War crime allegations:Justice Minister calls for cross examination of accusers, verification

By Shamindra Ferdinando-January 21, 2014, 10:38 pm 

Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem yesterday said those who levelled war crime allegations against Sri Lanka should be cross-examined. Hakeem, who is also the leader of the UPFA constituent, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), said that the veracity of allegations had to be ascertained and, therefore, specific allegations would have to be made in a court of law either here or abroad.

Minister Hakeem was responding to questions raised by The Island in an interview at the Justice Ministry yesterday.

The Justice Minister said that the recommendation that written and oral submissions as regards accountability issues received by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s three-member Panel of Experts (PoE) would remain ‘strictly confidential’ until 2031 could hinder the ongoing efforts to address accountability issues. The PoE further recommended that even after that declassification they would be subject to another review in accordance with UNSG Moon’s bulletin on ‘Information sensitivity, classification and handling.’

The PoE comprising Maruzki Darusman (Indonesia), Steven R. Ratner (US)and Yasmin Sooka (South Africa) released its report on March 31, 2011.

The US embassy, too, declared that it wouldn’t reveal eyewitness accounts of war crimes though officials met on a regular basis with a broad range of individuals around the country.

The Island sought a clarification in the wake of US embassy’s claim in a statement issued at the conclusion of State Department official Ambassador Stephen J. Rapp’s visit on January 11 that the envoy had got an opportunity to listen to eyewitness accounts of serious human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law including those which allegedly occurred during the closing stages of the Vanni war.

Minister Hakeem said that the government was in the process of introducing a witness protection programme to facilitate investigations into accountability issues. The country had felt the need to introduce such a programme even before the conclusion of the conflict in May 2009, he said.

Referring to the work undertaken by the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) as regards witness protection mechanism etc at the height of the war, the Minister said that the Attorney General’s Department had objected to the move.

Responding to another query, the SLMC leader said that in accordance with mutual assistance in criminal matters legislation there was provision for foreign courts to obtain evidence relating to a specific case heard in Sri Lanka and transmit the same to Colombo. Minister Hakeem said that he had an opportunity to discuss the proposed mechanism with Ambassador Rapp, who was in Sri Lanka from January 6 to 11.

Acknowledging that their refusal to divulge sources had been influenced by the assumption that those giving evidence could be harmed, Minister Hakeem said that a witness protection programme was now on the drawing board.

The minister stressed that whatever the circumstances, information collected by the UN or any other agency couldn’t be accepted without proper verification. The PoE is on record as having said that it has received over 4,000 submissions (both oral and written) from 2,300 persons.

Commenting on human rights allegations against the US and UK for military action in Iraq and elsewhere, Minister Hakeem said that the US had ignored the International Criminal Court (ICC) though the UK endorsed the Rome Statue way back in 2001. The Minister said that the US produced servicemen accused of atrocities before military tribunals. Sri Lanka could do the same, the minister said, adding that the ICC too, would allow local investigations to take place before direct intervention.

The minister was responding to recent UK declaration that there was no need for ICC intervention as accountability issues were either under thorough investigation or had been dealt with through various means, including the Iraq Historic Allegations Team, independent public inquiries, the UK and European Courts and in Parliament.

The Island also brought the US recommendation to Sri Lanka that the arsenal of Russian MiG 27s and Israeli Kfirs be expanded to include cluster bombs to the notice of the Justice Minister. The US made the recommendation in late 2002 following a comprehensive examination of strength and weakness of the Sri Lankan military.

Minister Hakeem acknowledged that a section of the Catholic clergy had recently accused the GoSL of using cluster ammunition during eelam war IV during a meeting with Ambassador Rapp.

Former SLAF Chief Air Chief Marshal Roshan Goonetileke told The Island that cluster ammunitions had never been used though both Kfirs, MiG 27s as well as Chinese jets could have been deployed for the purpose.

