Police bust members of international credit card fraud ring

Yuliasri Perdani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | National | Fri, July 04 2014,

Three suspected members of an international crime syndicate have been arrested in Greater Jakarta over a series of ATM-card skimming attacks in the country totaling Rp 3.9 billion (US$32,6551).

A police investigation found that two Sri Lankan natives, identified as Vinoth and Siva, and Siva’s Indonesian wife, Riska Deliawati, had installed hidden cameras and skimmers — electronic devices that read data from customers’ cards in — Bank Mandiri ATMs in Jakarta and Bogor.

“The suspects cooperated with Canadian residents, Lee and Kingston, who sent several skimming devices, including computer chips, to Indonesia. The chips are essential for copying data from ATM cards,” said National Police economics and special crime investigations division Brig. Gen. Kamal Razak in Jakarta on Thursday.

According to Kamal, the skimming devices were installed in ATMs at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, Arion Plaza, Plaza Senayan, Senayan City and a rest area in Sentul, Bogor.

Using duplicate cards, the syndicate withdrew a total of Rp 3.9 billion in May.

After receiving a tip-off about the unauthorized transactions from Bank Mandiri on May 14, the police launched an investigation and eventually arrested the suspects in July.

“Siva and his wife were detained at KM 19 of Jl. Raya Parung in Bogor, on July 1. A day later, we arrested Vinoth in the Tajur area, Bogor,” Kamal said.

From them, the police confiscated 260 fraudulent ATM cards, two magnetic stripe writers, a spy camera, two laptops, Rp 50 million in cash and several other skimming devices. According to the preliminary investigation, the three suspects kept a meager amount of the stolen cash, while the rest was transferred to the syndicate leaders, Kingston and Lee, in Canada. 

“The three apparently used the illegal proceeds to purchase a car, two houses and a chicken farm in Bogor,” Kamal said.

An official with Bank Mandiri, Siddik Badrudin, said that the bank had paid compensation to affected customers. 

Aside from the three suspects, the police have also arrested two Sri Lankans, identified as Rajan and Wali, who have links to Siva.

The police found that Wali, who works at Siva’s chicken farm, owns a fake Indonesian identity card.

The police’s banking fraud investigations sub-division chief, Sr. Comr. Umar Sahid, suspected that Rajan, an illegal migrant, played a role in the ATM skimming. “He claims to be under the protection of the International Organization for Migration [IOM]. However, we are investigating him because there is money flowing to him,” Umar said.

Aside from the IOM, the police will also seek clarification about Rajan’s status from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative in Indonesia. 

UNHCR Indonesia public information officer Mitra Salima Suryono said that if Rajan was registered as a person of concern to the UNHCR, the office would continue to process his documents. “We will process his documents. This will not hamper the legal process against him or give him immunity,” she told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Randenigala Distilleries lends a hand to Bodu Bala Sena!

 Friday, 04 July 2014 

Randenigala Distilleries Company Ltd. is the most noteworthy amongst the parties that provide funding for the activities of Bodu Bala Sena, reports say.

Owned by a retired prison officer by the name R.D. Sarath K. Wijewickrema, this company and BBS general secretary Galagodaatte Gnanasara had got their connection started after the owner was cornered by the Sri Lanka Customs over an ethanol racket. Using his political clout, the BBS general secretary had got Wijewickrema freed from this ethanol charge. As a mark of gratitude, the owner has given Rs. 30 million to Galagodaatte Gnanasara. That money had changed hands through Roy, an official of the Nugegoda United Traders Association.

After this, the ‘love’ between BBS and Randenigala Distilleries had grown thicker and faster and is now taking various directions. Most of the properties owned by Wijewickrema are the ones acquired for him by the BBS general secretary through various nefarious rackets. The Special Investigation Unit of the Department of Inland Revenue has carried out a special investigation into Randenigala Distilleries and its owner. However, Gnanasara Thera has ordered the Inland Revenue Department ‘not to become a party to the conspiracy against Sinhala Buddhist businessmen.’

Nowadays, the Randenigala Distilleries owner is telling his friends that he has now got hold of a wish-conferring gem. However, he is careful not to reveal what that is. But, his friends say that it is none other than BBS.

Anura Senanayake nears record!

Friday, 04 July 2014 

Senior DIG Anura Senanayake is nearing a record to become the oldest serving police officer in the 147 year history of the Sri Lanka police, as he has received service extensions on political grounds for more than three years upon reaching the retirement age of 60 years, according to police headquarters sources.

