Death threats to Karu; Dullas gets excited 

 Feb 11, 2016

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya says he has received death threats from MPs of the so-called joint opposition. He said so in parliament yesterday (10). The speaker went onto say that he would not be frightened by these death threats. He asked opposition MPs not to issue such threats to other officials in parliament.

Rising up after the speaker made the statement, Matara district UPFA MP Dullas Alahapperuma said if the speaker has been threatened thus, a special investigation should be carried out to find out those who had threatened him. If those persons were not found, the blame will be on us, he said.

MP Alahapperuma has so become excited due to a remark he made in Matara recently. He told a meeting there, ‘If you cannot do the speaker’s job properly, give it to a child.” At another meeting, he said that if his group was not recognized as an independent opposition group in parliament, they would disrupt parliamentary proceedings.

Making the remark true, the so-called joint opposition disrupted parliamentary proceedings two days ago. The garrulous MPs in the group used filthy language to abuse the speaker, such as ‘Balla, Booruwa and Demala.’ This lowly conduct was evident not just from the new MPs, but also from the senior MPs like Dinesh Gunawardena, who represent parliament since 1983.

Sri Lanka to review Airbus purchases

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said Sri Lankan Airlines could not economically operate long-range A350-900 aircraft ordered by the previous government, but needed short-haul planes for its profitable Asian routes ©Lakruwan Wanniarachchi (AFP/File)

By AFP-10 February 2016

Sri Lanka will review a controversial deal reached by the previous administration to buy new Airbus aircraft despite huge losses at the national carrier, the prime minister said Wednesday.

Ranil Wickremesinghe said Sri Lankan Airlines could not economically operate long-range A350-900 aircraft ordered by the previous government, but needed short-haul planes for its profitable Asian routes.

Responding to a question from the opposition, Wickremesinghe told parliament the airline was losing money on every flight to Europe and adding new planes would only worsen accumulated losses now standing at over $650 million.

"They (the previous government) had agreed to buy four A350-900 planes and lease another four," he said. "We have not paid a deposit, but if we default we have to pay a penalty of $12 million."

"We are stuck. We have to review the deal and take a decision if we are going ahead with the purchase or not."

He said the police Financial Crimes Investigation Department was already probing the entire aircraft purchase agreed by the administration of then-President Mahinda Rajapakse, which was toppled in January 2015 elections.

The initial transaction, including six A330 planes, was estimated at $2.3 billion. An airline official said all A330 planes had been delivered while the A350 aircraft were due to be delivered from this year.

Doctor Mafia gang operator Padeniya threatens Doctors if they don’t participate in the protests against ETCA !

(Lanka-e-News- 11.Feb.2016, 8.30PM)  The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) , the notorious mafia organization under gangster Dr. Padeniya is to stage a protest on the 11 th  against the ETCA (Indo Lanka economic and Technical co operation agreement)  to be signed between Sri Lanka (SL) and India even though there is no  final confirmation letter on it.  It is notweworthy the GMOA has by now been labeled as a Mafia organization because of the  clandestine support extended by them to illicit kidney business wheeler dealers.

Padeniya the villainous  leader of this mafia organization has issued illegal instructions to the doctors in the north and east that they must compulsorily attend this demonstration , and if they don’t , no transfers will be granted to them .

Consequently , the doctors in the North and East are forced to come to Colombo abandoning their hospital medical duties and leaving the patients in the lurch. Padeniya has for some time made the doctors of the North and East as his puppets making them dance according to his tune. He is capitalizing on the Doctors’  transfer list prepared by himself .

Those serving in the North and East can after a year secure a transfer to any station  they wish whereas those serving in other areas can obtain transfers only after serving for four years. During the period of the war , because  doctors were reluctant to serve in the difficult areas , this system was put in place. But this GMOA mafia operators are till following this system even 7 years after the war concluded. This  list is completely controlled by the GMOA according to their whims and fancies , and not by  the health ministry.

The GMOA mafia group led by uncouth Padeniya is exploiting this transfer system to keep  the doctors in the East and North under their thumb. Though these doctors can  get a transfer to their desired station after a year and are included in that list ,it is  the GMOA mafia operators that  has the right to release the  doctors. Accordingly , these mafia operators are using the doctors in the north and East as puppets via two methodologies…..

The doctors who have completed one year are made to close hospitals and arrive in Colombo to participate  in the protests on the 11 th because they cannot get their transfers if they do not kowtow to Padeniya’s threat.

