Lawyers Urge Government to Remove Unlawful Travel Ban to the North

04/11/2014 

The Government of Sri Lanka has introduced a travel ban requiring foreign passport holders travelling to the North to obtain prior permission from the Ministry of Defence . Application format requires the travellers to disclose, among others, the purpose of travel and the number of visits etc. Here is the response by the Lawyers Collective on the subject, after examination of the legal provisions.

Freedom of movement within the country is generally enjoyed by the citizens of the country under Article 14(1)(h) of the Constitution; However, Article 12(1) of the Constitution prohibits all arbitrary state actions irrespective of whether the affected individuals  are citizens or not. A series of Supreme Court decisions have clearly established that any restrictions on travel or freedom of movement must be “prescribed by law”, meaning by either a parliamentary statute or by an emergency regulation. There is no such law or regulation in existence at present, regulating the travel to the Northern part of the country.

In the absence of such law, no authority including the Defence Ministry can introduce administrative procedures restricting freedom of movement of locals or foreigners. The Government has not disclosed the reasons for such restrictions. Neither the Defence Ministry nor the Government have disclosed any reason why such travel restrictions are necessary exclusively in respect of the Northern Province. However, the authorities have indicated that foreigners should establish their bona fides for travel to the North, which is an extremely arbitrary yardstick to be decided by the Military

The Government repeatedly emphasised to the international community that normalcy has returned and thus the travel restrictions to the North that had been imposed were lifted after the conclusion of the war in 2009. The Lawyers Collective is also mindful of the Government’s commitment to develop tourism in all parts of the country as well as multiple infrastructural development projects targeting war affected areas. There is no war in any part of the country at present, justifying re-imposition of travel restrictions.

Another relevant factor is that an all-island election is likely to be held in January, where the President who is also the Minister of Defence is likely to be a candidate. In those circumstances, such restrictions are not only inappropriate but also raise the question of ulterior motives, which goes to the root of the validity of such administrative restrictions.
Lal Wijenayaka & JC Weliamuna
Conveners
Lawyers Collective

4th November 2014

Movement For Democracy Overwhelms Sri Lanka

By S. Sivathasan -November 4, 2014

S. Sivathasan

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”. Absolutely true and Sri Lankans know it. It is also said that “Threat of revolt is the final guarantee of all freedom”. This too is a proven truism. Both together make a potent amalgam. It may show its strength in Sri Lanka in a short while, the same way it did in 1994. From where comes a renewed momentum? From a convergence of wholesome factors.

Whittling Down of Freedom

For over three decades all Sri Lankans to the last citizen have been chafing against restraints and yearning for liberty. The mayhem and bloodletting ofJuly 1983 gave plausible cover to successive governments for creeping limitations on personal freedoms. From individual to collective was but a few paces away and imperceptible was the advance. The first to feel the rigour were the minorities; ethnic and linguistic. The majority was not much away not to get engulfed. The years 1989-1990 saw the country aflame and drastic reductions in personal freedom encompassed the whole nation. A lingering war pushed the whole of society to the limits of tolerance and yet they put up with loss of rights with hopes of freedom to follow. The end of the war in 2009 suggested a new dawn, of hope and promise. But this was not to be.

Receding Dawn

Read More

We should bring back democracy

By R. M.B Senanayake-November 3, 2014, 12:00 pm 

It is a good augury for our future that the Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thera has spoken out against the suppression of freedoms. He is spearheading a reform movement to restore true democracy instead of a fudged version thereof proclaimed by the ruling regime which violating the Constitution passed the 18th Amendment arrogating all power to the Executive President and freeing him from all checks and balances so that he is completely above the law and accountable to nobody except nominally to the people at an election which is neither free or fair. The President likes to say that we still have democracy because he equates democracy with the holding of elections.

Omnipotent President

The President is all powerful like our feudal Sinhalese kings. He makes all the important appointments to the public service, the judicial service and the Elections Department. Political affiliation and loyalty and not competence or merit is the criterion for making appointments to those high posts and the appointees are beholden to the President.

