4 Thai military officers sought for alleged human trafficking

An abandoned cage is photographed at a camp found in Wang Burma at the Malaysia-Thailand border outside Wang Kelian, Malaysia in May. Pic; AP.

By AP News Sep 22, 2015

HAT YAI, Thailand (AP) — A court in southern Thailand has issued arrest warrants for four military officers in connection with the trafficking of ethnic Rohingya migrants.

Police Lt. Gen. Paveen Pongsirin said Monday warrants have now been issued for 153 people, 90 of whom have turned themselves in or been detained.

The authorities began their crackdown in May after discovering more than 100 bodies buried in squalid camps built to hide the migrants along the Malaysian border.

SEE ALSO: Things are only getting worse for Burma’s Rohingya Muslims

Rohingya migrants continue to flee Burma (Myanmar) to escape discrimination and seek better economic opportunities.

The new suspects are a colonel and two captains in the army who belong to the Internal Security Operations Command, a counterinsurgency agency, and a navy commander.

An army major general was arrested in June for alleged involvement in human trafficking.

Lt. Gen. Manas Kongpaen turned himself in at police headquarters in Bangkok, earlier this year. Pic: AP.

SEE ALSO: In-depth: Asia’s migrant crisis and the plight of the Rohingya

Ahead of Xi’s Visit, U.S. Struggling to Stop China’s Hackers

The White House wants a commitment from Beijing to stop commercial espionage and is threatening sanctions on hackers and companies if it doesn’t get it.

BY ELIAS GROLL-SEPTEMBER 21, 2015

President Barack Obama has a blunt message for Beijing’s hacker army: You’re good, but we’re better. “If we wanted to go on offense,” he boasted to a group of business leaders last week, “a whole bunch of countries would have some significant problems.”  

Ahead of Xi’s Visit, U.S. Struggling to Stop China’s Hackers by Thavam Ratna

Are GMOs Really That Bad?

Kate Bratskeir-Posted: 07/13/2015


You've probably seen food products boast GMO-free on their packaging and you've likely listened to someone talk about genetically modified corn. But do you really know whygenetically modified organisms get so much hate?

In truth, most experts will argue that GMOs aren't all bad. As Hank Green explains inSciShow's video above, some plants are genetically modified simply for human benefit; the process has helped to feed the hungry and to amplify a crop's resistance to insects and harsh weather conditions, making more food available for consumption.

GMOs are often scrutinized not for their makeup, but for the control their production gives to a select group of companies that put more emphasis on profit than human health (and that put the little guys -- like local farmers -- out of work). With the ability to alter crops' genes, these companies can sell produce that can withstand trauma for a lower cost.  Even still, as Green explains, "There has been zero indication that genetically modified food poses a danger to human health." For now, the war against GMOs has more basis in economics and democracy than it does in physical health.

4 Rituals That Will Make You Happy, According to Neuroscience

Eric Barker-Sept. 16, 2015

Eric Barker writes Barking Up the Wrong Tree.

Ask a question, label emotions, make decisions and give hugs

You get all kinds of happiness advice on the Internet from people who don’t know what they’re talking about. Don’t trust them.

Actually, don’t trust me either. Trust neuroscientists. They study that gray blob in your head all day and have learned a lot about what truly will make you happy.

UCLA neuroscience researcherAlex Korb has some insights that can create an upward spiral of happiness in your life. Here’s what you and I can learn from the people who really have answers:

1) The Most Important Question To Ask When You Feel Down

4 Rituals That Will Make You Happy, According to Neuroscience by Thavam Ratna

Sri Lanka faces up to wartime past after 

damning UN verdict 


A file picture taken on June 16, 2006, Sri Lankan mourners bury coffins with 61 victims killed in a bomb attack at Kebitogollewa in north-central Sri Lanka. Six years after the end of a bloody civil war, Sri Lanka this week took historic steps to confront its traumatic past, but in the conflict-torn heartland of Jaffna, residents say they are still waiting for justice. A long-awaited United Nations human rights report published September 16, 2015 laid bare horrific wartime atrocities committed by both the army and the Tamil Tiger rebels in the bitter 37-year war. (AFP PHOTO/Lakruwan WANNIARACHCHI) 

By: Amal JAYASINGHE-September 20, 2015, Sunday

(AFP) - Six years after the end of its bloody civil war, Sri Lanka this week took historic steps to confront its traumatic past -- but in the conflict-torn Tamil heartland of Jaffna, people are still searching for justice.

