Scott Morrison putting himself ‘above high court’ on asylum, says Labor

Richard Marles blasts Coalition’s new test for refugees, accusing the minister of throwing out ‘the humanitarian handbook’

Scott Morrison wants to subject asylum seekers to a new 'national interest test'. Photograph: /AAP Image

Daniel Hurst and Paul Farrell-Friday 4 July 2014 

Labor has accused the immigration minister, Scott Morrison, of placing himself above the parliament and the high court as he pursues a new method of denying refugees permanent protection visas.

The criticism came as refugee advocates expressed concern about the fate of asylum seekers who may be returned to Sri Lanka, with the Tamil Refugee Council saying it had spoken with relatives of people on board one of the vessels who had previously been imprisoned and tortured in that country.

Guardian Australia reported on Thursday the government would try to use a new “national interest test” to deny permanent protection visas to refugees who had arrived “illegally” by boat or plane, in an attempt to circumvent its loss in the high court last month and implement its policy to refuse permanent settlement to all boat arrivals.

The opposition’s immigration spokesman, Richard Marles, said Labor did not support use of the national interest test in this way, arguing Morrison was “tying himself in knots” and throwing out “the humanitarian handbook in order to protect his political scoreboard”.

“This is a minister who has placed himself above the parliament, above the high court, he certainly places himself above the Australian people in not giving people information and for him Australia’s institutions, our legal system, our parliamentary democracy, is a mere afterthought,” Marles said on Friday.

Morrison will personally decide the new “national interest test” on a case-by-case basis, taking into account conditions such as whether the granting of a permanent visa would “provide a product for people smugglers to market now or in the future” and “erode the community’s confidence in the effective and orderly management of Australia’s migration program”.

The government argues the minister has the power to make these case-by-case decisions because the Migration Regulations 1994 say permanent protection visas should only be granted if it is in the national interest.

An information sheet distributed to stakeholders says applicants who are not granted a permanent visa will not be able to challenge the decision at the Refugee Review Tribunal. The government intends to issue temporary visas instead.

Refugee lawyers have already alerted the high court to the possibility the government was planning to unlawfully breach the earlier ruling. The court struck down Morrison’s imposition of a cap on the number of permanent protection visas issued to asylum seekers already in Australia.

The lawyer who brought that successful high court challenge, David Manne, said the court required the government to make a decision on the application of his client, a 16-year-old unaccompanied minor. Manne said the immigration department had notified him the minister was proposing to refuse the visa under the national interest test.

“We are submitting to the government that it would be unlawful for the minister to refuse our client’s application for a permanent protection visa on national interest grounds and it would be a failure to lawfully comply with the orders of the high court in the recent successful challenge,” said Manne, the executive director of the Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre.

“The government will have 14 days from today to make a decision on our client’s protection visa application and then if the minister refuses the protection visa we intend to bring this back to the high court.”

The legal dispute over protection visas comes amid confusion surrounding the fate of two vessels of asylum seekers believed to have been intercepted by Australian personnel near Christmas Island and the Cocos Islands.

The United Nations refugee agency on Thursday night expressed “profound concern” about reports about Australia’s handling of the boats and the possibility of people being returned to Sri Lanka. The UNHCR said in a statement: “International law prescribes that no individual can be returned involuntarily to a country in which he or she has a well-founded fear of persecution.”

The Tamil Refugee Council said it had spoken with a relative of one of the asylum seekers on board the vessel from India. The relative reported that several people had previously been jailed and tortured in Sri Lanka.

Council spokesman Aran Mylvaganam said the relative had told him one of the people on board had previously been beaten with a plastic pipe filled with sand and hung from the ceiling by his thumbs.

“This man told me he knows 11 people on this particular boat who had been arrested by Sri Lanka’s intelligence forces and had been tortured, having been accused of being members of the Tamil Tigers,” he said.

