Basil’s samurdhi misues Rs. 45 million

 Friday, 25 April 2014 

The Samurdhi Officers Association says that the e-samurdhi programme launched by the Sri Lanka Samurdhi Authority of the Economic Development Ministry in August 2011 to compile a database of Samurdhi recipients, entrepreneurs and employees had only been a colossal waste of nearly Rs. 45 million.

In a statement, secretary of the Association Chamara Maddumakaluge invite to everyone to the website esamurdhi.gov.lk could see the reality of this tragedy.

Giving examples, the statement says the database says there are two Samurdhi entrepreneurs engaged in agriculture – one in mushroom and the other Gotukola – but it fails to mention their names.

Also, this database cannot give the salary particulars of a Samurdhi employee.

Training workshops held for the employees at huge costs were of no use and the management had failed to have any vision or mission, and instead had used the programme for political purposes, says the association.

The misuse of public money by political appointees in this manner is a very serious issue, it stresses, adding that the officials who are responsible for this failed programme should be made to pay for the losses.

Need UN assistance to change MR - SF

Friday, 25 April 2014

If the government and its leadership continue to be corrupt and keep oppressing the people, the opposition will have to seek the assistance of the United Nations (UN) to change the leadership, Democratic Party Leader Sarath Fonseka said yesterday (24) .

He said he had discussed this issue with UNP Leadership Council Chairman Karu Jayasuriya on Wednesday.

“There is no relief for the people of this country and there is no way out of the misery they are engulfed in. This is why we may have to seek the help of the UN and international community to change the people unfriendly situation here. I informed Mr. Jayasuriya on the issue and he agreed with me,” he told a news conference.

He said there were laws and regulations set by the UN to protect people of a country from its corrupt rulers. “As Sri Lanka is also a member of the UN, we have to accept its rules,” he said.

Mr. Fonseka said the United Nation Human Rights Council (UNHRC) had already tabled and passed a resolution against Sri Lanka for alleged human rights violations because the Council had come to the conclusion that the leadership and the government was violating the human rights of the people.

“The UNHRC had taken the decision to pass a resolution against the country because of human right violations. When people are helpless and neglected by the government, the UN will know what step to take next,” he said

'World must wake up' to Nigerian schoolgirl kidnap

25 APRIL 2014

JONATHAN MILLER             

Foreign Secretary William Hague offers help in the hunt for more than 200 kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls as ex-PM Gordon Brown, now UN education envoy, tells Channel 4 News the world must wake up.

Amid mounting public fury and an international outcry over the fate of 230 kidnapped Nigerian teenaged girls - now missing for nearly two weeks - the mother of one of the girls has warned that unless they are rescued urgently, she and other parents would likely be collecting their children's dead bodies.

World Must Wake Up to Nigerian Schoolgirl Kidnap by nelvely

A Minor Gang Raped in Pakistan

Xavier Patras William for Salem-News.com-Apr-24-2014

According to the reports, the incidents of gang rape in the central Punjab have drastically increased, and the law enforcing agencies are acting as silent observers.

hinduhumanrights.info

(DASKA SIALKOT, Pakistan) - Sara, a seven year old Christian girl, was reportedly gang raped by 4 Muslims in Mally ki Village of Daska Sialkot Pakistan. The minor was immediately transported to the DHQ (District Head Quarters) Hospital Sialkot in a critical condition. She is in the ICU in an unstable/critical condition.

The locals, with the help of the police, abducted the girl`s father, Iqbal Masih, to pressure the family not to file a case, and to come to an agreement with the culprits and to avoid a religious issue.

The Christian community tried to talk to the police, but the police seems helpless in recovering Masih from the local landlord. Despite several attempts, the police refused to comment/talk about the hideous incident.

The family contacted the human rights organization to step forward and take a stand in this matter. Life For All Pakistanhas brought the matter in the notice of the district administration and filed a writ/appeal at the court seeking immediate action against the culprits and Iqbal Masih`s recovery.

As a result of the pressure, the police registered a FIR and arrested 2 rapists, but Masih still illegally remains in police custody. A protest has been scheduled at the Sialkot press club against the incident.

According to the reports, the incidents of gang rape in the central Punjab have drastically increased, and the law enforcing agencies are acting as silent observers. Life For All Pakistan has issued a statement,

“this is truly heart breaking that a minor has been gang rapped and her father was abducted to pressurize the family not to pursue the case, this is a barbaric incident.

