Government, opposition and speaker for dissolution in one voice- rare historic moment in parliament !

(Lanka-e-News- 04.June.2015, 8.10PM) The  parliament  has by now passed its term of 100 days .The interim  government received the people’s mandate for a term of 100 days only . Therefore the parliament which has exceeded this term is yesterday(03)  reckoned  as anti Democratic and a ludicrous assembly. However the opposition ,the government and speaker in a salutary move together have now decided to dissolve it.

The opposition chief organizer Dinesh Gunawardena in the opening session in parliament said, the parliament shall be dissolved when  the speaker and Lakshman Kiriella too in one voice endorsed his view , whereupon a request was made to others to stand up and express their assent. A majority of the members of the government party as well as the opposition stood up and gave their consent for the dissolution. Then the speaker made  an announcement that it is requested that the parliament shall be dissolved.

This move was something most rare in parliament history. Hitherto , the government , speaker and the opposition had never made a request in unison for  dissolution of parliament. Though it is the president who should dissolve parliament , unfortunately  because he is caught in the vicious vortex of JHU and Rajith Senaratne , the president has been unable to take that decision.

It is the view of Champika and Rajitha that if there is a general election , the UNP will certainly win .Hence during this prolonged period , it is their hope to retain  the UNP which is a minority party right now , and keep on resorting to dilatory tactics while heaping all the criticisms on the UNP . In addition, give wide publicity to those denunciations to make the UNP  lose its popularity among the people  so that by the time the elections are held the SLFP can form a majority government.

Apparently , towards these moves  , the president’s tacit support has been received is borne out by president’s attitude that is contradictory to his  announcement made at Polonnaruwa that immediately after the 19 th amendment is passed the parliament will be dissolved .

It is a pity that it is not being understood  by these individuals  that during this procrastination , the defeated, discarded , deceitful brutal group is building itself up while ruthlessly  pushing the country more and more into racial tensions with JHU the out and out racists secretly but surely fueling it.

The argument advanced in support of postponement of dissolution is : the dissolution of parliament shall be made after the 20 th amendment too is passed because that was a pledge made to the people , and going for elections without honoring that pledge will be wrongful. It is deplorable that opportunists like Champika and Rajitha had  forgotten the most important promise overriding all else made earlier to the people that the interim government of 100 days duration shall be dissolved as its term ends and elections will be held to enable the people to elect a government of their choice.

What is most important and imperative is every government aim and agenda  must conform to the democratic tenets and the sovereign rights  of the people and not to personal agendas of opportunitists. It is better and more democratic   to pass the 20 th amendment with a new parliament rather than with a minority interim government in parliament ,because some of those who are representatives in parliament as party leaders are absolutely against democratic ideals. 

One example is Dr. Rajiva Wijesinghe the liberal party representative who as party leader participates in  party leaders’ meeting . He is one who has not even a five cent worth people’s support . This disdainful turncoat  crept into parliament through the national list of Mahinda Rajapakse, and then somersaulted .Again after a few days , he pole vaulted beating all Olympic pole vaulting records . Taking opinions of such low breed renegades to change the electoral system is most despicable and suicidal therefore. May be his opinion may serve his close circle of doctor friends mentally feeble as he.   

Such clowns in this ridiculous parliament are many. Effecting changes to  an electoral  system that is most vital from the point of view of the majority of the people and aimed at satisfying  their  needs is best under a new parliament elected by the majority rather than under the present minority government . Though of course Champika and Rajitha may not have the capacity to understand this, surely  the  president must understand this .

Moreover , the people’s subsequent right opinion will negate  the previous one.  Accordingly , the present parliament will stand negated   based on  the  mandate received from the people on 8 th January .  That mandate is now expired. Hence , undoubtedly , a new mandate must be secured by going for an election, and  a new parliament shall be appointed.

The stories concocted by Chamika and Rajitha that they want to fulfill promises without going  for elections are just fairy tales that can fool Montessori class children. In that case , even if the parliament goes on for 5 years it cannot  be dissolved, for , by claiming the pledges are not yet  fulfilled , the parliament can be carried on .

