years with no problems detected.

It is not difficult to guess why the government is not doing what it should if everything it says about taking the country forward is not hollow rhetoric. While protestors cannot be allowed to block roads stopping traffic and inconveniencing tens of thousands, nobody can countenance opening fire on unarmed civilians and killing not just protestors but innocent bystanders having the misfortune of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. A military court of inquiry has made its determination and an over-reaction has been tacitly admitted. Whether a court martial will follow is an open question. While the government must take responsibility for the shooting, it is also responsible for ensuring that the economy runs smoothly and duly regulated industries are permitted to carry on their businesses without let or hindrance. At last weeks belated news briefing by the factory owners, they were asked whether there was truth in the rumors that allergic reactions have been set off among well water users in the area with crushed kitul seeds thrown into the wells. A reporter said there was also a story that goraka, a spice used to infuse acidity in Lankan cuisine, had been introduced into the wells. The DPL owners did not confirm this but said that they too had heard these stories. Some workers in the factory, including people living in the area, have been rightly or wrongly recently dismissed for an alleged violation of a collective agreement. Nobody can say for certain that this incentivized sabotage, but that possibility cannot be ruled out.

However that be, as much as Rs. 300 million foreign exchange has been lost every month since July 30 and the losses now top a billion. The DPL chairman is on record saying that it will not be difficult for him to pull out of Rathupaswala, pack his machines into containers and ship them off to Malaysia, a significant natural rubber producer, hungry for industries like theirs and set up shop there. The buildings are available and as Mr. Mohan Pandithage said, it is only a question of getting the machinery there and plugging on. That would mean job losses here. In addition to about a thousand direct employees, there are many more dependent on the factory for their livelihoods. These include rubber growers, tappers and suppliers providing various goods and services estimated at nearly 25,000. Pandithage saying he was a nationalist indicated that this would be a last resort. Time is obviously running out and it is necessary that government intervenes without cravenly fearing political repercussions at the forthcoming Western Provincial Council elections. Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa who is the UPFA’s Gampaha district leader and the president himself must do what needs to be done. Too many wrong signals have gone out already and the losses sustained are huge. Further foot-dragging cannot be countenanced. Quick action is imperative.

Khuram Shaikh trial a test for Lanka's credibility

Sunday, 24 Nov 2013

British MP Simon Danczuk has welcomed news that a politician with close ties to Sri Lanka's top political echelons has been charged with the murder of Rochdale Red Cross worker, Khuram Shaikh, with a trial date set for 2 December.

The Tangalle politician, Sampath Vidanapathiranage, was one of six charged with the murder of Khuram Shaikh and assault of his girlfriend, at the Colombo High Court. It follows a long-standing campaign for justice by Khuram's family and his local MP, after he was murdered on holiday in Sri Lanka on Christmas Day, 2011. Speaking after a High Court judge read out the indictments to the suspects and set a trial date, Danczuk said it was an encouraging development. "There have been concerns all along that political interference was preventing this case from moving forward because one of the suspects is a politician," he said. "We need to see justice being delivered without fear or favour and the fact that we now have a trial date is encouraging."

He added the case had become symbolic of wider problems with the rule of law following the impeachment of the Sri Lankan Chief Justice, and that it was a big moment for the country.

"Many Sri Lankans have told me that it is impossible to get politicians or well-connected people in the dock because they are immune from prosecution," he said. "So this is a big test of Sri Lanka's credibility. We are pleased that justice is now within reach and we hope that the courts will deliver the right verdict and deliver justice for Khuram's family and his girlfriend, Victoria.

Khuram's brother, Nasir Shaikh, added that he would be going out to attend the trial and was glad that a date had finally been set.

"We've waited a long time for this and it's been a very tough campaign," he said. "I'd like to thank everyone from Simon Danczuk to the Prime Minister for putting pressure on the Sri Lankan Government to bring this case to Court. My brother was killed in cowardly circumstances and it will be very hard for me going back for the trial. But I have to see justice done."

