A remote corner of China wants access to the sea. The obstacle is North Korea.

CHINA’S BACK YARD | This is part of an occasional series examining China’s efforts to win friends and clients in Asia and to assert a more dominant role across the continent.

Parts of Russia, China and North Korea are seen from a tower in Fangchuan, Hunchun, China, on Aug. 7, 2015. The lake area on the left is in Russia, the land in the middle is in China and the right side of Tumen River is in North Korea. (Shin Woong-jae/For The Washington Post)

By Anna Fifield-October 15

FANGCHUAN, CHINA — You can almost smell the sea air from here, at the point where China, Russia and North Korea meet, where slogans pronounce “One eye, three countries” and tourists pose for photos against a green landscape in which the borders are imperceptible.

A Remote Corner of China Wants Access to the Sea. the Obstacle is North Korea. by Thavam Ratna

Torture by another name: CIA used 'water dousing' on at least 12 detainees

Interrogators used a technique that elicits a drowning sensation and lowers body temperature on many more detainees than the agency admits to waterboarding
Those familiar with the cases of the 13 men known to have experienced water dousing say its departure from waterboarding is ‘a distinction without a difference’. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images

 Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud. Photograph: ACLU

Spencer Ackerman in New York-Friday 16 October 2015

At least a dozen more people were subjected to waterboard-like tactics in CIAcustody than the agency has admitted, according to a fresh accounting of the US government’s most discredited form of torture.

The CIA maintains it only subjected three detainees to waterboarding. But agency interrogators subjected at least 12 others to a similar technique, known as “water dousing”, that also created a drowning sensation or chilled a person’s body temperature – sometimes through “immersion” in water, and often without use of a board.

‘A form of waterboarding’

Suleiman Abdullah Salim was water-doused. ‘Flashbacks come anytime, so much they make you crazy,’ he said in a video published this week by the Guardian.

Torture by Another Name CIA Used 'Water Dousing' on at Least 12 Detainees by Thavam Ratna

Lockerbie: Libya confirms names of new suspects

Libya confirms the names of two men Scottish and US prosecutors want to interview about the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

FRIDAY 16 OCTOBER 2015

They are Abu Agila Masud and Abdullah al-Senussi (pictured above), who are alleged to have been involved in the bombing, for which only one person, Abdelbaset al Megrahi, has been convicted.

The Tripoli government confirmed the names, but said the attorney general's office had not been officially informed yet.

Megrahi, who was released from jail by the Scottish government in 2009 on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with prostate cancer, died in 2012, having denied playing any part in the murder of 270 people.

Scotland's Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland QC recently met US Attorney General Loretta Lynch in Washington and they have requested assistance from Libyan authorities for Scottish police and the FBI to interview the two suspects in Tripoli.

They were named in a US documentary based on research carried out by Ken Dornstein, whose brother David was killed in the Lockerbie bombing.

He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "I think I understand enough to feel satisfied that Libya was the primary author, that Abdelbaset al Megrahi was guilty as charged and that this man Abu Agila Masud was in some way the technical expert whose hands were probably the last hands on the device before it was sent on to (Pan Am flight) 103."



(Above: Abdelbaset al Megrahi pictured with Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif on his return to Libya in 2009)

Abdullah al-Senussi is the brother-in-law of the late dictator Muammar Gaddafi and a former head of Libyan intelligence. He is alleged to have approved the attack and was sentenced to death in July for the role he played in the Gaddafi regime.

Abu Agila Masud was named in the Megrahi trial indictment and is alleged in the documentary to have travelled with him to Malta, where the bomb was said to have begun its journey. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in July for bombing Libyan opposition members' cars in 2011.

The documentary, which aired last month, alleged he was also involved in the notorious bombing of a Berlin nightclub in 1986 and that he and Senussi were seen with Megrahi when he returned to Libya in 2009.



Relatives of those killed have welcomed the identification of the two Libyans as suspects.

Susan Cohen, from New Jersey, whose 20-year-old daughter Theodora was killed in the bombing, told ITV News: ""I want to make it clear that I think Megrahi did it , but the trial was framed too narrowly.

