Multinational relocates partly to Sri Lanka from China

By Agencies-Xinhua | 2013-12-13 
A top Japanese conglomerate is relocating part of its selected foam operations to Sri Lanka from China and began operations this week, a statement from the Industry and Commerce Ministry said in Colombo Friday.

The company is also considering plans to set up world class automotive component production in Sri Lanka, with latest Japanese technology.

"Japanese giant INOAC's new venture with a 20-million-US- dollar investment is one of the biggest industry foreign direct investments to come from Japan to Sri Lanka in our bilateral partnership history," Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen said in a statement.

INOAC Polymer Lanka is the only manufacturer of polyurethane in Sri Lanka.

Polyurethane is a specialized type of plastic material widely used in the car industry and comfort products.

INOAC, a global supplier to the automotive industry, is a privately-held Japanese conglomerate established in 1926, operating in 20 countries including the United States, Canada, South Korea, Japan, and some Southeast Asian countries and European countries.

Currently it has 74 state- of-the-art factories across the world.

Sri Lanka's thriving apparel sector, which is the island's largest export, has a close relationship with the Japanese company.

"Around two years ago INOAC took a decision to transfer our production facility from China to Sri Lanka to produce and supply unique high quality polyurethane foam to the giants of the apparel industry in Sri Lanka," said Ken Miwa, executive managing director of INOAC Corp. "We are shifting at least 20 percent of our production from China to Sri Lanka."

INOAC first invested in Sri Lanka in 1959 when it commenced its first joint venture with Associated Motorways (AMW) in Sri Lanka.

INOAC is a Tier 1 producer of automotive components for Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mitsubishi, Yamaha and several other renowned global brands.

Japan is Sri Lanka's second largest lender in 2013 behind China and currently 39 Japanese private investment projects are in operation.

Sri Lankan Universities In Dire Straits

By Darshani Wimalasuriya -December 13, 2013 

The standard of education, at Sri Lankan universities, is declining rapidly.  According to World ranking, local universities standards, are now below the universities of failed states in Africa. Major universities in Uganda, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, are now in a superior position, than Sri Lankan universities. Instead of quality education, Sri Lankan universities are now focused on violence, extremist student politics, strikes, low productivity, and moral decay.

www.lankauniversity-news.com

Mr. Navarathna Banda – a senior lecturer attached to the Sri Jayawardhanapura University, cites the reasons that have pushed our university system down, into this deplorable state. According to him, over 90 % of Sri Lankan university professors and senior lectures are under qualified, and inexperienced.

The majority of these university teachers, are working in the same universities where they graduated from, and do not possess any overseas exposure or experience. Academically, their knowledge and experience are stunted, limited and outdated. Therefore these university teachers are incapable of preparing their students, to face the educational challenges of the 21^st century.

Over the last 30 years, our universities, failed to carry out any world class research, any validated scientific study, or produce a noteworthy publication, to capture the attention of the international academia. These shortcomings represent the void, in our universities. In order to cover-up these failures, Professor Naleen De Silva, recently carried out a research on Arsenic, at the Kelaniya University, violating all internationally accepted, research standards. It became the laughing stock, of the academic community.

Ragging & Violence in Sri Lankan Universities

Unfortunately, ragging and violence have become part and parcel of local university culture. Ragging involves harassment, abuse and humiliation of new students. It is a serious form of Human Rights violations. We believe that almost all Sri Lankan university students have faced such harassment, either physically or verbally, as first year students. So far, no one has disputed it, and we challenge anyone to come forward, and refute this statement.                                                                 Read More     

PM, son-in-law responsible for A’pura drug menace – Chandrasena   Friday, 13 December 

2013 14:13

Cabinet minister of special projects S.M. Chandrasena has started a ‘special project of his own’ against prime minister D.M. Jayaratne and family members of the late Berty Premalal Dissanayake by publicly telling voters of Anuradhapura that the premier and his son-in-law Duminda Dissanayake were entirely responsible for the drug menace spreading in the Rajarata area, according to sources in the area.

