‘I am eager to met MR in Court: Mangala

2015-05-17
Claiming that he has received the letter of demand sent by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa over his statement about the former first family’s asset, foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said he was ready to meet former President Rajapaksa at the Court. 

“The letter of demand with three pages sent by my former friend Mahinda Rajapakse requesting one billion rupees was received. I am eagerly waiting to meet him in Court and I have so many things to tell him,” he said addressing a meeting in Matara on Saturday. 

He also said that the assistance was sought from four countries to find out the robbed money by Rajapakse family members. 

These were no money deposited in Sri Lanka.  They have swindled billions of money with the name of development,” he added. (Krishan Jeewaka Jayaruk) - See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/72709/i-am-eager-to-met-mr-in-court-mangala#sthash.CzTP7wjq.dpuf

Kabul suicide attack: British security contractor among three dead

Taliban claim responsibility for attack near airport on convoy belonging to EU police mission that also killed two Afgan girls and injured 22 others

Sune Engel Rasmussen in Kabul0-Sunday 17 May 2015

A British security contractor was among three people killed in Kabul on Sunday when a suicide bomber attacked a convoy belonging to the European Union police mission (Eupol) outside the Afghan capital’s airport.

Kabul Suicide Attack British Security Contractor Among Three Dead by Thavam Ratna

Genocide is Going Out of Fashion

Though the world seems crueler than ever, a close look at the data about mass killings yields reasons to hope.

BY JAY ULFELDER-MAY 14, 2015

In a recent Democracy Lab piece, editor Christian Caryl laments that genocide and mass atrocities continue to occur, and wonders why. After nodding to arguments that “we’ve made a lot of progress in preventing mass slaughter,” he turns pessimistic:

I have to confess that I don’t find the signs of progress he cites quite so encouraging. There are far too many places in the world where people are still being singled out for death on a grand scale simply because they belong to the wrong group.

Genocide is Going Out of Fashion by Thavam Ratna

War crime: NATO deliberately destroyed Libya's water infrastructure

Deprived of piped water supply by NATO's bombing of critical infrastructure, a man in post-invasion Libya fills up a bottle of water from a muddy puddle. Photo: British Red Cross.

Nafeez Ahmed-14th May 2015

The military targeting of civilian infrastructure, especially of water supplies, is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions, writes Nafeez Ahmed. Yet this is precisely what NATO did in Libya, while blaming the damage on Gaddafi himself. Since then, the country's water infrastructure - and the suffering of its people - has only deteriorated further.

The deliberate destruction of a nation's water infrastructure, with the knowledge that doing so would result in massive deaths of the population as a direct consequence, is not simply a war crime, but potentially a genocidal strategy.

Numerous reports comment on the water crisis that is escalating across Libya as consumption outpaces production. Some have noted the environmental context in regional water scarcity due to climate change.

But what they ignore is the fact that the complex national irrigation system that had been carefully built and maintained over decades to overcome this problem was targeted and disrupted by NATO.

During the 2011 military invasion, press reports surfaced, mostly citing pro-rebel sources, claiming that pro-Gaddafi loyalists had shut down the water supply system as a mechanism to win the war and punish civilians.

This is a lie.

But truth, after all, is the first casualty of war - especially for mainstream media journos who can't be bothered to fact-check the claims of people they interview in war zones, while under pressure from editors to produce copy that doesn't rock too many boats.

Critical water installations bombed - then blamed on Gaddafi

It was in fact NATO which debilitated Libya's water supply by targeting critical state-owned water installations, including a water-pipe factory in Brega.

The factory, one of just two in the country (the other one being in Gaddafi's home-town of Sirte), manufactured pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipes for the Great Manmade River (GMR) project, an ingenious irrigation system transporting water from aquifers beneath Libya's southern desert to about 70% of the population.

On 18th July, a rebel commander boasted that some of Gaddafi's troops had holed up in industrial facilities in Brega, but that rebels had blocked their access to water: "Their food and water supplies are cut and they now will not be able to sleep."

