Peace for the World

Peace for the World
First democratic leader of Justice the Godfather of the Sri Lankan Tamil Struggle: Honourable Samuel James Veluppillai Chelvanayakam

Sunday, May 24, 2015

The 7 Most Prescribed Drugs In The World And Their Natural Counterparts

2015-SEP 26 
Prescription-Drugs_healthyfoodsREALfarmacy.comWe don’t have to live in a medicated world, but we certainly choose to. The crux of the matter is that we refuse to proactively think about prevention because we reactively commit to treating the symptoms of underlying health problems. This is the allopathic model. We want the quick fix so we can continue our poor lifestyle and dietary habits. It doesn’t have to be this way, but it is. We can blame doctors, the medical institutions and healthcare systems all we want, but self-responsibility is our only recourse if we are ever to surface from this mess. There are no excuses–if you’re taking one of these drugs, consult with a Natural Health Practitioner this week about phasing out your medication and phasing in these powerful natural foods and remedies.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Tamils brave harassment, threats to mourn their dead

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ColomboMirrorBy Father Elil Rajendram-May 22, 2015
Organising a religious service to commemorate 18 May 2009 was like experiencing a horror story, full of fear and suspense, with an uncertain end. Until the last moment I was not sure if anybody would dare to turn up for the event – the first of its kind in the six years since the war in Sri Lanka ended.
US congressional caucus on Sri Lanka stresses need for war crimes accountability
22 May 2015
The US congressional Caucus on Ethnic and Religious Freedom in Sri Lanka convened on Wednesday to discuss the current human rights situation in Sri Lanka under the new Sirisena regime.
A packed room of congressman and senate representatives, was briefed by representatives from the International Crisis Group (ICG), Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Freedom From Torture.
Welcoming the panel, US senate representative BIll Johnson stressed the need to see accountabiltiy for war crimes to see real progress in Sri Lanka. 
US Senate representative Danny Davis, urging the international community to stay engaged in seeing change and progress in Sri Lanka, condemned previous attacks by Sri Lanka's air-force on Tamil orphanages during the US caucus meeting on Wednesday. 

Speaking at the US Congressional Caucus on Ethnic and Religious Freedom in Sri Lanka, congressman Davis, urged the US to and the international community to stay engaged in the processes occurring in Sir Lanka to see a lasting change and progress. 

Congressman Davis went on to speak about his visit to Sri Lanka and the de-facto state controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the Vanni. Speaking on his visit to the Sencholai Orphanage, which was eventually bombed by Sri Lanka’s Air-force, he said that the Orphanage has been wrongly portrayed as a terrorist camp by the Sri Lankan government.
Discussing assassinations of Tamil parliamentarians in Sri Lanka and attacks on Tamil orphanages, Congressman Davis expressed sympathy with the cause of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, stating,
“I take the right side, the side of the Tigers. As part of an oppressed minority in the US, I think I understand what the Tigers felt.” 
See also:

Waiting for polls


Editorial-


President Maithripala Sirisena’s recent statement that there will be a new government in September has fuelled speculation in political circles that Parliament will be dissolved shortly. The UNP is in a mighty hurry to face a general election and the SLFP wants the 20th Amendment to the Constitution passed before the polls.

Why the UNP is champing at the bit to contest a general election is understandable. It is obviously not keen on electoral reforms. Moreover, its minority government is becoming increasingly vulnerable vis-à-vis the SLFP’s moves to unsettle it. Its 100-day programme is over and it has nothing more to offer to the people save probes and arrests. Sri Lankans are notorious for their short memory and the UNP knows that it has to seek their votes without further delay in return for what the new government has done lest they should forget fuel price reductions, the public sector pay hike etc.

President Sirisena is in an unenviable position with pressure being brought to bear on him by both sides to accede to their demands. If the proposed electoral reforms are ratified as promised and the SLFP agrees to a general election the dissolution of parliament will be in conformity with one of the most important democratic principles underpinning the 19th Amendment; the President should not have the power to dissolve Parliament arbitrarily and undermine the position of the legislature. Now that the President has announced that there will be a new government in September he will have to dissolve Parliament in a few weeks, electoral reforms or no electoral reforms. He is still empowered to do so in respect of the present parliament in spite of the 19th Amendment. But, if the 20th Amendment does not see the light of day and the SLFP opposes an election, the exercise of that particular executive power to dissolve Parliament, without two thirds of the MPs backing that move, is sure to make a mockery of the President’s much advertised commitment to the principles on which the newly passed constitutional reforms are based. What is legally right is not necessarily morally and ethically right!

Meanwhile, who will decide the date of the dissolution of Parliament? In this country people do as politicians say and politicians do as astrologers say. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa is believed to be in the present predicament because of the court astrologer who misled him into going for a snap presidential election. He lost two years of his second term.