"The governments have been dragging their feet and they should have been looking for other people involved, because it wasn't just Megrahi."

Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter Flora in the attack, said: "If there is material that shows other people were involved then we want to know.

"We want to know who murdered our families. But the big but for us is we're not satisfied the one man who was found guilty was in fact guilty. Therefore we don't know if the Libyan regime was involved in this or not. And we've always said that."

Reports Say Israel Financially Supports ISIL

Virtualaz of Azerbaijan reported that a third of Iraq’s Kirkuk oil moved to Israel in the Spring of 2015 through companies owned by Erdogan’s son and son in law through the Jihan port in Turkey.

Oct-15-2015

(SALEM, Ore.) - Financial Times reported that Israel’s purchase of oil from ISIL equals $1 billion, a figure that took a chunk out of Israel's payment to Azerbaijan, which felt the impact from the reduction of its oil purchase in the first half of 2015. FT further reported that in the last 3 and a half months, three quarters of Israel’s oil demand purchased from Iraqi and Kurdish parties.

Observers say Kurdish authorities employ the surplus oil revenue from the assigned revenue of central government to pursue its separatist objectives in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. They reportedly use revenues to strengthen military power as well.

Virtualaz of Azerbaijan, reported that a third of Iraq’s Kirkuk oil moved to Israel in the Spring of 2015 through companies owned by Erdogan’s son and son in law through the Jihan port in Turkey.

Israel, which used to buy most of its oil from Russia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan, now buys most of its oil from both ISIL and Iraq’s Kurdistan which guarantees the survival of ISIL and the spread of the dividing strategy.

The Azeri billionaire, Mubariz Mansimov, and Erdogan’s son in law Al-Bayrak as his business partner, are reported to be active in transferring ISIL’s oil.

Syria: New Russian-Made Cluster Munition Reported

SPBE sensor fuzed submunitions in countryside near Kafr Halab, Syria on October 6, 2015.  ©2015 Shaam News Network

OCTOBER 10, 2015

(Beirut) – An advanced type of Russian cluster munition was used in an airstrike southwest of Aleppo on October 4, 2015, Human Rights Watch said today. The use of the weapon near the village of Kafr Halab raises grave concerns that Russia is either using cluster munitions in Syria or providing the Syrian air force with new types of cluster munitions to use.

Syria New Russian-Made Cluster Munition Reported by Thavam Ratna

Clashes start in West Bank, Gaza after Palestinian youths torch site 

Clashes reported in Gaza, Bethlehem, Ramallah and Hebron where a Palestinian man was reportedly shot dead after allegedly wounding an Israeli police officer 

A photo of clashes in Ramallah on Friday (MEE/Elia Gorbiah) 

Friday 16 October 2015

Hours after Palestinian youths torched a site in the West Bank city of Nablus early in the morning, tensions were running high following Friday prayers in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.

As demonstrations and clashes between protesters and Israeli security forces were reported in Bethlehem, Hebron and Gaza, a Palestinian man - dressed as a press photographer - was reportedly shot dead after allegedly stabbing and wounding an Israeli police officer in Kiryat Arba, an Israeli settlement in Hebron.

Hamas had called for protests across the West Bank after Friday prayers. Jerusalem police barred men under 40 years of age from attending the main weekly prayers at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque, seeking to keep young protesters away.

Early Friday morning, hundreds of Palestinian youths threw Molotov cocktails and set on fire a site in Nablus.

Although it was widely reported that the Palestinians were attacking Joseph's Tomb, a site that is holy to Jews, Palestinian journalists distributed a press release saying that the activists had, in fact, targeted a Jewish religious school in the city whose head had previously encouraged Jewish Israelis to kill babies.

One of the students of the school, according to the press release, leads an organisation that was involved in the burning of the Dawabsheh family home near Nablus in late July.

Ali Saad Dawabsha, the family's 18-month-old toddler, died in the attack. A week after the attack, Saad Dawabsha, Ali's father died of his wounds, followed in September by his wife, Reham Dawabsha.

"Muslims and Arabs are the ones who conserve the prophets' shrines in Palestine," wrote Saleh Na'ami, who signed his name to the statement. 

The exact target of the attack remains disputed.