A long-awaited report from the United Nations human rights office on Wednesday laid bare horrific wartime atrocities committed by both the army and the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in the bitter 37-year war.

It came as President Maithripala Sirisena's new government vowed to punish war criminals, with a promise to set up a truth commission and a reparations office to help heal the wounds left by the conflict.

Its conciliatory stance is in striking contrast to that of strongman former leader Mahinda Rajapakse, who insisted his troops did not kill a single Tamil minority civilian, despite compelling evidence to the contrary.

"That (denial) was the biggest mistake Sri Lanka made," government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said. 

In the northern Tamil capital of Jaffna, roads and other war-damaged infrastructure have been repaired and where the military was once a constant presence in people's lives, surveillance is a thing of the past.

Yet thousands are still living in refugee camps six years after the war ended in May 2009, and bombed-out houses and bullet hole-riddled buildings still scar the streets.

Tamil citizens want the perpetrators of wartime crimes to be brought to justice and say they do not trust a local inquiry to reach the truth.

They have the support of the UN, which has called on Colombo to bring in international judges and prosecutors to assist in investigations as the only concrete way to achieve accountability. 

But Sirisena, who favours a domestic inquiry, has stayed quiet on the issue.

"People in Jaffna are not aware of what is going on in Geneva, but what they are hoping for is justice," said local Tamil politician Suresh Premachandran.

- Pariah no longer -

Sri Lanka became an international pariah after repeatedly resisting calls for a credible probe into the horrendous crimes allegedly committed by government forces during and after the war.  

At the height of Rajapakse's rule, the EU and the US withdrew trade concessions and world leaders including Manmohan Singh, then Indian prime minister, boycotted a Commonwealth summit he hosted in 2013. 

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who attended the summit, used his visit to heavily criticise Rajapakse after becoming the first foreign leader to travel to battle-scarred Jaffna since Sri Lanka, a former British colony, gained independence in 1948. 

The Tamil Tigers suffered a bitter defeat in a no-holds barred military campaign that also killed thousands of troops.

The UN says 40,000 Tamil civilians died at the hands of government forces in the final months of the conflict as the army moved to crush the guerillas.

When Sirisena came to power in January -- backed strongly by the Tamils -- he promised to restore human rights and the rule of law as well as mend fences with regional power India and the West.

"We have averted sanctions," declared new Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, who went before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva last week to promise fresh efforts to ensure accountability.

"If the European Union and the US slapped sanctions against us, our economy would have collapsed because more than 50 percent of our exports are to those two destinations," he said.

- 'Getting away lightly' - 

The international community -- and Sri Lanka's Tamils -- have welcomed the new tone set by the island's leaders.

International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based NGO, called it a "welcome departure from the aggressive nationalist and authoritarian policies of the former government".  

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the minority's main party, has softened its position, welcoming the UN report and saying there should be "introspection" into its own failure to end ethnic tensions.

Tiger rebels fighting for outright independence for the Tamil minority were known for their trademark suicide bombings that claimed high-profile targets as well as thousands of civilian lives.

In a big shift in policy, the United States will back Colombo's plans for a domestic inquiry in a proposed resolution to the UN Human Rights Council, US Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Biswal said last month.

"We support efforts to create a credible domestic process for accountability and reconciliation," Biswal told reporters after talks with the new government.

But some feel the government has got off easily and say it is pandering to Sinhalese nationalists, who see inviting in foreign investigators as an affront to sovereignty.

"If Mahinda (Rajapakse) was in power, the Americans would have insisted on an international criminal investigation," Dharmalingam Sithadthan, a Tamil legislator from Jaffna, told AFP.

"By sounding conciliatory, President Sirisena is getting away lightly."

© 1994-2015 Agence France-Presse 

‘North repression is not over’

 Sep 21, 2015

The repression in the north against civilians, victims, journalists and civil society activists is continuing under the good governance regime, human rights groups and activists allege, and call upon the government to immediately put a halt to such repression.

Fourteen civil society organizations and 39 activists make the allegation in a statement that commends the report issued by the UNHRC last week.

The statement lauds the many positive contents in the speech made to the UNHRC session in Geneva by foreign affairs minister Mangala Samaraweera, including steps to annul the PTA and the inclusion of offensive remarks and forced disappearances in the penal code.

Lawyer Sudarshana Gunawardena of Rights Now, a signatory to the statement, has told BBC the situation has improved since the new government took over.

