The Role Of The IPKF And A Sequel

By Rajan Hoole -December 25, 2013 

Rajan Hoole

The Indo-Lanka Accord and Sri Lanka’s Fault Lines: July 1987 – Part – 8

The incident above took place against a mounting cycle of violence. A number of Tamil militants had, as mentioned, been shipped from Boosa and released in Trincomalee. Owing to what had happened in Trincomalee in recent years, there was also a mood to respond harshly when an occasion arose. Conditions of detention had also made them vindictive. One incident at Boosa about the time of the Accord says something of their state. An evening meal, which the detainees were served, had resulted in loose stomachs. They told a soldier who came into a particular room that they needed relief. The soldier refused and a PLOTE militant beat him up. The soldier went out and came with others who started shooting at the detainees. The latter survived with graze injuries by holding themselves flat on the wire mesh above them. Nine of the detainees were then taken out, beaten, shot and were run over with a vehicle.

The first communal clashes started in Trincomalee on 18th September 1987. The Thileepan fast was going on in Jaffna and a group of 200 Tamil ‘satyagrahais’ went to Anuradhapura junction where they were confronted by a group of Sinhalese. This was at the height of Thileepan’s ‘Gandhian’ death fast in Jaffna (see Sect.15.3). Both groups pelted each other with stones. One Tamil and two Sinhalese died. The IPKF separated the two groups by firing tear gas.

The first massacre of civilians after the Accord took place on 24th September. Some persons from Mihindupura, a recently settled suburb of Trincomalee, had set off in 5 bullock carts along the Vavuniya Road to collect firewood. The next morning two bulls returned home with their carts. Later 9 charred bodies were found burnt with a cart at Kattankulam. Three or four of them were identified as Sinhalese and one, as a Malay. Although suspicion fell on the LTTE, a fuller account of the incident was not available. During June, the previous year, the Sinhalese settlements around Mihindupura had been the scene of massacres and counter-massacres. On the morning of Wednesday 30th September, the bodies of 2 Tamils hacked to death were found in Mud Cove. Subsequently, a Tamil group stopped a lorry coming from Nilaveli in the same area, abducted and killed 3 Sinhalese men and left a woman alive with knife wounds. Communal clashes erupted which left several people dead. The Sri Lankan Police and the Indian Army (IPKF) went out on patrol.

Then took place the incident of 1st October reported above. The firing near Town Hall by the Sri Lankan Army was given in testimony by prominent local civilians, but was not reported in the Press. The IPKF later opened fire at a crowd of Sinhalese, which gathered at King’s Hotel Junction after rioting had broken out, killing one person. Of the 200 houses burnt, 150 belonged to Sinhalese. According to the Press, 10 were killed on this day, 35 were injured and 2000 were rendered homeless. The discrepancy with the earlier account above, may have resulted from the Sinhalese thrown into wells and buried not being counted in the Government’s figures.
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To be continued..

*From Rajan Hoole‘s “Sri Lanka: Arrogance of Power  - Myth, Decadence and Murder”. Thanks to Rajan for giving us permission to republish. To read earlier parts click here

Mandela as Example: South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission

by Austin Bay
December 17, 2013At a diplomatic gathering in mid-November, some three weeks prior to Nelson Mandela's death, Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa approached South African president Jacob Zuma. According to The New Indian Express, Rajapaksa told Zuma he wanted to learn more about South Africa's post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Four years after a controversial assault on a Tamil rebel stronghold ended Sri Lanka's 26 years of civil war, the deep ethnic and sectarian divisions that ignited the war still stymie government efforts to address other pressing social and economic problems. Mistrust divides the country's Buddhist Sinhalese and Hindu Tamil communities. Sinhalese call Tamils terrorists. Tamils call Sinhalese oppressors. Truth be told, both sides have legitimate complaints.
Rajapaksa wondered if a TRC might help Sri Lanka. Zuma suggested that their two governments exchange formal visits to discuss South Africa's experience with the process. Rajapaksa's Tamil critics immediately called his TRC proposal a tactic to delay international investigations of government (meaning Sinhalese) atrocities committed during the war.
A reader left a melancholy comment on the news website. A TRC might help, but to make it work, Sri Lanka needs its own Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu. Tutu led South Africa's TRC. According to the reader, Sri Lanka has neither.
I don't think the reader was arguing that peacemaking depends on specific personalities. However, media increasingly portray leaders as celebrities and equate policy implementation with a dramatic speech.
The 10 or so Mandela eulogies I read last week described him as a reconciler, a revolutionary turned nation healer and a nation builder. All true. However, the TRC, Mandela's policy instrument for concretely advancing reconciliation, received scant attention.
Actions matter, results matter and the mechanisms of action matter. Mandela and Tutu brought credible leadership -- leadership confirmed by action and results -- to the reconciliation process. Action and results gave them moral authority. F.W. de Klerk, South Africa's last apartheid president, added credibility. By freeing the imprisoned Mandela, de Klerk substantiated, through action, the claim that he shared Mandela's goal of ending apartheid. Mandela shared his 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with de Klerk.
Some histories treat the TRC as an after thought to the Constitution that Mandela's African National Congress and de Klerk's government hammered out. However, the Constitution recognized "a need for understanding but not for vengeance, a need for reparation but not for retaliation."
Great words. They reflect a desire to avoid a term haunting the early 1990s: "ethnic cleansing." The ANC had a cadre of veteran guerrillas who wanted to take violent revenge upon the Afrikaners, "the white tribe." However, tribal warfare can spread. South African Xhosas and Zulus have their differences.
The words, however, also engaged a demand by apartheid regime security personnel. They wanted amnesty for crimes committed during the apartheid era, crimes which incited guerrilla demands for revenge.
Real leaders know policy must be substantiated, or made concrete, otherwise the words promoting policy are hollow promises. Mandela offered an enlightened bargain: truth for amnesty, a searing truth that would hurt, then heal.
Tutu directed the TRC process of examining -- in public and in great detail -- apartheid-era crimes, beginning with the Sharpeville massacre in 1960. The process involved personal accusation, personal confession, personal confrontation and public shame.
Confession, remorse and reformation aren't new concepts. In 2002 I discussed church-sponsored peacemaking efforts in Sudan with the Anglican Archbishop of Kenya. South Africa's TRC came up. The archbishop said confession and reformation in some garb are diplomatic tools for resilient peacemaking of any kind.
To make truth and reconciliation peacemaking work, however, requires trust.
The process worked in South Africa because Mandela firmly opposed violent retribution and curbed vengeful ANC loyalists. This promoted trust. Equivalent action is replicable elsewhere and in other circumstances. Mandela also sought peacemaking partners who understood the social and economic rewards of national reconciliation. This, too, is replicable.
This is good news for Sri Lanka. In the season of the Prince of Peace, it's good news, period.

HRCSL should defend human rights, not the regime 


December 24, 2013 
The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) had submitted to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem, recommendations in order to enhance the powers and mandate of the Commission. The recommendations have envisaged to endow the Human Rights Commission with powers to enact its recommendations by submitting them to the High Court or the Court of Appeal; powers to enact interim orders; powers to conduct investigations into matters of national concern and authority to issue warrants bearing the signature of the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission in the face of warrants being ignored by individuals.


In addition, under new recommendations, the Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission should be able to intervene in a Court case, if reasonable doubt is cast that human rights are violated during a trial (especially in a criminal tribunal).
Prathiba Mahanamahewa, the Chairman of HRCSL is himself on record as saying to this newspaper that the country's Human Rights Act No. 26 of 1996 was obsolete. In a rather bold statement, he had noted that 'the quality of our human rights should commensurate with the standard of 58 other member States in the Asia Pacific region.


However, the bitter but stubborn truth is that Sri Lanka's human rights record is a disappointment. A discourse on the country's dreaded rights record has been discouraged by the government, which tends to believe that such a discourse goes hand in glove with 'treason' and 'conspiracy'. Those who challenged the government's version of its human rights record have been labelled as traitors. That had pretty much been the order of the day in the run up to every session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. However, now the chickens have come home to roost and the clock is ticking. British Prime Minister David Cameron had warned he would lobby for an international war crime probe and Downing Street is now considering co-sponsoring another adverse human rights resolution on Sri Lanka at the UNHRC session in March, next year. The room for manoeuvring for the regime in Colombo is shrinking.


Sri Lanka does not have much to boast in terms of mechanisms that protect human rights of its citizens. Its laws are lax, obsolete and subjected to abuse and manipulation. HRCSL had lost its independence and had its accreditation of the International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions (ICC) downgraded for the perceived lack of independence in terms of appointment of members to the Commission.
The interlocutors of the government could shout from the rooftops that all that was part and parcel of a conspiracy hatched by the Tamil Diaspora, or even by the advanced democracies in the West. They can vouch as to how innocent their government is. However, the fact of the matter is that their international counterparts think otherwise.


Sri Lanka's failure to earn respect from its international counterparts has been compounded by the absence of an independent mechanism to ensure human rights of its people. The international community has contested the integrity and the mandate of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka. They view it as a mechanism subservient to the regime.
Therefore, the latest recommendations appear to be a feeble effort on the part of the HRCSL to impress its international counterparts as to how seriously it is doing its job. The new recommendations could give teeth to the largely ineffective HRCSL.