Haaretz reported on Friday that young people had broken into Joseph's Tomb and started throwing flammable objects into the complex when Palestinian security forces arrived and started firing into the air to break up the crowd. 

Soon after the attack, the Israeli military said that it "considers this event severely, will work to locate and arrest the perpetrators, and strongly condemns any attacks on holy sites," Haaretz reported.

The UN Security Council is scheduled to hold an emergency meeting on Friday morning, requested by a Jordanian council member, to discuss the upsurge of violence.

Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour told reporters late Thursday that the situation was "very explosive" and called on the Security Council to "shoulder its responsibility" with action to quell the violence.

Rhetorical battle

In the past 48 hours, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have tussled in public statements over where blame lies for the recent violence.

While Abbas has said Israeli aggression is fuelling tensions and could lead to a religious conflict that would "burn everything," Netanyahu has focused on Abbas, saying the leader is inciting violence and failing to accept his invitations to return to the negotiation tables.

"We are asking for our rights, justice and peace, we do not commit aggression on anyone and we do not accept aggression against our people, our nation and our holy places,” Abbas said on Wednesday.

"This wave of attacks is not the result of the lack of political horizon,” Netanyahu said on Thursday. “This is not the result of a massive wave of settlements as there has not been a massive wave of settlements.”

In an NPR News interview due to be aired on Friday, US Secretary of State John Kerry put the onus of the current tensions on Abbas. 

"President Abbas has been committed to non-violence. He needs to be condemning this, loudly and clearly," Kerry said. "And he needs to not engage in some of the incitement that his voice has sometimes been heard to encourage. So that has to stop."

Abbas however reportedly told Kerry in a phone conversation on Thursday night that he vowed to work to de-escalate the situation in the West Bank and Israel and pushed Kerry to ask the Israeli government to "stop goading aggression against Palestinians by settlers and visits to the Temple Mount," Haartez reported.

Imposed measures

On Wednesday, Israel began to impose a series of security measures, including sealing off East Jerusalem neighbourhoods and revoking the citizenship of Palestinian citizens of Israel who are involved in attacks, as well as their families, in response to a major spike in violence that started earlier this month.

As the Israeli cabinet decided on the measures, Netanyahu told reporters, "Not only will we take away rights, but they will pay the full price … whoever raises a hand to hurt us - his hand will be cut off."

Critics of the new measures, including East Jerusalem residents whom MEE has spoken with this week, say not only will they do little to curb the escalation in violence, but also serve to heighten Israel's occupation and collective punishment of Palestinians that has fuelled the latest tensions.

"Insanity is nothing but repeating the same thing but expecting different results," Mustafa Barghouti, president of the Palestinian National Initiative, told al-Jazeera earlier this week. "When they decide to separate East and West Jerusalem it only proves that they have failed. The whole idea of walls and checkpoints is only deepening the military occupation."

- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestinians-torch-jewish-holy-site-west-bank-1825409558#sthash.VWuJHASE.dpuf

Why does Sweden want to expel Gaza refugees?

Palestinian refugees and their supporters defend their protest camp in Malmö from eviction.

Adriano Mérola Marotta

Adriano Mérola Marotta The Electronic Intifada 15 October 2015

Seventy Palestinian refugees have been evicted from a camp formed in protest at how the Swedish authorities have denied them the right to asylum.

Why Does Sweden Want to Expel Gaza Refugees by Thavam Ratna

How Canada’s Election Will Decide the Fate of the World

If voters oust Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives, they'll be voting for a whole new climate policy — and potentially tipping the scales of December's Paris summit on global warming.

BY GEOFF DEMBICKI-OCTOBER 15, 2015

VANCOUVER, Canada — For years, Canada and Australia have been the climate villains the world has loved to hate. They’ve been the ones giggling in the corner at each year’s round of climate talks, trashing renewable energy, boasting about their reserves of coal and oil sands, and giving the diplomatic middle finger to serious emissions cuts. This summer a panel led by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan argued, “Australia and Canada appear to have withdrawn entirely from constructive international engagement on climate.” A story on the website Road to Paris by the journalist Leigh Phillips was even blunter: “They are what could be called the Bad Boys of climate change.”