Rajapaksa To Invoke Archaic Victorian Anti-Gay Laws Against Me

By Mangala Samaraweera - January 22, 2014

Having failed in successive witch hunts to discredit me since I parted company with the President in 2007, the Rajapaka regime seems to have embarked on yet another attempt to incarcerate and silence me by preparing to invoke an archaic Victorian law of the Sri Lankan penal code against me.

Mangala and the President

The cat burglar who was caught red handed by the police on New Year’s Eve  with some alcohol stolen from my house and confessed in the Police statement to breaking into my house forcibly has now been turned into a ‘Star’ by the state media and the state sponsored private media. This young man, an occasional casual hand in my household until he was admitted to a drug rehabilitation centre some time ago by his family has now been brought in front of the cameras to hurl obnoxious and baseless allegations against me in keeping with the conspiracy to invoke Section 365A of the penal code which has never been utilised in recent times.

My private life, though private has never been a secret. My mother, my family and friends as well as most of my Parliamentary colleagues including my constituents whom I have represented with love and dedication for the last 25 years have appreciated my honesty and for never allowing my private life to get in the way of public service. However, today the Rajapaksa regime, in preparation for provincial elections to be followed by Presidential elections seems to be hell bent on destroying me using the confused hallucinations of a misguided youth.

If the Rajapaksa regime thinks that I could be intimidated and silenced by such conspiracies, they are sadly mistaken. Attempting to invoke this archaic law in direct violation of the Commonwealth charter, whose current custodian is President Rajapaksa will prove beyond any reasonable doubt that he is not suitable to hold such a post and that Sri Lanka is now rapidly moving away from the fundamentals of a modern democracy. In fact, the Rule of law has deteriorated to such an extent, that a simple police complaint made on behalf of an opposition politician is used to sling mud and as a means of initiating a witch hunt against him while killers, rapists, drug lords and money launderers with blessings from the highest, are allowed to continue their criminal activities with impunity.

Under the Rajapaksa presidency, the country has been sucked into a black hole of intolerance, hypocrisy and despair. This in fact makes me more determined to fight against this dark and evil regime with more vigour and dedication in the months ahead.

*Statement by Mangala Samaraweera M.P. - 22nd January 2013

Pillai's execution shows government’s habitual and utter disregard to citizens - Ranjan

 Wednesday, 22 January 2014 

'Ravindra Krishna Pillai's  execution shows that Sri Lankan government’s habitual and utter disregard to the welfare of its citizens working overseas, while depending on them to earn USD 7 billion of vital foreign exchange to the country' said by UNP MP Ranjan Ramanayake on his press statement regarding unfair trail of Krishna Pillai

See full statement below
Sri Lankan migrant worker Ravindra Krishna Pillai as executed in UAE yesterday for an alleged murder. According to his family and friends he has neither received a fair trial nor was he given access to his lawyers. Amnesty International also confirmed to BBC Sinhala Service that Ravindra did not receive a fair trial.

The execution of the Sri Lankan migrant worker took place while H.E President Mahinda Rajapaksa was in UAE meeting the country’s leaders. It is deeply regrettable that President did not take up the matter with UAE leaders and intervene to ensure a fair trial and save his fellow citizen’s life.

If the Sri Lankan President was not informed about the unfair trial of Mr. Pillai or the impending execution, serious action should be taken against the Sri Lankan Ambassorder in the UAE and the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.

This is another instance of that showcases the Sri Lankan government’s habitual and utter disregard to the welfare of its citizens working overseas, while depending on them to earn USD 7 billion of vital foreign exchange to the country.

Ranjan Ramanayake
UNP MP
0773624927/ 0712781811

Student dies in tragic accident

 By Menaka Indrakumar and Zahrah Imitias- January 22, 2014
 

An nine-year-old student died yesterday after getting wedged between a metal roller and a wall. The victim, a student of Ananda College, Colombo has been identified as Senetha Wijesinghe.