However, witnesses were reluctant to come forward as the protection of victims and witnesses is not properly in place, he said.

He argued it was not possible to change overnight something that has been there for a long time, and noted there has not been sufficient changes in the activities of the armed forces.

The statement requests the government to give a speedy political solution to the national question through a meaningful devolution of power.

Framing A New Constitution; Avoid The Hidden Tyranny Of Democracy

By Somapala Gunadheera –September 21, 2015

Somapala Gunadheera

An appeal to avoid tyranny in democracy may appear to be a contradiction in terms. It is taken for granted that democracy is a form of ‘government of the people, by the people, and for the people’. This naturally leads to the deduction that such a system can do no harm to the people.

But an analytical look at how democracy operates in practice, would reveal contradictions in that conclusion. As it is not practicable to please all the people all the time, democracy seeks to get over such situations by upstaging the will of the majority over that of the minority. But the solution may result in manifestations in which the rational and ethical position of the latter is overridden by the former through sheer force of numbers, however erratic their view might be.

My play, “Umathusanvarusava”, written in the Seventies, was intended to illustrate this truth dramatically. Briefly, the plot of the play was based on a mythical shower. It was predicted by the king’s chaplain who declared that those who got wet in the rain would go mad. The king proclaimed that anyone who jumped out to get wet in the rain would be summarily shot and positioned his soldiers to carry out his order. But when it started raining, all the people, including the soldiers and even the king’s family members, barring the king and the chaplain, could not resist the temptation to expose themselves to the shower. They jumped out and started dancing in a frenzy. The drenched called the sun the moon and forced the king and the chaplain also to say so and on their refusal to comply, orders were issued to behead them. The duo saved their lives by wilfully going mad, after soaking themselves with a can of rainwater they had collected from the shower.

A clash of interests

The story illustrates the hidden tyranny in democracy. What prevails under it is the number supporting a proposition, not its validity or fairness. If it was otherwise, Socrates and Jesus would have lived their lifespan to the full. A democratic country is presumed to be run by the majority living in that country. But under a Parliamentary system that control abates after an election. Elected representatives take over the reins and govern the country under the name of the people who elected them to power, although in course of time, they had lost the confidence of their electors. But the elected can be removed from power only at the next election, short of a revolution to oust them, which is a rare occurrence. In the meantime the representatives continue to govern the country at their pleasure and naturally their personal interest takes precedence over the peoples’. How else can one explain legislative decisions to increase MP’s salaries while the bulk of their electors were under the poverty line or to give themselves permits and finance to buy luxury cars under a creeping economy? Would the people have approved such selfish, extravagant expenditure, if they had a choice to debar them?

Read More

Government assures political solution for Tamils

By admin-September 21, 2015

The  Government has assured that a  political solution for Tamils will be implemented through proposed constitutional reforms.

Highways Minister Lakshman Kiriella said that the Government will hold talks with the Tamil political parties to reach a political solution for the North and East issue.

He said that once the political solution is agreed upon it will be included in the constitutional reforms which will be presented to Parliament for approval.

“We will seek a 2/3 majority from Parliament for this,” he said.

The Minister noted that the reason the United National Party (UNP) decided to work with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) in a National Government was to address key National issues.

He said that without the majority support of Parliament it is difficult for a Government to provide solutions for matters which are of National importance.

The Minister also noted that to face international pressure on the war crimes issue, both main political parties need to work together.

“If the main two political parties are together then we can tell the UN the two main parties and the public have one stand on the issue. We can tell them to listen to what we want to say as well,” he said.

The Minister said that the new Government wants to set a policy where in future there is no change in the National issue even if there is a new Government.

He recalled that in the past when one Government looks to resolve the National issue, the Government which follows has other ideas.

“Then some claim that the country is going to be divided. This is what happened for 30 years. This actually happened after independence. That is why this war continued,” he said.

He said that over the next two years the UNP and SLFP will work together and at the end of the two years they will decide if to continue or go their spate ways. (Colombo Gazette)

False accusations in a recent letter

Sep 21, 2015

We are aware that an open letter is circulating that contains a number of false accusations. We have written to the recipients of that letter as follows:

Dear Sir/Madam,

We have become aware that you were the recipient of a letter from “a concerned group of Sri Lankan foreign policy observers” calling for the release of a number of reports relating to the final stages of Sri Lanka’s civil war. That letter is available here.

That letter contains a number of falsehoods about the Sri Lanka Campaign and Yasmin Sooka.

