Palestinians returning home find Israeli troops left faeces and venomous graffiti

Ahmed Owedat also found soldiers had thrown his TVs, fridge, and computers from upstairs windows and slashed furniture

Some of the graffiti Ahmed Owedat found on returning to his home in the town of Burij. Photograph: Harriet Sherwood

Harriet Sherwood in Burij-

Thursday 7 August 2014 

When Ahmed Owedat returned to his home 18 days after Israeli soldiers took it over in the middle of the night, he was greeted with an overpowering stench.

He picked through the wreckage of his possessions thrown from upstairs windows to find that the departing troops had left a number of messages. One came from piles of faeces on his tiled floors and in wastepaper baskets, and a plastic bottle filled with urine.

If that was not clear enough, the words "Fuck Hamas" had been carved into a concrete wall in the staircase. "Burn Gaza down" and "Good Arab = dead Arab" were engraved on a coffee table. The star of David was drawn in blue in a bedroom.

"I have scrubbed the floors three times today and three times yesterday," said Owedat, 52, as he surveyed the damage, which included four televisions, a fridge, a clock and several computers tossed out of windows, shredded curtains and slashed soft furnishings.

A handful of plastic chairs had their seats ripped open, through which the occupying soldiers defecated, he said. Gaping holes had been blown in four ground-floor external walls, and there was damage from shelling to the top floor. There, in the living room, diagrams had been drawn on the walls, showing buildings and palm trees in the village, with figures that Owedat thought represented their distance from the border.

"I have no money to fix this," he said, claiming that his life savings of $10,000 (£6,000) were missing from his apartment. But at least it could be repaired, he acknowledged, gesturing through the broken glass at a wasteland stretching towards the Israel-Gaza border 3km away. "Every house between here and there has been destroyed."

His family of 13 fled their home after seeing troops and tanks advancing at 1am on 20 July, two days into the Israeli ground invasion. Several times, during the short-lived ceasefires in the following two weeks, they attempted to return only to find Israeli troops in their home instructing them to keep away.

The Israel Defence Forces did not respond to a request for comment.

Half an hour's drive north, a similar picture was found at Beit Hanoun girls' school, taken over by the IDF following the ground operation. Broken glass and rubble littered the floors and stairs. Tables and desks were covered in the abandoned detritus of an occupying army: hardened bread rolls, empty tins of hummus, desiccated olives, cans of energy drinks, bullet casings. Flies buzzed around the rotting food.

Here too, said the school's caretaker, Fayez, who didn't want to give his full name, soldiers had defecated in bins and cardboard boxes, and urinated in water bottles. "You will be fucked here" and "Don't forget it's time for you to die" were chalked in English on blackboards.

Here, Hamas had struck back. After the troops pulled out, counter-graffiti was sprayed on the walls, referring to Hamas's militant wing, Qassam brigades. "Qassam's army will crush you – dogs" and "Israel will be defeated".

The 1,250 pupils at the school will, it is hoped, never see either set of venomous messages. Workers began the marathon cleanup operation this week but, said Fayez, "it will take at least a month to fix". The academic year is due to begin in a little over two weeks.

In Gaza, the War Is Far From Over

As strikes resume, the battered Palestinians of the Strip don’t want Hamas to give up the fight.

• BY DAVID KENNER-AUGUST 8, 2014

GAZA CITY — Hopes that the Gaza war was on its way to a resolution had a cruel collision with reality at 8 a.m. this morning. At the very moment a 72-hour cease-fire expired, a barrage of rockets arced out of Gaza toward southern Israel. Most of them slammed down into empty fields; one was intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome defense system. The Israeli retaliation, meanwhile, resulted in the death of a child and the injury of more than a dozen others throughout the day.

From the outside looking in, this turn of events seems nonsensical. Why can't the two sides reach a compromise? Why wouldn't Hamas agree to an extension of the cease-fire, when its civilians and infrastructure are bearing the lion's share of the damage? 

And then you come to Gaza. The horror stories seek you out: The man living in a crowded United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) refugee camp who hasn't had the money to repair his house since it was damaged in the 2012 war; the 7-year-old girl who interrupts an interview to interject that her father has been killed; the exhausted general manager of Shifa Hospital, who spoke mournfully about how his staff was performing surgeries in waiting rooms because all of the operating rooms were full.

These people all said that this war was easily the worst of the three conflicts with Israel since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007. And all of them maintained that Hamas should continue striking Israel until its demands are met.