According to the police, the child had been playing with a couple of other students at the time of the incident.
The child was pronounced dead upon admission to the Lady Ridgeway Children's Hospital.


According to the police, the victim is a resident of Malabe and the body is kept at the Lady Ridgeway Children's Hospital for further examination.


Ananda College Principal, Kithsiri Liyanagamage, said rollers were brought because the school was having some construction work going on. It had been left at the side of the playground where children are not supposed to play. "I spoke to the master-in-charge in the morning, Ruwan Pathirana, and everything was perfectly fine. Later, we found out that some children had been playing with the roller, which had been placed on a slope, thus setting it in motion when the children were playing with it," he said.

What a shame!

Editorial-January 21, 2014, 

Tangalle PS Chairman (UPFA) Sampath Vidanapathirana, the main suspect in the Khuram Sheikh murder case, has been absconding since Jan. 09. The police, groping in the dark, claim to have deployed special teams to arrest him, but their investigations have drawn a blank. One is not surprised at their failure. Success is something they cannot afford when they deal with ruling party politicians and thugs.

The government has at its disposal about 70,000 policemen, 200,000 soldiers, 50,000 sailors, 50,000 airmen and 40,000 home guards. It unflinchingly deploys the army and the Special Task Force to help the police crush protests either on streets or in prisons. But, it skirts such tough measures in dealing with criminals loyal to it. This is a country where two dangerous, evasive terrorist leaders in hiding were hunted down and killed. So, the government has no way of justifying its failure to have an absconding PS chairman arrested.

The police have apparently got their priorities mixed up. They are busy doing political work for powerful politicians and generating income for a cash-strapped government to the neglect of their duties. Traffic policemen are reportedly ordered not to return to base without raising enough funds for the state coffers by way of spot fines etc. They no longer try to prevent accidents and traffic offences by patrolling roads; hiding behind trees and lamp posts they wait till offences are committed so as to impose fines or have their palms sufficiently greased to let culprits off the hook. Cynics say the day may not be far off when the police overtake the Customs in boosting the revenue of the government notorious for its enormous appetite for taxes and fines.

If a poor villager steals a bunch of bananas, he is trussed up, bundled into a police vehicle and made to regret the day he was born. Young lovers who smooch in public parks and on beaches are rounded up and paraded on streets before being taken to police stations where they are subjected to various indignities. But, regrettably, this high octane performance on the part of the so-called long arm of the law is conspicuous by its absence when the need arises for arresting politically connected, dangerous criminals who have become a law unto themselves. What a shame!

The Tangalle PS chief has gone into hiding, the police have said. But, pro-government fugitives from justice usually do not face the hassle of going underground to evade arrest. Why should they? They and their masters are ‘more equal’ than others. The police are too impotent to act against them. Wanted men are seen moving about freely in the company of prominent politicians with the police looking on. It is only the Executive President who enjoys legal immunity according to the Constitution, but, in reality, all ruling party big guns and their goons are above the law. When they commit crimes, the police wait till they give themselves up through lawyers. Some of those anti-social elements have made a mockery of the law by getting away with criminal offences such as cheque frauds by paying state costs. So much for the rule of law in this country!

The police keep telling us that they will arrest the absconding PS chief before long. But, their promises are not to be taken seriously. Lily-livered, weak-kneed and irresolute, they grovel before their political masters in spite of rhetoric they bellow for public consumption. Let them be told to fish or cut bait and, most of all, urged to ensure that other suspects in the Khuram Sheikh murder case will not run away. Anything is possible in this criminals’ paradise.

REMANDED AGAIN…

January 22, 2014 

The Tangalle Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman, Sampath Chandrapushpa Vidanapathirana has been remanded until the case over the murder of a British national concludes by the Colombo High Court. Pic by Eranga Perera

Khuram Shaikh death: Politician arrest over Sri Lanka killing

A Sri Lankan politician charged with murdering a British aid worker has been arrested by police two weeks after jumping bail.