Tangalle PS Chairman accused of killing British national released

 Saturday, 23 November 2013

Amidst calls by the British government for action to probe the murder of a British national in Sri Lanka in 2011, the Mahinda Rajapaksa government has taken steps to ensure the release of former Chairman of the Tangalle Pradeshiya Sabha (PS), Sampath Chandrapushpa Vidanapathirana and six others accused in the murder case.

Vidanapathirana, who is a loyalist of MP Namal Rajapaksa, and five other were accused of murdering British national Khuram Shaikh and gang raping his companion, Victoria Alexandra in Tangalle in December 2011.

Charges against the defendants were read to them at the Colombo High Court and they had entered pleas of not guilty to all the charges.

Colombo Chief High Court Judge Kumudini Wickramasinghe had granted bail to the six suspects on a request made by President’s Counsel Kalinga Indatissa, who is appearing for the accused.

The suspects were ordered to surrender their passports and appear before the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) every last Sunday of the month.

The case is to be taken up for trial on December 2nd.

Suspected cop killer shot dead

By Madura Ranwala-November 22, 2013, 9:41 pm 

A 30-year-old ex-army commando deserter arrested over the killing of a constable attached to the Matara police anti-vice squad and his wife, was shot dead yesterday morning, when he allegedly attempted to shoot police personnel taking him to recover a hidden arms cache.

Constable W. G. Sunil was shot on his head while his wife, Apsara, was clubbed to death by the suspects on the night of November 16 at their residence in Kamburupitiya. The two year-old son had not been attacked but had fallen from the hands of the mother, when she was attacked. The child was rushed to the Karapitiya hospital by neighbours as blood was found inside his nose. But, the medical examinations had confirmed that the child had not been attacked, police sources said.

Police spokesman SSP Ajith Rohana told The Island that the suspect identified as Vidanagamage Amith Priyadarshana, a friend of the main suspect in the double murder had been shot dead by the Kamburupitiya police on a cinnamon land at Owitigamuwa around 4.50 a.m.

He said that the police had arrested the suspect three hours before the shooting in Kamburupitiya and taken him to a hideout in search of weapons used in the brutal killing.

Then the suspect had attempted to fire at the police with a revolver he took out from the hideout.

The police suspect that more suspects were involved in the double murder as the case was related to drugs.

The two year-old child has been handed over to Apsara’s father and their other six year-old son to her relatives. The eldest son escaped assault by hiding under a bed when the killers struck.

The police said that the victim constable had taken part in several raids conducted by the Matara Division Anti-vice Squad during the recent past.

Jet Airways cancels its daily service from Chennai to Colombo
Fri, Nov 22, 2013, 09:06 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

Nov 22, Colombo: India's largest domestic airline Jet Airways announced today that it will cancel its daily service between the Southern hub at Chennai and Sri Lanka's Colombo international airport.
The longstanding daily one hour-twenty-minute flight operated with Boeing 737-800 equipment will be cancelled from 3rd January, 2014.
However, the domestic carrier will continue to serve Colombo from its largest hub at Mumbai.
India's aviation observers say the Jet Airways' decision is a bit of a surprise, given that the India-Sri Lanka market, especially with regards to inbound medical tourism at Chennai, remains robust.
However, Sri Lanka's souring relations with India, especially with the state of Tamil Nadu, has seriously affected the number of Sri Lankans travelling to Chennai for tourism.

In addition, Sri Lanka's national carrier SriLankan Airlines is planning a major Indian expansion, which could drive do

Malacca And Lanka: What A contrast!

By Kumar David -November 24, 2013 |

Prof Kumar David

Puzzling differences between Peninsular Malaya and Lanka - Malacca and Lanka: What a contrast!

