South Asia’s arms race, an obstacle to fence-mending

March 18, 2015, 8:46 pm 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (C) and the Sri Lankan chief minister of the northern province C. V. Vigneswaran (centre L) arrive for a ceremony to hand over Indian-funded houses to Tamils displaced or made destitute by fighting in Jaffna, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of Colombo on March 14, 2015. Narendra Modi landed in Jaffna on March 14, becoming the first Indian prime minister to visit Sri Lanka’s war-ravaged northern Tamil heartland. AFP

South Asia’s Arms Race, An Obstacle to Fence-mending by Thavam Ratna

Equality, justice, peace and dignity needed for Tamils says India

18 March 2015

India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka had underlined calls for “equality, justice, peace and dignity” for Tamils on the island.

“The visit expressed India’s strong support for democracy and reform in Sri Lanka,” said Ms Swaraj. “Prime Minister noted in his address to the Parliament that recent elections reflected the collective voice of the nation – the hope for change, reconciliation and unity.”

Addressing the Lok Sabha, Ms Swaraj further added “India stands with Sri Lanka in its efforts to build a future that accommodates the aspirations of all sections of society, including the Sri Lankan Tamil community, for a life of equality, justice, peace and dignity in a united Sri Lanka.” 
“Prime Minister also declared that we believe that the early and full implementation of the 13th Amendment and going beyond it would contribute to this process,” she continued.

In her address Ms Swaraj noted that Mr Modi’s visit to Jaffna and the need for a “long term solution” to the issue of Indian fishermen being attacked by the Sri Lankan navy.

See the full text of her speech here.

NFF walked out of Modi's speech to protest against 13A (16 march 2015)

BJP hails 'historic' Modi visit (15 March 2015)

In Jaffna 'to wipe tears' from those that suffered - Modi (14 March 2015)

Suo Motu Statement by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Lok Sabha on Prime Minister’s Visit to Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka 

Press Information Bureau 
Government of India
Ministry of External Affairs 

18-March-2015

Following is the text of the Suo Motu Statement by External Affairs Minister in Lok Sabha on Prime Minister’s Visit to Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka:

Hon’ble Madam Speaker,

Equality, Justice, Peace and Dignity Needed for Tamils Says India by Thavam Ratna

19A & The Super Prime Minister

By Rashantha de Alwis-Seneviratne -March 18, 2015 

Rashantha N. de Alwis-Seneviratne

The Constitution of 1978 seems to be even more important today for the simple reason that the Executive President is supposed to be more powerful than is good for the country. As such, certain constitutional reforms are being proposed by the incumbent interim government in the form of a19th Amendment, in order to clip his wings. The proposal has been called a ‘Healthy Tonic to the Democracy’ by one and ‘a Cyanide Capsule’ by another. Oscar Wilde would have looked at it and probably said, Oh well –‘’It is neither bad nor good; it depends on how one looks at it’’. It is interesting that the gentleman who thinks the Amendment is a tonic would like the President to have ‘’some executive powers’’ and act ‘’always and only on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers’’. I immediately imagined the President sprawled in his No.8 chair in Parliament – with his head lolling on to a side, looking like he it was he who needed the tonic! I could not help it. The subject, of course is, worthy of the best zoom and wide angle lens but my attempts to analyse it was pre-empted by a legal-eagle friend, who has a far more critical mind than I.

To begin with, from where does the Executive President really derive his power? It was Aristotle who said ‘’There are three elements in each constitution …. First, the deliberative, which discusses everything of common importance; second, the officials and third, the judicial element. This highlights the three elementary functions that are required for the organisation of any state. We know that these functions are commonly known by us as the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary and that they are carried out by the Government elected by the people – the three powers of government.

The Legislature is the law-making body which comprises the Parliament. The Legislative function involves the enactment of general rules determining the structure and powers of public authorities and regulating the conduct of citizens and private organisations.

