EXCLUSIVE: Blair met Khaled Meshaal to negotiate end of Gaza siege 

The talks are seen as proof that the Quartet’s eight-year-old conditions that Hamas recognise Israel before negotiations start have failed

Former British Prime Minister and Middle East Peace Envoy Tony Blair (AFP) 

David Hearst-Sunday 21 June 2015

Tony Blair met Khaled Meshaal, the leader of Hamas, twice in Doha to negotiate a plan to end the eight-year-long siege of Gaza, Middle East Eye has learned.

Blair met Meshaal before his resignation as Middle East envoy for the Quartet in May, but dialogue with him and his officials is still continuing, MEE understands.

Blair, accompanied by other former British officials, discussed how to end the siege of Gaza. The core issues are a ceasefire, which could be a rolling one, in exchange for Gaza securing a sea port and possibly an airport. The terms of the ceasefire, and its duration, as well as other details of the agreement are yet to be specified.

Blair is one of a number of UN and European envoys to visit Gaza in the last six months. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Mohammed al-Emadi, president of the Qatari National Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza, Paul Garnier, the Swiss ambassador to the Palestinian Authority, and Frank-Walter Steinmeyer, the German foreign minister, have all recently made the same trip. Steinmeyer called Gaza a “powder keg” that is at risk of exploding. 

But the Doha dialogue between Blair and Meshaal is regarded as the most serious and sustained to take place with the Palestinian group so far. MEE understands that Blair is talking with the support of British Prime Minister David Cameron, Washington, the EU and with the knowledge of the Israelis, and two Arab states.

Both Blair’s office and Hamas refused to confirm or deny the meetings in reply to emailed questions from MEE.  However, European and independent Palestinian sources confirmed the meetings, and said the discussions are still far from reaching a conclusion.

The offer from Blair is shrewdly pitched, MEE sources said, and has produced conflicting reactions within Hamas.

On the one hand, the offer itself is regarded as proof that the Quartet’s eight-year-old conditions that Hamas recognise the state of Israel before it is allowed into the negotiating room have failed. Neither recognition of Israel nor the demand that Hamas decommission its arsenal - particularly its rockets - are on the table.

The talks for the first time give Hamas, not the Palestinian Authority, the primary role in negotiations about Gaza. They also make a nonsense of the EU’s continuing attempts to declare Hamas a terrorist organisation. The EU is currently appealing an EU courts ruling that Hamas should be removed from the bloc’s terrorist list.

Second, MEE's sources claim, the offer itself is a recognition of Hamas’s pivotal role in Gaza. Blair going to Meshaal means that Israel’s Western allies realise there is no-one else to deal with in Gaza. Three wars, the siege, Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas’s refusal to let funds through to Hamas workers in Gaza, were all predicated on pressurising Gazans to reject Hamas.

Third, the offer presents an opportunity for Hamas and Gaza to be released from Egypt’s sphere of influence. Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s decision to demolish one half of the border town of Rafah, closing 521 tunnels and the border crossing itself, have caused as much hardship in the strip as the closure of the Israeli border.

Recently, however, in what is seen as related moves to the talks, the Egyptian border crossing has been opened allowing cement for reconstruction through, and Hamas has been delisted as a terrorist organisation by an Egyptian court. A seaport would take the card of being able to close the border out of Egypt’s hands permanently. MEE sources said Sisi will not have the right of veto on this deal.

On the other hand, the offer, called “ too good to be true” by some, has induced wariness in others.

First, there is suspicion of Blair himself, based on the role he has played in the Middle East, both as the British prime minister who invaded Iraq in 2003 and as envoy who gave Israel international cover during every war.

Since the military coup toppled Hamas’ Muslim Brotherhood allies in Egypt in 2013, Blair has vociferously supported Sisi. Blair said on a visit to Egypt as envoy for the Quartet: "The fact is, the Muslim Brotherhood tried to take the country away from its basic values of hope and progress. The army have intervened, at the will of the people, but in order to take the country to the next stage of its development, which should be democratic. We should be supporting the new government in doing that."