For these Gazans, the roots of their support for Hamas lie in the fact that they simply have so little left to lose. Sitting in his office in Gaza City, Raji Sourani, the director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, ticks off the statistics showing how impoverished this tiny territory was even before the war: 50 percent unemployment, 80 percent of households below the poverty line, and 90 percent dependence on international organizations that provide food and aid.

"We have become a nation of beggars. That's not us -- we are a people with dignity and with pride," he said. "If you want to have isolation from the outside world, bombing, [and] destruction ... that means you want to create extremism. Chapeau [respect] for Hamas that we don't have either [the Islamic State] or al Qaeda. It's a miracle."

In Cairo, Jerusalem, and even Ramallah, the idea that this war could fatally weaken Hamas appears to be taken seriously. Inside of Gaza, Sourani and others interviewed predicted that it would only make the Palestinian Islamist movement stronger.

"They are strong now, because people really appreciate them," Sourani said. "I think for the last four or five years, Hamas is the uncontested political power in the occupied territories.... In Gaza, they are monopolizing the political scene."

The fighters, too, believe they have the wind at their back.

Abu Ziad, a man in his 30s with a bushy, black beard typical of hard-line Salafists, shifts his cellphone between his hands mechanically as he speaks. He explains that the organization he represents, the Mujahideen Brigades, a small hard-line faction allied with Hamas, did not speak with foreigners for a long time, but recently decided to change its policy in order to explain their cause to the world. The group, he said pointedly, was one of the four "resistance factions" currently waging war against Israel, along with Hamas's al-Qassam Brigades, Islamic Jihad, and the Nasser Salaheddin Brigades -- a list that pointedly excluded Fatah's military faction.

The Palestinian armed factions, Abu Ziad said, were currently "living through a historical change." They were becoming more deadly: Smuggling more weapons into Gaza, constructing more tunnels under enemy lines, and firing bigger rockets further into Israel than ever before.

"The resistance doesn't have anything to lose," he said. "We will not raise the white flag. We will continue until we liberate Gaza, and break the siege."

The world, simply put, looks different from Gaza. And for that reason, this war is far from over.

MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images

Resurgent Gaza conflict condemned by US and UN

SATURDAY 09 AUGUST 2014

Five Palestinians are killed in Gaza after more than 20 Israeli airstrikes as international efforts to agree an extended ceasefire are deadlocked.

The US and UN have condemned renewed violence in Gaza as negotiators struggle to reach agreement on the cessation of violence following a three-day ceasefire.
Resurgent Gaza Conflict Condemned by US and UN by Thavam Ratna

U.S. seeks to safeguard progress in Burma

By Anne Gearan August 9 at 10:12 AM

NAYPYIDAW, Burma — The Obama administration claims the rapid shift away from military dictatorship in Burma as a rare foreign policy success, both for the advance of democratic principles and in the shadowy contest with China for influence and market share.

U.S. Seeks to Safeguard Progress in Burma by Thavam Ratna

Iraqi refugees 'facing genocide' to receive UK airdrop of aid

Philip Hammond follows US in sending relief for the 40,000 Yazidi Kurds surrounded by Islamists militants on Mount Sinjar

Pallets of bottled water are loaded on board a C17 transport plane for an airdrop to Iraqi refugees. Photograph: Sgt Vernon Young/US Air Force/EPA

Chris Johnston and agencies

Saturday 9 August 2014

Britain is seeking ways to rescue 40,000 displaced Iraqis trapped in a mountainous region by militant Islamist fighters amid fears of genocide.

Foreign secretary Philip Hammond said the first British humanitarian relief including drinking water and tents would be dropped "imminently" by RAF aircraft to members of the Yazidi religious minority in the Sinjar mountains in north-western Iraq.

The US has carried out a second airdrop of food and water on Saturday morning hours after launching fresh air strikes against fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis). The raids have pulled the US back into the Iraqi conflict for the first time since Barack Obama withdrew ground troops in 2011.

Yazidi children who fled the violence in Nineveh are taken to the relative safety of Sulaimaniya province in Kurdistan. Photograph: Reuters

But speaking after chairing a meeting of the government's Cobra committee, Hammond said such air drops were only a short-term solution.

"We can expect a continuing drumbeat of airdrop operations working in co-ordination with the US and potentially with others as well," he said. "More widely, we are looking at how to support this group of people and get them off that mountain, how we are going to facilitate their exit from what is a completely unacceptable situation."