In other words, the rebels, not Gaddafi loyalists, had sabotaged the GMR water pipeline into Brega. On 22nd July, NATO followed up by bombing the Brega water-pipes factory on the pretext that it was a Gaddafi "military storage" facility concealing rocket launchers.

"Major parts of the plant have been damaged", said Abdel-Hakim el-Shwehdy, head of the company running the project. "There could be major setback for the future projects."

Legitimate military target left untouched in the attack

When asked to provide concrete evidence of Gaddafi loyalists firing from inside the water-pipe factory, NATO officials failed to answer. Instead, NATO satellite images shown to journalists confirm that a BM-21 rocket launcher identified near the facility days earlier, remained perfectly intact the day after the NATO attack.

Earlier, NATO forces had already bombed water facilities in Sirte, killing several"employees of the state water utility who were working during the attack."

By August, UNICEF reported that the conflict had "put the Great Manmade River Authority, the primary distributor of potable water in Libya, at risk of failing to meet the country's water needs."

The same month, Agence France Presse reported that the GMR "could be crippled by the lack of spare parts and chemicals" - reinforced by NATO's destruction of water installations critical to the GMR in Sirte and Brega.

The GMR is now "struggling to keep reservoirs at a level that can provide a sustainable supply", UN officials said. "If the project were to fail, agencies fear a massive humanitarian emergency."

Christian Balslev-Olesen, UNICEF Libya's head of office, warned that the city faced "an absolute worst-case scenario" that "could turn into an unprecedented health epidemic"without resumption of water supplies.

Stratfor email: 'So much shit doesn't add up here'

While pro-rebel sources attempted to blame Gaddafi loyalists for the disruption of Libya's water supply, leaked emails from the US intelligence contractor Stratfor, which publiclyendorsed these sources, show that the firm privately doubted its own claims.

"So much shit doesn't add up here", wrote Bayless Parsley, Stratfor's Middle East analyst, in an email to executives. "I am pretty much not confident in ANY of the sources ... If anything, just need to be very clear how contradictory all the information is on this project ... a lot of the conclusions drawn from it are not really air tight."

But the private US intelligence firm, which has played a key role in liaising with senior Pentagon officials in facilitating military intelligence operations, was keenly aware of what the shutdown of the GMR would mean for Libya's population:

"Since the first phase of the 'river's' construction in 1991, Libya's population has doubled. Remove that river and, well, there would likely be a very rapid natural correction back to normal carrying capacities."

"How often do Libyans bathe? You'd have drinking water for a month if you skipped a shower", joked Kevin Stech, a Stratfor research director. "Seriously. Cut the baths and the showers and your well water should suffice for drinking and less-than-optional hygiene."

The truth - government officials were trying to keep water flowing

Meanwhile, UNICEF confirmed that Libyan government officials were not sabotaging water facilities, but in fact working closely with a UN technical team to "facilitate an assessment of water wells, review urgent response options and identify alternatives for water sources."

Nevertheless, by September, UNICEF reported that the disruption to the GMR had left 4 million Libyans without potable water.

The GMR remains disrupted to this day, and Libya's national water crisis continues to escalate.

The deliberate destruction of a nation's water infrastructure, with the knowledge that doing so would result in massive deaths of the population as a direct consequence, is not simply a war crime, but potentially a genocidal strategy.

It raises serious questions about the conventional mythology of a clean, humanitarian war in Libya - questions that mainstream journalists appear to be uninterested in, or unable to ask.

Iraqi Sunnis flee Anbar only to find new dangers in Baghdad

Displaced families from Ramadi in the courtyard of a mosque in Baghdad's Ghazalia neighborhood. The displaced families are too afraid to step outside the mosque's grounds for fear of being targeted. (Ayman Oghanna/for The Washington Post)

By Loveday Morris0-May 17

BAGHDAD — Her baby was coming, but the woman couldn’t move.