Therefore, the recommendations are a welcome effort; however, the fact of the matter is that there is a lot more to be done if the HRCSL is to be taken seriously by the international community, especially those in the advanced democracies in the West. First and foremost, HRCSL should assert its independence and make clear in no uncertain terms that it is not an accessory of the regime. The role of the HRCSL is to protect the human rights of Sri Lankan citizens, and not to defend a government that had been blamed for some of the egregious violations of human rights. HRCSL should get that right. Until then, with new laws or no laws, it would not command much respect.

BTF calls on the international community to denounce Sri Lanka’s “reconciliation” deception

 Wednesday, 25 December 2013

The war in Sri Lanka came to an end in May 2009. There remain 146,679 people unaccounted for since the end of the war. Mounting evidence points to a need for an international independent investigation into the conduct of the Sri Lankan state during the war. However, calls for accountability by the international community have been met by continuing denials by the Sri Lankan state of any wrongdoing.

As the call for an international independent investigation gains momentum the Sri Lankan regime is engaged in a game of deception. As part of this, the regime has recently announced that it seeks the assistance of South Africa to set up a commission modelled on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

British Tamils Forum denounces the Sri Lankan state’s attempt to deceive the international community by setting up yet another commission to deflect calls for accountability and to delay addressing the root cause of the conflict.

Sri Lanka is well known for its sham commissions and committees, which have not delivered a single meaningful outcome over the past 50 years. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission will be used as a cover by the authoritarian Sri Lankan regime to continue its structural genocide against the Tamil Nation.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been proposed by Sri Lanka with the clear motive of saving the Sri Lankan state from the UN Human Rights Council’s resolutions for an international investigation into crimes committed during the conflict.

‘Reconciliation’ and ‘peace building’ cannot be achieved while the conflict remains unresolved. Unlike South Africa, the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka has only become more acute since the end of the war. Although the bilateral military conflict came to an end in May 2009, the root cause of the conflict remains intact. The ethnic polarization has worsened since the end of the war. The genocidal onslaught on the Tamil nation by the Sinhala nation, followed by occupation of the Tamil homeland by the Sinhala military, has added to the polarization. Rape, murder, disappearances, enforced birth control, destruction of Tamils’ schools and land grabs by the Sri Lankan state – which continue at an alarming pace – are issues that need to be addressed immediately by the international community. While these acts of genocide continue in the Tamil people’s homeland there is little prospect of reconciliation.

In the international arena, there are also moves for a regime change in Sri Lanka under the pretext that this would foster peace and reconciliation. However, the Sri Lankan constitution and the founding principles of the state’s structure are at the root of this conflict. A mere regime change will not foster peace and reconciliation in the island of Sri Lanka.

The root cause of the conflict – the continuing denial of the democratic wish of the Tamil people for self-governance – needs to be addressed without further delay. Reconciliation between the Tamil and the Sinhala nations and peace on that island will materialize only when domination by the Sinhala nation over the Tamil nation ends.

Justice and accountability is vital for any long-term solution in a conflict, particularly one with ethnic and genocidal dimensions. Hence we call on the UN to reject the proposed truth and reconciliation commission and to instead set up an international tribunal to investigate all parties to the conflict in the island of Sri Lanka for war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide, without further delay.

Mannar, Sri Lanka: The trauma healing Nun

Mannar, Sri Lanka: The trauma healing Nun

By Thulasi Muttulingam

The elderly yet sprightly nun is hard to miss on the thoroughfares of Mannar, Sri Lanka. White habit spotlessly clean and wimple neatly pinned in place, she can often be seen whizzing by on her trusty black scooter to save yet another damaged soul, ravaged by war or the after-effects of war. 

Mannar, Sri Lanka the Trauma Healing Nun by nelvely

From Aapada Through Viyasana To Vinasa

By Arjuna Seneviratne -December 26, 2013 

Arjuna Seneviratne

Every year, around this time, we go through the rote of commemoration and remembrance of a disaster that caused the deaths of a lot of people and damaged and destroyed a lot of property. Nine years after the tsunamis hit us, we can definitely say we are good at adhering with religious zeal to cyclic remembrance. However, are we able to say with equal certainty that we are good at making sure that that sort of damage never repeats regardless of the type of event that occurs? Do we have the systems and processes in place to prepare for, respond to and mitigate the effects of disastrous events? No and no. Will we ever be in that place where people are assured that there is adequacy in our answers to these two questions? If events such as the Fukushima disaster teach us anything, then the answer to that question should also be a loud no. Are we moving towards some system that will enable us to become less worried about the impact of such events as a nation, a government, a citizenry? Good question. The answer to that one would depend on who one asks. If one asks state officials, policy planners, informed institutional officials, researchers, civil organizations, private sector organizations, well, they would probably be enthusiastic about the work done to lessen the “worry-factor” among citizens. If you ask those self same citizens they would respond with “විනාස අඩුකරගන්න ක්‍රමයක්ද හදන්න හදන්නේ? අනේ නිකන් පලයන් බන් යන්ඩ”.