He is saying openly that he has evidence to prove that the PM is using his official powers to free the drugs brought by the underworld and through minister Duminda Dissanayake the drugs are being distributed from Mahawa area and through minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage being distributed in the upcountry areas. The prime minister is sacrificing his coordinating secretaries to save his name, and minister Chandrasena says he proposes without any fear that if the drug menace is to be eliminated, the prime minister should be sacked and arrested.

The Dissanayake family which had been running a political monopoly in the Rajarata area, without stopping at killings, is now degraded further to the level of selling drugs, minister Chandrasena says, adding that he himself is a person who had reached the present position through his own honest efforts, and that the blessings by the president are a great strength to him. He has also said that he would initiate legal action against MP Anura Dissanayake for slinging mud at him by saying he had swindled compensation money of Mavilaru farmers.

JHU urges Police to conduct investigations into heroin scandal 

By Premalal Wijeratne- December 13, 2013 

Leader of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), Ven. Omalpe Sobitha Thera, says if the police carry out a thorough investigation, they will be able to find out the person responsible for importing a container of heroin, the release of which was requested by a Coordinating Secretary of the Prime Minister.

He also said he has written to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) asking him to carry out a thorough investigation to identify the culprit, after arresting the person who had issued a letter for its release to the Customs.

“This could end up like the museum robbery investigations, which were inconclusive. Investigations are just dragging on at snail’s pace. Police should attend to these investigations with more enthusiasm to uncover the culprits,” the Thera said. (Ceylon Today Online)

Towards a kudu hub

Editorial-December 12, 2013, 8:28 pm 

In a dramatic turn of events, prime ministerial aide, Keerthi Sri Weerasinghe who intervened to help a Pakistani drug smuggler clear a container with a large consignment of heroin secreted therein has resigned. He has claimed that he issued a letter to the Customs for that purpose as he thought the main suspect was a genuine importer. He seems to have taken the public for suckers. Investigations need to be conducted to find out whether he has issued similar letters previously.

Why didn’t the police arrest Weerasinghe like any other suspect wanted in connection with a serious narcotics-related offence? All those who have benefited from the suspects responsible for smuggling in heroin must be arrested, probed and punished if found guilty.

It is a supreme irony that Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne happened to declare in Parliament a few moons ago that politicians were involved in the narcotics trade. He earned plaudits for making that bold statement though he made no revelation as such. That drug czars cannot carry out their sordid operations without political backing is only too well known. Now, one of his own Coordinating Secretaries stands accused of aiding and abetting drug smuggling! No wonder the country is awash with narcotics and the police are fighting a losing battle against wealthy drug barons who have influential politicians in their pocket.

The aforesaid resignation is proof that pressure from the media and the Opposition has yielded the desired effect. But, anything is possible in this country where politicians are all powerful. They know more than one way to shoe a horse, as they say. There have been instances where heroin sent to the Government Analyst’s Department for testing became kurakkan flour much to the consternation of judges. So, one need not be surprised if the on-going investigations into the largest ever heroin haul detected in this country are hushed up and the suspects go scot free.

A political leader is known by his aides, and the Prime Minister has a lot of explaining to do. His aide’s resignation won’t do. It is puzzling why the government politicians have so many crooks as coordinating secretaries and advisors maintained with public funds.

One of the government allies, the (Jathika Hela Urumaya) (JHU) has called for the PM’s arrest over the drug scandal. JHU leader and outspoken Buddhist monk, Ven. Omalpe Sobitha thera minced no words and pulled no punches when he said at a recent public meeting that the Prime Minister and his ‘acolytes’ had to be taken in for questioning. His statement went down well with the public, but the JHU hasn’t said what action it would take to ensure that its call will be heeded.

We are reminded of the JVP’s demand for scrapping a joint mechanism the Chandrika Kumaratunga government offered to set up in 2004 to share tsunami relief with the LTTE. The JVP had MPs in the UPFA government including 4 Cabinet ministers and 4 deputy ministers. On realising that its demand wouldn’t be met and much legitimacy would accrue to the LTTE from the proposed project, the JVP pulled out of the ruling coalition. Its withdrawal turned out to be a political miscalculation in that President Kumaratunga couldn’t get the joint mechanism off the ground. But, the fact remains that JVP stuck to its guns on the issue.