Asra Khalaf Hamid, a waifish 27-year-old, sat on steps outside a mosque on the outskirts of the Iraqi capital, wincing from contractions. Inside, around 40 families who had also fled fighting in western Anbar province last month had set up a makeshift home.

On the gate to the street was a large padlock. The displaced families were not allowed to leave the premises, except in emergencies. Hamid’s family said they were too afraid to travel to the hospital alone, anyway, and they were waiting for an ambulance to arrive.

“We need protection to guarantee we’ll stay alive on the road,” said Anwar Hamid, her 35-year-old brother-in-law.

The scene in the Ghazaliya neighborhood offered a glimpse into the plight facing Iraq’s most recently displaced. More than 100,000 people left their homes after intense fighting between government troops and Islamic State militants in Sunni-dominated Anbar in April, rushing to Baghdad and the Shiite-dominated provinces of the south. Thousands more are seeking to flee Anbar after intense fighting in recent days in the city of Ramadi.

Displaced families from Ramadi seek protection in a mosque in the Ghazalia neighborhood. The morgue has reported a rise in suspected sectarian killings. (Ayman Oghanna/for The Washington Post)

They are just the latest people forced from their homes by the conflict in Iraq, where 2.8 million people have been internally displaced since the start of 2014, according to the International Organization of Migration.

But the newcomers have fled the bloodshed in Anbar only to be met with suspicion and hostility. Some officials in Baghdad have linked the influx of Sunnis to a wave of car bombings. The displaced complain of harassment by security forces and powerful Shiite militias who worry that the people reaching Baghdad may have ties to the Islamic State. The capital’s morgue has reported an increase in suspected sectarian killings.

“What’s happening to us is a slow death: terror, hunger, no money, no home,” said Khalid Ahmed, 41, from the Tamim neighborhood of Ramadi, who fled with his wife and three children last month. “If we stay there, Islamic State will kill us; here, the militias.”

On arrival, the families were asked to hand over their identity cards to the mosque management, preventing them from traveling around Baghdad, with its numerous checkpoints where IDs are scrutinized. The imam said the security measure was requested by the police.

“They aren’t allowed to go out for their own safety,” said Majid Hamid, the imam of the mosque in Ghazaliya, a mixed but Sunni-dominated neighborhood notorious for bloodletting during the sectarian conflict that occurred after the 2003 U.S. invasion. “We are afraid people will target them for sectarian reasons. The families are terrified of what is unknown.”

By the time arrangements were made for Asra Hamid to leave the mosque and an ambulance arrived, she had been in labor for more than four hours. When she finally made it to the hospital, her unborn baby had died.

The family did not blame the mosque, which paid for the woman’s hospital treatment, but they said her story was indicative of the difficulties facing the newly displaced.

Sunnis targeted in Baghdad

Residents of two majority Shiite neighborhoods in the capital, Hayy al-Amal and Bayya, said displaced families settling there have largely been driven out. Their homes were targeted with explosives designed to make a large sound but not inflict casualties, they said.

The neighborhoods have been shattered by regular car bombings, making the arrival of people from the Sunni province where the Islamic State has a firm foothold very sensitive. Residents say they worry extremist militants will infiltrate the city by arriving with the displaced.

Making matters worse, the Islamic State has claimed bombings in the name of the displaced Sunnis.

For their first two weeks in Baghdad, the extended Hamid family, which includes 14 people, had stayed with a friend in the majority Shiite neighborhood of Zafraniya. They say security forces regularly searched their friend’s house during that period and questioned them on their movements. After they heard about two incidents in which Sunnis from Anbar province were killed elsewhere in Baghdad, the Hamid family left.

“We couldn’t stay there and put my friend’s family in danger,” said Anwar Hamid.

The security forces say the killings are isolated incidents.

Saad Maan, spokesman for Iraq’s interior ministry, said 14 killings of Sunnis from Anbar in Baghdad in recent weeks are under investigation. Those include the slaying of seven members of the Albunimr tribe as well as four other men in the largely Shiite neighborhood of Bayaa.