In Britain, Blair has linked the Muslim Brotherhood to what he called “Islamist penetration” of Western society: "The Muslim population in Europe is now over 40 million and growing. The Muslim Brotherhood and other organisations are increasingly active and they operate without much investigation or constraint. Recent controversy over schools in Birmingham (and similar allegations in France) show heightened levels of concern about Islamist penetration of our own societies.”

Blair’s recognition that Hamas cannot be militarily toppled is also a two-edged sword, arguing as he does that a peace deal could be another way of achieving the same end. He said: “There won't be a destruction of Hamas ... you won't destroy Hamas as a political entity...what I do know is that will only happen if it happens within the context of a way forward, particularly for the people of Gaza, that gives them some hope for the future, because in the end a political movement like that has support on the ground, and you need to shift ... take away that support."

An offer from Blair, who retains close links to the Emirates and Sisi - both of whom are actively promoting the former Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan - could be regarded as a honey trap for Hamas.

While the offer only concerns Gaza, and Abbas has all but torn up the agreement he made with Hamas on a unity government, Hamas still holds out the prospect of a unity government working one day, the sources said. It is anxious about being seen to make a separate deal with Israel, that could split it off from the rest of Palestine. This is one reason why it will not regard this deal as an end of conflict, and will only state that the ceasefire is a temporary one to end a siege.

Regardless of the outcome of this latest initiative, the talks are regarded as a political breakthrough for Hamas, a recognition from a staunch opponent that negotiations with Hamas are inevitable. However, Hamas is wary of following the same path Fatah took in its failed negotiations with Israel.  

One MEE source said: "The big question is will Hamas be able to open a new chapter in political negotiation which is different from Fatah? For Palestinians, peace negotiations have only led to concessions and the surrendering of rights. The biggest issue being debated within Hamas is are they repeating what Fatah did, or will there be a different outcome for Palestinians this time?”

Syria Kurds seize town from Islamic State near its 'capital'

Fighters of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) stand with children near a sign in Tel Abyad town, Raqqa governorate, June 16, 2015.

A Kurdish fighter mans a checkpoint at the entrance of the town of Tel Abyad, Raqqa governorate, June 19, 2015.

BY TOM PERRY AND LAILA BASSAM-Wed Jun 24, 2015

Kurdish-led forces in Syria seized a town from Islamic State on Tuesday after capturing a military base overnight, aided by U.S.-led air strikes in some of the most dramatic gains yet against the militants.

The Kurdish march deep into the heart of Islamic State territory follows their capture of a town on the Turkish border last week, reversing the momentum of militants who had seized major towns in both Syria and Iraq last month.

The Kurdish YPG-led forces had taken full control of Ain Issa, said YPG spokesman Redur Xelil. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which reports on the war, said Islamic State fighters had completely withdrawn from the town.

Overnight, advancing forces including Syrian rebels fighting alongside the YPG took control of the nearby Liwa-93 military base, a strategic objective which Islamic State had captured last year from government forces.

The advance to Ain Issa brings the Kurdish forces and their allies within 50 km (30 miles) of Raqqa, Islamic State's de facto capital, from which it rules over a "caliphate" across much of Syria and Iraq.

But Xelil said an assault on the city was not currently planned. The Observatory said the aim of the advance was to seize control of an east-west highway running through Ain Issa which links the city of Aleppo with the northeastern province of Hasaka.

The United States and its Arab and Western allies launched an air campaign against Islamic State last year after the fighters, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh, proclaimed their "caliphate" to rule over all Muslims.

The YPG fighters have emerged as the most credible ally of the U.S.-led campaign on the ground in Syria, where Washington has fewer friends than in Iraq. Xelil described the U.S.-led air support as "excellent".

Islamic State spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani urged fighters to escalate attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and vowed to defeat the U.S.-led campaign against them, promising "surprise after surprise" in coming days. [L8N0Z93RZ]

In a separate battle, the Syrian military and militias fighting alongside it have gained ground to the northwest of the city of Palmyra, which Islamic State captured from government control last month, according to the Observatory and a source in Syria briefed on the situation.

