No More Defence Ministry Supervision for NGOs: Deputy Minister

(Deputy Minister of Policy Planning and Economic Affairs Harsha De Silva)

17/06/2015 

Deputy Minister of Policy Planning and Economic Affairs Harsha De Silva last week clarified that the Ministry of Defence would no longer play a role in supervising Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO).

“The facilitation and supervision of NGOs is not a responsibility of the Ministry of Defence any longer. Under the new Government, those functions are now handled by the Ministry of Policy Planning, thus allowing them to serve the public and operate with flexibility and in a transparent manner,” De Silva stated.

01-01He made the comments during an address at a national consultation on ‘Humanitarianism in Sri Lanka – reachingnew heights and goals’ recently held at the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS).

The full-day event was organised by the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies in collaboration with other stakeholders in preparation for the World Humanitarian Summit – 2016to be held in Istanbul, Turkey.

De Silva noted that while NGOs had been established in Sri Lanka in order to serve the public, they had primarily remained under the purview of the Ministry of Defence under the previous regime.

“We have changed this set-up by placing the NGO Secretariat under the Ministry of Policy Planning andcreating an environment for the NGOs to provide their services to the public with freedom and to continuetheir work in a flexible capacity, ensuring transparency and accountability.

“We are happy to see that the Government,NGOs and the private sector are working hand in hand in order to serve the needs of the destitute, which is a win-win partnership among these three sectors,” he added.

The full-day event had successful participation of over 75 agencies, with local representatives from districts as far as Kytesin the northern peninsula, Nuwara Eliya and Hambantota.

The Ministry of Disaster Management, Disaster Management Centre,Asia Pacific Alliance for Disaster Management Sri Lanka,Muslim Aid, Islamic Relief,Sarvodaya and Sewalanka worked in concert with local officials and the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies to organise the event.
Daily FT

Post January Dialectics Of Democracy

By Sarath de Alwis –June 17, 2015

Sarath de Alwis

“A tale is told of a man in Paris during the upheaval in 1948, who saw a friend marching after a crowd toward the barricades. Warning him that these could not be held against the troops, that he had better keep way, he received this reply,” I must follow them. I am their leader.”  – ‘Conflicts of Principle’, Lawrence Lowell,President Harvard University.

A sanguine President Sirisena plans to thwart a rebounding Rajapaksa. A restless Ranil relies on a chagrined Chandrika to offer SLFP support after elections to keep him in office.

The adjectives applied to the principal protagonists decidedly describe the dialectics of our post January democracy. Sanguine is to be ‘optimistic or positive in an apparently bad situation’. Rebound is to ‘bounce back through the air after hitting something hard’. Restless is the inability stay still or to be quiet and calm, because you are worried. Chagrin is a feeling of vexation, marked by disappointment or humiliation.

The present dissonance in Parliament is mostly due to Mr.Ranil Wickremesighe’s self-deception that Nimal Siripala will be as accommodating to him as he was to Mahinda Rajapaksa in the role of a simulated opposition leader.

The anti Rajapaksa movement lost a great opportunity when the UNP wise guys decided to hound officials and politicians who squandered state resources in promoting the candidacy of President Rajapaksa for a third term. If the TRC spent millions in distributing ‘Sil’ shrouds, if Divi Neguma spent more millions distributing calendars, and a Minister distributed ‘Sathosa’ dhal taken on credit, the candidate Mahinda Rajapsaksa should have been charged for violating election law. The law provides for filing an election petition against even the loser. If the charges were tenable the courts would have imposed the applicable punishment – the loss of civil rights for six years. Meanwhile in open court all those who aided and abetted could have been grilled by the same three eminent lawyers of the Pitipana committee who have produced a ‘Pana Yana‘ report on the bond business.                                                                      Read More

Rathna thero uncovered..! Meets gruesome Gota and invites to enter politics..!

