Former army commander Field Marshall Sarath Fonseka, who is suspected of being responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, has been sworn in as an MP, after his appointment by the ruling coalition.
He was appointed by the UNP through the national list, after another MP died.
Mr Fonseka remains a highly controversial figure. A UN report released last year details heinous crimes committed by the military while he was in charge.
Dinesh and Wimal who scream about the war victory and war heroes have never stepped into war zones. They look like Lilliputians in the presence of Fonseka who is a Gulliver.
by Upul Joseph Fernando
( February 11, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Whenever Sarath Fonseka emerges in politics, those opposed to him appear excited and confused. Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka is a sensation in every field he treads because those who envy him view this character as a sensational figure, may be with fear. Fonseka is outspoken and that had been to his disadvantage on many occasions. Be that as it may, when Sarath Fonseka was engaged at Temple Trees signing the agreement with Ranil Wickremesinghe, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was busy meeting the Maha Sangha. Gotabaya chose the occasion to use the media to launch an attack on Fonseka. He claimed it was a shameless effort to bring Fonseka, who was defeated at the last general election, on the National List. Gotabaya challenged those ministers who scoffed at him saying he knew no politics being a military man, to pose the same question to Fonseka who was a former Army Commander. All these comments emanating from Gotabaya display his fear or excitement over attempts to bring Fonseka to Parliament.
Adding more confusion to the move to bring Fonseka to Parliament, another Fonseka critic Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe too, seems to panic. It was reported that Minister Rajapakshe had threatened to quit his ministerial portfolio if Fonseka is brought in as a Member of Parliament. It was Minister Rajapakshe who earlier said he would not allow the arrest of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The Wijeyadasa-Fonseka battle erupted over the controversial Avant Garde issue. When Fonseka firmly demanded the arrest of Gotabaya over the Avant Garde controversy, it was Minister Rajapakshe who appeared to protect Gotabaya. Fonseka unfolded the link between the Avant Garde owner and Wijeyadasa to the country. This battle clearly demonstrated that some ministers were being used by Gotabaya to prevent his arrest. Similarly, it is clear that Gotabaya has engaged in an exercise to prevent Fonseka entering Parliament through the influence of some ministers.
Gotabaya-Mahinda loyalists
Gotabaya began to fear Sarath Fonseka after the latter won the LTTE terrorist war in May 2009. It was clear that Fonseka became more popular than Mahinda after winning the war as intelligence reports confirmed that position. That was why Fonseka was removed from the post of Army Commander. Mahinda’s Government jailed Fonseka as it feared the government could be toppled if Fonseka was let free. Now Gotabaya-Mahinda loyalists fear Fonseka’s entry to Parliament as the current ‘patriotic struggle’ launched by them against the Maithri-Ranil Government could be made redundant. Also, the attempt to field Gotabaya at the next presidential election would be in vain. These groups are trying to field Gotabaya at the next presidential election to be backed by Mahinda loyalists to gain power using the war victory.
Mahinda loyalists believe that the Armed Forces and the people would be disgruntled if the Maithri-Ranil Government attempts to implement the proposals of the UNHRC. They further contend that such a background would be the best opportunity to start a campaign against the government. The Ranil-Maithri Government would lack evidence and facts to meet that challenge. The reason is that while Maithri was in the government during the war, Ranil and many present ministers in the then Opposition were critical of the war. Fonseka gave leadership to that war. Whatever Mahinda loyalists may say, those in the Armed Forces know the sacrifices made by Fonseka towards winning the war. If Fonseka enters Parliament, Mahinda loyalists who have written the war victory in their names will feel weak. The reason is that even Mahinda was never in the war zones. In contrast, Fonseka was nearly killed by terrorist bombs twice, but returned to the battlefield, against medical advice, as Army Commander. Dinesh and Wimal who scream about the war victory and war heroes have never stepped into war zones. They look like Lilliputians in the presence of Fonseka who is a Gulliver.
In such a backdrop, the entry of Gotabaya into politics, with Fonseka standing firm on the political scene, would look undervalued. If Mahinda loyalists had written the war victory in their names 100 per cent, Fonseka’s entry would reduce it by half to go in favour of the Maithri-Ranil Government and that cannot be prevented. That is why Gotabaya and Mahinda loyalists fear Fonseka’s entry into Parliament.