One wouldn’t care whether the JHU remains in the UPFA coalition or not. But, how could the Saffron Party justify being part of the government while calling for the arrest of its Prime Minister? It has threatened to break ranks with the UPFA if foreign casinos are allowed to open gaming resorts here. Does it believe that the setting up of casinos is a worse crime than heroin smuggling? It seems to have put its political survival before its much-flaunted cause. Whether it will be able to increase its vote bank by bellowing rhetoric while running with the hare and hunting with the hounds remains to be seen.

Shashi Weerawansa invested Rs. 150 m in Salaka casino

 Friday, 13 December 2013 

Shashi Weerawansa, the wife of engineering and construction services minister Wimal Weerawana, has reportedly invested Rs. 150 million in the controversial casino ‘Salaka Regino’. She has given the money for the casino to its owner Vajira Janaki Nettikumara through her sister-in-law Sudharma Nettikumara.

No one knows as to how Shashi has earned such a huge sum that has been invested in the casino project. She has never done a job in her life and inherited nothing from her parents. Vajira has told Shashi that in light of the prevailing situation, she cannot pay back her investment. Shashi does not have any document to prove that she had given the money. Vajira has threatened her that if she continued to demand the money from her, she would have to tell all to the media. Shashi has become helpless, since her husband, minister Wimal Weerawansa, has refused to intervene, as the two are having a crisis of their own these days.

The wife of a very top person in the government has asked a renowned lawyer to look into a way of getting Shashi to claim the money. The involvement of this lady is further casting suspicion on the entire episode.

Two Police imposters arrested for accepting a bribe 

December 13, 2013
Two persons who tried to obtain a bribe by pretending to be Police officers were arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at around 12.00 p.m. today, the Police Media Unit told Ceylon Today Online.

The arrests were made, when one suspect pretending to be an Assistant Superintendent of Police and the other pretending to be a Police Officer had attempted to obtain a bribe from a licensed air ticketing agency.

Police said the suspects had demanded around Rs 200,000 as a bribe from the relevant agency.  (Ceylon Today Online) 

CHOGM buses to be sold to private companies - ACTWU 

By Zahrah Imtiaz-December 13, 2013 

The All Ceylon Transport Workers’ Union (ACTWU) alleges that the 100 UTom luxury buses imported for the Commonwealth summit have not been given to the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) to be used for public transport and they are currently being parked at the Ministry of Finance premises ever since the summit ended.

The buses imported from China by the Ministry of Finance are worth Rs 12 million each. The ACTWU, in a letter to President Mahinda Rajapaksa have asked the President to investigate the matter as the SLTB is in desperate need of new buses and better facilities, if it is to continue serving the public.

Speaking to Ceylon Today, ACTWU General Secretary, Sepala Liyanage said, “The government said these 100 buses will be given to the SLTB, but now we have received information that the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance is planning on selling these buses to some private companies.

“There are 25,000 licensed private buses in the country while there are only 4,500 SLTB buses. This is a huge gap in the public transport system.”

When Ceylon Today contacted the Ministry of Transport, Media Secretary, Sujith Vithana-Pathirana, and the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB), Vice Chairman, L.A. Wimalaratna, they said that they have not received any directive or information regarding the buses brought for CHOGM and that it was under the purview of the Ministry of Finance.

Despite numerous attempts to contact the Ministry of Finance, none of the officials at the ministry were able to comment on the matter. Ceylon Today learns, at the time of writing, the ACTWU has not received any response to its letter from the President or his officials.(Ceylon Today Online)

Bangladesh halts execution of opposition leader

December 13, 2013

LAHORE: Funeral prayers in absentia for JI Bangladesh Leader Abdul Quader Molla, who was hanged to death the other day, was offered in various parts of the country.

Abdul Quader was convicted of war crimes during the 1971 war which resulted in creation of Bangladesh.

In Karachi, JI Chief Munawar Hassan led the funeral prayer of Abdul Quader Molla. A protest demonstration was also staged on the occasion.

The protestors were of the view that Pakistan should take up the issue with Bangladesh on diplomatic level.

Addressing the demonstrators, the JI chief said that the Pakistani government termed the execution of Abdul Quader Molla as an internal matter of Bangladesh, which he said, shows apathy.