(Lanka-e-News- 16.June.2015, 11.30PM) Presidential advisor MP Athuruiye Rathna thero who has hung a “Pivithuru Hetak” board has met Gotabaya Rajapaksa one of the main brutal black sheep of the Rajapaksa regime which the people defeated and pleaded him to enter politics. Lanka e News inside information reports that Gotabaya has rejected the proposal.

Before this Lanka e News reported that Athuruliye Rathna met speaker Chamal Rajapaksa and requested him to take the Prime Minister post. Lanka e News also reported that Ashoka Abeywardana a Hela Urumaya supporter had stealthily met Gotabaya.

Athuruliye Rathna who has robed and covered himself is only to get protection from the dengue mosquito but not to be ashamed of inviting the Rajapaksa’s back to politics. The latter convening a media discussion said that it is important to pass the still undecided 20th amendment somehow at least through another government.

Athuruliye Rathna who said that it would be difficult for the UNP to govern when the parliament is dissolved is covering the fact that his leader Champika Ranawaka is holding a minister post. Rathna himi who is trying to bring back Rajapaksa back to politics has forgotten that people gave their consent only for 100 days.

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by     (2015-06-16 22:57:42)

Who’s delaying the probe? Champika 

threatens to reveal names

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Power and Energy Minister Champika Ranawaka threw a challenge at a recent ministerial meeting — expedite investigations into the cases he mentioned within a week or he would go public and name those behind the delays. The meeting was chaired by President Maithripala Sirisena.

Who’s Delaying the Probe Champika Threatens to Reveal Names by Thavam Ratna

A Meeting After The Vidhya’s Rape & Murder In Jaffna

By Thanges Paramsothy –June 17, 2015

Thanges Paramsothy

The Velanai DS office arranged a meeting at the North Ceylon Sarvodayam, Pungudutivu where the twelve GS of Pungudutivu, the Vellani DS, the Jaffna GA, the secretory for the governor of the northern provincial council, the head of Pradeshiya Shaba, a navy officer, a police officer and some people of Pungudutivu participated. The meeting took place on 16th June 2015. It was scheduled at 2 pm, but started around 2.45 pm. I too had a chance to take part at the meeting. It was said at the beginning that the meeting was arranged in order to get people’s voice on the important problems that they face in their everyday life in Pungudutivu and to find possible solutions.

The government officers, who were on the stage, talked very less, let much time for people to talk on their problems. The Jaffna GA and the secretory of the northern Provincial council repeatedly highlighted that “the governor of the northern province is very much interested to solve the problems in Pungudutivu. It is a golden opportunity for us to work together and find solutions for our problems”. After their introductory speech, they opened the stage for the audience in order to convey the problems in Pungudutivu.

A number of individuals appearing on the stage listed countless problems such as alcoholism, a bar near school and temple, lack of transport facilities, hospital, poor education, hundreds of abandoned houses, theft, forming a vigilant group in each ward, developing jetty, reconstructing ponds for irrigation, agriculture, fishing, unemployment, the abandoned cattle, lack of banking facilities, lack of drinking water and so on. The list continued. It seemed that the government officers carefully noted the issues in front of people. Finally, the Jaffna GA listed a couple of issues for which they would contact relevant authority in order to find solutions soon. Soon after the meeting, all the officers including the twelve GS, the DS, the GA and other officers spent couple of minutes outside the hall and got into their vehicle to travel towards Jaffna. People went to their home in Pungudutivu. That is all. The meeting was over.

Photo: by Thanges Paramsothy, the meeting held at North Ceylon Sarvodayam Pungudutivu

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Story of trishaw driver who amassed wealth after becoming Wimal Weerawansa coordinator

Wednesday, 17 June 2015

Sanath Kumara was born in Matara. He has not had any proper education and strayed into Colombo, just like Wimal Weerawansa did. Sanath’s first job was driving trishaws. At the same time, he began a small saloon in Moratuwa. Then, he started another business – in addition to cutting hair, doing facials at the saloon, he started making deals, which brought him quick money. With the rapid progress he made in the new business, he started two or three more such saloons near Colombo.