Why?

Granted, the 2004 tsunamis were the most destructive event to have hit the country in its recorded history with over USD 1.5 billion in social, infrastructural and productive damage, over 35,000 estimated dead and over 500,000 estimated displaced. We understand this and remember this as we should. But do we also remember the 2011 floods which affected a whopping 2,524,402 people and caused Rs. 77,000 million in damage or those in 2010 which cost the country Rs.5,000 million and affected 453,429 people? No. Do we mourn their losses year after year? No. Do we know or care that over the last ten years, over 6 million people have been affected by drought or that over 8.5 million have been battered by floods? No. Do we have any solutions at all for the yearly flooding in Kalutara and Ratnapura or the cyclic droughts in many parts of the country? Well? No and no and no ad infinitum. Not only don’t we remember those so called small and medium scale disasters nor the massive cumulative effect of them over the years, we just don’t care to factor such eventualities into our strategic thinking at the level of development, governance, right to human security and indeed, democracy itself. So, at least for about 40-50% of the countries citizenry, “අනේ නිකන් පලයන් බන්යන්ඩ” is a pretty accurate one line estimate of the sum effectiveness of disaster management efforts.Read More

Missing albino turtle an inside job 

  December 25, 2013 
Missing albino turtle an inside job
By Gihan Kamalesh Weerasinghe

Investigations conducted by the Kosgoda Police have revealed that the controversial theft of the albino sea turtle from the Kosgoda Sea Turtle Hatchery and Sanctuary could have been an inside job.

A senior police officer stated that records of the telephone network of the employees as well as the owner of the hatchery would be checked, and added that they would also be subjected to DNA tests.

He also said they had arrived at this conclusion, consequent to investigations being conducted where information had been obtained on the manner in which the dog that had been placed to guard the albino sea turtle as well as the other turtles in the hatchery,

had behaved.Police dogs sniffing the getaway route had led the police to the discovery of a ball of several strands of hair stuck to a fence which they suspect would belong to the person who had carried the albino sea turtle out of the sanctuary. Police sources also stated that the DNA test would be carried out to confirm the identity of the thief.

MR’s 70th Cabinet minister has no tasks or duties

 Wednesday, 25 December 2013 

The 70th Cabinet minister of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government does not have any tasks or duties.

The President had on Monday night gazetted the duties and functions of the Special Projects Minister S. M. Chandrasena.

The terms of the notification has not provided details about the tasks or duties assigned to Chandrasena.

It has been broadly described that the minister will be responsible for, “The formulation of special programmes and projects in relation to areas requiring priority attention based on the Mahinda Chinthana — Vision for the Future — and any other National Policies that are to be implemented by the Government”.

The Ministry has reportedly not been assigned any departments, public corporations or statutory institutions. Neither is it the implementing agency for any laws.

Other duties and functions include, vaguely, “Direction of the implementation of such policies, programmes and projects within timelines agreed with the national planning authorities and within budgeted resources, with a view to achieving relevant objectives.”

The minister has been placed in charge of, “Provision of all public services that come under the purview of the Ministry in an efficient and people friendly manner” without any definition of what these public services are.

However, the only task Chandrasena has been assigned with some specificity is, “Identification of environmental factors that contribute to the increase in the number of Kidney patients and initiating action to minimize or eliminate the impact caused by such factors.”

Shanaka’s Utopia In Melbourne: ‘Lentil As Anything’

By Laksiri Fernando -December 24, 2013

Dr. Laksiri Fernando

It is a crazy idea but it works. Shanaka Fernando is a Sri Lankan origin migrant living in Melbourne, Australia. Although he is my ‘namesake,’ we are not relatives. I didn’t know him personality until the last meeting and only acquaintance was through information. He perhaps didn’t know about me, but I knew about him because of his ‘Lentil as Anything.’