The West and its Arab allies have shunned the idea of partnering President Bashar al-Assad in the fight against Islamic State.

(For map of latest advances click link.reuters.com/mek94w )

"STRANGLEHOLD"

The group has shown little resistance to the latest YPG-led advance.

A US intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the setbacks were "notable" and showed that the militants "were vulnerable especially to motivated and well equipped forces backed by the coalition".

The Pentagon's said it carried out three air strikes in the area of Tel Abyad, 30 km (20 miles) north of Ain Issa.

The YPG advance gathered pace last week when the Kurds, in partnership with smaller groups under the banner of the Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), captured Tel Abyad and cut an Islamic State supply route from Turkey.

Coordination between the YPG and the U.S.-led alliance has deepened since they first joined forces to defend the town of Kobani, also on the Turkish border, defeating Islamic State fighters in January after four months of battle.

Asked whether the de facto Islamic State capital was now a target, Xelil said: "Raqqa is a Syrian city, like Tel Abyad and Kobani, and all Syrians want it freed of Daesh terror. But at the current time it is not included in our agenda."

Thousands of people have fled the YPG-led advance into Raqqa city in recent days, the Observatory says.

Some people escaping Tel Abyad have accused the Kurds of expelling Arabs and Turkmen, a claim dismissed as propaganda by the YPG. More than 2,000 Syrians who had fled into Turkey crossed back into Syria on Monday.

The Observatory says there have been no systematic YPG abuses, though some have been carried out by individuals.

Government forces had also advanced against Islamic State to the west of Palmyra, home to Roman-era ruins that are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Observatory said.

Islamic State considers such monuments idolatrous. Its fighters have planted explosives in the ruins, the Observatory reported on Saturday, raising concern the site could meet the same fate as monuments plundered and razed in Iraq.

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball, Steve Holand, David Storey and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; editing by David Stamp and Dominic Evans)

Iranians optimistic about end to isolation, says new poll

While a majority of Iranians support president Rouhani and the landmark nuclear deal his government brokered, victory in the 2016 elections is contingent on sanctions lifting

 Iranians flash the victory sign as they hold their country’s flag while waiting for arrival of foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif from Lausanne, Switzerland on 3 April 2015. The lifting of the sanctions has been hailed by Iranians in a recent poll. Photograph: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP

Tehran Bureau correspondent-Tuesday 23 June 2015

While a majority of Iranians support a nuclear agreement with the US and the other P5+1 powers, high hopes for the immediate lifting of international sanctions may mitigate support for Hassan Rouhani’s government ahead of next year’s parliamentary election, a new public opinion poll indicates.

Based on a telephone poll of 1,009 Iranians conducted 12-28 May for the University of Maryland’s Center for International and Security Studies byIranPoll.com and University of Tehran, a majority of Iranians supports a nuclear deal requiring their country to limit its centrifuges and nuclear stockpile for a number of years. They also accept more extensive inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency in return for the P5+1 accepting Iran to enrich uranium, lift economic sanctions, and expand nuclear cooperation with Iran.

Some 57% of respondents agree with the current framework while only 15% were opposed and another 28% were undecided, but that support is tempered by expectations of speedy sanctions relief and economic recovery.

Of those polled, 63% of respondents believe the current understanding would lead the United States to lift all its sanctions on Iran, while 38% believe the P5+1 has already agreed to lift the sanctions immediately. At least 53% say the nuclear deal would lower the unemployment rate and tangibly improve people’s standard of living in under a year.

During the last round of nuclear talks in Lausanne, at which all negotiating sides announced a framework agreement, United States and Iran officials issued contradicting statements indicating the two sides were still at odds over the scope and mechanisms of sanctions-lifting. As Iran’s scheduled February 2016 parliamentary election draws near, any snags over this aspect of the agreement could dampen public support for President Hassan Rouhani at a critical moment in domestic politics.

