Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Major Irish firm CRH divests from Israel’s cement industry

One of Ireland’s largest companies has divested from Israel after coming under sustained pressure from Palestine solidarity activists.

In a statement, the Dublin-based building materials firm CRH confirmed that it has disposed of its Israeli assets.

For more than a decade, the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign has been urging CRH to cease its Israeli activities. Martin O’Quigley, the IPSC’s chairperson, described CRH’s announcement as an “important victory for Palestinians” living under Israeli occupation.

O’Quigley criticized CRH for taking so long to end its “shameful investment” but added that the decision was “better late than never.”

Toxic

CRH is the second largest company in Ireland, according to a 2015 survey by The Irish Times.

It held 25 percent of the shares in Mashav, owner of Israel’s top cement manufacturer Nesher.

In 2004, CRH admitted that in “all probability” Nesher cement was used during the construction of Israel’s wall in the West Bank. The construction of that wall on occupied Palestinian land was declared illegal that year by the International Court of Justice.

Nesher cement has also been used in constructing Israeli settlements in the West Bank and in the light railnetwork serving Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem

CRH is the latest major corporation to divest from Israel. The French firms Veolia and Orange have both taken similar decisions in the recent past.

Firms seeking to profit from Israel’s apartheid system have received a great deal of negative publicity because of the growing Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

The brand image of Israel has become “increasingly toxic,” said O’Quigley. “It appears that international companies are eventually learning that it doesn’t pay to do business with the apartheid state.”

Former Qatari PM tries to quash Brit's 'torture' claim

HBJ with David Cameron in 2011 (Reuters)

TUESDAY 12 JANUARY 2016

A court is set to decide if one of the world's richest men can claim diplomatic immunity as he faces accusations of falsely imprisoning a British national for more than a year.

Former Qatari PM Tries to Quash Brit's 'Torture' Claim by Thavam Ratna

India's industrial output suffers sharpest fall since Oct 2011

A worker looks on as he operates a machine making gear parts for cranes, inside a workshop in an industrial area in Mumbai, January 12, 2016.

Workers pour molten iron from a ladle to make spare parts used in textile looms inside an iron casting factory in Ahmedabad, December 11, 2015.

BY MANOJ KUMAR-Tue Jan 12, 2016

India's annual industrial output contracted in November, its worst performance in more than four years, while retail inflation picked up, complicating the central bank's task of steering monetary policy at a time of international deflation.

Industrial output contracted 3.2 percent in November from a year earlier, compared with upwardly revised growth of 9.9 percent the previous month, Ministry of Statistics data showed on Tuesday.

A Reuters survey of economists had predicted that industrial output would grow by 2.3 percent in November.

Analysts said the contraction would not have much impact on monetary policy because the central bank is focusing on retail inflation.

"IIP (Indian industrial output) continues to be an extremely volatile indicator," said Shivom Chakravarti, senior economist at HDFC Bank.

"The next big step is the budget and what kind of fiscal consolidation the government announces. That is the bigger driver for monetary policy going ahead."

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present his 2016/17 budget at the end of February. Officials say he could raise the service tax to nearly 16 percent from 14.5 percent, further pushing up prices.

The government has revised its economic growth target downwards to 7 to 7.5 percent for the fiscal year that ends on March 31, from an earlier estimate of 8.1 to 8.5 percent, due to weak farm output and declining exports.

A second year of drought in many parts of the country has hit production of rice, sugar, cotton and other crops, forcing the government to resort to imports to tame prices.

The consumer price index, which the Reserve Bank of India tracks in setting lending rates, edged up to 5.61 percent from a year earlier, in line with the expectations of economists, the data showed.

Retail prices were up 5.41 percent in November.

Analysts said a irregular rainfalls and plan to hike salaries of federal government employees by nearly 24 percent both pose risks to the Reserve Bank of India's target of capping retail inflation at 5 percent by March 2017.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar; Editing by Katharine Houreld)

Rebellion, Revolution, and Catch 22

by John R. Hall

The enemy is anybody who’s going to get you killed…don’t you forget that, because the longer you remember it, the longer you might live.
— John Yossarian from Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

( January 11, 2016, Boston, Sri Lanka Guardian) For those of us here in the belly of the beast who were weaned, raised, and educated on her toxic mix of capitalism and propaganda, the word “revolution” automatically conjures up images of The American Revolutionary War. But as Dmitry Orlov points out; “The American Revolution wasn’t a revolution at all because the slave-owning, genocidal sponsors of international piracy remained in power under the new administration.” In the end, after all the bodies had been buried, King George was out, President George was in, and it was business as usual among the wealthy upper crust, their underlings, and the slaves. An actual revolution requires a change in ideology. The main change here was in the profit margins. No more pesky taxes to pay to the British Crown. This was no revolution. More like just a bloody rebellion against upper management.

Two hundred and forty years later, the beast has grown to previously unimagined proportions. She has a voracious appetite which can never be satisfied. Built upon the backs of kidnapped Africans, her ever-evolving form of capitalism has made slave-owners wealthy and powerful beyond their wildest dreams. But to survive, the beast must grow. And in order to grow, she has been forced to explore and move far beyond her borders. The slave-owners who control and handle her, maintain a keen eye on the far horizon. Today the world, tomorrow the universe. Like the beast herself, the slave-owners have grown ever fatter, and have become completely oblivious to the concept of ever having enough. No matter what the cost and to whom. There’s a name for this, and it’s either psychopathy or sociopathy. I’ve always had trouble understanding the difference. The beast has a name too. She is called Fascism.

Today’s multi-national slave-owners know no borders. Fascism (the merger of state and corporate power, by Mussolini’s own definition) has swiftly and stealthily become the world-wide status quo. So-called democracy now boils down to a choice between a swift kick in the ass or a sharp stick in the eye. Countries refusing to comply with the rules of the game are poked, prodded, hounded, bribed, raped, murdered, and bombed until they cry “uncle” and start towing the line. The underlings (middle class) and impoverished (slaves) are merging into one vast human commodity. On the new level playing field of Fascism, there are just two classes — slave-owners and slave laborers. Ethnicity, nationality, and religion perform no function other than to distract the minions of slaves, playing them against each other, lest they notice their owners behind the curtain, pulling the levers and controlling media misinformation while playing patriotic songs, maintaining a constant state of warfare, carrying on a seemingly odd combination of drug distribution and a war against drugs, polluting food, water, and air, and poisoning children’s minds while picking slave pockets clean of the last few remnants of wealth. Zbigniew Brezinski, one of the top poster boys for the beast called Fascism, described the situation concisely and accurately: “People, governments, and economies of all nations must serve the needs of multinational banks and corporations.” Emphasis on “must”, and not included, but implied; “or else”.

Unless you happen to be a psychopathic, slave-owning Fascist, you’re probably more than just a little concerned about your future, and that of your progeny. Unless you’re a card-carrying member of The Bilderberg Group, The Trilateral Commission, or Council on Foreign Relations, and believe strongly in the concept of a One World Government, entirely owned and operated by multinational banks and corporations, you would probably rather seek other solutions to the problems faced by mankind. Unless you are an obscenely wealthy member of America’s Wehrwirtschaftsfuhrer class, raking in hundreds of millions in annual blood-bucks, you’re likely getting tired of wars waged to enrich the few, at the expense of the many. Unless you still believe with all your heart and soul in the two party American political system, and still cling to the belief that peace on earth and goodwill toward all people can be achieved within that hopelessly broken scam, then you’d like nothing better than to do whatever it takes to change it. Unless you’re an elected government official who’s made a fortune being bought and paid for by multinational corporate lobbyists, you dream of change. Not the kind of change once promised by Barack Obama and not the change at the bottom of my pants pocket.

In Catch 22 John Yossarian found himself in a paradoxical double bind. As a U.S. Army B-25 bombardier stationed in Europe during World War II, he had come to consider his commanding officers the true enemies. Each mission flown looked like it might be the last, as his fellow pilots were being shot from the sky, their numbers dwindling daily. Yossarian had no aspirations to become a dead hero, but the only apparent way to avoid duty was to be declared crazy and be grounded. There was only one catch, and that was Catch 22. It stated that any pilot making application to be declared mentally unfit for duty was showing a perfectly rational concern for his own safety, and was therefore sane and fit for duty.

As a slave who serves the whims and desires of multinational banks and corporations, I find myself in a classic case of Catch 22. Much like Yossarian, I can see no logical way out of this double bind. The slave-owners need to be stopped, and their beast called Fascism must be killed. Blinded by power and greed, those who make all the rules are leading us down a path which can only end in death and destruction. Nuclear holocaust is on the near horizon as our owners line up, flexing their military muscles against the relative sanity of the BRICS nations. It appears that only a revolution can stop the carnage, but revolution means violence. The slave-owners are the most powerful and heavily-armed group in history, and will protect their power and wealth with everything they have. I tend to hang out with a non-violent group. The Lennon, Gandhi, King, Jesus crowd. Never owned a gun, and never hope to.

Catch 22. The U.S.A. needs a revolution, and not just another turnover of upper management. An actual revolution with a complete change in ideology. But revolutions require violence, bloodshed, and death. Lots of death. Not really my forte. Catch 22. Death and destruction by standing by, doing nothing…or death and destruction by bloody revolution.

Upon thoughtful consideration, I believe that Yossarian had the right idea when he said; “The enemy is anyone who’s going to get you killed…” At the conclusion of Catch 22, Yossarian pledged to follow the example of a fellow pilot who managed to survive the carnage, and escaped to Sweden. And so we leave a hopeful John Yossarian, who’s apparently slipped the bondage of double bind. I believe I’ll do the same. When it comes to a choice between death or death, I choose life. My enemies are the slave-owners, the beast called Fascism, and all those who believe that a violent society can be brought to its knees by thoughtful application of yet more violence. Violence begets violence, and when the dust of nuclear winter finally settles, the tattered remnants of civilization might need a few voices of reason. I plan on being one of them.

John R. Hall is a street-trained agnotologist with an advanced degree in American Ignorance. Other hats include: photojournalist, novelist, restaurateur, mountaineer, grocer, nurseryman, and janitor. He’s written three novels which have been read by almost nobody: ‘Embracing Darwin’, ‘Last Dance in Lubberland’, and ‘Atlas fumbled’. An untrained writer and college drop-out, he began his short career in journalism writing the ‘Excursion’ column for The Jackson Hole News & Guide. More recently he penned the ‘Left Column’ for The Molokai Island Times; appropriately on the island once known as a leper colony. He can be reached via email at: halls245@msn.com.

Jan 12, 2016 10:28:29 AM

Polish press invokes Nazi imagery as war of words with EU heats up

A popular Polish weekly news magazine has depicted EU leaders including Angela Merkel wearing Nazi uniforms

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is flanked by Guy Verhofstadt, Martin Schulz, Jean-Claude Juncker and Günther Oettinger

Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel is flanked by Guy Verhofstadt, Martin Schulz, Jean-Claude Juncker and Günther Oettinger on the cover. Photograph: Maciej Chmiel/EPA

Jon Henley-Tuesday 12 January 2016

Relations between Brussels and Poland’s hardline Eurosceptic government have deteriorated further after a Polish magazine published a cover portraying five leading EU politicians – including the German chancellor, Angela Merkel – in Nazi uniforms beneath the headline These people want to control Poland again.

The photoshopped image on the front of popular weekly Wprost showed Merkel, the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, European parliament president Martin Schulz, EU commissioner Günther Oettinger, and Guy Verhofstadt, the former Belgian prime minister, leaning over a map, echoing wartime photographs of Adolf Hitler and his generals.

In a post on his Facebook page, Verhofstadt, who heads the liberal Alde group in the European parliament, described the image as “outrageous”, adding that the EU was a “community of values” and that it was “the duty of all of us – commissioners, chancellors or not, to raise our voice when a government is endangering these principles and attacking democratic institutions”.

Schulz and Oettinger, both German, have been sharply critical of the conservative, staunchly Catholic Law and Justice (PiS) party, which swept to power in October and has since sought to strengthen government control over the constitutional court, civil service and Polish public radio and television.

The commission has already written to the Polish government asking how its new media law will work with EU rules on media freedom. Schulz described the government’s actions as a “dangerous Putinisation of European politics”, while Oettinger suggestedPoland should be put under rule of law supervision, legislation designed to deal with “systemic threats” to EU values.

Responding to the criticism, Poland’s government summoned Germany’s ambassador for talks and warned Brussels not to interfere in its affairs on the basis of “biased and politically engaged” reports.

The defence minister Antoni Macierewicz went further, saying Poland would not be lectured by Germany “on democracy and freedom”, while his colleague, justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, wrote an open letter to Oettinger alluding to the Nazi occupation of Poland.

“Such words, said by a German politician, cause the worst of connotations among Poles,” Ziobro wrote. “Also in me. I’m a grandson of a Polish officer, who during World War II fought in the underground National Army with ‘German supervision’.”

Reimagining the Refugee Camp

The world’s refugee camps are a mess, and they’ve long outlived their intended lifespans. It’s time for a change.

BY JESSICA ANDERSON-JANUARY 11, 2016

At first sight, the Dadaab refugee camp is nothing more than line after line of mud structures and U.N. tents under a relentless sun. Formed in 1991 to house refugees fleeing Somalia’s civil war, it is now a city of nearly half a million people near Kenya’s eastern border. But unlike most cities, Dadaab has been operated by international organizations for almost twenty-five years — and it shows.

“We basically run Dadaab municipality,” a senior U.N. officer told me with a grin. “I’m playing the role of town clerk, my boss is the mayor, and the taxpayers are the international community.” The international aid workers’ pride in the camp’s orderliness is striking. But what appeals about Dadaab to U.N. bureaucrats doesn’t necessarily make meaningful life possible for the people who live there.

By necessity, refugee camps like Dadaab offer a window into the experiences of a large fraction of the world’s 60 million displaced people. Despite recent efforts by western states to accept moreasylum seekers, they can only do so much. Even with the best intentions, only a small fraction of the world’s refugees can be absorbed by distant lands, so refugee crises primarily affectneighboring states. Recent reforms in the U.N.’s refugee policy has centered on finding alternatives to camps, like “refugee self-settlement”: having refugees integrate directly into the host country with no official assistance. But in the U.N., change is implemented slowly, and host states are typically unwilling to allow an influx of refugees to integrate into their societies. So, for the foreseeable future, many refugees will continue to live in camps run by the international community.With the migrant crisis in the spotlight, it is now time to reimagine the refugee camp.

The problems are legion. Few of Dadaab’s residents — who barely play a role in the governance of a community older than many of them — enjoy the opportunity of dignified work. Many face xenophobia and the threat of violence from local Kenyans. Bereft of hope that tomorrow might be better than today, some residents some turn to extremist views orfall prey to military recruiters. The system isn’t working.

In short, refugee camps need reform.Above all else, reform requires the recognition that these sites are here to stay. Though initially built for “temporary” humanitarian emergencies, they often persist for years, if not decades. The Sahrawi refugee camps in western Algeria turned 40 last year. The Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank are over sixty years old. Since these camps offer residents few economic opportunities and no voice in how they’re governed, the issue becomes more than a regrettable temporary inconvenience — it’s a slow-motion human rights disaster.

One fundamental problem is governance. Like all refugee camps operated under the auspices of theU.N. Refugee Agency, Dadaab is designed and governed by the international community. The life of the average refugee is highly regulated, with mandatory participation in dozens of trainings and programs at the block level (groups of 5-6 households). These activities are organized within committees that address issues from water, sanitation and hygiene to gender-based violence to peace-making.

These activities fit within the U.N. system’s so-called “thematic clusters”: health, protection, education, and others. The bureaucratization of the aid sector has made it easier (and cheaper) to finance cookie-cutter programs in camps around the world, rather than designing specific projects for specific needs. But such a rigid, top-down system does not reflect the refugees’ actual priorities, and was never meant for long-term living.

Meanwhile, avenues for refugees to provide feedback on their camp’s operation are limited. Annual elections are held in Dadaab, but refugee leadership has little to no decision-making authority. Buy-in from refugees often means that they have nodded along at the appropriate time in yet another meeting. As a result, refugees’ daily lives are organized according to aid bureaucrats’ plans for dozens of camps and countries rather than being based on the particular ideas and opinions of Dadaab’s residents.

Relaxing camp governance can in Dadaab can solve these problems. The number of mandatory committees and meetings could be reduced dramatically. Refugees could take over every-day camp affairs like service delivery and program management from the international NGOs, and be paid for doing so. Historically, refugees only gained greater control of Dadaab management when it becametoo risky for the international aid workers to show up. In 2011, Al-Shabab militants kidnapped several aid workers, leading many agencies to pull out of the camp or drastically reduce their presence. And the camp worked just fine.

Refugees could also be encouraged to form autonomous local institutions, forming a genuine civil society to govern life in the camp instead of enduring edicts from the international bureaucracy. The camp can incorporate ways of organizing that are more familiar to camp residents, such as conflict resolution through local practices. With more bottom-up governance, Dadaab can be reconceived as a place where people can exercise their social and political rights. And this, in turn, can curb the radicalization that is so often feared in refugee camps.

In Dadaab, refugees are condemned to a life of dependency and surrounded by host communities that are extremely poor themselves. A few refugees can earn a meager salary (less than $2/day) as “incentive workers” who help implement aid programs. To survive, many depend on remittances from family members outside the camps — but those who have no helpful connections are out of luck. Many citizens in the host state — in this case, Kenya — resent the resources refugees receive. Similarly impoverished, theyroutinely harass refugees and aid workers alike.

An alternative solution to both of these problems — poverty and conflict — is to allow refugees to become a part of the local economy by arranging for them find employment alongside locals. One option for refugees to access jobs and training is the development of “industrial incubator zones.” In these zones, exceptional and favorable trade laws would attract foreign investment. Businesses would be incentivized to hire both refugees and members of the host community. These incubator zones could even assist in the development of states like Kenya and Jordan while addressingconflict with the host population head-on. And, most importantly, they would allow refugees the basic dignity of work and a chance at financial autonomy.

Current refugee camp policy is a relic of post-WWII practices: create a grid-like container for refugees who will be repatriated as quickly as possible. These camps were never intended to address the needs of a girl who has come of age in a refugee camp and is still there in her 40s, with grown children of her own who have known no life but the camp.

Today’s refugee camp is rarely a short-term stopover.The modern refugee is likely the long-term resident of a camp that has become its own urban world. And if such permanent refugee cities are the future, we need to ask what they will look like. Hopefully more like cities than camps — and more like everyday life than like a prison sentence.

In the photo, a refugee stands with her son just outside a fenced perimeter in the sprawling Dadaab refugee camp on May 8, 2015.

Photo credit: AFP PHOTO / TONY KARUMBA

Aung San Suu Kyi, whose pro-democracy party will take over power in Myanmar in coming months, has for the first time participated in official talks to bring peace with the country's fractious ethnic minorities

Leader of National League for Democracy party (NLD) Aung San Suu Kyi, left, arrives to deliver a speech in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016. Aung San Suu Kyi, whose pro-democracy party will take over power in Myanmar from a pro-military government in the next few months, has for the first time participated in official talks to bring peace with the country's fractious ethnic minorities.(AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)

Associated Press-Jan. 12, 2016

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (AP) — Aung San Suu Kyi, whose pro-democracy party will take over power in Myanmar from a pro-military government in coming months, on Tuesday participated for the first time in official talks to bring peace with the country's fractious ethnic minorities.

Suu Kyi (pronounced "Suu-chee") spoke at the opening of a peace conference in the capital, Naypyitaw, that seeks to drive forward a cease-fire agreement signed last year between the government and ethnic guerrilla armies. Several major groups failed to sign the pact, and were also absent from Tuesday's event.

Myanmar has been wracked by war for decades as ethnic minorities fight for greater autonomy from the central government.

Suu Kyi, who led her National League for Democracy to victory in November's historic election, said in her speech Tuesday that having all of the rebel groups take part would make the cease-fire talks more effective.

President Thein Sein hoped the ceasefire deal, inked in October, would be the keynote achievement of his term of office, which will almost certainly end within the next few weeks. But the failure to be inclusive has thrown its effectiveness into grave doubt.

The meeting that started on Tuesday is looking at political aspects of the agreement, such as giving more administrative powers to the regions.

The head of the army, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, told the meeting the door remained open to the other groups though it isn't immediately clear how or why they will join if the agreement remains as it is.

Suu Kyi had previously urged armed ethnic groups not to sign on to the current agreement. In her speech she said she believed the fighting could be stopped but she referred to the need to bring all the armies into the process.

"It will be always more effective to have the inclusiveness of all ethnic groups than having a few," she said. "We all can reach the ethnic people's dream faster by cooperating with all ethnic groups."

Among the groups staying outside the agreement are the United Wa State Army, whose numbers are put at around 20,000 and who control territory along the Chinese border, the Kachin Independence Army who are currently embroiled in fighting with government forces in jade-rich, mountainous northern Myanmar, and the smaller Ta'ang Liberation Army.

First children diagnosed in DNA project

Georgia Walburn-Green with mum Amanda and dad Matt

By James Gallagher-12 January 2016

The first children with debilitating "mystery" diseases have finally been given a diagnosis as part of a huge scheme to analyse people's DNA.

Four-year-old Georgia Walburn-Green's damaged eyes and kidneys and her inability to talk had baffled doctors.

She is one of the first to have her precise genetic abnormality identified through the100,000 Genomes Project.

Her parents said the day Georgia was finally diagnosed was one of the biggest of their lives.

If a child is born with Down's syndrome or a heart defect, then families know what to expect.

'Unknown journey'

Yet Georgia's mum and dad - Amanda and Matt - had only 20 minutes of "worry-free cuddling" when Georgia was born before their "world went from totally happy to totally devastated".

Doctors initially thought Georgia had water on the brain because of the size of her head.

She was given a tentative all-clear, but doctors knew something was wrong - they just could not identify what.

It was the start of more than four years of uncertainty for the family.

Amanda said: "That was very hard, I assumed if she was poorly, you go to hospital and it might be awful, but you'd know what's wrong and you deal with it.

"We didn't know if she would walk or talk or have a normal life expectancy.

"It's been a rollercoaster of what's going to turn up next, you're just on this unknown journey slowly finding problems."

Georgia's parents say she is a happy, social, animal-loving four-year-old with a knack for "wrapping people round her little finger".

But she has not grown as quickly as other children, has lumps inside her eyes which affect her sight and kidneys that do not work properly.

"And we don't know if she'll ever speak, she understands us and desperately tries but can't make the sounds she wants to," her mum added.

Doctors suspected Georgia's symptoms were down to errors in her DNA, which may have been inherited from her parents.

And that meant Amanda and Matt were not prepared to risk having another child.

The 100,000 Genomes Project is focused on understanding the genetics of cancer and rare diseases such as the one affecting Georgia.

Spot the difference

Scientists at Great Ormond Street Hospital performed a giant game of spot the difference between the entire three billion base pairs which make up each of Georgia, Amanda and Matt's DNA to find what went wrong.

Just before Christmas, doctors told them the genetic abnormality - in a gene called KDM5b - had been identified.

"That was one of the biggest days of my life, we've been searching for this for four years," Amanda said.

While the knowledge will not change the way Georgia is treated today, it offers hope that there will be a therapy in the future.

And in good news for the Walburn-Green family, Georgia's mutation arose spontaneously rather than coming from her parents - meaning they will try to add to their family.

New treatments

However, some children such as Jessica are already benefitting from the 100,000 Genomes Project.

Again, despite repeated tests, her condition which included epileptic seizures remained undiagnosed.

But analysing her and her parents' DNA discovered an error causing GLUT1 Deficiency Syndrome.

She is unable to transport sugar into her brain's cells, which is leaving it starved of energy. But a high fat - or ketogenic - diet should give the brain an alternative energy source meaning less epilepsy medication is needed.

The Genomes Project is already helping Jessica

Prof Lyn Chitty, who is leading the project at Great Ormond Street, said: "It's really exciting to see the results coming through and the difference this can make for families.

"It increases confidence in the project and shows that the application of genomics can live up to the promise of changing the way we diagnose and treat patients in the future."

The first adults were diagnosed through the 100,000 Genomes Project in Newcastle last February.

Follow James on Twitter.

Monday, January 11, 2016

If army is impeding the Ekneliyagoda murder probe file action against the army commander under Penal code - magistrate

(Lanka-e-News -11.Jan.2016, 8.10PM)

‘File action against the Army commander under section 185 of the penal code if what are relevant are not provided, and if it is in a manner that impedes the investigation conducted by the army crime investigation department ,’ said , Ranga Dissanayake the new Homagama magistrate when the preliminary trial was taken up pertaining to Prageeth Ekneliyagoda abduction and murder case .

The Magistrate made this historic declaration today when a lawyer of the army’s legal division submitted a report to court on behalf of the army officers – the suspects in this case.

The magistrate went on to categorically assert that in this case , the army cannot appear on behalf of the suspects, while adding , what the army should do is not submitting a report to the court , rather co operate and provide all the requirements the CID is requesting while conducting its investigations. If any obstructions are caused in that direction , the magistrate directed to file action against army commander under section 185 of the Penal code. Section 185 stipulates , a government officer shall not disobey the requirements of the provision.

The report submitted on behalf of the suspects was not accepted by the court today.

When the attention of the magistrate was drawn to the army suspects being admitted to hospital without being held in prison custody , the magistrate directed the prison authorities to furnish a report in that connection.

Magistrate remarked , in SL a most strange situation prevails . When so called ‘ heroes’ are remanded , they suddenly become patients .

The magistrate remanding the suspects further postponed the case until the 25 th of this month.

Lawyers Dileep Peiris and Upul Kumaraperuma appeared on behalf of the aggrieved party.

P.S.
In the case of Ekneliyagoda ghastly murder , by the army’s legal division appearing on behalf of the army suspects(murderers) , it has entered the ignominious record of Guinness book . Besides , by the president Maithripala Sirisena as commander in chief of the forces cum defense secretary permitting this to happen discarding the legal norms and traditions of the country he has incurred the bitter displeasure and detestation of the masses.
It is significant to note Maithripala Sirisena who came to power on the solemn promise that punishment will be meted out to the culprits who committed murders during the Rajapakse era , now taking this attitude to aid and abet the criminals is most despicable and deplorable when the president of the country himself is encouraging illegalities , since the magistrate has today confirmed that the army is acting unlawfully.

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by (2016-01-11 23:17:54)