“The man I spoke to today told me he received a call from one of his relatives on the boat last Thursday to say the boat was having trouble with the diesel oil. They spoke only briefly and he has heard no more.”

Marles said if anybody was returned to a position of not being safe “then Australia would have squarely breached our international obligations”.

“At the heart of our international obligations is a commitment of non-refoulement,” he said.

“What danger people face in returning home to Sri Lanka is going to depend on their circumstances, on their individuals stories, and of course that is why people need to be individually assessed to see what obligations and the strength in which they invoke Australia’s obligations, that’s why there needs to be a process of individual assessment.”

Marles added that the Australian public had a right to know about the fate of the asylum seekers on board, and it was “not a matter of mere curiosity”.

“Ultimately the government are responsible to the Australian people and the briefing that this minister should be giving is not to me or to any other politicians, it’s to the Australian people,” he said.

Fairfax Media reported this week that the asylum seekers were screened and questioned on board Australian customs vessels, in a marked departure from previous screening policies. Guardian Australia reported on Wednesday that the department had previously considered a similar policy in 2012, but did not implement it because of fears it could be unlawful.

The federal government continues to refuse to confirm or deny whether the boats even exist, in accordance with its policy surrounding information on asylum seeker vessels.

The prime minister, Tony Abbott, and Morrison said on Thursday the government was acting in accordance with international law. The Coalition campaigned on a pledge to “stop the boats”.

Palestinian protests spread after boy's funeral

Unrest escalates in East Jerusalem and spreads through West Bank after funeral of Mohammed Abu Khdeir

Link to video: Palestinian youths clash with police after Mohamed Abu Khdeir's funeral

Peter Beaumont in Shuafat and agencies
Clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters have spread following the funeral of a teenager who Palestinians claim was killed by Israeli extremists in a revenge attack.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said riots erupted in East Jerusalem and spread to Arab towns to the north on Saturday.

Protesters burned tyres and threw rocks and firebombs at police who responded with teargas and stun grenades. More than 20 people were arrested.

Tensions have remained high since three Israeli teenagers were abducted in the West Bank on 12 June, prompting a huge manhunt which ended with the discovery of their bodies earlier this week.

The unrest escalated in East Jerusalem after the burned body of 17-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir was found in a forest. He was laid to rest on Friday after thousands of Palestinian mourners carried his body through the streets of an East Jerusalem suburb. By the time the funeral was over the streets were blocked by temporary barricades and littered with broken masonry; the tarmac scorched black after almost three days of rioting to protest against his murder.

The last week, which began with the funerals of the Israeli teenagers and ended with that of the Palestinian boy, has pushed relations between Israelis and Palestinians to the brink once more.

At the hilltop cemetery of Modiin on Tuesday it was the blue and white ofIsrael's flag that served as a shroud on the coffins of Eyal Yifrach, 19, Gil-ad Sha'er, 16, and Naftali Frankel, 16. On Friday it was green, white and black of the Palestinian banner that enfolded Mohammed Abu Khdeir on his final journey.

While funerals like Abu Khdeir's are familiar on the West Bank and Gaza, for Jerusalem it was an remarkable event – marking the first Friday of Ramadan with an extraordinary security clampdown. The milling groups of young male mourners, some of them wearing masks, chanted: "Enough, enough we will pay with blood" and "intifada, intifada". As he was buried, several volleys of automatic weapons fire rang out from rooftops near the cemetery – again unusual for a Jerusalem neighbourhood. In between the two funerals it has become a frightened and divided city. The light railway – Israel's grand project to link the east and west of the city – is now cut at Shuafat, its stations damaged. Residents who look Arab have been assaulted and abused in the street.

A steady drip of rumours on social media has fired the sense of anxiety: reports of a missing boy who did not make it to mosque or a woman found dead in her garden. It was not just in Shuafat that there were clashes on Friday. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police clashed with hundreds of Palestinians in Ras al-Amud and Wadi Joz in the eastern part of the city.