A similar situation existed in the Western countries prior to the revolutions- the revolution of 1688 in England, the revolution of 1789 in France and the revolution of the American colonies in 1776. They may now be distant but the people in these countries have not forgotten them and uphold their principles. They do not allow their present day democratic rulers to violate their Constitutions. How often so our so-called democratic politicians violate the principles enshrined in our Constitution?

Democracy and Economic Growth

But, some people are enamored by the high economic growth in authoritarian countries like South Korea under Park Chung Hee, China under Deng Tsiao Peng, and Singapore under Lee Kuan Yew. So some intellectuals are impressed by authoritarian rule and justify it on the ground of the faster economic growth they have provided. But not all authoritarian dictatorships have succeeded in achieving rapid economic growth. The several dictatorial regimes in Latin America- in Chile, Brazil and in the Philippines under Marcos and in the erstwhile Communist countries faster economic growth did not take place at all or failed to be sustainable and led to the restoration of democracy. China has grown fast but so has corruption and President Li is struggling to contain.

It is, of course, true that democracy with its public demonstrations and agitations for necessary economic reforms , its squabbling political parties, with its dominance of interest groups, its poorly educated politicians elected by a naïve rural peasantry and crafty leaders who manipulate the voters with their populism, are all barriers to the taking of right decisions to promote economic growth. But people do learn over time however slowly it may be.

Economic growth and democracy require discipline on the part of both the people and the leaders. Such discipline is often underpinned by the religious and moral values. But crafty politicians fool the people with their false and hypocritical religiosity. They equate religion with the practice of rituals and give the impression to the people by their false example that it would be sufficient to follow such rituals rather than practice the moral code preached by the religions. People cannot see through these politicians’ hypocrisy and accept them as the saviours of their religion against the background of other missionary religions which seek to spread their own values and principles. Therefore, it is easy for the crafty political leaders to whip up hatred against other communities and the task of nation building is relegated to the background and instead the idea of championing the religion of the majority as the religion of the State is propagated. The truth and justice in the popular mind become equated to what is proclaimed as the truth and justice by the political leaders. They set up those elements in the society who preach violence and hatred against the minorities.

　

Economic growth needs discipline

If economic growth is about governments getting things done then would it not be better for growth if the governments were strong and authoritarian instead of being weak and elected? Then the administration of the public services would improve; the trains will run on time, the hospitals will perform better and provide a better service to the people and schools will be better managed. True, indeed, but such discipline in authoritarian countries cannot be achieved without the spilling of blood, the suppression of public movements, the repression of civil society groups, and the suppression of the truth through censorship of the media. In short, it involves brainwashing the people through thought control, so vividly described by George Orwell in his novel "1984". Even if economic growth suffers under a democracy, yet the trade-off of growth for freedom is worthwhile. Isn’t it better to have slower growth with freedom rather than faster growth with the repression of freedom?

But, there is no evidence that in the long run economic growth in the democratic countries is slower than in authoritarian dictatorships. The great economist and historian Deirdre McCloskey explains that modern prosperity was not caused by the exploitation of the poor by the rich in their own countries or in their colonial possession; nor even really by an increase in investment but, rather, by the unleashing of innovations – itself the result of a change in social attitudes. How did this change in social attitudes come about? It was through the new found personal freedom in the western economies after the Reformation.

People were free to think for themselves and a new class—the merchant class arose to take advantage of the results of the voyages of discovery. To say that modern prosperity was not caused by an increase in investment (or to pick another example often given by economic libertarians, an expansion of trade) is not to deny that investment and trade are necessary for economic growth. Of course they are. McCloskey’s point is that the timing, the geography, and the magnitude of modern prosperity cannot be explained as being caused by a change in the likes of investment or trade. Neither investment nor trade –indispensable, as admirable, and as marvelous in their own right as they may be – were the sparks for our modern prosperity. It is the new attitude of freedom sparked by the great revolutions against absolute government that ensured the freedom of the people from arbitrary rule and introduced the Rule of Law and protected the freedoms of the people.