Widespread support – but a threat of lethargy

Poll results indicate that 50% of Iranian voters would prefer the new Majles, or lower house, to comprise Rouhani supporters, while 24% said they would prefer Rouhani’s critics. But responses to related questions about the current government’s policies indicate that the president stands to lose support for the nuclear negotiations the longer the sanctions lethargy drags on.

Some 81% of polled Iranians said the Majles should have the right to kill the negotiations. (Interestingly, Iranian MPs voluntarily curtailed their own right to do so in a 20 June vote.) A majority - 51% – also say Iran should not agree to a deal unless the United States agrees to remove all of its sanctions.

While most respondents gave Rouhani high marks for improving security and the country’s economic prospects, 53% said he was unsuccessful at reducing unemployment.Also, while 53% said they would re-elect Rouhani as president in 2017, another 27% of respondents to this question said they would vote forMahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former president whom the domestic press has blamed for the nation’s economic mismanagement.

“On security and foreign policy Rouhani has high approval. Those who see Iran’s military power as an achievement have increased substantially – about four times during just few months,” says Amir Farmanesh of IranPoll.com, who co-authored the study.

He adds that regional instability and the rise of the Islamic State west of Iran’s borders has contributed to this trend. “Naturally what is happening all around Iran should have made some people value the stability Iran has and count its military power as an achievement.”

Because of an error contained in a document provided for the results of this study, the article was amended to reflect a smaller percentage of respondents in favor of both Rouhani and his critics.

The U.N.’s Very Own Civil War

A child sex abuse scandal in the Central African Republic has pitted the U.N.'s two top human rights officials against each other.

BY COLUM LYNCH-JUNE 22, 2015

Anders Kompass, a high-ranking U.N. human rights official, saw a distinguished 30-year U.N. career fizzle in the time it took to walk from his office on Avenue Giuseppe-Motta in Geneva to the parking garage.

The U.N.’s Very Own Civil War by Thavam Ratna

Public Didn't See Last Two World Wars Coming Either

War Is A Crime .org

By davidswanson - Posted on 20 June 2015

Books about how World War I started, and to a lesser degree how World War II started, have tended in recent years to explain that these wars didn’t actually come as a surprise, because top government officials saw them coming for years. But these revised histories admit that the general public was pretty much clueless and shocked.

The fact is that anyone in the know or diligently seeking out the facts could see, in rough outline, the danger of World War I or World War II coming years ahead, just as one can see the threats of environmental collapse and World War III approaching now. But the general public lacked a decent understanding prior to the first two world wars and lacks it now on the looming dangers created by environmental destruction and aggressive flirtation with World War III.

What led to the first two world wars and allowed numerous wise observers to warn of them years ahead, even to warn of World War II immediately upon completion of the treaty that ended World War I? A number of factors ought to be obvious but are generally overlooked:

1. Acceptance of war, leading to steady preparation for it.
2. A major arms race, making instruments of death in fact our leading industry, with hope placed in a balance or domination of powers of war, rather than an overcoming of war.
3. The momentum created for war by massive investment in highly profitable (and status and career advancing) weaponry and other military expenditures.
4. Fear in each nation of the war intentions of the others, driven by propaganda that encourages fear and discourages understanding of the other sides.
5. The belief produced by the above factors that war, unlike the tango, only takes one. On the basis of that belief, each side must prepare for war as self-protection from another war-maker, but doing so is not believed to be a choice or an action of any kind; rather, it is a law of physics, an inevitable occurrence, something to be observed and chattered about like the weather.
6. The consequent, though seemingly mad, willingness by those in power to risk potentially apocalyptic war rather than to pursue survival without war.

World War I was preceded by wars in North Africa and South-Eastern Europe. Weapons spending and war planning soared. Efforts to preserve the peace were launched. Then Austria-Hungary was handed an excuse for attacking Serbia, and certain Germans saw an excuse for attacking Belgium and France, and certain Brits saw an opportunity for fighting Germany, and so forth, and the slaughter was on. It could have been prevented, but the policies of decades made it likely, regardless of the immediate trigger. The public had very little idea.