Sanath met Wimalasiri Gamlath alias Wimal Weerawansa during this period of his business thriving. Coming to know about Wimal’s heartbeat from the first day, he treated him to various delicacies and liquor to become his most trusted friend very soon. Once Wimal became a cabinet minister, both began to have a very prosperous period. Sanath was appointed a coordinator of Wimal’s ministry. With this, Sanath started a big business in Moratuwa named Isuru Traders. Through this, he has rented around 200 vehicles to Dialog company. In adition, he built a palatial house with swimming pools and electrical elevators in Moratuwa. He is having an account at the Panchikawatte branch of the HNB, for which alone he has been given an overdraft of Rs. 65 million.  That has been given against a fixed deposit he is having there. When he is questioned by the bank officials about his earnings, he directly said it was the money that belonged to the minister. Sanath has more than 20 houses in Colombo city. He had obtained bank loans to buy these houses and repays all the loans within a few months. That is how he has cleaned the black money of Wimal. Neither the bribery or corruption commission nor the FCID have been able to catch Wimal because even he had not passed grade eight, he does all his thievaries to the point. If the government honestly wants to corner Wimal, it should question his former coordinating secretary Sanath Kumara of Matara.

The JVP is making a detailed investigation into all assets of this person. Very soon, the findings will be the made known through the media. The picture below shows Wimal and Sanath meeting former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, their guardian angel who had helped them amass wealth within a few years, at his Carlton home in Tangalle.

A decision to create a six member committee to make an agreement between Maithri and Mahinda

(Lanka-e-News- 16.June.2015, 11.30PM) Maithripala Sirisena who has elapsed his 100 days program and who is continuously breaking the promise he gave to his people and to the international community that he would dissolve the parliament and go for an election in 100 days has organized a meeting to resolve the dispute between him and Mahinda Rajapaksa and to end the crisis of his party with the participation of SLFP MP’s, Provincial MP’s and electoral organizers.

The series of meetings held with an effort to appoint Mahinda Rajapaksa as the prime minister the crisis of the SLFP has reached its peak. Today’s meeting was called at SL Foundation Institute in order to resolve this crisis. Following the meeting which held more than one hour the UPFA secretary Susil Prem Jayanth told the media in order to resolve the dispute between Maithripala Sirisena and Mahinda Rajapaksa a six member committee has been appointed. He said the committee would speak with both parties and come to a conclusion. The specialty of this committee is that all six members are pro Rajapaksa’s. The following are the six member committee 

Susil Premjayanth – Secretary UPFA
Anura Yapa – Secretary SLFP
John Senevirathna
T.B. Ekanayake
Kumara Welgama
Dilan Perera – SLFP media spokesperson

Dilan Perera who told the media if UNP cannot govern the country let them resign and we have decided to create an SLFP government before the election. 

When the media inquired from the cabinet spokesperson Rajitha Senarathna he said “you can inquire from the secretaries” and left the place with a wrath. Later Rajitha who spoke to LEN said that he is dissident about the discussion to bring Rajapaksa back to power. 

Political analysts who gave their opinion said that Maithripala Sirisena would go for an agreement with the bestial Rajapaksa’s. That means the investigations against Rajapaksa’s would be stopped and in respect Rajapaksa’s should abstain politics. However political analysts further said due to the crisis of the SLFP the president is leading the country towards anarchy.

The following is the video 

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by     (2015-06-17 00:42:34)

Tissa grilled at Bribery Commission

June 17, 2015

Former UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake was today summoned to the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption to record a statement regarding his acceptance of a ministerial portfolio before the Presidential Election.

Attanayake was made Health Minister for less than three weeks after he defected from the UNP and pledged support to then President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was seeking a third term in office.  

Rajapaksa eventually lost to his former Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena, who himself defecated from the government to contest the Presidential Election as the Common Candidate.

The former UNP General Secretary was expelled from the party following a decision taken by the its working committee.

On February 11, Attanayake was released on bail after being arrested on criminal charges of falsifying documents.

