UNP hits back at threats against Mangala

June 28, 2014, 6:54 pm 

The UNP yesterday responded to statements made by the army and police spokesmen that MP Mangala Samaraweera revealing ``state secrets’’ would be investigated and he may be prosecuted, with Chief Opposition Whip John Amaratunga saying that a government that had politicized the entire public service was now politicizing the military.

``We will proceed to draw the attention of the parliament and the International Parliamentary Union on this issue,’’ Amaratunga said.

He also said that Samaraweera has only mentioned the names of some higher officers whose conduct has been discussed previously both in Parliament and outside. 

The following is the text of Amaratunga’s response:

``Our attention is drawn to various statements made by the Army and Police Spokesman on comments made by UNP Parliamentarian Mangala Samaraweera about the Intelligence Unit. 

``There is a globally-recognized tradition with respect to opinions about and criticism of a country’s intelligence institutions. 

``Firstly, there is accepted procedure on how to respond when any parliamentarian is ready to reveal such matters.  The subject minister, on such an occasion, speaks to the MP concerned or his/her party leader, seeking to resolve the issue through discussion.  There was no such intervention in this case.

 ``Secondly, such disclosure should only be made under extraordinary circumstances.  Since the incident in Beruwela prompted many accusations regarding the security and intelligence services, it has to be considered an ‘extraordinary situation’.  

``Thirdly, it is only for special reasons that names of intelligence officers should be revealed.  In this instance MP Mangala Samaraweera has not revealed any such names, mentioning only the names of higher officers.  In fact these individuals and their conduct have been discussed previously as well, within parliament as well as outside it .  The state media itself has mentioned these names.  Nowhere in the world is revealing of names and addresses of intelligence officers considered a divulging of state secrets or as transgression of the law.  Moreover, what we are witnessing is a deliberate strategy to protect powerful officers at the top in the guise of keeping secret the names of regular intelligence officers. 

``Fourthly, if a member of parliament utters a lie or levels an unsubstantiated charge, it is the relevant ministry that needs to respond to it.  As of now neither the relevant subject minister nor the government spokesman has rejected the story.  If such a statement had been made, then it is the parliamentary tradition for the relevant member to substantiate his charge.  The government, instead of refuting the member’s statement, has resorted to complain about revealing the names of intelligence officers.

 ``Lastly, it cannot be stressed enough that the Army Spokesman has no legal mandate to express opinion on the intelligence services.   This is because these services do not function under the security forces. 

``We are compelled to raise reasonable suspicion in this context on the dictatorial tendencies demonstrated by this government, especially in the matter of deploying the security forces in fields that are not within their jurisdiction.  This is just the beginning.  It is possible that in the future the security forces could be used not just to issue statements about other ministries but to manage those ministries as well. 

``The way the Police Spokesman was used with respect to Mr Samaraweera is another example that clearly indicates the way the government has opted to use the security forces.  The Spokesman said that there are no complaints against Mr Samaraweera, but nevertheless proceeds to state that investigations will be commissioned based on media reports.  The people have not forgotten that this same individual has on previous occasions clearly stated that investigations cannot be commissioned based on media reports but that they are considered only subsequent to a complaint being lodged. 

``According to the Police Spokesman, Mr Samaraweera’s fault is ‘having revealed state secrets’.  What is implied by this is that the intelligence units were indeed implicated in the Beruwela incident and that Mr Samaraweera has only revealed this.  In other words, the Police Spokesman has acknowledged that all the details furnished by Mr Samaraweera are indeed factual.

``This government, through the abrogation of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, has completely politicized the entire public service.  What we are seeing at present is the politicization of the security forces.  The Army Spokesman’s indulgence in politics in fact puts to shame the parliamentarians and ministers of this government. 

``This government has no interest whatsoever in alleviating the burning problems faced by the people including the cost of living and the deprivations resulting from cuts in the health and education allocations.  This government has no other objective than using the entire state apparatus to protect the Rajapaksa regime so that others in the government could also enjoy benefits denied to the rest of the population.  

``We will proceed to draw the attention of the parliament and the International Parliamentary Union on this issue.’’

Sri Lanka redefines “curfew” in Beruwela

by Groundviews 

- on 06/29/2014 

Lest we forget, the Police imposed a curfew in Beruwela and Aluthgama on 15th June in an effort to stop the violence against Muslims in the area. The curfew in Aluthgama was imposed at 6.45pm according to the Government’s official news portal. A news bulletin broadcast at 9pm on TV featured Police Media Spokesperson SSP Ajith Rohana noting that a curfew had been declared in Beruwela as well.