"We demand the immediate release of Iqbal Masih and action against the culprits of this inhuman incident. The girl is in a trauma, we demand for the best medical treatment for the minor. The silence from the society on the incident is tormenting, a daughter of the nation was brutally rapped and the authorities remain silent."

XAVIER PATRAS WILLIAM

Ukraine dismisses Russian threats to intervene, continues ‘anti-terrorist’ campaign

View Photo Gallery — Clashes spread across eastern Ukraine: Fighting has broken out among Ukrainian security forces, local protesters and pro-Russian militants.

By William Booth and Michael Birnbaum, Updated: Friday, April 25, 9:25 AM E-mail the writers

DONETSK, Ukraine — The Ukrainian government Friday brushed off Russian threats of intervention in a tense standoff in eastern Ukraine, declaring that Ukraine’s “anti-terrorist operation” against pro-Russian militiamen occupying government buildings would continue.

Ukraine Dismisses Russian Threats to Intervene, Continues ‘Anti-terrorist’ Campaign by nelvely

Russia will lose, Ukraine’s former PM Yulia Tymoshenko tells Vladimir Putin – video

Friday 25 April 201

Ukrainian presidential candidate and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko addresses Russian president Vladimir Putin directly, defiantly proclaiming that an independent Ukraine will survive – and any 'war imposed on Ukraine' will be the end of his regime. Tymoshenko's comments follow a war of words between the US secretary of state and Russia's foreign minister

Ukraine conflict: west extends sanctions against Russia

FRIDAY 25 APRIL 2014
Western leaders agree to extend sanctions against Russia for failing to abide by the Ukraine peace accord agreed in Geneva.

Following a conference call between US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and the French, German and Italian leaders, the British government said in a statement that they "continued to hold open the door to a diplomatic solution to the crisis, based on the Geneva agreement".
Ukraine Conflict West Extends Sanctions Against Russia by nelvely

Tony Blair: ‘I say lies’ – Cassetteboy’s video mashup of Bloomberg speech

• Friday 25 April 2014
• • 
    

Tony Blair warned of the growing threat of Islamic extremism in a speech to Bloomberg in Londonon the state of politics in the Middle East on Wednesday. Here, mashup artist Cassetteboy edits the former prime minister-turned-peace-envoy's speech and imagines what Blair was really trying to say

Drunk passenger prompts hijack fear on Virgin flight

FRIDAY 25 APRIL 2014

The pilot of a Virgin Australia plane flying to the Indonesian island of Bali said a passenger has been arrested after attempting to enter the cockpit.

The pilot of a Virgin Australia plane flying from Brisbane to the Indonesian island of Bali reported a hijacking attempt after a passenger tried to enter the cockpit, an Indonesian transport official has said.

A Virgin Australia Airlines official said there had not been an attempt to hijack the aircraft but a "flight emergency" after a drunk passenger had tried to enter the cockpit.

An Indonesian air force spokesman said all passengers were unharmed and being taken off the aircraft at Denpasar, in Bali.

Earlier, Indonesia's Metro TV had cited an Indonesian air force spokesman as saying the plane had been hijacked.

Indonesian television cited police as saying the passenger who tried to enter the cockpit had been arrested after the plane landed in Bali.

Virgin Australia Airlines, formerly Virgin Blue Airlines, is Australia's second-largest airline as well as the largest by fleet size to use the Virgin brand.

5 years today - UN confirms at least 20000 casualties, LTTE calls for international aid, Sri Lanka rejects aid envoy 24 April 2014 24 April 2009 - UN confirms at least 20000 casualties, SL rejects aid envoy  United Nations documents confirmed that at least 6500 civilians had died and 14000 wounded over the previous three months, reported The Guardian. UN officials told The Guardian that April had seen at least 2000 civilians killed and an increasing rate of death.

5 Years Today - UN Confirms at Least 20000 Casualties, LTTE Calls for International Aid, Sri Lanka Rejects... by nelvely

National Existence And National Oppression

By Athithan Jayapalan -April 24, 2014 

Athithan Jayapalan

The Nation

A nation as a concept is grounded on the basis of denoting people who foremost share a common language, a common and contiguous territory, historical processes, an overarching ethnic identity and distinct collective socio-cultural traits. This is not to deny the forms of differentiation within a nation based on caste, class, locality and gender which can generate internal oppression and intersection in experience and identities. Despite the internal differentiation the nation is, in Benedict Anderson’s words, a commune of people who imagine as being part of a collective nation. Although it is in essence imagined or rather a cognitive condition, it manifests itself as lived experience and material reality for those concerned.  The collective existence of a people is constituted upon the consciousness of being a nation, belonging to a collective.

The nation being a historically constituted and sustained community of people on the basis of national characteristics as mentioned above is still dependent on socio-political processes to engender national consciousness and action. Such is often materialized through the political mobilization of a people under the banner of a nation. Beside its historical preconditions, the nation is dependent on conscious and sustained efforts to exercise national mobilization.

Throughout the world, national mobilization has become integral in the struggle for self-determination and political rights for oppressed people as well as in regard to state projects of nationalism. Without such political activity the nation as a platform for collective social action will be ephemeral and insignificant.  It is the dynamics between the two forms which are of concern in this article.         .Read More

Wigneswaran accuses MR of reneging on pledges 



By Ananth Palakidnar- April 23, 2014
 
Northern Province Chief Minister, C.V. Wigneswaran, in a hard-hitting speech delivered at the Kilinochchi District Development Council (KDDC) meeting said, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has not fulfilled any of the pledges made to him concerning the successful governance of the Northern Province. It is the first time since the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) was established in September last year that Wigneswaran presided over District Development Council in Jaffna on Monday and the second at the Cooperative Association auditorium in Kilinochchi yesterday.
 
 
Wigneswaran also said the government used all of its resources to win the NPC polls. "But, the Northerners placed their confidence in the TNA and made it the ruling party with an absolute majority by electing 30 TNA Provincial Councillors out of a total of 38 Councillors.
 
 
"The Provincial Council system was introduced to devolve powers to the provinces under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. However, the Central Government is attempting to tighten its grip over the Provincial Councils.
"Since powers were not devolved to the NPC, I met Rajapaksa in Colombo on 2 January and explained to him the need of devolving powers to the NPC.
 
 
"He made several pledges to me on the successful governance of the NPC. However, he has not done anything so far to fulfil those pledges.
"By clipping the wings of the NPC, the Central government is trying to take the upper hand through its agents. Therefore, to make our presence felt with our demands for the NPC we are attending these meetings."
Wigneswaran added that if the government decided to serve the people in the Northern Province in a constructive manner, they would extend their cooperation to it.

The Rajapaksa Creed And The Medamulana Nikaya

| by Tisaranee Gunasekara

“The tune the head of the household begins is what everyone in the house sings.”

Rwandan maxim

( April 24, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Mihin Air is a metaphor for Rajapaksa economics.

A budget airline was neither a national deed nor a popular demand. Mihin Air, the first state entity to be named after President Rajapaksa, never made a profit in its existence. It loses billions of rupees annually, and yet its continued existence is not in doubt.

The Rajapaksa Creed and the Medamulana Nikaya by nelvely

Mob rule and the ‘Hambantota Doctrine’

• 
  
• Thursday 24th April 2014
• Marauding saffron armies and increasingly unruly pro-Government mobs are casting long shadows on Sri Lanka’s future

Hambantota is Rajapaksa country. The rest of Sri Lanka may be in the vice grip of a raging personality cult, but the southern district is a ruling family fiefdom. The Hambantota District is home to Medamulana in the Beliatta Polling Division, President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ancestral village and the seat of his power.

Mob Rule and the ‘Hambantota Doctrine’ by nelvely

Sri Lanka: The Years of Blood

Sri Lanka: The Years of Blood

Thursday, April 24, 2014 

The following article with images, was originally published by a blogger who blogs at thecarthaginiansolution.wordpress.com, in last year.

 In late 2012, workers digging foundations for a new wing in Matale Hospital unearthed partial skeletons of more than 150 people. Of the various theories that sought to explain how this mass grave came to be, the one that most people instinctively thought might be true was that this was the final resting place of victims of death squads from 2nd JVP insurgency, which from 1987 to 1989 almost brought the Sri Lankan State to total collapse. The counter-insurgency (COIN) campaign, which in turn destroyed the JVP had few equals (except perhaps the 1990s Algerian counter-insurgency campaign and the India’s anti-’Khalistan’ counter-insurgency in the Punjab) for its ruthlessness.

Sri Lanka the Years of Blood by nelvely

Genocidal military twists statistics on uprooted Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 April 2014, 23:31 GMT]
Genocidal Sri Lanka has instructed its government agents in the 8 districts of North and East not to release any statistical figures without consulting the authorities in Colombo, informed sources told TamilNet Wednesday. Sri Lankan authorities have fully abandoned the figures of the resettled people residing outside the so-called welfare camps. The EPDP collaborators in the UPFA have also been instructed to play in sync with Colombo on the statistics of displaced people and resettled people in these two districts, Tamil civil sources in Jaffna said pointing out the controversies that surfaced at the District Development Committee (DDC) meetings of Jaffna and Ki’linochchi held this week. 