Britain has ruled out military intervention at this stage. The foreign secretary said the government was deeply concerned by the humanitarian crisis and the "extraordinary cruelty" shown by Isis in areas it has seized control of in northern Iraq. But he added that it was for a new Iraqi government to lead the fight against Isis, which has declared a new caliphate in the area of Iraq it controls.

The British government has pledged £8m in humanitarian aid to Iraq. The first consignment of UK emergency aid has left RAF Brize Norton for Iraq.

Hammond also called on other countries to send aid, which would also send a political message that "the world was horrified" by the events.

The chief spokesman for the Pentagon, Rear Admiral John Kirby, said early on Saturday that the air strikes had been followed up by further relief drops. Three planes delivered 72 bundles of supplies for the refugees, including more than 28,000 meals and thousands of litres of water.

It has been reported that children among the stranded population, who face slaughter by the encircling jihadists, were beginning to die of thirst on the bare, parched mountainside. Isis has captured hundreds of women from the Yazidi religious minority, according to an Iraqi official, while thousands of other civilians fled in fear.

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, said the extremists' "campaign of terror against the innocent, including the Yazidi and Christian minorities, and its grotesque and targeted acts of violence bear all the warning signs and hallmarks of genocide. For anyone who needed a wake-up call, this is it."

The US is putting pressure on Iraqi leaders to form a unity government capable of dealing with Isis, which has recently captured further territory in northern Iraq and is threatening the Kurdish capital of Irbil.

US warplanes bombed Isis fighters outside Irbil on Friday, launching a second and third round later in the day. The first strikes were limited to the frontlines around the city to relieve intense pressure on US-backed Kurdish fighters, but the White House signalled it could expand its military commitment.

However, the Obama administration stressed that sending US combat troops back into the country was not an option.

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The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said it was caring for 4,000 Yazidi refugees who had managed to cross the border into Syria. It said the refugees, mostly women and children, were dehydrated, and had survived for up to six days by hiding in the mountains.

"Everything humanly possible must be done to prevent further tragedy from occurring on Mount Sinjar," said IRC's Iraq director, Suzanna Tkalec. "Whether coming overland or through airdrops, there needs to be a coordinated response to ensure aid reaches the 40,000 people stranded on the mountainside."

‘Sabaragamuwa’ student abducted by TID

THURSDAY, 07 AUGUST 2014 

A student of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Languages of the University of Sabaragamuwa was arrested by a group from the Terrorist Investigation Division while he was sitting for an examination on the 5th say reports. The parents of the student were kept in the dark regarding the arrest of the student for more than 24 hours.

When students in the University came to know that the student, Yogarajah Nirogen of Nedunkerni in Vavuniya was arrested by officers of TID who had come with personnel from Samanalawewa Police, they had inquired the whereabouts regarding their fellow student from the police station. The police had said, “You would not be able to see him again.”

Later, when students inquired from the University administration regarding the arrest they had responded by taking the identity cards of the students and threatening that their studentships would be suspended.

When students inquired from the OIC Balangoda Police he had said the student was handed over to TID and several more students would be arrested.

Later, students held a media conference after which the police had to inform the parents regarding the arrest.

The police spokesman too confirmed the arrest yesterday afternoon and students are to hold a protest campaign opposite the University today (7th).

Tamil student detained by anti-terror police at Sabaragamuwa University

Protest at Sabaragamuwa University after arrest of Tamil student by TID (BBC Tamil)

07 August 2014

A Tamil student was arrested at Sabaragamuwa University, in the island's south, by the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) on Tuesday, reports the Daily Mirror. 

Yoganathan Nirojan, a second-year student from Nedunkerni, Vavuniya, was arrested on alleged suspicion of involvement in terrorism, reported BBC Tamil.

His parents have filed a complaint at the Human Rights Commission, whilst students from the university protested against the arrest, calling for his release.

Following the end of the armed conflict, Nirojan underwent the government's 'rehabilitation' programme for those alleged to be associated with the LTTE. He was released in 2011 and joined Sabaragamuwa university.

Nirojan has been taken to Colombo for further investigations and will be produced before court, his mother, Mallikavathy Yoganathan told BBC Tamil.

Commenting on the arrest, Sri Lanka's police spokesperson Ajith Rohana said "a group is behind the recent incident at the university with the intention of causing resentment".

According to Rohana, the student arrested was identified as belonging to that group and has been arrested based on that information, following a TID investigation that allegedly found "suspicious information" on his mobile phone.

If his links with terrorism are proven, he will be taken to court, Rohana added. 