( The writer is a senior journalist, worked for the Ceylon Today, where this piece originally appeared)
(Lanka-e-News -10.Feb.2016, 7.30PM) A group of prison officers have sent an open letter to the Homagama and Kaduwela magistrates against the use of mobile phones by Yoshitha Rajapakse and Gnanassara -two suspects who are in remand custody , and against the prisons authorities who are turning a blind eye to those unlawful activities. The letter reads as follows..
Honorable Homagama and Kaduwela magistrates ,
After Mahinda Rajapakse and his group visited the Colombo remand prison and had discussions with Yoshitha and remand prisoners on 31 st January (Sunday), Yoshitha the remand prisoner was entering the iron gate to go to his hall, when his mobile phone fell down before jailor Somawansa and other officers . Yoshitha came back picked up the phone and ran in while the officers were standing idle and watching.
According to the laws , we know when such a thing happens , the hall of that remand prisoner should be searched immediately, and that prisoner along with the mobile phone should be produced before a disciplinary inquiry council , and meted out punishment. When an ordinary prisoner is apprehended in such circumstances, he is liable to a six months jail sentence. Yet Yoshitha is still using the mobile phone without let or hindrance This is a well and widely known fact within prison. It is an open secret.
The intelligence division (police) officers of the prison today ( 9th Feb) seized a mobile phone that was in the possession of remand prisoner Gnanassara the robed monk who is in a bed as a patient in Welikade prison hospital ward 3 (without any illness).
We are hereby requesting your honor to take appropriate measures against the Welikade prison authority Ekanayake , Intelligence division Commissioner Upuldeniya and the chief medical officer who are playing sordid games shamelessly within the prison , which is tantamount to insulting the courts and government of good governance because the ultimate accountability of the prisoners is shouldered by the courts.
This situation is most portentous and can pose threats to the lives of your honorable selves and State officers who are discharging your duties without fear or favor before the law . We therefore wish to inform, under these circumstances , not a single honest prison officer in any rung is able to carry out his duties as ‘gentlemen’
-A group of prison officers discharging duties honestly.
--------------------------- by (2016-02-10 14:19:07)
“If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it.” – Julius Caesar
He is in the news again. Parading in yellow robes, portraying himself as a martyr of the present day and savior of Sinhalese Buddhists, Galagoda Atte Gnanasara Thero, a Buddhist monk whose credentials are more of a homage to a defeated regime of corruption and deceit than a parade of a victorious army, played another one of his infamous ploys and this time too, came out a loser. The country’s judiciary is no more enslaved by a ruling clan; its pride is no more compromised or damaged by near-midnight telephone calls from the powers that be; it is independent and showing it.
Leave alone the Supreme Court and Appeal Court; the High Court and all other judicial courts below that and their standard bearers- learned judges of our court system- are dispensing justice as it should be. A classic case is when this Buddhist Monk was, firstly accused of insulting the country’s court system and then arresting him- yes arresting him this charlatan of a Monk- Galagoda Atte Gnanasara for his unruly behavior. As one writer penned: “in fact, this is not the first time where he has been taking both Buddhists in particular and Sri Lankans in general on a jolly good ride into make them believe as if he is some sort of born again reformist working to protect the interests of this country. Neither will this be the last…”
Long before this happened, during the former regime when he received unparalleled patronage from the ruling family, I penned more than one column in arousing the awareness of the foulmouthed and uncivilized conduct of this individual who calls himself the savior of Sinhalese-Buddhist values. However, our mainstream media, as in the case of their American counterpart in the far West lending credence and unlimited exposure to a shameful pretender like Donald Trump, is blowing out of proportion the whole melodrama enacted by Galagoda Atte Gnanasara Thero. Read More
Speaker Karu Jayasuriya says that he has received death threats in the wake of the incident which occurred in Parliament yesterday.
MPs representing the self-styled “Joint Opposition” had staged a protest within the chamber demanding that they be recognized as an independent group in parliament after the Speaker had notified them to resolve the matter within the alliance through discussions.
The Speaker had then decided to proceed with parliamentary proceedings amidst the huge uproar created by the group of MPs.
However, Jayasuriya informed Parliament today (10) that he received threats via a telephone call last night, by an individual who demanded that he allow the request made by the ‘Joint Opposition’.
The Speaker further said that he will pay no heed to such threats.
Ceylon Teachers Union said due to not getting the relevant teachers guide for the grade one syllabus and not training the teachers more than 300,000 children’s are in trouble.
The Ceylon teachers union issuing an announcement said although a new syllabus has been introduced to the grade one students from 2016, still a relevant teacher’s guide has not been issued for the teachers. Despite the teachers are not trained to teach the grade one syllabus a serious disorder has been created within the educational sector.
