Nepal's crisis drags on as ethnic minorities reject charter amendment

Protesters stand near a burning tyre as they gather to block the highway connecting Nepal to India during a general strike called by Madhesi protesters demonstrating against the new constitution in Birgunj, Nepal November 5, 2015. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

People walk near a burning tyre on the highway connecting Nepal to India during a general strike called by the Madhesi protesters demonstrating against the new constitution in Birgunj, Nepal November 4, 2015. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

BY GOPAL SHARMA- Sun Jan 24, 2016

Nepal's ethnic minorities have rejected a constitutional amendment, dashing hopes of an end to a political crisis that has led to fuel shortages and hampered deliveries of relief materials to survivors of last year's earthquakes.

More than 50 people have died since the ethnic Madhesis, backed by some other smaller ethnic groups, launched protests in the landlocked, Himalayan country's southern plains against the amendment to the constitution.

Protests at the border have prevented trucks from entering from neighbouring India since September, causing fuel shortages and rationing in Nepal. Deliveries of relief supplies to communities hit by earthquakes in April and May last year have also been disrupted.

The Nepalese people had hoped the charter, the country's first since the abolition of the monarchy in 2008, would bring peace and stability closer after years of conflict.

However, the Madhesis, who have close familial, linguistic and cultural ties with Indians across the border, say Nepalese authorities have failed to meet their aspirations for greater participation in government.

The 597-member parliament voted 461-7 late on Saturday in favour of a provision of "proportionate inclusion" of minority groups in all government institutions including the army, and to carve out electoral constituencies on the basis of their population to increase their representation in parliament.

The rest of the lawmakers either did not vote or walked out.

“The government believes that the amendment will address the problems in the Tarai and hopes that the protests will end,” Law Minister Agni Prasad Kharel told parliament before the vote, referring to the lowlands bordering India in the south.

Madhesi lawmakers protested and walked out of parliament, saying the changes had loopholes and were incomplete.

“It is a complete farce. It does not address our demands,” said Hridayesh Tripathi, a leader of Tarai Madhes Loktantrik Party, part of the Madhesi Front that is leading the protests.

Nepal's giant and influential neighbour India said the changes were positive. "We hope that other outstanding issues are similarly addressed in a constructive spirit," the Indian External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

The Nepali government says a political panel will be tasked to redraw the internal boundaries of federal provinces within three months, another key demand of the Madhesis.

It says other demands such as citizenship cards for foreign spouses of Nepali nationals will also be resolved through political consensus.

But the Madhesis are opposed to splitting their region into more than two provinces, as the government plan envisages, saying this would scupper their chances of controlling the provincial governments.

Many in Nepal blame India for quietly supporting the Madhesi protesters, a charge New Delhi denies.

(Additional reporting by Douglas Busvine in New Delhi; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Simon Cameron-Moore/Mark Heinrich)

South African district offers student grants to girls who remain virgins

Women’s groups attack plan to offer bursaries to girls who remain celibate throughout university – and will face regular virginity tests

Students from poorer families in South Africa have to rely on state grants to go on to further education. Photograph: Louise Gubb

Agence France-Presse in Johannesburg-Friday 22 January 2016

A South African region has launched a grant scheme for girls who remain virgins throughout their university studies, triggering outrage among human rights groups.

The bursary offered in Uthukela, in the south-east of the country near Durban, is the brainchild of the municipality’s female mayor, Dudu Mazibujo.

News of the scheme sparked outrage from civil society groups, with one women’s association branding it unconstitutional.

“The bursaries are for young girls who are still virgins,” said a municipality spokesman, Jabulani Mkhonza.

“It’s a new category which the mayor has introduced this year,” he said, adding that the goal was to encourage “young girls to keep themselves pure and inactive from sexual activity and focus on their studies”. Beneficiaries of the grant would be subjected to regular virginity tests, he added.

