Monday, October 5, 2015

Great expectations in Sri Lanka

October 5, 2015

The unanimous adoption of a resolution by the United Nations Human Rights Council on Sri Lanka last week is notable for the pragmatism that informs it. The idea of an external investigation into the conduct of the military and the political leadership has been bearing down on the island nation for some years now. The erstwhile Rajapaksa administration responded with defiance and belligerent opposition to any move towards accountability, except one that was formulated and executed by the government on its own terms. The moves tended to divide the international community on whether to bail out Sri Lanka or come down on it. In a welcome departure from this trend, countries have come together and adopted, with Sri Lanka’s consent and participation, a resolution that emphasises justice and accountability for excesses committed by both sides, especially in the last phase of the civil war; on a political process to devolve power to the ethnic minorities; and an overall commitment to strengthen governance and democracy and end what many thought was an atmosphere of impunity. The political transformation that this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections ushered in is the main reason for the international community to have come together to aid Sri Lanka in a much-needed process of self-rejuvenation. Its democratic institutions and instruments of governance require a systemic overhaul after having been undermined by the previous regime. This factor has obviously impelled the world to encourage the present Sirisena-Wickremesinghe dispensation by means of a consensus resolution rather than weaken the government’s domestic popularity by imposing an intrusive mechanism.

However, the road ahead will not be smooth. A credible judicial mechanism will have to be evolved and foreign resources such as judges and prosecutors will have to be incorporated with care. An investigation process that inspires the confidence of victims to come forward and depose will have to be put in place. Fixing command responsibility for the bombing of civilians and the execution of those who surrendered, especially on political functionaries and their family members, is not going to be easy and must be marked by due process. The challenge is much bigger than the one relating to finding a political solution. For some, the idea of a judicial mechanism that includes foreign judges to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of war crimes and other offences may seem to fall short of the international inquiry of the sort they favour. To others, it is a rare opportunity to address several issues that defy a solution. A fair conspectus of assumptions underlying the Human Rights Council resolution is that it promotes reconciliation and truth-seeking and may lead to a sense of closure for the victims and a possible guarantee of non-recurrence, and that it opens up yet another opportunity for a political solution. These expectations cannot be belied.

Depoliticize The Constituting Council

By Somapala Gunadheera –October 5, 2015

Somapala Gunadheera

Casually going through the comments under the featured news item, “Civil Society Disgraced by Choice of CC Nominees”, published in the Colombo Telegraph on September 23, 2015, I was surprised to see my name suggested by two readers for a post in the Constitutional Council. One of them was a stranger and the other was a class-mate who later entered the prestigious Foreign Service through the front door and ended up as our Ambassador in France. School ties certainly die hard! The purported nomination was not worth writing home about because it was supported by only two of the over twenty million people in this country. Although I was personally pleased by this act of appreciation, I would not have touched the post with a barge pole, even if it was offered to me by the entire population. This article is an attempt to explain why.

Let me preface my explanation with an observation on the title of the Council. Why is the body called a Constitutional Council?” A constitution is the basic law of the land. In that strict legal sense, what is ‘constitutional’ is what conforms to that law. The CC has nothing to do with the Constitution, except being a part of it. But other parts of the Constitution are not prefixed with that adjective. For instance, the Parliament in not called a “Constitutional Parliament”. Apparently the draughtsman has mistakenly used ‘constitute’ in the progressive tense implying the act of constitution of the respective commissions. For him the council that constitutes commissions is the “Constitutional Council. This confusion could have been avoided by calling it the “Constituting Council”. The Sinhala draughtsman has made the misnomer worse confounded by giving it a still more imposing title, “Ândukrama vyavasthâ sabhâva”, thus confining the adjective to the basic meaning of “Constitution”. If “Constituting Council” was used in the English version, he would have rendered it as “Sthâpana Sabhâva”.

Reverting to the basic issue, the main purpose behind the creation of the Sri Lankan CC is said to be to install an entity that can function independently, without political influence. But the manner in which the members of the CC are to be selected belies that aspiration. Three of its 10 members are leading politicians. One is a nominee of the top politician of the land, the President. Five others are nominated by the two politicians leading the two sides of the House. The tenth member has to be a nominee of the minor parties in Parliament. Note that seven members of the CC are sitting members of Parliament. Only the other three are private persons.