The service extension given to him last year ends on July 07. Previously, the defence secretary had wanted Senanayake to be appointed chairman of the Urban Development Authority after that date. However, all retired military officers serving at the UDA, in one voice, have requested him not to make that appointment. Later, he had planned to appoint Senanayake as the governor of the Northern Province, but the senior DIG that declined to accept that offer.

In such a scenario and in view of the prevailing situation in the country, the defence secretary has approved the granting of a further extension to Senanayake. However, that could not be implemented as the Public Services Commission had been inactive until yesterday. The president has now appointed new members to the commission, with Satya Hettige, retired Supreme Court judge and closest relative of the wife of minister Basil Rajapaksa, as its chairman. The first task of that new commission will be to implement the service extension of senior DIG Anura Senanayake.

Mandalay in Myanmar under curfew as clashes continue

Vehicles, shops and mosques have been attacked during the unrest in Mandalay

A curfew has been imposed in Myanmar's second city, Mandalay, following two nights of violence in which local police say two men died.

3 July 2014 

Reports say a Buddhist man died after being slashed with a sword by Muslims and that another man, a Muslim, was killed on his way to dawn prayers.

Four people have now been arrested.

The clashes erupted on Tuesday evening after Buddhist gangs damaged Muslim shops and a mosque, leaving five people hurt.

They was sparked by a claim that spread on social media that a Buddhist woman had been raped by one or more Muslim men.

The BBC's Jonah Fisher says hundreds of riot police were deployed for a second night on Wednesday as Buddhist mobs - made up of mainly young men - continued to roam the city attacking vehicles as well as shops and mosques.

A mob that included monks gathered on the streets of Mandalay in the early hours of Wednesday

Police have said that a man has been charged with rape.

Mandalay has more than 200,000 Muslims, a small but significant minority in the city. Muslims are a minority group in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.

Myanmar has seen several outbreaks of violence targeting Muslims in the past three years.

Much of the violence between the two groups has taken place in Rakhine state in the west of the country, where at least 200 people were killed and tens of thousands were displaced in 2012.

But the violence has since spread to parts of central Myanmar as well, with attacks in the towns of Meiktila and Kanbalu in 2013.

Court rules against Conservative government’s refugee health cuts

The Federal Court says government changes to health care create two tiers of coverage between refugees who are from designated countries of origin and those who are not.

Medical professionals and supporters protest government cuts to refugee health care last year at Citizenship and Immigration offices in Toronto. Two years ago, the federal government trimmed medical benefits for newcomers.

By: Debra Black Immigration Reporter, Published on Fri Jul 04 2014

A court ruling striking down Ottawa’s cutbacks to health care coverage for refugee claimants because it constitutes “cruel and unusual” treatment is being lauded as a victory for “human rights, for human dignity and for compassion.”
Court Rules Against Conservative Government’s Refugee Health Cuts by Maria Anderson

Andy Coulson jailed for 18 months for conspiracy to hack phones

Sentencing of former News of the World executives over phone hacking shows no one is above the law, says David Cameron

Andy Coulson arrives at the Old Bailey in central London before he was sentenced to 18 months in jail for phone-hacking offences. Photograph: Cyril Villemain/AFP/Getty Images

Lisa O'Carroll- Friday 4 July 2014 The disgraced former No 10 spin doctor Andy Coulson has been jailed for 18 months for plotting to hack phones while he was in charge of the News of the World.

Andy Coulson Jailed for 18 Months for Conspiracy to Hack Phones by Maria Anderson

How ebola created a climate of fear in my region

FRIDAY 04 JULY 2014

As west African countries battle against a deadly outbreak of the ebola virus, Moses Kortu reports from Sierra Leone on the devastating effect it has had in his home town.

Schools, markets, borders and banks have closed in my remote region of north eastern Sierra Leoneas the government takes steps to prevent the spread of the virus.
How Ebola Created a Climate of Fear in My Region by Maria Anderson

Iraq army retakes Saddam's birthplace; Sistani laments political mess

Shi'ite volunteers secure the area from predominantly Sunni militants from the Islamic State, previously called the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), in the desert region between Kerbala and Najaf, south of Baghdad, July 3, 2014.

BY ISRA'A AL-RUBEI'I AND MAGGIE FICK-FRIDAY 04 JULY 2014

(Reuters) - The Iraqi army retook Saddam Hussein's home village overnight, a symbolic victory in its struggle to seize back swathes of the country from Sunni insurgents.