World War II followed decades of the first war’s victors causing the German people to suffer economically while building up bitter resentment, of another unprecedented arms race, of Western investment in Nazis as preferable to leftists, and of training up Japan as a junior partner in empire but turning against it when it went too far. The Nazi treatment of Jews was knowable and protested. The U.S. military’s aggression toward Japan was knowable and protested. The U.S. government drew up a list of actions that could provoke a Japanese attack, including an embargo on oil, and took each of those actions.

Much of the public never saw either world war coming. Much of the U.S. public believed the U.S. would stay out of the wars once they had begun. And U.S. voters twice elected presidents who were planning to enter world wars but campaigning on promises not to.

David Fromkin’s book on the beginning of World War I, Europe’s Last Summer, draws just the wrong conclusions. “It was no accident that Europe went to war at that time,” he writes. “It was the result of premeditated decisions by two governments. [He means Austria and Germany.] Once those two countries had invaded their neighbors, there was no way for the neighbors to keep the peace. That was true in World War II; at Pearl Harbor, Japan made the war-or-peace decision not merely for itself, but for the unwilling United States as well, by launching its attack. Nor had America any more choice in Europe in 1941; Hitler’s Germany declared war on the United States, to which America was obliged to respond.”

Fromkin is giving an accurate description of a war of rich on poor. When the United States attacks Iraq or Syria or Pakistan or Yemen or Somalia or Afghanistan or Libya or Panama or Vietnam, etc., etc., no cooperation is required from the poor nation that is bombed or invaded. There is war because the Pentagon says so, although the form that resistance takes is completely open to choice. But had the nations that Fromkin grants innocence in World Wars One and Two spent the previous decades disarming and practicing respectful diplomacy, aid, cooperation, peacemaking, and establishment of the rule of law, there could not have been the rich-on-rich wars that constitute the worst short-time-period events in human history and have been avoided since 1945. Fromkin traces, as most authors do, Germany’s WWI aggression to its fear of its neighbors. What if those neighbors had been unfearable?

Perhaps they would have been attacked anyway. Iraq and Libya disarmed, in terms of so-called WMDs, and the U.S. attacked them.

Or perhaps they would have been left alone. Most nations that do not threaten their neighbors are not threatened in return.

In any case, there would have been no world wars killing tens of millions of people if there hadn’t been willing partners on both sides. Any war there was would have been one-sided. Any nonviolent resistance would likewise have experienced one-sided suffering. But most of the death and destruction would not have happened.

The United States has pulled out of the anti-ballistic missile treaty and expanded NATO to a dozen new nations, moving right up to the border of Russia. It’s placed troops and weapons on the Russian border. It’s organized a coup in Ukraine and installed a Ukrainian government full of neo-Nazis. It’s lied to its people about Russian invasions and Russian attacks on airplanes. It’s fantasized about its missile-defense system allowing it to attack Russia, or China for that matter, without counter-attack. It’s proposed to put more nukes in Europe aimed at Russia. It’s built bases around the edges of China. It’s trying to militarize Japan again. It’s imposed sanctions on Russia. It’s threatened, mocked, ridiculed, and demonized Russia and its president — and North Korea for good measure. Informed observers warn of the heightened risk of nuclear Armageddon. And most people in the United States haven’t a clue.

While I’m not suffering under the delusion that violence is Russia’s only or wisest or most strategic response, neither am I urging Russia to turn the other cheek. Having been saddled with a U.S. identity when I’d prefer a local or global one, it’s not my place to tell Russia what to do (could I improve on Tolstoy?). But I can tell the U.S. public to wake up and put a stop to this madness before it kills us all. World War III is not inevitable, but it is clearly headed our way if we don’t change course. And changing course would give us our best shot at avoiding environmental disaster as well.