Sunday, October 04, 2015

When Dr Kasipillai Manoharan father of Manoharan Ragihar who, with all the trappings of a classic Greek tragedy, was shot along with four other friends at the Trincomalee beach front on 2nd January 2006 says that he has no confidence in domestic legal mechanisms to redress his anguish (The New York Times, 2nd October 2015) this is not a claim made for cheap political advantage.

Stories of injustice

This father went through the local justice process with all its pain, humiliation and hopelessness, including being relentlessly badgered during the hearings of the Udalagama Commission inquiry (2006), resulting in him breaking down in tears. So the academic rhetoric of the law and intricate constitutional tangles mean little to him.

At the other end of the country, such esoteric preoccupations would also mean little to the falsely accused schoolboy in the rape and murder of little Seya Sadewmi, who was remanded, allegedly tortured and filmed naked before being released by the police upon lack of DNA evidence this week.

These stories of ‘Southern ‘injustice’ are also endless. Emblematic among them is the torture of Gerald Perera who was also arrested by the police after being mistaken for a known thief in 2002. Two years later, despite one of the most far reaching judgments of the Supreme Court awarding him record compensation, he was shot at point blank range, days before he was due to give evidence at the trial of his torturers. It took eleven tortuous years of persistent activism for the accused police officers to be convicted this year. This too was possible only because state agents or high level politicians were not involved.

The integrity of the judiciary

And what of the death of Sri Lankan ruggerite Wasim Thajudeen which surfaced at high intensity just prior to the August parliamentary elections? Now what we hear is unseemly wrangling between judicial medical officers. To add insult to horrendous injury, crucial forensic and evidentiary reports appear to have ‘disappeared.’ Same patterns of subverted investigation, prosecution and legal inquiry were evidenced in the ‘Northern’ crimes, in regard to the 2006 Trincomalee killings of students and the extra-judicial executions of aid workers in Mutur that same year.

These are grave thoughts even as we absorb the impact of Thursday’s United Nations Human Rights Council’s resolution committing Sri Lanka to correct its legal failures. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe may well posit the integrity of the judiciary at the centre of the debate as he has done this week. From unwisely hailing the restoration of the independence of the judiciary upon the summary ejecting out of (Chief Justice) Mohan Peiris after the January 2015 electoral win, more cautious language is now used. Under pressure, the Government admits now that, much more needs to be done to ‘clean up’ the judicial institution. That itself is a first step.

However, odd references by government ministers to the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC Act No.14 of 1972) apparently as useful precedent for referencing previous ad hoc inquiries into human rights violations in present day times raises considerable unease. Several provisions of this law, enacted to deal with persons involved in the first Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna insurrection and with foreign exchange control offenders, were repugnant in the first instance.

Eschewing simplistic proposals

Indeed the Bar Council at the time raised strong concerns that this ‘new type of criminal tribunal’ is of unlimited retro-active operation, that the role of the members of the commission will be inquisitorial rather than judicial and that the laws of evidence and procedure are to be relaxed. It was observed that ‘a probable consequence of the proposed relaxation of the laws of evidence, which will permit otherwise inadmissible and hearsay evidence to be led, would be that innocent persons would be convicted upon unreliable evidence.’

To believe that the importation of the United Nations’ favourite answer to transitional justice dilemmas will automatically provide solutions is also unforgivably simplistic. It is infinitely amusing if it is not so tragic for example, that the ‘special courts’ of Rwanda and Cambodia had as members, Sri Lankan judges who were themselves complicit in lesser or greater measure in the decline of judicial integrity during 1999-2014 in this country.

Earlier this year, I asked a fellow panelist and a well known international legal expert (plenary sessions of the American Law and Society Association (LSA), Seattle, May 2015) as to how these veritable idiocies occur and he was speechless.

Those who view imperfect practices of international justice tribunals with deep skepticism therefore have reason to do so.

Learning from lessons of history

These are lessons of history that we should keep in mind when painfully navigating this minefield of blood and injustice throughout the land. Indisputably the country’s internal legal and investigative systems have been crippled to the point where they are no longer democratically functional as we see in the recent controversies over the role of the Attorney General in the Avant Garde case.

This breakdown of the law occurred insidiously, creeping upon us even as, in the immortalized words of the Guatemalan revolutionary poet Otto Rene Castillo, ‘apolitical intellectuals’ engaged in ‘absurd justifications, born in the shadow of the total lie.’ The ‘total lie’ of belief in a functional system of Sri Lankan law is therefore the first fact that we must acknowledge in all its awful truth.

