A dying Californian shopping mall gets the world's largest green roof

City links: Greening Silicon Valley, Guatemala City’s mystery zone and spray paint cycle safety in Berlin feature in this week’s best city stories

The Hills at Vallco project. Image: Sand Hill Property Company

Francesca Perry-Friday 18 September 2015

This week’s best city stories from around the web explore Silicon Valley’s newest sustainability project, an app which automatically sprays potholes you cycle over, the “missing” Guatemala City neighbourhood and Indianapolis’ growing pains with a new electric car share scheme.

We’d love to hear your responses to these stories, and any others you’ve read recently, both on Guardian Cities and elsewhere. Just share your thoughts in the comments below.

Go green

Vallco Shopping Mall in Silicon Valley, is yet another “dying” shopping mall in the US. As Adele Peters writes in Fast Co Exist: “Half the stores are empty, the food court is abandoned, and people leave Yelp reviews talking about their fear of zombie ambushes in the eerie corridors.”

So – you guessed it – it’s being redeveloped. Situated right by the Apple headquarters, the project is no doubt hoping to attract the young tech crowd to new shops and restaurants. But luckily, having extensively consulted the local community, the developers are creating a bit more of a public (and environmental) benefit: the world’s largest green roof, open for people to use as a park. In an area dominated by car use, the sustainable design also promises a walkable, cycle-friendly neighbourhood with integrated public transport. The plans await approval by the city of Cupertino next year.

Zoning out

Guatemala City is divided into 25 different zones, or districts. But one of them - zone 20 - doesn’t actually exist. Writing in the LA Times, Marisa Gerber talks to the writer Juan Pensamiento, for whom the city’s famous “missing zone” became an obsession from a young age:

He remembers the day in first grade when his teacher taught the class about the city’s zones. She counted all the way to 19 and then bounced to 21. Pensamiento and his friends looked at one another, puzzled, and asked her why there wasn’t a 20. “I have no idea,” she said. “There just isn’t.”

Pensamiento wrote a book all about the different zones of the city (chapter 20 is, of course, missing), continuing to ask people about the elusive zone – but no one had an answer. Until, that is, one day an explanation came in: when Guatemala City’s urban engineer Raúl Aguilar Batres designed the spiral that gave shape to the city, the place he picked for zone 20 lay beyond the city limits, so it got skipped over.

Spray paint it better

A designer in Berlin, tired of the dangerous potholes he came across while cycling, has developed a system in which an app, linked up to a spray paint can, senses road disturbances and colourfully marks the problems as you cycle over them.

“Auto-Complain works with a phone’s accelerometer to identify bumps in the road,” Ben Schiller explains in Fast Co Exist. “When users ride over the obstacle, the app maps the location, then sends a signal to an onboard paint gun that sprays a mark on the road.” The system also generates a PDF that’s sent automatically to a city road department at the end of the ride and the complaints are viewable on an online, interactive map. The designer, Florian Born, believes it could be useful to use on dedicated bike lanes which are meant to be free from problems and hopes to release it to the public next February. And in case you were wondering – the paint is chalk-based and temporary.

 Auto-Complain

Indianapolis electric car share

As we explored recently, Indianapolis has been trying to develop innovative regeneration approaches to combat gentrification. But this month, the city welcomed a new approach to public transport in the form of an electric car share scheme, albeit with noticeable growing pains. As Carol Matlack writes in Bloomberg:

Local business owners have groused about recharging stands taking up parking space outside their establishments, while disgruntled taxpayers complain about the expenditure of public funds on a project run by a French company. Some city council members, angry that the mayor didn’t seek their approval for the outlay, have even threatened to have [the electric] cars towed off the streets.

Car hotel

CityLab tells the story of two “hotels for automobiles” that were created in New York in the late 1920s and early 1930s, when America “was going wild for cars”. With increasing traffic congestion in the city, the structures were an architectural response to the problem of how to accommodate cars in densely built-up areas before huge underground car parks became the norm.

An original diagram of one of the structures, 24 stories tall, shows a sort of futuristic car park presented as a temple to the automobile. People would drive their car on to an elevator, get out and press the relevant button, and the car would be automatically taken up to the correct floor and stored. However, the “auto-scrapers” closed after two years when the company behind them went bust.

