Monday, April 20, 2015

OISL in acid test over witness submissions on ‘Gota camp’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2015, 21:30 GMT]
The revelations on the so-called Gota camp, a secret incarceration camp run by the occupying Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in Trincomalee, where at least 700 former LTTE members were illegally detained for more than five years, will be an acid test to conclude whether the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) has taken the eyewitness submissions seriously, one of the survivors who got out from the notorious detention just a few days before the regime change told TamilNet on Saturday. The whereabouts of those detained at the undisclosed ‘Gota’ camp also constitute a serious question on the conduct of the ‘new’ regime in South. In the meantime, informed sources in Colombo told TamilNet that the SL military has given a figure of less than 400 former LTTE members as being alive in its custody throughout the island.

“If there are only a few in the detention, then there has been a systematic slaughter of incarcerated Tamils over a long period of time throughout the last five years. The crime was not only committed at the end of the Vanni war as it has been projected outside,” an activist involved in protecting the witnesses commented.

“We have eyewitness reports that there were at least 700 former LTTE members at one of these undisclosed camps last year. What has happened to them,” the activist asked.

Only a few have managed to come out of the secret detention and they have submitted their reports to the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL), the activist told TamilNet.

Recently, when Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran took up the issue in the SL Parliament, the incumbent SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe ended up repeating the blanket denial given by the SLN. There were no investigations on the matter. The SL regime has also denied the knowledge on the existence of any such camp in the past.

But, at least two survivors have managed to secure their release before the recent regime change. These witnesses confirm that there were at least 700 former LTTE members in the highly defended incarceration camp.

The surviving witnesses from the notorious Gota camp told TamilNet that Sinhala soldiers were tightly guarding the incarceration camp. There were different zones of the camp, separating the detainees from each other. Only a few, around 35, were detained with their families including their children. All of them were persons who either ‘surrendered’ or who were filtered away from the people at Vadduvaakal in Mullaiththeevu at the end of the genocidal onslaught on Vanni in May 2009, the witnesses further said.

The postponement of the OISL report came as a shock to the survivors. “The postponement has given legitimacy to the claims of Mr Wickramasinghe,” one of the survivors complained.

While the regime in Colombo keeps denying any knowledge of the camp, the SL military intelligence is trying to block the applicants of Habeas Corpus cases being heard at Mullaiththeevu courts from witnessing the proceedings.

Sri Lanka: Democracy and Its Necessary Discontents

This therefore is the SLFP’s DUNF moment. Like the DUNF, Mahinda & Co is unlikely to win more than 10% of the vote. And if there is a post-election haemorrhaging, the flow is likely to be from Mahinda Rajapaksa’s rump faction to the official SLFP and not the other way around.

“…..the politician who claims that his administration is perfect is a tyrant.” Timothy Ferris (The Science of Liberty)

by Tisaranee Gunasekara

( April 19, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Eight hundred years ago England’s King John gave his unwilling consent to Magna Carta. The Great Charter offered a modicum of protection from arbitrary royal power to ‘free men’. In that time ‘free men’ were few and far between, amounting to no more than a quarter of England’s population.

Sri Lanka Democracy and Its Necessary Discontents by Thavam Ratna

Sunday, April 19, 2015

The Need For Accelerating The Pace Of Prosecutions

By Emil van der Poorten –April 19, 2015

Emil van der Poorten

While the endless yammering of the Dayan Jayatillekas and Rajiva Wijesinhas continues unabated both in Colombo Telegraph and the mainline media, suggesting that the same criteria were applied in the awarding of the PdDs to them as was to Dr Mervin Silva, the government of the day continues on its path of procrastination in the matter of bringing those who raped and pillaged this country to book.

Apart from the unacceptable permissiveness that this conduct by theSirisena-Wickremesinghe cabal displays, they do not appear to realize the personal danger they are placing themselves in. There is an oft-quoted dictum to the effect that those who do not read history end up paying the ultimate prices for such neglect. And we do have a historical precedent (or two) in this matter right here in Sri Lanka.

Our politicians appear to have terminally short memories, considering that one of their number, the iconic (I use the term in its broadest application here!), Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike was done in because those who wanted him gone saw him as standing in the way of their self-aggrandisement. This is made even worse if you take the “mad Buddhist priest, Somarama,” out of the tale and substitute the notorious Ossie Corea as the man who actually pulled the trigger.