Iraq Army Retakes Saddam's Birthplace Sistani Laments Political Mess by Maria Anderson

U.S. companies feel a colder wind in China, even as many still rake in profits

BY SIMON DENYER July 4 at 7:00 AM

BEIJING — China is the fastest-growing major economy in the world, and has seemed to hold boundless promise for foreign companies. In a country once inhabited by people in Mao suits, a fast-expanding and urbanizing middle class is hungry for Western goods. One U.S. retailer alone — Gap — expects to triple its sales of clothing between 2013 and 2016.
U.S. Companies Feel a Colder Wind in China, Even as Many Still Rake in Profits by Maria Anderson

Aluthgama: A game without winners

• As sporadic attacks against the Muslim community continue two weeks after the Aluthgama riots and instigators of the vicious religious violence roam free, fingers are still pointed against the Government for inaction and complicity. Politically there can be no victors in this ugly ethno-religious game

July 3, 2014 

The first dawn after the crescent moon sighting, which signalled the beginning of the Ramazan fasting season for Sri Lanka’s Muslim community this year, was marked by violence.
It was the kind of shadowy, isolated attack that has been quietly besieging the Muslims of Sri Lanka for 18 long months, ever since the birth of the Bodu Bala Sena brought Sinhala Buddhist hardliners to the frontlines of politics in the country.

Aluthgama a Game Without Winners by Maria Anderson

War Without Witness in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's Killing Fields - Channel 4 UK Documentory

Jon Snow presents a forensic investigation into the final weeks of the quarter-century-long civil war between the government of Sri Lanka and the secessionist rebels, the Tamil Tigers. With disturbing and distressing descriptions and film of executions, atrocities and the shelling of civilians the programme features devastating new video evidence of war crimes - some of the most horrific footage Channel 4 has ever broadcast. Captured on mobile phones, both by Tamils under attack and government soldiers as war trophies, the disturbing footage shows: the extra-judicial executions of prisoners; the aftermath of targeted shelling of civilian camps; and dead female Tamil fighters who appear to have been raped or sexually assaulted, abused and murdered. The film is made and broadcast as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon faces growing criticism for refusing to launch an investigation into 'credible allegations' that Sri Lankan forces committed war crimes during the closing weeks of the bloody conflict with the Tamil Tigers. In April 2011, Ban Ki-moon published a report by a UN-appointed panel of experts, which concluded that as many as 40,000 people were killed in the final weeks of the war between the Tamil Tigers and government forces. It called for the creation of an international mechanism to investigate alleged violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law committed by government forces and the Tamil Tigers during that time. This film provides powerful evidence that will lend new urgency to the panel's call for an international inquiry to be mounted, including harrowing interviews with eye-witnesses, new photographic stills, official Sri Lankan army video footage, and satellite imagery. Also examined in the film are some of the horrific atrocities carried out by the Tamil Tigers, who used civilians as human shields. Channel 4 News has consistently reported on the bloody denouement of Sri Lanka's civil war. Sri Lanka's Killing Fields presents a further damning account of the actions of Sri Lankan forces, in a war that the government still insists was conducted with a policy of Zero Civilian Casualties. The film raises serious questions about the consequences if the UN fails to act, not only with respect to Sri Lanka but also to future violations of international law. You can follow the programme on Twitter using #KillingFields Sri Lanka's Killing Fields will be shown to MPs and parliamentary officials at a special showing in the House of Commons next week. If you wish to contact your MP directly on this or any other matter you can go to Theyworkforyou.com (you can click on the link at the left hand side of this page) to find out who your representative is and how to contact them. http://www.channel4.com/programmes/sri-lankas-killing-fields http://www.channel4.com/programmes/sri-lankas-killing-fields/4od

Buddha Tattoo Case: AG Says Men Of Standing Don’t Wear Tattoos

July 3, 2014

Counsel appearing for the Attorney General on behalf of the Respondent state officials submitted to the Supreme Court that men of standing do not adorn tattoos when the Fundamental Rights application filed bythe British tourist who was deported for wearing a Buddha Tattoo was taken up today.

Naomi Coleman

Speaking after the Counsel for the Petitioner made submissions, Jayantha Jayasooriya PC who appeared on behalf of the Respondent government officers made a lengthy submission with regard to the social strata and perception of the people who wear Tattoos.

“You and I, nor any other public servant would not wear a Tattoo. Normal men of standing usually don’t wear Tattoos, and it is in this context that this issue must be understood” he said.

He further pointed out that the Buddha Tattoo worn by Coleman should not be seen in isolation, but together with another Tattoo that the tourist was wearing below the Buddha Tattoo.

“It could have caused tension which is why the officer arrested the lady”.

When the bench pointed out that the prudent course of action would have been to ask the lady to cover the Tattoo, the Counsel for the State submitted that in the event she violates the said instructions there would have been room for tension.