British aid worker Khuram Shaikh was killed while on holiday in Tangalle in 2011

22 January 2014

 He is one of six men accused of the murder of Khuram Shaikh and gang-rape of a woman. All plead not guilty.Sampath Vidanapathirana, a town council leader, was remanded in custody after appearing at the High Court in Colombo.

The Red Cross worker was shot and stabbed to death at a hotel in southern Sri Lanka on Christmas Day 2011.

Mr Vidanapathirana has been held until the end of the trial which starts in March.

He had gone missing earlier this month after his lawyers said he was getting hospital treatment, but the judge cast doubt on the documents supplied by his legal team.

After several months of detention, he was released on bail in November 2012 and resumed his work as a town council leader in Tangalle, the beach resort town in Sri Lanka where Mr Shaikh was killed.

Mr Shaikh, 32, had been working in Gaza fitting prosthetic limbs, but was on holiday in the resort.

He had been trying to break up a fight in the hotel bar when he was killed.

So When Will International Justice Save Palestine?

Stuart Littlewood Salem-News.com-Jan-21-2014 17:13-William Hague photo courtesy: The Guardian

“If you commit war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide you will not be able to rest easily in your bed: the reach of international justice is long and patient.... There is no expiry date for these crimes...." (William Hague, British foreign secretary)

(LONDON) - Eighteen months ago UK foreign secretary William Hague delivered an important speech at the Hague, home of the International Criminal 

So When Will International Justice Save Palestine by nelvely

Geneva talks underscore huge gap between Syrian regime and opposition

Little hope of progress at Geneva II conference as Syrian foreign minister rejects John Kerry's call for president to step down

Ian Black in Montreux-, Wednesday 22 January 2014

Syrian refugees in Lebanan watch the Geneva II peace conference. Expectations are low for the talks. Photograph: Ali Hashisho/Reuters

Efforts to resolve Syria's bloody crisis came up against the yawning gap between the parties on Wednesday as the government insisted thatBashar al-Assad would not step down and called western-backed rebels fighting to overthrow him terrorists and traitors to their own people.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, opened the one-day Geneva II conference – being held in the nearby town of Montreux – by urging the parties to act constructively to try to find a way out of a conflict that has cost an estimated 130,000 lives and destabilised the Middle East.

John Kerry said of Bashar al-Assad that "one man and his henchmen can no longer hold an entire nation hostage". Photograph: Xinhua/Landov/ Barcroft Media

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, spoke of "extraordinary suffering" in Syria but set the political tone by stating that Assad would have to go: "There is no way the man who has led a brutal response to his own people can regain the legitimacy to govern," he said. "One man and his henchmen can no longer hold an entire nation hostage."

Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. Photograph: Jean-Marc Ferre/EPA

Kerry's anti-Assad stance was followed by remarks from Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who called on "all external players to encourage Syrians to reach an accord, to refrain – and to prevent the sides – from attempts to predetermine final agreements, from other steps capable of disrupting the negotiating process."

But the most uncompromising speeches came from the Syrians themselves. "No one can grant or withdraw the legitimacy of the president … other than the Syrians themselves," Walid Muallem, Syria's foreign minister, told colleagues meeting in a heavily-guarded hotel overlooking the waters of Lake Geneva. "This is their right and duty."

Outside the media centre a few dozen Syrians demonstrated noisily in favour of Assad. "In spirit and fire, we well redeem you Bashar," went one slogan. Another one was adapted from the early days of the Arab spring protests in Libya. "Allah, Bashar, Syria, and that's enough," they chanted.

Syrian national flags flew alongside the yellow clenched fist and Kalashnikov banner of Hezbollah, whose forces are fighting with the Syrian army. Across the road, a handful of opposition supporters, sheltered behind a clutch of Swiss gendarmes, hurled back abuse.