Ayurvedic Foot Massage

 

by Maitri Nagar

It’s about imbibing Ayurveda in our day to day lifestyle. There is a certain discipline which we follow on the regular basis and what we call “routine”. For e.g.: Brushing teeth, taking bath, exercise, eating, etc. There are few more such activities which were supposed to a part of our routine as described inAyurveda. This comes under the umbrella of “Din Charya (Day to day Routine)”. Over a period of time some of the activities of Din Charya have gone missing from our life gradually but their importance hasn’t diminished at all. One such small technique is the foot massage “Pada Abhyangam”.

Foot Massage:

There are many techniques and manipulations in a foot massage but we will focus on the simple practices that can be inculcated in our daily routine. Homemade ghee (clarified butter), Cow’s ghee, sesame oil, mustard oil, olive oil, coconut oil or any other relaxation oil can be used for the massage. For daily use Cow’s ghee is considered to be the best.

Instructions:

- Simply use few drops of the selected oil/ghee and rub it on your feet.
- Use the smooth surface of a small metallic bowl to rub it gently on your feet. Classical texts indicate “bell metal” as the best choice for the same.
- Rub it gently in both directions for 2-10 minutes on both feet. After this relaxing routine simply wash your feet with warm water.
- It can be done anytime of the day. Works best when done just before sleeping at night.

Benefits of this massage:

-Alleviates anxiety
-Induces state of relaxation
-Brings sound sleep
-Releases stress and tension
-Improves blood circulation
-Rejuvenates the whole body
-Improves digestion
-Eradicates pain
-Improves Eye sight
-Restores youth and vitality
-Develops Vigor
-Nourishes hair follicles

Listed above are just few of the benefits. It is also helpful in treating many ailments. Various therapeutic oils and techniques are used for a massage depending on the complaints. So if you have any ailments consult your Ayurveda specialist and if you don’t have any ailment start practicing this technique to avail the above benefits and stay away from any diseases.

Statement on the UN Sri Lanka Investigation Report

Brussels  |   18 Sep 2015

The release on 16 September of the long-awaited report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on its Sri Lanka investigation (OISL) is a dramatic advance that can help the country respond to its painful legacy of war. The report is a compelling examination of the abuses committed by all sides during the lengthy civil conflict and the steps required to pursue justice, accountability and reconciliation as part of democratic recovery. The UN Human Rights Council (HRC), which mandated the report, should demonstrate the same leadership by endorsing and supporting its conclusions and recommendations at the present session.

The report found a “horrific level of violations and abuses” between 2002 and 2011 and presents evidence of violations by government forces, pro-government paramilitaries and the separatist Tamil Tigers (LTTE) “that are among the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole”. These include indiscriminate shelling, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and sexual violence, recruitment of children and the denial of humanitarian assistance. The report confirms accounts from victims and survivors of systematic war crimes committed during the final, brutal months of the civil war and immediate aftermath.

Particularly notable is the clear finding that the Sri Lankan criminal justice system remains incapable of conducting credible investigations and prosecutions of these sensitive matters. Arguing that “a purely domestic court procedure will have no chance of overcoming widespread and justifiable suspicions fuelled by decades of violations, malpractice and broken promises”, the report calls for establishment of a “hybrid special court, integrating international judges, prosecutors, lawyers and investigators”. This recommendation merits particular endorsement by the Human Rights Council, given that the government’s resistance to international participation in investigations, witness protection or trials invites doubts about its ability to achieve its own stated goals of justice, accountability and reconciliation and undermines the trust of survivors and witnesses whose testimony will be crucial.

The report comes two days after Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera acknowledged to the Council the institutional challenges Sri Lanka faces. His speech was a welcome departure from the aggressively nationalist and authoritarian policies of the former government and highlighted important points of convergence “on the fundamental need to address the disputed legacy of Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war”. The foreign minister described the ambitious proposals he laid out – including a truth and reconciliation commission, offices for missing persons and reparations, a “judicial mechanism with a special counsel” and a new constitution – as designed to respect “the right of victims to a fair remedy and … to address the problem of impunity for human rights violations suffered by all communities”. However, missing from his welcome recognition of the magnitude of the challenges was acceptance of the compelling need for outside independent international participation in this crucial judicial process, particularly in investigations, development of prosecutions, and witness protection. Such participation, as the report recommended, would add important guarantees to all concerned.