In the circumstances , the president must yield to the wishes of the people based on the   mandate on which he became president on the 8 th of January , and dissolve parliament forthwith.
Now that , not only the government and opposition parties , but   even the speaker had given the consent for the dissolution ,it is the president’s duty to give way immediately to the people’s desire to  appoint a new parliament according to their wishes .Instead of that , by dillydallying , not only the government and president but even the country is inexorably being  led into doom and gloom. The delay can even mean political suicide to the president.

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by     (2015-06-04 14:43:44)

Plantation Community: A status revisit

• by L. Vijayanathan 
• - on 06/03/2015

Disenfranchisement of the Indian Origin plantation workforce in the year 1948 after independence stalled the development of the ‘plantation community’ (PC) in contrast to other communities in the country. Memoirs and research papers on labour movement and Trade union struggle of Plantation workforce is not new and many have attempted to describe the disenfranchisement of the PC and its impact for years. Basic human needs were at a distant dream for many decades until it became an eventuality rather than addressed through a concerted efforts by way of Political power and development imperative. With democracy in existence in the country for a long time; how did the plantation community miss the fortunes of democracy and development to be on par with others in the country? This needs deliberations if not a palpable research. I have seen in the recent past writings in Tamil on various sector approach be it on the lines of local governance, access to provincial power and decision making, influence at the central level on the governance part and economic emancipation and social security on the other hand. However, little efforts have been on to inform the readers of English dailies so that ‘others’ would also know fully well the dilemmas of development realities of the PC.
Plantation Community A status revisit.odt by Thavam Ratna

The Phenomenon Of Mahinda Rajapaksa

By Sarath De Alwis –June 4, 2015

Sarath De Alwis

The memories of men are too frail a thread to hang history from – John Still – The Jungle Tide

Deciding whether politicians are nice or nasty is neither here nor there. To understand politicians, we must attempt to understand the activity of politics. The epochal change of 8th January has taught us a lesson. When people remember together, they recall less than what they would remember individually.

Our construction and deductions of recent events such as the Central Bank bond scam, failure of transparency advocates to declare their professional fees, winner of the commonwealth rule of law award, allegedly engaged in land grabbing in his new incarnation, selection of obscure party loyalists as the country’s new envoys are not propitious signs of good governance. In fact they make a significant impact on our collaborative inhibitions. It reaffirms the conventional wisdom that “few things are more destructive than political dreams of perfection.”

Seen through this looking glass we seem to have exchanged a despotic President Tweedledee for a condescending Tweedledum as Prime Minister.

The Presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa was sharply compartmentalized between the formal and the informal. The formal governance was through the bureaucracy of handpicked apparatchiks. They were nominally accountable to the legislature but effectively insulated by the overarching mastery of the executive presidency.

Read More

PM Wickremesinghe Takes on the Opposition on Central Bank Issue

Prime Minister Ranil :-04/06/2015  ----------------------------------Gotabhaya Rajapaksa

I wish to reply in detail to the questions raised by MP Dinesh Gunawardene on the appointment of Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendra. I am pleased that this had provided the opportunity to explain the dark chapter that had taken place in the history of our country during the previous Rajapaksa regime.

PM Wickremesinghe Takes on the Opposition on Central Bank Issue by Thavam Ratna

Rocket Rohitha’s Rs.300,000.00 worth pair of shoes vis a vis president Maithri’s austere footwear

(Lanka-e-News -03.June.2015, 11.45PM)   It is a universal undisputable truth that during the last 9 years this country was ruled by a most brutal perfidious team -  Medamulana Rajapakses who kept the abysmally suffering people trampled under their despotic cruel boots. It is also a widely known fact that it is the youngest son of the brutal ruling chieftain Mahinda Rajapakse  , who during that period wore shoes the value of which was as high as Rs. 300,000.00 imported from a leading shoe emporium in England exclusively for him, and  a trouser belt whose value was Rs. 100,000.00.! while the masses they were ruling were hard put to have one square meal a day. In other words the country witnessed the worst obscene ostentation of rulers during that barbaric reign.