The late Don Philip R. Gunawardena made no bones about the fact that he knew who was behind the assassination: some of those closest to SWRDB, both personally and politically. There is a real irony in the loudmouth son of ”The Lion of Borolugoda,” Dinesh, being one of those leading the charge to restoreRajapaksa to the wanna-be 21^st century Monarchy of Sri Lanka, our home-grown version of the House of Windsor! That certainly sounds like it runs contrary to the old saying that the fruit does not fall far from the tree!

Anyway, back to the burden of my refrain and the real danger to the current political establishment and, most important, the prospect of the restoration of something resembling democratic practice in this country.

19/04/2015

On Tuesday, the new Government is optimistic that those parts of the 19th Amendment (19A) to the 1978 Constitution — cleared by the Supreme Court — would be passed by a two-thirds majority in Parliament, notwithstanding undercurrents of a spoiler by lawmakers unhappy with the outcome of the January 8 Presidential election.

While there is general acceptance to whittling down the powers of the Executive Presidency, the contentious issue is that electoral reforms must also be passed at the same time. That is nothing but a ploy to scuttle 19A. One of the progressive measures the new Government promised and has taken meaningful steps in implementing is the long-felt need for a Right to Information Law. International covenants encourage such a law and modern democratic nations have embraced it in the pursuit of good governance.

Sri Lanka might well have been the first to adopt such an RTI Law in this part of the world, more than a decade ago, when the Ranil Wickremesinghe government in its previous avatar put body and mind behind this law only to see it being frustrated at the final post when the then President, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, dissolved Parliament prematurely just when the bill was about to be placed in the Order Paper of Parliament. From being one of the first countries in South Asia, Sri Lanka now has the dubious distinction of being – probably – the last to bring in such a law. Probably, because there is still the chance of Parliament being dissolved once again – this time on the insistence of Premier Wickremesinghe himself, before the law is passed.

For all those years between 2004 and 2015, neither the Kumaratunga Government nor the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government was interested in bringing in this law. The latter deliberately filibustered on the matter when Opposition MPs tried to bring in this law even as a Private Member’s bill. The regime promised to bring one of its own. The reasons for this vacillation are patently clear – the Government wanted to hide its secrets from the very people it claimed to work for.

In bringing the Right to Information Law, the new Government has gone one step further — i.e. to enshrine the Right to Information as a citizen’s constitutional right. One cannot ask for more from a Government that proudly claims to have ‘Yahapalanaya’ (Good Governance) as the backbone of its administration. This it has done by expanding the Fundamental Rights chapter of the Constitution and widening the scope of Article 14 which deals with Freedom of Expression.

Alas, by this noble deed, the Government has, inadvertently (as it cannot be intentionally) defeated the very purpose for which it is introducing the RTI Law. How so? It is by introducing into the proposed 19th Amendment (19A) words that wholly negate what the draft RTI Law permits as Exceptions to the Right to Information. The 19A includes as exceptions to a citizen’s Right to Information vague grounds such as “for the protection of morals – and the reputation or the rights of others,” the interpretations of which are so wide that persons wanting to hide information, especially politicians in power, can easily take cover behind these exceptions. These apart, outdated concepts like Contempt of Court, Parliamentary Privilege and other restrictions have been included in these exceptions. It is clear that the drafters of the 19A have taken the constitutional restrictions applicable to Freedom of Expression in the 1978 Constitution and merely done a cut-and-paste job to slot them into the 19A and impose them wholesale in regard to the proposed constitutional provision that makes Right to Information a constitutional guarantee of each citizen. Some say it is the Attorney General who has done so, probably as an abundance of caution.

The progressive nature of the new Government has been defeated by this if it is merely to go way back to the 1978 Constitution. The democratic world has moved on in the past 35 plus years and the Wickremesinghe Government knows that only too well. By dusting and re-introducing these regressive, retrograde constitutional provisions, the carefully drafted proposed subsidiary Right to Information Law becomes virtually meaningless.

Some of these exceptions were not included even a decade ago when the Prime Minister himself presided over the committee overseeing the draft RTI Bill (of 2004) together with the then Attorney General and others. Yes, there must be provisions for the protection of the interest of the administration of justice and even the rights of MPs, but not by bringing in sweeping cover through Contempt of Court (for which there is a separate demand asking for a law on Contempt of Court) and Parliamentary Privilege. (Please see a more detailed analysis in the ‘Focus on Rights’ by our Legal columnist Kishali Pinto Jayawardena).

A modern Constitutional Right to Information Law should not contain outdated restrictions but should be based on the modern principle of maximum disclosure as informed public opinion is the most potent of all restraints upon misgovernment and an open information regime – a principle this Government and almost all its partners have accepted as a bulwark against runaway autocracy.