Combined with implementation of key reforms the government proposes (some of which would receive support and advice from South Africa and the International Committee of the Red Cross), effective judicial prosecution of those most responsible for the most serious crimes committed by all sides in the war would promote the genuine reconciliation necessary for a sustainable peace.

Sri Lanka has seen decades of failed investigations and prosecutions, with fewer than half a dozen successful prosecutions of (low- and mid-level) military personnel for hundreds of serious human rights cases. No senior commander has ever even been charged with a war-related crime, and the military retains significant autonomy from civilian oversight. Witnesses and rights activists in the Tamil areas of the north and east continue to be threatened. Police investigations into a few high-profile cases from the Rajapaksa era reportedly face resistance from military leadership. Legislation parliament approved for a witness- and victim-protection system in February has yet to be implemented and lacks provision for protection units independent of the police and testimony of the many witnesses outside the country.

The government’s announced commitment to discover truth, give victims justice, end impunity and reestablish impartial judicial institutions argues for it to accept substantial international participation at all stages of the truth, reconciliation and accountability processes. Reforms will also be needed to enable Sri Lanka’s legal framework to deal with the kinds of international crimes the report details. Doing so will require carrying through on the government’s promise to criminalise enforced disappearances, as well as establishing command responsibility as a form of criminal liability and incorporating war crimes and crimes against humanity into domestic law.

This agenda needs leadership from President Sirisena, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and other top government officials, with the support of politicians and civil society leaders from all communities: Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim. The case must be made that involvement of foreign judges and investigators is not an infringement on sovereignty, but crucial for helping all communities escape the scourge of impunity. Framed properly, this argument should resonate with the demands to restore rule of law, end politicisation of the police and judiciary and hold powerful politicians accountable for abuses of power that were central to President Sirisena’s election in January and the victory of the broad coalition that won August’s parliamentary elections.

Pursuing cases against former LTTE leaders who worked closely with the Rajapaksa government, such as K. Pathmanathan (“KP”) and V. Muralitharan (“Karuna”), and any other senior LTTE leaders who may be overseas, will be important to address Sinhalese perceptions that accountability is biased against the military. The announcement by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) that it will use the OHCHR report to initiate “introspection into our own community’s failures and the unspeakable crimes committed in our name” is a powerful gesture that other political parties and Tamil and Sinhala diaspora groups should reciprocate.

To make the most of the opportunity to begin genuine reconciliation and accountability and prove wrong those who dismissed earlier resolutions as mainly designed to support regime change, Human Rights Council members should seek consensus on a new resolution that:

• endorses a Sri Lankan government commitment to make the legal reforms needed to effectively prosecute international crimes, including by incorporating war crimes, crimes against humanity and command responsibility into domestic law;
• endorses reforms and confidence-building measures promised in the Sri Lankan foreign minister’s 14 September speech, as well as a commitment to immediately cease all harassment of victims and activists by security forces;
• mandates significant international participation in all stages of the domestic accountability processes as recommended by the OHCHR report: investigation, prosecution, trials and appeals, protection of witness and victims and preservation of evidence;
• establishes a well-resourced and staffed OHCHR office in Colombo to support, in coordination with the UN Special Rapporteur on Truth and Justice, the government’s promised public consultation process and to advise on the implementation of the government’s package of transitional justice mechanisms; and
• mandates formal Council review of the implementation and effectiveness of all domestic truth, reconciliation and accountability mechanisms in September 2016 and 2017, in addition to reporting by the High Commissioner in March 2016 on the government’s initial actions.

The OHCHR report, the adoption of its major recommendations by the Council and, most importantly, their acceptance by the government and strong follow-through by the president and prime minister can be a path-breaking moment in Sri Lanka’s democratic recovery and its emergence as a more stable and inclusive state.

America’s Sri Lankan Dilemma

The United States and the U.N. must ensure that Sri Lanka's reconciliation process is fair and just, rather than leaving the Sri Lankan government to its own devices.

BY CALLUM MACRAE-SEPTEMBER 15, 2015

Mangala Samaraweera, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister, is a persuasive and very probably sincere man. On Monday, he delivered a keynote speech to the opening session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in which he spoke of reconciliation, hope, and a peaceful future for all the people of Sri Lanka after their terrible quarter -century-long civil war which ended in 2009.