The mourners for Mohammed Abu Khdeir began coming early, even before it was confirmed his body had been released by Israeli police, to sit in the large mourning tent outside the family's home.

His father, Hussein, said doctors had completed an autopsy on Thursday evening on the badly burned body of his son, found in a forest to the west of the city an hour or so after he was dragged into a car by two men as he was waiting to pray at just before 4am on Wednesday morning.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to calm the situation on Thursday, condemning Abu Khdeir's killing and vowing to find the attackers.

"We don't know yet the motives or the identities of the perpetrators, but we will. We will bring to justice the criminals responsible for this despicable crime whoever they may be," Netanyahu said in a speech celebrating US Independence Day at the American Embassy in Tel Aviv. "Murder, riots, incitement, vigilantism, they have no place in our democracy."

Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been worsening for several months since the collapse of the US sponsored peace process, but in recent weeks have escalated sharply.

They reached a crisis point in a period when three Israeli teenagers, one of which had American citizenship, were abducted in the West Bank on June 12 and amid recent sharp increase in rocket fire from Gaza.

Facing instability on several front, Israeli political leaders leaders have promised to "meet quiet with quiet" if Hamas bring a halt to the latest flare-up of violence on the Gaza border.

For its part Hamas has said that efforts were under way with Egyptian mediation to reach a truce after a week of militant rocket fire into southern Israel and retaliatory air strikes against Gaza.

"There are continuing Egyptian efforts to return calm to the Gaza Strip, but no agreement has been reached yet," a Hamas official told AFP, on condition of anonymity.

Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim told AFP: "Hamas is not interested in an escalation or war in Gaza, but at the same time it is not possible for it to remain silent on the continued aggression against Gaza and the West Bank."

Afghan presidential candidate rules out coalition deal

Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai speaks at a news conference in Kabul June 26, 2014.

BY MARIA GOLOVNINA AND MIRWAIS HAROONI-KABUL Sat Jul 5, 2014 

(Reuters) - Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani ruled out a coalition government with his rival Abdullah Abdullah on Saturday, quashing hopes for a power-sharing deal to defuse tensions that have threatened to split Afghanistan along ethnic lines.

Ghani and Abdullah have locked horns since the June 14 second round run-off, accusing each other of trying to manipulate the vote and declaring victory in the contest to succeed Hamid Karzai as president.

Prompting speculation that a back-room power-sharing deal was in the making, officials have delayed the announcement of preliminary election results until Monday, potentially giving both candidates more time to find ways to end the impasse.

But speaking to reporters on Saturday, Ghani explicitly denied he sought a coalition government.

"People are concerned and the question they have been asking is if we have made any deal. Our answer is clear: we have not made any deal. We assure the people that we will not betray their votes," Ghani said.

"Our commitment is to defend national interests, not personal interests."

The protracted dispute over the election has all but destroyed Western hopes for a smooth transition of power in Afghanistan, where the atmosphere is already nervous as most U.S.-led troops prepare to pull out this year.

Abdullah, a former anti-Taliban resistance fighter, draws his support from the Tajik minority in northern Afghanistan while Ghani, a former World Bank economist, represents the Pashtun majority.

As their standoff intensified, Afghanistan has become awash with speculation about a broader rift along ethnic lines or more violence unless they agree to accept the outcome of the vote or agree on a compromise power-sharing arrangement.

TALIBAN THREATS

Adding another layer of complexity to an already tense situation, Taliban insurgents have vowed to disrupt the election process. On Saturday, militants set fire to 200 oil tanker trucks supplying fuel for NATO forces near Kabul.

Ghani's aides, citing election observers, say he is in the lead in the run-off by at least one million votes.

Abdullah, for his part, has accused Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun, of playing a role in the alleged rigging in Ghani's favour, and last week thousands of Abdullah's supporters marched on the presidential palace in a peaceful protest.

"The uncertainty has resulted in the loss of hundreds of millions of dollar in investment...Deals are suspended because the future is uncertain," Ghani said.