Pro-Assad protesters march in Montreux. Photograph: Issam Abdallah/Demotix/Corbis

Further along the shore, the campaign group Avaaz dramatised a call for an immediate ceasefire with a macabre enactment. In it a man in an Assad mask stood gloating over a line of mock corpses, wrapped in bloody shrouds in the wreckage of a house hit by shell fire, domestic detritus scattered amid the charred ruins.

Inside, Muallem argued briefly with Ban when the UN head requested he keep his speech within the prescribed time limit. "You live in New York. I live in Syria," Muallem retorted. "I have the right to give the Syrian version here in this forum." He also launched a furious attack on the opposition. "If you want to speak in the name of the Syrian people, you should not be traitors to the Syrian people or agents in the pay of enemies of the Syrian people," he said.

The US state department later condemned what it called Muallem's "inflammatory rhetoric."

Ahmad Jarba, president of the Syrian Opposition Coalition, described the violence Assad had employed in crushing protests from the moment they began in March 2011 and accused him of employing "international mercenaries" such as Hezbollah, and backing al-Qaida groups to divide and smear his enemies.

"It is we who are engaged in a struggle against terrorism." Jarba said. "The revolution is facing Assad's terrorism and the terrorism he has brought into Syria."

Syrian state TV broadcast Jarba's speech on a split screen that showed the opposition leader on the right, under the heading "Montreux, Switzerland," and on the left footage of death and destruction under the heading "Terrorist crimes in Syria". It did not identify him.

The Geneva II conference is intended to launch a peace process in which the Syrian government and opposition negotiate the creation of a transitional governing body "by mutual consent" – a formula first agreed at the Geneva I conference 18 months ago.

Nothing in the opening addresses suggested this will be possible. Diplomats say the best that can be hoped for is that direct talks will not collapse at once, and be sustained by pressure from the respective backers of each Syrian side. Those talks are due to begin at UN headquarters in Geneva on Friday.

Jarba compared the opposition's commitment to a transition of power with the Assad government's refusal to countenance it. Munzer Aqbiq, his spokesman, poured scorn on Muallem's speech. "We are talking to people who are in a complete state of denial," said. "He did not even mention Geneva."

Overall, expectations are extremely low. But some Syrians see profound symbolic and political importance in an encounter that could alter the dynamics of the 34-month conflict. In this view, Syrians who have so far failed to commit to either side could begin to see that there is an alternative to the current stalemate.

Tamil Lankan executed while Mahinda Rajapaksa in UAE

A Tamil youth was executed by a firing squad in Sharjah while the Sri Lankan President was in the United Arab Emirates.

BY ATHULA VITHANAGE

22 JANUARY 2014

Ravindra Krishna Pillai, was convicted of murder following an unfair trial, said Amnesty International.

Said Boumedouha, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, has told the BBC Sinhala that it is regrettable that the Sri Lankan president did not intervene to save the youngster from death.

President Rajapaksa is on an official visit to the Emirates where the execution was carried out on the 21st of January.

On the day of the execution of Ravindra Krishna Pillai, the Sri Lankan government announced that the king of UAE Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has said that a conducive environment for investing in Sri Lanka has arrived.

The executed Tamil, a domestic helper, has told Amnesty International (AI) while in custody that he accidentally killed a man who tried to sexually assault him.

According to AI he has had no access to his government-appointed lawyer.

"A family friend of his employer tried to sexually assault him, in the family friend's home. He tried to escape by driving away in the man's car, and accidentally ran him over," reported AI.

Two reported dead in Ukraine protests

Wednesday 22 January 2014
Police confirm death of one man – reportedly shot four times – as medics speak of second fatality in Kiev clashes

Oksana Grytsenko in Kiev and Shaun Walker in Moscow-Wednesday 22 January 2014

Link to video: Ukrainian police pull down barricades in Kiev after night of violence

Two people were reported dead in Kiev on Wednesday morning, as police began to move in on protesters who have occupied the centre of the capital.