‘Lentil as Anything’ is a multicultural and refugee friendly ‘not for profit’ restaurant network with three outlets in Melbourne metropolitan area, at St Kilda, Footscray and Abbotsford. ‘Pay as you feel’ is the principle. There is a big wooden box like a till for people to contribute. I had the pleasing opportunity to visit his outlet in Abbotsford, thanks to my friend, Saman Halgamuge (Professor of Engineering at the University of Melbourne). He took me there for lunch when I visited Melbourne recently. I ate the stuff and it was good, rather excellent. We met Shanaka briefly and he was there at Abbotsford.

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PSC needed to probe N’cholai breakdowns

Wednesday, 25 December 2013

The Power and Energy Ministry should call for the appointment of a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to investigate the frequent breakdowns at the first coal fired power plant, at Norochcholai, rather than the Ministry Secretary writing and seeking explanations from the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) management, a consumer centered organisation said yesterday.

With the recent breakdown at the plant, the CEB had to spend an additional Rs. 800 million to make up the power shortfall during the past 10 days or so and the trend would continue, National Movement of Electricity Consumers Advisor Bandula Chandrasekera warned.

He told The Island that it was a serious situation and should be taken lightly as by next year the plant would provide 900MW to the national grid.

"This plant will be contributing the Lion’s share to the grid, but sadly we are still struggling with its first phase," he added.

He also said that according to his information the plant would take months to be restored.

CEB Additional General Manager (Generation) M. C. Wickramasekara told The Island that that though the latest problem was a minute one, Sri Lanka did not have the technical know-how to attend to it.

The Senior Electrical Engineer said that one of the tubes out of millions had cracked and as a result sea water had entered the boiler and contaminated it. He said that it was so minute, that contamination was 200 parts per million (PPM).

He said that the Chinese builder would independently bring a Chinese expert to attend to it. The expert was expected today, while the CEB, on its part, had requested the services of Indian experts who were scheduled to be here on Friday.

He expressed the hope that the matter could be sorted out soon, while saying they would be extra cautious before commissioning the second phase of the project soon.

The Plant. which is notorious for its frequent breakdowns. experienced the latest technical hitch on December 13.

By Ifham Nizam

Distorting the truth about the heroin container seized is the new plan of the guilty Rajapakses now

(Lanka-e-News- 25.Dec.2013, 8.30PM) The latest plan of the Rajapakses is to conceal the actual owners of the large haul of heroin detected in a container at the Orugodawatte yard , Colombo on 30 th August, according to reports reaching Lanka e news inside information division.

Rajapakses who are making a big din about the letter issued by the secretary to the Prime minister requesting to reduce the cess on the heroin container , are however dumb about the 130 kilos of heroin that were in the container which vanished while in the very custody of the police – an unpardonably egregious criminal lapse on the part of the police !

While the disappearance of 130 kilos of the 261.292 kilograms that were detected is a more grave issue than tracking down the importer of the heroin , the Hela Urumaya who are most vociferous against heroin business and doing the most lip service to Buddhism ; and the sordid media coolies have most strangely gone deaf , blind and dumb in regard to this .

If the clamor is for the resignation of the Prime minister merely because his secretary issued a letter for the reduction of cess, the clamor must be much more first for the resignation of anti narcotics Bureau Director responsible for the 130 kilos of disappeared heroin , as well as the IGP and the defense secretary under whom he is and last but not the least involved, the President of Sri Lanka. Moreover , it is imperative that the Director in charge of the anti narcotics bureau under whose charge the disappeared heroin was is arrested forthwith and interrogated.

Of course may be it is difficult to track down the importer of this heroin container , but certainly it should not be difficult to arrest the culprits responsible for the disappearance of this large quantity of heroin while in police custody. The Director of anti narcotics bureau under whose custody this heroin quantity was and directly responsible should therefore be arrested and interrogated.

Instead of taking appropriate action, why is the attention being diverted in this most heinous crime ? This implies that the Rajapakses are behind this heroin racket. Half the quantity of the heroin that w as in police custody disappeared obviously because the Rajapakses wanted it so. This is part of the inscrutable plan of Rajapakses to cover up this massive heroin racket . The first plan : this became very evident when 10 kilograms heroin were seized in the south ; the suspect in that detection was forcibly made suspect in connection with the container load of heroin too.. Dushantha the suspect was pressurized by assault and intimidation to make a false statement in order to make him accept liability for the heroin container too.. Dushantha is in a critical condition now.

Last Sunday(22nd Dec) Lakbima newspaper revealed copious information about the heroin trafficking and the arrest made in the south , but it did not reveal Dushantha’s name . Lakbima suppressed the information that Dushantha is Milinda Moragoda’s

henchman .