He further drew the attention of the Bench to a previous instance when a tourist was deported for having a Tattoo on his ankle.

The Bench comprising Justice Eva Wansundera, Saleem Marsoof and Chandra Ekanayake observed that the Tourism authorities should have issued relevant instructions to tourist visiting the country.

However, Jayasooriya said that such was not possible as it was hard to identify Tattoos which could cause hurt or tension to religious feelings or sentiment.

The State Counsel however, informed court that the Negombo Magistrate did not have the authority to issue and order of deportation. Despite this, it was agreed by both parties that the Supreme Court could not contest the validity of the Judgment by the Magistrate in the current action.

Counsel appearing for the Petitioner, J.C Weliamuna outlined the circumstances under which Coleman was arrested. He also said that the Counsel for the state was making moral judgments.

He said that the arrest and detention violated the Fundamental Rights of the Petitioner guaranteed under S11, 12. and 13.

Leave to proceed was granted in Fundamental Rights Application, with objections to be filed in six weeks from today.

The case is to be taken up for argument on December 24th.

Jayantha Jayasuriya PC with Parinda Ranasinghe DSG appeared for the state, while J.C Weliamuna with Pulasthi Hewamanna, Tishya Weragoda, Hafeel Farisz instructed by Vishwa De Livera Tennakoon appeared for the Petitioner.

Tamils facing new atrocities in Sri Lanka

Paul White |  03 July 2014

On Monday morning Australians learnt that two boats of Tamil asylum seekers had been intercepted off Christmas Island. Now there are unconfirmed reports that Australia is handing them over to the Sri Lankan navy without assessing their claims for protection. 

At least one of the vessels intercepted in high seas contained 153 Tamil asylum seekers, originally from Sri Lanka. These included 37 children, one of whom was only aged three months and was sick. The Tamils had been almost two weeks at sea in their 22-metre boat. A Tamil asylum seeker on-board told the ABC: ‘We are refugees. We come from Sri Lanka — we stayed in India and we are unable to live there. That’s why we are coming to Australia’.

These Tamils previously sought refuge in India from Sri Lanka’s 1983-2009 extremely brutal civil war. In 2011 a UN expert panel identified war crimes such as abductions, torture and disappearances, in which high government officials were implicated. Over 100,000 people were killed and one million displaced. Tamils were exposed daily to air strikes and atrocities, forcing many to flee to India.

India is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention. Refugees have no right to freedom of movement. India’s Foreigners Act 1946 and Citizenship Act 1955 define all non-citizens who enter without visas to be illegal migrants, with no exception for refugees or asylum seekers. Possession of a UNHCR refugee certificate does not protect refugees from detention.

More than 100,000 Sri Lankan Tamils live in between 115 and 130 refugee camps in Tamil Nadu State in India. Aid workers say that some refugees live in thatched huts, others in small cement blockhouses. There are no proper toilet facilities, bathing facilities or adequate drinking water. There is no rubbish collection, and only some camps have medical facilities. Electricity is provided in some locations, but usually only between 6 am and 6 pm. In some camps there is no electricity for many inmates. Six houses at Thiruvadhavur collapsed in monsoonal rains recently, killing a girl.

The camps are of two types: general camps and so-called special camps — which Indian NGOs say are really concentration camps. People can go out of the general camps, but require three levels of police clearance. They are subject to constant surveillance by security forces and face travel restrictions. NGOs are generally barred from working in the refugee camps. Even UNHCR officials are not permitted access.

An Amnesty International investigation found that general camp inmates potentially face great oppression from security authorities. ‘The Q branch (the anti-terror wing of the state police) has forced labourers at the Goomidpoondi camp to pilfer steel from the factories where they work’, one refugee told Amnesty. Amnesty reports that refugees were made to rob banks in 2008 and 2011, ‘and the Q branch were involved’. If refugees caught up in such abuses complain they may find their young relatives packed off to ‘special camps’.

Many Tamils have returned home after the war to discover that their land had been stolen. Indeed, Tamil NGOs report a ‘Sinhala colonisation’, of predominantly Tamil areas. A Tamil refugee told Amnesty: ‘My brother went back to check on his property and found that nearly 100 percent of our areas are still under Sinhalese military occupation’.

Years after the supposed end of the civil war, allegations of torture in police custody persist. UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay warned in 2013 that Sri Lanka was becoming increasingly authoritarian. Tamils face the risk of sexual violence, torture, murder, imprisonment, and enforced disappearance. Juan Méndez, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, concurs.