In Mansoora, the funeral prayer was offered on Multan road.

In Peshawar, JI Khyber Pakhunkhwa chief Professor Mohammad Ibrahim Khan led the funeral prayer held at Markaz e Islami. Senior Minister Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Sirajul Haq, JI General Secretary for KP and JI workers in large number.

After funeral prayers the workers marched on GT road to protest against the sentence. They said that Abdul Quader was hero for Pakistan and he had been given death punishment for his support to Pakistan Army and opposing division of Pakistan.

In Islamabad, JI central leader Liaquat Baloch led the funeral prayers of the Bangladeshi opposition leader.

 

Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

In the week that Uruguay legalises cannabis, the 78-year-old explains why he rejects the 'world's poorest president' label 

Jonathan Watts in Montevideo-Friday 13 December 2013

José Mujica, the Uruguayan president, at his house in Montevideo. Photograph: Mario Goldman/AFP/Getty Images

If anyone could claim to be leading by example in an age of austerity, it is José Mujica, Uruguay's president, who has forsworn a state palace in favour of a farmhouse, donates the vast bulk of his salary to social projects, flies economy class and drives an old Volkswagen Beetle.

Uruguay's president José Mujica no palace, no motorcade, no frills by nelvely

Syria's chemical weapons: is the UN exceeding its mandate?

BOB RIGG 2 December 2013

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons should be a technical agency of the UN. But it has arguably become a piece in a geo-political chess game dominated by the US, invited into Syria to act in contravention of its remit. 

About ten days before the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was surprisingly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, a Washington Post headline, alluding to its role in verifying and overseeing the destruction of chemical weapons production facilities in Syria, referred to it as an ‘obscure agency’.

Syria's Chemical Weapons is the UN Exceeding Its Mandate by nelvely

Mandela's body arrives at Union Buildings to lie in state(video)

Jaffna.tv -Thursday, 12 December 2013 

The body of former South African President Nelson Mandela has been moved to the seat of government in the capital, Pretoria. It will lie in state there for three days ahead of the funeral and burial on Sunday.

Thousands of people lined the streets on Wednesday as Nelson Mandela's funeral cortege proceeded through the streets of Pretoria from 1 Military Hospital to the Union Buildings, the seat of the South African government.

The coffin is to be moved back and forth from the hospital to the Union Buildings every day for the next three days, and the casket with Mandela's body will be on display for the public to pay its respects at stipulated times.

The Union Buildings are where Mandela was inaugurated as the country's first black president in 1994 after the end of South Africa's apartheid system, which segregated whites and blacks under white-minority rule.

The lying-in-state comes after a memorial service in Soweto's World Cup Stadium on Tuesday in which US President Barack Obama was among those to pay tribute to the life and legacy of Mandela.

On Friday evening, his body will be flown to Eastern Cape province for a traditional service on Saturday. On Sunday, there will be a state funeral and burial at Mandela's ancestral village of Qunu.

Mandela's death last Thursday at the age of 95 has sparked mourning and expressions of grief both in South Africa itself and in the international community, where he was widely seen as an icon of racial reconciliation and a moral authority.

Mandela: Whose hero?

 December 12, 2013

• “It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner, but the jailer as well” – US President Barack Obama

The Sri Lankan Government is taking some aspects of its role a Chair in Office of the Commonwealth of Nations very seriously.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa for instance, embracing his dual role as President of the Republic and Commonwealth Chair, issued not one but two messages of condolence to South African President Jacob Zuma on the passing of the world’s most beloved statesman and freedom fighter, Nelson Mandela.

Mandela Whose Hero by nelvely

தென்னாபிரிக்கா உள்ளிட்ட உலகம் மாமனிதர் மண்டேலாவுக்கு அஞ்சலி

2013-12-06 16:53:09 | General

பிறிடொரியா: தென்னாபிரிக்காவின் ஜொகனர்ஸ் பேர்க் மற்றும் சொவேடோ ஆகிய நகரங்களில் திரண்டிருந்த பல இலட்சம் மக்கள் தமது முன்னாள் ஜனாதிபதி  நெல்சன் மண்டேலாவிற்கு அஞ்சலி செலுத்தியிருந்தனர்.