But all that might be about to change.

On Oct. 19, Canadians will vote in one of the tightest elections in the country’s history. The Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, are polling so close with Justin Trudeau’s more progressive Liberals that it’s impossible to call who will come out ahead in Monday’s vote. The further-to-the-left New Democratic Party, led by Thomas Mulcair, is in a close third. “No disinterested source is predicting a majority for anyone,” former newspaper publisher Conrad Black wrote in the National Post last week. And though climate change has not loomed large in the election, if Harper’s Conservatives lose their ability to govern, the country would likely find itself with a profoundly different climate policy — and one that could potentially influence how world powers choose to negotiate and implement a post-2020 global climate change agreement at the COP21 summit in Paris this December.

To ensure their hold on power, the Conservatives need to win at least 170 seats in the House of Commons. Any less would mean a minority government. And in that scenario it’s likely the Liberals and the NDP would form a governing coalition.

Both opposition leaders promise to fix Canada’s reputation at the December climate talks in Paris. “It’s time we get clear targets, and we started respecting them,” Mulcair said in August. His rival seems to agree. “We will go to Paris united as a country in our desire to reduce our emissions,” Trudeau said last month. Trudeau has also promised to work with the provinces to put a market price on the country’s emissions, while Mulcair has called for a national system of cap and trade — all policies that economists think can shrink emissions while growing the economy.

Moreover, they’re both a far cry from Harper’s dismissal of efforts to reduce Canada’s carbon emissions as “job killing.”

If Canadian voters do decide to oust their climate change bad boy, they won’t be alone. Harper’s partner in crime, Australian climate skeptic Prime Minister Tony Abbott, was replaced last month by Malcolm Turnbull, who in 2010 warned “the consequences of unchecked global warming would be catastrophic.” He told an interviewer in May that “we should seek to restrain the growth of greenhouse gases.” In what direction he chooses to take the country on climate is still unclear, but at the very least he seems to have a more informed understanding of the issue than Abbott.

All of which is to say that there’s a decent chance that Canada will enter the climate negotiations in Paris prepared to play a more constructive role than at previous talks. And though it will be joined by an Australian leader still tied to the weak climate target set by his predecessor, many observers expect Turnbull to play a less combative role than Abbott. “My feeling is there’s been a bit of a sigh of relief from the international community, at least in climate circles,” said Erwin Jackson, deputy CEO of the Climate Institute, an Australia-based think tank.

So just how might these two countries — whose combined emissions represent less than 3 percent of the world’s total carbon emissions — tip the balance at Paris?

By no means will Australia and Canada be setting the agenda at this year’s big climate talks — that’s for major powers like the United States, China, and the European Union. But as fossil fuel-producing middle powers, Canada and Australia have a significant role to play, argues Jackson, who has over 20 years of experience working on climate policy. “It’s in the ideas space that they’re really important,” he said.

Many developing countries are convinced that the only way they can become affluent is by burning fossil fuels. Although India recently promised to get 40 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2030, coal-fired power capacity is growing by 9.4 percent each year. And the country’s power minister, Piyush Goyal, claimed that “development imperatives cannot be sacrificed at the altar of potential climate changes many years in the future,” when asked in 2014 about India’s appetite for fossil fuels. Similarly, China has promised to cap its carbon emissions by 2030 while at the same time consuming more coal than the rest of the world combined.

But if Canada and Australia can prove to the world at Paris that they’re now willing and able to work with the global community to reduce their emissions to safe levels, while at the same time making coal and oil sands a less important contributor to their GDPs, Jackson argued, “that will give confidence to other resource-based economies in the developing world that they can do the same.”

The timing for such a scenario is perfect. They world is now adding more renewable energy capacity (143 gigawatts in 2013) than oil, coal, and gas combined (141 gigawatts the same year). Over half the world’s coal reserves aren’t profitable to extract at today’s prices, Moody’s Investors Service has estimated. And in 2014 the global economy grew while emissions stayed flat, the first time it has done so in 40 years, according to the International Energy Agency. The goal in Paris is to negotiate an international climate treaty capable of accelerating all this momentum. “[It’s about] sending a signal to investors that we’re all on one train and it’s heading in one direction,” Jackson said. “So you need to realign your investment decisions on that basis.”