SSP Ajith Rohana clearly notes,

The curfew will remain until further notice. So therefore the general public are kindly requested not to move on the road and apart from that illegal processions and violent activities are prohibited. If they violate the laws and regulations of the Police curfew they will be dealt with the law.

Emphasis ours. Other media reports indicate the curfew was imposed around two hours before this broadcast (i.e. around 7pm).

In light of the above, Groundviews was sent CCTV footage from the Ambepitiya Gem Lapidary in Beruwala. Watching them begs the question – how was it possible for violent mobs to roam freely in the area destroying property, with scant regard for Police presence, if any, during what was officially a curfew imposed by the State? Perhaps an intrepid journalist can ask SSP Ajith Rohana for the current working definition of curfew in the Sri Lankan government, which clearly allows for racist, violent mobs to attack and harm with impunity?

Watch above at around 6 minutes and 26 seconds.

“Ban Hate Speech” Muslim Council Tells Gota

June 29, 2014

The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka has today written to the Secretary to the Ministry of Defense and Urban Development Gotabaya Rajapaksa urging the prohibition of hate speech to mainstream media and public gatherings.

“We also kindly request you to inquire in to the violence in Alutgama and Beruwela on the 15th and 16th of June 2014 and bring the instigators and perpetrators of violence to justice and ensure that the rule of law prevails equally for all.” the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka said in the letter.

We publish below the letter in full;

June 29th 2014

Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa,

Secretary,

Ministry of Defense and Urban Development, 15/5, Baladaksha Mawatha,
Colombo.

Dear Sir,

The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka is thankful to you and welcomes your clear statement explicitly affirming that the government and law enforcement authorities would not tolerate hate speech or hate campaigns through social media. This is a long overdue and important action that needs to be strictly enforced with immediate effect. Your timely action will send a clear message to all Sri Lankans and the international community that you will not tolerate targeting of minorities in the country.

We also kindly urge you, Sir, to extend the prohibition of hate speech to mainstream media and public gatherings, so that all Sri Lankans of different ethnicities and religious beliefs can live as equal citizens of Sri Lanka. We also kindly request you to inquire in to the violence in Alutgama and Beruwela on the 15th and 16th of June 2014 and bring the instigators and perpetrators of violence to justice and ensure that the rule of law prevails equally for all.

This important statement of yours confirms your commitment to ensure that Sri Lanka does not slide back to the violent past that gripped the country during the 30 years of ethnic conflict and terrorism. This also sends a clear message to the peace loving Buddhists who are the silent majority that you do not condone racism and have no role in the hate campaign. It will encourage all peace loving citizens to condemn intolerance and violence.

In the two days of violence that occurred in Aluthgama and Beruwela, the stability and investor confidence that was established was destroyed. We, as Sri Lankans need to work together to ensure that violence of any form will never be repeated, and support rebuilding the image of Sri Lanka as a peaceful, stable, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation.

We affirm our commitment to work with you and the government of Sri Lanka towards peace, stability and prosperity for all.

Thanking you, Yours sincerely,

Hilmy Ahamed

Vice President

Don’t forget the beedis

Editorial-June 28, 2014,

The dangers of smoking are well known and documented and given the information age we live in, it is only the stupid who will indulge in a habit the tobacco industry likes to call an ``adult choice.’’ We have today run a report elsewhere in this issue saying that Mr. Walter Laduwahetty, the President of the Sri Lanka Cancer Society, has written to Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena congratulating him for the campaign he has been running requiring the publication of pictorial health warnings on cigarette packets and pledging the Cancer Society’s support for this endeavour. More importantly, he has made a point we ourselves did in this space some time ago: that given the price of a single cigarette being over Rs. 25, very few people (especially in the less affluent segments of society) buy their smokes in packets. They can only afford a stick or two at a time and the health warnings on the cigarette packs will bypass them. Thus there will be no regular reminder that they are inviting illness by lighting up. That is why it is essential that all cigarette sellers, under pain of a stiff fine for non-compliance, should be made to display large pictorially explicit posters warning about the dangers of smoking at the point of sale. We hope the Minister of Health will quickly get moving on this matter.

Quite apart from that, beedis that are widely smoked in this country and, unlike cigarettes are barely taxed, are a forgotten factor in this debate. Obviously they are as dangerous to health as cigarettes and continue to be the low price alternative for smokers. A recent report by Nielsen, the world’s largest market research organization, said that that 2.88 billion beedi sticks and been sold here in 2012 against 4.31 billion cigarettes. Beedi now commands a 42% share of the tobacco market and there is hardly a peep about that danger and the harm it is doing to those who indulge in them! Added to that, the beedi industry hardly pays any taxes. There is a nominal customs duty on tendu leaf in which beedis are wrapped and that is about the whole story. According to available data, the range of tax incidence on a bundle of beedis is 8 to 10 percent against 60 to 80 percent on each packet of cigarettes. Total government levies on beedis runs at less than half a billion rupees per year. While theoretically VAT and the Nation Building Levy are also payable, whether this is in fact paid is anybody’s guess.

We do not have to labour the point that the Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC., the country’s monopoly legal cigarette manufacturer which last year paid Rs. 76.5 billion taxes to the government is a cash cow that has long been milked by the government. Excise duty on tobacco had been regularly increased in the annual budgets, or the gazettes which have been seized by finance ministers to pretend that they have not imposed hardship on consumers, to raise cigarette and liquor prices for as long as anybody can remember. Crippling taxes on tobacco and alcohol that prevail in this country today should no doubt be price sticks that beat down smoking and drinking. While CTC has been seeing its sales volumes falling in recent years, its profits have been rising. This could be party attributed to leaner production processes with more automation and a smaller factory workforce as well as industry price increases that have often accompanied higher excise duties imposed by the government. It is also likely that the growing beedi market is partly the result of the ever-rising cigarette price forcing smokers to look for a cheaper alternative. Similarly, drinkers too have resorted to kasippu, where no taxes whatever are paid, when arrack has become too expensive for them.

We do not know whether a single beedi does more harm to a smoker than a single cigarette. Obviously a beedi contains less tobacco than a cigarette as a single stick is both slimmer and shorter. Price-wise a beedi costs Rs. 2 against Rs. 28 for a Gold Leaf cigarette which by all accounts is the most popular. It would be useful if the Ministry of Health gets the tar and nicotine content of beedis analyzed and publish this information. As far as cigarettes go, these would be known and the information freely available. A Gold Leaf cigarette doubled in price from Rs. 14 to Rs. 28 in the six years between 2008 and 2014 while price of a single beedi went up only by 50 cents from Rs. 1.50 to Rs. 2 during this period. Naturally the focus is on the cigarette industry in relation to the health issue as it is much more visible than the cheaper alternative. But the fact remains that beedis, mostly smoked in the countryside, are as dangerous as cigarettes and there is no good reason for the anti-smoking propaganda and campaigns both of the government and other agencies to exclude the cheaper product from their sights. It is also necessary that this industry, which is legitimate unlike kasippu, is not let off the tax hook.

Lankadeepa's false lead news ?

 Sunday, 29 June 2014

The lead news published on June 26 in daily ' Lankadeepa' newspaper ,reporting that a businessman at Beruwala has himself set fire to his shop, is false,says the owner of the shop.

The owner of the shop Mohammed Naleem says that the fire has started from the garbage disposing area outside the shop.

He who states that it was not a huge fire, mentioned that his finger prints were not found in the two bottles of petrol which were near the location.

He further states that the police dog came near him due to a match which he used to get light to open the locks put on the front doors of the shop during the fire.

Lankadeepa's False Lead News by Maria Anderson

Rajarata university lecturers on a trade union action 


By Amali Hemachandra- June 29, 2014
 
University lecturers affiliated to the Rajarata University Teachers Association are to start a trade union action tomorrow (30) in remonstration over the recent events which had taken place in the university.

Rajarata University Teachers Association had officially handed over a letter to the Vice Chancellor of Rajarata University informing that until proper actions would be taken on the serious incident recently taken place in the university, lecturers will not come into the Mihintale University premises.
 
Vice Chancellor, Ranjith Wjewardena told Ceylon Today Online that the incident; taking hold of the VC and a group of lecturers hostages for nearly 24 hours is a severe threat, not only to the Rajarata University but to the whole university community of Sri Lanka.

Police call on public to identify these monks

Saturday, 28 June 2014 

Police have requested public assistance to identify the Buddhist monks of Bodu Bala Sena who stormed into the ministry of commerce on April 23, 2014.

It has become unable to identify the Buddhist monks who are facing charges, police say.

The police informed the courts thus after the case on this regard was taken up by the Fort Magistrate court.

Police have requested the court for more time to continue investigations.

In complying with the request, the magistrate ordered to take up the case on June 31.

The magistrate also ordered to produce a report on the progress of the investigations by then.

Earlier, producing a report before court, police informed that the security camera system in the ministry was inactive when the BBS monks stormed into the ministry.

28 villagers arrested for assaulting Buddhist monk

June 29, 2014 

Police today said that twenty-eight persons including 14 women and a teenager have been arrested after a group of villagers allegedly assaulted the Chief Incumbent of the Sri Munasingharama Buddhist Temple in Hatale, Panwila. 
 
The attack had reportedly taken place due to a dispute between the Buddhist monk and the villagers. 

Twenty-seven suspects have been remanded until July 3 after being produced at the Teldeniya Magistrate’s Court while the other suspect, a 17-year-old youth, has been handed over to the Weragala Children’s Home. 

The assaulted monk is currently receiving treatment at the Kandy Hospital, police said. 

Two dead, 2 injured in shooting at Grandpass

June 29, 2014 

Two persons were killed and another 2 were critically wounded following a shooting incident in the Grandpass area in Colombo today, police said. 

The wounded persons have been admitted to the Colombo National Hospital and are said to be in critical condition, police spokesman SSP Ajith Rohana said. 

He stated that the shooting had taken place at around 8.30pm today and that Grandpass Polcie are conducting further investigations. 

Modi’s Passion For High Speed Rail For India

By S. Sivathasan -June 29, 2014 

S. Sivathasan

Speaking on the Gujarat Budget of 2013, Modi expressed his annoyance at India’s failure to have her HSR. He also conveyed his passion. “Since 1980, the HSR has remained confined to the drawing boards only, now it should speed up”. The writer without 

access to the above observation wrote in Colombo Telegraph on March 24 2014, that in India “Intriguingly even a beginning is not made. Debate, more debate and intense debate till eternity before all the strands of wisdom can be assembled for the ideal decision”. Now   the occasion has arisen for the very critic to be vested with authority to ‘speed up’ the decision and to cast aside 34 years of inaction. It is seen that in Germany 99% of long distance travel is by train. Her citizenry displays the most rational choice of travel and the government responds in the most sensible manner.

HSR system operates significantly faster than traditional ones. An integrated rolling stock system is used on a dedicated line built to take on speeds of 200 to 350 kmp/h. Upgraded tracks can go only up to 200.

                      Read More

Nagas Come And Pitch Their Tents In Naga-Dipa Of Lanka

By Darshanie Ratnawalli -June 29, 2014

Darshanie Ratnawalli

What if a part of Sri Lanka in the centuries before Christ had been named after a personage, a creature or a deity from the Celtic myth pool? We’d know that a people who were immersed in the Celtic myth pool were responsible for the naming. At the very least we’d deduce heavy, long-term and thoroughgoing involvement of Celts in Sri Lanka. That was an analogy. Here is the reality: In the last centuries before Christ, the part of Sri Lanka known today as the Jaffna peninsula was called Naga-dipa[i], after a species of creatures from the Indo-Aryan myth pool.

First, some background. As everyone knows, during the first thousand years before Christ, Indo-Aryan languages as well as ideologies and lore that were sired and mothered by the speakers of these languages, and so couched in them were spreading in south Asia, over land and later by sea. When the Christian era was just a few centuries in the future, this cultural package had arrived in Sri Lanka. The package was also delivered throughout south India down to its southernmost tip. It’s easier if you liken this to the spread of radiation from powerful radioactive nodes located in north India. If you took a metaphoric Geiger counter able to measure metaphoric radiation to the area corresponding to Tamil Nadu in the centuries immediately preceding Christ, it would beep. Loudly.

In order to beef up that beep with some percentages, let’s survey the corpus of pottery and cave inscriptions of Tamil Nadu during the period commencing two centuries before Christ and concluding one century after Him. Out of a total collection of 469 Tamil Brahmi inscribed pot-sherds, the writing on which typically and invariably spells out personal names, 270 legible inscriptions were surveyed by Y. Subbarayalu. Nearly fifty percent out of the total were Prakrit names. Of these, some appear raw in the pure Prakrit form, some in partly Tamilized form (visakaṉ) and/or hybridized with Sinhalese Prakrit (eg: buta-śa, camuta-ha) and North Indian Prakrit (yakhamitra-sa) genitive suffixes  while a smaller percentage appear “fully Tamilized avoiding non-Tamil letters, like Kuviraṉ (from Kubira or Kubera)”:-(Subbarayalu, “Early Historic Tamil Nadu”; 2009, pp.95-122[ii])     

Read More

Hunt proposes 'name and shame' on cancer diagnosis

SUNDAY 29 JUNE 2014

The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt wants to publish details of GPs that fail to properly identify early cancer symptoms, but Labour slams it as 'a desperate idea'.

The NHS will name and shame GPs who continually fail to spot the early signs of cancer, under new plans being drawn up by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

Surgeries spotting early cancer signs will be marked green on an online scorecard but those who repeatedly miss the signs will be marked red, according to the Mail on Sunday.

Mr Hunt said the NHS needs to become "much better" at diagnosing cancer.

"Cancer diagnosis levels around the country vary significantly and we must do much more to improve both the level of diagnosis and to bring those GP practices with poor referral rates up to the standards of the best," he told the paper.

'Desperate idea'

The proposals follow a survey for the NHS last year which showed that more than a quarter of people later diagnosed with cancer had been to their local GP surgery at least three times before being referred to a specialist.

But shadow health minister Jamie Reed said the move was "a desperate idea from a government that won't take responsibility for the problems it has created in the NHS".

"David Cameron wasted billions on a re-organisation nobody wanted and left cancer patients waiting longer for tests and treatment," he added.

"This government has thrown away progress made on cancer care. It is proof of why the Tories can't be trusted with the NHS."

The government is also planning other health reforms, including restricting access to NHS numbers by migrants and making it easier for dangerous doctors to be struck off, said the Mail on Sunday.

NHS reforms

Accident & Emergency centres in towns will be kept open where possible and NHS whistleblowers will be able to make complaints without fear of losing their jobs, according to the paper.

Senior Conservatives have warned the NHS faces collapse and needs more funding to keep working.

Over the last four years the health service budget has been ringfenced from cuts while funding has risen at the same rate as inflation, but growing demand has largely been paid for by efficiency savings.

The NHS needs to receive a real-terms increase in funding over the next five years to keep it working, according to Stephen Dorrell, a former Conservative health secretary, Paul Burstow, a former coalition health minister, and Sarah Wollaston, a conservative MP.

North Korea claims to have tested precision guided missile

Announcement comes after South Korea said it detected three short-range projectiles coming down in the Sea of Japan

A picture from North Korea's official KCNA news agency purports to show the flight of a newly developed precision guided missile. Photograph: KNS/AFP/Getty Images

Friday 27 June 2014

/; North Korea claims to have successfully tested a new precision guided missile, at the same time as its army threatens a "devastating" retaliation against South Korea for carrying out live fire drills near their maritime border.

The launch was watched by the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, according to the North's official KCNA news agency, which hailed the test as a breakthrough in national defence capability.

North Korea is not known to possess a tactical guided missile but analysis of a recent propaganda film suggested it may have acquired a variant of a Russian cruise missile, the KH-35.

KCNA did not specify the timing of the test but it appeared to coincide with the firing on Thursday of what South Korea described as three short-range projectiles into the Sea of Japan.

The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North's ruling party, published pictures on Friday of the new missile being tested with Kim in attendance.

A propaganda photo said to show Kim Jong-un watching the guided missile test. Photograph: Rodong Sinmun/EPA

South Korea's defence ministry related the latest test to Pyongyang's efforts to improve its large-calibre multiple rocket launching (MRL) systems. "The MRL ranges have been extended and guidance capabilities added to the projectiles," spokesman Kim Min-Seok said.

Washington said it was looking into the technical specifics to determine the threat level. "Technically, obviously any launch of anything is problematic, is escalatory in nature, is threatening," said US state department spokeswoman Marie Harf.

On Thursday the Korean People's Army (KPA) released a statement on KCNA condemning recent South Korean live fire exercises near their disputed maritime border in the Yellow Sea.

The South's defence ministry declined to confirm that any particular drills had taken place, but said routine exercises in the area of the maritime border were common.

Yun Duk-Min, a professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security in Seoul, said the development of a tactical guided missile would be an "obvious military hazard" to South Korea and the US bases it hosts.

A precision weapon would also be a response to South Korea's home-grown development of a cruise missile that was displayed during a military parade in Seoul last October. According to the South's defence ministry the Hyeonmu 3's accuracy made it capable of striking the "office window" of the North's command headquarters in Pyongyang.

Inter-Korean relations have been tense for some months following annual South Korea-US military exercises that Pyongyang regularly condemns as provocative rehearsals for invasion.

Before the new missile test there had been hopes that the atmosphere was calming as the two sides held their first talks for six months on running their joint industrial zone in Kaesong.

North Korea launches two missiles, defies U.N. ban