Sheikh Naim al-Gaoud, an Albunimr tribal leader and parliamentarian, said that one day last month, at midnight, three gunmen came to a house occupied by a family who had been displaced from Anbar earlier in the year and asked them to leave by the morning.

The family decided to do so, but before their departure, the gunmen returned. A 5 a.m., they kidnapped eight men from the family, he said. Women and children were left behind.

The next day, seven of the men were found shot dead, an eighth critically wounded. Gaoud complained his tribe was being persecuted, even though it fiercely fought Islamic State militants in Anbar. Some 300 families from his tribe who were living in the capital have all left, he said.

Meanwhile, the number of unidentified bodies turning up in the Baghdad morgue has risen, according to the head of the morgue, Ziad Ali — seen as a sign of an increase in sectarian killings.

He declined to give exact numbers but said that instead of receiving around one unidentified body a day, there were now around five times that. “Every day is different, but there’s an increase,” he said.

In a recent statement, the Islamic State said six bombings in the capital were in revenge for the killings of displaced Sunnis.

While bombings and extrajudicial killings have exacerbated tensions, a cross-section of people across the capital have also rallied to help the displaced.

At the Sunni Burhan Addin mosque in the Jamia neighborhood, a group of Shiite volunteers has brought new supplies for the 120 families here, who have a greater degree of freedom but must still request permission to leave the premises. Helicopters circled low overhead one recent day.

“It’s normal,” said Ramzi Jassim Abu Seif, who runs the camp. “For security.”

Families complain that some of the displaced have been turned back from Baghdad, where a strict sponsorship system is in place, requiring families to have a guarantor in the city to vouch for them before they enter.

“They treat them like they are not Iraqi,” Abu Seif said. Security forces contend that the measures are necessary to stop Islamic State militants from sneaking in with the displaced.

“It’s sensitive and important,” said Qais al-Khazali, the leader of Shiite militia Asaib Ahl al-Haq, of the issue of displaced families in a recent news conference in the southern city of Najaf.

“These families were threatened, and it’s the duty of all Iraqis to look after them, but there is also a security angle. These provinces have a lot of Daesh” or Islamic State fighters, he said. “It’s possible that infiltrators will come with them. It’s not right to punish innocent people, but there need to be security checks.”

Mustafa Salim contributed to this report.

The political Pope: does the Vatican have diplomatic clout?

SUNDAY 17 MAY 2015
Pope Francis names two Palestinian women as saints just days after the Vatican formalised its de facto recognition of the Palestine state. Channel 4 News takes a look at his other political battles.

The canonisation of Sister Marie-Alphonsine Danil Ghattas, founder of the Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary of Jerusalem, and Maryam Baouardy, who founded a Carmelite convent in Bethlehem, was not directly connected with the Vatican's Wednesday announcement of a new accord with the State of Palestine.

The Political Pope Does the Vatican Have Diplomatic Clout by Thavam Ratna

India to open $1 billion credit line to finance infrastructure in Mongolia

Mongolia's Prime Minister Chimediin Saikhanbileg (R) talks to India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi as they attend a signing ceremony at the national parliament building in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, May 17, 2015-REUTERS/B. RENTSENDORJ

ULAN BATOR | BY TERRENCE EDWARDS-Sun May 17, 2015

India will open a $1 billion credit line to bolster Mongolia's "economic capacity and infrastructure", the Mongolian and Indian prime ministers announced on Sunday.

Mongolia is seeking investment in infrastructure for the transport of its minerals as well as in generating energy. Money has been tight for the Mongolian government since the coal market in China weakened and growth has slowed.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he hoped his visit would bring closer economic relations that could lead to cooperation in Mongolia's minerals sector. India has no investments in Mongolia's mines, although Indian companies have expressed interest in its coal.

Modi said economic relations between the two countries had been modest though that would change as India grew.

"As the Indian economy adds strength to our region and the world, it will also benefit Mongolia," he said.

Modi began a three-nation Asian tour on Thursday with a focus on economic ties.

Before Ulan Bator, Modi visited the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Beijing. He is next scheduled to go to South Korea.