On the 8 th of January , it is 6.2 million of the very suffering people who were kept ruthlessly trampled who succeeded in ousting this barbaric , brutal ,corrupt and perfidious Rajapakses who pillaged  their own  country reckoned as the worst plunder ever by a ruler in Asia. 

The same people of the country subsequently succeeded in replacing the ruthless criminal Rajapakses with a most simple austere president Pallewatta Gamaralalage Maithripala Sirisena  from remote Polonnaruwa . This newly appointed president Maithripala  in profound contrast to the Rajapakses who paraded as a ‘Royal Family’ plundering national wealth and resources , proved what austerity and simplicity truly mean when he entered an ordinary shoe store yesterday to purchase a pair of shoes.

The incumbent president while he was travelling stopped at an ordinary shoe stall , and like any other ordinary citizen bought his footwear  , when he as president of the country with all the resources at his command could have reached  even beyond England for his requirements , for being the highest in the hierarchy of the country and  a very much more important person than Lilliputian Rocket Rohitha who was only basking in the glory of his inglorious perfidious ex  president father.

The president dropped by this shop so suddenly that he did not wish  the media divisions to take photographs of his nor wished a media publicity . Mind you , this photograph herein too was taken by an employee in that shop accidentally.

As  it is the true duty of a  pro national people’s media of honesty , integrity and rectitude to publicize  a country’s leader  when he  is truly discharging his duties and performing his tasks in the best interests of the nation without plundering national wealth and resources , so we have reported this news. 

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by     (2015-06-03 22:28:00)

Gota’s New PR Drive To Beat The FCID

June 4, 2015

The Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) dismissed a statement from former Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa to “white wash” the MiG-27 fighter jet scandal by saying all documents were submitted in a case to the District Court Mount Lavinia.

An FCID spokesman said those documents were given when Rajapaksa was fighting a libel action againstThe Sunday Leader newspaper. They had exposed details of the corrupt MiG deal. “We are not concerned about his defence there. We are conducting a probe. All I can say is we have found some startling findings. I cannot say anything further because the probe is still under way,” the spokesman said.

This week Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been upset over the Colombo Telegraph revelations. He has been telephoning police higher ups and government leaders and asking them not to proceed with the investigations. He has told them that all the details can be found in the case he filed against The Sunday Leader. Why the former Defence Secretary is so worried and trying to take cover under his own defence in a court case is very obvious – he does not want the Police to continue further investigations. The once powerful official in Sri Lanka kept the media out when the case was heard in the Mount Lavinia Courts. No one was allowed to be present in the courthouse and he now wants the Police and the Sri Lankan public to believe what he has said. Here is his statement:Read More

Police investigate unidentified drone

Pix by Sumathipala Diyagahage-2015-06-04

Police are inquiring into a four rotor Remote Control (RC) helicopter with a camera which had crashed in a home garden in Ahangama last night, police said.

Squared shaped helicopter was one and half feet in both length and width. 

The house owner had handed over the RC helicopter to the Ahangama police. (Sumathipala Diyagahage) 

The Smoky Killer…is The Cigarette Lobby Too Powerful in Sri Lanka ?

By Umesh Moramudali.-03/06/2015

According to statistics, nearly 60 people die daily in Sri Lanka due to smoking. Thus nearly 60% of cancer patients are smokers and as the President; who was the former Health Minister claimed, the government spends about Rs 4,500 million to treat those diagnosed with various diseases related to smoking. The total amount of deaths reported due to smoking in Sri Lanka amount to 21,000.
The Smoky Killer…is the Cigarette Lobby Too Powerful in Sri Lanka by Thavam Ratna

DV Upul banned from leaving country

June 4, 2015 

The Colombo Chief Magistrate today issued a directive prohibiting Southern Provincial Councillor D.V. Upul from travelling overseas, following a request by the CID.

The court instructed authorities to impound the passport of the Southern Province Fisheries Minister, who is being investigated over controversial comments made by him regarding the Financial Crime Investigation Division (FCID).

The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) today reported to the court regarding the ongoing investigation.

The Colombo Chief Magistrate also instructed the CID to obtain video and audio tapes containing the statement from media organizations.  