Canada has not been sending that signal under Harper, who has been in power since 2006. The country may miss its 2020 climate target by 20 percent, a result primarily of increased oil and gas production, an Environment Canada report submitted to the U.N. this spring suggested. Canada’s fossil fuel-dominated energy sector is worth more to the national economy — it’s about 10 percent of GDP — than retail, construction, agriculture, and the public sector combined. A new government in Ottawa wouldn’t have much time to change the country’s course, but a sincere and dedicated effort to do so might communicate a powerful message to the international community.

That might be worth more than a casual observer might expect.

Canada and Australia’s carbon footprints may be relatively small, but their defiant refusal to participate constructively in the global climate talks carries large symbolic weight. Although hundreds of billions of dollars are now being invested in the low-carbon economy, there are still huge sections of the global population, particularly in economies dependent on fossil fuel extraction, that see climate action as an economic threat, rather than an opportunity to create massive growth in low-carbon energy sources and technology.“Harper and Abbott tapped into people’s very real fears of losing their jobs,” Phillips, who writes about European affairs and climate for outlets likeNature and the Guardian, said in an interview.

Those fears are an impediment to action, especially for efforts to negotiate a binding climate treaty among the world’s 196 nations. All it takes is a few loud dissenters to slow down the entire process. That’s the roleperformed by coal-dependent Poland within the European Union. Internationally, developing countries like India have made legitimate claims that their economic growth isn’t possible without burning fossil fuels. What incentive do they have to reduce their dependence on coal, gas, and oil if “bad boys” such as Canada and Australia refuse to do the same? “Those divisions are the big blocks toward achieving an international consensus,” said Phillips, whose forthcoming book on climate change, called Austerity Ecology & the Collapse-Porn Addicts, will be released later this month.

The world doesn’t have much time to overcome those blocks. Humans have warmed the planet by 0.8 degrees Celsius. Our species has pumped so much carbon into the atmosphere that even if we were to eliminate fossil fuels today, that number would keep climbing toward a 2-degree threshold. Beyond that, the future survival of people on Earth becomes uncertain, according to the vast majority of climate scientists. It’s the point where, climatologically speaking, all hell breaks loose. The international community is depending on countries like Canada to help prevent it. “That would be my hope,” Germany’s ambassador in Ottawa said recently, “that Canada after the election will be an important and somewhat ambitious part of the [climate negotiations] process.”

The process will be successful in Paris if it can signal to world leaders that future economic prosperity is no longer dependent on fossil fuels, Jackson argued. New administrations in Ottawa and Canberra would be in a good position to send the signal: that even economies heavily dependent on oil, coal, and gas can transition to a thriving low-carbon future. But such an outcome depends on which party Canadians choose to elect on Monday. And for the moment the election is far too close to call. It’s not out of the question that the “bad boys” will live to thumb their noses at another COP. The Paris negotiators would do their best to ignore them. But in Jackson’s opinion “the case for stronger and more ambitious action,” especially among developing economies, “becomes harder.” So Canadians aren’t just voting on a new government next week, they’re also choosing whether to save the planet.

GEOFF ROBINS/AFP/Getty Images

Salt Gets an Unfair Shake, Public Health Feels the Pinch

CO-AUTHORED BY: James J. DiNicolantonio, PharmD-10/13/2015

New York City is set to become the first city in the United States to require sodium warnings on menus. The city’s Board of Health voted unanimously to require large chain restaurants, theaters, and ballparks to post warnings (a salt-shaker symbol in ominous black triangle) for any item containing more than 2,300mg of sodium.

Salt Gets an Unfair Shake, Public Health Feels the Pinch by Thavam Ratna

A most honorable judge Swarnadhipathy opens the eyes of barbaric Lankans bragging and bluffing about a 2500 years Buddhist history...!