The true importer of the heroin container is a monitoring Minister of the Rajapakses engaged in diverse businesses. When Mahinda Rajapakse was in the opposition he was Mahinda’s driver after working as a driver in Trico Co. middle east.He was transporting Mahinda to the brothels on the sly during his middle east visit , and built close ties with him thereby. Now , this procurer is holding a high position under the Rajapakse regime. This heroin business preliminary discussions had taken place in a middle east country . Though only this latest container load of heroin was seized , prior to this 4 similar containers have arrived and been released without any hindrance. Although all this information have surfaced , the Rajapakses are seeking to incriminate and implicate others in this massive heroin racket leaving out the actual culprits including Rajapakses themselves .

The second plan is : concocting a story to cover up the 130 kilos of heroin that went missing.

Heroin is the preliminary state of the pain killer drug morphine . The heroin taken into custody is held by the government after converting into morphine. Even the productions to court are in the name of morphine and not heroin .Heroin is known as brown sugar and white heroin is known as white sugar . When brown heroin / brown sugar is converted into white sugar , 1 kilo of white sugar is produced out of 10 kilos brown sugar. When that is converted into morphine , 10 kilos white sugar becomes 1 kilo morphine.

Now what they are planning is , to say, the amount that was revealed is the quantity of morphine only and that is erroneous. It was the government analyst who told that the quantity of heroin seized on that day was 261.292 kilograms , and it was brown sugar.

Hence , based on the afore-noted jiggery -pokery calculations , what should be remaining now as morphine is 2.613 kilograms.

It is learnt that one stupid idiot of the narcotics analyst department has suggested to add Disprin and powdered tube light to make up the weight. No matter which fool says what , the entire manipulation is directed towards concealing the actual culprits involved in this container of heroin . The anti narcotics bureau Director Kamal Silva SSP is under a duty to disclose the truth to the people , otherwise , may we remind in his own interest some day he has to face jail sentence, since the whole world is focusing its attention on this massive heroin haul .

To be continued…

Heroin racket: PM’s son benefited from suspects – Monks

December 24, 2013, 12:00 pm 

National Organiser of the National Sangha Council, Ven. Pahiyangala Anandasagara Thera stresses a point at the media briefing. Ven. Rajawatte Wappa Thera (centre) and Wattahene Vijitha Thera look on. 
 Pix by Sujatha Jayaratne 
By Madura Ranwala

President of the National Sangha Council (NSC) Ven. Rajawatte Wappa Thera yesterday alleged that the provincial council election campaign of Prime Minsiter D. M. Jayaratne’s son, Anuradha Jayaratne, in  September, had been funded by those who brought in a container where heroin was subsequently found concealed in cans of grease.

Addressing the media at the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress Auditorium, at Bauddhaloka Mawatha, with National Organiser Ven. Pahiyangala Anandasagara Thera and Wattahene Vijitha Thera of the NSC, Ven. Wappa thera said that they had received information, from people in the area, that the PM’s son had spent millions of rupees to get the highest number of preferential

votes at the Central Provincial Council election last September.

The Thera also criticised the Bhikkus and other religious leaders, of the Inter Religious Alliance for National Unity, who backed the premier at a recent media briefing and added that they were interested only in their personal gain and not the country’s interests.

The Thera said that the coordinating secretary to the Premier had told the media that he issued the letter with the consent of the premier and therefore the premier should explain his stance without criticising the Bhikkus, who exposed his involvement in the incident, as it was the right of the Sangha to do so.

Foreign Investments And Exports: Is It The Therapy For Sri Lanka’s Underdevelopment?

By Dhanusha Pathirana –December 26, 2013 

Dhanusha Pathirana

It is firmly believed in orthodox circles that inward foreign investment is the principal source of technological and organizational skill to an underdeveloped economy which the domestic entities struggle to acquire through indigenously designed means. Further, foreign investments are believed to be an ideal source of non-debt driven inflows to bridge the perpetual shortage of capital, deemed as a common syndrome in underdeveloped economies. In this light, economists suggest that foreign investment should be attracted over foreign debt to offset the lack of capital and to ensure underdeveloped economies can survive current account deficits that accumulate during economic growth and for the latter to be ‘sustainable’ in the long run.

In the following account we attempt to understand the general character of the Sri Lankan economy by explaining the current state of its factor organisation and by placing it against the views expounded by orthodox economists who identify it merely as an economy in short supply of foreign exchange, domestic savings and exports, which is more of an accounting interpretation of the economy rather than that of the economy itself. Further, the idea of “sustainable economic growth” that is repeated by economists will be probed to understand what is suggested by the term.

In this backdrop the structural character of FDIs received by Sri Lanka will be examined in connection with the fundamental issue the Sri Lankan economy now inherits. The conditions which govern the structure of FDIs and whether FDIs into Sri Lanka have been reflecting the characteristics assigned to them by economists will also be probed. In this regard, the development process of selected East Asian economies will be examined at a comparative level to assess the role of foreign direct investments in their development experience and the particular model of growth Sri Lanka could adopt considering the latter.