In response to allegations of mass fraud, the Independent Election Commission is now recounting votes from 1,930 polling stations and will announce its findings on Monday.

Refusal by either candidate to accept the outcome would result in a dangerous deadlock, a worry for the United States which hopes for a swift transfer of power in order to sign a security pact allowing some U.S. forces to stay in the country.

Ghani said election results should not be delayed further.

"The electoral timeline cannot be changed. We have been committed to the process and the process has to be followed," he said. "For the sake of the nation we accepted the delay for a few days (but) we cannot accept any more delays."

(Writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by Stephen Powell)

Al-Shabaab claims responsibility for car bomb in Somalia

SATURDAY 05 JULY 2014

Al-Shabaab militants, who threatened to step up attacks during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, say they were behind a blast that killed four people near the Somali parliament building.

Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab rebels claimed responsibility for Saturday's bombing, the latest in a surge of attacks in Mogadishu during Islam's holy month of Ramadan.

"A car loaded with explosives was intercepted near the parliament and it went off. There are casualties but we don't have details so far," police official Mohamed Idle said.

He confirmed a suicide bomber was in the car.

Police and witnesses at the scene said three police officers and the suicide bomber died in the blast.

"I saw the dead bodies of three police and the severed body parts of what looked like the suicide bomber under the wreckage of the detonated car. The police sealed off the area and all civilians were ordered to leave," said eyewitness Ahmed Malin.

Several other witnesses said they saw ambulances taking away the wounded, most of them civilians collected from the scene of the explosion. Abdikarim Jirow, another witness, said around nine wounded persons have been carried out of the attack scene.

Al-Shabaab, who have carried out frequent attacks against the parliament and other centres of Somalia's fragile, internationally-backed government, said they were responsible and vowed their attacks would continue.

"We killed more than a dozen so-called police members after sacrificial attack at the main entrance of parliament buildings," Abdulaziz Abu Musab, military spokesman of the Shebab, said.

"We want to tell them that the MPs are not safe anywhere in Mogadishu. By the grace of Allah more attacks will come and continue."

Last month, militants from the Shebab set off a car bomb at the gates of parliament and then stormed the building while MPs were meeting in an attack that left several dead.

At the time, an al-Shabaab spokesman described the parliament as a "military zone" and a legitimate target.

On Thursday, al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for shooting dead a lawmaker and his bodyguard. In April two other MPs were also assassinated in Mogadishu.

Rebels flee Slovyansk as Ukrainian forces recapture key city

BY KAROUN DEMIRJIAN July 5 at 11:20 AM 

MOSCOW — Pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s east were dealt a major setback Saturday when they were forced to flee a key stronghold city after days of battling government forces, Ukrainian officials and rebels said.
Rebels Flee Slovyansk as Ukrainian Forces Recapture Key City by Maria Anderson

UO researcher finds that kids who know fast-food brands weigh more

Jul-05-2014 

Kids Who Can Name Fast Food Chains at Risk for Long-Term Obesity Problems

Study suggests that parents should use a 'first language' of food that has less fat, salt and sugar.

EUGENE, Ore. — (July 2, 2014) — What parents feed their children early on is vitally important to developing their food preferences and reducing their risks for obesity, says a University of Oregon researcher.
UO Researcher Finds That Kids Who Know Fast-food Brands Weigh More by Maria Anderson

Psychotic Gnanassara the face of terror re opens his cavernous mouth : scolds Bellanwila and Galagama Theros as circumcised or baptized


(Lanka-e-News-03.June.2014, 11.55PM) Bodhu Bala Sena (BBS) terrorist organization leader Galagoda Aththe Gnanassara who carried out the operation of terror and mayhem at Alutgama with the protection and patronage of the security divisions of the Rajapakse regime had now come out of the shell after being silent for a while . Today he started showing his hideous face of terror again. While pretending that he went to Alutgama to establish reconciliation and telling all the dastardly lies , he made outrageous announcements and threatened that if the criminals under custody for committing arson and launching attacks in the Alutgama mayhem are not released forthwith , the terrorist operation will be re commenced 

He stated ‘ if anybody interferes with the BBS they are carving a short cut to their disaster.’ ‘These Sinhala youths should be released , or else more murder and mayhem may have to be witnessed across the entire country ‘ he warned.