Since March 2014 Sri Lankan authorities have intensified security operations in Tamil areas. There have been scores of arrests and several deaths in these regions and freedom of movement has been restricted in these areas. According to an estimate by The Sentinel Project, ‘the overall risk of genocide in Sri Lanka is medium to high’, as ‘conditions point to a likely renewal of conflict in Sri Lanka that could escalate to mass atrocities including genocide’.

Sri Lankan human rights lawyer Lakshan Dias says that in the past 12 months Australia had deported numerous formerly India-based Sri Lankan Tamil asylum-seekers to Sri Lanka. He adds that these forced returnees are sometimes ‘held and interrogated, some are questioned or beaten, and they are unable to return to India’. In 2011, ABC1’s Lateline reported the severe beatings of two forcibly returned Sri Lankan asylum seekers, who claimed that Sri Lankan police beat them in the presence of an Australian Federal Police officer.

Oppressed in India and facing new genocide in their homeland, our latest arrivals have nowhere to go, and seek Australia’s mercy. The full High Court has ruled that refusal to give refugees permanent protection visas is invalid.

---

Dr Paul White lectured at Australian universities for some years, in the fields of political science and Middle Eastern studies, and delivered papers at scholarly conferences in several countries. He is widely published internationally, including both critically acclaimed books, as well as papers in refereed journals.

Image: Tamils Against Genocide

Enemies Of State, Their Fall And The Guillotine

By Muhammed Fazl -July 3, 2014

Muhammed Fazl

Nobody can give you freedom, nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you are a man, you take it – Malcolm X

In the nation of alcoholics, wife-beaters and hateful losers, it becomes an irony when transvestites come out of the closet brazenly at night and onto the streets to ply their trade as against ‘war heroes’ and ‘men in power’ being enslaved and gagged from speaking out. Talk becomes cheap when it does not ‘walk the talk’. It has also been the norm to look for a change of government through elections when democracy does not exist, to seek redress in courts of law when the independence of the judiciary is seriously compromised and to make powerful speeches in parliament and elsewhere only for it to fall on deaf ears.

Taking into account the recent hate-mongering acts/speeches against the Muslim minority by racist elements enjoying state patronage and immunity from prosecution and the down-played war crime allegations against the Sri Lankan armed forces and their political leaders, it could be seen as a futile exercise if opposition forces opts to ‘play by the rule book’ in their quest for change and/or justice!

Having referred the dictionary for the word ‘traitor’, I cannot help but see the spotlight fall on President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his ‘band of brothers’, and it makes me contemplate between being coy and a coward or standing up for what is right. It is also precisely this feeling that which takes me in to the camps of ‘men of honor’ and the ‘patriotic kind’ in robes!                                       Read More

The Family Curse

| by Tisaranee Gunasekara

“….it is the President who has solutions to all these problems. He quelled terrorism and it is he who could solve problems of this sort…. Everybody should present these problems and the President will solve it. Nobody else can solve them.”

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (Daily Mirror – 2.7.2014)

( July 3, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Jean Lacouture wrote that André Gide’s cry, ‘Families, I detest you’ is “a slogan that ought to be framed and hung in every presidential palace in the Third World” .

The Family Curse by Maria Anderson

My Stand On Mahinda, The Rajapaksas, Ranil & The UNP

By Dayan Jayatilleka -July 3, 2014 

Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka

Reply to Shyamon Jayasinghe’s defense of Ranil’s candidacy & leadership

Though I refuse to be simplistic, my 

stance on President Rajapaksa and the Rajapaksa regime is absolutely clear, as it is about the UNP, the Tamil question, Sri Lanka’s foreign policy, and most issues of politics, national and international.

1. I defend President Rajapaksa from criticism that comes from the Right, while I do not do so in relation to criticism that comes from the anti-imperialist patriotic Left, and in fact endorse the latter.  Thus I defend Mahinda Rajapaksa from the criticism that comes from the pro-secessionistTamil Diaspora, Tamil Nadu, the UN International Inquiry and the dominant elite of the UNP (which appeased the LTTE), while I fully endorse, support and applaud the sharp criticism of President Rajapaksa and the Rajapaksa regime that comes from the JVP (as well as the more muted criticism from the Left within the UPFA).

2. If the choice is Mahinda Rajapaksa or Ranil Wickremesinghe, and so long as that is the main choice available, I support Mahinda Rajapaksa, as does most of the country. This is less to do with MR than it has to with RW. While I opposed CBK’s 1995 and 1997 ‘packages’ (and endorsed the Aug 2000 version), I supportedChandrika in late 1999 when the choice for the Presidency was her or Ranil. So did the country. I also supported CBK’s wresting back of the three portfolios and her dismissal of Ranil.              Read More