Amendments to the Right to Information provision in the 19A, therefore, need another look even at this late hour if the RTI Law that is to follow is not to become not even worth the paper it is printed on instead of being one of the revolutionary and significant pieces of legislation this new Government would introduce.

Second-rate 19A better than no 19A

History will award Ranil-Sirisena 100-days a ‘Pass without Distinction’

Pass; but could have done better

by Kumar David-April 18, 2015,

If one were to make a fair and sober evaluation of the Ranil-Sirisena (R&S; the order is intentional) administration, the judgement of history would be that it was not a failure but it achieved less than it could and should have. The big achievement of course was that it happened at all - it was a vehicle that by its mere happening ended the abominable Mahinda Rajapaksa proto-dictatorship. The credit goes to thousands, including Ranil and Sirisena, who stuck out their necks and fought abuse of entrenched power and astronomical amounts of money. January 8 in itself was the apogee of this achievement. Further achievements are the change of provincial governors and the dismissal of a rat donned in the mantle of a CJ, a malevolent UGC Chair and rotten eggs in the state and corporate sectors. The Weliamuna Board of Inquiry into corruption in Sri Lanka Airlines is an exemplar of more that could have been done but was not. High marks must be awarded for the suffused but significant change in the long prevalent mood of Sinhalese-Tamil hostility which has been noticeably alleviated. And finally, President Sirisena and his charming and dignified wife have enhanced Lanka’s image in the foreign capitals they visited.

Second-rate 19A Better Than No 19A by Thavam Ratna

Hundred Days and After

During the presidential election campaign, as astrologer after astrologer declared Rajapaksa victory to be a divinely mandated inevitability, a beggar in Galle made a bet that the winner will be Maithripala Sirisena. Having voted for Mr. Rajapaksa in 2010, the beggar changed because of the way he and others at the rock-bottom of society were treated by the triumphant Rajapaksas. Whenever President Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary Rajapaksa or Parliamentarian Rajapaksa was scheduled to go by, the police would forcibly herd all beggars out of the royal-sight. The beggar obviously realised the connection between his personal humiliation and the rulers’ real attitude to ordinary men and women.

by Tisaranee Gunasekara

“…..to hold in a single thought reality and justice.” – W B Yeats (A Vision)

( April 19, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Governor of the Central Bank was summoned to the Bribery Commission and grilled for six hours. A three-month travel ban was imposed on him.

Hundred Days and After by Thavam Ratna

An Open Letter To Hon. Member Of The Parliament

By Krishan Deheragoda -April 18, 2015

Prof. Krishan Deheragoda

ByDear Hon. Member of the Parliament Representing the People of Sri Lanka,

Sri Lankan Alumni and Professionals Association (SLAPA) represents the scholars and professionals of Sri Lankan origin, who are conscious of their indebtedness to the People of our Motherland for the gift of free education and are religiously dedicated to achieve the primary goal of SLAPA ‘to make our Motherland a better place to live for ourselves and our posterity’.

We recognise that it is our fervent duty and priority to be united and arrest the gradual erosion that has occurred during the last few decades in national unity, dignity, peace, good governance, rule of the law, social equity, rights of the people and social values as clearly evident by all relevant indicators. Unless we abandon this destructive course and effect a conscious change in our vision and engagement, our hope for a better Sri Lanka would become a mere myth.

We value and welcome the promises given by both Presidential Candidates at the last presidential election in their respective manifestos for amendments to the constitution, good governance and other people friendly reforms. These positive changes have been endorsed by 6.2 million and 5.8 million people respectively. Our informed opinion is that the entire constitution must be replaced. However, we expect all parties in the Parliament to work in a harmony and achieve consensus not to waste the present window of opportunity arising from a unique political formation for effecting at least limited constitutional changes that are nationally important and constructive in the long run as outlined below:

The independent commissions established by the 17th Amendment as the foundation for good governance, but had been defunct by the 18th Amendment to be reinstated with further improvements through the 19th Amendment;Read More

Firearm Licenses Issued Without Training

By Indika Sri Aravinda-Sunday, April 19, 2015

The Defence Ministry had issued 3,000 firearm licenses in the resent past to persons who had not been trained in weapons handling.

According to informed sources, these weapons licences were issued to politicians, security force personnel and leading businessmen.

However, around 200 of these personnel who were granted these firearm licenses have been trained at the Special Task Force camp in Katukurunda on the use and handling of firearms, while the rest of the 2,800 persons who received the licenses will undergo training in the future.

One of the course participants who recently underwent the training, the UNP Mahiyanganaya organizer Dr Pradeep Wijewardena said that he had been given training over a period of five days and four hours per day.