SL placed sixth for forced marriages in UK

2015-06-17
Sri Lankans are among the top 10 immigrant families to Britain who are being forced into marriage, a study revealed. 

Quoting the study, NDTV reported that Sri Lankans were placed sixth, behind Indians and Pakistanis in the UK who were forced into marriage, a crime in the country.    

Forced marriage had been criminalised under British law exactly one year ago today and the UK's Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) said it had handled cases involving a range of different countries including Pakistan (38.3 per cent), India (7.8 per cent), Bangladesh (7.1 per cent), Afghanistan (3 per cent), Somalia (1.6 per cent), Sri Lanka (1.1 per cent), Turkey (1.1 per cent), Iran (1 per cent) and Iraq (0.7 per cent).

"We made forced marriage a crime to better protect victims and send a clear message that this brutal practice is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated in the UK. We also hope that criminalisation will act as a deterrent," said Karen Bradley, UK minister for preventing abuse and exploitation. 

"The UK is a world-leader in the fight to stamp this out, with our Forced Marriage Unit leading efforts to combat the practice both at home and abroad," she said. 

Forcing someone to marry against their will is punishable by a maximum penalty of seven years' imprisonment. 

"Forced marriage is different from arranged marriage. In an arranged marriage, although the families may take a leading role in arranging the marriage, the choice of whether or not to accept the arrangement remains with the prospective spouses. It is this choice which makes an arranged marriage different from a forced marriage," the FMU said. 

The law is designed to help people in Britain as well as UK nationals overseas against the devastating effects of forced marriage such as physical, psychological, emotional, financial and sexual abuse including being held unlawfully captive, assaulted and raped. 

The first conviction under the new legislation took place earlier this month when a 34-year-old businessman from Wales raped and imprisoned a woman, before forcing her to marry. The cross-government FMU provided advice or support in 1,267 cases last year. 

More than one in 10 cases involved victims aged under the age of 16 and nearly a fifth of cases where age was known involved victims aged between 18 and 21. 

Research by Department for Children, Schools and Families in 2009 estimated that a national prevalence of reported cases of forced marriage in England was between 5,000 and 8,000. 

The criminal offence works alongside Forced Marriage Protection Orders (FMPOs), which provide a specific civil remedy to prevent forced marriage and assist victims where a marriage has already taken place. 

The breach of an FMPO was made a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine. - See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/76599/sl-placed-sixth-for-forced-marriages-in-uk#sthash.8L5xJ3vq.dpuf

Sri Lankan Airlines: Ranil Yet To Table ‘Weliamuna/Jayaratne’ Report In Parliament

June 17, 2015

Seventy seven days have now passed since the “Weliamuna/Jayaratne” report and findings on Sri Lankan Airlines has been handed over to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe exposing corruption and fraud committed by the former Rajapaksa government. The entire country now wonders if the premier will ever table the report in parliament due to his lackadaisical approach displayed where people who voted for Yahapalanaya are now begin to get concerned.

J. C. Weliamuna

The non-disclosure of the Weliamuna/Jayaratne report to parliament and subsequent recommendations by the Board of Inquiry not been adhered to thus far, is bound to end up having serious repercussions for Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe with the general elections just around the corner.

The BOI headed by the current Chairperson of Transparency International Sri Lanka and lawyer J.C. Weliamuna and his four man team, which alsocomprised good governance activist Chandra Jayaratne, interviewed scores of the airline’s staff who voluntarily came forward. Staff spilt many a bean regarding corruption that ran into billions of rupees, besides manipulations of service contracts and abuse of power within the senior management of the national carrier. The findings of the now known report with Chandra Jayaratne also being instrumental in the inquiry, recommended that the former President Rajapaksa’s brother in law, the airline’s Chairman Nishantha Wickramasinghe and its CEO Kapila Chandrasena be criminally prosecuted.

Besides the resignation of both the Chairman Wickramasinghe and CEO Chandrasena, only Captain Druvi Perera’s post of Chief Operations Officer was scrapped on the 31st of May 2015, that eventually cost the tax payer Rs 3.5million. This whopping sum is equivalent to the annual salaries of three supreme court judges.