‘We make this dire warning because there is a limit to our patience . We may have to transgress the laws,’ Gnanassara thundered .

Gnanassara the terror inspiring terrorist leader went on to vilify and castigate sane Bellanwila Wimalaratne Thero , Galagama Dhammaransi Thero and other Buddhist prelates who behave with dignity in profound contrast to Gnanassara, and speak sensibly for and on behalf of religious harmony . Gnanassara the terrorist organization leader said , he is pitying Ven. Dr. Bellanwila Thero , and identified the latter and Ven .Dhammarasinghe Thero as demented individuals. 

Gnanassara in his characteristic brutish and boorish manner went on to scorn and spurn them most viciously , ‘ they are blokes who have been either circumcised in the mosques or baptized . Are these the buffalos who are trying to take over Buddhist leadership? ‘ he questioned.

It might be pointed out that in the history of the Buddhist clergy and scholars ,never has any religious leader insulted or disgraced with such venom and vengeance by another Buddhist leader ( view Lanka e news face book video tape) 

Gnanassara’s tirade did not stop. He called the Ministers of the government as buffalos and donkeys (implying that the President is the chief of the donkey and buffalo herds) . 

Gnanassara was unstoppable , ‘ let me tell in original Sinhala , if these beasts cannot understand,’ he noted. 

May we point out , the Gnanassara beast for all his boasts knows not a word of English , and even Sinhalese his fluency is restricted to filthy and foul language only.

It is very unfortunate the media shielded and gave coverage to this paranoid and unhinged Gnanassara for two long years . At least let it be understood from now on after the Alutgama episode , they have made a biggest criminal blunder , and avoid giving publicity to the mad monk Gnanassara until he reforms in accordance with the true pristine Buddhist tenets.

IMF driven policies have hit education,health, social welfare budgets  - Eran

Eran

by Zacki Jabbar-July 3, 2014,

The education, health and social welfare budgets were being slashed annually because the government was following an IMF driven policy, the UNP said on Wednesday.

Financial Analyst and UNP MP Eran Wickremeratne told The Island that in a situation where the IMF propagated fiscal consolidation through a reduction in the  budget deficit it was absurd for anyone to claim that the IMF did not have an influence on the policies implemented by the Rajapaksa regime.

"Whom is the IMF trying to fool? It may not be fashioning government policy directly, but it is the IMF driven philosophy of the ruling UPFA that has resulted in the continued reduction in the education, health  and social welfare allocations," he noted, adding that the hidden agenda was  reflected in President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s  Budget speech 2014.

The President had pledged to  reduce the 2014  budget deficit to 5.8 percent, 4.4 percent in 2015, 3.8 percent in 2016 and reduce the debt to GDP ratio to 65 percent. The government has agreed with the IMF to achieve these  targets. So, what does it do with  revenue at an all time low? It increases taxes on all essential goods and services, while providing huge tax exemptions to businesses and indirectly to Casinos  through the Strategic Development Projects Act, the MP observed.

MP Wickremaratne pointed out that the education system was in a total mess with the so-called free education no longer being free. Government schools were increasingly demanding big ‘donations’ from parents of  students. "This state of affairs is due to the  year on year reduction of the Education Ministry budget. It will lead to the privileged getting a good quality private education while those who opt for the state system, suffering due to the lack of funds."

Public investment, Wickremeratne said, was being maintained at 6.9 percent of GDP which had gone largely into  the construction of airports, ports and highways,which do not benefit the vast majority of people. He cautioned that IMF driven policies had widened the gap between the haves and have nots, which would eventually lead to social unrest.