He further stated that in addition to the handling and usage of the weapons, he also underwent training on the instances that these weapons can be used as well.

These weapons are issued by the Defence Ministry on the recommendations of a special committee. Dr Wijewardena further saud that during the past, although those issued with weapons licenses were given training on the use of these weapons by the Army, they had not been educated on the laws pertaining to the use of a firearms.

On the 02nd of last month, those who had been issued with the firearm licences had been summoned to the Defence Ministry and were informed that anyone who did not undergo the firearm training program would risk losing their licence.

When The Sunday Leader contacted the police spokesman ASP Ruwan Gunasekara in this regard, he said that the training was carried out by the STF in accordance with a circular issued by the defence ministry and that the police was bound by secrecy to not reveal the personal details of the participants. However, the police spokesman said that so far no survey had been made on the number of weapons in our society.

‘Solid waste no more waste but like gold’ says Sri Lankan-born scientist C. Visvanathan

April 20, 2015

How would we react to a nauseatingly stinking dump of garbage in the vicinity? Stinking of all kinds of foul odours because it is in various stages of natural decomposition? Many of us would wrinkle up our noses and try to walk away from it as fast as possible. That is because for many of us, garbage is a waste, a polluter of environment and a violator of our aesthetic feelings. Hence, in our judgment, garbage is something that should not be there in a decent environment.

When you see a heap of dirt, you must see a beautiful rose

‘Solid Waste No More Waste but Like Gold’ Says Sri Lankan-born Scientist C. Visvanathan by Thavam Ratna

Ex - UN envoy Kshenuka to be exonerated?

Who Is Kshenuka ? : Tigress Or Lioness

Sunday, 19 April 2015

The Foreign Ministry will submit a report to the Parliament’s High Posts Committee on former Foreign Secretary and former Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Kshenuka Seneviratne, likely to exonerate her of charges with regard to ‘Genevagate.’

Seneviratne was mired in controversy over the alleged awarding of a contract to renovate her official residence in Geneva, to a company based in Zurich with alleged links to the Liberation Tigers. She is currently serving as an Additional Secretary overseeing economic affairs at the Foreign Ministry.

Foreign Ministry sources rejected reports that Seneviratne has been summoned before the High Posts Committee to explain herself.

The top source said, the contract which is attributed to her on the renovation of the official residence of the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva, was initiated by the Charge d’Affaires of Lanka’s mission, before Seneviratne’s arrival in Geneva.

However, construction work began soon after Seneviratne assumed duties. A former Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Tamara Kunanayakam had claimed that Seneviratne had authorised the work on the official residence to be carried out by a company linked to the LTTE, disregarding the stipulated tender procedure.

Ministry sources confirmed that a report will be submitted to the High Posts Committee, but refused to elaborate on its contents.

Seneviratne assumed duties as the Ambassador to UN in Geneva on November 15, 2009, succeeding Dayan Jayatilake and preceding Tamara Kunanayakam who was offered the posting in 2011 by the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The source added the Charge d’ Affaires in Geneva at the time had awarded the contract to renovate the official residence to a company, ‘Shelva Zug of Zurich’ owned by P.T. Thurairajah.

The Procurement Committee had approved the award of the contract on November 5. 2009.

When allegations were made that Thurairajah’s company had LTTE links, the then Head of Chancery of the Sri Lanka Mission in Geneva U.L.M. Jauhar wrote to Pierrer-Yves Huguenin of the Swiss Federal Intelligence, requesting the commencement of an inquiry in April 2012. The Swiss Federal Intelligence Service cleared Thurairajah of any LTTE links.Seneviratne was elevated to the post of Foreign Secretary in January 2014 and served till the change of government after January 8 and appointment of Minister Mangala Samaraweera as the new Foreign Minister.

Seneviratne is now slated to become Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Thailand.
- by Manjula Fernando
http://www.sundayobserver.lk

Shocking Move By CMC

By Nirmala Kannangara

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Colombo Municipal Council’s (CMC) shocking decision to outsource the laboratory service to conduct specialised analysis on water and food tests and on food handlers that was earlier carried out by the CMC laboratory to a private laboratory owned by a family member of a senior UPFA politician has deprived an income to the council, it is learnt.

Although the CMC microbiological laboratory is 103 years old, it is still a fully- fledged laboratory that could conduct specialised analysis on water and food and also on all food handlers in the metropolis. This laboratory also controlled communicable diseases and outbreaks right through out. Despite the CMC Microbiological Laboratory’s capability in conducting specialised analysis, without giving any valid reasons the CMC, has instructed the PHIs to divert all laboratory tests to this private laboratory in Bambalapitiya and has requested all city hoteliers to follow suite- to pay this private laboratory and get their tests done from last year.