Upul, who supports former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s political comeback, is accused of allegedly asking people to “stone to death” officials of the special police unit.

In a public speech recently delivered at Tissamaharama, he warned that officials of the FCID must be stoned to death for carrying out investigations against members of the Rajapaksa regime.

“We will watch them being stoned to death when Mahinda Rajapaksa returned as Prime Minister,” Upul had said.

Upul warned the FCID officials that “they will be dealt with.”

Sri Lanka Police announced that investigations would be carried out regarding the statement as it was a threat to the police unit and the officers serving in it.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said: “His (Upul’s) comments were of an inciting nature. He can be charged under penal code for inciting violence against public officials.”

He will be questioned and a statement will be recorded, Gunasekera said.

Upul had made the remarks during a public protest against FCID for summoning former first lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa over alleged corruption in an NGO she ran during her husband’s presidency.

BBC Management Tells London Tribunal Of Employment Poor Management In BBC Sinhala

une 4, 2015

Poor management of the BBC Sinhala was exposed at Central London Employment Tribunal in the case filled by sacked BBC Sinhala Service (Sandeshaya) Senior Producer Chandana Keerthi Bandara against the BBC.

Bandara

The tribunal which concluded yesterday that Bandara was unsuccessful in his claim to unfair dismissal said that the BBC was entitled to arrive at the decision based on the evidence at hand.

The BBC south Asia hub editor Juliana Iootty told the tribunal that Priyath Liyanage was not managing properly. Priyath Liyanage was the Editor of the Sinhala Service who has been punished for misreporting an exposure into torture in Sri Lanka by Frances Harrison.

Chandana Keerthi Bandara accused of gross misconduct by a few in the Sinhala service was dismissed in August 2014. Former editor of the BBC Sinhala Priyath Liyanage, Saroj Pathirana, Thisara Aravinda Rathuwithana and former acting editor Dejan Radojevic complained to the BBC management accusing Bandara of harassment and bullying.

The tribunal heard that Priyath Liyanage, Saroj Pathirana and Dejan Radojevic accused Bandara of being a LTTE supporter. However it was not made clear to the tribunal by the BBC that they have investigated the accusation. Bandara told the tribunal that these accusation were made by pro Sinhala gang that was supportive of Mahinda Rajapaksa regime.

Apart from Mr Radojevic no one else from the BBC Sinhala service went to court to give evidence against Bandara. However, former BBC Sri Lanka correspondent Frances Harrison, award winning director Callum Macrae, (No Fire Zone fame), Bandara’s long time BBC colleagues Upali Gajanayake and M J R David gave evidence supporting Bandara claim.Read More

I can 'balance' Rohini & Eva, Tiran boasts

Thursday, 04 June 2015 
Businessman MP Tiran Alles is saying publicly that two of the three Supreme Court judges who hear the case to be called against him on June 11 will not give a ruling against him, say sources close to him.

When his close associates asked Alles as to how he has been able to ‘balance’ Rohini Marasinghe and Eva Wanasundara, he said he got it done through Prof. Lakshman Marasinghe, who is married to Rohini. He also said that he has more than enough file loads of information regarding the personal life of Rohini.

The sister of a notorious policeman in Kalutara, Rohini was first married to a cousin of Sunil Perera, leader of Gypsies, according to Tiran. He also told them a lot about a retired high court judge, and connected Rohini to a very popular film actor, in a serious character assassination.

If the two judges go against him and issue an order on June 11 to arrest him, Tiran said he would go to prison after making Rohini and Eva unable to take up cases once again. He also boasted that all should keep in mind the fact that he is the owner of a media institution.

Elusive Udayanga surfaces in Iran

Wants SL Embassy to help clear his ‘heavy luggage’ from Colombo Port

by Zacki Jabbar-June 3, 2015, 12:00 pm 

Sri Lanka’s former ambassador to the Russian Federation Udayanga Weeratunga, who has been accused of supplying weapons to Ukranian rebels, had surfaced in Iran on May 5, the Foreign Ministry revealed yesterday.

Spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry Mahishini Colonne, addressing a news conference in Colombo, said that Weeratunga had visited the Sri Lankan embassy in Teheran and requested its assistance to certify a Power-of-Attorney for his ‘heavy baggage’ to be cleared from the Port of Colombo.

The former Ambassador had, she revealed, left the embassy premises after having provided it with an email address. "The embassy subsequently informed Weeratunga via e-mail, that the power-of-attorney could be certified only after he handed over his Diplomatic Passport.  On May 9, Weeratunga had telephoned the embassy and said that he could not surrender his DPL passport. As a result his heavy baggage, remains uncleared, at the Colombo Port . Meanwhile, all Sri Lankan missions have been informed that the Immigration Department has cancelled Weeratunga’s DPL passport. During the time he was Ambassador, Weeratunga had on his own obtained a regular Sri Lankan passport."

Tracing the background to the case, Colonne noted that in November last year, the Embassy of Ukraine, located in New Delhi, had informed the Foreign Ministry that Weeratunga who at that time was Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the Russian Federation, had allegedly handed over weapons to 19 Ukrainian rebels. 

"With a view to obtaining further information , two of our officials travelled to New Delhi in December 2014 and met the Ukrainian Ambassador, who informed them that investigations into the alleged transfer of weapons was continuing and that further details would be shared with us in due course. He had also remarked that any action on the matter had to await the outcome of their probe. Accordingly, we are awaiting their findings."

Colonne said that on April 21 ,the Ambassador of Ukraine had visited Colombo and met Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, who assured him of Sri Lanka’s fullest support including its willingness to send a delegation to Ukraine to assist in the investigations, considering the seriousness of the issue.

Yemen's Houthis agree to talks as Arab bombing reportedly kills 40

Smoke billows from a Houthi-controlled military site after it was hit by a Saudi-led air strike in Sanaa, Yemen, June 3, 2015.-REUTERS/MOHAMED AL-SAYAGHI

SANAA/UNITED NATIONS | BY MOHAMMED GHOBARI AND MICHELLE NICHOLS

Yemen's dominant Houthis agreed on Thursday to join United Nations-backed peace talks in Geneva planned for June 14, a day after their opponents in the exiled government confirmed their attendance.

A Saudi-led coalition of Arab states has been bombing Houthi forces, the strongest faction in Yemen's civil war, for over two months in an attempt to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has fled to Saudi Arabia. Around 2,000 people have been killed and half a million displaced by the fighting.

Coalition Arab bombings killed around 40 people across Yemen on Wednesday, the state news agency Saba, controlled by the Houthis, said on Thursday -- 30 of them in the Houthi heartland in the far north, adjoining Saudi Arabia. The reports could not be independently verified.

The U.N. envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, has for weeks been shuttling between the Houthi-controlled capital, the exiled government in Riyadh and other regional capitals to garner support for peace talks in Geneva.

 

Daifallah al-Shami, a member of the Houthis' politburo, told Reuters his movement would take part, and "supports without preconditions the efforts of the United Nations to organise Yemeni-Yemeni dialogue".

Both sides appeared to have relaxed their conditions for opening the talks.

Hadi had previously insisted that the Houthis obey U.N. Security Council Resolution 2216, passed in April, which required them to recognise his administration and quit Yemen's main cities. The Houthis for their part had sought a suspension of the bombing raids.

Yemeni politicians say representatives of long-time president Ali Abdullah Saleh will also accept a U.N. invitation to the talks, but that southern rebel factions, who also control swathes of Yemen, are unlikely to be invited.

"REVOLUTION"

The Houthis, who seized the capital Sanaa last September and now control much of the country with the help of forces loyal to Saleh, say they are part of a "revolution" against corruption.

Saudi Arabia and allied Sunni Muslim states fear that the Houthis, who hail from a Shi'ite sect, will spread the influence of the Gulf states' Shi'ite arch-rival Iran in the Arabian Peninsula.

The foreign minister of one of those allies, Qatar, told Reuters in Paris that the armed intervention had prevented a Houthi takeover.

"If there had not been (Operation) Decisive Storm, we would have seen the Houthis and Ali Abdullah Saleh's people all over Yemen," Khaled al-Attiyah said. "I think Decisive Storm ... has restored legitimacy in Yemen.