(Lanka-e-News -15.Oct.2015, 9.30AM) Ms. Khema Swranadhipathy a most honorable  judge of rare integrity and courage  of the special high court , Anuradhapura  speaking to Upali Ananda of Lankadeepa newspapers made the undernoted  comments that should open wide the eyes of the stupid , blabbering , bragging and bluffing Sri Lankans living in tropical Sri Lanka (SL) who threw away the hats introduced by the ‘Whites’, but still wearing their neck ties and coats,  thereby sweating profusely.

A Most Honorable Judge Swarnadhipathy Opens the Eyes of Barbaric Lankans Bragging and Bluffing About a 2500... by Thavam Ratna

Sri Lanka Might Need a Hybrid Court to Probe Even Corruption etc – Upul Joseph Fernando

( An Avant Garde armory)

15/10/2015

• Twenty two containers with 3,154 firearms and 745,859 rounds of ammunition detected at Galle Port – 8.1.2015.
• The CID commences investigations on the order of the IGP – 9.1.2015.
• Court impounds the ship owner’s passport – 23.1.2015.
• Prohibition on ship owner’s passport lifted and passport released on the recommendation of the Attorney General – 7.7.2015
• ‘We have evidence that approval had been granted to release the passport of floating armoury Avant Garde owner’ – Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s statement on 2.3.2015 when the ban on the passport was temporarily lifted.
• They tried to offer me a Rs 300 million bribe to sweep the floating armoury case under the carpet’, – Minister Rajitha Senaratne – 14.5.2015.
  Attorney General recommends ending case against owner of floating armoury – 8.9.2015.

Those who voted for Good Governance were shocked reading those news reports. It was in that backdrop JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake made a special statement in Parliament in a confused manner.

He charged that strongmen in the government had suppressed the Avant Garde case through the Attorney General and urged to resume the case. Hardly a few days later of Anura’s statement another Avant Garde ship carrying arms was arrested, while heading towards the Galle Harbour without notice to the Navy. What will happen if such ships arrive without notice to the Navy and launch attacks? That is where the danger lies.

The most shocking development is that this ship arrived in that secret style at a time Avant Garde had been acquitted and discharged by Court. In the same manner the Attorney General told Court that there was no sufficient evidence to indict Kumaran Pathmanathan alias ‘KP’, a known LTTE leader. In the same way the Attorney General said there was no evidence to prosecute Gotabaya Rajapaksa and lifted the ban on Gotabaya’s passport. Adding insult to injury, the woman High Court judge hearing the Sil Redi case where Rs 600 million belonging to the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) had been misappropriated by former Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga and TRC Chairman Anusha Pelpita were released on bail. The Judge said though the two suspects could be remanded under the Public Property Act she was granting bail.

An eye opener to the government
Next day, the Colombo Additional Magistrate charged that suspects could not be granted bail in that manner without them being produced before him. His judgment about the conduct of the Police and the Attorney General was an eye opener to the government. He issued notice on the FCID and the Police and stated that suspects in cases under the Public Property Act could only be granted bail under extraordinary circumstances.

He described the actions of the Attorney General in the following manner: “It is settled in our constitutional law that in matters which, concern the public at large the Attorney General is the guardian of public interest. The Attorney General is the Chief Legal Officer and Adviser of the State and then to the Sovereign and is in that sense an officer of the public. The Attorney General in this country is the Leader of the Bar and the highest Legal Officer of the State. As Attorney General he has a duty to Court, to the State and to the subject to be wholly detached, wholly independent and to act impartially with the sole object to establish the truth. That image will certainly be tarnished if he takes part in private litigation arising out of private disputes.

No Attorney General can serve both the State and the private litigant”.
Furthermore, the Judge interpreted the objectives of his judgment in the following manner: “Judges of Courts for first instance, whose orders always have a direct and an immediate impact on both parties who come before them, and members of the public who follow the proceedings in Court must always be conscious of, and deeply appreciate the immunity referred to earlier, so conferred upon them by law in regard to all acts done by them in the discharge of their Judicial functions. It is a privilege which has been bestowed upon them not in order to pander to their vanity, or to enable them to make mistakes and to do wrong, or to act without a very high sense of responsibility. It is a protection extended to them solely for the sake of the public, and for the advancement of justice; so that, the knowledge that they will not be troubled by any actions against them would make them totally free in thought and absolutely independent in judgment, and also enable them to discharge their functions not only freely without favour, but also without fear. The very thought that such immunity is granted to them for the sake of the public should inspire the Judges to exercise their powers and discharge their functions with the highest possible sense of responsibility and with such a high degree of dignity and decorum as will continue to command and retain undiminished confidence of the public in an institution which has hitherto enjoyed such confidence in full measure”.