Superstition to religions is said to be what astrology is to astronomy—the mad daughter of a wise mother. Our politicians are enamoured of the mad daughters! The leaders of the present government tell us they do not take astrology seriously. But, the truth is otherwise. They are as credulous as their opponents. Look at the charmed, gem-studded rings they are wearing. Their talismans are hidden under their kapati suit.

It is popularly believed that the on-going tussle between the UNP and the SLFP over when the next parliamentary election should be held is more astrological than political. For, a particular planetary combination expected shortly is said to be favourable to some politicians in the Opposition and they want the general election delayed until such time; their political enemies want it advanced to beat the stars––so to speak.

The exact date of the dissolution of Parliament and who will win the next general election may not be known, but we are sure of one thing. The interval of hell we are enjoying at present will be over after the election of the next parliament in September; we will suffer the torments of inferno thereafter.

An Admonishment with Tears

by Zulkifli Nazim(Letter to the Editor)
( May 23, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) No sooner Mr. Maithripala Sirisena was elected President on 09th January 2015, the loud and persistant outcry from many people – individuals and organizations, in fact, the whole country, was that the new President should hold General Elections without delay.
But Our incumbent President and his 47 years of experience in politics proved otherwise.  His intelligence manifested by being astute, his political acumen and perspicaciousness proved to be more mature than what the people thought.
By allowing this delay, he was able to show, today, the chain reaction in and among those who willfully supported corruption, their moral decay, depravity and degeneracy during the Rajapaksa presidency.
The very same drumbeaters and partisans of MR expressed, in no uncertain terms, their total lack of integrity and honesty in anything they touched or spoke –
vis-à-vis – The putridness of the likes of Wimal Weerawansa, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, Dinesh Gunawardena together with moral perversion, impairment of virtue and debasement in the likes of educated people like G.L.Peiris and Tissa Vitharana were indeed conspicuously and outrageously reprehensible.  It is unbelievable that educated people, who were at one time guiding our youth in the universities and law institutions, have to indulge in profanity and hype to promote disgustingly obscene behaviour, for illegal and immoral economic gains.
The loathsome,  behaviour  and attitude in parliament, when the 19th Amendment was presented for debate; the desecration of the National Flag; the stinking lousy and immoral public speeches, which they have classed as political speeches and openly and blatantly, conspicuously, offensively and deliberately deviating from the truth, and force the people to believe in their perversion of the truth have been widely experienced by the intelligent people of Sri Lanka.
Vasudeva Nanayakkara’s repulsive and revolting behaviour when he unleashed invectives against the incumbent Prime Minister in Parliament.  The henchmen and confederates, raising a chorus, a simultaneous disgusting utterance that they cannot work with Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe – what a farce.
Of course they cannot work with him because he will not allow them to rob, steal, cheat, extort or rip-off the people and the country – so they are screaming until their lungs burst, that they cannot work with the incumbent Prime Minister.  Very understandable.
The people should also be aware, that it is not only these traitors and treasonists are involved  in this, the main partners in crime are entrenched everywhere – in every nook and corner of the country, including some of the media and the involvement of some of the media personnel.
Look at what some of the channels are broadcasting , televising or printing – useless and worthless garbage.  Nanayakkara’s outburst in raw filth, is kept under wraps, the heists at the Central Bank on the eve of the Presidential Election, trillions worth of illegal and amerciable transactions by the former Governor of the Central Bank, Nivard Cabral and the disorderly conduct of all these vermin are suppressed.
So, the people of this country have a whole lot to contend with, not just the miscreants and the abominations in the Parliament. 
These are the depraved maggots of the deposed President –  The self-important and conceited narcissist who exaggerates accomplishments,  yearns for endless praise, and has an uncanny ability to quash the achievements of others.
MR and his protagonists lack empathy and do not seem to be aware that you and I are whole persons with our very own needs. In fact, you and I are only a useful tool, something to extract admiration from. The narcissist who controls these worthless layabouts are under the impression that they are entitled to everything, including your time, your emotions and your self-esteem.
The real reason in the appointment of those who do not have even GCE – O/L qualifications to positions of Chairmen in state institutions; Thugs and hoodlums appointed as Provincial Councillors, is, that MR, his siblings and his changeling offsprings can always point a finger at these illiterate ignoramus’, which, they  cannot do to a qualified and educated, selfless, unselfish and altruistic person; for the Rajapaksas, Nothing you do is good enough. The narcissistic Rajapaksa family loves having people like this in his or her entourage.
Because of their lack and deficiency of knowledge, want of education and low mental capacity, their expectation are unrealistic and their standards impossible.
Hence it becomes imperative that they be “fed” with anything and everything they want, which are far beyond their expectations, so that they, the family can wield immense power over these vassals, who owe allegiance and service to a feudal lord.
Our incumbent President, Honourable Maithripala Sirisena, has exposed this narcissistic tyranny prevailing in the country and have made the people of Sri Lanka fully aware of what they will face in the future, if the likes of these mental degenerates are elected and given power to rule.  He has made certain that he has given you all fair warning as to whom you should elect in the forthcoming elections so that you will use your very valuable votes wisely, with intelligence, knowledge and wisdom.