    Mongolian Prime Minister Chimed Saikhanbileg said India would be opening a $1 billion credit line that could be used for expanding the landlocked nation's railway system.

Mongolia is building a rail link from its coal mines in the Gobi desert to overcome bottlenecks in deliveries to China, but it is seeking funding to finish the job.

    Saikhanbileg also mentioned establishing a "joint investment fund" but he did not elaborate.

Indian and Mongolian officials signed 14 agreements in areas such as renewable energy, cyber security and dairy production.

Modi's visit to Ulan Bator was the first by an Indian prime minister although India was the first country to open diplomatic relations with the north Asian country outside of the Soviet bloc, in 1955.

Modi said India and Mongolia shared friendly connections, recalling how millennia ago, Indians helped bring Buddhism.

  "We have a strong convergence of views," Modi said, adding: "We are starting a new era in our partnership."

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

This tiny car can change shape, drive sideways

Mashable
BY LANCE ULANOFF-MAY 08, 2015

Why do we call the Mercedes Benz Smart Car smart — when it's really just small?

A truly smart car might be able to drive sideways, like the equally tiny, shape shifting EO Smart Connecting Car 2.

A research project from the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, the EO 2 is designed for crowded cities where rush hours are nightmares and parking in nearly non-existent.

Though just a prototype, the EO 2 gives ample evidence of how some of its innovations could lead to truly smart, even flexible cars.

SEE ALSO: I cruised the streets of Las Vegas in a self-driving Audi

Painted white and featuring large windows and butterfly doors, the all-electric EO 2 looks like the future. It drives like the future, too.

All four of EO 2's wheel's can rotate 90 degrees, so that they're perpendicular to the car's body. This allows the vehicle to not only spin in a perfect circle, but when the wheels are fully turned, drive sideways.

Cars capable of this feat could mean the end of parallel parking.

Even if you are an expert parker, sometimes the spot is too small for even a smart car. At roughly 1,653 lb. (about the same weight as a Smart car), the EO 2 can compress its body, with the panels sliding up and slightly over each other in a sort of crab or armadillo move.

Its body size shrinks down from 8.2 ft. to 4.9 ft., while keeping all four wheels on the ground.

Next up, the German researchers want to reinvent commuting again with a concept they call "Platoon." Each of the EO 2 cars is designed to connect to another EO 2, creating a sort of train of cars.

The benefit is that drivers in the connected EO 2 Platoon can take their hands off the wheel; the electric car goes into fully autonomous mode.

No word for now on when, or if, the eventually self-drivng EO 2 will come to consumers.Mashable contacted the developers in Germany and will update this post with their response.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

After Reading This You Will Never Throw Away The Rice Water Again 


May 15
The ancient Chinese treatment with the water in which rice was cooked can give you healthy skin, shiny hair and more energy.

A healthy body and beautiful skin is possible with only two great and cheap ingredients: rice and water.

If you have never heard of this ancient Chinese medicine, now is the right time to find out which health and cosmetic advantages you have, if you use the water from the rice.

Health benefits:

• It gives your body energy and increases the concentration of carbohydrates.
• Successful cures gastroenteritis.
• Acts preventive against cancer.
• Regulates high blood pressure.
• Regulates body temperature.

Beauty benefits:

• Washing the face with this water cleans the skin.
• Excellent replacement for tonic.
• Helps against the creation of pores on the face.
• Washing hair with this water will give it shine and help your hair stay healthy.
• Make a bath.

How to prepare the rice water?

Although you may have read that it is the water in which you wash the rice, it is not so. You can use this water also, but it will not contain all the advantages.

Here’s the right way:

Leave the rice to boil but put more water than usual. This is the right way to prepare the water. You can drink it warm or let it cool. The Chinese claim that helps, it’s worth a try.