The merchant class was free to pursue the money making activities. It is such freedom that allowed the Scientific Revolution to flourish and made possible the Industrial Revolution which led to modern prosperity. Where did all these innovations and inventions come from? Could they have occurred without the freedom of the individual? In the long run economic growth depends upon innovation and invention and not the mere replication of investment in the same economic activities.

Even in China, Deng Tsiao Peng’s growth policy favoured accepting and permitting private property and economic freedom for the foreign entrepreneurs at first in Special Economic Zones and then extending such freedom to all Chinese by adopting free enterprise and the free market economy. Yes, there is no democracy or political freedom but there certainly is economic freedom and protection of private property. There are today two economic models- the freewheeling capitalism of the USA and the economic freedom of the Chinese model. But, what is common to both models is the acceptance of the free market economy.

Rajapaksa Responds to UN Humans Rights Committee, Citing Forbes

04/11/2014  

An indirect response to United Nations Human Rights Committee recommendation that 18 Amendment to the constitution of Sri Lanka should be repealed President Rajapaksa has said that his government introduced the 18th amendment to the constitution, to further strengthen political stability and sustain the rapid development, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said, according to government mouth piece CDN (04 Oct).

But Rajapaksa has not responded to the main criticism of the HRC that 18 A has taken away the crucial checks and balances to the constitution. The HRC concluding observations No 5 was very clear why 18 A should be repealed:

‘’The Committee is concerned by the 18th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution which, inter alia, discontinues the Constitutional Council and empowers the President to dismiss or appoint members of the judiciary and other independent bodies. Furthermore, it is concerned at the impeachment of the former Chief Justice in January 2013 under circumstances that raised serious doubts about its consistency with basic principles of due process and judicial independence. (arts. 2 and 14)
The State party should:
(a) Repeal the 18th Amendment to the Constitution;
(b) Take legislative and other measures to ensure transparent and impartial processes for appointments to the judiciary and other independent bodies; and,
(c) Take concrete measures to ensure the protection of members of its judiciary from improper influences, inducements, pressures, threats or interferences, including those of the executive and/or legislature of the State party.’’

President Rajapaksa has cited Forbes Investment Magazine to prove his point.

“Now, a rapidly improving economy combined with political stability has made the country a very popular destination among both local and foreign investors. This achievement has been widely appreciated and even the Forbes Investment Magazine published in USA in a recent article had duly acknowledged this fact,” President Rajapaksa has said.

Rajapaksa’s point was that 18A has brought political stability instead of democratic governance and rule of law.

How disaster preparation broke down in Sri Lanka

He was five years old last time there was an evacuation drill here

COLOMBO, 4 November 2014 (IRIN) - Nearly one week after a central Sri Lankan village was hit by a deadly landslide on 29 October, officials are reviewing how dozens of injuries, at least six deaths and hundreds of displacements could have been avoided with better disaster preparedness.

On 4 November, the government’s Disaster Management Centre (DMC) noted that following the landslide that hit Meeriyabedda village, Badulla District, in the country’s centre, six bodies have been recovered and 32 people are listed as missing. 

Only six days before the disaster, the government had carried out evacuation drills nationwide tailored to tsunami, flood and landslide risk. Simulations were carried out in two villages near Meeriyabedda (Boragas and Gavammna) identified by DMC as having similar landslide risk levels - but not in Meeriyabedda.  

DMC noted that “many” other locations in the district at high risk of landslides have also not been covered by recent drills. 

DMC spokesperson Sarath Lal Kumara said Meeriyabedda was not selected for the drill last month because it already had a drill in 2009 during a disaster preparedness training. 

Ten years after a tsunami battered the island nation, killing at least 31,000, national evacuation drills are held every three months to cover tsunamis, floods, and landslides. DMC headquarters selects sites for the drills, prioritizing places that have not had any disaster preparedness training. 

After the landslide in Badulla District, experts are advocating that rigorous early warning and evacuation procedures – now more focused on tsunami threats - be adapted to landslide-prone areas in other parts of the island as well.