 மண்டேலாவின் மரணச் செய்தி அறிவிக்கப்பட்ட ஒருசில மணித்தியாலங்களில் அவரது முன்னாள் இல்லத்தின் முன்பு கூடிய மக்கள் அவருக்கு அஞ்சலி செலுத்தியிருந்ததுடன்,  ஆடியும் பாடியும் முழு இரவையும் கழித்தனர்.
 பிந்திய இரவில் தேசிய தொலைக்காட்சி மூலம் தென்னாபிரிக்க ஜனாதிபதி ஜகொப் சுமா மண்டேலாவின் மரணச் செய்தியை அறிவித்ததனை அடுத்து கொடிகள் அரைக் கம்பத்தில் பறக்கவிடப்பட்டிருந்தது.
1994 இல் கறுப்பின முதலாவது ஜனாதிபதியாக தெரிவு செய்யப்படு வதற்கு முன்னர் மண்டேலா 27 வருடங்களை சிறையில் கழித்திருந்தார்.  மண்டேலாவின் தேசிய அஞ்சலி நிகழ்வானது 95,000 பேர் அமரக் கூடிய அரங்கொன்றில் திங்கட்கிழமை  நடைபெறவுள்ளது.

நெல்சன் மண்டேலா வளர்ந்த கிழக்கு கேப்பின் குனு கிராமத்தில் அவரது இறுதிச் சடங்குகள் நடைபெறுவதற்கு முன்னர் தலைநகர் பிறிடோரியாவில் மூன்று தினங்கள் அவரது உடல் நாட்டு மக்களின்  அஞ்சலிக்காக வைக்கப்படும்.

தென்னாபிரிக்க வரலாற்றின் சிக்கல் நிறைந்த தருணத்தில் நெல்சன் மண்டேலாவை ஜனாதிபதியாக்கியதன் மூலம் இறைவன் மிகவும் நல்லவராகின்றாரென தென்னாபிரிக்காவின் முதல் கறுப்பின ஜனாதிபதி மண்டேலாவின் நீண்டகால நண்பரும் ஆயருமான டெஸ்மண்ட் டுட்டு கூறியுள்ளார்.
பிளவடைந்தி ருந்த ஒரு தேசத்தை ஒருங்கிணைத்த தலைவரே நெல்சன் மண்டேலாவென வெள்ளிக்கிழமை நடைபெற்ற ஆராதனையின் போது டெஸ்டண்ட் டுட்டு கூறியுள்ளார்.

மண்டேலாவின் மரணச் செய்தி வெளியானதும் 1940, 1950 களில் மண்டேலா வசித்துவந்த வீட்டின் முன்னர் சொவெடோ விலகாஷி வீதியில் கூடிய மக்கள்  நிறவெறியுக பாடல்களை பாடியும் ஆடியும் தமது உணர்வுகளை வெளிப்படுத்தினர்.
 அவர் வளர்ந்த, வசித்த வீட்டில் எம்மால் அவரைக் காண முடியவில்லை என்ற  பாடல் வரிகளையும் அம்மக்கள் பாடியிருந்தனர்.

அவரது வாழ்க்கையினை நாம் கொண்டாடுகின்றோம். எமக்காக அவர் செய்த பணிகளை கொண்டாடுகின்றோம் என அங்கு கூடியிருந்த மக்களில் ஒருவர் கூறியுள்ளார்.
இதேவேளை ஜோகனஸ் பேர்க்கில் அவர் வசித்துவந்த வீட்டின் முன்னரும் பலர் கூடியுள்ளனர். உலகளாவில் தலைவர்கள்,  பிரபலங்கள் என்ற அனைவரும் தமது காணிக்கை களை மண்டேலா வுக்கு  சமர்ப்பிக் கின்றனர்.

தென்னாபிரிக்காவிலுள்ள பொது இடங்களில் அனுதாப புத்தகங்கள் வைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளன. அத்துடன்,  வெளிநாடுகளிலுள்ள தென்னாபிரிக்க தூதரகங்களிலும் அனுதாப பதிவேடுகள் வைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளன.