Overview of the Structure of the Sri Lankan Economy and the Motivation to “Sustain” It

A recent article published in the Daily Financial Times titled “Way Forward for Sustained Growth” by W. A. Wijewardena based on views presented by Sri Lanka’s two eminent economists, namely Professor A. D. V. de S. Indraratne and Dr. G. Usvattearatchi at the Sri Lanka Economic Association (SLEA) 2013 Annual Sessions asserts the point regarding foreign investments and sustainable growth quite earnestly:

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Freudian Motive To Sri Lanka’s Notoriety In Rape

( December 25, 2013 - Colombo -Sri Lanka Guardian) While one may expect that the word “sex” may emerge as a heavily searched word in Google, what is surprising is that Sri Lanka has created a world record for topping the list of the countries with the most number of searches for this “word” viewed by philosopher Freud as the most important in the dynamics of the psyche of humankind. Sri Lanka has excelled in demonstrating this Freudian motive even while the Rajapakse family had over two years ago banned most such web sites about sex, preventing Sri Lankans in logging into those sites. This singular achievement may also point to the inner workings of the perverted cultural mind of the Sri Lanka military which has been blamed, and enjoys immunity from criminality, for several gang rapes with bestial brutality on Tamil fighting women during the war, and Tamil civilians after the end of the war in Sri Lanka.

India had taken the second place closely behind Sri Lanka in seeking the meaning of the word sex.

A spokesperson for Tamils Against Genocide (TAG-US) commenting on Sri Lanka’s position on this list, said: “It is ironic that while in Buddhist philosophy and in the Buddhism-centric vision of Sinhala Sri Lanka, sexual promiscuity is not tolerated and sex is a taboo topic in public discussions, we see that rape by Sinhala soldiers have become routine, and are protected by the ruling governments. And with the Google list we see what’s foremost in the minds of Sri Lankans, and we cannot deny that Sri Lanka’s top position is a likely pointer to the deterioration of traditionally valued cultural norms.”

Sri Lanka military has been accused of rapes during the course of the civil war, and during the nearly five years after the end of the war. Wikileaks exposed that even the U.S. government was aware that prostitution rings were set up by paramilitaries controlled by a sibling of Sri Lanka’s President Rajapakse.

US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, chairing the United Nations Security Council meeting in October 2009, on the last day of US’s turn of the rotating presidency of the 15-member body in September, on violence against women in warfare, dropped a bombshell on Sri Lanka by including Sri Lanka in the company of Congo, Sudan, and Mayanmar, saying Sri Lanka has used rape as a weapon of war [against Tamils].

Besides, extensive records maintained by TamilNet stories (see list below) indicate that the incidents of rape by Sri Lankan soldiers went unabated during the period of war.

Images of captured LTTE soldiers raped and killed, and bestial handling of dead bodies of Tamil women by Sinhala soldiers during war have deeply wounded the psyche of Tamils and this has become an insurmountable hurdle towards any approach to reconciliation, Tamil activists note.

Sigmund Freud argued that sexual oppression was one of the roots of many problems in Western and other societies. Freud believed that people’s naturally strong instincts toward sexuality were repressed by people in order to meet the constraints imposed on them by civilized life. Perhaps in the vigor to seek outlets Sri Lanka beat the others in similar predicament, Sri Lanka observers speculated.

Michel Foucault, in his The History of Sexuality, neither refutes nor confirms what he calls the “repressive hypothesis.” Instead, he says sexuality has become an important topic to understand and manipulate for the purpose of nation building. Through categorization of sexuality, the idea of repression was born. Are Sri Lankans, as a collective species, seeking to build a better nation in breaking the world record, if one thinks Foucault was serious with his words.

Women want Karaliyedda out

 Wednesday, 25 December 2013 

 A group of women has urged President Mahinda Rajapaksa to call for the resignation of Women’s Affairs and Child Development Minister Tissa Karaliyadde and to remove him from his portfolio with immediate effect.

The Women’s NGO Forum has called for Karaliyadde’s resignation for making sexist comments against women in the country.
The Forum has noted that the Minister had made extremely sexist remarks humiliating Sri Lankan women without any sense of respect for the Cabinet or the office he holds.

“Minister Karaliyadde is clearly unaware that the oath of office he has taken as a Cabinet minister requires him to respect and follow the norms and standards set by our Constitution and national laws and international treaties and policies that bind the Sri Lankan State and Government,” the Forum has told the media.

