Asia and Ebola: How big is the threat?

By Graham Land Aug 14, 2014

Despite some reports, the latest Ebola outbreak has not gone global. It has so far claimed over 1,000 lives, including the first European death, a Spanish priest who succumbed in Madrid just five days after leaving Liberia for treatment. But this statistic may be misleading. Read beyond the headlines and you’ll find that the 75-year-old Missionary Miguel Pajares contracted the disease while treating patients in Liberia as part of a Catholic humanitarian group — a risky albeit noble endeavor. Furthermore, panic surrounding two possible Ebola cases in Hong Kong proved to be unjustified. All contractions of the virus in this latest outbreak (at present 1,848) have taken place in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, yet if you’re an African with stomach flu in Asia these days, you might end up quarantined.

As of yet there are no approved treatments specific to the Ebola virus. Because of the destructive nature of the disease, however, unapproved medicines are sometimes used. Unfortunately, the makers of the experimental Ebola treatment drug ZMapp have just announced that after shipping doses to an unnamed West African nation, their supplies are now exhausted. While Africa is desperate for a cure, there are moral implications about wealthy pharmaceutical companies using poor developing nations as living laboratories for drug development. These considerations cannot be ignored, nor should cutting edge treatment be exclusive to citizens of Western countries, as was claimed by Liberian health officials last week.

Ebola virus particles. Pic: NIAID

On the other hand, Liberia has praised China for donating supplies, including protective equipment, to enable health workers to serve the public with less fear of being infected. Liberia’s president credited China in a tour of her country’s hospitals.

From EuroAsia News:

As you can see, I have with me Chinese ambassador [Zhou Yuxiao] whose government has contributed a huge consignment of protective equipment for you to resume work.

—Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

According to the WHO, effective prevention is the frontline against Ebola:

Ebola outbreaks can be contained using available interventions like early detection and isolation, contact tracing and monitoring, and adherence to rigorous procedures of infection control. However, a specific treatment or vaccine would be a potent asset to counter the virus.

Now that ZMapp supplies are dry, we can only hope that the US-based producers of the drug, Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc., can soon manufacture more. In the meantime, preventative measures, realistic reporting abroad and level-headedness are all anyone can do.

From a press statement by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on Tuesday, August 12:

We need to avoid panic and fear. Ebola can be prevented. With resources, knowledge, early action and will, people can survive the disease. Ebola has been successfully brought under control elsewhere and we can do it here too.

(source: AFP/de)

Actions such as stepping up security at Taiwan airports and education on the disease are reasonable responses to the epidemic. Hysteria linking Ebola to immigration and xenophobic politics, as members of the American right wing have done, is not a reasonable response.

Ebola treatment and isolation center in Sierra Leone. P

Mangala to testify before Pillay's panel?

Wednesday, 13 August 2014 

UNP leadership council member Mangala Samaraweera said that he could come forward to testify before the international panel appointed by Navi Pillay. MP Samaraweera was speaking today (August 13) at a media briefing at the UNP headquarters - Sirikotha.

Noting that he possesses a wealth of information of the LTTE's funds, information which he obtained while functioning as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, MP Samaraweera said that after discussing at length with party leaders, he could come forward to testify before the panel.

Speaking on the much debated gold of the LTTE, MP Samaraweera said, "Recently I met former Army commander Sarath Fonseka who said that he handed over 220kgs of gold to the police with his own hands, during the war. No one even talks of it now. Those are resources of the country ... of the people ... Every cent of these money should be taken back for the development of the country ...

"Talking at length of alleged human rights violations, the MP said that a mere soldier can not say 'no' to orders he receives from above and that if such violations actually took place during the war, bigwigs who passed the orders to the army should be the ones responsible and not the military.

The MP also said that the UNP will never allow the military to be betrayed.'I think we could have ascertained whether the UN probe was actually an impartial one or not if we testified over the massive destruction of the LTTE and provided them our information, 'he further said. 