The National Building Resources Organisation (NBRO) estimates 20 percent of the country is prone to landslides, mainly in hilly parts that host the country’s prosperous tea plantations, but also have some of the country’s highest poverty rates. 

Sri Lanka’s tea cultivators, also known as the estate community - an estimated 900,000 people - are among the country’s poorest. In Badulla District (part of the country’s tea basket) the percentage of people living below the poverty line (12 percent) is almost twice the national average, based on April 2014 government figures.

According to NBRO district official N K R Seneviratne, disaster-prone villages in Badulla District are mostly populated by tea cultivators who have been living for generations in buildings often constructed haphazardly, with little regard to zoning permits.

Many Meeriyabedda villagers remained in their houses despite days of NBRO warnings, the first of which came on 25 October, four days before the landslide hit.

“They stayed at the village because they did not have a clear idea on how to move out or where to move out,” Indu Abeyratne, head of Early Warning Systems at the Sri Lanka Red Cross (SLRC), told IRIN.

“Ideally a government agency should have taken the lead in such an evacuation process, as happens in other parts of the country,” Kumara added.

SLRC’s Abeyratne said that even if an evacuation alert had been issued, it would have led to chaos. “An evacuation plan cannot be set in motion suddenly. It needs planning. More importantly, people should know what they need to do and whose directions to follow.”

Very early warnings 

In 2005, NBRO carried out a survey in the area after a smaller landslide hit. Seneviratne, the NBRO chief geologist for Badulla District (who held the same position then), recommended that the entire village of Meeriyabedda be relocated. 

“What we found was that the area was heavily built-upon with houses, but the soil was very loose and prone to landslides,” Seneviratne told IRIN.

Another survey in 2011 made the same recommendations. In 2009, the DMC, with the Sri Lankan Red Cross and NBRO, trained villagers to be alert for landslide danger signals. Villagers were advised to form citizen committees to coordinate these efforts. Some villagers received mega-phones and basic rain gauges.

There was no official follow-up to check whether committees were formed. NBRO’s Seneviratne said there were no efforts by the government or the private plantation company that owns the land to relocate the village.

Relocating the village is included in a long-term government plan released by the DMC.

NRBO has active landslide warnings for the districts of Kalutara, Nuwera Eliya, Badula, Kandy, Matale, Kegalle, and Rathnapura, which have a combined population of 5.3 million people.

ap/pt/cb 

Act With Responsibility In Assisting Koslanda Victims: Trade Unions Tell Govt

November 4, 2014

Free Trade Zone workers (FTZW) and the General Services Employees Union (GSEU) have called upon the government to refrain from blaming the victims of the Koslanda landslide for the tragedy that befell them and to act with responsibility in assisting them, by formulating and presenting a development plan before the parliament on the right to life and land.

Joint Secretary of the FTZW and GSEU, Anton Marcus in a statement yesterday has referred to a resolution that was passed during the General Council meeting held on Sunday that calls for an immediate formulation of a plan that would be implemented through a committee that comprises of relevant state agencies, plantation management and workers representing the sector.

The resolution has also urged the government to formulate environmentally friendly development plans with the participation of professionals and academics of the sector, pointing out it is the irresponsible land use for short term economic gains that resulted in last week’s tragedy.

They have gone on to point it that the plantation workers cannot be relocated from their estates as they cannot afford to travel daily to work and also involves heavy planning that include livelihood options for workers, schooling for their children and adequate health facilities if they are moved.

While appreciating the quick intervention and services rendered by the people in the neighborhoods and the security forces and the Police in the rescues and relief efforts, the FTZW and GSEU have also criticized the government’s responses pointing out they have not acted with due responsibility in providing information to the public.

They have also stated the government is attempting to underplay the tragedy through the contradicting numbers of the death toll that varies from 192 to 1413. The FTZW and the GSEU have also criticized the way in which the government is trying to pass the responsibility to the affected workers by stating they faced the incident due to not heeding the warnings issued in 2005 and 2011 to leave the location as it is landslide prone.