The politics, economics and fundamental rights of grand corruption in Sri Lanka


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by Rajan Philips-

Truisms are an easy way to start an essay. I will try a few today. Corruption has always been a fact of life in Sri Lanka and elsewhere. In the pyramid of society, corruption is not uncommon in the creation of wealth by a few, in the accumulation of the niceties of life by those in the middle, as well as in the struggle for survival among the majority of bottom feeders. Cross-country studies on corruption in the context of globalization differentiate between "low-level opportunistic payoffs" and "grand corruption." And ‘grand’ corruption is known to have found a fertile political terrain associated with a certain constitutional order and an electoral system. I make bold to say that Sri Lankans have experienced grand corruption and its fertile political terrain more intimately than their fusion might have been studied more objectively elsewhere. To assert another truism, the fight against corruption has traditionally been brutal at the bottom, so-so in the middle, and wink-wink at the top. But when the fight is against grand corruption the usual wink-wink at the top gives way to forensic grandstanding over fundamental rights in the courts. We are starting to see that in real time in Sri Lanka.

Growing danger of landslides in Sri Lanka

By Vijith Samarasinghe -22 May 2015
Government authorities are once again issuing landslide warnings as Sri Lanka’s central hills are being hit by heavy monsoon rains. On April 20, a massive landslide hit the Haldummulla area in the Badulla district, not far from last October’s Meeriyabedda disaster, one of the worst in Sri Lanka’s history.
The Meeriyabedda landslide claimed 37 lives, all of whom were tea plantation workers living in miserable line-room accommodation. Fortunately no one was killed at Haldummulla.
Aftermath of the Meeriyabedda landslide
Geoscientists have identified these areas as “high risk” for nearly 50 years, with the dangers facing these communities increasing each year. In fact, the number of deaths and property damaged caused by landslides is not confined to Sri Lanka’s mountainous central region but extends to the lower hills in the county’s south-western districts. According to the National Building Research Organisation (NBRO), about 500 deaths directly related to landslides have been recorded in the past 50 years.
In the immediate aftermath of last year’s Meeriyabedda disaster, the Rajapakse government attempted to blame the victims, claiming that the estate workers had been “given alternative land to build houses.”
The claim is false. The estate workers had not been properly warned and the Maskeliya Plantations Company, which manages the Meeriyabedda Estate, failed to take any precautionary measures (see: “Sri Lankan landslide victims still in makeshift accommodation”).
Landslides, earthquakes, tsunami and storms are, of course, natural disasters but their impact can be minimised by scientific planning and preventative measures which have not been implemented by the plantation companies and successive Sri Lankan governments.
While Sri Lanka’s central mountains and south-western hilly regions are naturally landslide prone because of their geological characteristics and high monsoonal and inter-monsoonal rainfall, the growing incidence of landslides is bound up with the emergence of the plantation economy.
Reckless, unplanned land clearing for tea and other plantations by the British colonial administration permanently changed the drainage patterns and dramatically reduced vegetation cover, making far larger areas more vulnerable.
Total forest cover in Sri Lanka was slashed by 40 percent during the period of plantation expansion, from 1880 to 1950, with the largest impact on montane and sub-montane forests. By 1930, some 55 percent of the country’s mountainous watershed areas were cleared for tea plantations, causing an annual erosion rate of 100,000 to 800,000 tonnes of soil and heightening the danger of landslides.
Parallel to this land-degradation, the British plantation companies brought hundreds of thousands of workers from India as indentured labour accommodating them in landslide risk areas. At the same time, thousands of local people were displaced from their traditional land and forced to live in high-risk areas.
The political disenfranchisement of estate workers of Indian origin under the Sri Lanka’s 1949 citizenship act ensured that the safety and conditions of estate workers and their families were ignored.
Thousands of plantation workers throughout Sri Lanka still live in unsafe, dilapidated line-rooms owned by major plantation companies. The estate homes destroyed in last year’s Meeriyabedda landslide were the property of the plantation giant Richard Peiris and Company (PLC), which recorded 35 billion rupees revenue in 2013 alone.
According to investigations by the Ministry of Environment and regulatory bodies such as the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau, unplanned gem mining, urbanisation and intense small holder agriculture in the upper-watersheds have increased risks in the past three decades.
Global climate change is also exacerbating the situation. A report by the Sri Lanka Climate Change Secretariat’s 2nd National Communication notes that overall dry periods are now longer, while rainfall intensity during wet season has increased. These changes weaken hill slopes. The report partly attributes the increase of landslides in Sri Lanka—600 landslides were recorded between 2000 and 2010—to climate change.
A 2008 report by the NBRO senior scientist Sunil Jayaweera explains that the scientific planning of settlements and proper regulation of plantations, urbanisation, agriculture and mining in upper watersheds areas could dramatically reduce the landslide disasters and deaths in Sri Lanka.
Basic engineering can strengthen unstable slopes. Landslides are caused mainly by deeper geological factors that can be detected well in advance and necessary measures can be taken to relocate people to safer areas. Recent advances in satellite imagery and computer-based risk analysis have enabled more precise identification of high risk areas.
Despite the availability of these scientific methods, no serious attempt has been made by the Sri Lankan state to lessen the social impact of the landslides. The NBRO has identified 3,760 high landslide risk areas were relocation is recommended. However, apart from a handful of responses, following major tragedies, there is no concerted relocation program.
Sri Lanka capitalism remains heavily dependent on the plantation economy, currently 15 percent of the country’s exports earnings. As a result, no serious attempts have been made to restore vegetation-cover in the mountains, take action against plantation companies or institute rudimentary landslide safety programs.
The refusal of successive Sri Lankan governments to take these minimal measures is in line with their defence of the capitalist profit system. Colombo, moreover, has exacerbated the risks, providing tax cuts and other financial incentives for reckless unplanned profit-making ventures.

Protests ease but Sri Lankan security forces remain in Jaffna

22 May 2015
Sri Lankan riot police, Special Task Force officers and military personnel remained stationed across Jaffna on Friday, even as protests over the rape and murder of a Pungudutivu school girl last week, began to ease.
Photographs Tamil Guardian


Four senior police officers, including the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Superintendent of Police (SP), the Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and the Officers-In-Charge of Jaffna and Kayts Police, were transferred to Jaffna with immediate effect, following an order by the Inspector General of Police, N K Ilankakoon.

 

The Chief Justice Shri Bhavan also visited the Jaffna Peninsula today, inspecting the damage to the Jaffna court complex following violent scenes yesterday, as protesters threw stones demanding justice for the 18 year old Advance Level student, Vithiya.

Vithiya, who went missing after school last Wednesday, was found dead with her hands and feet tied to logs the next day. Arrests have been made regarding the incident as demonstrations were held across the North-East, demanding prompt action against the perpetrators.

Protests calling for justice turned violent on Wednesday, as distrust and scepticism over whether the Sri Lankan police and legal system would ensure justice was served increased following the escape of one of the suspects to Colombo. The suspect was later found and returned to Jaffna police station.

Demanding that justice be done, protesters on Wednesday encircled Jaffna court house.  Riot police, military personnel and special task force officers were deployed and tear gas fired into the crowds and stones were thrown towards the court house. In total 130 people were arrested.



The violence has been condemned by the chief minister of the northern province, who said that outside elements were trying to exacerbate the longstanding distrust that existed between the Sri Lankan police and the Tamil people. See here.

Demonstrating against the violence directed towards the court complex, lawyers in Jaffna went on strike on Friday.

Poonguditheevu school girl gang rape and subsequent public uproar is part of a plot hatched within police


LEN logo(Lanka-e-News- 22.May.2015, 6.20PM) The extremists of the south who are  giving a mischievous twist  even to the public protests sparked following the recent gang rape and murder committed on a school girl of Poonguditheevu Island in the north , as signals of an LTTE revival in the north have been proved absolutely false. Though the aims and objectives of these extremists are  to create the impression the public protest staged , the brutal rape and murder are signs  of LTTE resurgence in the north ,according to reports reaching Lanka e news inside information division, the brutal rape and murder, and  the police conduct in regard to that crime  are part of a conspiratorial plan of the extremists of the south. 
What most rudely shocked and provoked the public was the release  of the prime suspect in these  crimes by the police even after the public helped the police by apprehending him and entrusting to the custody of the police.
Based on information reaching Lanka  e news the true picture is as follows :
The victim , 17 years old Sivayoganathan Vidya is from an extremely poverty stricken family from Poonguditheevu Island. Her father is paralyzed , and her sister is a University student while the victim was also hoping to enter the University . On the 13 th when Vidya did not return home after school , the parents and relatives had complained to the police , when the police gave a stock and irresponsible answer, ‘she must  have eloped with her lover. She will return in a few days.’
Though Poonguditheevu is an Islet belonging to Sri Lanka (SL), it is away from the latter .Since 1990 as the LTTE were controlling it , the rich and educated inhabitants left the Islet. After the LTTE was defeated , and the Islet was recaptured by the forces  , only a few of the inhabitants, about one third returned to this Islet. Many of the abodes of the rich and the educated when they returned were in a dilapidated state . By now this Islet is a paradise for illicit businesses involving SL and India. It is a hub specially for heroin trafficking . Mahalingam Sivakumar alias Kumar is a heroin baron who as well  engaged in other illegal activities ,and a resident of Poonguditheevu.
The remains of Vidya was found in a jungle en route to her school by residents. The police took a reprehensible lethargic attitude because it was their smug   belief that the victim fled with her lover. Following the detection of the body of Vidya , the residents apprehended  three suspects , and based on information elicited from them , it became clear that Mahalingam Sivakumar was the prime suspect behind this gang rape and murder. The residents then  captured Mahalingam and handed over to the police.
Mahalingam and the three other suspects have first abducted the girl, and raped her . Thereafter had arranged for five others  to gang rape her again after inviting the rapists via phone. The police finally  arrested nine suspects in all.
One of those among the educated who left Poonguditheevu earlier on was Tamilmaran  , a lawyer . He is now a Dean of a faculty of the Colombo University .Tamilmaran who is aspiring to contest the Poongudutheevu electorate at the next election has entered this  rape scenario. The senior DIG Lalith Jayasinghe in charge of the North being   a  bosom pal of Tamilmaran , the latter    has told Jayasinghe that Mahalingam who is in custody is a relative of his , and had returned to SL from Switzerland where he was previously staying. He is  therefore innocent  and  to release him. Jayasinghe complying has freed Mahalingam , who then fled to Colombo.
The news of these brutal crimes spread among the people of the north like wild fire and they were furiously enraged over the release of the rapists and murderers handed over to  the police by the residents. Meanwhile the residents who were in an explosive and justifiable rage held Tamilmaran , his daughter who is here on a holiday having come from London where she is studying ,and  some others as captives and demanded that the criminal be handed over to the police immediately if the captives are to be released. After about five and half hours , Mahalingam was taken into custody by the police in Colombo. However the residents did not trust that information . In any event Tamilmaran was released by the people later . The outraged public who went in a procession the following day had hurled stones at the court in this backdrop.
It is to be noted that the senior DIG Jayasinghe is a top order bootlicker and lickspittle of the Rajapakses . His squalid nature can be gauged from the fact that the Rajapakses used him well and thoroughly earlier on  to carry out all their illegal and criminal activities after  planting him in the south. On the 18th and 19 th of May when the people of the north were commemorating those who died in the war , these brazenly wrongful actions  of DIG Jayasinghe provoking the people and inflaming their feelings is certainly not  without  an ulterior motive. This was  not just a compliance with the request of Tamilmaran , but a cold calculated diabolic move to stir up unrest and incite the people.

While the intelligence divisions were well aware ahead that the people were going to go in a massive protest procession , Jayasinghe took no measures to avert it peacefully . Instead he allowed the infuriated people  whose feelings were running high to act , and then by taking obnoxious measures to stifle them , he aggravated the situation deliberately thereby precipitating  a near civil  rebellion. A majority of those subsequently  arrested in  hundreds  were innocent and who were never involved in the protests. Among those were  several  fathers and children who were pedestrians and passers by not involved. Hence , this was nothing but  another calculated attempt to create unrest among the people of the north and had been orchestrated by Jayasinghe himself. 
If there was  a commotion   in the north , it  was none other than DIG Jayasinghe who gleefully and promptly passed the message to the Rajapakses in Colombo. It is worthy of probe whether this  rape and murder committed in the north coinciding almost with  the time of the commemoration  ceremonies on 18 th and 19th is part of a conspiracy to create mayhem and pandemonium in the north.
In any case though the situation is apparently calm now in the north , with this story spreading to the Vavuniya east , the people there are staging hartal after closing the doors of their shops. The IGP who traveled to the north today entrusted the investigation of this gang rape and murder to the CID. If the media in SL had been publishing the truths from the beginning this unfortunate  situation would not have resulted.
What the State media which are unable to expose the true picture owing to their  utmost   unscrupulousness and sordidness ,and the JHU racists want are  not to convey  the factual situation to the people or to reveal the truths to the president . Instead  based in pursuance of  their racial agendas portray  themselves as great heroes (cardboard heroes) before  the people.
In a  media website  a photograph was posted in which the criminal Mahalingam was posing with Mahinda Rajapakse and Douglas Devananda, but that is a doctored photograph. In the original photograph , it is ‘Swiss Ranjan’ residing in Switzerland an opponent of the LTTE who is there.