- See more at: http://www.healthyfoodteam.com/after-reading-this-you-will-never-throw-away-the-rice-water-again/#sthash.vaf7QwE1.dpuf

Sinhala students attack govt officer for playing national anthem in Tamil Photograph Tamilwin  16 May 2015 Sinhalese students at the Eastern University's in Batticaloa, attacked a local government officer on Saturday for playing the Sri Lankan national anthem in Tamil. The development officer, 29 year old Paththakutti Suman, who works at Eravur government office, has been admitted to Senkaladi hospital with multiple injuries. Witnessing the attack, Tamil students attempted to intervene, reported BattiNews, also sustaining injuries. "Today, at an exhibition at Batticaloa University, the [Sri Lankan] national anthem was played in Tamil. Sinhalese students opposed this, leading to the anthem being played in Sinhalese afterwards," Mr Suman told LankaSri news from his hospital bed. "After this finished playing, us divisional secretary officers were walking outside.. I don't know what happened. The Sinhalese students attacked us and [I am] at hospital receiving treatment," he added. "The police were informed and they arrived there. Approximately 100 [Sinhalese] students were there taking part. One of them pushed me from behind. I fell down and then they attacked me from behind. I fell and hit my head. The other officers took me away from there." "The reason why I was attacked was because the [Sri Lankan] national anthem was playing Tamil. We had nothing to do with the playing of the [Sri Lankan] national anthem in Tamil, because the final day was organised by the Eastern University itself. We were attacked because we went to regulate the event" The incident took place at a three day exhibition about innovative manufacture and production, taking place since May 14 at the university's Vanthaarumoolai East campus. A complaint has been filed with Eravur police, who are reportedly carrying out investigation into the attack.

Controversial White Flag and war crimes issues Solheim testifies before UN

By Sulochana Ramiah Mohan-2015-05-17

Former Norwegian peace facilitator Erik Solheim said he had testified before the UN probe panel on the events that took place during the final phase of the war and the white flag issue in Sri Lanka.

Last year Solheim told Ceylon Today that he 'would go before the International Criminal Court or any recognized International Tribunal to give evidence against Sri Lanka on alleged war crimes'.
He said, "Yes, I told all what I knew to UNHRC panel about the final phase of the war and the white flag issue".
In an exclusive interview with Ceylon Today, the diplomat who was severely criticized by the former government said that he is even 'ready to share all what he knows with the credible national or International Tribunal on the final phase of the war events'.
Solheim also warned the September review on Sri Lanka should not be expected to be soft on any crime, whoever committed it. "Don't expect it to be soft," he said.

On accountability issue he said "In other former war zones like Balkans, Africa, and in Latin America accountability has always taken time. Everyone must show some patience, but at the end, war crimes will be exposed and brought before court. It is important to condemn all war crimes in the equal terms. Very clearly both the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE committed unacceptable atrocities," he stressed.

The most urgent issue is to establish the truth. Survivors need to know what happened to their loved ones. How can a woman continue and restart her life if she does not know whether her husband or children are still alive?, he asked.
Expressing his willingness to come to Sri Lanka, he endorsed it would not be before Parliamentary elections and if he come now 'some people' will find that as 'undue'. "I may come later this year, if invited by institutions in Sri Lanka," he added.
Solheim acknowledged that UN High Commissioner Zeid bin Ra'ad assured him that he(Zeid) would release the Sri Lanka Report in September and it would contain 'surprises'.

From 2002 till 2008, Solheim, played a major role in peace negotiations until former President Mahinda Rajapaksa terminated the Oslo deal alleging that they were supporting the LTTE.
Solheim said he would remain a lifelong friend to Sri Lanka despite the heavy criticism he faced by both Tamil and Sinhala extremists. "But that will never deter me from giving support to all the fantastic people of the most beautiful island on the planet", he asserted.

Admitting that he keeps in touch with the Tamil Diaspora, he has been encouraging all the talented Sri Lankans in other parts of the world to use their vast abilities for the benefit of the people living in Sri Lanka. "So many Tamils and Sinhalese in the Diaspora are doctors, engineers, bankers, dentists. They have a lot of expertise to offer. They are also a major potential source of investment to increase economic growth and prosperity," he said.
"I am just sharing my modest experience and trying to promote rapid economic development in Sri Lanka. The latter is also my job as the Chair of the OECD Development Assistance Committee," he said when asked what is his latest agenda with Sri Lanka.