Earlier this month, a Tamil student was attacked and severely beaten by masked men. He was admitted to hospital with his injuries. See more here.

Meanwhile, posters appeared across the university campus warning Tamil and Muslim students to leave or be killed, accusing them of being members of the LTTE.

Listing the names of Tamil and Muslim students, one poster, written in broken Tamil, read: "Muslim, Tamil students do not study here, if you do, we will shoot and kill. Women - rape you and kill.. otherwise shoot and kill".

See more here. 

UN rights body seeks entry to Lanka despite Govt's refusal

Colombo  

August 7, 2014

The UNHRC panel to probe alleged human rights abuses during final stages of armed conflict in Sri Lanka will continue to seek access to the country despite its refusal to allow them into the nation. 

The Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) was empowered by the UNHRC resolution late March to carry out an independent investigation into alleged rights abuses during Sri Lanka's final stages of the war with the LTTE which ended in 2009. 

In the terms of reference for the probe showed on the OHCHR website, it says it will continue to seek to engage with the Government of Sri Lanka in accordance with the resolution. 

The High Commissioner for Human Rights will continue to request for the team conducting the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) to have access to the country to meet with government officials and others, as well as to have access to all relevant documentation. 

Sri Lanka has dubbed the resolution an intrusive step taken by the rights body and the appointment of the investigating panel as a breach of its sovereignty. 

The government has refused to cooperate with the investigation. 

The UN rights chief in June appointed three experts -- former Finland President Martti Ahtisaari, former High Court judge of New Zealand Silvia Cartwright and former President of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Asma Jahangir -- to play a supportive and advisory role. 

They will help independent verification throughout the investigation to establish the facts and circumstances of alleged violations, abuses and crimes by both parties. 

The OISL will conduct a desk review of existing documents and information, including government and civil society reports, collect and document victims testimonies and the accounts of survivors, witnesses and alleged perpetrators, the website says.

Sri Lanka’s Misery At Commonwealth Games 2014

By Helasingha Bandara -August 8, 2014 |

While other nations battle on the field of sports for national pride, the people representing our nation battle to secure a place on the list to go on a free holiday, a wily purpose.  A bronze medal in Weight Lifting in the recently concluded Glasgow Commonwealth games is enough evidence that our purpose, our attitude and our strategy in this regard are completely off track.

The Commonwealth games came to the beautiful city of Glasgow in Scotland. Both the opening and closing ceremonies were fun filled combined with Scottish humour, Glasgow friendliness and were much appreciated by all parties. Individual athletes, teams and countries were highlighted as victorious and many a tear of joy were shed. We the Sri Lankans, watched with great expectations but had to bear with disappointment after disappointment. One report said that the Sri Lanka contingent had 156 athletes. If that was correct, with the officials it could have been close to 200 people travelling that far on the money that the poor people of the country sweat to earn. The waste can be justified if our athletes compete at an acceptable standard despite not winning. It was quite the opposite. In the track and field events no one could reach even a final, why?

The reasons can be found in the only highlights of Sri Lanka participation at the 2014 games.

Highlight 1, riding on the motorway.

British media reported that some Sri Lankan athletes (cyclists) had gone on to a very busy motorway for a practice session and the police had to remove them. In fact at the opening ceremony, within the spectacle this incident was particularly ridiculed on the television screens across the UK and on millions of other screens all over Commonwealth.                   Read More

Packing of heroin done in DIG’s house; suspect allowed to escape from prison- anti narcotic bureau is now agent for heroin traffickers

(Lanka-e-News-07.Aug.2014, 11.30PM) Following the large quantity of heroin and the LTTE international heroin chain coming within the embrace of Medamulana Rajapakses after KP , an ex LTTE leader becoming a pet of the Rajapakse regime, the State anti narcotics bureau which is there to prevent and kill heroin business has transformed into a bureau that protects and promotes heroin business and fills the pockets of drug barons. It is with deep regret Lanka e News brings to you this report which exposes how the heroin dealers are being aided and abetted by police top brass in the ranks as high as DIGs enjoying the patronage of the rulers.

May we recall that recently container loads of heroin were detected by the Customs , and there are mounting allegations that powerful government politicos are involved in these businesses directly or indirectly , otherwise no person ,group or organization would dare to get down such large quantities of heroin so outrageously , having knowledge of the fact that even for possession of as small as 2 grams of heroin , the suspect is liable to death sentence. 