தென்னாபிரிக்காவின் உத்தியேகாபூர்வ அஞ்சலி நிகழ்வுகள் திங்கட்கிழமை முதல்  ஆரம்பமாகின்றது. சொவெட்டோவின் FNB அரங்கில் பாரிய அஞ்சலி நிகழ்வு நடைபெற ஏற்பாடுகள் மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்டுள்ளது.

 14 ஆம் திகதி சனிக்கிழமை இறுதி சடங்குகள் இடம்பெறுவதற்கு முன்னர் பிறிடோரியாவிலுள்ள அரச  கட்டிடம் ஒன்றில் அவரது உடல் மூன்று தினங்கள் அஞ்சலிக்காக வைக்கப்படும்.

சர்வதேச அளவில் தற்போதைய மற்றும் முன்னாள் உலகத் தலைவர்கள் ,  இராஜதந்திரிகள்,  பிரபலங்கள், ஆர்வலர்கள் என்ற அனைவரும் கலந்து கொள்ளும் இதுபோன்ற தேசிய  மரணச் சடங்கு ஒன்றினை தென்னாபிரிக்கா ஒருபோதும் கண்டிருக்கவில்லையென பி.பி.சி. கூறியுள்ளது.

 குணு கிராமத்தில் உலகத் தலைவர்களின் வருகைக்கு ஏற்பாடுகளை மேற்கொள்வது மிகவும் கடினமான விடயமெனவும் ஜொகனஸ்பேர்க் பி.பி.சி. செய்தியாளர் மைக் வூல்ட்ரிச் கூறியுள்ளார்.

TOTAL VIEWS : 172

- See more at: http://www.thinakkural.lk/article.php?world/tqxojjczoj26863a0844cee478767oyhxfcf57de0c71e9ad3035478eejlb#sthash.TakoXj9j.dpuf

Sri Lanka: The subversion of independent thinking

A reader looks at the censored report in Sri Lanka's The Sunday Times newspaper. Pic: AP.

By JS Tissainayagam Dec 12, 2013 

The Sri Lanka government is intent on controlling freedom of thought by expelling foreign passport holders who visit the country and later attend seminars or give press interviews on subjects the regime considers taboo.

On November 23 it arrested a well-known Tamil poet whose verse speaks of the yearning of his people for freedom from violence and oppression. V. I. S. Jeyapalan left his native Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka in the 1980s and lived in exile in Norway, writing poetry, acting in a celebrated South Indian movie and playing the role of a public intellectual.

Jeyapalan visited Sri Lanka in November. Following his arrival, he addressed journalists in Jaffna. Shortly afterwards, on his way to visit his mother’s grave, he was arrested by police, detained for four days and unceremoniously deported to Norway. The police spokesman told the BBC’s Tamil Service that Jeyapalan was arrested for “disrupting the ethnic harmony in the country” and accused him of “violating the visa regulations.” Ceylon Today, a Sri Lankan daily, quoted the Controller of Immigration and Emigration as saying “he [Jeyapalan] took part in a political meeting which he was not sanctioned to attend.”

On October 30, Jacqui Park and Jane Worthington, two activists from the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) who participated in a workshop on media freedom in Sri Lanka, were detained by Criminal Investigation Division of the police and subjected to lengthy interrogation. The contents of Park’s laptop were apparently accessed without consent. The international media watchdog Reporters without Borders said, “[t]hey were accused of violating visa regulations, the authorities have allowed them to fly out of the country without any charges.”

Both Jeyapalan and the IFJ activists were detained ostensibly for visa violations. In the case of Jeyapalan, although Sri Lankan authorities said he was “disrupting ethnic harmony,” the substantive accusation was that he had participated at meetings while in the country on a tourist visa. Park and Worthington were accused by Media Minister Keheliya Rambukawella of engaging in “anti-government activism” because they attended a workshop convened by the Free Media Movement (FMM). They were deported as they had not obtained press accreditation before arrival. However, the two mounted stout defence that they only participated in a workshop on media freedom and did not engage in media coverage.

The FMM has said that attending workshops is not prohibited on a tourist visa. In the past, participants at seminars and a host of similar activities regularly entered Sri Lanka on tourist visas for similar purposes.