Read More

Open Skies At Mattala – Some Points To Consider

by Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne, FRAeS, FCILT

( June 17, 2015, Montreal, Sri Lanka Guardian) On 23 April of this year, The Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka issued in the public domain a statement to the effect that  The Government of Sri Lanka has decided to adopt, with immediate effect, a  full open skies policy for commercial  aircraft operating into and out of Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport using  all 9 freedoms of  air traffic rights.  To those uninitiated in air transport jargon, this may sound arcane and sweeping in scope, and they would be correct.

Open Skies at Mattala – Some Points to Consider by Thavam Ratna

No bail for Sajin

2015-06-17 

Colombo Magistrate remanded United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Parliamentarian and former Monitoring MP of the Ministry of External Affairs Sajin de Vass Gunawardena until 24 June.

He was arrested on 11 May, by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) with regard to the alleged misuse of vehicles belonging to the Presidential Secretariat.

Diyawadana Nilame influences inland revenue chief!

Wednesday, 17 June 2015

Diyawadana Nilame of Sri Dalada Maligawa Nilanga Dela Bandara is misusing his office to avoid paying income tax for his personal businesses, reliable sources told Lanka News Web. Since the day he became the Diyawadana Nilame, he has not carried out an audit of the Dalada Maligawa expenses, misled the Asgiriya and Malwatte Mahanayake Theras to get their signatures, sent the accounts to the Buddhist affairs commissioner and silenced him by using powers of the state. Similarly, he is now trying to silence the commissioner general of inland revenue.

Giving a call to inland revenue chief Kalyani Dahanayake some days ago, Nilanga has told her, “You too, are a Sinhala Buddhist. It is clear that there is a conspiracy against Sinhala Buddhists due to the continuing mud slinging against me, who is the lay leader of the Sinhala Buddhists. I have sent accounts of the Dalada Maligawa to the Buddhist affairs commissioner on time. I have committed my entire life for the past 10 years for the upliftment of the Dalada Maligawa. Therefore, I had not time to pay attention to my personal businesses. Therefore, I could not pay income tax. Please consider my position and the position of the country and the nation too, and grant some relief for me. I am ready to do anything for you.”

The Sinhala Buddhist lady Kalyani Dahanayake felt sorry for the Diyawadana Nilame and entrusted the task to a subordinate, also a Sinhala Buddhist, saying, “Whatever it is. Diyawadana Nilame is our Sinhala Buddhist leader. Do anything possible to help him.” Accordingly, the Diyawadana Nilame will escape the income tax net by hiding behind his Sinhala Buddhist image.

The Top Secret (Fake) Memo to Putin on How to Counter NATO’s Latest Move

Is the Kremlin worried about U.S. tanks in Europe?

BY JAMES STAVRIDIS-JUNE 16, 2015

Memo: Our Winning Strategy in Europe
From: Russian Strategic Planning Cell
To: President Vladimir Putin

1. Let me begin by congratulating you, Mr. President, on our outstanding series of strategic moves in Europe. We have consolidated our annexation of Crimea, which now finds its rightful place back as part of Mother Russia. Your series of “snap exercises” all around the periphery of our country have clearly frightened NATO. Additionally, the brilliant concept of “hybrid warfare,” combining the deployment of Spetsnaz special forces, additional Russian troops and trainers in unmarked uniforms, vigorous propaganda, information warfare, and cyberattacks has everyone’s attention. And NATOfreely admits it is not ready to face our new mix of tactics.

2. While we have lost a little bit of economic muscle from the combination of Western sanctions and falling oil prices from their glorious peak, we are a tough people — and naturally your approval ratings within Russia remain at stratospheric levels. We assess that by working with our Chinese friends, over time, we may be able to improve our international balance of trade positions despite the sanctions; and the future of our Eurasian Customs Union (despite an oddly small number of participating nations) is bright.

