Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Protect Maithri, the Democrat and Statesman

2015-07-13

Did Maithripala Sirisena disappoint the 6.2 million voters by letting MR contest under the SLFP tag? Some call it a great betrayal; while others think it a democratic option or burying the hatchet for mutual survival. In the meantime, the government and PM makes a strenuous effort to brainwash citizens in a well calculated and masterly cover-up agenda to save offenders involved in CB Bond scam. Why are they doing this if the government politicos are not involved in the scandal? Can the PM assure the public that no such loss has taken place under the issue, or if there was a scam then who is responsible, instead of attempting to whitewash his nominee for the plum post?
‘Nahiverena Verani’
All the stakeholders of that great silent revolution of January 8; the politicians, Civil society men, clergy and other independent groups who teamed up with a section of SLFP stalwarts are expecting someone who believes in the famous Buddha word— the verse No. 5 in Dhammapadha, ‘Nahiverena Verani—Sammanti dha Kudacancam…’, mean:

“Hatred never ceases through hatred, but through love alone they cease”; an eternal law, on the day he announced his entry to the fray and repeated soon after taking oaths as the President, to deprive Mahinda Rajapaksa of nominations to contest the scheduled Parliamentary elections.

The anti-Rajapaksa clique is prompting vindictive reaction from the compassionate man reminding him of his fate, ‘six feet under…’, if his bête noire won on January 8.

Liu Xiaobo
What they fail to understand is that the President is not appointing the ‘deposed King’ as PM from the back door. Anybody who wants to become the next PM and form a government, (he or she) will have to seek a popular mandate from the people, and if the electors of this nation unwisely decide to bring back a team of corrupt men responsible for dragging the country to a virtual authoritarian state, and encouraged anti-social elements, including drug traffickers and ruffians to rule the roost, then they will be treated with what they deserve.

Both MR and MS have remained loyal and dedicated SLFPers but MS the only man with guts among spineless leaders that they approached; he sacrificed his political future in answering a clarion call by a ‘regime change assembly’— but today he is heading the SLFP, and in reality 70 percent of the party’s former legislators and 90 percent of village-level supporters are passionately urging a return of Rajapaksa. Can Maithri, as a democrat, ignore their desires? Especially in the circumstances of the UNP government’s utter failure to properly handle a single case of corruption charges levelled against them? If the rank and file demanded he would be compelled to campaign for the party’s victory. However, the best option for MS is to resign from SLFP/UPFA leadership and allow them to elect their leader.

Hopefully, I believe, insight would tell former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa that the best option available to him would be to call it a day and retire from politics. He could remain the Great Saviour of the Nation and win the hearts of all the people rather than losing a second successive battle. Let good sense prevail.

‘Let us never forget that government is ourselves, and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.’---Franklin D. Roosevelt

The state of the bond issue: PM exposed?
The Rs. 53 billion loss on CB Bond Scam, up to last Friday as reported, may be due to the higher interest offered on unwarranted increase in rates. But the real issue is why that the government is making a valiant effort to brainwash citizens in a well calculated masterly cover-up attempt to save offenders. They simultaneously planned a scrupulous programme to convince that no such loss has taken place under the issue. The course of action taken by UNP leadership itself speaks for their guilt. He and his knowledgeable Ministers like Ravi Karunanayake, Harsha de Silva, Eran Wickremeratne, Sujeewa Senasinghe, and even Rosy Senanayake are on a mission to deceive not only the parliamentarians but the entire nation on this fraud. By doing so they have left ample margin for anybody to speculate why they were in a mighty hurry to dissolve the Parliament before COPE presented its findings on this criminal mishandling of State funds, which easily amounts to double the Rajapaksa regime plundered in nine years.

Breach of privileges
Today the whole country knows who is behind the biggest CB Treasury Bond fraud. May be, DEW breached parliamentary privilege of people’s representatives, but he committed the ‘crime’ by letting the voter know the truth behind the ‘Great Bank Robbery’; undoubtedly, the foremost duty by a responsible people’s representative. There is no escape now making false interpretations of the tragedy: by trying to cover-up this massive scam, RW has left room for people to suspect his own credibility. Can one imagine what is going to be like under a UNP government? The Premier fails to realize that more you try to cover-up a scandal— more you fast reaching the cesspit.