The allegation that Yasmin Sooka orchestrated the complaint against Sir Desmond de Silva is entirely false and has been known to be false for some time. When this allegation first surfaced in the Daily Mirror last month I wrote to them demanding the withdrawal of the allegation and that they publish a correction. That letter is available publicly here.

As it states in that letter, Yasmin Sooka was in no way involved in our decision to bring a complaint against Sir Desmond de Silva and played no part in making the complaint. Indeed she would not even have been aware that we had done so until reading about it in the press.

The allegation that Yasmin Sooka is the executive director of the SLC is also false, demonstrably so. I (Fred Carver) am the Executive Director (although I use the title Campaign Director). Yasmin Sooka is merely one of our 23 advisors; as I explained to the Daily Mirror as Yasmin Sooka has been engaged in other matters of late we have not had occasion or opportunity to call on her advice in some time. You can read about our structure in more detail here.

I can also confirm that the Sri Lanka Campaign was in no way involved with the creation or publication of the letter of the 4th of August mentioned in the letter. The reason that the letter of the 4th of August does not mention our name is that this letter was nothing to do with us!

At no point was there any attempt to hide the fact that the Sri Lanka Campaign were making the complaint against Sir Desmond De Silva. Indeed that information would have been readily available from us, from the Bar Standards Board, from Sir Desmond, and from the first sentence of the article written about the complaint in the Daily FT on the 5th of August.

However we do feel that in the interests of due process we should refrain from commenting on an ongoing investigation and that is why we have limited our comments and our activities on the complaint itself to confirming that we have lodged the complaint.

Kind regards,

Fred Carver

TNA hits out at LTTE, calls on Govt. to accept OISL report

Sunday, September 20, 2015

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has fired a strong salvo at the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) after the OHCHR report accused them of committing war crimes.

The TNA called upon the Tamil people to “use this moment of introspection into our own community’s failures and the unspeakable crimes committed in our name.” It said that the alliance would “accept and undertake to carry out our responsibility to lead the Tamil people in reflecting on the past” and “to create an enabling culture and atmosphere in which we could live with dignity and self-respect, as equal citizens of Sri Lanka.

The statement came as most of the hardline polity of the Tamil community were absent at the UNHRC sessions in Geneva which began Monday. That included even the TNA firebrand Ananthi Sasheetharan, wife of slain LTTE Trincomalee political wing leader.

TNA Hits Out at LTTE, Calls on Govt. to Accept OISL Report by Thavam Ratna

Sri Lanka wary over US move


Tuesday, 22 September 2015

---

• Ambassador Ravinatha calls lengthy US draft resolution “prescriptive and judgmental”
• Says resolution is imbalanced; focuses too much on criminal justice element
• Urges sponsors to be sensitive to “political realities” and “constitutional difficulties” in implementing resolution recommendations
• Resolution in its present form will strengthen ‘spoilers’ of reconciliation process
• Hectic backroom consultations begin soon after informal session ends in Geneva
• Pakistan, China, Russia, Cuba push strongly for dilution of draft text
• EU, Ireland, Switzerland, Norway support international element in Lanka’s accountability process

Dharisha Bastians Reporting from Geneva
The Government has opposed the first draft of the US-sponsored resolution to promote reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka, calling it “repetitive, judgmental and prescriptive” and counterproductive to the reconciliation process in the island.

Sri Lanka Wary Over US Move by Thavam Ratna

US Backed Resolution (Draft) at HRC 30: Sri Lanka Takes Critical Stand

( The core group which presented the Sri Lanka resolution to the HRC  in March 2014 at the head table today © s.deshapriya)

21/09/2015 

Head of the Sri Lanka mission in Geneva  raised serious objections and concerns over the first draft text of the resolution on Sri Lanka which is to be tabled during the 30th session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

In his opening  statement to the first  informal consultation on the draft resolution on Sri Lanka he said that the text is reparative, judgmental and prescriptive and not in keeping with the spirit of the process of reconciliation and reform underway in Sri Lanka.

The first informal discussion on the drat, only dozens of countries spoke. ©s.deshapriya

“Neither is it helpful in adopting a collaborative approach to reaching consensus. Many paragraphs in the current draft are in fact counterproductive to the reconciliation efforts of the Government and have the tendency to polarize communities, vitiate the atmosphere on the ground that is being carefully nurtured towards reconciliation and pace building and restrict the space required for consultation,” he further  said.

(With the inputs from Colombo Gazette)

Sri Lanka’s response to the first draft text: