15 years since Bindunuwewa prison massacre

24 October 2015

Police officers who were convicted but then released on appeal for the massacre of Tamil political detainees in 2000 (Virakesari) Fifteen years ago an armed mob of Sinhala villagers stormed a rehabilitation centre and killed at least 28 Tamil youths, as security forces stood by and even joined in. The centre in the southern town of Bindunuwewa was jointly run by several bodies, including the Presidential Secretariat, under then-president Chandrika Kumaratunga, the Child Protection Authority, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Reconstruction. Dozens of Tamil youths in their late teens and early twenties were held here on suspicion of supporting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, supposedly undergoing rehabilitation for a few months before their release. A few days before the massacre, detainees protested against prolonged detention, sometimes over a year, and the deliberate withholding of letters from relatives by the authorities. The next morning a mob of local Sinhalese, reported by UTHR to be 2,000 strong, had formed outside the detention facility. They entered the centre and attacked the inmates with knives, machetes, clubs and iron rods, and set fire to the residence halls. Police officers stood by and in at least one instance opened fire on the inmates. A military detachment in the area was also withdrawn the previous day, indicating a premeditated attack. At least 28 Tamil youths between 14 and 23 died in vicious, sustained attacks. Only 19 were identified as the remaining bodies were charred beyond recognition. Relatives of one of the victims, Antony John, told TamilNet at the time that he was chopped into pieces by the attackers. One of Antony's eyes was removed from the decapitated head, both arms had been cut off, and the entire body was covered with deep cuts. Almost immediately, officials attempted to shift the blame onto the detainees, saying they had attacked officers and provoked the Sinhala villagers by throwing stones and exposing their genitals to them. A few days after the massacre, President Kumaratunga said there were provocations on both sides. However Sri Lanka's Human Rights Commission investigated the massacre and found the allegations against the detainees to be false. “All the information we have been able to gather so far does not suggest that what occurred on the 25th was an unpremeditated eruption of mob violence caused by the provocation of the inmates. It is more consistent with a premeditated and planned attack,” it said. A commission into the massacre, initiated by President Kumaratunge denied that the attacks were planned and was not mandated to prosecute those guilty of the crimes. According to the Asian Centre for Human Rights, the Presidential Commission of Inquiry indicated the organised nature of the massacre. A section of the villagers were drawn to the Bindunuwewa Rehabilitation Centre and there was “also evidence that crowds were transported from outside to the Vidyapeetaya playground in buses, private vans and also three wheelers”. Posters like “why is the big man feeding the tigers with milk”, “Tigers’ flesh to our dogs” were displayed in and around Bindunuwewa one day before the massacre. The LTTE also accused the government of planning the attacks. "The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) accuses the government of Chandrika Kumaratunga of being responsible for the gruesome killing of 30 innocent Tamil political prisoners and seriously injuring 50 others at a detention centre in Bandarawella, Southern Sri Lanka," the movement said in a statement.  "We have evidence to believe that Sri Lankan security personnel - the army, police and prison officials - were involved in organising, mobilising and instigating gangs of Sinhala thugs to commit this heinous crime. Sinhalese prison officials of the area facilitated riotous Sinhala mobs numbering more than two thousand persons to storm into the detention centre and brutally slaughter the Tamil youths with knives, swords, axes and iron bars, "The victims of this savagery are not members of the LTTE nor are they surrendered 'child soldiers'. They are innocent Tamil youth arrested on suspicion and detained without trial under the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act. These young detainees have been protesting against their unjust arrest and demanding release." The TULF, the largest Tamil party at the time, said that only the involvement of international investigators could ensure a credible investigation. "It is only the very early active involvement of neutral independent international investigators, that can infuse the criminal investigative process with an acceptable degree of credibility, " said TULF leader and current TNA leader R Sampanthan in a letter to the Ministry of Justice. Mr Sampanthan also placed the blame on government officials. "The manner in which the attack has been carried out is clearly suggestive of collaboration between officials at the camp and persons outside the camp who have planned and prepared to carry out the attack." "The least that can be done is to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into all the circumstances relating to this inhuman attack and to bring the offenders before the law. Sadly our experience is that while condemnation and assurances of impartial investigation are easily forthcoming, the end result is that no tangible action is taken and the offenders carry on with a sense of impunity." Criminal proceedings were initiated by the government, resulting in the indictment of 41 people, including 19 policemen. At the subsequent trial all but 5 were cleared. Two police officers, Senaka Jayampthay Karunaratne and Tyronne Roger Ratnayake, and three Sinhala civilians, Sepala Dissanayake, M.A.Sammy and R.M.Premananda, were found guilty and sentenced to death in 2003. At the sentencing, both police officers maintainedthat they were carrying out orders from the top. However, in 2005 all five convictions were overturned and the men walked free. The acquittal was condemned by human rights organisations and Tamil groups. “These acquittals show a shocking failure of the police and judicial system in Sri Lanka to find justice for the dead and injured from this horrific incident,” said Brad Adams, Asia Director of Human Rights Watch in 2005. “As the victims were all Tamil, the government needs to move quickly to start fresh investigations and to prosecute the perpetrators, some of whom were police officers, or it will only further distance aggrieved Tamils.” Fifteen years on, the perpetrators of this massacre remain free. The relatives of the dead continue to await justice for these crimes. Countless of parents whose children disappeared during the period are left to wonder whether their son was among the unidentified dead. Names and hometowns of the dead who were identified: Gunapalan Jeyavarthanam, Mannar Antony John, Kallady, Batticaloa Karunakaran Ramasamy, Santhacholai, Vavuniya Rubeshkumar Visvaparan, Vepankulam, Vavuniya Senthuran Vinayakamoorthy, Vanthrumoolai, Batticaloa Mohan Sinnathurai, Aanathapuram, Trincomalee Ravitharan Kanapathipillai, Lingapuram, Manalaaru Vijeyenthiran Visvalingam, Navatkadhu, Batticaloa Balakumar Marimuththu, Pullaveli, Batticaloa Mathiyalakan Puniyamoorthy, Mutur, Trincomalee Selvarajah Thurairajah, Thampanai, Jaffna Mukunthan Sivayokarajan, Karaveddi East, Jaffna Vipulanantharajah Sivayokarajan; Thirukovil, Amparai Kokulamani Sajeewan, Kallady, Batticaloa Perinpanayagam Nimlaraj, Batticaloa Somasuntharam Sellarasa Sivan Kubendran, Arayampathi Vaisvaparam Rubeshkumar alias Sinnathamby, Urmila Kottam, Vavuniya Ramasamy Karunakaran, Santhasolai,Vavuniya