So, why did the police detain Jeyapalan, Park and Worthington? The answer to the question is simple: they were raising issues that challenged the Sri Lanka government’s authoritarian politics.

However, while expelling these activists constitutes a grave violation of freedom of expression, this is but one step further in the direction the government has been travelling since 2005. In pursuit of weeding out all ideas in civil society that dispute his right to govern, President Mahinda Rajapakse has single-mindedly attacked expressions of independent thinking.

The early assaults on free expression were against the independent media. A number of journalists have been murdered, with others made to disappear, tortured, imprisoned and forced to flee, while the perpetrators enjoyed immunity from prosecution.

(MORE: CHOGM: Real engagement, or a Sri Lanka PR exercise?)

The government has been equally vigilant in preventing news on Sri Lanka from foreign sources which raise uncomfortable governance issues reaching Sri Lankan audiences. Colombo routinely blocks internet news sites and prevents foreign journalists from covering events dealing with violations of democracy, human rights or war crimes. Restrictions placed on the foreign media to cover issues of militarisation and war crimes in the former war zones during the Commonwealth Summit in November are a vivid example of this. Media censorship has pushed Sri Lanka down to rank 163 of 179 countries in Reporters without Border’s Media Freedom Index.

The government has been hardly less brutal in dealing with other expressions of popular protest. Over 600 Tamils forcibly prevented by the police in northern Vavuniya from going to Colombo to petition the UN on their disappeared loved ones in March 2013 is but one of many instances. In southern Sri Lanka, one Sinhalese was killed and 15 wounded this year when Weliweriya residents demanded clean drinking water, while a fisherman protesting rising fuel prices was shot dead in Chilaw in 2012.

Therefore to the rulers, intent on thought control within Sri Lanka, Jeyapalan and the IFJ activists were subversives. They were perceived as such for two reasons. First, by discussing issues such as media freedom they were confronting censorship. Censorship is the government’s tool to ensure the local public does not see challenges to its style of governance.

Second, the regime has taken very deliberate steps to prevent people coming together, especially in the North and East. This even includes meetings of groups to counsel trauma survivors. The reason is that people assembling in groups discuss politics, psychosocial issues and other privations they have been subjected to, thereby contributing to a narrative the government wishes to suppress.

Therefore the Rajapakse government, which began its existence by suppressing the independent media and went on to stifle political dissent expressed through protests, has now taken the next step: expelling foreign passport-holders who discuss rights, democracy and allied subjects.

Ahead of world human rights day, China’s moves to expel Bloomberg and The New York Times by not extending visas to their journalists was big news. But there is little coverage of how Colombo, fast emerging as Beijing’s client, is using its own methods of manipulating visa regulations to suppress freedom of expression.

There has been unremitting advice from international community that the Sinhalese and Tamils in Sri Lanka should work towards reconciliation. However, working for sustainable reconciliation will be impossible if the government is using all available methods to control its citizens’ thinking. Therefore, the international community must persuade Colombo to accommodate dissenting ideas and other expressions of political protest to test if actual reconciliation is possible.

Politics, Like Nature, Abhors A Vacuum: The TNA Moves Nearer Centre Stage

By Kumar David -December 12, 2013 

Prof Kumar David

Something is quietly happening below the radar; it is not declared, nor is it policy, and I think the TNA senses that all this complicates its life; but when there is a political vacuum other actors, inevitably, are sucked in. What is the political vacuum? Who is being sucked in? There is an empty space in southern (Sinhala) politics; the turncoat left which kowtows to Mahinda Rajapakse is dead; it’s now called the Dead Left. The UNP is as impotent as a surgically castrated eunuch. Hakeem and the SLMC are competing with the Dead Left for the rank of first licker of presidential boots. The radical left is splintered. The opposition is a vacuum that would do Evangelista Torricelli proud!

The reluctant floss breezing in to these vacated spaces, believe it or not, is the TNA and its spokesman Sampanthan (S1) and Sumanthiran (S2). It started before the Northern Provincial Council elections and reached a high point in S2’s address to parliament in early December in the budget debate. I am surprised how many Sinhalese friends and the flood on the web pointing out that S1&2 are taking up national issues better than the Sinhala opposition. Maybe people are impressed by the novelty of a party long identified with Tamil politics expanding its compass to national issues. Or maybe it is approval of the TNA for not playing dirty politics, at least not to the same extent as others. Either way it is a sign of puberty; the TNA is morphing. This is welcome; let us wish S2 ever thicker testosterone.