Following reports of the deaths, Ukraine's prime minister, Mykola Azarov, said terrorists were threatening the lives of ordinary citizens in Kiev, and the "criminal" actions of protesters would be punished.

A 30-year-old man died after being shot four times by riot police, Oleg Musiy, the protest's medical co-ordinator said, adding that the man had been hit in "the neck, head and chest". He said the body had been brought to the main protest camp on Independence Square, where experts would determine whether rubber bullets or real ones had been used. Video footage showed a body, wrapped in blankets, being loaded into an ambulance while protesters sang the national anthem.

Medics also spoke of a second death, although the police have so far only confirmed one fatality. Another man was seriously injured after falling from a tree and was taken to hospital.

Early on Wednesday morning, amid a swirling blizzard, police began to storm the impromptu barricades on Hrushevskogo Street, where clashes have been ongoing since Sunday evening. Protesters initially withdrew, but later returned and hurled stones and molotov cocktails at police.

As Kiev awoke and more people swelled the ranks of the protesters, it was unclear whether the police were preparing for a big attempt to clear Independence Square and the rest of central Kiev of protesters.

Azarov told Russian television the police would use force if necessary to disperse protesters: "If the provocateurs do not stop, then the authorities will be left with no other choice."

Kiev has been gripped by protest for two months, with people initially rallying against the decision by the president, Viktor Yanukovych, not to sign an integration agreement with the EU.

A new law came into effect on Tuesday that imposes harsh restrictions on freedom of assembly and provides jail terms of up to 15 years for "participating in mass riots". On Wednesday morning the police repeatedly told protesters through loudspeakers that their actions were "a grave violation of the law" and asked them to disperse.

Yanukovych has promised talks with opposition leaders but has not set a date. On Tuesday former heavyweight boxer and opposition leader Vitali Klitschko went to see the president but was told he was busy. The political opposition has condemned the violence, but is rapidly losing control of the angrier elements of the crowd.

USA Vs. China In South Sudan

| by Thomas C. Mountain

( January 22, 2014, Eretria, Sri Lanka Guardian) If one asks the question “who benefits from the South Sudanese civil war?” the answer is clear. The USA is presently the ONLY beneficiary of the ongoing horrors in South Sudan for this latest round of conflict has once again shut down the Chinese run oil fields in the country.

The USA has determined that it’s in its “national interests” to deprive China of access to Africa’s oil fields and has succeeded in its goal of again shutting down Chinese oil production in Sudan, the only majority Chinese owned oil field in Africa.

What other evidence links the USA to the South Sudanese civil war? Thanks to Wikileaks we know that the USA via the CIA has been paying the salaries of the South Sudanese Army (SPLA) since 2009. In other words, both the soldiers (“rebels”) supporting Riek Machar and the soldier supporting President Salva Kiir are being paid by the USA, paid to kill each other? Don’t take my word for it, go check Wikileaks.

Another question NOT being asked by the international media is how is Riek Machar funding his army? Where is he getting the funds to pay for his soldiers ammunition, the fuel to run their trucks and equipment, to pay for their food? Where is this money coming from in a country complete destroyed by the ongoing fighting? If its coming from funds stolen by Riek Machar while he was Vice President of South Sudan, where are the funds deposited and how is he accessing them?

The USA prefers proxies to do its dirty work so as to keep its self insulated from charges of foreign interference and to keep its “hands clean” so to speak. The fact that “rebels” supporting Riek Machar have been receiving weapons from Ethiopia is a matter of public record with reports from the past year exposing what is just the tip of the iceberg in the matter.

What is Ethiopia’s interest in this, isn’t the Ethiopian regime a “neutral party” hosting “peace talks”?

The fact that Ethiopia has some 10,000 soldiers/peacekeepers on the Sudan/South Sudanese border this past year including the oil fields is another matter being ignored by the media. Again, thanks to Wikileaks, we know that Ethiopia has an ongoing fuel crisis and spends up to 75% of its foreign currency earnings on fuel imports. The Sudanese oil fields are the only immediately available supply for Ethiopia’s

problem and with Brazil promising to build a $1 billion railway from the South Sudanese border to Addis Ababa this would be the quickest solution to Ethiopia’s major headache.

I for one am really, really sick of Africans being portrayed as tribalistic animals murdering each other in never ending slaughters when the only real beneficiary of such are foreign powers, mainly the USA and its western vassals. If one does just a little research into these holocausts one begins to see who really benefits and when it comes to the civil war in South Sudan the only party presently benefiting from these crimes is the USA.

How this will play out will be an omen of things to come for the USA and China are certain to be at odds in the future when it comes to exploiting Africa’s oil fields which today supply half of the USA’s oil imports.

Thomas C. Mountain is a life long revolutionary activist, educator andcultural historian, living and writing from Eritrea since 2006. He canbe reached at thomascmountain_at_gmail_dot_com

Explainer: what is going on in South Sudan?

It seems that South Sudan is falling apart amidst political conflict, but what is actually behind the violence? EPA/Phillip Dill

6 January 2014
Over the past few weeks, crisis has gripped the world’s newest nation, South Sudan, after an internal political conflict spilled into violence which has left thousands dead.

Explainer what is going on in South Sudan by nelvely

Gota’s sale of arms to Indian terrorists detected: SL craft with weapons in Indian custody

(Lanka-e-News- 21.Jan.2014, 11.00PM) A craft of Sri Lanka (SL) criminal defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse’s transporting weapons had been seized by the Indian coastal security forces, according to reports reaching Lanka e news inside information division. Though Minister Rajitha Senaratne left for India recently citing the ground he was visiting India to get the fishermen released, truly he had discussions in India specially in regard to the release of this craft. 

Gota’s sale of arms to Indian terrorists detected SL craft with weapons in Indian custody by nelvely

E= MxM

By Jagath Asoka -

Dr. Jagath Asoka

Now, almost everybody hates Hitler; when he was in power, almost everybody feared him. I was talking to my son about lies, and I said, “Small lies are essential for survival.” He asked, “Do you know what Hitler said about lying; I said, “No.”  “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”

I am partially dyslexic: You see God and Temples, when I write about Dogs and Kennels.

I like what Hitler said about himself and others: “Do not compare yourself to others. If you do so, you are insulting yourself.”

This article is not about Hitler or Einstein, but about Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Obama. I am going to paraphrase one of my favorite quotes by Obama: When I walk into a room, you do not see my white mother; you see a black man. So, I am going to give what you want.

I respect both Gandhi and Martin Luther King: Gandhi liberated India from the British Empire; Martin Luther emancipated black Americans: Emancipation without violence.

Do not preach Buddhism to me: If you do, please protect your left and right cheeks, because I might kiss them.

I agree with Gandhi about acid. Anger is like acid; it eats the vessel. If I were a physicist, I would also agree with him about electricity.

But I think anger is also like nuclear energy:  If you channel it properly, you can produce electricity; or turn into Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

According to Gandhi, there are two types of anger: Physical and emotional. On CT we see only emotional anger. There is a connection between these two types. When you get angry and insult people, they will kill you.

Buddhism is just a part of what we call religion. Non-religion is when you borrow from all religions.

Is “Ponnaya” a bad word, or a just a crude but effective way of describing abominable behavior?

Compare yourself: Now and a second later; are you the same person?

American Newspapers do not publish if your opinion is longer than a page. So, what is E = M². Hint: E= Emancipation. I am tired of verbosity. Next week, I am going to enter an asylum; I will write to you from my cell.

“If you win, you need not have to explain; if you lose, you should not be there to explain!”-Hitler. Dilka Samanmali: Wow, a new Dilka.