The announcement further stress that due to this serious disorder more than 300,000 students entered for the grade one has been severely inconvenienced.
General Secretary of the teachers union Joseph Starlin said if a new syllabus was to be started, new text books, syllabus and teachers guide should be given by December 2015. Since the teaching are now done in an chaotic atmosphere, this would cause serious impacts for the grade one students who start a formal education.
Unplanned situation The teachers union said it has urged the education minister and the education secretary to search this chaotic situation happened in the education sector and to provide an expedite solution. The union said that it have informed the chairman of the national education commission and to the director general of the national education institute in writing.
The Ceylon Teachers Union urges the relevant authorities to investigate in to this current critical situation and to take the necessary steps to resolve this.
For the past eight months, Muhammad al-Kafarna has been living in a caravan.
“Our nights are dark with no way of heating the caravan,” he said. “We don’t have warm water to cook or to wash. Winter is a nightmare for us.”
Al-Kafarna has lacked proper shelter since Israel’s attack on Gaza in the summer of 2014. Despite promises of international reconstruction aid, he and his family have to survive in a caravan provided by the local authority ofBeit Hanoun, a town in northern Gaza.
The caravans were painted by their residents with the support of the Tamer Institute for Community Education.Mousa Tawfiq
A civil servant, he has not been paid a salary since 2011 because of the political rift between the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Hamas government in Gaza.
“I’m sinking in debt and can’t provide food for my eight kids and two wives,” he said. “Two of my sons have special healthcare needs but I cannot afford to pay for them. And the caravan is too small to accommodate us or our belongings.”
More than 140,000 homes of Palestinian refugees were damaged during the 2014 offensive. Of them, 9,000 homes were totally destroyed.
Rebuilding and repairing those homes has been slow — Israel has severely restricted the entry of essential construction materials into Gaza.
In November last year, UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, confirmed that only one house had been rebuilt by that time.
In a more recent report, UNRWA stated that 7,148 refugee families whose homes were completely destroyed still had not received any reconstruction aid. That was 17 months after the offensive had concluded. UNRWA has estimated that the total costs of reconstructing those homes would be $321.6 million.
Committed to free expression and the right to education, the group asked teenage girls living in the caravans about how some happiness could be brought into their lives.
Video shows Abrams tank flying flag of the Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, an Iraqi group which supports Syrian government and is backed by Iran
A image from the KSS video showing the US-made Abrams tank
An Iranian-backed Iraqi militia that actively supports the Syrian government is fighting with American tanks and equipment, according to reports and a video released by the group.
A video posted this week on Youtube shows the flag of the Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS) flying from the back of an M1 Abrams, the US military's main battle tank.
The KSS forms part of the umbrella group Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation Units. The PMU was formed in 2014 on the orders of Ali al-Sistani, the spiritual leader of Iraqi Shias, and which has since been funded by the Baghdad government.
The date and location of the video is not verified. However, the Long War Journalreportedthat the footage was likely taken recently in Iraq's Salahedin province, where the KSS has fought several battles with IS.
The Abrams tank is also likely to be the property of the Iraqi army, which was rearmed by the US after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and which now fights alongside the PMU.
But the use of American weaponry by the KSS further complicates the complex web of alliances in the war in Syria and Iraq, and raises the possibility that Iran has indirect access to American military technology.
The KSS has not been designated a terrorist organisation by the US. However, it is closely linked to the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, which is on the US State Department's list of foreign terrorist groups.
It is also not the first Iraqi Shia militias have been photographed using American weaponry: The Badr organisation recently posted an image of its fighters flying its flag from an Abrams tank and Hezbollah Brigades, which is on the US list of terrorist groups, has also posted video of its fighters using US equipment in Iraq's Anbar province.
Renad Mansour, who has written extensively on the PMU for the Carnegie Middle East Centre, said that the KSS's use of American weapons was unsurprising, and one of a big list of "embarrassments" with US policy in Iraq.
"It's a difficult line to pursue: basically, the Islamic State is enemy number one. Assad seems to be enemy number two. Insofar as that is the case, the US is forced to deal with these paramilitaries, which are the strongest force in the south and centre [of Iraq]," he told Middle East Eye.
"The PMU has become an official leg of the Iraqi state. [Prime Minister Haider] Abadi has decided to pay the PMU, and of course part of this is providing such support."
He said there was some risk that the weaponry could end up in Syria defending the Assad government, "however the priority for many of the PMU groups is the Iraq theatre. Had this been pre-2014, it would more likely be the case."
The US, he said, would have to accept the reaility on the ground in Iraq: that regular forces under the command of the Ministry of Defence were now seen as less legitimate than those operating under the PMU.
"Without their own troops on the ground, they need capable allies," he said of the US, adding that previous attempts by Washington to bolster regular forces had failed.
The US spent billions of dollars equipping and training the post-Saddam Iraqi army, which has been dogged by corruption, poor recruitment levels and low morale.
The IS group seized huge stockpiles of US-made weaponry from the Iraqi army during the fall of Mosul in 2014, including a reported 2,300 Humvee vehicles, plus artillery and man-portable missiles.
In a report in December, Amnesty International stated that the Middle East has been flooded with weaponry from the US, among others, which was falling into the hands of proscribed groups.
MEE contacted the US State Department on the issues surrounding indirectly arming the Shia militias, but it did not respond before publication.
A USS Boxer LHD travels at an offshore location in Goa in this October 29, 2006 file photo. REUTERS/Prashanth Vishwanathan/Files
BY SANJEEV MIGLANI-Wed Feb 10, 2016
The United States and India have held talks about conducting joint naval patrols that a U.S. defense official said could include the disputed South China Sea, a move that would likely anger Beijing, which claims most of the waterway.
Washington wants its regional allies and other Asian nations to take a more united stance against China over the South China Sea, where tensions have spiked in the wake of Beijing's construction of seven man-made islands in the Spratly archipelago.
India and the United States have ramped up military ties in recent years, holding naval exercises in the Indian Ocean that last year involved the Japanese navy.
But the Indian navy has never carried out joint patrols with another country and a naval spokesman told Reuters there was no change in the government's policy of only joining an international military effort under the United Nations flag.
He pointed to India's refusal to be part of anti-piracy missions involving dozens of countries in the Gulf of Aden and instead carrying out its own operations there since 2008.
The U.S. defense official said the two sides had discussed joint patrols, adding that both were hopeful of launching them within the year. The patrols would likely be in the Indian Ocean where the Indian navy is a major player as well as the South China Sea, the official told Reuters in New Delhi on condition of anonymity.
The official gave no details on the scale of the proposed patrols.
A Pentagon spokesman, Commander Bill Urban, said the United States and India "continue to explore ways to deepen defense cooperation, including in the area of maritime security", but no decisions had been made on joint patrols.
There was no immediate comment from China, which is on a week-long holiday for Chinese New Year.
China accused Washington this month of seeking maritime hegemony in the name of freedom of navigation after a U.S. Navy destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of a disputed island in the Paracel chain of the South China Sea in late January.
The U.S. Navy conducted a similar exercise in October near one of China's artificial islands in the Spratlys.
MARITIME COOPERATION
Neither India nor the United States has claims to the South China Sea, but both said they backed freedom of navigation and overflight in the waterway when U.S. President Barack Obama visited New Delhi in January 2015.
Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also agreed at the time to "identify specific areas for expanding maritime cooperation".
More than $5 trillion in world trade moves through the South China Sea each year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan also claim parts of the waterway.
In December, the issue of joint patrols came up when Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar visited the U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii, an Indian government source said.
"It was a broad discussion, it was about the potential for joint patrols," said the source, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.
India has a long-running land border dispute with China and has been careful not to antagonize its more powerful neighbor, instead focusing on building economic ties.
But it has stepped up its naval presence far beyond the Indian Ocean, deploying a ship to the South China Sea almost constantly, an Indian navy commander said, noting this was not the practice a few years ago.
The commander added that the largest number of Indian naval ship visits in the South China Sea region was to Vietnam, a country rapidly building military muscle for potential conflict with China over the waterway.
India has extended a $100 million credit line for Hanoi to buy patrol boats and is training Vietnamese submariners in India, while Hanoi has granted oil exploration blocks to India in waters off Vietnam that are disputed with China.
Still, the idea of joining the United States in patrols in the region was a long shot, the Indian officer said.
The Philippines has asked the United States to do joint naval patrols in the South China Sea, something a U.S. diplomat said this month was a possibility.
(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom in Washington and Megha Rajagopalan in Beijing; Editing by Dean Yates)
Oficially, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government and his Russian allies are at war against the Islamic State. But a gas facility in northern Syria under the control of the jihadi group is evidence that business links between the Syrian regime and the Islamic State persist. According to Turkish officials and Syrian rebels, it is also the site of cooperation between the Islamic State and a Russian energy company with ties to President Vladimir Putin.