யாழ். மாவட்டத்திலுள்ள வீடுகள் தொடர்பில் விவரங்கள் சேகரிப்பு 

12 ஆகஸ்ட்டு 2014, செவ்வாய்
யாழ்.மாவட்டத்தில் வீடுகள் தொடர்பான விவரங்கள் மாவட்ட செயலகத்தால் பிரதேச செயலகங்கள் ஊடாக அவசர அவசரமாக கடந்த வார இறுதியில் திரட்டப்பட்டுள்ளன. 

எது வித காரணங்களும் தெரிவிக்கப்படாமல் மேற்படி விவரங்கள் மாவட்டச் செயலகத்தால் திரட்டப்பட்டுள்ளன.

யாழ்.மாவட்டத்தில் சொந்த வீடுகளில் வசிப்பவர்கள், உரிமையாளர்கள் இல்லாத வீடுகள், வாடகை வீடுகள், வீடில்லாதவர்கள் போன்ற விவரங்களே யாழ்.மாவட்ட செயலகத்தால் கடந்த வார இறுதியில் அவசர அவசரமாக திரட்டப்பட்டுள்ளது.

குறித்த விவரங்களை உடனடியாக வழங்கு மாறு சகல பிரதேச செயலாளர்களுக்கும் யாழ்.மாவட்டச் செயலகத்தால் கோரிக்கை விடுக்கப்பட்டு அதற்கமைய விவரங்கள் திரட்டப்பட்டுள்ளன. 

மேற்படி விவரங்கள் என்ன நோக்கத்துக்காக திரட்டப்பட்டுள்ளன என்பது தொடர்பில் எதுவும் தெரிவிக்கப்படவில்லை.

இதேவேளை, ஆட்சியுரிமை சட்டத்தின் படி ஓர் இடத்தில் ஒருவர் 10 வருடங்களுக்கு மேலாக தங்கியிருக்கும் பட்சத்தில், அந்த இடத்தின் உரித்து உரிமையாளர்களிடமிருந்து பறிபோய்விடும் என்ற விடயத்தில் திருத்தம் கொண்டு வரநடவடிக்கை எடுக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. இதற்கமைய காணிகளை வீடுகளை இழந்தவர்கள் புதிய சட்டத்தின் மூலம் தமது வீடுகள் காணிகளை வழக்குத் தாக்கல் செய்து பெற்றுக் கொள்ள முடியும். 

இந்தச் சட்டமூலம் கொண்டு வரப்படவுள்ள நிலையிலேயே, யாழ். மாவட்டச் செயலகத்தால் இங்குள்ள வீடுகள் தொடர்பான விவரங்கள் திரட்டப்பட்டுள்ளன.

Coup d’état In Sri Lanka?

By Muhammed Fazl -August 13, 2014 

Muhammed Fazl

Not in this isle of ours and not in our lifetime, at least as per our cowardice upbringing. We have seen it all… the levels of corruption, winning wars at great human costs, abuse of the judiciary/law enforcement institutions, state sponsored killings & disappearances and the not-so-suited-for-times constitution being exploited among others. And every government in power has been complicit or directly involved since the time of independence.

Where we stand today as a nation, questions about the definition or the importance of ‘Independence’ needs to be raised. A day is being celebrated every year with military parades (as if the independence was gained militarily) and by masquerading the false sense of nationalism and pride. To begin with, do we really have reasons to celebrate? Are we really free from ‘slavery’? Or the developments in Britain at that time or their construction of roads and infrastructure in Ceylon were not suitable for the Sinhala majority who were content with their indigenous ‘buffalo cart’ mentality? Or was it really an independence in its sense or did the reign just change hands from the ‘white man’ to end up in the hands of a murderous and a thieving clan? And the lesser mortals we are, are we not enslaved from expressing our views freely or from standing up for what is right in a country where the ruling elite boasts of ‘independence’? 

Bitter it may sound, had it still been a British colony, this country would have made great strides in development, rule of law and human values. Dying traditions and cultural practices that were copied from different communities are being revived desperately to maintain a hollow sense of nationalism, and for the sake of wooing the ignorant voter belonging to the majority community in times of elections. Even the Buddhist philosophy has become just a ritual and a fashionable one at that. It has also become a common practice for politicians and their corrupt henchmen/businessmen to use equally conniving Buddhist monks to showcase their ‘piety’ to the public through public media and on political platforms. 