Although the Rajapaksa regime boasted of an economic boom, revenue as a percentage of GDP had dropped to eleven percent, which was the lowest recorded since Independence. But, military expenditure remained high even though the war was  over in May 2009, the MP noted.

Who’d Challenge This Military Involvement?

By Kusal Perera -July 4, 2014 

Kusal Perara

“The Army has been given legal powers to arrest and take legal action against those who ignore the instructions of the government with regard to the eradication of dengue mosquitoes” – CDN/26 June 2014

“The entire effort will utilize the services of 15 officers and 750 men (soldiers). They will be focusing on reconstruction…..The estimated cost of the whole project is around Rs 200 million and the President has granted this amount to us and we have already commenced work on this project…” Security Forces Commander (West) Major General Ubaya Madawela to Sunday Leader of 29 June 2014

“Army Commander attend the ACJU co-existing event in Dehiwala Mosque” – ACJU/Vidiyal.lk 26 June 2014

A politically very savvy colleague said, “This is a helluva thing-no. Their saffron thugs go and damage and devastate whole villages…..And we have to pay the cost of reconstruction.”  He was referring to the 200 million rupees the President had approved for the military driven reconstructions in Aluthgama-Beruwala-Dharga Town areas. That money is obviously tax payers money and it is public funds. Contemplating on that very apt statement, I thought the best would have been to confiscate all funds, property and assets owned by BBSleaders individually and collectively and turn them into rupees and cents for reconstruction. If there was still a deficit in bridging the gap for costs, then allocating public funds can be justified and accepted. Accepted for the reason, such racially and religiously instigated violence thereafter would not be attempted by any.In this Sri Lanka under this Rajapaksa regime, that way of handling Sinhala Buddhist extremism would never be the order of the day. This regime lives on majority Sinhala sentiments, that’s evaporating much faster than the regime thought. Five post war years wasted with nothing delivered even to the majority in the South, they now have to fire up the most extreme “Sinhala Buddhist Zionism” to try and survive. That extremism can not be propped up without State patronage and  militarising of society in every form. Thus the question, “What if this army is kept longer than needed in this high density, traditional Muslim area in Kalutara district ?”

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The Riots of June 2014 and Pogrom of July 1983

by Devanesan Nesiah 

- on 07/04/2014 

It is unlikely that there is anyone living who remembers the anti -Muslim riots of 1915. In any case, apart from the fact that most of the victims were Muslims and most of the perpetrators were Sinhalese, there are few similarities between the riots of 1915 and 2014. In1915 the British administration, in sharp contrast to our own today crushed the violence firmly and quickly. In fact the punishments they meted out were both needlessly cruel and indiscriminate. Many Sinhalese who were innocent of terrorism were summarily executed or incarcerated without due process.

The Riots of June 2014 and Pogrom of July 1983 by Maria Anderson

Hostage takers above the law?

Editorial-July  3, 2014

The Rajarata University has been closed indefinitely in view of a teachers’ protest against the recent hostage drama and death threats. Vice Chancellor Prof. Ranjith Wijewardena says some university teachers have informed him that they were roughed up during the recent hostage drama and even threatened with death subsequently. They are demanding that their safety be guaranteed and a peaceful environment created on the campus for them to resume work. This, we believe, is a fair demand. Teachers must be able to work without fear of being taken hostage or assaulted or even killed.

Student thugs are capable of carrying out their threats. Their handlers, it may be recalled, were responsible for harming university teachers, other intellectuals, undergrads, trade union leaders and artistes in the late 1980s. The assassination by the southern terrorists of Colombo University Vice Chancellor Prof. Stanley Wijesundera is a case in point. The fears of the Rajarata dons are, therefore, not unfounded and the police must not take threats to their lives lightly.