Operation Barbarossa

Tuesday, 23 June 2015

“A time-minded people,” the doctor repeated.
“Yes, sir,” said Joseph.
“Time and machines.”
“Yes sir.”
“The ‘Germans’ hurry towards their destiny as though it would not wait. They push the rolling world along with their shoulders.” John Steinbeck – ‘The Moon is Down’

When in January of 1933 Adolf Hitler founded his third Reich there was a decisive ‘quickening’ of history towards the cataclysmic World War. A strong capable race had embraced the assertive philosophy of the Nationalist Socialist Party of Hitler, and as events would show a portentous development for the rest of the world.

Operation Barbarossa by Thavam Ratna

Singapore: Teen blogger Amos Yee remanded for mental health assessment

Singapore teen blogger Amos Yee, center, speaks to reporters while leaving the Subordinate Courts after being released on bail, Tuesday. Pic: AP.

By Asian Correspondent Staff Jun 23, 2015

Rogue teen blogger Amos Yee has been remanded for two weeks at Singapore’s Institute of Mental Health (IMH) to assess his suitability for a mandatory treatment order (MTO).

The court heart Tuesday that, according to a psychiatrist, 16-year-old Yee may be suffering from autism spectrum disorder.  An MTO could see him undergoing psychiatric treatment for two years, in lieu of incarceration. Yee will be back in court again on July 6.

Yee came to notoriety earlier this year after he posted a lengthy rant on his YouTube page that insulted former Singapore leader Lee Kuan Yew and Christians. He also posted a lewd image depicting Lee and former British PM Margaret Thatcher engaging in a sex act.

After a two-day trial last month he was found guilty last month of insulting Christianity and uploading an obscene image online. He was not found guilty of insulting Lee.

Lee’s behavior has divided public opinion, with some saying he deserves to be punished for his behavior while others believe he has a right to free speech. ‘The New Yorker’ went so far as to compare him to Voltaire.

The case has gained international attention this week, with Human Right Watch calling for him to be exonerated and for freedom of speech to be protected.

“Nothing that Amos Yee said or posted should ever have been considered criminal – much less merit incarceration,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement. “The dismal state of Singapore’s respect for free expression can be seen in the decision to impose the criminal justice system on outspoken 16-year-olds.”

The United Nations Human Rights Office for South-east Asia (OHCHR) also called for his release Monday, appealing to authorities to “give special consideration to his juvenile status and ensure his treatment is consistent with the best interests of the child”.

Here Is How To Fast And Efficient Reduce High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure is disease of the elderly people. However, it is more often that younger people (from 16 to 34 years of age) are facing this problem.

Recent studies have shown this health problem can cause premature aging and brain damage.

The solution for this conventional health problem is constantly taking drugs to control blood pressure, drugs such as angiotensin receptor blocker.

Besides conventional remedies, there are alternatives that can successfully help you lower high blood pressure.

Now we will present six natural remedies that will help you maintain your blood pressure under control.

Hot pepper

Hot pepper is one of the fastest means to reduce blood pressure. It dilates blood vessels and helps in the free flow of blood and thus lowers blood pressure.

Add one to two teaspoons of ground hot pepper in hot water in combination with honey and Aloe Vera. Mix and you will get a great home remedy for hypertension. If the drink is too strong and you cannot consume it, then you can use hot pepper as an addition to meals.

Raw almonds

Eat a handful of raw almonds on a daily basis. This amount of these healthy nuts will help you to maintain the level of your blood pressure. Almonds are rich in unsaturated fats that help to reduce levels of bad cholesterol, relieve inflammation of the arteries and reduce high blood pressure.

Cocoa

Cocoa is rich in flavonoids and other anti-inflammatory nutrients. The flavonoids in cocoa act as adaptogens and help the body to better deal with stress, which is the most common cause of hypertension. Cocoa stimulates the process of reducing stress hormones that play an important role in regulating blood pressure. Also, flavonoids protect against heart disease that are often associated with high blood pressure.