“Those children who have been awarded bursaries will be checked whenever they come back for holidays. The bursary will be taken away if they lose their virginity,” said Mkhonza.

The People Opposing Women Abuse (Powa) group said it was shocked that taxpayers’ money was being used to violate girls’ rights.

“Powa is shocked to hear that young girls are being tested for virginity in order to get bursaries ... it’s a violation of their rights,” the group’s executive director, Nonhlanhla Mokwena, said.

Many South Africans from poor backgrounds rely on government grants to get through university. Planned increases in university feeslast year provoked occasionally violent protests nationwide.

Everyday She Said Hello To A Homeless Man, Then One Day He Handed Her A Note 

by admin · December 11, 2015

This homeless man is Ramundo Arruda Sobrinho and he is 77 years old. For the last 35 years he spent his days doing what he knew best, and that is writing poetry and short stories.

The video underneath is a widely praised and it is called “The Conditioned” and it recounts the story of Ramundo’s life and how it changed in the wake of giving Shalla a note with some poetry. Shalla read it and was amazed by Ramundo’s poetry and she began a Facebook page to spread his work. People started visiting him on his so called “The Island” and talked with him and shared thoughts. What happened next is truly a miracle. 

Don’t Forget To Share With Your Friends And Family On Facebook, As You Might Help Someone In Need!

Can you really die from taking the contraceptive pill?

Is it safe to take the contraceptive pill? CREDIT: ALAMY--Sophie Murray CREDIT: CASCADE

Are doctors asking the right questions? CREDIT: ALAMY

Fallan Kurek collapsed at home. The 21-year-old woman turned blue as she struggled to breathe and died in hospital, three days later. 

The cause of death was recorded as a pulmonary embolism on her lung. Her parents, Julia and Brian Kurek, claimed that the doctors told them it was caused because of her contraceptive pill.

This week, an inquest returned a narrative verdict - one that names the circumstances of death, without targeting a specific individual. Kurek died from a "massive" pulmonary embolism after the side-effects of the Pill were not effectively treated, South Staffordshire Coroner Andrew Haigh ruled.

Kurek, a teaching assistant in Tamworth, began suffering from breathlessness, and pains in her legs and ribs. It eventually emerged that she had a large blood clot on her lung.

Her mother, Julia, said: “[The paramedics] asked me whether there was any heart problems in the family, or if Fallan had taken drugs - definitely not. The third question was, 'Is she on the Pill?'

"I said, 'Yes, is that relevant?' and he said, 'We know what it is' and off he went.

"Brian and I just looked at each other, we couldn't believe it. We felt angry when they first mentioned it could be the Pill. She was only on it to regulate her periods. I couldn't believe nobody had said the Pill could do this.”

"Of every 10,000 women taking the combined Pill, on average six would develop blood clots as opposed to two in 10,000 women not on the Pill."

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Self exiled journalist regret coming to his country

Jan 23, 2016

The self exiled journalist who was subsequently arrested following his arrival to his country from Australia regrets for his arrival.

“After giving permission to come, if we are arrested upon arrival how can we work” said the four years self exile journalist Punyamoorthi Sasikaran when he had a discussion with Gagana. He said he came to Sri Lanka anticipating to settle permanently.

He said although he was released on bail he has come every month to the Katunayake airport CID.
 
Sasidaran Punyamoorthi who has been worked at SBS channel attached to the Australian government has also worked as an independent journalist in Batticaloa.
 
Before one month of his arrival he has notified his intention to the president certifying his security.
 
“Following the new government coming to power and after your request for all the journalists I was very eager to come to my motherland. I seek the required protection and security from your Excellency” was indicated in the letter sent to the president on the 18th of December.
 
“I came to Sri Lanka to live, work and help my community” said journalist Sasikaran joining for a conversation with Gagana. He said if we are arrested like this how can the people in exile come to the country?

Rhetoric and reality

Editorial-January 23, 2016, 8:35 am 

President Maithripala Sirisena has told BBC (Sinhala Service) that foreign judges and prosecutors should not be involved in a probe into Sri Lanka’s alleged war crimes. There is no need to ‘import’ specialists, he has said, stressing, "I will never agree to international involvement in this matter’. He is of the view that Sri Lanka has enough experts. Interestingly, his ‘bold’ statement virtually coincided with an agreement his government and the EU reached on implementing the UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka FULLY and speedily!

The UNHRC resolution, co-sponsored by Sri Lanka in Oct. 2015, calls for, among other things, a special judicial mechanism to probe the alleged war crimes, with the participation of Commonwealth and foreign judges, prosecutors and investigators.

The EU and the Sri Lankan government said, in a joint statement issued on Thursday: "Both sides recognised the full implementation of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution of October 2015 as a priority." (Emphasis added) Thus, what President Sirisena has told BBC Sinhala Service for the consumption of a local audience is at variance with the thrust of his government’s latest agreement with the so-called international community.

The current SLFP leadership is caught up in a political whirlpool. The political marriage of convenience between the UNP and the SLFP is not going to last indefinitely and another election is on the horizon. At the next local government polls, President Sirisena will have to lead the SLFP and/or UPFA campaign against the UNP and that will be the moment of truth for him. That is a contest he cannot afford to lose. His political future hinges on the electoral performance of the SLFP/UPFA, which controlled most of the local government bodies previously. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa will not get involved in the next election campaign of the SLFP/UPFA and the threat of a new political front consisting of SLFP and UPFA dissidents being forged is real. Odds are stacked against the new SLFP leaders who won’t be able to scapegoat anyone this time around. If they fail to steer the SLFP/UPFA to victory, they will face more intra-party resistance and a victorious UNP will cease to be subservient and, perhaps, even turn hostile towards the SLFPers within its ranks.

President Sirisena cannot go on postponing LG polls till the cows come home. He will have to face them sooner or later and depend on the SLFP’s traditional support base. Obviously, he won’t have the backing of his newfound allies who threw in their lot with him at the last presidential election. He has to win over the people who look askance at the government undertaking to hold a war crimes probe, local or otherwise, which they consider part of a witch hunt against those who had the courage to eliminate terrorism. Unfulfiled election pledges are also dogging him.

President Sirisena’s interview with BBC may have warmed the cockles of many a heart in this country, but the fact remains that the government has crossed the Rubicon, having co-sponsored the UNHRC resolution and reaffirmed its commitment, more than once––as it did on Thursday again––to the full implementation of the UNHRC resolution. There seems to be no way President Sirisena or anyone else can shut out foreign judges, prosecutors and investigators.

The UNP will also be counting the cost of the war crimes probe to be launched besides the unfulfilled election pledges. The new front being formed by SLFP/UPFA dissidents will make itself attractive to those who are opposed to the manner in which the government is handling the issue of alleged war crimes. The JVP has blotted its copybook thanks to its rapport with the UNP.

The only way the government may be able to conduct a war crimes probe sans foreign participation therein is to explain to their western allies, especially the US and the UK, their political difficulties and warn of the possibility of their ‘pro-Chinese’ rivals making most of their UNHRC related woes to stage a comeback. Else, it will be a case of GoSL proposing and Uncle Sam disposing.

Journalist Sasikaran: Invited Back to Send Behind Bars ?

(lankanewsweb)
23/01/2016

It is unnecessary to remind again how bad the period of the former Rajapaksa regime had been for journalists. Other than those who had sold their souls for the cutlets, rolls given at the Temple Trees ‘Dansela’ and other gratifications and written according to the wishes of the royal family, journalists who appeared for the truth had to engage in their profession like in a tightrope walk.

At a time when white vans came in search of those who had written against the terror, corruption and repression of the then regime, and Sivaram alias Tharaki was abducted and killed, the daylight murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga, enforced disappearance of Prageeth Ekneligoda and attacks on Sanath Balasuriya, Poddala Jayantha and Keith Noyarh, several others had to flee the country, sometimes illegally, in order to save their lives.