In a country where Buddhism is ‘considered very sacred’ to its adherents, even though only a few actually practices its teachings, politician’s exploitation of racism and the weaknesses of the ignorant majority for political gains does not seem to bring about just rulers either. But the educated segment of the society and the future generation seems to be paying the ultimate price for blind decisions of the villager/ignorant voter and also for reasons of sheer numbers. And that too as if the misled lot benefits from their stupidity.

Read More

Indian housing scheme in Trincomalee ignores uprooted Champoor Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 August 2014, 14:08 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military in Trincomalee has blocked the representatives of uprooted Eezham Tamils from Champoor from presenting their appeal in person to the Indian High Commissioner Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha, who visited Moothoor East last Friday to lay the foundation stone for the housing scheme for the war affected people from the three villages of Koonith-theevu, Navaratnapuram and Choodaik-kudaa. The uprooted Tamils, still living in four so-called welfare camps at Paddith-thidal, Ma’nat-cheanai, Ki’liveddi and Kaddai-pa’richchaan, who were blocked from the handing over their appeal have sent a letter to the Indian High Commissioner detailing their suffering for the past 9 years. 

The 825 families from Champoor East and Champoor West GS divisions have been completely neglected by the occupying Sri Lankan State. 

“You would have noticed out lands in abandoned state on your way to Koonith-theevu. Our lands have been seized from us under the pretext of building a coal power plant. But, there is no connection between the seized lands and the coal power plant. In fact, our lands have been seized for the purpose of transforming our ancient village into a Sri Lankan Navy cantonment. Please exert pressure on the Sri Lankan Government to release our village back to us with our houses, temples and schools. Also be kind to allocate houses for us under the Indian Housing Scheme,” the letter states. 

The inauguration of the project comes two years after it was initially announced. 

1,000 houses were to be constructed for the war affected people in Trincomalee district according to the initial announcement. But, this number has been increased to 1,500, informed sources said. 

In the meantime, the beneficiaries of the houses complain that the allocation of money for each house was at 550,000 rupees when the scheme was initially announced. Now the prices for the construction material have gone up and a proper housing would be difficult to achieve under the previous allocation, they say.

2 Tamil women injured in clashes with police in Batticaloa

Armed soldiers at scene after being drafted in to assist police during clashes with locals in Batticaloa. Photograph Tamilwin.

13 August 2014
Two Tamil woman have suffered injuries after an incident involving clashes with Sri Lankan police in Kaanjiranguda Panaiyaruppan, Batticaloa on Tuesday night.

The two women, Valliyamma, aged 52 and 24 year old Sarojini Arumguam have been admitted to Batticaloa Teaching Hospital with injuries, reports Batti News.

The two women suffered gunshot injuries to their abdomen and legs, reported TamilNet,citing medical sources at the hospital. 
According to police sources Kokodichalai police officers came under attack when conducting a raid on an illicit alcohol brewery ring. Locals protested, setting the police vehicle alight, after officers attempted to arrest a female suspect, reports Colombo Page.

The Sri Lankan army and Special Task Force were also present at the incident assisting the officers, said the police spokesperson.  Female police officers were reportedly drafted in to help with the arrest.

Two officers, Weerasingha (60217) Weerasinghe (43029), were injured and also admitted to Batticaloa Teaching Hospital, reports Batti News.

Two suspects, who remain unidentified, have been taken into custody, reports Daily Mirror.

Civil society activists slam MR regime

August 13, 2014  

• Civil society recalls President’s days as disappearances campaigner
• Activists reject monks’ version of events at Centre for Society and Religion
• Nimalka wants President to stop sending proxies, talk to civil society one-to-one
• Something missing in regime’s DNA to deliver reconciliation: Paikiasothy

By Dharisha Bastians
Leading civil society activists yesterday slammed the Government’s use of monk-led mobs to disrupt their lawful meetings and accused President Mahinda Rajapaksa of having forgotten his own civil society roots and heady days as a disappearances campaigner in 1989.