Coconut juice

Coconut juice is rich in potassium, electrolytes and other beneficial nutrients. It has been proven to help reduce blood pressure for most people who consume it. Recent research has shown that 71% of the respondents significantly reduced systolic pressure by drinking coconut juice about, while about 29% of them had reduced diastolic pressure.

Turmeric

Turmeric is a natural blood diluent and has the ability to reduce inflammation in the body. Inflammation is one of the many causes for high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Fortunately, turmeric helps to improve cardiovascular function and maintains healthy blood flow through blood vessels.

Garlic

Garlic is one of the healthiest natural remedies in the world. It has been proven to reduce bad cholesterol level and high blood pressure.

Many people avoid eating garlic due to its strong and unpleasant smell. However, you can use it as a supplement in meals in a form of onion-based tablets or capsules.   

JVP requests to re-investigate on to Matale mass grave site

SATURDAY, 20 JUNE 2015

Western Provincial Member, Attorney-at-Law Sunil Watawala informed the Matale Magistrate yesterday (19th June) by representing aggrieved parties when Matale mass grave site case was taken for hearing at Matale Magistrate court.

JVP general secretary Tilvin Silva also attended the court yesterday and he said that it was able to found skeletons remains of 155 people in mass grave site which was found in Matale Hospital ground. It is clear that there was a definite crime, we suspect that these skeletons are of our members who were assassinated during 89 period. Former Rajapakshe Regime was tried to hide this crime as Gotabaya Rajapakshe’s name is also connected with this crime. We have a serious doubt about the Skeletons parts sent to USA for determining the chronology of skeletal remains found in Matale mass grave site because archaeological analysis conducted by Prof Raj Somadeva has mentioned in his analytical report that these skeletal is belonging to 1987 to 1990 period which contradicts with the US laboratory findings.

Therefore, we request the courts to issue an order to re-investigate in to this mass grave site. The CID informed Court that the laboratory reports on the mass grave had been referred to the Attorney General for future actions. We hope re-investigation will be carryout out on to this crime said Tilvin silva.

The magistrate postponed the case for July 24, 2015.

Shameful compromises with regard to January 2015 consensus

Sunday, June 21, 2015

As the year winds to its mid-term, the January 2015 consensus for a better Sri Lanka seems dangerously fragile. One can only wistfully enough, wish for a virtual miracle to rescue the country.

Battle lines are clearly drawn in several impending and imploding collisions. On the one side, militant factions of the Tamil diaspora supported by hard line voices in the Northern polity demand an international war crimes tribunal obviously aimed at the forthcoming sessions of the Human Rights Council over the UN mandated report. On the other side, ultra nationalistic Sinhala hardliners headed by the Rajapaksa rebel faction of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) delightedly stoke the flames.

Claims and counter-claims

Frantic reassurances of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe Government that a ‘credible’ domestic investigation will be initiated forthwith have not satisfied anyone. The most recent issue of contention is the unwise claim by the Minister of Justice that Sri Lanka has only 273 prisoners in detention on terrorism charges.

As an adjunct to this heated debate, the Government has denied that secret detention camps continue to exist. Exasperated by claims to the contrary by some Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians, the Government has asked them to name and indentify the centres. This is much like that peculiar response by the police once upon a time who, when asked as to account for failing to address the collapse of law and order, responded by requesting the public to catch the offenders and hand them over to the nearest police station.

Amidst this unsettling sound and fury, one fact is clear. Though the Government may remain complacent in its belief that it has successfully warded off a dreaded international inquiry at least for the moment, there is a lesson painfully taught to us that these twists and turns of international opinion are notably fickle.

Satisfaction of the minimal

Rather than relying on changing imperatives of realpolitik therefore, determination has to be expended on actually changing the local dynamics of the accountability demand. This is not accomplished merely by setting up a local inquiry with an international element of monitoring thrown in or by establishing a so-called truth and reconciliation commission where such commissions have become a joke. Such attempts will be heavily critiqued here and abroad.