SC suspends release of Sampur land

President's Gazette notification rendered inoperative till May 21

Saturday, May 16, 2015

The Supreme Court yesterday suspended the gazette notification issued by the President releasing state land to the people in Sampur.

Through a gazette notification, the President released the land held by the Board of Investment (BOI) leased to Sri Lanka Gateway Industries (SLGI).

The Supreme Court granted interim relief to petitioner SLGI suspending the President's gazette notification revoking the state grant made to the BOI which was in turn leased to SLGI in Sampur, Trincomalee for a US$ 4 billion project.

The Bench comprised Justices Rohini Marasinghe, Buwaneka Aluwihare and Upali Abeyratne.

The petitioner alleged that the master plan of the project includes the development of the deep water jetty, bulk commodities terminal with stock filling and blending capabilities, power generation plants, sugar industries, fertiliser industries, transshipping coal and thermal coal, iron are industries, oil and petrochemical industries, car manufacturing/assembling plants and a host of other heavy industries and complementary industries. The said project is estimated, according to the petitioner, to generate more than 5,000 direct employment and 20,000 indirect employment opportunities.

The Petitioner also stated that it had entered in to an investment agreement with the BOI in 2012 which was a landmark investment agreement to invest/facilitate US$4 billion, which is the highest Foreign Direct Investment in Sri Lanka's history.

The Cabinet of Ministers, having carefully analyzed the project proposal and having apprehended the potential of the project and the opportunities that would be created, approved the aforesaid project proposed by the petitioner to be gazetted as a Strategic Development Project within the meaning of Section 3 of the Strategic Development Projects Act, No 14 of 2008 and thus has now received the approval of the Parliament.

The Petitioner complained to the Supreme Court that the Petitioner is severely affected and prejudiced by the purported order made by the President by cancelling and annulling the special land grant given to the 1st Respondent, BOI, and revoking the order previously made by the President declaring the said area as an industrial zone under Section 22A of the BOI Law.

The petitioner, SLGI also complained that it has incurred considerable amounts of money and has entered into several investment agreements and the said illegal revocation of the State Grant and the declaration under Section 22A of the BOI law would cause irreparable damage and loss not only to the Petitioner but also to the country as no investor would invest in these circumstances.

Therefore, the petitioner states that cancelling and annulling the special land grant given to BOI without giving an hearing to the petitioner who is an affected party is a gross violation of rules of natural justice as well as violation of its right guaranteed under Articles 12 (1) and 14 (1) (g) of the Constitution, especially in the circumstances where the Minister of Investment Promotion under whose purview the BOI falls has objected to the release of the Sampur land and cancellation of the agreement it entered into with the Petitioner.

The Supreme court, having heard the parties, granted interim relief restraining any one and/or more and/or all of the Respondents and their servants, agents, delegates from taking any step to evict the Petitioner from and/or interfering with the peaceful possession of the said land, leased out to the Petitioner by the 1st Respondent, the BOI, until the final determination of this application. Gamini Marapone PC with Uditha Egalahewa PC, Sanjeewa Jayawardene PC, Navin Marapone and Ranga Dayananda appeared for the Petitioner. Ronald Perera PC appeared for the BOI and Nerin Pulle, Deputy General appeared for the Attorney General. 

Politics of memorialisation discussed in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 May 2015, 23:44 GMT]
A Colombo-based Human Rights defender and an NGO researcher promoting ‘Sri Lanka’ reforms were proposing ‘space’ for ‘multiple narratives’ in the memorialisation process for an ‘inclusive’ Sinhala-Muslim-Tamil ‘Sri Lanka’ at a meeting held in Jaffna last Sunday. The activists from the South were advocating the right of memorialisation as part of a reparations of a reconciliation process as if the underlying genocidal conflict in the island had been resolved. The Tamil activists of the TCSF, defending the right of Eezham Tamils to mark their memorialisation as a collective right were also advocating a transformation within the Tamil nation, in order to accommodate space for various narratives within the mainstream Tamil nationalist discourse itself. 