Even some of the civic councillors elected on the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) tickets in the Jaffna district have been influenced to support the statistical framework of Colombo, a prominent TNA councillor of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) told TamilNet. 

When questioned on the source behind the latest statistics, informed sources in Jaffna and Ki’linochchi told TamilNet that the figures come from the US-trained (2012) occupying commander of the Sri Lankan military Major General Udaya Perera. 

Thousands of families uprooted from Valikaamam North and other places of the former ‘High Security Zones’ still reside with their relatives and friends. These figures have been removed from the statistics provided by the divisional secretaries. 

The genocidal military has also ‘conducted’ its own statistics on the number of people residing in the so-called welfare camps. 

SL presidential sibling and defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has also gone on record stating that the figures of people to be resettled is somewhere between one and two per cent of those reported as displaced after the end of war. 

UPFA members, including the EPDP, were actively confronting the TNA politicians on the number of people yet to be resettled in Valikaamam North and other places in the Jaffna district. 

The TNA politicians were forced to confront the EPDP on the question of resuming the operation of the teachers training college at Palaali. The SL military has appropriated the buildings and the lands of the teachers training college. 

At the DDC meeting of Ki’linochchi district held on Tuesday, EPDP politician M. Chandrakumar was presenting the figures of uprooted people in Ki’linochchi as something below one hundred families. TNA parliamentarian Sivagnanam Sreetharan categorically denied the figures of the EPDP and said thousands of families are yet to be resettled in Vanni. 

The SL military officers in Vanni have been exerting pressure on the people staying in the camps to sign documents providing the addresses of their relatives and friends. Only if they organised their exit from these camps to these addresses they would be ready for the next phase of resettlement, the uprooted people were told. Thousands of families are now forced to permanently stay with their relatives, TNA politicians further said.

Surprising To See The Stoney Silence Of Authorities On BBS Behaviour: Bar Association

April 24, 2014

The Standing Committee on Rule of Law of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka has today condemned the behaviour of the members of the ‘Bodu Bala Sena’ who stormed Nipon Hotel where a group of Buddhist monks headed by Rev Watareka Vijitha Thero and other representatives of Civil Society organizations were holding a press conference to explain their version on the allegations by the BBS with regard to the settlement of displaced persons at Wilpattu.

Issuing a statement today the Standing Committee on Rule of Law of the BASL said; “We are not on the merits of the rival claims made by the parties.  What concern us and what is alarming is the way a group that was holding the press conference was manhandled and how Rev. Vijitha Thero was forced to make a statement in the presence of Police Officers.  As seen in the TV telecast this is the worst situation that we have witnessed in the long list of events that has demonstrated the complete breakdown of Rule of Law in our country and the rise of rule by self proclaimed saviours of justice, undoubtedly under the protection of powerful personalities.  The perpetrators of these crimes which are offences punishable under the Penal Code and also blatant violations of fundamental rights under the constitution act with total impunity. 

“In the midst of all these grave violations of Rule of Law it is surprising to see the stoney silence of the authorities at the top who has a duty to speak out and explain to the people what their stance is in respect of third dangerous developments.  The silence on their part speak more than what is necessary for civil society to realize where we are and where we are moving towards.

“The unexpected distinguished overflowing crowd that gathered at the SLFI auditorium on the 25^th of March at the call of the BASL to protest against militarization and erosion of Rule of Law is a welcome development that has the potential to develop to an organized resistance to the dangerous developments of such as the militarization of civil society and breakdown of Rule of Law.”

SRI LANKA: TERROR INTERRUPTED – ANALYSIS

By SATP-APRIL 21, 2014

By Ajit Kumar Singh

Apprehensions of an attempted revival by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s (LTTE) were proven true when, in the early hours of April 11, 2014, a Security Forces (SFs) team launched a cordon and search operation in the forest area off Padaviya in Anuradhapura District, and was fired upon by militants hiding in the forest. The SFs killed three armed local LTTE leaders, reportedly in retaliatory fire. The dead were identified as Selvanayagam Kajeepan alias Gobi, Sundaralingam Kajeepan alias Thevihan and Navaratnam Navaneethan alias Appan.

Sri Lanka Terror Interrupted – Analysis by nelvely