The Executive is all the institutions and persons concerned with the implementation of the laws made by the Legislature. It involves the central and local government and the armed forces; it includes initiating and implementing legislation, maintaining order and security, promoting social and economic welfare, administering public services and conducting the external relations of the state.Read More

War crime witness in UK under risk of deportation to danger in Sri Lanka

BY ATHULA VITHANAGE-18 MARCH 2015

A key witness to alleged war crimes fears deportation by British authorities that may lead him to face torture and possible death in Sri Lanka. Former Tamil Tiger (LTTE) police officer Kannan Kalimuththu held in a high security detention centre outside Heathrow airport, has been informed by United Kingdom Border Authority (UKBA) of potential deportation on 20 March following his unsuccessful claim in seeking political asylum.

Human rights activists have expressed their shock at the decision by British authorities to forcibly remove a former LTTE member to Sri Lanka, where he was tortured while being held in military detention.

Lawyers for Kannan Kalimuththu, held at the Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre say that he was unable to substantiate his asylum claim due to the 'undue haste' of authorities which meant that he was not given a fair opportunity to establish his case. Medical experts who examined him in the UK have confirmed that he is a victim of torture and suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

37 year old Kalimuththu from Puthukudiyirippu of north eastern Sri Lanka has revealed details of torture and sexual attacks while being held in Sri Lankan detention to an organisation in the UK that specialises in cases on torture in detention. Despite strong evidence of torture recorded by Medical Justice, British authorities have decided to deal with his asylum claim in fast track. “This is a serious breach of the Home Office policy on detaining asylum seekers,” said Mansfield Chamber Barrister Shivani Jegarajah.

International Investigation

While being detained in Britain, Kalimuththu's mental health has worsened. He attempted to commit suicide, as he believes he has no strength to face torture again in Sri Lanka, say medical experts. Consultant Psychiatrist Saleh Dumah who assessed him fears that he is likely to end his life if he was forced to go back to Sri Lanka as his fear is genuine.

London based International Centre for Prevention and Prosecution of Genocide (ICCPG) warns that Britain should not be complicit in torture by deporting Tamil victims and witnesses of Genocide. "Deporting Kannan is denying a fair international investigation into Sri Lanka's war crimes," ICCPG UK coordinator Ambi Seevaratnam told JDS.

Kalimuththu who has served under LTTE Police Chief B Nadesan has witnessed many alleged war crimes including some high profile cases. Nadesan, who was later appointed as the head of the political wing, was executed and his mutilated body was found following his surrender to the Sri Lankan military in the last days of the war.

Crucial military attack

One particular war crime that Kalimuththu has detailed in his asylum claim describes Sri Lanka military bombing a young offenders facility in north eastern Sri Lanka run by the LTTE Judiciary wing killing over ninety unarmed inmates, in March 2009. The institute in Ananthapuram has been registered under the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Kalimuththu, has taken care of the emergency evacuation of those who escaped death. He had been the officer in charge of the institution from 2003 to 2006.

The ICRC that regularly visited those held in the institution had provided the co-ordinates of its location to the government, as required by international law in order to protect it from military attacks. The military assault on Ananthapuram was crucial for Sri Lanka in gaining control over Tamil territory.

When Sri Lanka military forces over ran the Tamil dominated north in May 2009, Kalimuththu surrendered to the Army. He has been detained in the military-run Joseph Camp in Vavuniya until he managed to escape and flee Sri Lanka to seek asylum in the UK in September 2014. Medical Justice has recorded Kalimuththu being subjected to torture in military detention including electrocution, beating with pipes filled with sand and sexual assault with glass bottles.

At least 10 Tamils returning to Sri Lanka have been arrested at the Colombo Air Port after the new government led by Maithripala Sirisena was elected into office on 8 January 2015.

SF calls on India, Pak to resolve Kashmir issue

Clean Up Your Own Backyard

 

War Crimes in Sri Lanka

2015-03-19

Former Sri Lanka army chief General Sarath Fonseka on Thursday urged India and Pakistan to speedily resolve the Kashmir issue, adding that countries of the region should start behaving like neighbours.