Can you beat this ! ‘Wanatthe Thilan ‘ alias Devakage Thusitha Chamara (29 years old) residing at Magazine road , Borella ,a closest crony of MP Duminda Silva who was taken into custody by the security division with one and half kilos of heroin on June 20 th had been carrying on his heroin packeting business within the house of DIG Indu Karunaratne. 

The DIG’s house is situated in Muthetuwagama ,Talangama on 5 th lane, in Colombo District. Although the culprit was arrested along with the heroin while he was within the aforementioned house of the DIG , the latter had still not even been interrogated or a statement of his recorded. 

On the 30 th of June , that is exactly ten days after he was arrested , Thilan escaped from custody with the tacit support of the police and prison authorities , further underlining the raging lawlessness in the country and weakness of law enforcement. (Read the Lanka e news report of 30 th June which gives details of how Wanaththe Thilan , a close crony of Duminda Silva escaped from prison custody http://142.4.27.83/Sinhala/news.php?id=24920)

According to reports reaching Lanka e news inside information division , it is narcotic bureau police constable (PC) Lasantha residing at Kalutara who had helped Thilan to escape . Lasantha is a most favorite lackey of IP Rangajeewa of the narcotics bureau who for ten years works in narcotic bureau.

After the discovery of this serious lapse of duty of Lasantha , the punishment meted out to him by the Director of the narcotics bureau SP Kamal Silva was merely stopping Lasantha from reporting for work.

Kamal Silva suppressed the information regarding the close links Lasantha had with Indu Karunaratne. In fact , we are made to understand even the IGP ought to have come to know about Indu Karunaratne’s involvement in this heroin menace only after reading this report.

Previously , Asela PC was the favorite crony of Rangajeewa . When Asela was trapped after it came to be known that he was having links with heroin dealers , he fled to Italy. Thereafter Lasantha took over the place of Asela for Rangajeewa. Even after these two involvements with heroin dealers , it is a most crucial question why Rangajeewa had not been questioned so far.

Instead of following this lawful action , what Rangajeewa did was arrest individuals who have no heroin links , make a huge din about it via the media , and through false news reports portray himself as a hero while he is truly a heroin villain. One good illustration of this is , when Rangajeewa’s lackey cum crony Lasantha allowed Thilan to escape , the mother and daughter of heroin dealer Wele Sudha against whom a case has already been filed after arrest , being taken into custody. Along with that a wide publicity was given in that connection.

It is worthy of note that Wele Sudha’s wife was in remand custody for over a year , case had also been filed and she was enlarged on bail . When she was taken into custody this time she did not have any heroin in her possession. Under the law , if any suspect is taken into custody sans heroin , the law requires that the suspect be freed. In the circumstances , the arrest of Wele Sudha ‘s wife and mother is just a ‘magic feat ’ accomplished by the media.

On the contrary , truly speaking , it is DIG Indu Karunaratne who should have been arrested in whose house panadol powder was being mixed while packing the heroin , as well as Lasantha PC or the jailors who allowed Thilan to escape.
Rangajeewa of the narcotics bureau and its director Kamal Silva are already under the thumb of heroin dealers . Their subsistence is on heroin business . The more heroin business flourishes the more they thrive.

It may seem incredible but the truth of the matter is , Rajapakses whose reputation has soared to high heavens as a regime most infamous locally and internationally for promoting and protecting heroin business and traffickers , have adopted their own strategies towards achieving their sinister goals. The Rajapakses have appointed the aforementioned scoundrels and unscrupulous officers at the high places to ensure that their own drug dealers are protected , while taking rival drug dealers into custody. These facts are further corroborated by the palatial residences owned by these officers of the narcotics bureau including Rangajeewa and the subordinate constables . Believe it or not , IP Rangajeewa owns a mansion valued at 

Rs.20 million , and four other houses.

Foreign legal experts: Ranil raises pertinent questions

08/08/2014 

[Grief: A Sri Lankan ethnic Tamil woman cries holding a portrait of her missing son; Photo: Daily Mail]
Speaking at the parliament on 7th August  UNP and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe raised  some pertinent questions related to the appoinment of a three Member Panel of Experts to advise and assist Presidential Commission into Disappearance and Missing Persons chaired by Maxwell Paranagama, the Island reported.

Sri Lanka government is to appoint 3 more experts, according to media reports.  Present panel consists of  Sir Desmond de Silva, QC, Sir Geoffrey Nice and Prof. D. Crane.