By a special reporter of LeN inside information division .
Translated by Jeff
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by     (2015-05-22 12:57:39)

Sri Lanka: Court Bans Protests in Jaffna

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( Protest in Jaffna against the gang rape and murder of Vidya)
Sri Lanka Brief23/05/2015 
The Jaffna Magistrate has issued a stay order banning all types of protests in the Jaffna town, the police media unit said.
The stay order was issued as a result of the violence which erupted in Jaffna this week during a protest against the alleged rape and murder of a girl in Jaffna.
The police had to use tear gas to disperse the protesters who had damaged public property and had also pelted stones at the Jaffna court building.
Police spokesman ASP Ruwan Gunasekera said that the ban on protests was issued after information was received that some groups were going to stage protests demanding the release of 130 people arrested over the Jaffna violence.
CG

Sri Lanka’s Daughter

Colombo Telegraph
By Thisuri Wanniarachchi –May 23, 2015
Thisuri Wanniarachchi
Thisuri Wanniarachchi
Before the protests, before this became a debate about race, political affiliations, and law, even before her body was found, happened something that happens every day in Sri Lanka. Something that we need to talk about. It doesn’t matter if she’s Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim or Burgher. She’s a citizen of this country. She’s a daughter; Sri Lanka’s daughter. Every day an average of 18 girls are raped in Sri Lanka. This is an issue that has gone unaddressed for far too long. And it’s time we start looking for long term solutions to it. 
Every 90 minutes a girl or a woman in Sri Lanka is forced to have non-consensual sex. This is no coincidence. In societies with education systems that promote male superiority, don’t address the concept gender equality and respecting women, or the ethics of sex, and the only sex education men and women get is through pornography and antiquated societal norms and gender stereotypes, of course there will be high rates of rape. We live in a society where girls are taught from a very young age that they have to be careful, and behave a certain way, unlike boys. Our culture is built upon disciplining girls, although, every day, it is mostly men who commit crimes against women.
While those responsible for the rape and murder of Vidya will be brought in front of the law, nothing can bring back Vidya or justice the inhumanity faced by the thousands of girls raped in Sri Lanka every year. The law can only prosecute, it cannot protect. I believe the only sustainable solution to this: is education. We, as a culture need to rethink the fundamentals of how we bring up our children and the education system that we put them through. Think about the gender inequality we promote through it, the way we carefully ingrain to the minds of society that women are inferior to men.Read More

Bar Condemns Jaffna Court Attack

Geoffrey Alagaratnam President Bar Association of Sri Lanka
Geoffrey Alagaratnam
President Bar Association of Sri Lanka

Colombo Telegraph
The Bar Association of Sri Lanka has today called upon the Attorney General and the other law enforcement authorities to bring the perpetrators who attacked the Jaffna Court premises to justice.
We publish below the statement in full;


Desperate discarded drowning Rajapakse clutching at last straw: 4 ministers blackmailed by him resign


LEN logo(Lanka-e-News- 22.May.2015,10.20PM)  Four Ministers who secured portfolios under the government of good governance having  now realized that their blood sucking qualities of a leech cannot be held together  any longer , and are ailing from incurable itches caused by caterpillars under the new environment of good governance  tendered their resignations from their ministerial posts yesterday(21). All these four leeches are Rajapakse regime’s notorious shameless slaves and SLFP ‘s corrupt politicos.
Their names are : Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena,  minister of parliamentary affairs ; Dilan Perera , state minister for samurdhi; C.B. Ratnayake, State minister of  administration and democratic governance ; and Pavithra Wanniarachi , State minister for environment . After their resignation  they held a media briefing (the only thing they know to do) at the opposition leader’s office and berated prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. They will be supporting the 29 th amendment they added.
Based on reports reaching Lanka e news , Mahinda Rajapakse as a last resort and like  a drowning man clutching at the last straw is exerting tremendous pressures not only on these ministers but even all other erstwhile  pro Rajapakses  who are with Maithri as well as  with the government. One such threat of his  is : their files pertaining to their corruption and illicit activities will be exposed. In the circumstances , these ministers had to take this invariable step as they are aware if that exposure is made  they will not be  able to pretend and maintain a clean slate before the government of good governance . Moreover their future political career too will be  at stake.
One of those who was  swayed by the threats was Susil Premajayantha . It is under these threats of Mahinda that he and Nimal Siripala recently held a press briefing , at which briefing they loudly said ,the police special financial crimes investigation division (FCID) shall be dissolved.
Needless to say , Susil Pramajayantha is one who indulged in the worst corrupt activities under the last Rajapakse regime .It is Premajayantha who became notorious for importing petrol adulterated with water in order to pocket huge amounts of commission , and it was his son who traveled to Singapore to collect those illicit commissions. It is an open secret that Premajayantha bought a house in America out of these commissions.
Unfortunately , all the records of Premajayantha’s corrupt activities are not with the present government but with Mahinda Rajapakse.The latter had even threatened Premajayantha that a video tape of latter’s wife when taking a bribe is also in his custody . By these blackmails Mahinda has dragged poor Pramajayantha into Mahinda’s  brigade  of corrupt politicos . Premajayantha who did not hold any discussions which are not in line with the policies of the SLFP and the president , intriguingly convened a media briefing and announced that  the FCID shall be disbanded. Premajayantha most shamelessly exposed his corrupt and perfidious nature openly by openly saying he is against the FCID that is investigating financial frauds . In other words he said he is with the fraudsters  and the corrupt , obviously because he is one of them.
President Maithripala allocated ministries to these renegades with the hope of winning these pro Rajapakse lickspittles to his side . The president has today realized his effort did not bear fruits. A powerful businessman in Sri Lanka who masquerades as a supporter of Maithripala has spent towards these manipulations , according to LeN inside information division. This businessman had sought to provide cash to S.B Dissanayake and tried to induce him to quit the ministry , but S.B had turned down the offer, it is learnt.  
These incidents must bring home to president Maithripala the unassailable truth that the fascist ,brutal, corrupt ,barbaric , power greedy Rajapakses  and their  clan who were booted out on the 8th of January democratically cannot ever be won over to his side , and that he must only repose faith in the peaceful democratic forces . 
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by     (2015-05-22 18:41:14)