"India and Pakistan must solve the Jammu and Kashmir issue and put an end to the misunderstanding, mistrust and suspicion or it will continue forever. Once solved, they will be able to look at the global issues better," General Fonseka said at the International Counter Terrorism Conference here.

"Neighbours should think together, get together and try to solve each other's problems," he added.
Speaking about global terrorism, General Fonseka said legal governments plagued by extremist forces must deal with such elements via negotiations or military action.

"These people come with different names but these extremists try to create a world of their own. They want to get rid of people following different religions, who speak different languages, who belong to different cultures. They look dangerous at the moment, and given the chance, they will try to expand to different countries, so everyone must put in maximum effort to get rid of this problem quickly," he said.

"Wherever there are these forces, there are legal governments, who are best placed to decide whether there should be dealt with through negotiations or through military action. They must make quick decisions and go ahead with whatever is required," he added.

Speaking of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), General Fonseka expressed confidence that the Muslims in his country will not fall prey to their trap.

"The ISIS, like any other Islamic terrorist organisation, will try to seek every expansion. However, the Sri Lankan Muslims are coexisting peacefully with the rest of the country and I don't think they will welcome situations like that in my country. We hope that the other countries affected are able to understand the danger and take necessary steps. The countries affected must take the leadership to settle their own issues," he said.
On March 22, General Fonseka will become the first Sri Lanka Army officer to be promoted to the rank of Field Marshal. (ANI)

The Lessons Sri Lanka Should Learn From South East Asian Financial Crisis

By Mohammed Jehan Khan -March 19, 2015

Mohammed Jehan Khan

South East Asia has come a long way since the financial crisis crippled the region nearly two decades ago. Even after the region has recovered from the crisis, post-crisis economies are still running at around 2-6% less than in the two decades before the crisis. The crisis affected economies are still confronting complex reform challenges.

During the last three decades certain Asian nations like South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia had made such rapid progress year after year, which earned them the moniker ‘The Tiger Economies’. These three decades of their tremendous growth averaging 8% a year had inspired pride at home and envy abroad. Never before had any economy sustained such growth for so long. Economists believed that in a century or two, these Asian giants would lead ahead of the USA’s and Europe’s economies. South Asian economic policies were presented as a model to the developing South American and African countries.

This miraculous economic progress achieved by these Asian countries was called ‘The Asian Miracle’. The sudden setback that befell them is the anti-climax of this miracle and it is therefore rightly called the ‘Asian Crisis’.

Ravi Karunanayke – The Finance Minister

Taking the case of Thailand, a country that had all the audacity to called itself an economic tiger, it was indeed a big come down. With the GDP growth averaging 7.2%-8% a year in the early 1990’s, the country was doing very well. Exports from the country were also at a healthy level and it was fast acquiring an enviable economic status. Then what went wrong?

The only mistake that the country had committed was similar to the mistakes that countries often make when they are flush with foreign capital. Instead of investing into industry or productive assets, Thailand spent it into high profile buildings in and around metropolitan Bangkok.

Read More

Up to US$10b in public funds stolen: Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka said Thursday it had traced more than a billion dollars in public funds allegedly stolen by members of the former regime to a bank in Dubai, and that the total amount taken could be as much as US$10 billion.

19 Mar 2015

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka said Thursday it had traced more than a billion dollars in public funds allegedly stolen by members of the former regime to a bank in Dubai, and that the total amount taken could be as much as US$10 billion.

Rajitha Senaratne, a spokesman for the new government, said investigators had traced US$1.06 billion to the National Bank of Dubai, although he did not reveal who held the accounts.

Former president Mahinda Rajapakse and his immediate family are accused of siphoning large sums of money from the public coffers during his decade in power, which ended when he lost January elections.

"We have information that one withdrawal of US$600 million and a second withdrawal of US$200 million had been made after the election (on January 8) and shifted to a safer location," Senaratne told reporters.

He said the government had learned that up US$10 billion in public funds had been been stolen and taken out of the country.

Sri Lanka's anti-graft body has already slapped overseas travel bans on the former central bank governor Nivard Cabraal and Sajin Vass Gunawardena, a key Rajapakse aide, pending a corruption investigation.

The new government has set up a special police unit to investigate large-scale financial fraud.

On Thursday Senaratne said the government had also decided to appoint a special panel to work with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and foreign financial experts to bring back Sri Lanka's stolen wealth stashed abroad.

Rajapakse and his relatives controlled nearly 70 percent of the national budget during the former president's rule.

- AFP/ir

Jeyakumary’s daughter still in probationary custody!

Thursday, 19 March 2015 

Balendran Jeyakumary was released a few days ago after a nearly one year detention under the PTA, but her daughter, 13-year-old Vibhushika, remains in probationary custody, at Mahadevan children’s home in Kilinochchi.

Jeyakumary went on March 14 to the children’s home to take charge of her daughter, but probationary officers said she would be handed over only after the mother furnished documentation to prove her identity.
Lawyers for Jeyakumary said they would file a motion in the Kilinochchi court, seeking the girl’s custodianship for her mother.

Following her arrest, TID officers seized her documents, including the identity card, which were not returned to her upon her release.

Since she could not go to Kilinochchi via Omanthai checkpoint without the documents, she filed a request through her lawyers at the Colombo magistrate’s court on March 12, and the documents were returned to her.

Jeyakumary has been released on bail and ordered to report to the police station of her area of residence on the last Sunday of every month.

The case against her will be taken up again on July 07.
- SM-

Govt Probes Disappearance of Ekneligoda

19/03/2015 

The government announced in Parliament yesterday that it had commenced an investigation into the disappearance of journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda.

Responding to a question raised by Kurunegala District UPFA MP Shantha Bandara, Chief Government Whip and Minister of Mass Media and Parliamentary Affairs, Gayantha Karunatilake said that the government had taken steps to provide aid and relief to the family of Ekneligoda.

Minister Karunatilake said that the government expected to call back the journalists who had left the country owing to political pressure and threats to their lives. “We hope to call back all journalists who left the country because of political pressure and death threats. I myself have already made an open invitation for them to return,” he said.

MP Bandara said that media freedom was being curtailed and cited certain comments made by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Minister Karunathilake: “How can you say that there is no media freedom? The Prime Minister only made observations on the conduct of certain media institutions. We have ensured media freedom unlike the times of the Rajapaksa regime where white vans kidnapped those who spoke against the then government.”

MP Bandara: A movie produced by MP Bandula Gunawardena on the life and death of journalist Richard De Zoysa has been prohibited by the government.

Minster Karunatilake said that no such prohibition was made by the Ministry of Mass Media and the Ministry of Defence might have more information on the matter.
by Saman Indrajith/IS

The 30 Year Bond Issue By The CB Governor – The Issues Involved

By R.M.B Senanayake -March 18, 2015

R.M.B Senanayake

The Central Bank Governor has admitted that there was a failure by him to communicate with the market. Financial markets operate on information which is why the leakage of inside information and trading on insider information are considered criminal offences in financial markets. Raj Rajaratnam was caught and jailed in USA for this offence as did several others before. But such offences have gone unpunished in the local stock market despite the efforts of Mr. Tilak Karunaratne the former Chairman of the SEC. Rogue traders got rid of him and carried on with impunity. Why Inside information disclosure and trading on such information is treated as crimes is because the gains of one person is a loss to others. Financial market profits are a zero sum game as economists point out.

The Primary Dealers were created by a former Governor ( A.S. Jayawardene I think) because the banks which took up all the Treasury bond and bill issues did not show any enthusiasm to market them to the public. This has implications for monetary policy since holdings by banks is money printing while holdings by the public come from genuine savings of the people. The market was a creation of the Central Bank and the Bank nourished and supported it. The Central Bank was not concerned only with the rate of interest but also to gather the maximum amount possible for the government. If it was only interested in a competitive price it should limit the issue to about Rs 500 million which is the capacity of the market. Some one might say that the primary dealers have made bids for much more. But many of those bids at high interest rates are spurious and they submit them without expecting them to be expected.