This is how the Judge explained equality before the law;

1) All persons are equal before the law and are entitled to the equal protection of the law.
2) No citizen shall be discriminated against on the grounds of race, religion, language, caste, sex, political opinion, place of birth or any one of such grounds.
3) No person shall, on the grounds of race, religion, language, caste, sex or any one of such grounds, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to access to shops, public restaurants, hotels, and places of public entertainment and places of public worship of his own religion.
4) Nothing in this article shall prevent special provision being made, by law, subordinate legislation or executive action, for the advancement of women, children and disabled persons.

When the Colombo Additional Magistrate A. Nishantha Peiris concluded his judgment, all lawyers present in the Court House rose to respect him. When one reads his judgment it is evident and clear that the Judiciary, Police and the Attorney General’s Department in the country stands distorted. May be that is why the UNHRC says it cannot place trust in the Sri Lankan Judicial process. That fact is established by the judgment of Additional Magistrate, Nishantha Peiris. Leaving aside the inquiry on war crimes, it will not be a surprise if the need arises to set up a Hybrid Court comprising foreign Judges to probe corruption, plunder and irregularities of the previous regime

( Courtesy – Ceylon Today)

Video: Govt. promises justice to PTA 

prisoners

2015-10-15

The government hopes to mete out justice to those held in prison under the Prevention of Terrorism ACT (PTA) before the end of the year, Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe assured the prisoners who are currently on a hunger strike calling for their release.

The Minister who visited the prisoners who were on a hunger strike at the Magazine prison this morning also assured that the government had already begun a process to repeal the PTA and replace it with another legislation to prevent terrorism.

Responding to a question as to whether the prisoners accepted the assurance given by him, Mr. Rajapakshe said some had accepted while some were continuing with the hunger strike.

More than 150 prisoners are on a hunger strike in Anuradhapura, Bogambara, Jaffna, Colombo and Batticaloa while six prisoners in the Magazine prison had been admitted to prison hospital while the condition of one inmate in Anuradhapura is reported to be serious.

However , the Minister contradicted his cabinet colleague Mano Ganesan who said on Wednesday that the cabinet decided to set up a committee to look into the matter. “The cabinet discussed the issue but no decision was made to set up a committee,” he said. (Yohan Perera and Chaturanga Pradeep)

Cabinet Spokesman, Minister Rajitha Senaviratne today said the Cabinet approval has been granted to produce all the Tamil prisoners detained at two prisons including at the Magazine Prison, in court. 

Prisoners Of PTA: An Appeal To The President

By Ratna Bala –October 15, 2015 

Dr Ratna Bala

His Excellency Maithripala Sirisena,
President of Sri Lanka

Your Excellency,

You already know the plight of the Tamil prisoners arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) held in prisons for many years. They may have had hope that end of war would pave the way for them to be with their families soon. Since then they have made several kind requests for compassionate consideration of their plight. When all their hopes were in vain for last six years as last resort they are now on fast unto death-sathyagraha and praying that your heart will feel their anguish and come to rescue them.

Your Excellency,

Thirty years of brutal war have done enough damage to our people and the country. Many parents have lost their children, many children have become orphans and many women have become widows. Many have disappeared and their loved ones are still looking for them.

These people who were arrested under PTA have spent many valuable years of their lives in prison and seen their lives silently nibbled away. All these years they lived with hurting heart knowing their parents and families too are undergoing extreme hardship outside the fence. For all these years of sufferings many of them haven’t done any significant crime that can’t be pardoned at this juncture.

Your Excellency,

After the end of war we are talking and talking about reconciliation without any significant steps to build trust and hope. Only if we can listen to our own people we can find what is important to heal ourselves. With so much of talking, over and over again we lose sight of what is important and what isn’t.

Your Excellency,                             Read More