Sri Lanka war crime probe: Panel rejects ‘zero civilian casualties’ claim

• T. RAMAKRISHNAN- October 24, 2015
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The panel, headed by Justice Maxwell P. Paranagama, pulled up the Rajapaksa regime for, what it called, inept use of the expression — a "zero casualty" war.

An inquiry commission on missing persons has dismissed one of the claims of the previous Rajapaksa regime that “there were zero civilian casualties” in the final phase of the Eelam War, which ended in May 2009, and acknowledged that shelling by the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) “undoubtedly led to a number of significant deaths.”

Constituted by the former government in August 2013, the three-member panel, headed by Justice Maxwell P. Paranagama, stated: “Without a doubt, there were casualties.” It pulled up the Rajapaksa regime for, what it called, inept use of the expression — a “zero casualty” war.

The panel went on to say that “the key question is whether in the main, those civilians were killed unlawfully by SLA or as a tragic and unfortunate consequence of a campaign which was proportionate to the military objective sought.”

A couple of days ago, two reports of the Commission along with seven volumes of another commission, known as Udalagama Commission, were tabled in Parliament.

On the issue of shell strikes by the Army at hospitals during the final phase, the panel suggested a scrutiny of individual incidents, although it noted that not a single government doctor was killed in a hospital.

U.N. finding rejected

At the same time, the Paranagama Commission rejected the finding of a 2011 UN report that civilian deaths could have been 40,000.

Terming the issue of number of civilians killed as one of the greatest issues of dispute that the panel has had to address, it said: “satellite imagery does not indicate tens of thousands of graves.”

But, it took note an estimate by the UN Country Team of 7,721 deaths as on May 13, 2009, six days before the formal declaration of the conclusion of the war.

Describing the matter as a “myth,” the Commission found “no reliable body of information” to substantiate the finding.

It, however, accepted some findings of the UN report, which was prepared by a three-member panel with Marzuki Darusman of Indonesia as the Chair. It accepted the conclusion of the UN panel that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held 3,00,000 to 3,30,000 civilian hostages in the Vanni region in the final phase of the war. It also endorsed another finding that the LTTE fired artillery at the SLA from within civilian areas or next to civilian installations from the No Fire Zones.

On the allegations made in a film of the Channel 4 television channel, the Commission held that “many of the individual incidents” mentioned by the channel “give rise to an urgent need for a credible judge-led investigation by the GoSL (Government of Sri Lanka).” It could not exclude the possibility that “executions took place and if proven, these are grave crimes at international law that require an accountability mechanism.”

An approach to reconciliation

By Izeth Hussain-October 23, 2015

I am outlining in this article one possible approach to the problem of ethnic reconciliation, while acknowledging that other approaches could also merit consideration. First of all we must acknowledge that the investigations into war crimes required under the UNHRC Resolution could prove to be profoundly divisive, making the task of reconciliation even more difficult than it would have been otherwise. Part of the problem is that the investigations will be confined to the period 2002 to 2009. It will mean that Sinhalese notables will be targeted but not the LTTE ones – who were responsible for the horrors of the forcible recruitment of child soldiers and the use of 330,000 Tamils as human shields – because they are safely dead. It becomes arguable therefore that the investigations should cover the antecedent period as well, including the actions of the IPKF.

I am here recapitulating some of the main points in my article Reconciliation versus Geneva 2015 which was published in the Colombo Telegraph of October 19. The principle I affirmed was that looking into crimes committed in the past should be seen as part of a process of nation-building. We did have a Sri Lankan nation at one time but it broke down some years after Independence, becoming a Sinhalese nation in which the minorities are in Sri Lanka but not of it. The cost of the failure to build a Sri Lankan nation has been very terrible: a 26-year civil war which has left 100,000 dead. Nation-building has perforce to be an indigenous process without outsiders butting in. Therefore the crimes committed by the IPKF should be set aside – for which there are obviously other compelling reasons as well. The focus should be on the Sinhalese, Tamil, and Muslim contributions to our ethnic tragedy.

Where should we begin? Not with the pre-colonial past, nor even with the riots of 1956 and 1958 which in a historical perspective have to be seen as no more than sporadic bouts of violence. We should begin with the qualitative change in our ethnic relations which began in 1977, when the obviously state-sponsored pogrom of that year inaugurated a period of systematic violence against the Tamils. It reached its apogee in the state-sponsored holocaust of 1983. Some special features of what followed in the aftermath should be noted. Unlike in 1958 there was no vigorous protest from the Parliamentary Opposition. There was no civil society reaction worth speaking about, and the Sinhalese people cowered in terror under the heel of the omnipotent Jayawardenian state. There was no one within Sri Lankan to whom the Tamils could turn. It was shown that they could be killed with impunity, and even be treated as worse than pariah dogs with total impunity. It has never been our practice to burn pariah dogs alive, but in 1983 Tamils were burnt alive with the forces of law and order looking on.

The Sinhalese side must acknowledge those horrible facts and also the horrible consequences that follow from those facts. Here I must emphasize that what really matters is not what I think or the Tamils think, but what the international community thinks – meaning of course a powerful group of countries. We can be certain that what the international community thinks is that the Tamils, just like any other group deprived of the protection of the law, were right to take to the gun. That was the only way they had of affirming their human status. The international community could be expected furthermore to think that India was justified in providing training and weapons to the insurgent Tamils, even though India disastrously mishandled the problem at a later stage. I must add that I totally approve of the splendidly outspoken Island editorial of October 1915 which clearly recognizes the then government’s responsibility for 1983 and asks for a probe of the holocaust, including the two Welikada jail "riots".

On the Tamil side there should be an acknowledgment of the fact that the prolongation of the war was largely due to LTTE intransigence. I don’t want to regurgitate well-known details to demonstrate that both Presidents Premadasa and Kumaratunge were sincere about wanting a negotiated political solution to the ethnic problem. Considering all that happened in the past, it is arguable that the Tamil side had good reason to doubt that sincerity. But that surely does not apply to the Norway-led peace process which the LTTE was bent on aborting by its ridiculous insistence that the addressing of substantive problems should be postponed until the existential problems of the Tamils were solved. The truth is that the LTTE never wanted a political solution because it believed that a military victory was inevitable. Behind that belief was a racist underestimation of Sinhalese capabilities – a racism that I analysed through a dissection of Heroes day speeches of Prabhakaran and Balasingham some years ago. So the Tamil side must acknowledge that the prolongation of the war was mainly due to LTTE intransigence..