The Tender is not a public auction with open outcry as used to prevail in the stock market prior to electronic trading. Nor is it a private placement. The quantity on offer is always beyond the capacity of any individual primary dealer. Only the banks would have the capacity to bid for high quantities but the primary dealers have to be sustained if the objective of monetary policy to tap the savings of the public through the creation of a secondary market in the bonds is to be achieved. It is therefore not a public auction where the Central Bank is interested in obtaining the most price and not the volume. It wants both the maximum volume at the best prices. So the Central Bank has been guiding the market to bid at levels which the Bank thought were acceptable. So the Public Debt Department contacts the primary dealers and guides them about the acceptable range of interest rates. The bank gives guidance on the range of interest rates acceptable to it. Somebody has misunderstood the working of the process and thought the Central Bank is only interested in getting the most competitive price.Read More

AG asked to give report on Port City

  Thursday, 19 March 2015

The Attorney General has been directed to submit a report to the Court of Appeal on April 29 regarding the government’s stance on the controversial Colombo Port City Project.

Justice Vijith Malalgoda has issued the directive when a writ petition filed by the Centre for Environmental Justice seeking a writ of certiorari to suspend the operation of all illegal agreements between Chinese Harbour Engineering Company and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority was taken up at the Court of Appeal.

The petitioner has stated that Chinese Harbour Engineering Company has started the project to reclaim 575 acres of sea area without carrying out any proper Environmental Impact Assessment study.

The work on the Port City Project had been suspended but the filling of reclaimed lands is continuing on the request of the Chinese contractor to prevent sea erosion during the monsoon, Ports, Shipping and Aviation Minister Arjuna Ranatunga said yesterday.

UNP confident against ex-president

Up to US$10b in public funds stolen: Sri Lanka

March 19, 2015  11:23 am

Sri Lanka’s ruling United National Party (UNP) on Wednesday expressed confidence that former President Mahinda Rajapakse will not be able to make a come back to politics.

UNP Legislator and Deputy Foreign Minister Ajith Perera has told the Xinhua news agency that even President Maithripala Sirisena, who is the leader of the political party of which Rajapakse is a member, will ensure that he is not given a place at the elections.

Sri Lanka is expected to hold parliamentary elections after April 23 and there have been reports that Rajapakse will contest if not under his political party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party ( SLFP), then under another party.

“He will not be able to contest from the SLFP because the leader of the SLFP is the current president. The President will not allow Mahinda Rajapakse to contest from this party. Then he will have to create a new party or contest under some other party, “ Perera said.

Perera said the former president had become “weak” since his defeat at the Jan. 8 presidential elections.

“The defeated Mahinda Rajapakse is definitely weaker than earlier,” he said. The Sri Lanka Labour Party, a minority political party in the island nation, announced on Tuesday that Rajapakse would contest as prime minister in the upcoming parliamentary elections under their party.

The party said they had even requested the Elections Commission to change the existing party symbol under directions of the former president.

The Brouhaha on Sri Lanka’s Sovereignty

by Ruwantissa Abeyratne

( March 19, 2015, Montreal, Sri Lanka Guardian) In the Daily News of 17 March there was an absolutely startling statement : “The Colombo Port City project has run into a fresh snag with Sri Lanka’s Civil Aviation Authority pointing out to the government that the air space over the Chinese held area will exclusively be held by China…the Civil Aviation Authority’s argument has sent shock waves through the new government as to how the previous government had entered into an agreement with China without scrutinizing the Convention and the Civil Aviation Act”.

The Brouhaha on Sri Lanka’s Sovereignty by Thavam Ratna

Attacking Rajitha for his son's case is foolish - Former president

Thursday, 19 March 2015 

Rajitha’s son’s case started during the last election period, when we started to investigate Rajitha’s wife Sujatha came and met me and showed few photograph’s of that girl with them. That girl is willingly staying with Rajitha’s son. This was an abandoned case sometimes back now the UNP is trying to give publicity.

Said the former president to few journalists producing few photograph’s given to him by Sujatha Senarathna.