And critical self-reflection is long overdue even as towering cut-outs of President Maithripala Sirisena welcome him back in honour of having ‘saved’ little Lanka, presumably from the ravening Western wolf. Moreover, the unsettling sight of his son sitting along with the official delegation in the assembly hall of the United Nations brings back recollections of a Rajapaksa-era which is disturbing to say the least. Even now, risking all the gains of the past few months is certainly not beyond possibility.

In the final result, the Sri Lankan Government will not be able to ‘escape’ with a domestic mechanism if it is shot through with the same systemic flaws which are all too familiar to us. The attention of the United Nations on this country is here to stay for an appreciably long time until concrete results are evidenced.
We need make no mistake about that.

MR: Geneva resolution no victory for Sri Lanka

October 4, 2015, 10:23 pm

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa said yesterday he was unable to share the government’s view that the recently adopted UNHRC resolution was a victory for Sri Lanka.

Rajapaksa said in a statement issued to the media:

"Operative paragraph 6 of the resolution affirms the importance of the participation of foreign judges, prosecutors, lawyers and investigators in the Sri Lankan judicial mechanism to be set up to investigate alleged human rights abuses during the war. Operative paragraph 8 encourages the Sri Lankan government to remove individuals in the armed forces suspected of human rights violations through an administrative vetting process even if there is insufficient evidence to charge them in a court of law. Operative paragraph 4 welcomes the government’s willingness to allow the various judicial and other mechanisms it intends to establish to deal with the past, to obtain financial assistance from overseas, which means that these supposedly Sri Lankan mechanisms will be paid for and maintained by foreign powers.

"Those are just a few of the objectionable operative paragraphs in that resolution. After its passage, the Prime Minister said that Sri Lanka has now been ‘taken off the agenda in the UNHRC’. Posters of the UPFA have appeared on the streets hailing the government for delivering the country from the ‘imperialist death trap’ in Geneva. Such statements sit oddly beside the operative paragraphs of the resolution mentioned above. The mismatch between the provisions of the resolution that was passed and the government’s present mixed signals and rhetoric may be due to a belated realisation that nothing has been gained by Sri Lanka joining the USA as a co-sponsor of this resolution except to commit the government to a course of action which runs contrary to the interests of this country and is therefore politically unfeasible.

"I acknowledge that there are times when foreign powers try to foist their way of thinking upon other nations and the country at the receiving end has to find ways of dealing with the situation. The first duty of the Sri Lankan government is to see to it that the interests of our war heroes are looked after. Operative paragraphs 6 & 8 of the resolution run directly contrary to that sacred duty. I regret to note that there is an attempt to whitewash the unfavourable resolution in Geneva by claiming that this was the best that could be achieved and that things could have been far worse with the near certainty of economic sanctions if my government had been still in power. The withdrawal of the GSP+ trade concession in 2010 and the ban on Sri Lankan fish imports to the EU in January 2015 were mentioned as the forerunners of the sanctions that were to be imposed on Sri Lanka.

"The public should be made aware that the ban on fish imports to the EU this year was due to issues relating to ‘illegal, unreported and unregulated’ fishing in the Indian Ocean in contravention of the rules of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission and had nothing at all to do with politics or human rights. As for GSP+, this is a special trade concession of doubtful utility which gives the EU a political handle over the recipient country. In 2010 when GSP+ came up for its review and this was being used to impose the EU’s will on Sri Lanka, my government made a conscious decision not to reapply for GSP+. Even after this trade concession was withdrawn, my government ensured that apparel exports to the EU kept growing at more than 6% a year. It should be noted that no major exporting country in Asia has applied for GSP+ due to the political strings attached to it.

"It was also said that I had antagonised the Western nations by being photographed with my arm around Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. It is actually Gaddafi who has his arm on my shoulder in that much publicised photograph. In the last months of the war in 2009 when Sri Lanka was fast losing foreign reserves due to the severe global economic recession that year and the IMF under pressure from the Western nations was delaying the standby facility that we were entitled to, Muammar Gaddafi agreed to lend 500 million USD to Sri Lanka in response to a single phone call from me. If not for that pledge, the economy would have collapsed before the war could be won.