President should intervene; call for explanations. 0
If proven, the Bond Scam of February 27, 2015, will be recorded in the history books as the biggest fiscal scandal ever carried out by a team of corrupt high officials aided and abetted by sections in the ruling party; operating from both in and out of Parliament. Basic investigative procedures have been completed by Parliamentary select committee COPE; it is now left to the analysts to go one step further and debate, comment and uncover the hidden aspects of this scandal. A competent team should be appointed by the President to carry out a comprehensive study; firstly, to work out the loss incurred to the economy, the people, the State, and the public; and next, proceed to investigate and prosecute the culprits irrespective of their positions.

kksperera1@gmail.com

- See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/79265/protect-maithri-the-democrat-and-statesman#sthash.yN35jIV2.dpuf

Many journeys, but going nowhere

Tuesday, 14 July 2015

“Gamana” – in English “Journey” – must be one of the most overused words on our political platforms, TV talk shows or even literature. ‘We will not stop our “journey”! Anyone can join our “journey”! Let us keep going on this “journey”! There is a distinct potency in the usage of the word, irresistible, powerful, all-conquering, the “people” are on the move.

Many Journeys, But Going Nowhere by Thavam Ratna

Mahinda rebukes nomination board in filth,

assaults Susil!

Tuesday, 14 July 2015

Showing his usual self, former president Mahinda Rajapaksa rebuked UPFA general secretary Susil Premajayantha and the nomination board in filth and played hell at the home of former minister Felix Perera at Keppetipola Mawatha, Colombo 05 on the night of July 12, an eyewitness told Lanka News Web.

Mahinda has got to know that Hiru Media Network has decided to attack him at the general election after its owner Rayynor Silva has been told that the ex-president had opposed his brother Duminda Silva being given nominations, and immediately after arrival, he has ordered the nomination board to give nominations to Duminda. Then Premajayantha has told him, “Isn’t it you who wanted Duminda cut saying Rayynor is an UNPer? Now, what are you saying? We have finalized the lists. Nothing can be done hereafter.”

Mahinda confronted Premajayantha and slapped him several times. Premajayantha dropped the files in his hands, held his head in his hands and sat down on the floor. Then, several persons had brought Mahinda from the first floor to the ground floor and sent him to a meeting in Piliyandala. As Premajayantha’s condition was not good, he was admitted to Nawaloka Hospital for treatment.

Ex-minister Dinesh Gunawardena told Mahinda, who was at the Piliyandala meeting, that the UPFA general secretary has been admitted to Nawaloka Hospital. A confused Mahinda immediately went to Nawaloka Hospital, knowing that he would be in trouble if things went too far. He had gone to Premajayantha, apologized and pleaded with him to forget the incident. Premajayantha remained silent. After the ex-president left, he told a person nearby, “This devil can never be corrected. This is what we have done by giving him nominations instead of letting him remain in the Medamulana jungle.”

Tensions rising in Ukraine as far-right militia’s boobytraps injure two police

Double bombing follows weekend shootout between Right Sector fighters and police as president attempts to crack down on armed nationalists

Life goes on in a village near Mukacheve as Ukrainian security forces search for militia fighters of the far-right militia Right Sector. At least two people were killed at the weekend. Photograph: Alexander Zobin/AFP/Getty

Alec Luhn in Moscow-Tuesday 14 July 2015

Alec Luhn in Moscow-Tuesday 14 July 2015
Booby-trap explosions have injured two police officers in western Ukraine, further raising tensions in the region after a shootout with nationalists at the weekend left two men dead.

The continued violence in the area, which borders the European Union and is rife with smuggling, highlights Kiev’s struggles with both endemic corruption and armed nationalist groups who have helped it fight pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine. On Monday Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, ordered the security services and police to disarm “illegal groups” and root out corruption and smuggling.

Two police officers in Lviv were taken to hospital on Tuesday after mysterious bombings that the interior ministry said were connected with “events in the Zakarpattia region”, referring to the shootout in the city of Mukacheve on Saturday that killed two men.

The gunfight began after police responded to the arrival of heavily armed Right Sector members at a sports complex controlled by an MP, Mikhail Lano, who openly opposes the group. Right Sector said its men had been trying to stop a smuggling operation, but others called it a fight over contraband.

Video footage showed Right Sector men shooting at a police car with Kalashnikov assault rifles and a heavy machine gun mounted on a pickup truck. The interior ministry said the far-right group had shot first.