A special importance should certainly be given to the expulsion of around 90,000 Muslims from the North under conditions that were horrifying indeed: only a few hours notice was given and the Muslims had to abandon their goods and property which passed into the possession of the Tamils. It was an act of utter barbarism, the only clear act of genocide during the entire 26-year civil war. For some time I held the view that that expulsion from the North was in retaliation for the Eastern Province Tamils having been driven out of around sixteen villages by Muslim Homeguards getting together with members of the STF. But I see from Rajan Hoole’s The Fallen Palmyra that what happened in the EP was itself in retaliation for earlier provocations by the LTTE. So it appears that the expulsion from the North was a well-planned and cold-blooded act of genocide. There seems to be reason to believe that if it had been possible the Muslims would have been driven out of the Eastern Province as well. I must acknowledge that the Muslims have supported the Sinhalese in every act of racist idiocy against the Tamils, and thereby they have contributed in no small measure to the ethnic tragedy. But that does not justify genocide against them.

Investigations into the antecedents of the ethnic problem going back to 1977 should correct what looks like an invidious targeting of the Sinhalese side by limiting the investigations to the period from 2002 to 2009. In any case the extended investigations are necessary for the purpose of ethnic reconciliation. We can be sure that our historians and others will be carrying out such investigations, but that will take time and therefore it will be best for the Government to appoint commissions for that purpose. In my view it would be counterproductive to try to establish whether this side or that side is more blameworthy for the ethnic tragedy, because that will only deepen our divisiveness. The focus should rather be on the fact that both sides have shown themselves capable of committing acts of utter savagery against their fellow human beings. The reason for that is that in the midst of civilisation we are in savagery. Every civilized society is capable of lapsing into savagery as shown best by Nazi Germany. But the same German people who lapsed into savagery have recently shown that they are capable of rising to glory by their movingly humane response to the plight of refugees.

izethhussain@gmail.com

Sri Lanka: A Four-pillared Strategy of Truth, Justice, Reparations and Non-recurrence

The Immediate need is to help the war victims to rebuild their life----Matale mass grave: JVP wanted American expertise

(Concluding Remarks made by Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera on October 23rd 2015 in the Parliamentary debate on the resolution on Sri Lanka passed by the UN Human rights Council in Geneva)

24/10/2015

The national unity government has committed itself to winning the peace, securing the country from political violence that has haunted it since independence and it has dedicated itself to ensuring that the culture of impunity that has prevailed – whether for corruption, drug dealing or violations of human rights – is put to an end.

Sri Lanka a Four-pillared Strategy of Truth, Justice, Reparations and Non-recurrence by Thavam Ratna

Sri Lankan leaders for closer ties with UN

• T. RAMAKRISHNAN-October 24, 2015

Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said Sri Lanka had now rejoined the world community "after a brief period, which can be termed as an aberration of our history."

The subject of troubled equations that the pervious Rajapaksa regime had with the United Nations came to the fore at an event here on Saturday to mark 70th anniversary of foundation of the UN and completion of 60 years of Sri Lanka’s membership.

President Maithripala Sirisena, who visited the UN premises on Bauddhaloka Mawatha for the first time, recalled how a Minister of the earlier government [Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa in July 2010]

observed a fast in front of the UN office with the encouragement of the powers that be of the time.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, while addressing the gathering that included Speaker K. Jayasuriya and Leader of Opposition R. Sampanthan, felt that ignorance on the part of a section of politicians and officials of the previous regime put the country on the path of collision with the UN and international community.

Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said Sri Lanka had now rejoined the world community “after a brief period, which can be termed as an aberration of our history.” It would maintain engagement and friendship with all nations alike and the UN.

Mr. Wickremesinghe expressed the hope that there would not be any clash with the UN in future while Mr. Sirisena praised the UN for its role in addressing “social, economic, humanitarian and cultural challenges” of the country.

Subinay Nandy, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Sri Lanka, mentioned “persistent income inequality and regional disparities in employment and education” as challenges that had to be addressed by the country. He urged the Sri Lankan government to accelerate the release of private lands, now held by the security forces, to legitimate owners.

Ignorance of fmr govt placed SL on collision path: PM

2015-10-24
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said despite the integral role played by Sri Lanka towards the establishment of the UN in 1945, the ignorant attitudes of certain politicians and other officials of the previous government placed Sri Lanka on a collision path with the international community, which in turn stalled the country’s journey forward. 

The PM made these remarks a short while ago in his address at the event held this morning at the UN Compound in Colombo, to mark twin anniversaries - the 70th UN day and the 60th year since Sri Lanka became a member state of the UN. 

“Sri Lanka was a globally reputed state and made a significant contribution towards the establishment of the UN. Unfortunately, we did not receive due recognition towards those efforts and that itself was a major setback,” he noted. 

PM Wickremesinghe pointed out Sri Lanka’s political leadership since obtaining UN membership in 1955 has been working closely with the organisation and thereby won a special place in the international community. 