3. Geopolitically, we are reassembling a “ring of steel” of alliances around Russia with powerful allies like Belorussia, Armenia, Transnistria, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and the newly formed emerging nations of Luhansk and Donetsk in the Donbas of Ukraine. Not quite what we enjoyed with the Warsaw Pact, but you can’t have everything.

4. There is one small problem I would like to bring to your attention, however: the intention of the United States to pre-position heavy military equipment in Eastern Europe. Thus far, the NATO nations have been “keeping an eye” to the east, but have not significantly raised their defense spending from an anemic level of 1.5 percent, well below the 2 percent goal they aspire to and that the United States continues to champion. But we are somewhat concerned that the addition of these pre-positioned units may actually galvanize the Western alliance. Let me explain.

First, these pre-positioned military stocks represent a real improvement in response times for NATO forces. If we were to rightfully intervene in one of the NATO Baltic nations on behalf of the down-trodden Russian minorities there (a case you have elucidated with extreme eloquence and brilliance, as always), the presence of these pre-positioned stocks of armor, artillery, ammunition, communications, transport, and missiles will be available to NATO — and especially U.S. troops — sent from bases in Germany, Italy, and in the United States.

Second, this will probably be only the first step toward permanently stationing other NATO and especially U.S. troops in Eastern Europe. This, of course, is something we have fought against with all our might since the tragedy of the implosion of the USSR and the fall of the Berlin Wall. (You were right to call this a major geopolitical disaster of the 20th century, of course). Given Western perceptions about our “threat to the Baltics,” there will be a steady drumbeat from the Eastern European NATO members to add troops to the forward-positioned military stockpiles.

Third, given the presence of the stockpiles, there will inevitably be a whole series of NATO exercises revolving around using them. We can expect a great deal of rotational deployment in and around the area of these caches, to include not only troops coming to work with the equipment, but inevitably their supporting arms — high-performance aircraft, guided-missile ships, Special Forces and their V-22 Osprey transports, and on and on. This will be problematic from a number of dimensions, including the need for us to conduct frequent (and costly) demonstrations and exercises ourselves. Recently, our deployments have been somewhat less than perfect.

5. So the question for us is simple: How do we respond? Our planning cell has been looking closely at the options, and unfortunately they are not very compelling.

Assuming you will want to follow through on our bold and absolutely correct comments about moving our forces to the borders of NATO countries, this will put an expensive burden on our armed-forces budget. Despite raising it significantly over the past several years, we are still in need of modernization for our strategic rocket forces, our advanced fighter aircraft, and our maritime power projection — especially submarines. Moving troops around is expensive and will reduce resources to these priority systems. We could move more missiles into Kaliningrad, of course, but this does not seem to have gotten NATO’s attention.

We could respond politically, perhaps by obstructing Western efforts with Iran to obtain a nuclear agreement, find a sensible solution in Syria, or make difficulties in Afghanistan. Here the problem is that we actually do not have a great deal of leverage (with the possible exception of Iran). We have rightfully departed the old and tired G-8 (now pathetically called the G-7) and have little ability to influence via that route. So not much is available to us along these political and diplomatic lines. And so long as oil prices remain relatively low, our economic tools are limited.

Mr. President, I am sure you have already rejected any idea of actually executing the Minsk agreements in Ukraine? While I fully recognize the vital importance of supporting the heroic leaders of Luhansk and Donetsk, I am just a bit worried about the long-term cost of rebuilding that part of Ukraine, as well as the entire Crimea. What else can we consider?

Maskirovka?" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">I know this is delicate, but perhaps it is time for a littleMaskirovka? Perhaps we should at least think about a sort of feint, wherein we nominally abide by the Minsk accords, settle for another “frozen conflict” with Ukraine (we can continue to manipulate events easily), and thus splinter the resolve of the Europeans? Brussels no doubt would be thrilled to have the chance to get back to “business as usual” (read: doing nothing) and is desperately seeking any excuse to do so. Even a hint of a relaxation in our posture — and something of a military withdrawal of some of our units from Ukraine — would be sufficient enough to begin breaking apart Western solidarity on this issue.