The first blast in Lviv, which is north of Mukacheve, occurred at about 9am when a lieutenant opened a neighbourhood police station, setting off an explosion. The 24-year-old man was in hospital in critical condition with multiple shrapnel wounds to his head and body.

A second explosion went off about an hour later at another neighbourhood police station, injuring a 31-year-old female officer. The interior ministry said the station entrances had been booby-trapped and a safety clip from a grenade had been found at one site.

Security forces detained two members of Right Sector late on Monday who it said were involved in the Mukacheve shootout. After the gunfight, government forces had surrounded Right Sector members in a wooded area near Mukacheve as well as a base in the Lviv region.

Right Sector grew in popularity after it played a lead role in the tumultuous mass protests that overthrew president Viktor Yanukovych in 2014, and the group has joined other volunteer battalions, many of them also with far-right views, to fight pro-Russia rebels in the east.

Kiev has been cautiously trying to integrate these irregular units into the military. Its troops surrounded a Right Sector base in eastern Ukraine in April after it refused to be broken up among different military units. The military eventually appointed Right Sector’s leader, MP Dmytro Yarosh as an adviser to the chief of staff, Viktor Muzhenko, in an apparent compromise.

But Saturday’s clash showed that the process of subordinating Right Sector, which has claimed to have 10,000 fighters, is far from complete. On Monday, Poroshenko took armed groups to task without mentioning Right Sector by name.

“No political force should have, and will not have, any kind of armed cells. No political organisation has the right to establish … criminal groups,” he told Ukraine’s security council.

Poroshenko added that the flow of weapons from the conflict in the east had raised the risk of crime around the country. Right Sector and other volunteer battalions have been accused of criminal activity and human rights violations, including torture and kidnapping.

Speaking to the national security council on Monday, Poroshenko called for an investigation into everyone involved in the Mukacheve incident, which he blamed on the redirection of smuggling flows, and demanded “searches, arrests and direct criminal liability”.

“We must untangle the knot of old problems requiring an immediate solution. I am talking about clans, smuggling, corruption and so on,” Poroshenko said, according to his press service. “The picture of what is happening there now is not black and white, it is simply shockingly black.”

On Tuesday, Ukraine’s parliament created a temporary investigative commission to look into the circumstances of the Mukacheve conflict. Meanwhile, customs agents in Zakarpattia confiscated a cache of 2,000 cigarettes hidden in a rail wagon full of iron ore.

The dangerous cost of Israel’s siege on Gaza

There was a time when you could swim anywhere off Gaza’s coast. Not now. Not in the aftermath of war.

gaza g blog The dangerous cost of Israels siege on Gaza

Monday 13 Jul 2015

Smashed sewer systems, broken pipe work, and damaged pumping stations have seen to that. Raw sewage is tipping out into the Med and drinking water is in frighteningly short supply – not a tap runs with stuff, every drop must come by bottle through the blockade.

The Dangerous Cost of Israel’s Siege on Gaza by Thavam Ratna

Bosnian Muslims observe

Bosnian Muslim women crying at the graveyards of their loves ones

Mostar and the destroyed Bridge

One of the mass graves

With United Nations’ Dutch Soldiers connivance

By Latheef Farook-Monday 13 Jul 2015

Bosnian Muslims observed the twentieth anniversary of the genocide of 8372 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica by Serbian soldiers.

Starting from July 11, 1995, for three days, the ethnic Serb forces gunned down Muslim men and boys in and around Srebrenica. The sight of their broken bodies lining roadsides, strewn across fields and dumped into mass graves forced the world's eyes onto a broader campaign of ethnic cleansing.

Bosnian Muslims Observe “Srebrenica Massacre” by Thavam Ratna

India clears defence deals worth $4.7 bln, buys four Boeing spy planes

The Boeing logo is seen at their headquarters in Chicago, April 24, 2013.

Tue Jul 14, 2015

India cleared the purchase of close to 300 billion rupees ($4.74 billion) worth of new defence equipment on Tuesday, including four maritime spy planes from Boeing Co and hundreds of air defence guns, a defence ministry spokesman said.

The largest order approved was for 428 L-70 and ZU23 air defence guns worth around 169 billion rupees, the spokesman said after a meeting of India's Defence Acquisition Council.

The guns are to be manufactured in India, the spokesman said, part of the government's push to expand the domestic defence industry and end the country's status as the world's largest arms importer.

New Delhi is in the midst of a huge military modernisation programme, and analysts expect it to spend as much as $250 billion over the next decade, attracting western manufacturers who are battling cuts in defence budgets at home.

Slow procurement and a series of cancelled orders under the previous government have slowed investment in India's military and left it short of necessary equipment, a problem Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to end since coming to power last year.

Modi is also trying to strengthen defence ties with the United States, which has emerged as one of India's main sources of weaponry in recent years.

In June, the countries agreed a 10-year defence cooperation pact. They will expedite talks on cooperating on jet engines and aircraft carriers, with India keen to gain access to state-of-the-art U.S. technology for its planned carrier.

The purchase from Boeing, worth 43.8 billion rupees, is a follow-on order from an earlier deal for eight of its P-8I spy aircraft agreed in 2009 and comes as India looks to bolster its navy to check China's growing presence in the Indian Ocean.

India recently took delivery of its seventh P-8I from Boeing, with the eighth due later this year.

($1 = 63.2965 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Tommy Wilkes and Nigam Prusty; Editing by Keith Weir, Larry King)

The historic nuclear deal with Iran: How it works

Iran has finally reached a nuclear deal with the U.S. and international partners. Here's what's in the deal, and what happens next. (Gillian Brockell and Julio C. Negron/The Washington Post)

By Ishaan Tharoor-July 14
After more than two weeks of wrangling and missed deadlines in Vienna, Iran and its international interlocutors have finally clinched a historic accord over Tehran's nuclear program. The diplomacy with Iran, which throughout has had its vociferous opponents, was aimed at curbing the Islamic Republic's ability to produce a nuclear weapon. A tentative framework was inked in April between Iran and its negotiating partners, which include the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China and Germany.

Iran and six major powers have reached a landmark deal to curb Tehran's nuclear program. Iran's Foreign Secretary says it represents a new chapter of hope. (Reuters)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicted the nuclear agreement with Iran would allow the country to continue seeking nuclear weapons. (Reuters)

The Historic Nuclear Deal With Iran How It Works by Thavam Ratna

Iran’s Return to Oil Markets Is Good for Energy Firms but Bad for Russia

BY DAVID FRANCIS-JULY 14, 2015

The nuclear deal struck between Iran and the West will gradually add a major new player to the global energy market. But don’t expect a radical reshuffling of the deck, at least not in the short term, though Tehran could present a big problem for major energy players down the line.

Iran’s oil infrastructure is decades behind that of other oil powers like Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. But the potential resource base there — Iran is thought to have reserves larger than those of each of the three aforementioned energy giants — has firms primed to change that.

Sara Vakhshouri, a former advisor to National Iranian Oil Company International, said Iran is going to need quite a bit of outside help to reach its target of producing 5 million barrels per day by 2020.

“To reach this goal Iran would need $70 billion of investment in its oil and gas fields,” Vakhshouri, who is now president of SVB Energy International, wrote in a note circulated Tuesday morning.

If true, the amount of money Iran would need to spend on infrastructure, along with the time it would take to build the necessary facilities, could undercut a central critique of the deal from opponents like Israel and Saudi Arabia: that lifting the sanctions will quickly give Iran billions of dollars to funnel to allies like Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad and proxies like Hezbollah.

However, Iran must comply with the terms of the deal over the long term to even open the door for this investment to arrive, said Emma Ashford, an energy expert at the Cato Institute. If it does, she said, Western companies are likely to line up to invest.

“Iran is sitting on as much as 10 percent of [global oil] reserves,” Ashford toldFP Tuesday morning. “It’s in need of a big modernization and investment push. Companies may be willing to do that.”

She said Exxon Mobil, which was recently shut out of the Russian energy market, is a prime candidate. Other companies, including European firms such as Total, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, and Eni, are champing at the bit to get their hands on Iranian crude. Shell chief Ben van Beurden said in June that Iran is a “wonderful country with a fantastic resource base.” Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne added, “We like Iran.”

There will be a short-term impact to Tehran’s getting back into the oil game, though it won’t be nearly as substantial as the long-term impact. Iran is thought to have oil reserves of approximately 40 million barrels sitting on offshore tankers waiting to be sold. “This amount of stored oil can be sold even before any removal of oil export related sanctions. China, India, South Korea and Japan [all] have waivers from sanctions,” Vakhshouri wrote.

“Iran can also increase its oil and condensate production up to 800,000 barrels per day within the next six to 12 months,” Vakhshouri said in a subsequent interview with FP.

That won’t bring Iran as much money as it would have a few years ago. Flooding an already oversaturated global oil market with more supplies would only serve to send crude prices down. Tuesday at noon, U.S. Eastern time, a barrel cost $52.20, down 1 percent from Monday — something that will keep American gas prices low. By contrast, a barrel of oil cost $107 at this time last year.

However, according to Ashford, because Iran had been almost completely shut out of the oil market, any profit, even small, is better than nothing. Since 2012, Iran has exported about 1.1 million barrels a day. Prior to sanctions, Iran exported about 2.5 million barrels per day.

“They’re going to increase their market share. It’s going to keep prices low for everyone,” she said.

This has important geopolitical implications. Russia, whose economy is suffering under the weight of Western sanctions and is heavily reliant on energy, now has a new regional rival.

“This is not very good for Moscow,” said Ashford. “The ruble is falling even this morning because people expect this is going to cut into Russian profits.”

Vakhshouri said this presents Russian President Vladimir Putin with a difficult choice: cooperate or suffer.

“If the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East don’t cause any supply interruption, the market, the oil producers — mainly OPEC and Russia — have to agree whether to reduce their production or … start a price war,” she said.

Photo credit: Getty Images

The Dalai Lama’s 80th Birthday- Continuing Stalemate on Tibet Issue

by D. S. Rajan

Abstract

As the Dalai Lama exiled in India turned 80, the situation regarding the Tibet issue has reached a crucial stage. There seems to be no chance of resumption of talks between Beijing and the representatives of the spiritual leader as deep differences between the two sides persist; the last contact was five years ago. China’s economic and security policies have led to an overall stability in Tibet; its international economic clout has grown leading to a weakening of foreign support to the Dalai Lama’s movement. With these as basis, China may feel confident about its ability to control events in Tibet and despite some internal viewpoints in favor of a soft line towards the Dalai Lama, China may not be in a hurry to reach a rapprochement with the latter. It is quite possible that China would choose to wait for the passing away of 14th Dalai Lama and appoint his successor on its own within the country in which case it can hope for a close to the Tibet issue once for all. Till such time, there may not be an end to the prevailing stalemate with respect to the Tibet issue. The stalemate has negative implications for relations between India and China though the Tibet issue is not a bilateral political problem among them. Any settlement of the issue between Beijing and the Dalai Lama can contribute to creating a right atmosphere for solving the vexed India- China border problem which was once non-existent and arose only after China liberated ’Tibet.

( July 13, 2015, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) At a time when Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader exiled in India, turned 80 on July 6, 2015, the picture relating to Tibet issue continues to be uncertain. Both the Dalai Lama and the central government in Beijing, the two parties to the issue, are adopting diametrically opposite positions.

The Dalai Lama’s 80th Birthday- Continuing Stalemate on Tibet Issue by Thavam Ratna

Elective surgery is associated with lower risk of death than drugs for ulcerative colitis

Endoscopic image of a bowel section known as the sigmoid colon afflicted with ulcerative colitis. The internal surface of the colon is blotchy and broken in places. Credit: Samir/Wikipedia

Medical Xpress - Medical and Health News

July 13, 2015

Patients over 50 with ulcerative colitis (UC), a chronic disease of the colon, who undergo surgery to treat their condition live longer than those who are treated with medications, according to a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The results are published this week in Annals of Internal Medicine.

"Ulcerative colitis is a chronic disease that most physicians opt to treat with medications, as opposed to surgery," said the study's lead author Meenakshi Bewtra, MD, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Penn. "This new finding highlights a potential unrecognized advantage of a surgical approach to the disease."

Ulcerative colitis is a type of inflammatory bowel disease characterized by inflammation in the colon, or the large intestine. The inflammation can cause abdominal discomfort, bleeding, and diarrhea. It affects as many as 700,000 Americans, according to the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America. Men and women are equally affected, with most patients diagnosed by their mid-30s.

The convention in treatment of UC is that surgery is considered a treatment of last resort. However, medical treatments, involving immunosuppressant and steroid drugs, come with significant side effects, and can increase the risk of infection and some cancers. These medications effectively control the disease in less than 50 percent of patients.

In a retrospective study, Bewtra and colleagues analyzed data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to examine whether patients with advanced UC pursuing elective colectomy - in which surgeons remove the patient's colon—had improved survival compared to similar patients pursuing chronic drug therapy. The researchers defined advanced UC as those patients who had had at least one hospitalization for UC, had two or more corticosteroid prescriptions within a 90-day period, or had any prescription for immunosuppressant therapy.

The study identified 32,833 UC patients 18 years of age and older who had at least six months of Medicare/Medicaid eligibility and who fit the inclusion criteria. Of these, 830 underwent elective colectomy and the remaining 32,003 were managed on drug therapies.

Mortality rates associated with elective colectomy and medical therapy were 34 and 54 per 1,000 person-years, respectively, thus showing that elective colectomy was associated with an improved survival rate. A person-year is a measure of survival that is equivalent to the number of years a person is followed multiplied by the number of subjects in the study. In further analysis, the survival benefit seemed greatest in patients age 50 and over. The findings also suggested a benefit for surgery in those patients who could not sustain a disease remission - defined as stable disease without the need for hospitalization or changes to drug therapy—on immunosuppressant therapy, but further work is needed to confirm these results.

"With this new knowledge, physicians should be empowered to begin a dialogue about surgery earlier in their patients' course of treatment," Bewtra said. "Many patients are afraid of surgical therapy for UC. This study should help them to understand that the benefits of surgery may extend beyond just reducing the symptoms of uncontrolled UC."

Monday, July 13, 2015

PRESS COUNCIL’S REVIVAL THREATENS MEDIA FREEDOM IN SRI LANKA

Press Council's revival threatens media freedom in Sri Lanka

MONDAY 13 JULY 2015.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS) are alarmed by the new president’s decision to revive the Press Council – a controversial body that gave the authorities a great deal of scope to coerce the media – and urge him to create an independent council that guarantees a system of media self-regulation.

President Maithripala Sirisena’s government announced the revival of the Press Council on 2 July, six month after his election victory ended years of autocratic rule by the Rajapaksa family and fuelled democratic hopes in Sri Lanka. The council allowed the authorities to impose severe sanctions, including imprisonment, on journalists.

“By reviving this mechanism for harassing the Sri Lankan media, President Sirisena is dashing the hopes raised by his election and is again placing the media under a permanent threat of authoritarian abuses,” said Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk.

“We urge the president to rescind this decision and instead to begin a complete overhaul of the Press Council with the aim of turning it into an entity that guarantees media independence.”

JDS added: “The government’s move to re-enact the controversial legislation reinforces serious and legitimate fears, as the desire to curtail media freedom always reflects anti-democratic intentions.”

Created in 1973, the Press Council was much used during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency, which was brought to an end by Sirisena’s victory in January. During his campaign, Sirisena pledged to support media freedom and to end the harassment of journalists.

RSF already voiced concern about a resumption of intimidation of Tamil journalists in April, when several journalists from the north of the country were questioned and in some cases charged or detained by the Colombo police.

After Sirisena’s 8 January election victory, RSF and JDS urged him to end his predecessor’s policy of violence against journalists and to combat impunity for such violence.

Refer Sri Lanka to International Criminal Court

We, the undersigned people from around the world, urge the United Nations to refer Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or to establish a similar credible International Judicial Mechanism for investigation and prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed against the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan State.

According to the UN Internal Review Report on Sri Lanka, there were “credible estimates” of civilian casualties of 70,000 Tamils during the first six months in 2009. As the former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pointed out, Sri Lanka is one of the notable countries, along with Bosnia, Burma, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and elsewhere, where rape was used as a tactic of war.

We firmly believe that neither a domestic mechanism nor a hybrid mechanism will mete out justice to the Tamil People. The call by the new Sri Lankan government for a domestic or hybrid mechanism to replace any international judicial process is an attempt to deflect the call for referral to the ICC and to delay other meaningful actions on accountability. Efforts to establish a domestic Truth and Reconciliation Commission is another diversionary tactic to protect those who committed serious crimes against Tamils.

The current situation in Sri Lanka constitutes an ongoing “threat to the peace” under Chapter 7 Article 39 of the UN Charter, because there has been absolutely no accountability for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

In support of our call, we submit the following facts and reasons for your perusal

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