He criticized the decisions made by certain politicians and officials of the previous regime that resulted in Sri Lanka embarking on a collision path with the international community. 

“The former regime believed that if they allied themselves with states that did not see eye-to-eye with nations that challenged the state of affairs in Sri Lanka, it would help them overcome the issues that arose on an international level,” he said while adding, “The former regime aspired for Sri Lanka to lead the beggars of the international community and thought that it would help fight off battles with powerful nations, failing to understand that it is not the way in which diplomatic relations play out.  . .

” Meanwhile the PM’s sentiments on the way in which Sri Lanka’s relations with the UN and its agencies deteriorated during the past few years were reflected in the speech made by President Maithripala Sirisena as well. 

He pointed to the way in which a Minister of the former regime challenged the UN by staging a sathyagraha before the UN compound in Colombo and the manner in which such actions were encouraged by the former political leadership when he fed refreshments to the protesting Minister who was on a hunger strike. 

“It was such actions that deteriorated the cordial relations between the UN and Sri Lanka. The new government for the past ten months has been making efforts to control that damage and rekindle and restore the relations to its former state,” he said while adding the GoSL’s actions since the beginning of this year, has been aimed towards making it clear that Sri Lanka is a nation that takes its duties and obligations to the international community seriously. 

He also commended the media and communications outreach campaign that has been launched titled ‘Our UN. අපේ UN. எங்கள் UN’ to mark the celebration of the twin anniversaries and noted that it would create the necessary mindset within the masses to become ‘one Sri Lanka’. 

UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative Subinay Nandy in his address appreciated Sri Lanka’s renewed engagement with the UN and all its partners. He added the trust and cooperation borne out of the new relations was culminated in the recently passed UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka. 

The event this morning was attended by top level UN as well as GoSL officials and Sri Lankans who held high ranking positions in the UN. The distinguished attendees including UN Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs, Miroslav Jenča who is currently in the island on a four-day official visit. He delivered the statement by UNSG Ban Ki-Moon. Among other guests were Minister Mangala Samaraweera, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy, Minister Rauff Hakeem and Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala. (Lakna Paranamanna) 

Ex army chief Jagath Jayasuriya now Ambassador in Brazil robbed: Disgraces his own country..!

(Lanka-e-News -24.Oct.2015, 6.00PM) Jagath Jayasuriya the infamous army commander of Sri Lanka during the Rajapakse era who was made ambassador to Brazil by president Maithripala Sirisena, by trying to have fun and frolic on the sly in Brazil had tarnished the image of Sri Lanka while falling victim to robbery thereby losing  everything of his , based on reports reaching Lanka e news. 

Many diplomatic missions inncluding that of Sri Lanka (SL) are situated in the main city of Brasilia, and Rio De Janiero is about 1200 meters away from the main city.

If this long distance tours are made by diplomats engaged in any tasks in that country  it is done by flight owing to security reasons , and that takes about 1 ½ hours.

Our own notorious army commander Jagath Jayasuriya who is fun and frolic prone  had decided to tour Rio De Janeiro on a private  excursion in respect of  which he has not sought security advice. After hiring a Caravan privately, he had undertaken the tour to Rio De Janeiro which is about 1200 kilometers away and he has taken about  two days while making the tour.

It is to be noted that unlike any other foreign envoy of SL , Jagath is the onlly ambassador who has got down two body guards to Brazil from SL for his security  detail based on his army commander arrogance , and whose salaries are paid in SL rupees.    Jagath had been travelling only with the driver and these two bodyguards in the Caravan while enjoying himself with plenty of food and drinks at his disposal. 

When they had travelled some distance on their unholy ‘pilgrimage’ , they  had opened their liquor bottles in a state of mirth and merriment . To their dismay , suddenly , some robbers armed with firearms had broken into the Caravan with the four individuals. Jagath’s bodyguards instead of grappling with the criminals have fled the scene breaking all Olympic sprinting records . After they were all seized , they had been relieved of all the valuables including gold articles , cash , mobile phones and clothes . The robbers have then fled away in  the same Caravan of Jayasuriya .

Jagath Jayasuriya having lost all , and in utter desperation had walked the distance and given a call to the embassy . Thereafter  a group from the Embassy had arrived and taken Jayasuriya back to Brasilia town.

The media of that country had exposed this episode , and it is Jagath Jayasuriya who was criticised and blamed squarely for this tragedy. Jayasuriya by acting without taking advice from the Brazilian government pertaining to that country’s security situation has driven himself voluntarily into despair  while also disgracing his own  country . Truly , it is the image of the country and the government of SL that have been most damaged and dented owing to Jayasuriya’s jollity and folly.
   