අවනිතිය රජයන ශ්‍රි ලංකාවේ නීතිය ගැන කථා කිරීම විහිළුවක්

2014/08/12 

අදහස් ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමේ නිදහස, සාමකාමීව රැස්විමේ නිදහස සහ සමාගමයේ නිදහසට ඇති අයිතිවාසිකම් වනාහි ලංකාවේ ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව මගින් සහතික කොට ඇති මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් වේ.ලංකාවේ රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධානයහි ක්‍රයාකාරකම් අවහිර කරන ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් වත්මන් පාලන තන්ත්‍රය විසින් ක්‍රියාත්මක කරගෙන යයි. ඊනියා සිවිල් සමාජ සංවිධානයන්’ යොදා ගනිමින් රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධානයන් විසින් නිත්‍යනුකූලව කරගෙන යන කටයුතුවලට බාධා කොට ඒවා කඩාකප්පල් කරන විට නීතිය රැකීමට පිහිටුවා ඇති අයාතන නිහඬ පිළිවෙතක් අනුගමනය කිරීමය.
Civil Society Activists Slam MR Regime by Thavam

SL indeed a Rajapakse miracle in the making ! 2 kilos of heroin of 11 kilos haul, sold while in police custody

(Lanka-e-News- 13.Aug.2014, 4.30PM) Sri Lanka is indeed a Rajapakse miracle in the making ! Believe it or not , 2 kilos of the total heroin haul of 11 kilos that was taken into custody by the Borella police on July 15 th , had been sold to a heroin dealer by the police itself . After this was trapped red handed , in order to save the police higher ups , two subordinate police officers were put forward as pawns , produced in court , and were bailed out.

It is learnt that infamously famous senior DIG Anura Senanayake is at the bottom of this heroin deal conspiracy, according to reports reaching Lanka e news inside information division. Though 11 kilos of heroin were taken into custody at Nagahawatte , Wanathamulla on July 15 th , only 9 kilos of the haul were declared . .That is two kilos have been sold under the counter. Along with the heroin , a super luxury Toyota Allion car No. M P K C 4930 too was taken into custody.

The OIC of Borella police IP Priyadahrshana and his group carried out a huge publicity campaign via the media about this detection. After giving publicity to the 9 kilos of the 11kilos heroin haul, as court production the Borella police had recorded 9 kilos heroin and the Allion car. 

They were under the custody of the Police reserve OIC .
On the 10 th evening , that is , day before yesterday , it was Dhanasiri (51791) who acted as the Borella police reserve OIC. IP Priyadharshana , the OIC had arrived on this day and taken the Allion car in the custody of reserve officer Dhanasiri , and left the police station in it along with Ashoka PC 85894, Nilanga PC 71713,Suhada Arachci PC 10183. The car was driven by Dimuthu PC 81521.

The two kilos of heroin out of the 11 kilos haul were taken into the possession of the OIC Priyadharshana IP himself before leaving the station. He had then got in another vehicle that arrived at a hotel in Mt. Lavinia leaving the police constables who were taking liquor, and headed for Negombo after instructing the drinking constables to come to Negombo to pick him up. 

Priyadharshana had told the group to come to Negombo with the vehicle to fetch him in order that he can return after he has sold the heroin to a dealer and collected cash.

The police officers who were heavily drunk by that time had gone to Negombo ,picked up their OIC and while returning , unfortunately for them their vehicle had met with an accident in front of the Magazine prison within eyeshot distance of Borella police.

Following this accident, the police group in the vehicle who knew that the whole inside story of their illegal actions will come to light , has arranged for the production of Dhanasiri who gave permission to take the vehicle out and the driver of the vehicle Dimuthu in court on the 11 th .

Interestingly , the senior DIG Anura Senanayake who is behind these heroin businesses is a close crony of kudu Duminda . He had spoken to the judge ,( one of the many fudging judges of this regime ), and the culprits were enlarged on bail. Subsequently they were interdicted. 