Awoth Atha Thamai: Cabraal is no Excuse for Mahendran

Sri Lanka Guardian












by Laksiri Fernando
I promised that the consultative committee of my Ministry would be summoned to discuss the contents of this report. As far as this report is concerned the committee said there was no loss to the Treasury. This report has also criticised the shady transactions that took place from 2012-2015. It is there on the third page of this report. This report is not only about Arjuna Mahendran but also about the pervious Governor. Why not bring Ajith Nivard Cabraal to COPE to ask him how he approved borrowing without a tender committee? Are you protecting him?”
( May 23, 2015, Sidney, Sri Lanka Guardian) The above is what, unfortunately, Ranil Wickremesinghe has said about the “Report of the Bond Issues of the Central Bank 2015” in Parliament, the day before. I quote from the Daily FT, 22 May 2015. It is ‘unfortunate,’ because when people actively supported the ousting of the former President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, and appointing of Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister, the hope was for a clean and transparent government or Yahapalanaya. Many people still believe it should be the case, and any return of Rajapaksas would be a disaster and a reversal of the difficult victory gained on the 8th January.

Vadamarachchi – Was President JR a traitor? 


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by Izeth Hussain-May 22, 2015, 12:00 pm

Several questions arose in my mind while reading the opening paragraphs of K.M. de Silva’s Sri Lanka and the Defeat of the LTTE (2012). In May 1987 the armed forces led by General Cyril Ranatunge routed the LTTE at Vadamarachchi, and Prabhakaran together with some of his top associates fled in disarray to Tamil Nadu where they were accommodated by the regional government. General Ranatunge had planned to proceed thereafter to Jaffna town and its environs, but he desisted on the orders of President Jayewardene. The reason for the President’s decision was that he had been warned by the Indian Government that the military move into Jaffna would be resisted by the Tamils, resulting inevitably in a blood bath and that would be unacceptable to India. The Indian Government took up that position because of pressure from Tamil Nadu.

The author points out that it took twenty two more years to complete what General Ranatunge had begun. "Those of us who knew what had happened were disappointed at the consequences of this Indian intervention but always felt that the LTTE could be defeated militarily …." There followed the years and decades during which the defeatist notion prevailed that the war was unwinnable. "General Ranatunge’s Vadamarachchi campaign was one of the forgotten episodes of the struggle against the LTTE, forgotten by the politicians in Sri Lanka, including heads of government". In his retirement he would talk about the success of the Vadamarachchi campaign to visitors, "especially those whom he trusted to be discreet …..". General Fonseka, who was a lieutenant colonel in the Vadamarachchi operation, knew that the war was winnable and proceeded to win it in 2009.