NOT SEEING THE WOOD FOR THE TREES: SARATH SILVA AND THE LEGALITY OF MAHINDA RAJAPAKSA’S THIRD TERM

• by Asanga Welikala 
• - on 11/03/2014

In the flood of commentary that has followed the former Chief Justice Sarath Silva’s public intervention regarding the potential illegality of President Rajapaksa seeking a third term, many have joined debate to remind us of Silva’s unsavoury behaviour on and off the Bench. One of the implications of these reminders, some of which have a rather holier-than-thou flavour to them, is that we should treat Silva’s too-clever-by-half argument with a large measure of scepticism on account of his past conduct.

Silva himself has not helped his case, and yet again devalued the office he held, with that bizarre ‘apology’ for his decision in the Helping Hambanthota Case. He made matters worse in a train-wreck of a BBC Sinhala service interview by saying that he arrived at the decision on the basis of a presumption of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s good character. He could offer no explanation, except for a seedy chuckle, when the interviewer asked him what role evidence (‘saakshi’) as opposed to presumptions (‘poorva nigamana’) played in a judicial decision. Rather than the intended effect as an expression of contrition, therefore, the apology has served to remind us all of the capricious and self-serving nature of his judicial conduct and the possibly political motives behind his present intervention on the legality of the third term.

While he is at it, he might as well go the whole hog and apologise for decisions that entrenched the corrupt crossovers of MPs in Amir Ali v SLMC(2006), for distorting the purpose of the law of contempt of court (and sending Tony Fernando and S.B. Dissanayake to prison), and for striking at the international protection of human rights by declaring unconstitutional Sri Lanka’s accession to the First Optional Protocol to the ICCPR in Singarasa v Attorney General (2006). He could apologise for his political adventurism garbed in the language of judicial activism, his obstreperous behaviour towards litigants and counsel, and a whole of host of other things about which Victor Ivan has written an entire book.

We have not forgotten any of these things, and we certainly should not. But to introduce these considerations into the discussion about the legality of the incumbent’s third term is to mistake the messenger for the message. The technical legal argument that the incumbent is not entitled to seek a third term was first propounded by Silva. Untainted others have agreed with, and added to, this position since. It has been established now that Silva’s argument is technically and normatively the correct view on this issue, and pro-regime commentators have so far failed to address the issues raised by Silva’s argument, let alone rebut any of them.

If that is the case, and President Rajapaksa goes ahead with the re-election process without taking prior remedial measures, then he would be consciously breaking the supreme law of the land. Given the lack of legitimacy of the Supreme Court after the impeachment of its previous Chief Justice by a dubious process, it would seem the only possible way he can do this is, is by again using his two-thirds parliamentary majority to amend the Eighteenth Amendment and have himself included within its terms by express words. If not, and if he gets re-elected as seems likely, the legitimacy and the legality of the President of the Republic would be at least open to question and doubt, and likely as not after the next parliamentary election, to impeachment proceedings for intentional violation of the constitution.

That is the fundamental constitutional issue at hand. I have no idea what Silva’s motives are in raising this issue, or why he chose his timing, but he cannot be blamed if the drafters of the Eighteenth Amendment failed to observe a long-established general principle of the legal system in requiring retroactive provisions to be worded in express terms. But now that the issue has been raised, and on balance it is the correct legal position, then our commitment to the rule of law and the supremacy of the constitution demands remedial action. Sarath Silva’s character and personality are a rank irrelevance in coming to any sensible conclusion on this matter.

BUDGET CHANGED 

By Gagani Weerakoon


Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne presented an amendment to Appropriation Bill 2015, seeking the approval, of Parliament, to increase the government's expenditure by Rs 356 billion and to enhance the borrowing limit, of the government, by Rs 440 billion.
 
Accordingly, the Bill titled 'Appropriation Bill 2015-Amendments in Committee' seeks to delete the words 'rupees one thousand eight hundred twelve billion two hundred ninety two million seven hundred eighteen thousand' (Rs 1,812,292,718,000) and submit 'rupees two thousand one hundred sixty eight billion two hundred ninety two million seven hundred eighteen thousand' (Rs 2,168,292,718,000).
 