The raging lawlessness and injustice in the country can be gauged from the fact that the court that remanded for two long weeks ,four Muslim youths who sent innocuous sms messages, deemed it right to release the culprit police officers (mind you law enforcing officers at that !) involved in an accident following sale of heroin that was in the custody of the police.

It is significant to note , owing to these brazen and outrageous involvement of police officers and politicos in heroin businesses , and the impunity enjoyed by them under this regime , the UNP made a request in Parliament recently to conduct an audit investigation into the heroin hauls taken into custody by the police and the Customs on various occasions, as those heroin quantities are not duly in the custody of the courts or the police .

The Genocidal Human Catastrophe In Gaza And The Barefaced Hypocrisy Of The Rajapaksa Regime

By Surendra Ajit Rupasinghe -August 13, 2014

Surendra Ajit Rupasinghe

The stand taken on the recent genocidal catastrophe in Gaza by the External Affairs Ministry of the Rajapakse Regime is revealing in its barefaced hypocrisy. There is no reference to the cause of national liberation and self-determination of the Palestinian nation. There is no outright condemnation of the carpet bombing, including civilian and refugee populations, and the ground invasion by the occupying forces of the Zionist-Fascist State of Israel, which have caused immense human dislocation and suffering, and catastrophic destruction of social infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, power stations and water supply.

There is no condemnation of the role of US imperialism which has backed up the Zionist State to the tune of 130 billion, and which functions as the frontline outpost of imperialism in the Middle-East. There is no mention of the criminal complicity and collaboration of the feudal-comprador Saudi Arabian State and the Egyptian military junta in this history of genocidal occupation. This recent catastrophe follows over six decades of the most barbaric war of invasion, aggression and genocidal occupation of the Palestinian Homeland by Israel, backed by its imperialist masters.Read More

On Election Gimmicks And The Politics Of Social Choice Over Policy Less Policies

By Rushdy Nizar - August 13, 2014

Rushdy Nizar

In the Constitution of Sri Lanka, the accountability of policy construction rests exclusively with the executive office, using other divisions among the central, regional/provincial and local governments as in any other democratic country. Thus, constructive policy making is imperative as much as its implementation. Hence, who initiates the process of policy formulation? In theory, a voted administration has a strategy/agenda on the foundation of which it is elected to power. The governing party and its patronage should in principle make decisions on priorities stated in the manifesto.

Public policies for all intents and purposes demonstrate the objectives of the government or administration. In the absence of a policy or a strategy there can be no governance. To govern, it is essential to have a set of guiding principle. Policies facilitate the common people to measure the accomplishments of the government. Provided there is a public policy which can be assessed critically and that the regime can be toppled for not executing its policies.Read More

Book Review: Sri Lanka - Genocide 

& Amp; Amp;  War Crimes

An Invaluable Reference Book

| By Prof. V. Suryanarayan

Ramu Manivannan, Ed., Sri Lanka - Hiding the Elephant: Documenting Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity (Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Madras, Chepauk, Chennai - 600 005), pp. 976, Price Rs. 2000 / -

Invaluable Reference Book

(August 13, 2014, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian)  In 1948, soon After Independence, The Government of India A Commission Appointed Under The Chairmanship of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan to enquire into the prevalent higher education system and to make recommendations so that the Indian Universities could face the challenges of the post-independence era. 

Book Review Sri Lanka - Genocide by Thavam

How the Rajapaksa Regime Gets Away with Murder

By Trevor Grant

With a foreword by Geoffrey Robertson QC

Author Trevor Grant in conversation with Julian Burnside AO, QC, and official launch of Sri Lanka's Secrets,
14 August at Readings Bookshop, Carlton, 6 for 6.30pm

As the civil war in Sri Lanka drew to its bloody end in 2009 the government of this island nation removed its protection from UN officials and employees, who, along with other international observers, were forced to leave the conflict zone. President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his inner circle wanted, it seemed, a war without witness.