Such a process within the Tamil nation should be owned by the Eezham Tamils themselves strengthening their collective memorialisation of what should be remembered and passed on to the generations to come, the TCSF activists said. 



Colombo-based Human Rights Defender, Ruki Fernando, who addressed the audience first, was giving examples of memorial events that he had witnessed in the past, obstructions of memorial events that were ‘non-tolerable’ by various actors and his observations on dark (black/grief) tourism. Mr Fernando raised the question of whether the people were remembering heroes or villains or whether there were blurred lines between these two. He concluded his address with the question of how to commemorate victims from different ethnic, religious groups, by different perpetrators. “Should we commemorate those who were engaged in abuses and violence, and if so, how should we do it,” Ruki Fernando asked adding that, for him, the lines were blurred on the question of discussing victims and perpetrators. 

Attorney-at-Law Bhavani Fonseka, who is a senior researcher at Colombo-based Centre for Policy Alternatives, was talking about how to move forward without becoming a hostage to the past. What happened in the past is a critical element in terms of reconciliation, she said. But, it is important not to be bogged down in the past that you forget that there are things that can happen in the future, she said. 

Ms Fonseka was reiterating that there should be space for different narratives and that there should be a balance between the past and the future. 

Bhavani Fonseka was particular about the ‘danger’ of a ‘single story’ narrative as outlined by the Nigerian author Chimamamanda Ngozi. The SL State was going there in the last 10 years, she said. 

She was referring to the ‘new initiatives’ by former president Chandrika Kumaratunga such as the ‘effort’ of creating a Common Wall with the names of those perished regardless of their ‘ethnic’ background. Ms Fonseka was talking about the many pages of the LLRC, presidential commissions and looking at memorialisation as part of a larger reconciliation project. 

Rev Fr Eili Rajan, a co-spokesperson of the TCSF, who identified the post-genocide period as the period for transitional justice. But, the so-called development activities of the current regime could not be categorised as part of the reparations, which are related to human rights, he said. The current regime is only applying a basic needs oriented development strategy as a ‘development tactics’ to deceive the Tamil people away from proper reparations, he said. 

Fr Elil Rajan was touching on the role of the historiography in concealing the genocides, particularly how Western notions of historiography failed in addressing the past of the non-Western World. Elil Rajan, who is a visiting lecturer on Political Science at the Eastern University was stressing on alternative methods of documenting genocides and the need for media in addressing ‘the others’ who were ignored by the historians. 

Discussing how the ‘war on terror’ paradigm brough by former US President George Bush was abetting the genocide against the Eezham Tamils in the island, Fr Elil Rajan referred to the notion of ‘counter counter-insurgency’ as described by assassinated Tamil journalist Sivaram Dharmeratnam. 

Attorney-at-Law Guruparan Kumaravadivel, the other co-spokesperson of the TCSF said the modern Nation-states were able to foster their identity as political communities through their collective memorialisation. He was citing the American civil war in the shaping of the United States of America, the World War memories in shaping the German identity and the French revolution in the identity of France. 

It is a false dichotomy to differentiate between private and public memorial events, Guruparan said. 

The SL State, regardless of the regimes coming to power, has been opposed to memorialisation by Tamils as it wants to politically suppress the Tamils from being reminded upon their right to self-determination. That is why the SL State tolerates to some extent the individual and private memorialisation while being strictly opposed to Tamils' collective right to their memory, he said. 

Guruparan described the differentiation between the collective memory as a collection of individual and private memorial events and as a collective event of a politicised community, was a divide-and-rule tactic of liberalism. Described it as a jigsaw puzzle, the lecturer in law at the University of Jaffna said it was possible to have achieve the needed inclusiveness and space for different narratives within the collective memorialisation of a politicised community.