Instead, let us go back to the satisfaction of the minimal. For instance, a key recommendation of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) in its 2011 report was that the interim and other reports of the Udalagama Commission on abuses allegedly committed by the LTTE and state actors be released to the public. Why has this yet not been done?

This was a question repeatedly asked by critics of the Rajapaksa Presidency so it is only fair that the yahapalanaya Government is also put under that same pressure. Are we to presume that the report’s originator, former President Rajapaksa who evidently was displeased by the turn that the Commission investigations was taking, given that he allowed the body to lapse prematurely without completing its work, has destroyed all documentation? Or is it that those holding the reins of government currently are as much disinterested in publicizing the reports? Or are there far more sinister motives at play? Two of the gross human rights abuses being inquired into by the Commission concerned the 2006 killings of Tamil youth who were just about to enter university and the brutal extra-judicial executions of seventeen aid workers in Mutur later that year.

The method of covering up

In many respects, the convulsions that accompanied the sitting of this Commission were a pointer to fundamental questions of state impunity plaguing Sri Lanka. In particular, the role of the officers of the Attorney General assisting the Commission attracted heavy criticism. An opinion handed down at that time by two retired Supreme Court judges possessed of the highest integrity, observed that if an officer of the state was found to have been involved in directing or advising investigations into a particular crime being looked into by the Commission, it was a serious conflict of interest for that officer to assist the Commission. This was a major crisis of credibility in relation to the state prosecutor. The credibility of the judicial inquiry was similarly impugned with good reason. The forensic process was not followed, resulting in vital evidence being lost.

Critics of these intentional impunity patterns, including this columnist, were targeted and viciously personally vilified in print and on the airwaves by Rajapaksa media propagandists who are now skulking in the shadows, presumably licking their wounds. Regardless, this misguided belief that everything can be covered up and glossed over by manipulation of the process, threats and intimidation is precisely why Sri Lanka has found itself is this unhappy situation of being besieged by international forces.

End result of shameless compromises

Indeed, this is the same breakdown of the Rule of Law that is seen in regard to similar incidents in the South, including for example, the failed Kotakthana prosecution involving Sinhalese victims and the investigation into the Aluthgama atrocities against the Muslim community one year ago. The Sirisena Presidency has not shown sufficient determination in reversing these trends. Merely meeting the mother and family members of the latest victim, schoolgirl Vidya Sivaloganathan who was raped, brutalized and murdered near to her humble home in Pungudutheevu is not sufficient.

Certainly, the President made a serious mistake in not dismantling the structures of the previous regime. From the Ministry of Defence to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, many of the old names still ring unpleasantly in our ears. In any event, the vacillations by the Wickremesinghe-Sirisena Government have resulted in each reform initiative being torpedoed by the Rajapaksa faction. The severely compromised 19th Amendment is being rendered a virtual dead letter by the blocking of the three independent appointees. Ludicrously, those who shouted from the rooftops that the Constitutional Council must be strong and independent are now weakly justifying as to why the CC does not need even its minority of independent appointees to function.

We are left with the end result of these shameful compromises. And ominous warnings hang heavy in the air.

Permanent Committee on Media – Polls Chief

22/06/2015

The Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya has decided to appoint a permanent representative committee to make decisions on the activities of media during all elections to be held in the future.

Deputy Head of the Media Division of the Elections Department Channa De Silva said the committee will be comprised of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission, Elections Department, Ministry of Media and Information and representatives from all active media institutions in Sri Lanka.

He further said it has been decided that this Committee should prepare guidelines which should be followed by media during elections and that these guidelines will be issued as a Gazette Notification.

He also said it was decided to establish a permanent media representatives committee because of the various complaints that were received regarding the misuse of media at the last Presidential Election. Expressing his views further to Ceylon Today, Silva said that,”This Committee will prepare guidelines which media should follow during elections. We have already informed heads of all media institutions in the country to make arrangements to send in their suggestions prior to 26 June.” He said further that all members of this Committee will be required to implement these media guidelines which the Committee will prepare.

By Niranjala Ariyawansha/ CT