Our news providers in Brazil revealed to Lanka e  news that Jayasuriya owing to his overly arrogance had not consulted the Sri Lankans there who could have given sound advice , let alone the Brazilian  security division. They also added  ,  Jayasuriya must consider himself lucky that the robbers there after robbing did not kill them , when they could have easily done that and cast their dead bodies to the animals in the jungle to devour without leaving a trace . 

Lately , because of  foreign envoys like Mahinda Balasuriya , and Jagath Jayasuriya the notorious bunglers sent by SL to Brazil  as ambassadors  who know next to nothing about international diplomatic dealings , SL’s international image had been destroyed and are in tatters, Sri Lankans there lamented .

According to the disciplinary code of state employees , requesting loans from unsuitable individuals by pledging their monthly salaries itself is an act in  breach of that disciplinary code. By that it is the prestige of the government that is compromised. By the same token , Jagath Jayasuriya via this episode has only disgraced and degraded the government and none else, for Jayasuriya never was known to have had any grace.  He is therefore deserving of punishment .

(Jagath Jayasuriya in this photograph is wearing a tight pant worn by women – believe it or not,  he was SL’s army commander  before changing sex , or has he? )

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by     (2015-10-24 12:47:38)

Exodus October: The Month Of Repeated Expulsion 

By Shahul Hasbullah –October 24, 2015 Prof. Shahul Hasbullah October Exodus In the recent history of Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict, the month of October signifies exodus, having witnessed two major conflict induced displacements in the 1990s. This article is the Part I of a four parts series which compares the two mass expulsions of people in Sri Lanka in the month of October. The first exodus was in October 1990, the second one in October 1995. These two expulsions directly affected more than 500,000 people, increasing the total number of displaced people during the three decades long war and conflict of this country to three millions. Both streams of refugees originated from the Northern Province and both were largely instigated by the same agent. Although the two expulsions have different histories and affected different ethnicities, Muslims and Tamils, the plight of these two groups of refugees exhibit many commonalities in terms of duration and suffering. Let us commemorate the two exoduses of this October 2015 with the hope that they are to be helped to recover from the harsh experience of displacement to have normal life. This year’s commemoration of these exoduses is especially necessary and timely because of the hope for seeking justice to those victims of ethnic conflict raised high with the change of political situation in the country recently. Two Exoduses In 1990, the entire Muslim minority of the Northern Province was forced to leave their homes in the third week of October. Their total number at that time was about 75,000. They lived in nearly a 100 settlements in the five districts of the Northern Province. On October 23, 1990, the LTTE announced through the loud speaker in the streets wherever Muslims lived to leave the north in 48 hours time or otherwise face death. At the same time, on the 30 of October, in the Muslim Settlement of the Jaffna town, people were given only two hours ultimatum to leave their homes. Diagram 1 shows the flow of Muslim refugees from the Northern Province in the last week of October 1990. They sought refuge mainly in the North-Central and the North-Western Provinces of Sri Lanka. In October 1995, about 400,000 people fled Jaffna peninsula to seek in refuge in Vanni. Diagram 2 shows the direction of refugees during this period. They were all Tamils of Jaffna peninsula. According to independent reports, they too were forced to leave their homes by the same agent, LTTE, as the Sri Lankan army were marching towards Jaffna Town during this period. Like the Muslims, the Tamils were also compelled to leave their homes at short notice. Suffering as a result of displacement The suffering of people displaced in such trying circumstances can not easily explainable. The Tamil Times capture the nature of this suffering of the Tamil people in the following words. “Never before have so many people at such short notice been so cruelly uprooted from their homes and compelled to turn themselves overnight into refugees”. This tragedy struck the Muslims five years earlier in the same province and by the same armed group. We should study the exodus of the Tamils in tender with the expulsion of the Muslims. We might arrive at a better understanding of the complexity and multiplicity of the nature of displacement what had happened in recent decades of the country due to war and ethnic conflict. Also it is time to take stock of the status of the displaced and nature of recovery of those who were forced to flee. Unfortunately the country does not have clear understanding of the status and the impacts of the displacement. Displaced                                                                   Read More

Big bribes for customs and ‘Yahapalanaya’

Image courtesy Ada Derana

• by Kusal Perera 
• - on 10/24/2015 

The largest ever bribe in Sri Lanka to date seems that which was offered to three top officials in the Customs Department on 14 October (2015), in a place somewhere in Maradana. The Director General of the Commission to Investigate Allegation of Bribery or Corruption (CIABoC) Ms. Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe told media it took three weeks of planning to nab the officers and two more are under investigations.