Issues that have led to teachers’ protests won’t resolve themselves while the university remains closed. What action will the university administration, the Higher Education Ministry and the police take to ensure the safety of the dons and non-academic staff? The identities of the hostage takers are known to one and all and why they have not been arrested is the question.

The government is apparently trying to use the Rajarata issue to its advantage. Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake has claimed that the hostage drama could be considered a clear vindication of his vilification campaign against student leaders. He is apparently deriving some perverse pleasure from the atrocities students are perpetrating against teachers because they have been supportive of one another’s struggles during the past few years.

Instead of making a prompt intervention to have those responsible for the hostage drama dealt with according to the law and reopen the university the government seems to have allowed the situation to deteriorate further. It apparently wants public anger to well up so that it could go the whole hog to dismantle what remains of university student unions. That it is striving to put university teachers also on the Procrustean bed of conformity to render the groves of Academe malleable and subservient is only too well known.

Attempts being made in some quarters to suppress undergrads’ and teachers’ rights on the pretext of brining order out of chaos in universities should be defeated. Universities must be free and independent for them to think, innovate and lead. Undergraduates cannot be expected to be conformist. If they are not rebellious there must be something wrong with them either mentally or physically. Their right to protest against injustices, fight for their rights and voice their dissent peacefully must be guaranteed and their grievances redressed. Similarly, the dangerous elements amongst them advancing hidden political agendas and perpetrating violence against students and teachers alike must be severely dealt with.

The student thugs with a Boko Haram mindset responsible for the Rajarata hostage drama have, we repeat, committed a very serious criminal offence. Anyone who wants them forgiven and handled with kid gloves has no moral right to demand that the rule of law be restored and the prevalent culture of impunity done away with in the country.

Let the university authorities and the government be urged to do everything in their power to have the hostage takers arrested and prosecuted and reopen the Rajarata University without further delay. Keeping a university closed at least for a single day amounts to helping further the interests of disruptive political elements.

Aftermath Of Aluthgama Incident

| by A Special Correspondent 

( July 4, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Aluthgama incident has greatly decreased the popularity of BBS among Sinhalese people. It could be argued that BBS has some support from Singhalese people prior to Aluthgama incident and yet, this barbaric incident has angered millions of Sinhalese people in Sri Lanka and abroad. 

Aftermath of Aluthgama Incident by Maria Anderson

Anti-Muslim Violence: Not Even The Most Basic Investigations Launched

July 4, 2014

It has been revealed that not even the most basic investigations have been launched to determine the cause of the fires that resulted in extensive property damages in Southern Sri Lanka following the anti-Muslim violence that erupted in several coastal towns, further proving the Rajapaksa regime’s apathy towards delivering justice to victimized families of the brutality.

Upul Jayasuriya -BASL President

Reports have surfaced and they have been further concreted by a statement made by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) on the fact that the Government Analyst has still not been summoned to the areas affected by the brutal anti-Muslim clashes, to investigate the cause of the fire though it has been over two weeks since the incident.

Making matters worse, Colombo Telegraph has been told that the rapid reconstruction operations that were underway by the military are in fact a clever disguise deployed by the government to bury evidence in the absence of a proper investigation on what caused the fire that caused heavy damages to properties in the area.

The BASL meanwhile has filed an application requesting the Government Analyst testing on the incident and in response the Kaluthara Magistrate has ordered the suspension of debris clearance while ordering the Police to summon the GA to the affected areas. However, the suspension order has been limited to the Welipitiya area where three individuals died succumbing to fatal injuries inflicted by anti-Muslim rioters.

Furthermore, following doubts expressed by Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem on the authenticity of the post-mortem reports of two victims who had been shot to death – but whose cause of death in the reports had been noted as cut injuries as reported by Colombo Telegraph – the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) who submitted the reports have been summoned to Courts.

The BASL has also sought a court order to exhume the bodies of the victims but the ruling on the order is to be delivered only following the statement obtained by the JMO that has been scheduled for tomorrow.