Questions raised by Mr. Wikremesinghe fellows as reported bythe Isand:

“This Panel has been appointed subsequent to Human Rights Council – twenty fifth sessions Resolution A/HRC/25/L1/Rev1 of 26 March 2014, which states: ‘to monitor the human rights situation in Sri Lanka and to continue to assess progress on relevant national processes.”  Under this resolution the appointment of the  panel is being commented in the media as a means of satisfying the requirements laid down in the above mentioned resolution.

“Therefore will the government make a statement to this House, the reasons for appointing the Panel? Will the government also inform this House: What was the process followed by the Government in selecting this panel? Which agency was responsible for negotiating with them? The basis for appointing these members?  Period of engagement? Whether they are paid, and if so how much? Where are the funds for the expenses for the panel, drawn from?”

“The Commissions of Inquiry Act clearly states that if the Commission has an issue they can seek the advice of public officials or the Attorney General, they cannot hire experts from outside to do their work. If they are incapable of completing the task, they should resign. Payments for experts are not authorized under the Act.”

Responding to Mr. Wikremesinghe Minister of External Affairs, Prof. G.L. Peiris has said that external advices were appointed because the Maxwell Paranagama commission requested legal help and the Attorney General do not have the expertises needed for the purpose of the Commission.
For the The Island  news report  click  here.

Where have all the young men gone?

All photos by the author. See full set of photos here.

Snippets from hearings of the Presidential Commission to investigate into complaints regarding missing persons

Sathurukondan, 09/09/1990

by Thyagi Ruwanpathirana 

- on 08/07/2014 

Q: Who is the missing person?

A: Father, mother, brother, grandmother, grandfather, younger sister, older sister and her three children. 

An eerie silence followed these words that was only broken by the panicking cameramen rushing to record the story about to unfold.
Where Have All the Young Men Gone by Thavam

Gnanasara begins work to protect Mahinda!

Friday, 08 August 2014 

Galagodaatte Gnanasara Thera of Bodu Bala Sena has started a project to sling mud at Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thera in order to appease the Rajapaksa regime which is afraid that Sobhitha Thera will contest the next presidential election as the common candidate or that he will support a common candidate of the opposition.

At a meeting of the BBS titled ‘Revival of the Sinhala monks against the anti-Buddhist operation’, its general secretary accused Sobhitha Thera of having given into alien forces.

He went on to say,

“By giving into western alien forces, Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thera is going to be the common candidate.

The patriotic monks will give leadership to a new programme to change this rotten political culture. If all communities are not united as a nation, the country’s fall into a dark abyss can never be prevented.

There are many local and foreign journalists who aid Muslim extremists.

If it is proved that BBS has obtained a single cent from any political party, everyone will resign and the organization will be disbanded tomorrow.

This government and its powerful persons have been unable to protect the Buddhists. We expected that from this government, but it has not been done.

From the president to the three armed forces and officials downwards, everyone is trapped in a grave deception. The so-called drama of mufti-religiousness as claimed by our leaders cannot be allowed. We should act along a national political agenda devoid of party politics.

Our politics is national politics. We need a good economy as well as good politics. There is talk of development, but there is no development in most sectors. Politicians are thieves and rascals who have no feeling at all for the country.”

Accordingly, in the very near future, or when the presidential election nears, the president and the BBS will reach a certain consensus (in a manner not second to minister Wimal Weerawansa’s drama), and sign a rogue agreement. That will be the beginning of the end of the politics of the Gnanasaras.

A blow-by-blow: the mob attack on families of disappeared

3.15pm:

08/08/2014 

On the 4th of August a private sharing of experiences session organized by civil society inside the Centre for Society and Religion [CSR] is disrupted by an organized gang led by what appeared to be a group of Buddhist monks. Sri Lankan law enforcement authorities are present on location approximately 10 minutes after the gang disrupted the meeting. It is possibly one of fastest response times by Sri Lankan police to a 119 emergency phone call. The police encounter a gang of over 20 persons including Buddhist monks shouting obscenities, taking pictures and intimidating the persons including women, small children, prominent civil society activists and foreign diplomats inside the sharing session. Even the foreign diplomats feel that they cannot leave the premises due to the police failing to provide guarantees for their safety and security. They call their own security personnel for their protection. The police fail to disperse the organized mob for over 90 minutes. The women and children who have missing or disappeared family members are crying they look at the gang in fear. Unsurprisingly and sadly rather than protecting the persons at the private meeting and arresting the gang on charges of trespassing the police close down the meeting stating that “peace has been disturbed” and that they “cannot guarantee the security of the persons” where the incident occurred.
A Blow-By-blow the Mob Attack on Families of Disappeared by Thavam