The end result was the deliberate slaughter of an estimated 70,000 innocent civilians. However, many survivors, and some who died, were able to capture on camera the horrifying conclusion to the war and the cruel deprivations of the internment camps that followed. Today, through their images and testimony, Rajapaksa stands accused of war crimes.

In Sri Lanka’s Secrets experienced journalist Trevor Grant presents the shocking story of the final days of this war, alongside the photographs and eye-witness accounts of many Tamils, including Maravan, a social worker who fled to Australia by boat after being tortured by soldiers seeking his folio of photographs.

Grant also details the continuing torture and abuse of Tamils in Sri Lanka, and some national governments’ ongoing support for a regime that has abandoned any pretense of democracy. Foremost among these enthusiastic supporters has been the Government of Australia, cynically preoccupied with ‘stopping the boats’ fleeing Sri Lankan state terror. At any cost.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Trevor Grant has worked as a journalist for more than 40 years, as a reporter and specialist feature writer for The Age and News Ltd in Melbourne, mostly in the sports arena. He now works as a broadcaster and writer on activist issues in Australia, and as an advocate for refugees through the Tamil Refugee Council and Friends of Refugees.

25 govt. politicians to call on Mahanayake 

Theras today!

 Wednesday, 13 August 2014 

A group of government politicians is due to call on the Mahanayake Theras of the Asgiriya and Malwatte Chapters in Kandy today (13) to inform them about the campaign by Bodu Bala Sena that is being sponsored by the defence secretary, to insult government MPs and ministers, say internal sources of the government.

It is significant that this group is being organized by economic development minister Basil 

Rajapaksa, the brother of the president.

This group representing every district will include SLFP general secretary Maithirpala Sirisena, ministers Nimal Siripala de Silva, Janaka Tennakoon, Piyasena Gamage, Salinda Dissanayake and MP Vidura Wickremanayake, and they will make representations to the Mahanayake Theras against the activities of BBS which is creating internal divisions in the government by levelling baseless allegations against its ministers.

Hate Speech Star BBS Gnanasara In Action

August 13, 2014 |

Hate speech star Galagoda Atte Gnanasara, the Bodu Bala Sena Secretary in action;

Despite Blatant Lies By The Regime; Why People Still Choose To Elect Them?

The responsibility and duty of the Opposition is to educate and inform the voting public with vigor and strength. People don’t like to see softness in their leaders. That is why they elected JR Jayewardene with such a huge majority. They saw in him strength and vitality. Especially when confronted by a vigorous leader like the present President, empty rhetoric do not vibe.

By Vishwamithra1984 -August 13, 2014 |

“The true test of civilization is not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops – no, but the kind of man the country turns out.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, philosopher and poet

Exaggerations of the truth are quite common in any human endeavor. When exaggerations are driven into fully-blown falsehoods, they tend to master the individual or society that willingly accepts the fallacy of falsehood as truth. It is a criminal act and when the casualty and society accept the criminal act in any way, shape or form, society’s will to survive diminishes and when it reaches a critical mass, it explodes, claiming everyone around as victims of the willing. By virtue of his or her silence and omnipotence, the victim becomes a helpless accomplice of the crime thereby facilitating the commission of falsehood and lies and even rape, larceny and murder. The vicious circle of human folly continues to turn, capturing every willing and unwilling observer into this web of sin. Society, as a result becomes a prisoner of itself, consuming its vital resources to nurture and nourish itself. The most tragic aspect of this process is that it is only the historians of a later day who would see the beginning, the midpoint and the end of the whole story. Read More

Mob storms meeting of relatives of the disappeared - pt 1

13/08/2014

This is part one of a three part series on the incidents surrounding the storming of a meeting in Colombo by a mob of Government supporters last Tuesday. Here we provide a narrative of events and some photos and footage from the scene (you can read more in this piece in Groundviews). In part two we will go on to analyse these events, and in part three we will talk about the aftermath of the event and reactions from both sides, including an analysis of the inaccurate and libelous statements made by by Ven. Angulugalle Siri Jinananda Thera, one of the ringleaders of the mob, on the following day.