Shocking Move by CMC by Thavam Ratna

What Ails Our National Carrier – III

By Rajeewa Jayaweera -April 19, 2015

Rajeewa Jayaweera

Details of the report of the Board of Inquiry (BoI) headed by Senior LawyerJ.C. Weliamuna is now in the public domain. It contains a sizable inventory of instances of mismanagement and abuse of position attributed to the former Chairman Nishantha Wickramasinghe and former Director/CEO Kapila Chandrasena ranging from irregular appointments and promotions, blatant external interferences and abuses, awarding of contracts without following proper procedures, matters related to Air Lanka Catering, politically motivated Advertising & Sponsorships, the failed Air Taxi Operation, an unaffordable re-fleeting program without being phased out, air-craft configuration and poor Corporate Governance. The first two chapters are dedicated to the recruitment, conduct and remuneration of former Chairman and former Director/CEO. Comments have been made of the former Chairman’s inappropriate interest in Cabin Crew and attitude of Head of Human Resources on sexual harassment.

At this point, the writer would like to go back in time to 1986 when President JR Jayawardena in August 1986 set up a ‘Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Affairs of Air Lanka Ltd.’. The final report was submitted in April 1987. It was a thorough and comprehensive report delving into all major areas and highlighting the many instances of mismanagement and dereliction of duty by then Chairman and Board members.

The first Board appointed in January 1979 consisted of Chairman/Managing Director Rakitha S Wickramanayake who was a Pilot by profession, Secretary to Cabinet GVP Samarasinghe, Solicitor General VC Gunathilake, one time senior Civil Servant and UN Administrator Rajendra Coomaraswamy who passed away shortly afterwards and was replaced by ANU Jayawardena, a Lawyer and a Director of several leading companies in Sri Lanka and DC Wijesekera, a very senior Chartered Accountant and a former President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Sri Lanka. The Solicitor General resigned in 1979 and was replaced by Secretary to Treasury Dr WM Thilakeratne. The Government spared no efforts in providing then Chairman/MD assistance and expertise of some of Sri Lanka’s best in the fields of administration, law and finance.

Arjuna Mahendran not directly involved in treasury bound issue: committee

Full statement issued by the Ministry of Policy Planning and Economic Affairs..

April 19, 2015

The committee of eminent lawyers which inquired into the 30-year Treasury Bond issuance has made far reaching recommendations to ensure transparency and better governance at the Central Bank.

The three-member Committee had interviewed a large number of individuals, including the governor, officials from the Central Bank, primary dealers and Perpetual Treasuries.

Several deficiencies in the bank’s Public Debt Department (PDD) which handles all matters relating to servicing the domestic and foreign debt of the government of Sri Lanka was observed by the Committee.
Since the PDD is dealing with the most sensitive information of the government, the committee is of the opinion that a proper supervisory and monitoring mechanism has to be immediately implemented with regard to its activities,” the committee said in its 19-page report.

However, the committee found that Governor ArjunaMahendran had no direct role in deciding to accept bids over and above the one billion rupees stipulated in the 30-year bond tender and accept up to 10 billion rupees. The PDD had projected the government’s funding requirement as at 2nd March 2015 at 13.55 billion rupees.

Even though the minutes of the Monetary Board number 4/2015 specifies to issue a 30-year treasury bond, the amount of the bond has not been decided by the Monetary Board (of which the governor is the chairman).

This exercise is vested with the PDD as per the Operational Manual of the PDD. The decision to accept the excess amount has been taken by the Tender Board Committee that comprises eight members.

The governor of Central Bank of Sri Lanka is not a member of the Tender Board Committee.

The Committee concluded that there was no evidence to the effect that the governor had direct participation with regard to the activities of the PDD and the Tender Board Committee.

However, the Committee noted serious lapses on the part of the Bank of Ceylon (BOC) through whom Perpetual Treasuries had routed an unusually large amount of bids for the 30-year bond.

The Committee observed that the bidding pattern of Perpetual Treasuries was unusual and warranted a further investigation.

It noted that the Bank of Ceylon should also carry out a forensic audit and seek explanations from its Chief Dealer and others on ad-hoc decisions risking a large amount of BOC funds involved in the 30-year bond transaction.

The three-member Committee that looked into the 30-year bond issue consisted:

GaminiPitipana (Attorney-At-Law)
Chairman
Mahesh Kalugampitiya (Attorney-At-Law)
Committee Member
ChandimalMendis (Attorney-At-Law)
Committee Member