"The effect of this amendment, brought by the Prime Minister and Minister of Buddha Sasana and Religious Affairs, is to increase the maximum borrowing limit of the government in 2015 from Rs 1,340 billion to Rs 1,780 billion as per the budget speech, the Bill said.
Meanwhile, UNP MP Dr. Harsha de Silva, joining the debate, said it is extremely suspicious that the government is trying to increase the budgetary allocations made to the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development by Rs 256 billion within a lapse of just one week of the Budget 2015 being presented to the House.
 
"Not only that, the government is seeking to increase borrowings by Rs 440 billion. Urban Development Authority carry out projects but money has not been allocated under its Head of expenditure. So they take loans from outside and continue their projects," Dr. de Silva charged. Responding, Chief Government Whip, Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, asked whether it is possible or not for a statutory institution to take loans on its properties and expenditure.
"You can, but the balance sheet should have a required value, which is not the case when it comes to UDA. Just because people are poor, you must not take away their right to whatever the properties they have," Dr. de Silva responded.

The power to recall your MP

Empowering the voter- November 4, 2014  

Recently, in Britain, the Queen in her speech at the opening of a new session of Parliament announced that legislation will be introduced which will allow voters to sack misbehaving MPs. This landmark legislation, called the Recall of MPs Bill, will allow constituents to force a by-election if an MP, in their view, behaves badly.

A petition to Recall, as proposed by the Monarch, will require the signatures of a minimum of 10% registered voters, to be obtained and submitted within an eight-week timeframe. As proposed, the new power of Recall will be triggered only if MPs are given a jail sentence or if the House of Commons is of the view that the MP concerned has engaged in serious wrongdoing.
The Power to Recall Your MP by Thavam

Malaka refused bail over alleged nightclub brawl

November 4, 2014 
The Colombo Magistrate’s Court today rejected the bail plea by Minister Mervyn Silva’s son Malaka Silva, who was arrested on charges of assaulting a foreign couple, and further remanded him until November 11.

 Malaka Silva was arrested by the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) on November 1 following a complaint lodged by the foreign nationals and remanded till today (November 4) after being produced at court.

The incident had taken place at around 3.00am the same day at a nightclub in Duplication Road, Colombo when Silva had reportedly harassed the foreign woman, thereby provoking her partner who had assaulted him.

However, in response Malaka Silva’s security personnel had assaulted the tourist while both parties subsequently filed complaints over the incident.

Silva, who had allegedly sustained minor injuries from the brawl, had been admitted to the Colombo National Hospital, where he is currently receiving treatment at the ICU under police custody.

He was also to be produced before an identification parade today.

According to sources, the CCD is conducting investigations and is using CCTV footage of the incident from inside the nightclub. They are also conducting investigations to arrest 6 persons, reportedly friends of Malaka, for aiding in the attack. 

Malaka, the son of Public Relations and Public Affairs Minister Mervyn Silva, has been involved in several similar assault incidents in the past while in July last year he was hospitalised following an attack at the car park of a popular clothing store in Town Hall, Colombo.

A Talk on Bodu Bala Sena, Sri Lanka’s Militant Buddhists

By Jenny Gao
November 3, 2014

This Thursday, Tudor Silva, Senior Professor of Sociology from the University of Peradeniya, gave a talk about Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), an organization of militant Buddhist monks, in Sri Lanka.

With a Buddhist revival during the 20th century, Sri Lanka saw a rise of Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism as a political force in 1956. BBS was born May of 2012 in the aftermath of the military victory of Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The BBS is registered as a non-profit and lead by Buddhist monks who broke away from Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), another political party headed by Buddhist monks.

As a post-war political organization, Professor Silva says that the BBS has been a “major obstacle” to peace in Sri Lanka. As Buddhists constitute a great majority of the Sri Lankan population, the BBS pushes for internal purification and the safeguarding of Buddhism against external threats and enemies.

Though the BBS is not an armed group, they incite violence through indirect means like “[manipulating] religious symbols.” Professor Silva referenced the Althugama riot incident, in which violence broke out between the Buddhist and Muslim population in Aluthugama, a coastal town in western Sri Lanka, the BBS manipulated the image of a monk’s robe by making the robe into a symbol that Muslims cannot touch. If any Muslim laid hands on the robe of a monk, even if in self-defense, the Buddhists had good reason to attack Muslims. This caused three days of riots, in which BBS members and other Buddhists raided many Muslim shops and homes. There was “no action taken against BBS for inciting violence.”

The BBS views its own political role as not for the purpose of consolidating power, but rather for the higher objective of preserving and promoting Buddhism. Seeing the Muslim as Christian population as a threat to this Buddhist state, the BBS has Anti-Muslim and Anti-Christian campaigns and propaganda. Seeing them as a cultural threat, the BBS has boycotted Muslim shops and campaigned against the hijab. “They take the law into their own hands,” says Professor Silva, and conduct raids as moral police at places like Evangelical churches.

One way the BBS opposes Muslims and Christians is by opposing family planning. The BBS does not want the Muslim and Christian communities, which do not practice family planning, to outgrow the Buddhist community, which do practice family planning. Silva said that there was one incident in which a health and family planning clinic shut down because the workers were intimidated by the unfriendly presence of many BBS monks.

This concern for the dilution of Buddhism in the Sri Lankan demographics is shown in this propaganda poster (left), which says, “Will a proud nation disappear from earth? In 1971 Sinhalese were 74% of the population. In 2013 reduced to 61%.” Professor Silva says this “is not factual” and that the BBS “articulates existential insecurities” of the Buddhist majority to identify the religious and ethnic minorities as the cause of their problems.

Some speculate that the government indirectly supports, or even sponsors the BBS. Even still, the relationship between BBS and the government is not entirely harmonious. The BBS has “made life difficult for Muslim politicians in the government”. On the other hand, Professor Silva says some politicians has criticized the BBS to be an “externally sponsored trouble maker”. He believes that the “government is cornered” between protecting relations with Muslim states and appeasing the Buddhist majority when it comes to dealing with the BBS.

Professor Silva warns us not to “identify BBS merely as a Buddhist fringe” movement. Their public meetings are well attended. Not only just nuns and monks, but also citizens of all ages. The BBS uses Facebook, blogs, and other forms of social media to disseminate their ideas and attract young people.

Professor Silva suggests that the BBS’ activities can trigger a reactionary version of Islamic extremism. Because of the various ways the BBS directly and indirectly influences the Buddhist population and its particular relationship with the Sri Lankan government, it will be interesting to see how the Muslim and Christian communities react to BBS’s actions in the future.

Rivals Tehran, Riyadh pledge billions to Lebanon’s army

Correction: A previous version of this article gave an incorrect figure for the size of Lebanon's military. It has 65,000 members, not 16,000.

Lebanese army soldiers carry their weapons during clashes with Islamist militants in Tripoli on Oct. 25. (Stringer/Reuters)

By Hugh Naylor November 4 at 11:54 AM
BEIRUT — Saudi Arabia and Iran have offered apparently competing aid packages to Lebanon’s small and modestly armed military as it confronts increasing attacks at home by militants with ties to extremists fighting in Syria’s civil war.
Rivals Tehran, Riyadh Pledge Billions to Lebanon’s Army by Thavam

The Gangs of Iraq

Marauding pro-government militias are using the fight against the Islamic State as a pretext to destroy Sunni Arab communities across the country.

• BY TIRANA HASSAN-NOVEMBER 3, 2014

ERBIL, Iraq — Behind the relative safety of the large concrete blast walls, a Kurdish Peshmerga commander sat behind a dark wooden desk and described the situation in the battle-scarred towns in Iraq's northern province of Salahaddin.
The Gangs of Iraq by Thavam

Burkina Faso leader says to hand power to transitional body

Lieutenant Colonel Yacouba Isaac Zida (L) meets with opposition leader Zephirin Diabre in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, November 2, 2014.