The Minister has been accused of violating Article 12 of the Constitution that incorporates standards of gender equality and non-discrimination on the ground of a person’s sex.

According to the Forum, Sri Lanka is a party to the convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1981.

The Minister seems to be unaware of the gender equality programs carried out by his ministry to strengthen capacity of the many community based women's groups, the NGO has said.

PS MEMBER AMONG 9 HELD DIGGING FOR TREASURE

December 25, 2013 

Nine persons including a member of the Thanamalwila Pradeshiya Sabha have been arrested for engaging in illegal excavations in the Embilipitiya area with the intention of finding buried treasures. 

The suspects were arrested by Embilipitiya Police while carrying out the excavations at a residence in Embilipitiya last night. 

Various equipment and utensils used for the digging have also been taken into custody by police. The suspects are to be produced at the Embilipitya Magistrate’s Court today.   

Dark Christmas looms for thousands of Canadian households

JOSH WINGROVE-Wednesday, Dec. 25 2013
Thousands of homes and buildings remain without power across Central and Eastern Canada, as crews continue to work to restore service after an ice storm that threatens to leave people in the dark over Christmas.

The number of outages were down significantly from Monday evening, but the outages still stretched from southwestern Ontario to New Brunswick as of Tuesday afternoon.

The worst-hit area was still Toronto. Mayor Rob Ford – who has not yet spoken to Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne during the storm - tried to reassure residents without electricity in the middle of a cold snap that crews were working around the clock and that power would be restored for Boxing Day or the day after.

As of Wednesday morning, about 70,000 Toronto Hydro customers were still without power, the majority being in North York and Scarborough. A Toronto Hydro spokesperson said crews still haven't started on localized outages, which affect individual houses, and fixing those could be time-consuming.

Hydro One said under 50,000 customers across Ontario were still without power Tuesday evening.

Those without power could spend Christmas in the dark amid an extreme cold weather alert issued by the city.

“I would like to say this will be done tomorrow - that’s not going to happen, folks. We’re going to aim and do our very best for Thursday or Friday,” Mr. Ford said.

“I wish I could give you better news, but we are going in the right direction….”

Service resumed on the Sheppard subway Tuesday evening. The five-stop line was suspended for nearly three days after the ice storm hit the city.

Hydro crews from Ottawa and Windsor have arrived and will be assisting local restoration efforts, while crews from Manitoba and Michigan are likely to arrive tomorrow, Mr. Ford said. He added that restoring power to the last 50,000 customers would be the most challenging because it involves “one-offs,” or individuals houses on a street where there is power.

“You don’t simply re-energize a feeder [power line] where you may see 1,000 or 2,000 customers come on. You’re now into individual homes that you’re restoring, so that effort – as you can imagine – is much more time-consuming and labour-intensive,” Toronto Hydro CEO Anthony Haines said at a news conference Tuesday.

After recent revelations about Mr. Ford’s drug use and behaviour, Toronto city council voted to strip him of certain powers and hand them to deputy mayor Norm Kelly. It has raised questions about who is running the show for the city’s storm response.

Mr. Kelly stood behind Mr. Ford throughout a news conference Tuesday morning, but did not answer any questions. It has been reported that Mr. Ford had not been communicating with his deputy mayor throughout the storm’s relief efforts, while Ms. Wynne said Tuesday she and her office were dealing with Mr. Kelly and his office. She reached out to Mr. Kelly rather than Mr. Ford, who she has not yet spoken with since the storm hit.

“I have said consistently that we are dealing with the decision makers at City Hall,” she said, stressing the controversy around Mr. Ford hasn’t impacted the response, nor has his decision to not declare a state of emergency impacted what resources the province is providing.

“Whatever the politics are at City Hall really should have, and has had, no bearing on the province’s ability to work with officials in the city,” Ms. Wynne said, stressing she was dealing with “on-the-ground, operational decision makers.”

Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long Term care has deployed its emergency operations centre to help Toronto hospitals deal with the impact of the storm.

In particular, Ms. Wynne said, an emergency medical assistance team been sent to Sunnybrook Hospital, and is providing more doctors, nurses and 30 additional beds.

Barney Owens, of Ontario’s Office of the Fire Marshall and Emergency Management, said the province’s emergency operations has been working with ministries -- including the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ministry of Government Services, Ministry of Transportation and Ministry of Health -- to support the affected municipalities.

In terms of helping people most in need, such as senior citizens, Mr. Owens said municipalities, with help from organizations like the Canadian Red Cross and Toronto Community Housing,  are responsible for knocking on doors to check on residents. If assistance is required, “I think we have some members lined up from other organizations that can assist as well,” he said.