This bribe had initially been fixed for Rs. 150 million. Subsequently, from what the DG CIABoC told media, these Custom officers had agreed for Rs. 125 million and then the complainant had informed the Commission on its hotline ‘1954’ about the bribe. She has promised media to investigate further on the matter. But, the question is, will she ? What would the new 3 member Commission do about it? Whatever they would decide upon, let me raise few issues that tell me this has not one but few red herrings in it.

The whole story revolves round the supply of an unbelievably heavy consignment of spare parts to the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB). The main supplier is a foreign company with a local agent representing them. The value of the consignment cannot even be imagined when Customs say on a post-audit the Company would have to pay Rs. 1.5 billion for the release of spare parts. It is on this unbelievably high payment required that the bribe is said to have been negotiated. A place in Maradana itself sounds bit sneaky for such high end deals.

Leaving the issue of this record high bribe aside for now, the first question that crops up is around the procedure adopted for the SLTB to procure such large consignment of spare parts from a foreign supplier? Were tenders called for such a heavy load of high value spare parts and was there a technical board that approved the items as necessary? Or was the deal done without any tender procedure and if so, by whom ?

There is also the purpose of importing such a large consignment of spare parts. Spare parts obviously mean they would be used to maintain the running fleet and perhaps also to improve service with more buses on the road by getting ‘laid off’ buses repaired. Then all of it should have not only a technical report, but a ‘cost-benefit’ evaluation to spend a massive amount as indicated by the Custom’s post-audit.

SLTB is by no means a State corporation that can afford to think of such high value imports given their financial status. A year ago, the SLTB management was found fault by its employees for defaulting on EPF payments to the value of Rs. 4.5 billion over a period of 4 years. Workers’ trade unions in June last year complained to the Commissioner General of Labour and to the Human Rights Commission on this massive default of EPF payment affecting over 34,000 employees. Had Yahapalanaya turned the SLTB round to such financial capability in less than a year it could import spare parts from a foreign supplier that would have to be paid a custom fee of Rs. 1.5 billion by its supplier? Perhaps the 125 million bribe asked for sapped up what the supplier or its local agent had calculated as profit for dividing and sharing and that prompted the call on the hotline.

The CIABoC for now has kept details of the foreign supplier and its local agent confidential. The media too is yet to disclose the total value of the spare part consignment and the duty initially calculated, before the post-audit levy. Yet there are other details that need to be made public given the heavy load of the bribe that involves procurement for a State corporation running on borrowed money. First and foremost is the need to know if this purchase by the SLTB was decided during the previous Rajapaksa rule or after the January 8 Yahapalanaya change. Thereafter it is necessary to know who approved the purchase and how and who chose the foreign supplier.

Leaving the CIABoC to do their job, the Ministry of Transport now under Nimal Siripala de Silva has a responsibility to give all basic information that led to the decision for the purchase to be made. What took place after the decision can await investigations by CIABoC now under its new Commission Members appointed a few days ago.

This Sirisena-Wickramasinghe regime needs to prove they remain true to their pledge of transparent and accountable governance. They have miserably failed in that not only during their 100 day performance but during the past 286 days in charge of the government. Looking back, there is no worthy progress to talk of in any sphere; in economic planning, in social development, in law enforcement and prosecution and even in how the independent commissions are appointed. It’s therefore time forYahapalanaya leaders to prove they are no extension of the Rajapaksa rule.

A difficult job no doubt.

MaRa’s hidden underground palace surpassing Gaddafi’s uncovered - escape route passage too!!

(Lanka-e-News - 24.Oct.2015, 10.45AM) It is a universally acknowledged fact that during the reign of Medamulana brutal corrupt Mahinda Rajapakse the economy of the country was routed irretrievably , and while residing  at Temple Trees, he had been plundering the national wealth of the poor masses  to support his super luxury life style – latest reports reveal that a secret two storeyed super mansion had been built underground at the president’s house at the Fort during his tenure of office as president.

Even the officers of the presidential secretariat are completely at sea regarding the expenditure involved towards the construction of this  palatial mansion , aimed solely and wholely to contribute to the absolute jollity,personal   mirth and merriment  of the Rajapakse family amidst the abysmal  sufferings of the people .The cost of this has still not been  assessed . 