"Is it enough or not? I think it will be enough when the Houthis and Saleh's followers fulfil the elements of 2216."

Overnight, around 12 air raids hit weapons stores around the presidential palace in Sanaa, according to a Reuters witness, triggering secondary blasts that lit up the night sky.

Air strikes also hit a naval base and Yemen's naval command in the Red Sea port city of Hodaida, residents said.

Saudi shelling also hit the main border crossing from Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, in the far northern province of Haradh, demolishing Yemeni customs offices.

In the southern city of Aden, a bastion of support for Hadi and scene of street clashes, air raids hit Houthi positions in the northern suburbs on Thursday.

Local fighters in the city and in a tangled battle line stretching through Yemen's south oppose the Houthis, but many support eventual independence for South Yemen, which was forced to unify with the north, under Saleh, in a 1994 civil war.

(Reporting By Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Noah Browning; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Escalation of fighting in east Ukraine leaves ceasefire teetering on the brink

Ukraine president Petro Poroshenko says there is a ‘colossal threat of the resumption of large-scale hostilities by Russian and terrorist forces’

Gun battles in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian and government forces

Shaun Walker in Moscow-Thursday 4 June 2015

After several months of shaky ceasefire, east Ukraine has seen the first bout of serious fighting since February, with clashes this week leaving up to 21 dead and prompting fears of a resumption of full-blown conflict in the region.

Escalation of Fighting in East Ukraine Leaves Ceasefire Teetering on the Brink by Thavam Ratna

Ominous Warning Signs Resurface in Zimbabwe

Ethnic hatreds, murky disappearances, and the purging of enemies are all on the rise in Robert Mugabe's dictatorship.

BY JEFFREY SMITH, TODD MOSS-JUNE 3, 2015

The southern African nation of Zimbabwe has fallen off the international radar screen in recent years, but alarm bells should be ringing loud and clear. Over the course of the past few months, we have witnessed an ominous series of warning signs: bitter political infighting within the country’s ruling party, the worsening of already deplorable economic conditions, the abduction and disappearance of a prominent human rights activist, and a surge of inflammatory rhetoric and political violence. According to a report by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, these are all telltale signs of growing atrocity risk — and precisely why the United States, and its allies, must wake up and take a proactive stand.

Political violence has long shaped the landscape of Zimbabwe, home to an estimated 14 million people. After a bloody liberation struggle against British colonial rule, Robert Mugabe, the only head of state Zimbabwe has ever known, spoke of reconciliation, peace, and social cohesion at independence in 1980. Mugabe’s words, however, brazenly belied the reality on the ground. Wartime emergency measures were kept in place, and we now know that plans for massacres against the Ndebele people in Midlands and Matabeleland provinces — what would later be known as Gukurahundi — were well underway. This calculated campaign of terror against an ethnic minority, executed with assistance from North Korea, was a key component of Mugabe’s plan to eliminate any opposition to his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). This scorched-earth campaign left at least 20,000 people dead and thousands more displaced. Thirty years later, no one has been held accountable, and the perpetrators remain in positions of power.

For a brief moment during Zimbabwe’s coalition government, from 2009-2013, the situation seemed as if it might be improving. The shattered economy stabilized and slowly began to recover, political space re-opened, and the most blatant forms of state-sponsored aggression declined. In reality, however, ZANU-PF and Mugabe were merely adjusting their tactics: Instead of physically assaulting opposition leaders in front of TV cameras, they undermined their influence through manipulation of the courts; instead of firebombing newspapers, they quietly intimidated the media and civil society activists; instead of beating up and maiming opposition supporters, they craftily rigged the polls to win the vote in July 2013. This more subtle approach worked, even leading to a softening of European sanctions earlier this year.

Over the past several months, however, the mood in Zimbabwe has markedly changed.

On March 9, prominent human rights defender Itai Dzamara was abducted in broad daylight. Diplomats claim that his disappearance bears all the hallmarks of an operation by Zimbabwe’s intelligence services, which has long operated with impunity under the direction of Mugabe and his security chiefs. More than two months later, Dzamara remains missing. Not only have the police ignored a High Court judgment, which ordered them to provide bi-weekly updates on the investigation and search for Dzamara, but a government minister went so far as to suggest that Dzamara staged his own disappearance.