The good news is that the Americans have not made a final decision yet on the pre-positioned military stocks, and we would encourage the soft power advocates in their government to stop this idea. It would also reduce the growing possibility of the Americans (or others) providing some level of offensive weapons to the Ukrainian government.

If you agree, we could provide options to appear more accommodating on the surface, perhaps reducing easily traceable weapons, trainers, and forces in Ukraine. We could adjust our strategic public messaging to take a more conciliatory line. Naturally, we would redouble our more easily obscured support via cyber, cash, untraceable weapons, deep-cover agents, and the like — all the things you personally did so masterfully in your career in the KGB.

6. Please do not mistake our enthusiasm for all that is happening! If you don’t like this idea, we will continue with our current approach. As you often say in reference to having a “Plan B,” the best Plan B is so often simply to work harder at Plan A! After all, with our new Armata tanks, we can still roll to Kiev anytime we want. As Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin so cleverly mentioned a few weeks ago, “tanks don’t need visas.” His Twitter account is fabulous, by the way, and an inspiration to all right-thinking Russians.

7. The future is bright!

Very respectfully,

Your Strategic Planning Cell

Photo credit: Alexander Aksakov/Getty Images News

Kashmir killings raise fears of new bloodletting

Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel stand guard in front of closed shops during a strike in Srinagar June 17, 2015.

SOPORE, INDIA/MUZAFFARABAD, PAKISTAN | BY FAYAZ BUKHARI AND ABU ARQAM NAQASH

After years of sharply reduced political violence in Indian-controlled Kashmir, the gunning down of four men with links to militants has fanned fears of a new wave of bloodletting.

No group has claimed responsibility for the killings, but the police blame a breakaway faction of Hizbul Mujahideen, the largest group in the region, which has been fighting for Kashmir's merger with neighbouring Pakistan.

"They have serious differences with ... other militant leadership over several issues," said Garib Dass, the chief of the police for northern Kashmir. "They feel that these people have damaged the movement and are targeting them."

The killings have raised fears militants are regrouping and this could be the start of a new period of unrest in Kashmir that has been the main flashpoint between nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan.

 

The bloodshed comes after five telecom workers and vendors were shot by militants last month after claims cell phone towers were being used to target their members.

The murders have centred on the northern Kashmiri town of Sopore, about 30 miles (50 km) from the border, that has long endured militancy, violence and a heavy military presence.

In the last few days, India has deployed an additional 600 soldiers and police specialising in counterinsurgency operations to the area, police said.

Soldiers are conducting searches for suspected militants and have put up posters offering a million rupees ($15,600) for information that can lead to the arrest of two militant commanders who are said to have plotted the attacks.

Syed Salahuddin, supreme commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, denied any members of his group were behind the murders. He said that Sopore was a stronghold of Hizbul Mujahideen but that the area has a sizeable presence of renegades, a term for former militants who switched loyalties to India.

Salahuddin said they are close to identifying the renegades.

Ajai Sahni, the executive director of the New Delhi-based Institute of Conflict Management, said that a new generation of militants could be emerging who are trying to join militant groups or win backing from Pakistan by staging the killings.

"These youngsters are likely self-radicalised over the Internet and do not have necessary linkages to established terrorist formations for recruitment, and therefore seek to give positive proof of their commitment," he said.

For the last four days in Sopore, a town of almost half a million people, the roads have been deserted, and most of the shops and local businesses have closed. 

"There is fear psychosis here," said Mohammad Ashraf, president of the Traders Federation of Sopore.

The attacks have come at a time of deteriorating relations between India and Pakistan. Both countries traded bitter verbal exchanges last week after India conducted a cross-border raid in Myanmar and a junior minister said it was a message to Pakistan that India will go after militants anywhere.

($1 = 64.1500 rupees)

(Additional reporting by Sanjeev Miglani in New Delhi; Editing by Andrew MacAskill/Hugh Lawson)

Jun 17, 2015 9:33:30 AM