America’s Sri Lankan Dilemma by Thavam Ratna

Sri Lanka: International Component Should be Given Leading Role in Hybrid Court – Tamil Civil Society

JOINT STATEMENT ON THE OISL REPORT.-18/09/2015

We welcome the report of the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights’ Inquiry on Sri Lanka (OISL) released on 16 September 2015. The report is to-date the most comprehensive fact-finding report on the atrocities that have been committed in Sri Lanka between February 2002 and November 2011, the temporal mandate of the OISL. We believe that it is essential reading for anyone interested in justice and accountability in Sri Lanka. The report should provide to be a key resource for all stakeholders involved in the civil war in Sri Lanka in a much-needed process of introspection and critical reflection.

We welcome the report’s unequivocal finding that a criminal investigation into the serious crimes committed cannot be undertaken through a domestic mechanism. This is not just because of lack of capacity owing to the systematic distortion and corruption of the security sector and judicial system in Sri Lanka by decades of emergency, conflict and impunity but also, despite the change in regime, an apparent lack of political will. The Sri Lankan Foreign Minister’s address to the UN Human Rights Council on the 14th of September 2015, while expletive in calling for a plea to trust the new government is doubtful for its bona fides given his assertion in the same speech that the accountability mechanism will help clear the good name of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces.

It is in this context that we take note of the OISL Report’s suggestion for a hybrid mechanism. Given that the report has suggested that the details be worked out in detail through a participatory, consultative process we would await the Government of Sri Lanka to make public its detailed proposals and refrain at this point in time from commenting on the adequacy of a hybrid mechanism for accountability in abstract. We however wish to emphasize that for a hybrid mechanism to be truly hybrid in character it needs substantive international involvement not just by incorporating international judges, investigators and prosecutors but also in terms of it being in part led by the UN and by being internationally legally mandated. Quite obviously the Sri Lankan Government appointing international judges to its domestic mechanism will not constitute a hybrid mechanism. The international component should be given pride of place and control over the domestic component in a hybrid mechanism for it to be deemed credible. We emphasize this because the domestic component in a hybrid mechanism for reasons spelt out in the OISL report will have to be kept to a minimum so as not to affect its overall credibility. It is our understanding that this would be the minimum necessary requirement of a genuine accountability process in Sri Lanka. It is important to make sure that victims are not misled and frustrated again with a half-baked attempt at accountability.

We also welcome the call by the UN High Commissioner for Sri Lanka’s ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). We would urge that Sri Lanka while ratifying the Rome statute also submit a declaration voluntarily providing retroactive jurisdiction to the International Criminal Court . This would truly reflect Sri Lanka’s genuine concern for accountability and justice.

We welcome the detailed recommendations of the Report on all other aspects of Transitional Justice and urge the Government of Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of the Report immediately, particularly those relating to inter alia enforced disappearances, return of land and de-militarisation. We reiterate Special Rapporteur Pablo de Grieff’s recommendation that a transitional justice process be devised which includes reform of the security sector (military, police, intelligences services included), the establishment of independent truth-seeking mechanisms and the design of a comprehensive reparation scheme. Such a process needs to be, as Mr. de Grieff noted, guided by carefully designed and conducted consultations that includes by necessity victims of gross violations. It also needs to be closely monitored and supervised by the UN. None of these, we wish to emphasise are alternatives to criminal justice but rather should be complimentary to a criminal justice process and part of a broader Transitional Justice process.  We also wish to draw in particular the Government’s attention to the report’s finding that most of the repressive structures and institutional cultures that remain deeply entrenched remain in place. As the report rightly points out crimes continue to be committed to date. Unless these structures are removed, crimes, no doubt will continue to be committed.

The UN Human Rights Council, as the OISL report suggests, should remain seized of the matter. The resolution that is being considered for presentation before the current session of the UNHRC should reflect the OISL report in word and spirit. If Sri Lanka fails to establish a genuine hybrid mechanism within a specific time framework, the UNHRC, other relevant UN organs and member states should initiate necessary steps for a UN Security Council referral to the ICC.