Dzamara’s abduction is not an isolated incident. Zimbabwe’s history is replete with examples of human rights and opposition political activists who have been abducted, tortured, forcibly disappeared, or murdered by state agents. Most recently, on April 26, ruling party operatives publicly assaultedsix traditional leaders at a campaign rally in Mashonaland, in full view of the police, for supporting an independent candidate running for local office. Two of the headmen have been reported missing by the local press.

The recent uptick of incendiary rhetoric espoused by leaders in ZANU-PF has also raised red flags. Last month, for example, Zimbabwe’s current Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, while on a campaign stop in Midlands, likened Zimbabwe’s political opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), to Satan, announcing to the crowd “we have come to cleanse you of the sins of the MDC.” Importantly, Mnangagwa — who is also minister of justice and the most likely successor to the 91-year-old Mugabe — was a chief architect of Gukurahundi as then-minister of defense.

This type of dog-whistle rhetoric — including from Mugabe himself — is eerily reminiscent of Zimbabwe’s dark past. The ethnically-charged words are strategically chosen: meant to strike fear in the hearts and minds of would-be voters, but also to send a clear warning to those in ZANU-PF who might challenge Mugabe’s authority. In December 2014, for example, during the height of a frenzied intraparty struggle for power, Zimbabwe’s longtime vice president and liberation war hero Joice Mujuru — nicknamed “Spill Blood” — was ousted after allegations that she had planned to assassinate Mugabe. To date, Mujuru has maintained that the accusation is false and many observers, both inside Zimbabwe and out, believe the smear campaign was part of a more sinister plot to neutralize a political rival who had been gaining popularity.

Even prior to this latest incident, Mujuru knew full well the ramifications of crossing Mugabe and ZANU-PF, whether intentional or perceived. Her late husband, Solomon Mujuru, a highly revered figure in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle and former defense minister, was killed in an eerily suspicious house fire in 2011. Following Joice Mujuru’s political demise this past year, the first lady of Zimbabwe and current chairwoman of the ZANU-PF Women’s League, Grace Mugabe, declared that if Mujuru were killed, “dogs and fleas would not disturb her carcass.”

In Zimbabwe, this type of odious rhetoric has often coincided with political violence: It was a common tactic deployed during land invasions in the early 2000s, during a forced “urban clearance campaign” in 2005, and exemplified by targeted political attacks during and after the 2008 election period, when Robert Mugabe lost a first round but then unleashed a cascade of violence to force the opposition to withdraw.

The latest developments in Zimbabwe come at a time when the country’seconomy is again collapsing and the political elite are tearing themselves apart in a battle for succession. Monitors of mass atrocity risk typically watch for ethnic exclusion, hate speech, and indicators of political and economic stress. The greatest indicator of a country’s atrocity risk is whether it has suffered from similar events in the past. All of these factors are currently, and ominously, present in Zimbabwe.

This is a dangerous moment for the citizens of Zimbabwe, and for the southern African region writ large. The United States government recentlydispatched a delegation, including one of the State Department’s top human rights officials, to Harare. But the Obama administration will need to keep a keen and close eye on the ongoing events in Zimbabwe, including tasking the intelligence services for an assessment of the potential for mass violence. This should include elevating the issue of Zimbabwe to the president’s Atrocities Prevention Board, which can readily address the early warning indicators of mass atrocities that currently prevail. Just as important, authorities in the capital, Harare, must know that the world is watching. Preventative steps must be taken now by engaging with the African Union (which Mugabe currently chairs), other African heads of state, as well as the United Nations Security Council to dissuade the Mugabe government from going down this tragic road once again.

Mugabe and his inner circle of ZANU-PF loyalists must also understand that those who continue to commit violence against their own people will ultimately be held accountable. The United States and its allies should make it profoundly clear, both publicly and in private, that visa bans, asset seizures, and even war crimes prosecutions are all viable policy options that remain on the table.

Jekesai Njikizana/AFP/Getty Images