"It was also said that when foreign dignitaries came to Sri Lanka to persuade us to stop the war, I had deliberately insulted them by taking them to Embilipitiya and giving them manioc to eat, and that resentment was motivating the Western countries to pass resolutions against us. I have no recollection what was on the menu when the British and French foreign ministers met me in the final days of the war demanding that I halt hostilities. But it is certainly true that I refused point blank to halt the war. It is because I did not buckle under foreign pressure that this country is free of terrorism today. Governments are elected by the people of Sri Lanka to do what is best for the country and not to agree to everything said by foreign powers. That applies to the resolution that has just been passed in Geneva as well."

AG Yet To Act On SC Judge

Monday, October 05, 2015

The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) has concluded the investigation carried out into the conduct of Supreme Court judge, Sarath de Abrew and the file has been handed over to the Attorney General’s Department, The Sunday Leader learns.

Sources at the Attorney General’s Department told The Sunday Leader that the CID has alleged that de Abrew has been found guilty of sexual harassment, criminal trespass, unlawful detention and hurt.

It is learnt that the file on de Abrew was handed over to the Attorney General’s Department by the CID about six weeks ago.

When contacted by The Sunday Leader, the CID confirmed that the investigation into the Supreme Court judges conduct was concluded within 10 days and the files was handed over to the Attorney General’s Department several weeks back. CID sources added that it is now up to the Attorney General to file indictment against de Abrew.

Meanwhile, Cabinet Spokesperson Minister Rajitha Senaratne, said in an interview BBC that there is a discussion of bringing a no confidence motion against de Abrew in parliament, if he was not going to step down from his post in the Supreme Court.

Parliament secretary’s conduct disdains members of new independent commissions and impedes their functioning

(Lanka-e-News -05.Oct.2015, 9.30PM) Though the constitutional council has been appointed ,the appointment of the independent commissions is being delayed because the general secretary to the parliament is conducting himself in a manner that demeans the members of the commission , based on repoirts reaching Lanka e news.

Already the members of the other proposed independent commissions have been named and decided , except the Audit and elections commissions where there are vacancies.

When official letters of appointment were to be issued , the parliamentary secretary Dhammika Dassanayake had said , such letters cannot be issued , and those individuals should forward a letter of request.The parliamentary secretary has also then sent a letter of request prepared by himself to them.The members of the commission on the other hand have rejected this procedure on the ground that they have no necessity at all to make requests , and that is tantamount to disrespecting their independence.

Consequently even 2 months after the government was appointed , the establishment of the independent commissions has been delayed.The commission that was in existence as soon as the constitutional council was established continues to be valid. Until new members are appointed , the posts of pro MaRa old members of the commission are still valid . As a result , the commission such as the Bribery commission that must be immediately activated is facing impediments.

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by (2015-10-05 16:34:37)

Finance Minister’s SIL Rosie Responds To Nepotism Charge

October 5, 2015

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake‘s sister in law Rosie Malasekara confirmed the alleged nepotism charges leveled against her husband Gihan Malalasekara and his exposed attempt of securing the Sri Lankan Airlines Sales Manager (UK) post by Colombo Telegraph earlier today, when she posted an explanatory comment under the website’s story and also on her Facebook page.

Responding to Colombo Telegraph’s expose, Rosie Malalasekara drew more flak than sympathy from other Colombo Telegraph commentators when she posted reasons as to why the airline should appoint her husband to the role.

Her more emotional posting on her Facebook wall citing the multi talents of her hubby as a husband, father, sportsman and a human being received her desired results.

“she should never have taken matters to her own hands and made such comments in response to the said article on social media. This will now certainly have a direct impact on the eventual selection criteria when the senior management has to decide on the final candidate. Her comment has now had a direct influence on the overall selection criteria and is a conflict of interest now. We do have a media spokesman for the airline and any responses should have come from him and not Mrs. Malalasekara who is not an employee of the airline” a very senior manager of the airline who was disappointed by Rosie Malalasekara’s comment told Colombo Telegraph on the condition of anonymity.Read More

Nepotism Grows: FM Ravi K Set To Appoint His Other BIL To Sri Lankan Airlines Top Post

October 5, 2015

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake is all poised to hand over the post of Sales Manager United Kingdom to his Royalist brother in law Gihan Malalasekara, especially with the post advertised in a tailor made manner a second time around, to suit the former Flight Attendant and make all other senior staffers ineligible to apply for the post, sources from within the airline’s Commercial Department told Colombo Telegraph.

The job which was advertised first in Feb 2015 was re-advertised again with the closing date set at 2nd October 2015.

Photo – Two BILs

The newly inserted clause states that “This is a local appointment and the applicant should be free to live and work in the UK without a need for a work or any other permit”.

“This post was never a local appointment and if that was the case it would have been included in the first ‘Staff Vacancy Notice’ put out earlier in February. This inclusion was done solely to accommodate Malalasekara, as he has now been living in the United Kingdom for the last two decades and knock out other senior airline staff members who were clamoring for the post” said an airline employee on condition of anonymity.

Gihan Malalasekara who initially worked for the national carrier known then as Air Lanka, resigned in the early nineties when in the capacity of an In Flight Cabin Supervisor. Read More

Kondaya’s brother remanded

October 5, 2015
Elder brother of ‘Kondaya’, who confessed to the murder and sexually assault on Seya Sadewmi, has been remanded until October 19 by the Minuwangoda Magistrate today (05).

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) this morning (05) apprised the Court that the elder brother of Kondaya has confessed to the murder. The suspect was arrested on October 3.

Seya Sadewmi was found strangled to death on September 13 while she was reported missing from her home at Kotadeniyawa in Divulapitiya on the previous day.

Government Information Department in a chaos

Oct 05, 2015

Director of the Government Information Department G.E.S.P Roshan has been transferred to the Public Administration Ministry as he tried to sell the old newspapers which were in possession with the department’s library.

The director board has given instructions to sell these newspapers despite the regulation enforced that those newspapers would be sold after one year of its purchase.

Although the authorities say the transfer of Roshan is due to giving instructions to sell the old newspapers, the workers say that it is due to the charge sheet given by the latter to the statistics officer of the department K. Osmand who was alleged for taking bribes.

The Department use to order food from a catering company located in Gampaha for any department functions. Osmand has taken a 40% commission out of the orders and later the catering company has become displeasure with Osmand when he raised his commission to another 10%. Following the incident the catering owner has made a complaint to the Government Information Department and to the Bribery and Corruption.

Following the inquiry of this incident the department suspended the work of Pradeep Sirige who was working as a clerk but the department workers stress, Osmand who gobbled the entire commission is still working in the department is due to his close affiliation with the United National Party.

The frontline person who has influenced to transfer Roshan to the public administration ministry is the news director P. Ramanayake who is now above 60 years and elapsed his retirement. Department workers allege that this Ramanayake was enjoying privileges of the Rajapaksa regime and continue to destruct the News Department even in the Good Governance.

Legal Action Slow Against Ethanol Mafia

Additional Solocitor General’s letter to Customs Department that they will not appear for the Customs Director, Government Analyst report that shows that the ethanol that was illegally imported contains 95% of Ethyl Alcohol and Superintendent of Custom

D.P.M. Gunawardena’s report that states how Jayalath threatened the
Customs Officers

by Nirmala Kannangara-Monday, October 05, 2015

With the exposure of how certain UPFA politicians were involved in the illegal importation of ethanol to the country, action is yet to be taken by the Attorney General’s Department against them as revealed by Finance Minister, Ravi Karunanayake, recently. Startling revelations have come to light as to how one of these accused parliamentarians, who now holds a portfolio in the new government is continuously involved in the illegal ethanol importation racket and also allegedly avoiding the payment of Customs duties when importing certain other goods.

Legal Action Slow Against Ethanol Mafia by Thavam Ratna

Animal Welfare A Timely Need For Sri Lanka

By Vositha Wijenayake –October 5, 2015

Vositha Wijenayake

As the Animal Day passed on the 4th of October, the issue of animal welfare seems to have gained a fair bit of attention as it rightly deserves. The country has seen its last amendment to the law addressing cruelty to animals in 1955, and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance of 1907 under which welfare of animals is taken into consideration is over a century old, and needing urgent reforms with outdated fines, and the implementation being on a rare occasion.

“Cruelty to animals in Sri Lanka is evident and a key issue. It happens due to a lack of awareness and/or concern and sometimes it is deliberate; and the existing animal welfare framework is inadequate to protect animals from such inhumane treatment.” said Shiona Weerasekera, Secretary of the AWPA which is a member of the Animal Welfare Coalition of Sri Lanka.

In addressing animal welfare it is necessary to bring all animals within the definition of “animals” to which the law applies. At present Sri Lanka has a lot of urban wildlife, while the 1955 Ordinance applies only a domestic or a captured animal. This includes any bird, fish, or reptile in captivity. This further excludes animals which are not domesticated or caged.

“It is our culture to feed animals but there is no responsible ownership. The extent we care for animals goes merely to feeding them. We need to be more responsible towards animals, and should prevent cruelty to animals and need,” added Dr. Ganga De Silva, Director Operations at Blue Paw Trust.

Civil society organisations working on animal welfare have highlighted the need for reform of law in this regard, and a Bill to the parliament was presented in October, 2010. The new legislation proposed has as its objective to replace the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance of 1907, and to recognise duty of care for persons in charge of animals to treat the animals humanely, to prevent cruelty to animals and to secure the protection and welfare of animals, to establish a National Animal Welfare Authority and Regulations and Codes of Practice and to raise awareness on animal welfare.Read More

Thai military hazes students as punishment for erotic hazing video

Film students from Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University crawl on their stomachs through muddy jungle paths as part of an endurance test designed to “break down their ego (and) humiliate them” at a military boot camp ordered as punishment for a hazing incident. Pic: AP.

By Asian Correspondent Staff Oct 05, 2015

A new report has revealed the details of a gruelling military boot camp endured by a group of Thai university students behind a controversial hazing video that went viral on social media earlier this year.

The Associated Press article describes in detail how the 53 film students were put through punishing physical exercises and ‘attitude adjustment’ for three days at a military base near Bangkok in mid-September.

The controversial video, which received millions of views, shows students at Thailand’s Sunandha Rajabhat University partaking in an erotic hazing ritual where they pretend to copulate while fully clothed.

While arguably relatively harmless compared to some of the more sinister hazing rituals that take place in Thailand’s universities, the incident caused enough public outcry to prompt the military to step in to bring the kids into line.

SEE ALSO: Sanctioned sadism: Thai universities’ barbaric hazing culture

“For the students from the film school of Bangkok’s Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, a three-day boot camp included reprimands, public humiliation and a grueling endurance test,” said the AP report.

Joined by some university professors, the students had their phones confiscated on arrival at the camp, had to eat meals in silence, and were housed in barracks with mattresses on the floor to sleep on.

Ironically, the students were exposed to hazing-like rituals themselves, according to the report. One overweight girl was called a ‘hippopotamus’, while losing team members were forced to humiliate themselves by ‘walking like elephants’.

“The idea is to break them down. Break down their ego. Humiliate them. And then we build them back up,” drill sergeant, Sgt. Maj. Kongsak Klaeiklang, told AP.

SEE ALSO: Hazing, sexuality and the problem with education in Thailand

The decision to punish the students in this manner seems less about the fact that they partook in a hazing ritual, and more about the sexual nature of what they did.

Asian Correspondent columnist James Austin Farrell wrote last month:

The students in the video clip did not seem to be suffering too much, and may even have enjoyed their part in the misadventure. This kind of puerile erotic behavior happens in schools, universities, and even workplace end-of-year parties – I’ve been there. While it could certainly feel like harassment to some people, and perhaps at times get out of hand given the virility of most males at that age, how unethical it is will always depend on the situation and the feelings of those involved. It would be hard to call it ‘barbaric’ if the adults were consenting. But then peer-pressurized sexual acts, even if vaudevillian, are likely not that enjoyable for anyone – more so for the young women under a pile of randy males.

While many within Thailand’s often militaristic education system argue that some of these rituals can be character building, they sometimes devolve into violence or even death.

Video: Israeli gunmen kidnap patient from Palestinian hospital

Ali Abunimah Rights and Accountability 5 October 2015

This video shows Israeli undercover forces invading a hospital in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus early on Sunday morning and kidnapping a Palestinian patient.

YouTube @YouTube

Video Israeli Gunmen Kidnap Patient From Palestinian Hospital by Thavam Ratna

Israeli forces kill 13-year-old in West Bank clashes

Abbas accuses Israel of escalating tensions a day after Israeli PM orders new measures including speedier demolition of attacker's homes
A clash on Sunday night between Palestinians and Israeli security forces near Bat Eal settlement and Ramallah (Shadi Hatem/MEE)

Deserted streets in Jerusalem's Shuafat neighbourhood (MEE)

Graeme Baker-Monday 5 October 2015

A 13-year-old Palestinian has been killed by Israeli gunfire during clashes in the occupied West Bank, the second Palestinian teenager to die in 24 hours.

The boy, named as Abdel Rahman Abdullah, was killed by a gunshot to the chest near a Bethlehem refugee camp on Monday as violence spiked in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.