Signatories:

1.    Tamil Civil Society Forum (TCSF)
2.    Centre for Human Rights and Development (CHRD)
3.    Home for Human Rights (HHR)
4.    Centre for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights (CPPHR), Trincomalee
5.    Vavuniya Citizens Committee
6.    Mannar Citizens Committee
7.    Tamil Lawyers Forum
8.    North East Coordinating Committee of the Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared
9.    Jaffna University Teachers Association
10.    Jaffna University Science Teachers Association (JUSTA)
11.    Jaffna University Employees Union
12.    Vanni Christian Union
13.    Foundation of Changers – Batticaloa
14.    East Civil society Activist Alliance – Batticaloa
15.    Commission for Justice and Peace of the Catholic Diocese of Jaffna
16.    Batticaloa Social Workers Network
17.    Paduvaankarai People’s Alliance
18.    Vadamarachchi Christian Union, Jaffna
19.    Mannar Economic and Social Development Organization
20.    Hindu Development Society Karaithivu – Amparai
21.    Tamilar Valvurimai Maiyam
22.    Valikamam North Development Board, Jaffna.

– 18 September 2015

A Society That Rewards Violence Will Not Progress

By Asanga Abeyagoonasekera –September 18, 2015

Asanga Abeygoonasekera

“Tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.” ― Aeschylus

Robert F Kennedy used Aeschylus to explain the need to make life more gentle at a turbulent juncture in history in the 1960s. It is appropriate to echo this statement in light of the savageness that surround us evident from stories one hears on a daily basis.

The world that we live has an ugly side which needs to be addressed through the law and justice mechanisms. This is the society we live in; this is the society our kids are going to grow up in. It is our responsibility to make a change. Stand united and fight against abuse. This was written in the month of June by this author and published at Colombo Telegraph asking to stand for Ajith.

An 18-year-old school girl in Pungudutivu of the Northern Province was gang raped and murdered in the most brutal of ways. This act is a lasting disgrace upon our society. It is not the first of cases as our nation has a high percentage of rape and other forms of sexual abuse. This was written in the month of May.

Recently, yet another incident was reported in Kotadeniyawa. An innocent four and a half year old girl named Seya was strangled and sexually abused. This is another disturbing story among many on our island home. How many children need to face this cruelty for it to be too much? Barbaric acts of such nature need to be punished. It is the right time to seriously consider bringing back capital punishment as we have become a society that rewards violence. According to National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) Chaiman Dr. Natasha Balendra admitted that the legal system in the country had failed to meet out punishment to child abusers the way it should as court cases of this nature would last for about eight to nine years. A comment from Prof.Harendra de Silva regarding Seya’s incident said “people know killing, peddling drugs or other related crimes are not brought to book and a common belief that if they kill someone they would be in a different position in society”.

Read More

A Reckoning on Sri Lanka War Crimes

By THE EDITORIAL BOARDSEPT. 17, 2015

The United Nations Human Rights Council released its report Wednesday on possible war crimes committed during the last years of the Sri Lankan civil war. As many as 40,000 Tamils were killed by the military during the final months of the conflict, which ended in 2009. Citing a “horrific level of violations and abuses” in its report, the council concluded that a “purely domestic court procedure will have no chance of overcoming widespread and justifiable suspicions fueled by decades of violations, malpractice and broken promises.” This is a clear rejection of the proposal made on Monday by Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, Mangala Samaraweera, who told the Council that his government would set up a truth, justice and reconciliation commission, and draft a new constitution.

The Sri Lankan government refused any international investigations during the presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa, who presided over the military’s push to end the Tamil insurgency in 2009. This led the United Nations to proceed in March 2014 without Sri Lanka’s cooperation. When Mr. Rajapaksa was defeated in January elections, the council delayed its report to allow the new government of Maithripala Sirisena to come up with plans for national reconciliation and to work with international investigators.

FULL STORY>>>

Sins of war: the ball is in Sri Lanka’s court

2015-09-18
International judges in a local mechanism - hybrid or not - does not make sense At a meeting on Wednesday (16) in Myanmar’s new capital Nay Pyi Taw with the country’s Minister of Information U Ye Htut, who had been a friend of mine for the past several years, inquired after the developments in Sri Lanka.  

In our discussion on Geneva and the OHCHR report, the minister made an interesting remark: 

Sins of War the Ball is in Sri Lanka’s Court by Thavam Ratna

Sri Lanka Civil Society Welcomes OHCHR Report & Its Recommendations

Statement by Sri Lankan Civil Society members on OHCHR reports on Sri Lanka.

18/09/2015

We the undersigned Sri Lankan civil society activists and organisations welcome the report of the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka, and the report of the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL). We fully endorse and call for the immediate implementation of the OISL’s recommendations to the GoSL, the UN system and the Member States of the UNHRC.

Sri Lanka Civil Society Welcomes OHCHR Report & Its Recommendations by Thavam Ratna

The first casualty

A new government takes a cautious step to expose the truth of a bloody conflict

Sep 19th 2015

IT WAS a long time coming. Six years after the end of Sri Lanka’s long civil war a new government promised on September 14th to set up a “truth, justice, reconciliation and non-recurrence commission” to investigate atrocities committed during the conflict. It is unlikely, however, to heal the deep wounds of that period. The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva says the inquiry needs foreign judges. Sri Lanka’s leaders, fearful of upsetting nationalist voters, reject that.

The pledge to form the commission was made to the UN body by Mangala Samaraweera, the foreign minister. It was aimed at taking the sting out of what the Sri Lankan government knew would be a hard-hitting 261-page report that was published by the UN two days later. In it, the council gave details of numerous allegations of what it said could amount to war crimes by both sides during the two-decade-long conflict between the army and the vicious rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). These include killings, rapes and abductions. The UN’s commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, spoke of a “horrific level” of violations and abuses.

Many members of Sri Lanka’s ethnic Sinhalese majority, however, do not want foreigners to get involved in prosecuting such cases. Mr Samaraweera stopped short of admitting that the army committed crimes against the country’s Tamil minority, as many Tamils allege it did, especially during the final bloody phase of the war, which ended in 2009. He only conceded that the reputation of the armed forces had been tarnished “because of the system and culture created by a few in positions of responsibility”.

Those “few” would include Mahinda Rajapaksa, whose ten years in power ended abruptly when he lost an election in January. With a sturdy base among Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese majority, he oversaw the rout of the LTTE as president and head of the armed forces. One of his brothers, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was defence secretary. Maithripala Sirisena, who replaced him as president, might even be sucked in; he was acting as defence minister during the last two weeks of the battle, when tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were killed.

For the first time in nearly four decades, however, a Tamil parliamentarian leads the opposition. Another Tamil is the chief justice. The government has vowed to criminalise hate speech. But there are towering obstacles to reconciliation between Sri Lanka’s ethnic groups—Mr Rajapaksa being one of them. He is now serving as a legislator. If he is accused of war crimes, even by a tribunal from which foreigners are excluded, there may be a backlash against the government among Sinhalese nationalists who revere him.

Mr Rajapaksa denies that any war crimes were committed, but a commission he set up did find evidence of some wrongdoing. His troops went to battle “carrying a gun in one hand, the Human Rights Charter in the other,” he said in 2011. The UN report suggests that he is talking rot. For the country to admit as much would be progress. Before the council, Mr Samaraweera acknowledged scepticism about Sri Lanka’s ability to transform. The journey may be slower than some want, he conceded. Whereas for others, “we may already have gone too far.”

Detective bunk in Geneva

Saturday, 19 September 2015

Mangala Samaraweera, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sri Lanka addresses during the High Level Segment of the 28th Session of the Human Rights Council, Palais des Nations. Monday 2 March 2015. Photo by Violaine Martin

Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka has chosen to express his displeasure over Foreign Minister Samaraweera’s address in Geneva by invoking an expletive in a film script attributed to a character Detective Bunk. The noun is indeed an adjective and an amplifier of his fulmination. 
It is with reluctance that I probe his dissent in to cynical zealotry.
“The dismantling of Sinhala power and the ushering in a federal system has been outsourced to the UNP and Chandrika Kumaratunga.” Dayan Jayatilleka in [5 May Parliamentary Elections – Real Stakes] 
“Across the island’s heartland where millions live, the masses have carried Mahinda back to the centre stage of politics. What a comeback it has been, in just six months?” [11 July 2015 Understanding the Sirisena Shift] 
Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka made the two pronouncements in the space of three months. The first after the defeat of President Rajapaksa on 8 January. In it he regards the Chandrika-Ranil alliance as a prelude to the dismantling of Sinhala power. The second ecstatic chortling after the ‘Nugegoda rising’ ended with the galvanic snatch by Mahinda Rajapaksa his UPFA nominations for the Parliamentary elections. 
The failure of the Buddhist Bonapartist Parliamentary putsch of 17 August compels him to appropriate a selected part of our colonial encounter. Explaining the Mahinda Movement and Sinhala Nationalism, 10 days later on 28 August, he says: 
“The main reference point of the Mahinda Movement’s public discourse after 8 January was not the 5.8 lakhs of voters, but rather the marker year 1815, the year of the betrayal of Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe who had successfully resisted the colonial incursion of 1810. 1815 was the year of the Kandyan convention which sealed the surrender of the whole island to Western colonialism.”
This is selective appropriation of history to read present cleavages into the past. The onset of European colonialism created intra group rivalries that have no relevance to contemporary construction of nationalism or sovereignty. Projecting group identity disparaging the ‘other’ in terms of sovereignty and nationalism is a 19th century phenomenon. 
Two hundred and thirty five years earlier puppet King Dharmapāla had donated his kingdom in Kotte to the king of Portugal. Konappu Bandara also known as Don Joao of Austria entered the Kandyan Kingdom with a Portuguese expedition, turned against the Portuguese and claimed the throne of Kandy.
He married Dona Catherina – Kusumasana Devi who had the strongest claim to the ‘Udarata’ throne. She practiced her Catholic faith until her death, cloistered in the palace as Queen to the first consecrated King of Kandy. His successor King Senarath signed a treaty with the Portuguese who recognised him as the ruler of Kandy. The Kandyan kingdom had thus reached a détente with the Portuguese.
Beginning with King Vimaladharmasūriya, King of Kandy (1591-1604), the Kandyan kingdom became a place that provided a home for diverse cultures and communities – a cosmopolitan society. As the eminent Pakistani born historian has noted before, the colonial encounter a web of “economic and social linkages had survived periods of imperial consolidation, crisis and collapse bound the subcontinent into a loosely-layered framework of interdependence”. This island is a continental island. 
He says that the Minister of External Affairs took a sideswipe in his speech at the concept of “sovereignty”. Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka is entitled to his version of Sinhala nationalism and what he calls Sinhala power. His attempt however to read the present in to the past and reconstruct a homogenous Sinhala sovereignty is a fatuous frolic in neo realism. 
Why do I say it? Because Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka knows what went wrong. Writing in February 2013 he tells us how we took the wrong turn. According to him, the failure of successive administrations to do a surgical strike similar to what President Obama did to Osama Bin Laden in eliminating Prabhakaran had opened the door for a neo-conservative populist backlash. That backlash brought into office a leadership team that got the job done.
“Now we have the morning after, and all the ideas contained in the social coalition that supported the populist neo-conservative project are now bubbling to the surface. Ideas on culture, on women, on Muslims, on Tamils, on Christians, on devolution, on universality—the whole ideology of the so called home-grown – all of these are now bubbling to the surface.”
Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka who upbraids Foreign Minister Samaraweera for making a blatantly partisan speech in Geneva in 2013 is on record on the trajectory followed by the Rajapaksa monolith. Sri Lanka is not the only place where it happened. The gerrymandering of the Judiciary he compares to the inept bungling of George Bush and the power shift to Cheney and Rumsfeld and the attempts to re-tool the legal system under Alberto Gonzales, the Attorney General. 
Why does Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka insist on being branded as a political chameleon? Because as Martin Heidegger did in Nazi Germany he regards truth as “the revelation of that which makes a people certain, clear, and strong in its action and knowledge”. It is a Faustian bargain. It is with great sadness that I compare him to Martin Heidegger who described the Holocaust to factory farming, a symptom of the modern condition rather than a specifically German crime. 
The comparison has an interesting parallel. Martin Heidegger addressed an election rally held by German University Professors in Leipzig in support of the plebiscite on 12 November 1933 after Germany’s withdrawal from the League of Nations. The quote is lengthy. But it explains. 

German teachers and comrades! 
The will to a true national community (Volksgemeinschaft) is equally far removed both from an unrestrained, vague desire for world brotherhood and from blind tyranny. Existing beyond this opposition, this will allows peoples and states to stand by one another in an open and manly fashion as self-reliant entities (das offene und mannhafte Aufsich und Zueinanderstehen der Volker und Staaten). What is it that such a will brings about? Is it reversion into barbarism? 
No! It is the averting of all empty negotiation and hidden deal-making through the simple, great demand of self-responsible action. Is it the eruption of lawlessness? No! It is the clear acknowledgement of each people’s inviolable independence. Is it the denial of the creative genius of a spiritual (geistig) people and the smashing of its historical traditions? No! It is the awakening of the young who have been purified and are growing back to their roots. Their will to the State will make this people hard towards itself and reverent towards each genuine deed. 
What sort of event is this then? The nation is winning back the truth of its will to existence, for truth is the revelation of that which makes a people confident, lucid, and strong in its actions and knowledge. To be knowing, however, means: to be master of things in clarity and to be resolved to action.
It is a sorry spectacle to see a mind full of promise fall for a Faustian bargain.

Hybrid courts proposed by UNHR commissioner Zeid to shock fools who expect justice from courts comprising judges like rapist Abrew

(Lanka-e-News -17.Sep.2015, 11.30PM) To the present government of good governance that says a domestic inquiry acceptable internationally can be conducted in the  country by our  courts which brazenly declare there are no charges against criminals like  K.P. and Gotabaya ; allow judges like Sarath Abrew the notorious rapist to continue to mount the bench and hear cases without hindrance and with impunity; and the extremist Tamil Diaspora  which insists on an international inquiry , no more no less  , the United Nations Human Rights (UNHR) commissioner , Prince AlHussein Zeid  gave  a well formulated  answer at   a special media conference convened  in Geneva yesterday . 

UNHRC commissioner said , a special local and international mixed  court alias ‘Hybrid court’ be established to inquire into the alleged violations of human rights and war crimes in Sri Lanka .

The commissioner also explained that this court would comprise local and international judges , lawyers , appellants and researchers .

This proposal of the UNHRC commissioner is extremely significant and important specially as regards  a country like SL where a criminal officer of the forces who ruthlessly fired into a crowd of unarmed civilians in Rathupaswala when they  legitimately demanded drinking water , and killed  two innocent youths is made country’s ambassador  . On top of that , when this murderer ambassador returns to the country , he is allowed to escape through the rear side of the airport instead of being taken into custody .

It is most salutary if foreign judges join in to hear cases in SL , for , at least what is non existent now  – justice,  can be expected thereby ! Similarly , if international lawyers work conjointly with the Attorney general’s (AG)  department , that too will be most welcome , because at least in  this   country where exist courts that   say without any qualms ,there are no charges against K.P., delivery of that kind of verdicts can be halted.

The UNHRC commissioner also made a most valuable and important statement : ‘with a view to winning the trust of the people , the local criminal courts should be re structured and strengthened.’

This implementation may  take many years but it should be ensured that is  brought on par with the hybrid court, though  that will not be a substitute to the hybrid court .Truly , such a court will serve and contribute towards steering the country along  the new road to   justice , simultaneously reviving the people’s trust and confidence . This is of course an absolute unassailable truth .

The courts structure cannot be strengthened in SL by   changing the chief justice, while it is also an indisputable fact that supreme court  (SC) judges like Abrew the rapist were all appointed by the Rajapakses,  and they are their henchmen. Priyantha Jayawardena is Basil Rajapakse’s lawyer who is now a SC judge.The country has to wait for about 25 long years until such a judge  goes on pension. 

Say , If the courts are to be cleansed of these despicable henchmen , an impeachment motion has to be brought in parliament. Thereafter ,who are going to take over in the SC?  Are they to be replaced by the appeal court judges ? There too are the Rajapakses appointed stooges and henchmen. In other words , this is an evil cycle.on the other hand if the judges to the SC and appeal courts are to be appointed through the independent commission ,that will be a time consuming process. In the circumstances , the hybrid court proposal made by Zeid is absolutely necessary and useful.

The international judges for this court can be selected from the commonwealth countries of which SL is a  representative. 

If these appointments are made not only  to investigate war crimes , but also for some time to the SC and appeal courts, it will be excellent since  judges of the commonwealth will be arriving in SL to hear cases along with local judges.By that the fun and frolic indulged in by rapist judges like Abrew and those of his ilk who make justice a mockery and travesty can be averted and eliminated.

The detailed media communique issued by the office of the UNHRC commissioner  Prince Zeid pertaining to the historic proposal , and the special media briefing  http://www.lankaenews.com/news/778/en

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by     (2015-09-17 20:53:58)