BY MATHIEU BONKOUGOU AND NADOUN COULIBALY-Tue Nov 4, 2014 

(Reuters) - Burkina Faso's army will quickly cede power to a transitional government and appoint a new head of state, the country's interim President Isaac Zida said on Monday, looking to calm accusations that the military had seized power in a coup.

Longtime president Blaise Compaore stepped down on Friday following two days of mass protests in the impoverished West African nation over his bid to extend his 27-year rule by amending the constitution.

On Saturday, the military appointed Lieutenant Colonel Zida as provisional head of state, drawing criticism from opposition politicians, the African Union and Western powers who want to see a swift return to civilian rule.

The African Union, whose democratic charter binds its 54 member states to take action against coups on the continent, plied more pressure on the Burkina military on Monday, giving it an ultimatum to hand back power to a civilian administration within two weeks or face sanctions.

Former colonial power France, which bases some of its Special Forces in the Burkina capital and is the country's main bilateral donor, called on all sides to reach a swift deal.

"To this end, an interim civilian head of state must be appointed rapidly to lead the country to elections," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in a statement.

Zida told a gathering of diplomats and journalists in the capital Ouagadougou that executive powers would be passed to a transitional government, in accordance with the constitution.

"We are going to move very fast, but be careful not to commit a mistake that might damage our country," he said.

"We are not here to usurp power and to sit in place and run the country, but to help the country come out of this situation," Zida said, adding that a new head of state would be chosen following broad discussions with various groups.

His announcement came in the wake of crisis meetings late on Sunday and Monday between Zida and opposition leaders after thousands gathered to denounce his appointment in the central Place de la Nation - the scene of violent protests last week during which the parliament was set alight.

The United States which could freeze military cooperation with Burkina Faso if it deems a coup has taken place, said on Monday it was not ready to determine whether the takeover by the army amounted to a coup.

POPULAR REVOLT

Equatorial Guinea's Ambassador to the African Union, Simeon Oyono Esono, who holds the rotating chair of its Peace and Security Council, told journalists in the Ethiopian capital that although popular pressure led to the ousting of Compaore, the change had been undemocratic.

"We have taken note of the origin of the popular revolt which led to the military getting power, so we determined the period of two weeks and after that period we are going apply sanctions," Esono said.

Under Burkina Faso's constitution, the head of the National Assembly should take office if the president resigns, with a mandate to organise elections within 90 days. However, the National Assembly head has reportedly fled the country, along with other senior figures from the Compaore administration.

Compaore himself arrived in neighbouring Ivory Coast on Saturday, the government there said in a statement.

Burkina Faso troops cleared thousands of protesters from the capital and opened fire at state TV headquarters on Sunday, killing one person, after crowds had flocked there in anticipation of the announcement of a new leader.

Calm had returned on Monday, with banks reopening and traffic beginning to fill up the dusty streets of the capital. An overnight curfew remained in place.

The head of the United Nations Office for West Africa, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, said a joint mission which comprises the U.N., the A.U. and regional bloc ECOWAS, was pursuing talks with all the parties in the crisis.

Ghana's president and ECOWAS current chairman, John Dramani Mahama, is expected in Burkina Faso on Wednesday for further discussions with the parties, Kadré Désiré Ouédraogo, ECOWAS commission president told journalists in Ouagadougou.

Zida's appointment marks the seventh time that a military officer had taken over as head of state in Burkina Faso since it won independence from France in 1960. It was previously known as Upper Volta.

Benewende Stanislas Sankara, a member of the opposition party UNIR/MS, expressed concern at the army's role in overseeing governance. "Nobody can place their confidence in the army. But the military authorities in power now appear to be acting in good faith," he told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Aaron Maasho in Addis Ababa, Bate Felix in Dakar and John Irish in Paris; Writing by Emma Farge and Bate Felix; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Dominic Evans and Crispian Balmer)