The Tuweinan gas facility, which is located roughly 60 miles southwest of the Islamic State’s de facto capital of Raqqa, is the largest such facility in Syria. It was built by Russian construction company Stroytransgaz, which is owned by billionaire Gennady Timchenko, a close associate of Putin. The company’s link to the Kremlin is well-documented: The U.S. Treasury Departmentpreviously sanctioned Stroytransgaz, along with the other Timchenko-owned companies, for engaging in activities “directly linked to Putin” amidst the confrontation over Ukraine.
The story of the controversial plant involves the Assad regime, Russian-Syrian businessmen, the Islamic State, and moderate Syrian groups, which together tried to activate the facility for the financial and logistical benefits it could provide for them.
The Syrian government originally awarded the contract to construct the Tuweinan facility to Stroytransgaz in 2007. The construction utilized a Syrian subcontractor, Hesco, which was owned by Russian-Syrian dual national George Haswani. Last November, the Treasury Department sanctioned Haswani for allegedly brokering oil sales between the Islamic State and the Assad regime, charges he denies.
The partnership between Hesco and Stroytransgaz goes far beyond this one deal. The companies have worked in joint projects in Sudan, Algeria, Iraq, and the UAE since 2000, according to Haswani’s son-in-law, Yusef Arbash, who runs Hesco’s Moscow office.
Construction continued slowly until a coalition of Syrian rebel groups seized the facility in a joint operation with the al Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front in January 2013. Abu Khalid, a member of the Qwais al-Qarani brigade, which was a part of the rebel coalition, said that when they entered the area, Russian engineers and advisors had already fled, leaving Syrian employees behind. “We decided to protect this plant; we thought it is belonging to Syrian people since it was owned by the Syrian state,” he said.
THE Malaysian Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) is said to be looking into strengthening the punishment for those found guilty of leaking official secrets, causing an uproar among the journalism community here.
Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali revealed his intentions Saturday in an interview with local Chinese newspaper Sin Chew Daily, adding that it was a result of the increase in cases of official secrets being leaked to journalists, who often reported quoting ‘sources’.
He had said the AGC was contemplating amending the Official Secrets Act 1972 (OSA) to crack down on those who leak government secrets, including civil servants, members of the public and journalists who refuse to reveal their sources.
The amendments being considered would include an increased punishment of life imprisonment and 10 strokes of the cane for those found guilty under the Act.
“An assault against freedom of expression.”
Currently, the punishment for leaking official secrets is one to seven years’ imprisonment.
“We may charge journalists who refuse to reveal their sources. If I obtain 90 percent of evidence, I will charge the journalist, editor, assistant editor and editor-in-chief. I am serious, no kidding. We have too many cases of secrets being leaked in Malaysia,” he said.
Mohamed Apandi focused on journalists in particular, saying those who claimed journalistic ethics to protect their sources could be considered as collaborators with potential saboteurs, and that this practice would endanger the country’s security.
Media practitioners have since slammed the attorney-general’s comments, with many viewing the proposal as an attempt to intimidate journalists and their sources.
by Upul Joseph Fernando
(Lanka-e-News -10.Feb.2016, 7.30PM) A group of prison officers have sent an open letter to the Homagama and Kaduwela magistrates against the use of mobile phones by Yoshitha Rajapakse and Gnanassara -two suspects who are in remand custody , and against the prisons authorities who are turning a blind eye to those unlawful activities. The letter reads as follows..
Leave alone the Supreme Court and Appeal Court; the High Court and all other judicial courts below that and their standard bearers- learned judges of our court system- are dispensing justice as it should be. A classic case is when this Buddhist Monk was, firstly accused of insulting the country’s court system and then arresting him- yes arresting him this charlatan of a Monk- Galagoda Atte Gnanasara for his unruly behavior. As one writer penned: “in fact, this is not the first time where he has been taking both Buddhists in particular and Sri Lankans in general on a jolly good ride into make them believe as if he is some sort of born again reformist working to protect the interests of this country. Neither will this be the last…”
- Feb 10, 2016
For the past eight months, Muhammad al-Kafarna has been living in a caravan.
A civil servant, he has not been paid a salary since 2011 because of the political rift between the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Hamas government in Gaza.
BY SANJEEV MIGLANI-Wed Feb 10, 2016
BY , FEBRUARY 9, 2016