Each wall of this palace is 6 feet thick while the ground level slab depth is over 12 feet. That is even a missile attack cannot destroy it. The floor surface  is built on the lines of a luxury palace. It is a pity that Rajapakses who built all this to live forever and rule forever did not realize that power of the democratic people is more powerful than missile power , despotic power and  brutal power.

The electricity bill alone of  this underground palace apart from that of the offcial president’s palace at the Fort, is about Rs. 3 million per month! because its air conditioning plant has to work nad be maintained  for 24 hours of the day.

This underground palace of Rajapakses has two storeys below and two storeys above ground. It covers a land extent of over 15000.00 square feet .The  interior decoration has been done entirely with expensive Italian household goods .The undergound section  has six super luxury rooms with super luxury attached toilets each . There is a also a conference hall .

Namal, Yoshitha and Rohitha the sons of Mahinda along with their rugby player friends have been using this for lodging purposes . State of the art  Yoga center and gymnasium are also located therein. The storeys reach 40 feet underground , and to travel around , a lift has been installed .

An underground secret passage is built with thick concrete leading to the outside towards the Colombo harbor to enable anybody to escape in an emergency had also been constructed with a door that closes it from behind. However that construction is incomplete.

Deposed Dictators Saddam Hussain of Iraq and Gaddafi of Libya also similarly had underground palaces while keeping the oppressed people brutally trampled  under their boots.Saddam Hussain was sentenced to the electric chair while Gaddafi had to finally hide in a culvert only to be taken out and sentenced by the people.

It is being widely questioned why our own defacto dictator built a secret palace underground ? Is it  because he too feared he had to meet with the same fate  if he had been in power for a little longer period? He must thank  the national government of good governance that saved him by legally ousting him before he met with that impending cruel fate .

Now that this secret palace has come to light , it is being investigated whether a similar hidden mansion exists at Temple Trees too.

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by     (2015-10-24 05:28:46)

​MR a notable absentee in Parliament

2015-10-24
Former President and UPFA Kurunegala District MP Mahinda Rajapaksa who was listed to speak during the adjournment debate on the UNHRC resolution in Parliament was a notable absentee yesterday. 

 Mr. Rajapaksa was allocated fifteen minutes for his speech, according to Parliament sources. 

The news that the former President would not participate in the debate was conveyed by MP Dullas Alahapperuma who said the news was actually conveyed to him by MP Sarath Amunugama. 
Leader of the House Lakshman Kiriella and Deputy Chief Government Whip Ajith P Perera later insisted that the former President should speak during the debate as he was responsible for the engagement of UNHRC on Sri Lanka. 

Rajapaksa London account has 3.88 billion pound sterling!

 24 October 2015

Information has come to light about an account belonging to a Rajapaksa family member at a London bank, which has 3.88 billion pound sterling in it, a senior minister has told ‘Sathhanda.’

He said further details cannot be revealed yet.

There is also conflicting reports about Rajapaksas’ having bank accounts in Dubai, which are presently under investigation.

Information has already been received how the money had come to be deposited at these accounts, and later transferred to other banks, as well as about the persons involved.

There will be a delay in the forfeiture of the money due to slip-ups in the investigations.

Owners of these accounts are two Rajapaksa sons, an MP very close to the former president, a president’s staff member and two businessmen.

Since no legal action has been taken yet over the financial crime charges against the Rajapaksas, obtaining assistance from foreign countries has become difficult, said the minister, adding that investigations should be expedited and legal action taken.

A CSN office operated within the President Secretariat

Oct 24, 2015

It is disclosed that the President Secretariat situated at the old parliament building in Colombo had a Carlton Sports Network (CSN) office located within a room.

During Mahinda Rajapaksa was the president and while there was a president media unit was in existence another media unit by the name of “president international media” unit was continued in a separate room within the president secretariat. This international media unit was operated for the CSN work and was used by Namal Rajapaksa and few of his female associates.

Although the Rajapaksa’s planned to take everything in the president secretariat following the defeat of the president election, they have forgotten to vacate this room. More than 500 DVD tapes and many important documents belong to the CSN are found within this room.

The President Secretariat has started looking what contains in those cassettes and documents. Meantime the president secretariat issearching what is this “president international media unit” and what was its scope. Following are the photographs of the room.

However President Secretariat is not a personal property of the Rajapaksa’s to partake. It is a public office maintained by people’s tax money. Using this office for Rajapaksa’s business is grave offence.

During the Financial Crime Investigation Department (FCID) it was revealed that the CSN was started by investing state resources and black monies earned by the Rajapaksa’s

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