President defends FCID even though SLFP ministers call for its disbanding

By Our Political Editor-Sunday, February 07, 2016

• Green light for arrests in major cases; PM stresses need for collective responsibility within the Cabinet
• More stunning revelations about Yoshitha’s CSN operations; Rajapaksa loyalists have no option but to appeal to deities
• Ranil tells UNP members to focus on local polls but elections unlikely this year due to constitutional issues

Last Saturday’s arrest of Lieutenant Yoshitha, second son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, continues to reverberate in many quarters. One such instance is the weekly ministerial meeting on Wednesday. Ministers representing the United National Party (UNP) were livid that one of their Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) colleagues had, wanted the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID), which made the arrest, disbanded.

Rajapaksa loyalists breaking coconuts, some alleged to be robbed, at the Seenigama Devalaya in Hikkaduwa yesterday. Pic by Gamini Mahadura

The previous day (Tuesday), Transport Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva told a media briefing at the Government Information Department what he termed was the SLFP’s standpoint on the arrest. Demanding that the FCID should be disbanded, he declared that investigations against Lt. Yoshitha should be “conducted under the normal laws of the country.” He said there was a Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) and a Police that could probe corrupt activity or other malpractice. He asserted that there was no need for a special police unit.

That Minister de Silva’s remarks were made from a Government establishment responsible for dissemination of official Government information, was indeed a serious matter. He was making it clear, officially that is, that the SLFP, the co-partner in the Government, was not in favour of the FCID. Hence, the SLFPers were bringing into question the investigations conducted by the FCID. His views were shared by most SLFP ministers who claim that as prominent party members, the bad fallout in their electorates were on them and their party supporters. Rightly or otherwise, they contend that those investigated were only from within their own ranks and none from the UNP. Hence the accusation that the probes are weakening the SLFP and consolidating the UNP.

That de Silva raised issue publicly instead of taking up matters with President Maithripala Sirisena was to irk UNP ministers. After all, it was Sirisena who chaired a ministerial meeting that decided on February 12 last year to set up the FCID to “investigate matters relating to serious financial crimes, public funds and property.” The same meeting decided on an Anti-Corruption Committee whose term has now been extended till June 30 this year. This Committee channels public complaints to relevant state investigative agencies. This came on a recommendation by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. At the apex of these organisations, President Sirisena chairs an executive council that oversees the workings of the two mechanisms. Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake pulled out of this Council on the grounds that no action was being taken on the probes. However, he strongly defended the FCID in Parliament last week.

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Pick pocketed during coconut-dashing event

12 Little Known Laws of Karma (That Will Change Your Life)

2016-02-06 21:10:32

Several politicians including MP Dinesh Gunawardane, who took part in the joint opposition’s coconut-dashing event against the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID), at the Seenigama Devalaya this morning, reportedly had their pockets picked during the event.

Later the organizers used the public address system (Loud Speakers) appealing that the stolen wallets be returned. Later the MP’s wallet was found near the temple only with some Identity cards but sans any cash.
However, after the news spread, MP Gunawardane in his tweet account claimed that the story was a rumour.
 “LoL news not true! But not surprised of rumours at a time when the present regime has pick-pocketed an entire nation!”, he tweeted.

Dinesh loses his wallet when trying to dash robbed coconuts to save Rajapakse rogues – punished by deities!

(Lanka-e-News -07.Jan.2016, 1.25PM) The wallet of Dinesh Gunawardena who went to dash robbed coconuts at Seenigama Devale to save Rajapakse rogues  was robbed by another set of rogues. It is to be noted that the coconuts for the so called religious ceremony were  stolen from a government land by Dinesh and his team ‘horu wenuwen horu’ (rogues for rogues) .

A UPFA group of crooks including Dinesh Gunawardena organized a program to dash 100,000 coconuts at the Seenigama Devale to beseech the deities to help release crooked Yoshitha Rajapakse and his group who are currently remanded on charges of  defrauding  public funds amounting to many million rupees, as well as to  invoke the wrath of the deities on the FCID that detected the colossal fraud. 

As these ‘rogues on behalf of rogues’ were hard put to collect the 100,000 coconuts, they  have robbed ( their favorite occupation ) these coconuts by plucking them from the trees of a State land in Nagoda , Udugama. Against this theft , when  a complaint No.  1630 /CIB/ 2/ 378/33 was lodged with the police, the  latter following its investigation  took into custody  two employees of the Nagoda pradeshiya council, an employee in the estate of a  UPFA politico, as well as a tractor  of the pradeshiya sabha which transported the coconuts.

These suspects have made a confession that these coconuts were robbed for the coconut dashing ceremony at Seenigama Devale, according to the police.

Alas ! it were  the hopes of Dinesh and his group of rogues who  visited the Devale to  dash  100,000 coconuts that were dashed to the ground finally ! Just only about a crowd of about 1000 gathered there , and only 700 robbed coconuts could be  dashed to perform their ritual. 

As though the deities did not like rogues visiting the temple , Dinesh and a  media coolie of his were robbed of their wallets while in the process of robbing coconuts. 

After an announcement was made over the sound equipment of the Devale  about Dinesh’s  wallet having been robbed (by another rogue not of his clan ! ),the wallet was later discovered in a restaurant nearby with the identity card sans cash.. Dinesh however did not reveal how much money was there in his wallet .Perhaps he could not remember how much in it was money robbed by himself and how much was honestly collected  . The other wallet too was found but without the cash.  

Since  accomplished notorious crooks like Mahindananda Aluthgamage ,Namal Rajapakse , Keheliya Rambukwella and  Bandula Gunawardena were in the ‘rogues for rogues’ team that  accompanied  Dinesh to dash robbed coconuts , even the deities must be having a tough tiime to identify the true pickpockets .

It is being reported the deities decided to summon Mahinda Rajapakse the chieftain of the crooked den to identify the pickpockets but later decided against it  for they feared they too may  be robbed wholesale if he makes his appearance.  

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by     (2016-02-07 08:00:12)

Arrests and reactions:Blood gets thicker in Colombo, cracked coconut waters flow in Seenigama

February 6, 2016, 7:34 pm 

"Blood, as all men know, than water’s thicker But water’s wider, thank the Lord, than blood" – Aldous Huxley

by Rajan Philips

The organizing principles, social structures and superstitions, as well as the modern institutions of Sri Lankan politics have been in raw display over the last few weeks. The roles of religion, kinship, the courts and the media have been clashing and criss-crossing as political manifestations. A former president was publicly distraught over the arrest and arraignment of one of his sons. Another former president’s daughter waded into the fray defending her family’s record in matters of political probity. And the current president became touchy and defensive in explaining the public roles of his children in a BBC interview. The relationship between the Sri Lankan state and its official religion, never properly articulated for a modern context despite ancient traditions and a contrived constitutional provision, has become more and more politically opportunistic where it ought to be ennobling and enlightening. Capping off the week was the ritual breaking of coconuts, a 100,000 of them some allegedly stolen from a state plantation nearby, by Joint Opposition MPs at an islet temple in the South to ward off the evil schemes of the Financial Crime Investigation Division (FCID) allegedly targeting a former president and first family in Colombo.

Law and Order

The courts are caught in the middle of all this, and for all the contamination of the judicial system over the last 37 years (1978-2015), there are more than a handful of brave new magistrates who seem to have risen to the occasion reminding us of not only what the system for the most part used to be before 1978, but also what most members of the Sri Lankan society are and want their politicians to be – decent, generous and law abiding neighbours and citizens. Although using an adversarial process our judicial system is based on the maxim: innocent until proven guilty. There is another side to the presumption of innocence, and that is the presumption of proper police and prosecutorial conduct. The latter ought to be systemic – involving personal integrity and professional competence. And the two presumptions must go hand in hand.Read more...

Eknaligoda’s Disappearance: Four More Arrests Imminent

07/02/2016

The Criminal investigation Department(CID) investigating journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda’s disappearance, is set to arrest four more Army intelligence personnel connected to the incident in the coming days, authoritative CID sources told the Sunday Observer.

Already six people of the Army intelligence unit have been arrested and four others will be arrested based on the analysis of mobile phone data used in the incident.

According to sources, the CID has gathered evidence against Army intelligence personnel to charge them with illegal abduction, detention and disappearance of Prageeth Ekneligoda after his abduction on January 24, 2010 at a location close to Pelawatta.

CID investigations confirmed that Ekneligoda had been taken to a location in Akkaraipattu on January 25, after questioning him at the 3 MIC camp in Giritale.

The CID is now analysing data with assistance from a private mobile communication company, from the communication tower in Akkaraipattu tower to identify the exact location where Ekneligoda had been taken after he was questioned at the Giritale Army camp.

The CID is expecting more documents from the inventories of the Giritale camp to verify the incident and those responsible for the incident.

Investigations on Ekneligoda’s disappearance have exposed many other links to crimes committed by the Commanding Officer of the 3 MIC camp which had been run on the orders of a top defence official in the previous government.
SO

Probe into Lankaputra bank disbursements under political pressures during Rajapakse era concluded; whopping Rs. 2000 million misused !

(Lanka-e-News -07.Jan.2016, 11.30PM)  The highly politicized Lankaputra development bank under the Rajapakse regime which released payments  owing to pressures exerted by various politicians was the focus of investigation  of  the FCID. The investigations into the disbursements  amounting to a whopping Rs. 2000 million has been concluded by the FCID , and the report thereof has been forwarded to the Attorney General’s (AG) department. 

The investigations have revealed that this huge amount of Rs. 2000 million approximately had been released without following any methodology to 14 parties which include individuals and establishments, and copious  information on how these monies have been misused has been unearthed. 

A State bank releasing monies owing to the pressures exerted by politicians is a very grave crime .Specially these monies have been granted as loans and there is cogent evidence that they  have been used for the political activities of the politicos. When probing whether these monies were genuinely used for the purposes they were granted , it has come to light although most of them were taken as loans , those loans have been used for political purposes. 

In the circumstances , cases are to be filed against the borrowers who misused the loans  , and the officers who granted the loans . Misuse of State funds is a non bailable offence.

The FCID has recorded evidence of Bank officers , borrowers and a number of parties . The investigation has also been focused on the illegal lending of bank funds  by its officers 

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by     (2016-02-07 20:39:51)

Countering Wahabism

By Izeth Hussain –February 6, 2016

Izeth Hussain

There are several reasons why it is important, indeed crucially important, to counter Wahabism in Sri Lanka with the objective of eradicating it altogether or reducing it to no more than a tiny minority cult. I will not go into all those reasons at this point. Instead I will focus on one reason that seems to me far more important than all the others. It is that Wahabism is unIslamic. I am not referring to the clones of Wahabism such as the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and the IS. Those who are identified as Wahabis almost invariably deny that appellation, declaring that they are Salafis or, most often, that they are practitioners of Islam in its pristine purity and nothing other than that. Therefore the malpractices and horrors for which those clones are notorious have nothing to do with the so-called Wahabis.

Consequently there is only one way of dealing with Wahabism, which is to go back to the original writings of Sheikh Wahab himself. But that poses a problem because most of his writings have not been translated. He was a redoubtable scholar and his writings were voluminous. However, it is generally accepted that the core of his teaching is to be found in just one book, the Kitab al-Thowheed (The Book of Unity). As far as I can judge from that book, Sheikh Wahab was a scholar but no philosopher or theologian, nothing like the giant intellects of the Islamic world such as Imam Ghazali or al-Farabi who is coming to be recognized as Islam’s greatest philosopher. He was essentially a preacher and his book is aimed at the Islamic common reader to make him understand and practice true Islam as he conceived of it. The book would seem to be very persuasive to the common reader because every point he makes is buttressed with citations from the Koran and the Hadiths.

I will not expound that book – it is easily accessible to the interested reader on the internet. Instead I will focus on just one point which is at the core of his message, and indeed at the core of Islam itself. It is Thowheed, Unity, which comes from the key concept of the one true God, from which all the rest of Islam follows. Hardly any Muslim will disagree with Sheikh Wahab over the central importance he places on that concept. The opposite of Thowheed is shirk, polytheism, which most Muslim theologians regard as the one unforgivable sin in Islam. It is there that controversy arises, for Sheikh Wahab had an altogether peculiar notion of shirk that contradicts the accepted beliefs and practices of most Muslims over a period of one thousand two hundred years.Read More

UAE ready to send ground troops into Syria to combat IS

Syrian pro-government forces looks at smoke billowing from an Islamic State position near Aleppo last month (AFP) 

Sunday 7 February 2016
UAE foreign minister says Emirates, like Saudi, ready to send in troops to Syria, but intervention should be US-led

An international campaign against the Islamic State group (IS) in Syria should include a US-led ground intervention, the United Arab Emirates' state minister for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, said on Sunday.

"Our position throughout is that a real campaign against Daesh [an alternative term for the Islamic State group] has to include ground elements," Gargash told reporters in Abu Dhabi.

"We are not talking about thousands of troops, but we are talking about troops on the ground that will lead the way," he said. "And of course, an American leadership in this effort is a prerequisite."

Gargash's comments come after Saudi Arabia said on Thursday that it was prepared to send ground troops into Syria to join a US-led coalition against the Islamic State group and amid Russian claims that Turkey is ready to invade Syria, allegations which Ankara has dismissed.

It also comes as thousands of Syrians are heading towards the Turkish border, fleeing a Syrian government offensive - backed by Russian air power - of Aleppo. An activist told Al Jazeera on Sunday that locals are preparing for Aleppo, which has been under partial rebel control since 2012, to be besieged by the government and captured.

The Saudi proposal was welcomed by the United States, but it was ridiculed by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and key ally Iran.

The Saudis "have made such a claim, but I don't think they are brave enough to do so ... Even if they send troops, they would be definitely defeated ... it would be suicide,” Iran's Revolutionary Guards Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari said.

The United States has for weeks been calling on partners in the 65-member coalition bombing the IS group in Iraq and Syria to contribute more.

US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter, who last month chastised some countries for doing "nothing at all," is meeting this week in Brussels with defence officials from Saudi Arabia and other coalition members to outline the next steps in the anti-IS campaign.

Gargash said on Sunday that his country has been "frustrated at the slow pace of confronting Daesh," which controls parts of Syria and Iraq.

"We have always said that there are two things lacking - a genuine political process in Baghdad that ... [would] encompass the Sunnis and a ground presence for the operations against Daesh."

An Iraqi tribal leader told AFP on Wednesday that Sunnis must be given a greater role in the political process of the war-torn country, where the government is led by Shias, in order to prevent the possible rise of organisations even more extreme than IS.

Some analysts expressed scepticism that Saudi or the UAE would commit to a ground invasion of Syria:

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Turkey delivers aid across border as Syrian forces step up Aleppo assault

mbulances enter Syria from Turkey at Turkey's Oncupinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern city of Kilis, Turkey February 7, 2016.REUTERS/OSMAN ORSAL

 BY HUMEYRA PAMUK AND LISA BARRINGTON-Sun Feb 7, 2016

Aid trucks and ambulances entered Syria from Turkey on Sunday to help tens of thousands of people who have fled an escalating government assault on Aleppo, as air strikes targeted villages on the road linking the city to the Turkish border.

Rebel-held areas in and around Aleppo, Syria's largest before the war, are still home to 350,000 people, and aid workers have said they could soon fall to the government.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war, said air strikes, thought to be from Russian planes, hit villages north of Aleppo on Sunday including Bashkoy, Haritan and Anadan, the latter two near the road to Turkey.

Russia's intervention has tipped the balance of the war in favour of President Bashar al-Assad, reversing gains the rebels made last year. Advances by the Syrian army and allied militias, including Iranian fighters, are threatening to cut the rebel-held zones of Aleppo off from Turkish supply lines.

"In some parts of Aleppo, the Assad regime has cut the north-south corridor ... Turkey is under threat," Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted by the Hurriyet newspaper as telling reporters on his plane back from a visit to Latin America.

Turkey has given refuge to civilians fleeing Syria throughout the conflict, but is coming under growing pressure from the United States to secure the border more tightly, and, from Europe, to stem the onward flow of migrants.

It is already sheltering more than 2.5 million Syrians, the world's largest refugee population.

AID FOCUSED ON SYRIAN SIDE

But at the Oncupinar gate, which has been largely shut for nearly a year, the newest arrivals were being shepherded into camps on the Syrian side, where Turkey says they are safe for now. The local governor of Oncupinar said on Saturday that around 35,000 had reached the border in the space of 48 hours.

"If needed, we will let those brothers in," Erdogan was quoted as saying.

Aid officials at Oncupinar said they were focusing for now on getting aid to the Syrian side of the border, where Turkish agencies have set up new shelters.

"We're extending our efforts inside Syria to supply shelter, food and medical assistance to people. We are already setting up another camp," an official from the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) told Reuters.

At a camp at Bab al Salama, on the Syrian side of the border, children played in the muddy lanes between rows of tents lashed by rain. Some were ripped and caked with mud, but others appeared to be newly set up.

A flag of the opposition Free Syrian Army fluttered over the road leading out towards the Syrian city of Azaz, along which many of the displaced have travelled in recent days. Opposition fighters armed with Kalashnikovs wandered nearby.

"Syria is finished now," said Dilel Cumali, who has been sleeping at the camp for the past month. "All we want is to get inside Turkey."

FOREIGN GROUND TROOPS?

Taking full control of Aleppo would be a huge strategic prize for Assad's government in a five-year conflict that has killed at least 250,000 people across the country and driven 11 million from their homes.

"Assad teaming up with Russia is trying to annihilate us," said Kasim, 21, an opposition fighter lying in hospital in the Turkish town of Kilis, one of a few dozen wounded combatants and civilians let in through Oncupinar in recent weeks.

"But they won't succeed. I will get better and go back to war and fight to the last drop of my blood to see Bashar toppled."

While areas to the northwest of Aleppo are held by Syrian opposition forces and Kurdish groups, the territory to the northeast is held by the militant group Islamic State.

The Observatory said there had been fierce clashes in that area, and state media said government forces had wrested a strategic hill in the eastern Aleppo countryside from Islamic State.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said it was ready to send ground troops into Syria as part of an international coalition fighting Islamic State, provided Washington took the lead, echoing an offer made last week by its fellow Sunni Arab Gulf power Saudi Arabia.

Erdogan said Turkey's armed forces had the full authority to counter any threats to its national security, although senior officials have said the NATO member does not intend to mount any unilateral incursion into Syria.

Syria's foreign minister said on Saturday it would send any invading forces home "in coffins".

(Additional reporting by Mehmet Emin Caliskan in Bab al-Salama, Angel Krasimirov in Sofia, Asli Kandemir in Istanbul, William Maclean in Abu Dhabi; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Nuclear Inspectors Have Snazzy New Tools to Catch Iran Cheating

The catch: Iran gets to approve which ones the IAEA can use.

BY ELIAS GROLL-FEBRUARY 4, 2016

On the heels of Iraq’s defeat in the 1991 Gulf War, inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency returned to Baghdad with a mandate from the U.N. Security Council to find and destroy the country’s illicit nuclear weapons program. What they found astonished them: Left unchecked, Iraq had hoped to have a bomb by the end of the year.

IAEA inspectors had frequently visited Iraq throughout the 1980s, touring the country’s nuclear facilities and checking to see whether Baghdad’s declarations to the Vienna-based agency were complete. While some within the agency harbored suspicions about Iraq’s intentions, the IAEA failed to grasp the true extent of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program. Iraq used a campaign of deceit and deception to clandestinely acquire the tools, materials, and knowledge necessary to construct a nuclear weapon. At the same time, IAEA officials were invited for carefully choreographed visits to sites such as the Tuwaitha research facility, a center for the weapons program. The officials left thinking that Iraq was far from attaining a bomb — a serious miscalculation that wasn’t corrected until after the first Gulf War.

Today, the Iraq experience weighs heavily on the minds of the IAEA officials charged with a new, even higher-stakes test: verifying that neighboring Iran is living up to its commitments under a historic nuclear deal inked last year. It’s a task that grants the IAEA a central role in determining the outcome of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy legacy. Moreover, the IAEA’s ability to detect a clandestine Iranian nuclear program — if Tehran decides to restart one — represents a crucial variable in whether the Middle East will see yet another major war.

Hanging over the entire effort will be the agency’s little-known failures in Iraq. In the 1990s, agency inspectors found that Iraq had secretly built industrial-scale uranium enrichment facilities and had made significant progress on nuclear weapons designs. Iraqi nuclear engineers, the IAEAfound, had hoped to have a first weapon built by 1991. While Israel had bombed the Osirak reactor in 1981, it did little to set back the broader nuclear program.

To eliminate Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the IAEA overhauled its policies and aggressively sought out clandestine facilities. The agency used explosives to destroy more than 500,000 square feet of Iraqi facilities, shipped nuclear material out of the country, and carted equipment back to its Vienna headquarters.

By 2003, when the United States invaded Iraq to eliminate its purported WMD stocks, the agency could claim a bitter victory: It had fulfilled its mission to eliminate them, but Saddam’s ability to persuade the West that he still possessed an active nuclear program prompted war all the same.

The soul-searching triggered by the terrifying discovery of Iraq’s quest for the bomb remains a touchstone for those charged with overseeing Iran’s nuclear program today. “The tools that we had were not sufficient to expose undeclared nuclear activities,” said Tero Varjoranta, the deputy director general and head of the Department of Safeguards at the IAEA. Since then, according to Varjoranta, the agency has embraced new technologies like environmental sampling — capable of detecting minute traces of nuclear material — and satellite imagery analysis to better detect clandestine nuclear programs. It also has more power to do so, courtesy of the 1997 Additional Protocols — which Iran has agreed to abide by — allowing far more intrusive inspections.

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World's fattest man died after 'gorging on more than six energy drinks a day' in weight-loss relapse

• 
  • Andres Moreno, who weighed 70 stone at his heaviest, died aged 38
  • 
    
  • Mexican died of a heart attack and problems associated with peritonitis 
  • 
    
  • Now emerged he was guzzling more than six energy drinks a day before his death
  • 
    
  • Equivalent of a person with no health problems drinking 42 cans of Coke in three days
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  By THOMAS BURROWS and GERARD COUZENS- 2 February 2016
• The world's fattest man, who died from a heart attack on Christmas Day, binged on energy drinks in the days before his death.
  Andres Moreno, who weighed 70 stone at his heaviest, died aged 38 in his home town of Ciudad Obregón in Sonora, Mexico.
  It has now emerged he was guzzling more than six energy drinks a day in the three days before his death.
  Scroll down for video 
  
  
• 
• 
  
• Andres Moreno, who died aged 38 on Christmas Day, was guzzling more than six energy drinks a day in the three days prior to his death 
  
• 
• Moreno, who weighed 50 stone when he underwent the extreme weight loss surgery, died of a heart attack and problems associated with peritonitis on Christmas Day

• Doctor Jorge Ojeda, who saw Moreno on several occasions, revealed: 'He drank more than six energy drinks a day according to his family and we believe it could be a lot more than six
  'As an obese man, although he was losing weight and was starting to move, exposing yourself to a stimulant can cause an irregular heartbeat, and that or a heart attack can lead to death.' 
  The doctor said that, in the days prior to his death, Moreno was said to have 'had a problem with his wife and this generated some emotional stress', according to local reports.
  Gastric Bypass Mexico, which organised his stomach bypass op, said diabetic Moreno's consumption of energy drinks was the equivalent of a person with no health problems consuming 42 cans of Coke in three days.
  
  
  Moreno died of a heart attack and problems associated with peritonitis on Christmas Day. 
  It took a team of seven staff to help hoist him out of bed and onto a reinforced stretcher so he could be taken to the hospital. 
  His death came just two months after he received extreme weight loss surgery. 
  The surgery involved removing three quarters of his stomach and reshaping what was left into a tube to 'prevent him from eating too much'. .
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• He had also lost 19 stone naturally before he went under the knife and weighed 50 stone when he underwent the operation.
  Prior to the surgery, he had received a signed Real Madrid shirt from football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, encouraging him to lose weight and get healthy.

Read more: 

30,000 North Korean children living in limbo in China

Campaigners appeal for help for children born to defectors who are not recognised as citizens by either Beijing or Pyongyang

A North Korean child peers through a window in Hyangsan province. Photograph: AP

Jenna Yoojin Yun-Friday 5 February 2016

Up to 30,000 children born to North Korean mothers who have fled the regime are living in China without access to schooling, health care or citizenship, MPs have heard.

North Korean human rights advocate Sungju Lee, a defector from the DPRK, said many of these children were born to women who had been sold to Chinese men by traffickers.

“These children, with no basic human rights, live as if they are not existing,” hetold the parliamentary group on North Korea.

He described the life of a seven-year-old boy in Jilin province. “The child was supposed to start going to school like other kids, but he wasn’t able to because he had no citizenship. He had no eduction and no friends.”

“Even when he felt sick, [his mother] couldn’t take him to hospital,” said Lee, “and she said that was the most painful moment for the mother to watch.”

The Korea Institute for National Unification estimates there are around 30,000stateless children in China, based on a research conducted in 2012. Exact figures are hard to detemine as North Korean refugees are forced to live below the radar in China to avoid deportation.

Forced marriage     Read More

Just Asia: Weekly bulletin on human rights in Asia ( Video)

Just Asia is a weekly bulletin focused the human rights situation in Asia, issued its 108 episode recently. The following announcement issued by the host;

( February 7, 2016, Hong Kong SAR, Sri Lanka Guardian) In this episode, Just Asia continues to cover critical human rights flashpoints in Asia.

In Pakistan, three employees of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) have been killed in clashes near the Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, on February 3. The employees were on a countrywide protest against privatization of the national airlines. Around 30 persons have also been injured, including two women and five journalists, when Pakistan Rangers resorted to baton charges and fired water cannons and rubber bullets.

Staying in Pakistan, Just Asia turns to the annual report of the Freedom Network, an independent Pakistani media and civil liberties watchdog, on the state of the media. According to the report, “The year 2015 proved to be the year of censorship for media in Pakistan.” While 2014 was the most murderous year for press freedom, with 14 journalists killed, the year 2015 has seen a dramatic rise in censorship, states the report.

The programme then pans to Indonesia, where residents of Sukamulya Village, Rumpin Sub-district, Bogor Regency, have been fighting for their land and houses since 2007. The Indonesian Air Force has claimed over 1,070 hectares of land in Sukamulya that belongs to the villagers. The latest protest against this injustice was held in front of the Bogor Regency Office on 29 January 2016.

Next, Just Asia covers the suicide of young Dalit scholar, Mr. Rohith Vemula. Rohith chose to end his life after facing discrimination from the management of the Hyderabad University. Rohith’s suicide is yet another example of the continuing domination that suppresses the less privileged communities in India, particularly the Dalits.

For the past six months, life in Nepal has been at a standstill. The Himalayan nation has undergone a protracted blockade and faces an impending humanitarian crisis. Markets are closed and vehicular movement is stopped. Schools and hospitals barely function in Nepal’s Terai region, due to the ongoing border blockade initiated by the Madhesi groups and supported by the Indian establishment. To cover the latest, Just Asia speaks with Dipendra Jha, Advocate, Supreme Court of Nepal, and Member, Madhesi Think Tank group.

The bulletin can be watched online at AHRC TV YouTube. We welcome both human rights feeds to be considered for weekly news bulletin, and your suggestions to improve our news channel. Please write to news@ahrc.asia. You can also watch our Weekly Roundup on Facebook.

Watch it here:

About the programme: The Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong based Human Rights monitoring and documenting body, launched the first issue of a weekly roundup of human rights issues on October 14, 2013. Since then they produced over hundred weekly bulletins. The weekly roundup is a news programme which aims to highlight a wide variety of current human rights issues in the Asian region. Important stories of people fighting for improving human rights, both in the civil and political rights sphere as well as economic, social and cultural rights are covered in these weekly roundups and we also often meet survivors of human rights violations, who talk of their experiences. The AHRC hopes that this coverage will contribute to the conversation on human rights issues in the region and will also assist in developing greater solidarity in the struggle to achieve universal human rights.

About the Producer: The programme was the result of the concept introduced and developed by a young Sri Lankan journalist Amila Sampath who studied journalism at the College of Journalism in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He has made hundreds of videos for the local NGO, Janasansadaya – The People’s Forum, reporting on torture abuse and other human rights violations from all over Sri Lanka. He subsequently worked as a journalist at Sri Lankan Sirasa TV Channel (news) for two years where he was involved in all aspects of producing news packages and feature reports, before relocating to Hong Kong to join the AHRC. Amila now handles the production, directing and editing of the weekly news roundup, as well as many other video productions in the organisation.”

PETA: Animal rights on the rise in China

Humane Society International visits dog meat markets and slaughterhouses in Yulin, China.

by Graham Land-5th February 2016

CHINA is not famous as a place where animals are treated compassionately. Despite the traditional Chinese philosophies of Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism promoting compassion towards animals, the country receives more attention from the animal rights community due to its status as a hotbed for cruel animal shows, dog meat festivals and the trade in wildlife parts, both legal and illegal.

Yet things are changing, especially among China’s young and educated.

A kinder, gentler China?

While animal welfare as an issue may be unknown to many Chinese, a study published in 2014 showed that a majority of people surveyed at least partially supported animal-welfare laws.

PETA Asia special projects coordinator Layla Wen:

With greater access to information – particularly through social media – China’s younger generations are increasingly eager to speak out against abusing animals for food, fashion or entertainment.

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