Public aspirations for democracy and against these repressions resulted in the collapse of that powerful Rajapaksa administration. People were disgusted with the glorification and utter falsehoods being carried in the electronic media and in newspapers. One of the key promises given by the new Yahapaalana regime was to establish media freedom. After the January 08, 2015 revolution, president Maithripala Sirisena and prime minister Ranil Wickrermesinghe openly invited the journalists who had fled the country to return.

It is not a simple tragedy that they had to remain in self-exile, away from the land they were born and bred, away from their relatives and friends. If such a person returns in search of the love of his loved ones and to take a breath of air freely in his motherland, but finds himself arrested soon after placing his feet on the ground at the airport, will not that be a double tragedy struck?

Sasikaran’s arrival

Battiocaloa correspondent for Ran FM and supplier of news to several websites and a recipient of media ministry press accreditation, the Tamil journalist P. Sasikaran of Mamagam, Batticaloa had to flee the country illegally for Australia after he had come under intimidation during the Rajapaksa regime and had white vans come in search of him. That was around four years ago. While serving as a journalist for Australian government affiliate SBS media institution, he had decided to return to his home country to be among his relatives and friends due to the open invitation extended by the president and the prime minister of Yahapaalana regime.

Media ID issued by the information dept

Before leaving Australia, he has sent a letter to the president, the prime minister, the media minister, the deputy media minister, the foreign affairs minister, the action committee for media freedom, the free media movement and human rights organizations, in which he has sought protection. After all these, when he arrived in Sri Lanka at 9.00 am on January 20, he had to fall into the custody of immigration officials. He had fallen from the frying pan (of self-exile in a foreign country) into the fire (getting arrested in his own country).

TID treatment

At the immigration unit, he had to fill more than 20 forms, detailing everything about himself. Thereafter, he got arrested, but not even his lawyer was informed as to whether Sasikaran was arrested by the CID or the TID.

The most despicable thing happened thereafter.

Taken to the TID for questioning, he was asked as to who was the journalist attached to the president’s media unit and known to him, and as to why he was working with the Sinhalese. Is there any other despicable thing to ask than as to why he was working with the Sinhalese, from a Tamil journalist who had returned home under a government that rode to power on thousands of promises including the establishment of media freedom and cried from every platform about communal harmony and reconciliation? After 30 years of war and six more years of selling the war, this is how words become action while slogans of ‘one country – one nation’ are carried on newspapers and on walls.

Without producing him before courts, the authorities concerned had said that no vehicle was available to take him to court. Taken by a private vehicle, he was given bail on strict conditions. A Rs. 10,000 cash bail and two sureties of Rs. 100,000 each were issued, but despite being a resident of Batticaloa, he was ordered to find sureties resident in Colombo. Also, his passport was impounded and he was ordered to come from Batticaloa and report to Katunayake police on the first Sunday of every month.

Is this Yahapalanaya?

Had he done anything illegal, that was only to leave the country secretly by certain means. That too, is due to the reasons that had prevailed at the time. Had he gone to a foreign country to lead a luxurious life, he would not return home after informing everyone. He is returning after an open invitation extended by the country’s president and the prime minister. But, he is treated like a terrorist.

As we mentioned before, there are many more journalists who had to flee the country during the Rajapaksa regime. Although invited to return, there is no mechanism in place to accept them back to the country. This incident demonstrates that shortcoming. Since this being an exceptional instance, citizens who have had their documents misplaced or had left through illegal means, should have a certain mechanism to return home freely. Also, responsible authorities should immediately act to prevent the branding of Tamil journalists as terrorists. They should prove their deeds through action.

Until then, we too, have to ask the same question being asked by the opposition. Is this Yahapaalane?

LNW

The Judiciary: Gains & Concerns

By Rajan Hoole –January 23, 2016

Dr. Rajan Hoole

Present Realities and Precarious Options – VI

A senior Tamil administrative officer served in Trincomalee when dozens of Tamil detainees broke jail from Batticaloa in September 1983. The officer was detained under the PTA in December 1983, suspected of aiding the escapees. He languished 45 months on an order from the Defence Ministry without a single charge being framed and released just after the Indo-Lanka Accord. Nor was he ever produced before a magistrate. A habeas corpusapplication was then problematic and a fundamental rights appeal unthinkable.

In the Ananda Sunil habeas corpus case of 1983 (see Sect.19.5) the victim’s wife and witnesses had to retreat under Police intimidation. In the Paul Nallanayagam case of 1985 (see Sect.20.9), the Police foiled the fundamental rights appeal simply by filing a fictitious affidavit. There was no question of the Police being charged or punished for perjury and contempt of court.

Ex-Chief Justice

Torture in police custody remains routine. Yet, the Supreme Court now regularly grants fundamental rights appeals from detainees who have the means to pursue them. Correspondingly, witnesses are less reluctant to testify. However, when the Supreme Court started asserting its independence under the PA, it made the Government unjustifiably paranoid.

The Athulathmudali Commission found that Cooray, a strongman in the Premadasa regime, had played a leading role in the former minister’s murder. The Supreme Court, for the lack of admissible evidence, set aside the findings on Cooray (see Sect.19.6). Cooray walked away from Court a media celebrity. It was a setback for the Government and yet a triumph of the legal process.

President Kumaratunge appointed Sarath N. Silva Chief Justice (CJ) in mid-September 1999. After serving on her SPC examining the Vijaya Kumaratunge murder, he was made Attorney General. He was appointed CJ over Justice Mark Fernando, the senior-most judge. As CJ, he became chairman of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). As then second in the hierarchy, Mark Fernando should normally have been on the JSC. But the President appointed instead the retired judge Ramanathan, who chaired the Vijaya Kumaratunga Commission.

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Sri Lanka’s pluralist ethnic fabric under threat as anti-Muslim drive gains pace

BY SUDHA RAMACHANDRAN on JANUARY 20, 2016 in ASIA TIMES NEWS & FEATURES, SOUTH ASIA

An intimidating slogan ‘Sinha le,’ literally lion’s blood in Sinhala, the language of the majority of Sri Lankans, has triggered fear among the island’s Muslims.

Muslims in Sri Lanka are on edge as the ‘Sinha le’ campaign is gathering momentum

The slogan was first seen spray-painted on the gates of Muslim homes in Nugegoda, a suburb of the capital, Colombo. Since then it has appeared as wall graffiti in other parts of the city as well as on stickers and posters on private and public vehicles. The ‘Sinha le’ campaign is gathering momentum in social media too.

The identity of those behind the ‘Sinha le’ campaign is yet to be established.

Some believe that parliamentarian Udaya Gammanpila and the Sinhale National Movement are behind the hate campaign. Gammanpila, a former member of the ultra-nationalist Jathika Hela Urumaya, switched parties to support former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the 2015 presidential election.

Others suspected of orchestrating the campaign include the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) or Army of Buddhist Power, which was behind the anti-Muslim violence during Rajapaksa rule and is known to have been patronized by former defense secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the president’s brother as well as two Buddhist monks from Kurunegala who are close to the Rajapaksa family.

Sri Lanka’s Sinhala-Buddhist majority see themselves as the ‘lion race.’ According to myth, the Sinhalese are descendants of Prince Vijaya, who was born of a union between a lion and a human princess. They believe they are the original inhabitants of the island and hence its custodians of the land and the Buddhist faith.

Those who are asinhala (un-Sinhala) and abaudha (un-Buddhist) are looked upon as foreigners. Violence against them surged during colonial rule. Christians were targeted for their privileged position in colonial society and their ‘wayward lifestyle.’ As for Muslims, their economic prosperity – they dominated trade and business – made them targets of Sinhalese revivalism in the early 20^th century.

According to Sinhala-Buddhist revivalist Anagarika Dharmapala, Muslims prospered at the expense of the “sons of the soil,” the Sinhalese.

In post-independence Sri Lanka, the Sinhalization of the state resulted in the political and economic marginalization of Tamils. It culminated in a insurgency for an independent Tamil state. With the defeat of that insurgency and the end of the civil war in 2009, Sinhalese-Buddhist extremists trained their guns on the Muslims.

Muslims are now at the receiving end of not only ultra-nationalist Sinhalese ire but of politicians seeking to access or consolidate power through polarization of Sri Lankan society. Anti-Muslim violence has surged in Sri Lanka since 2011. Scores of Muslim shops, businesses and places of worship were vandalized by mobs led by Buddhist monks.  In 2013, the BBS ran a violent campaign calling for the boycott of halal-certified meat.

Political commentator Tisaranee Gunasekara points out that the “Rajapaksas used minority-phobia as a political tool to distract the attention of Sinhala-Buddhists from growing economic ills.” Organizations like the BBS, she says, “were used by the then ruling family to addle Sinhala-Buddhist minds with fear and hate and to threaten the minorities into subservience.”

The ‘Sinha le’ campaign, she describes, as another Rajapaksa “initiative”, a “freak show with a similar purpose – incite minority phobia among Sinhala-Buddhists and use that as a pathway for the Rajapaksas to regain lost power.”

The timing of the ‘Sinha le’ campaign suggests that it is aimed at the constitution writing process that was recently initiated by the Maithripala Sirisena government.

Sanjana Hattotuwa, founding editor of Groundviews warns that the ‘Sinha le’ campaign is “the first salvo in what will be many more movements, on similar lines, that attempt to deny, destroy and decry the essential diversity” of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s pluralist ethnic fabric is under threat again.

Dr. Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in Bangalore, India, who writes on South Asian political and security issues. She can be reached at sudha.ramachandran@live.in

(Copyright 2015 Asia Times Holdings Limited, a duly registered Hong Kong company. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

Prez, govt. urged to speak with one voice on accountability process  *Ex-officer alleges contradictory statements cause turmoil

by Shamindra Ferdinando-January 23, 2016, 8:18 am 

Alleging that President Maithripala Sirisena and the UNP-led government had simultaneously issued vastly contradictory statements in respect of accountability issues and the role of the international community in the process, National Front to Protect Security Forces yesterday urged the government to speak with one voice.

Addressing the media in Colombo, retired Maj and attorney-at-law Ajith Prasanna convenor of the front said people shouldn’t be deceived as regards the understanding between the government and Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

Referring to a joint statement issued

by the Foreign Ministry and the European Union on Thursday night, the Maj., formerly of the Sinha regiment said that the two parties had reiterated commitment to the full and speedy implementation of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution of Oct. 2015.

The Oct. resolution has called for a hybrid war crimes court with the participation of Commonwealth and other international judges.

The former soldier repeated what he called the relevant paragraph from the statement issued consequent to the first meeting of the Working Group on Governance, Rule of Law and Human Rights in accordance with the EU -SL Joint Commission held in Colombo yesterday: "An exchange of information took place on the Government’s plans for further constitutional and legislative measures, including consultation with the Sri Lankan people on a new Constitution and the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act and its replacement with a comprehensive National Security Act. Both sides recognized the full implementation of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution of October 2015 as a priority. There was an exchange of views on ongoing consultations on the establishment of domestic reconciliation and accountability mechanisms. The EU expressed its readiness to continue supporting Sri Lanka in this process and to identify together with the Government the needs and opportunities for assistance."

The meeting was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Colombo with the participation of senior officials from Sri Lanka and the European Union.

The delegation of the European Union was led by Ms. Paola Pampaloni, Head of Division, Asia and the Pacific Department of the European External Action Service. The Sri Lanka delegation was led by Mr. A.L.A. Azeez, Director-General for European Union, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka.

The Major pointed out that the Foreign Ministry and the EU had reiterated commitment for the full implementation of the Geneva resolution whereas President Maithripala dismissed a major external role in the process. Sandeshaya of the BBC quoted President Maithripala Sirisena as having said on the same day that the international community need not worry about matters of state interest and the investigation into war crime charges should be internal and indigenous, without violating the laws of the country.

The Sinha regiment officer retired after having being wounded in fighting in the Jaffna peninsula in early 90s.

"Foreign judges and prosecutors should not be involved in an investigation into allegations of war crimes. I believe in the judicial system and other relevant authorities in Sri Lanka in this regard," he said. The President declared that the country did not need to "import" specialists.

President Maithripala Sirisena also rejected deadlines, while emphasizing such delicate investigations couldn’t be carried out overnight.

The retired major urged the Joint Opposition to take up the issue in parliament as a matter of utmost importance. Responding to a query, the former soldier said that UK Minister for Asia Hugo Swire during a recently concluded visit to Colombo declared in no uncertain terms that the UN expected Sri Lanka to get on with the investigative process before June Geneva sessions. President Maithripala Sirisena couldn’t ignore the British statement, Maj. Prasanna said, adding that in fact it was nothing but an ultimatum.

Maj. Prasanna said: "The government should issue a statement immediately to clear whatever doubts in the minds of the people."

Int’l community needn’t worry about matters 

of state interest: MS 

2016-01-22
President Maithripala Sirisena has said the international community need not worry about matters of state interest and the investigation into war crime charges should be internal and indigenous, without violating the laws of the country.

“Foreign judges and prosecutors should not be involved in an investigation into allegations of war crimes. I believe in the judicial system and other relevant authorities in this regard,” he said.


In a BBC interview, President said the country did not need to "import" specialists. 

The government previously backed a UN resolution calling for a war crimes court supported by foreign judges. 

But on Thursday the president said: "I will never agree to international involvement in this matter.

" "We have more than enough specialists, experts and knowledgeable people in our country to solve our internal issues," he said. Asked when the special court might be set up, he said: 

"These things cannot be done instantly or in a hurried manner. We will certainly reach our target but it's a process.

" President Sirisena said that while the UN report released in September 2015 had pointed to army involvement in war crimes, the report had failed to mention names.

 He said it was important to determine whether such crimes actually took place. 

"If the Army is alleged for such crimes, our concern should be to free them from those allegations. If anyone has committed a crime, there's no doubt that they should be punished. However it is wrong to make the entire army guilty for what happened," he said.

 The president also dismissed reports from the advocacy group Freedom from Torture that people in detention were still being tortured.

 Saying the claims were made by people who were close to the Tamil Tigers, President Sirisena added: "I totally deny that. If someone can prove with evidence, I am ready to give them the opportunity. Justice is served equally in this country." 

Daham Back On Nepotic Road ‘Inspects’ Army

January 23, 2016

President Maithripala Sirisena’s son Daham who went into hiding after attending the UN General Assembly in New York, has re-emerged and is back on the nepotism road Colombo Telegraph can reveal.

Daham Sirisena just like his sister Chathurika Sirisena who went on a fact finding mission earlier and to also express her father’s dreams for his people, has yesterday visited the Mihindu Seth Medura, a special complex managed by the Ministry of Defence, to hear the grievances of disabled soldiers. The Sirisena brat also visited to the Narammala Child Buddhist Monks Pirivena wearing the same clothes yesterday.

Whilst President Sirisena is also the Minister of Defence, his son-in-law Wewelpanawa Gamage Thilina Suranjith is the Public Relations Officer of the Defence Ministry, whilst Chathurika has been invited frequently as a chief guest at other known Defence Ministry functions.

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