A question often asked is why racial and religious relations in Malaysia, in contrast to Lanka, are relaxed and communities more tolerant of each other; comparatively of course. Recently while in Malacca, I was similarly interrogated by a nubile and durian addicted female. Malacca’s history does resemble Lanka’s, but now exhibits this distinction sharply. Having mulled it over I intend to share my thoughts; but first a short outline about Malacca.  The Sultanate (now state) of Malacca was founded by the Hindu Raja Parameswara when he was driven out of Singapura in 1377 by the powerful Mapahit Empire of Java. Myth has it that sitting by the Melaka River (a largish stream) under a nelli tree (phyllanthus emblica) in 1400, pondering his misfortune, he witnessed an incident between his hunting dogs and a deer which persuaded him that this was the best place to set up shop. Islam, however, had arrived in the 12-th Century in the far north, in what is now the state of Kedah, when its Hindu ruler converted. Conversion was by persuasion, not the sword, so Islam in Malaya has been easy-going and plastic. Parameswara converted to Islam in 1414.

Straits of Malacca: Narrow sea lane between peninsular Malaya and island of Sumatra
Choke point for sea routes to Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, China and Japan.

Malacca sits athwart the eponymous Straits, the choke point for shipping between the Indian Ocean and the Middle East on one side, and SE Asia and the Far East on the other. To bypass it, ships will have to round the Indonesian Archipelago, navigate the difficult Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea, then turn north past the Philippines, before rounding off south again to SE Asia, or steaming on further north to China and Japan. Therefore the Malacca Strait is a vital sea lane. This geography persuaded Admiral Zheng He, the greatest naval commander ever, to steer his Treasure Fleet through the Straits of Malacca on seven voyages to the littoral countries of the Indian Ocean, East African and Arabia, sixty years before Gama reached Calicut or Columbus set foot on San Salvador Island (Bahamas). He always stopped in Malacca, hence Chinese enclaves sprouted there six centuries ago. Large scale Chinese emigration in the 19-th and 20-th Centuries however was under British tutelage, importing labour for roads, railways, and rubber. In its wake first came Chinese traders then businessmen and investors. Now a Chinese community thrives in Malacca and Malaysia.

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Sinhala military colonization escalates further north in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 November 2013, 21:35 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military has seized 3,200 acres of lands belonging to Eezham Tamils in Odduchuddaan DS division situated in the heart of Mullaith-theevu district, civil sources in Vanni told TamilNet on Thursday. The latest military land grab aims to hurriedly Sinhalicise the ancient Tamil villages in Othiyamalai GS area situated in the south of Odduchuddaan division, where a genocidal massacre was carried out by the occupying Sinhala military in 1984. The colonisation is being done while the recently elected Northern Provincial Council and its Chief Minister are yet to take up the burning issue of Sinhala colonisation in Mullaiththeevu. The Tamil people also blamed the global powers for providing funds to Sri Lankan State system, enabling it to channel the funds and resources, in continuing to commit a demographic genocide, permanently wedging the North and East. 

The SL military, with heavy machinery, is clearing the paddy fields and the high-lying cheanai-cultivation tracts in the ancient Tamil places known as Chempiyang-kua’lam and Karuveappa-mu’rippuk-ku’lam, eyewitnesses who managed to visit the area said adding that the lands have been surveyed and divided into smaller plots for the expansion of the colonization scheme. 

A new road is also being constructed to connect the settlements with the newly carved out Sinhala division ‘Weli-Oya’ in the southeast of Othiyamalai. The road will be connecting Othiyamalai with Ma’na’laaru through Pazhaiya-kompanith-theru, they said. 

The SL military has also cleared a large tract of jungle for the colonization scheme. 

All the Tamil place names such as Kaarai-vaaykkaal, Nedungkea’niyaan, Vealang-ku’lam, have been Sinhalicised. 

Electricity infrastructure has also been established for the settlers. 

The area earlier known as Ceylon Theatre, where Tamil families were living till the Colombo’s genocidal onslaught on Vanni, has also been taken over by the SL military to expand the Sinhala settlement. 

On 2nd December 1984, the SL military that came from Padaviya massacred more than 32 Eezham Tamils at Othiyamalai. The Tamils were later chased away from the village. 

Only a few Tamil families have been allowed to resettle at Othiyamalai, where a Pillaiyar temple is situated. These places would also be soon taken over by the SL military, the Tamil families residing there had told the visitors.

The Sinhala settlers brought to the area openly admit that they are new settlers who had been brought there after the war.