Rajitha is a rapscallion; it’s weird to attack Rajitha for his son’s blunder. To be honest the European Union stopped buying fish due to the vacuous work of Rajitha. It was Rajitha who allowed the Chinese
trawlers to catch fish by hosting the Sri Lankan flag. Rajitha made billions of money joining with the Chinese. We cannot pull those because of the rapport we have with the Chinese. Rajitha is a person
who made more money than Mahinda Wijesekara. When we attacked Rajitha through Bodu Bala, Rajitha pleaded us to embody the matter. Later I covered the matter through Gota said the former president unfolding the history of Rajitha.

Basil did not allow us to impound Rajitha because they are classmates of the same school. Finally it was Rajitha who sent Basil overseas. Basil was looking after Raitha said the former President to the media
describing few incidents happened during his regime.

(Photograph’s shows below)

2 killed, about dozen wounded in Swedish restaurant shooting

Several people were shot inside a restaurant in Goteborg, Sweden late Wednesday. Swedish police have said at least two have died but offered no details on suspects. (AP)

By Associated Press March 19 at 7:00 AM

STOCKHOLM — Gunmen with automatic weapons stormed into a restaurant in Sweden’s second largest city, killing two people and wounding about a dozen in a shooting that police said was likely gang-related.

Police said the eatery in suburban Goteborg was full when the gunmen opened fire in one of Sweden’s most serious shooting incidents in recent years. It wasn’t clear who the attackers were targeting or why, but police said there were known gang members inside the restaurant.

“Our assessment is that this incident has to do with ongoing gang conflicts in Goteborg,” regional police chief Klas Friberg said. Police had earlier the estimated the total number of injured as 10-15, but Friberg said the estimates were uncertain.

Police said the victims were two men in their 20s, but didn’t identify them. Eight wounded people were taken to the hospital, one of them with life-threatening injuries, Friberg said, adding that other people had sought hospital treatment on their own for cuts and other injuries.

 

No arrests have been made but several people have been brought in for questioning, he said.

Witnesses told Swedish media that the gunmen were wearing masks when they entered the restaurant in the Biskopsgarden suburb late Wednesday. One unidentified restaurant worker told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that they shot people in the head.

Sweden’s homicide rate has been steady in the past decade but police say they’ve seen an increase in shooting incidents in the major cities as part of turf wars between rival gangs.

In 2013, there were 87 homicides reported in Sweden, about one-quarter of them in the greater Goteborg area, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention.

“We have a serious situation in Goteborg where many people have been murdered,” Friberg said. “We have different types of criminal gangs who ... are ready to use aggravated violence in retribution attacks or to win market share.”

The shooting happened inside a restaurant called Var Krog och Bar, which means “our tavern and bar” in Swedish. According to its website, the restaurant opened in 1995 and also has a sports bar and a night club that’s open on Fridays and Saturdays.

On Jan. 30 a man was wounded in a shooting on the square outside the restaurant. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the shootings were linked.

 

Despite the gang violence, mass shootings in public places are rare in Sweden, although there were two serious incident in 1994.

In June that year a 24-year-old army officer killed seven people in a drunken shooting spree in the city of Falun. In December a gunman sprayed the entrance of a night club in Stockholm with automatic weapon-fire, killing four people.

 

Posted by Thavam

Life Under Isis

The everyday reality of living in the Islamic ‘Caliphate’ with its 7th Century laws, very modern methods and merciless violence

by Patrick Cockburn

( March 17, 2015, London, Sri Lanka Guardian)  It is one of the strangest states ever created. The Islamic State wants to force all humanity to believe in its vision of a religious and social utopia existing in the first days of Islam. Women are to be treated as chattels, forbidden to leave the house unless they are accompanied by a male relative. People deemed to be pagans, like the Yazidis, can be bought and sold as slaves. Punishments such as beheadings, amputations and flogging become the norm. All those not pledging allegiance to the caliphate declared by its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, on 29 June last year are considered enemies.

Life Under Isis by Thavam Ratna