We have to ask whether the Indian Government was justified in demanding that the armed forces desist from going into Jaffna, and whether President Jayewardene was justified in giving in to that demand. The specific question that arises in that connection is whether there was anything untoward in the Vadamarachchi operation, anything that went against the established norms of war, anything that in any way outraged the moral sensibility of the international community. The problem of food shortages in Jaffna was much bruited about in the weeks preceding the air-drop of 1987. During that period I was second-in-command at the Foreign Office, and I recall a significant exchange that I had with High Commissioner Dixit when he met me on a matter that had nothing to do with the ethnic problem. After finishing with that matter, I asked him what really was the food situation in the North. He began his reply with a statement that surprised me. It went something like this:"I am glad that at last someone has asked me that question". It signified a serious failure in communication between the two Governments. He went on to say that at the moment people in Jaffna ate only one meal a day, which was inadequate for human sustenance, and sooner or later one or more persons would die of hunger. When that happened all hell would break loose in Tamil Nadu, and the Delhi Government would find itself in a difficult position.

However, none of that happened and the Government was not accused of using starvation of Tamil civilians as a weapon of war against the LTTE to any serious extent, which would have been regarded as morally reprehensible by the international community. There certainly were food shortages in the North but that was not a factor in the military operations that decided the outcome at Vadamarachchi. Furthermore there were no allegations of war crimes as in 2009. What took place in Vadamarachchi in 1987 was a straightforward military operation illustrating one of the basics of guerilla warfare: guerilla forces cannot win against Government troops in positional warfare except at the final stages after demoralization has gone far among the government troops and they start running, as in Vietnam in 1975.

So, taking count of prevailing international norms, nothing should have precluded General Ranatunge proceeding to Jaffna and ending the LTTE rebellion once and for all. We must bear in mind, above all, that the State has the primordial duty of putting down armed rebellion as otherwise it loses its very raison d’être: according to Weber’s definition the State legitimizes itself by having a monopoly of the means of violence. So why did the Indian Government demand that our troops desist from going into Jaffna and why did President JR succumb to that demand? Many Sri Lankans, perhaps most, will hold that it was a case of Indian imperialist bullying of a small neighbor. I hold that the explanation is that Rajiv Gandhi believed that he could bring about a negotiated solution of the ethnic problem, which would obviate a troublesome fall-out in Tamil Nadu of a LTTE military defeat. I believe that there was a division within the Indian Government on how to deal with the LTTE. I recall that on April 19, 1995, when the LTTE broke the ceasefire and started fighting again, the Indian Ambassador in Moscow told me that he was not in the least surprised by what had happened. While he was Advisor on foreign relations to Rajiv Gandhi he had led something like five rounds of talks with the LTTE led by Prabhakaran. He had come to the firm and abiding conclusion that Prabhakaran was a psychopath with whom it would never ever be possible to reach a negotiated solution. Alas, Rajiv G’s pacifist line prevailed in 1987.

Why did President JR succumb to the Indian demand? If there had been any responsible thinking on that demand it would have soon become apparent that the international community would frown on it. How can any sovereign state be denied the right, or rather the primordial duty, to put down an armed rebellion by military means? There would have been collateral damage of course but that could be easily contained, if necessarily with Indian help, considering the small extent of Sri Lankan territory. There was no reason to suspect that there would not be reasonable observance of humanitarian standards during the fighting. Considering all that, it would have soon become apparent that India would not have dared invade Sri Lanka over that demand. In that event it would have incurred widespread international opprobrium, and also it would have become embroiled in a thoroughly messy imbroglio in Sri Lanka.

The explanation for JR’s decision could just be that he committed a monumental blunder. He was certainly a man of enormous ability, as shown by the fact that he was the first South Asian leader to grasp that the State-centric economy could only brig further disaster. But in most ways his reign brought disaster for Sri Lanka because of his blunders. The question cannot be evaded – while acknowledging the possibility of a monumental blunder – whether he played the role of a traitor in 1987. This question arises because his nationalism has always been regarded as suspect, as attested by the fact that he was known for decades as Yankee Dick. There are Sri Lankans who believe that in reality he hated the Sinhalese, more particularly the Sinhalese Buddhists, the explanation for which they say is to be found in his family history. It is known that in the late nineteenth century and the early decades of the last century the low-country Sinhalese who rose into the elite sought status by marrying into the Kandyan aristocracy. JR’s family was a singular exception.

It is relevant to recall something that reportedly happened at one of Sir John Kotelawale’s famous egg-hopper breakfasts when he was Prime Minister. JR came to see him on some matter and when he was going away Sir John pointed at him and said, "That fellow wants to become Prime Minister. If he ever does, he will destroy this country". The story was recounted to me also by a well-known Sri Lankan – his is a household name – who said that he was present on that occasion. I recall also what was said by the late Karl Goonewardene, Professor of History, when some horrible injustice perpetrated by the 1977 Government was being discussed by some of us. It went something like this: "The problem really is JR. He hates the people of this country, and since that is so he can only bring disaster to this country." I recalled Karl while the horror of July ’83 was taking place, and I recalled him also while reading the first few paragraphs of de Silva’s book.

izethhussain@gmail.com