If the TNA enters national politics, without compromising its mandate from the Tamil people, (and why not? what’s the contradiction?), it would be a great gain. The fault with Tamil politics for seven decades is not that it focussed on Tamil issues, that is a must, but that by and large Tamil political ideology remained reactionary.  You want examples? I will give you examples. Think of hardened old comprador GGP who voted to strip plantation workers of their citizenship; think of diehard SJV who opposed everything progressive that NM and the old-left attempted on the social and economic front. Think of the quintessential petty bourgeois Amirthlingam – in fairness, he was not a fossilised reactionary. Now things are changing. It is not that Ganesh, lord of wisdom, visited S1 in a trance, it is not that S2 experienced epiphany on the road to Jaffna, it is that if things that should happen don’t happen, then other things happen; my vacuum theory.

Mahatma, Madiba and Marx                                                Read More

UN failed in Sri Lanka, says Dieng

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 December 2013, 04:11 GMT]
United Nation's Special Advisor on Prevention of Genocide to the Secretary General (SG), Adama Dieng, said during a UN panel discussion Wednesday that not only the United Nations but all member states failed the people of Sri Lanka. He implied that while the SG did not make use of Article 99 which bestows power on the SG to refer to the Security Council situations that threatened international security, the SG set up panels to identify witnesses and has now set up the "Rights Up Front plan," which might have prevented the situation [killings] in Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, Amady Ba, the Deputy Prosecutor to the International Criminal Court, referring to the killings, said that the ICC has no jurisdiction over countries that are not party to the Rome Statute. 

Adama Dieng responds

The Genocide panel discussion was moderated by Mr. Tunku Varadarajan, a Research Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Mr. Amady Ba represented Mrs. Fatou Bensouda, the Prosecutor of the ICC who couldn't attend the event.

In the videos, Amady Ba and Adma Dieng were responding to the following question from the audience:

Amady Ba of ICC responds

"Could each speaker explain their perspective on handling difficult situations such as a precursor to what happened in Syria namely Sri Lanka, where allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide have been raised continuously since the end of armed conflict in 2009, but Sri Lanka is not a party to the Rome Statute and the UN Security Council has been polarized politically (just like Mr. Haid said) whenever the situation of Sri Lanka is raised? Meanwhile, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has reported that continuing impunity for Sri Lanka's atrocities in 2009 has enabled further deterioration in the situation -economic, social, cultural, personal security- of the Tamil and Muslim communities. What options for recourse and justice do Tamil victims have in situations like Sri Lanka, and how can issues of international justice and accountability be de-politicized (as many of you have questioned) to truly end impunity? Specifically with regards to Mr. Ba (reprentative member of ICC) -- can the prosecutor's propio motu powers be used against Sri Lanka?" and could the Secretary-General use Article 99 to take action to protect the Tamil community on the island?

UN Genocide panel answering questions

Amady Ba, Deputy Prosecutor ICC

Adama Dieng, Adviser to SG on Prevention of Genocide

Amady Ba refers to the "Proprio motu" power which is used to refer to a decision by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to initiate an investigation into a situation without a referral from the Security Council or a State Party; this power is granted by article 15(1) of the Rome Statute.

Ba says the Prosecutor is helpless since Sri Lanka is not a party to the Rome Statute. In an earlier CNN interview, the former ICC Prosecutor, O'Campo also said the same.

On 17 July 2012, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment of Adama Dieng of Senegal as Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide. Mr. Dieng has served as Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda since 2001. He began his career as Registrar of the Regional and Labour Courts in Senegal, and served as Registrar of the Supreme Court of Senegal for six years. From 1982 to 2001, Mr. Dieng worked for the International Commission of Jurists, for the last ten years as the organisation’s Secretary-General. During this period he was appointed as Envoy of the United Nations Secretary General to Malawi in 1993, and as the United Nations Independent Expert for Haiti from 1995 to 2000.