On Monday 4th August, families of disappeared persons from the North of Sri Lanka met to share their stories of loss with civil society groups and members of the diplomatic community. The private meeting was organised by Families of the Disappeared (FoD), an organisation which campaigns for the rights of disappeared Sri Lankans. FoD had arranged for 25 families representing 5 districts in the Tamil-populated North of the country to gather and speak of their experiences in a ‘listening and sharing’ session at the Centre for Society and Religion (CSR) in Maradana, Colombo. The event was to be followed by an exchange between mothers, from both the North and South, who have experienced similar losses.

But at around 3.15pm, during the delivery of a moving testimony by one of the grieving mothers in attendance, a mob of between 20-40 persons led by a group of men in Buddhist monk robes stormed the building where the session was taking place and attempted to break into the meeting room. The organisers and other civil society activists in attendance rushed to block their path, successfully preventing the mob from entering the room.

 

Among the various abusive, untrue, and slanderous allegations made by the mob, they accused those present of being family members of Mahaveer (LTTE martyrs), and the human rights activists and clergymen organising the event of conspiring to defame the Sri Lankan government and betraying the country. They further claimed that families in attendance had been invited there by foreign NGOs to give evidence against the Government in exchange for payment. We go on to analyse these claims in part three. In an apparent attempt at intimidation, members of the mob also took photos and video footage of the meeting, whilst women and children in attendance cowered, fearing for their immediate safety and the risk of reprisal upon their return home.

Despite arriving promptly, local police failed to disperse the mob for over 90 minutes. Through the course of the mediation, it became apparent the police had arrived at least in part due to a complaint made by Ven. Angulugalle Siri Jinananda Thera of the Dead and Missing Persons Parents Front (DMPPF) that a meeting ‘against the country’ was taking place. Despite the appeals of the meeting’s organisers and participants, they made no effort to remove or arrest members of the mob – announcing simply that the ‘peace had been disrupted’ and that they could not guarantee the security of any persons inside the hall.

 

After an announcement by police that the meeting was to be closed, some members of the mob claimed that they had only wanted to participate and share their own experiences as part of the session. The organisers maintained that no one could join the meeting forcibly, but stated that they would be willing to meet and discuss the possibility of future collaboration at a mutually convenient date and place.

Even once the protestors had eventually been ushered out of the hall by police, they remained outside the CSR building until approx. 5.00pm, where they continued to call for the arrest of the meeting’s attendees and clashed with other civil society activists as they arrived at the scene. Ven. Jinananda was then allowed by the police to give an interview to the mainstream media in which he called for Brito Fernando and fellow human rights activist Ms. Nimalka Fernando to be “hung until death legally”. Upon the insistence of the police, five members of FoD’s organising committee then agreed to make their way to the Maradana police station, but on their condition that they would do so to file their own complaint about the incident, rather than to respond to complaints made by DMPFF.

Meanwhile, many of the diplomats present at the event (including personnel from the British, German, French, U.S, Swiss and EU missions) began to express to police their fears for the safety of the participants inside. Whilst several diplomats summoned their security details and were escorted from the building, others, such as Acting Deputy Chief of the US Mission Mike Honigstein, took the right and commendable decision to stay and thus afford protection to those not as well as protected as he.

At the police station, verbal clashes between the mob and FoD organisers continued, with members of the mob claiming to have disrupted the private session on the basis that its organisers were in Colombo to collect evidence against the Government as part of the ongoing UN "OISL" Investigation into alleged serious human rights violation committed between 2002-2011. As we discuss in part three this is not the case, but it is a tragic indictment of the current situation in Sri Lanka that the very suggestion of interacting with a UN human rights mechanism should cause such a response.

Whilst thankfully no one was hurt this episode also appears to be indicative of the growing pattern of intimidation and silencing of human rights activists and victims in Sri Lanka (the recent upswing in which our Campaigns Director has written about at length here) by both the state and proxy groups. These form part of a strategy which is making it impossible for reconciliation to occur in Sri Lanka. We will examine the various way in which this latest incident seems to fit that pattern in part two of this blog post.