Padeniya is resorting to this same villainous threat even to secure votes for him to win when elections are held to elect office bearers  , Doctors reveal. 

In these circumstances , is there a better name other than ‘mafia gang operator’ to describe such an unscrupulous uncouth  individual despite being a doctor who is resorting to this kind of gross  villainy and disgraceful  misconduct  brazenly and blatantly to the detriment of one of the most respected professions , and putting the reputation of the other Doctors  in jeopardy ? 

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by     (2016-02-11 15:24:41)

Sub-Inspector and Sergeant arrested on bribery charge

February 11, 2016

Two police officers have been arrested by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption for allegedly soliciting a bribe.

A Sub-Inspector (SI) and a Sergeant attached to the Ruwanwella Police Station were arrested after they accepted a sum of Rs 8,500 from to allow an individual to transport sand without any hindrance. 

The suspects had initially received Rs 5,000 and were arrested today upon accepting the final Rs 3,500 of the bribe, according to SSP Priyantha Chandrasiri, the Director of the Investigation Unit of the commission. 

AG’s Dept. official protects Weerawansa family!

- Feb 11, 2016

Top officials of the Attorney General’s Department are keeping a watch on a female official who has been aiding and abetting Shashi weerawansa, who was arrested on charges of furnishing false information to the emigration and immigration controller to obtain passports and using such passports to leave the country, and Wimal Weeerawansa, who was arrested later on similar charges.

The CID had sent the relevant file to the AG’s Department for advice, but the matter had been dealt with at snail pace. State counsel Disna Warnakula is in charge of this file.

A few weeks ago, she had instructed the CID to obtain a handwriting sample of Shashi Weerawansa and to obtain 100 format bundles of the relevant form from the emigration and immigration controller. She also gave instructions that the handwriting sample and the format bundles be submitted to the examiner of question documents.

In her statement, Shashi Weerawansa made it clear that it was not her who had filled the form in question. Despite this, sending her handwriting sample and the form to the EQD is clearly a conspiracy, top officials of the AG’s department say. The EQD will certainly say handwriting in the form is not that of Shashi Weerawansa. The officer who gave these details to Lanka News Web said the state counsel has taken action to provide a point of defence for the defendant at state expense.

On the day Shashi Weerawansa was arrested and produced before the Nugegoda magistrate’s court, Disna told the magistrate, “CID officials have arrested Shashi Weerawansa in violation of instructions given by the AG.” From then on, it is very clear that she has intentionally delayed justice from taking its due course.

According to information received by us, she has done so on advice given by a certain top official at the AG’s Department.

All those who value justice hope that president’s counsel Jayantha Jayasuriya, upon assuming duties as the AG, will pay due attention to the large number of files that had either been pushed under the carpet or being dealt with at snail pace during the past.

Mexico prison riot: at least 52 people killed and 12 injured in Monterrey

State governor confirms the death toll Friday morning and tells reporters that the riot at the Topo Chico prison had begun shortly before midnight

Fire and riot at prison in Mexico

David Agren in Mexico City-Thursday 11 February 2016

A riot at a prison in the Mexican city of Monterrey involving inmates belonging to rival drug cartels has left at least 52 dead and 12 injured, just days before Pope Francis is due to visit another prison in northern Mexico.

Jaime Rodríguez, the governor of Nuevo León state, which encompasses Monterrey, confirmed the death toll on Friday morning and told reporters that the riot at the Topo Chico prison had begun shortly before midnight.

“During the clash several prisoners set fire to the food storage and sleeping areas,” Rodríguez said. It was not immediately clear how the victims died but the governor said there had been no gunfire.

Rodríguez said that one of the factions involved in the violence was led by a leader of the Zetas cartel, Juan Pedro Saldivar-Farías, known as “Z-27”. The leader of the other group, Jorge Iván Hernández, “El Credo”, was identified by Mexican media as a leader of the Gulf Cartel.

Los Zetas, founded by a group of former special forces soldiers, were originally the Gulf Cartel’s enforcement wing, but turned on their former masters in 2010,triggering a vicious war for territory which has wrought havoc across north-eastern Mexico.

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Bernie Sanders and the question of Palestine

Senator Bernie Sanders makes a victory speech after defeating Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire primary for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, at Concord High School, 9 February.
Keiko HiromiPolaris

At a March 1988 news conference endorsing Jesse Jackson’s candidacy for president, Bernie Sanders blastedIsrael’s brutal treatment of Palestinian protesters as “an absolute disgrace.”

“The sight of Israeli soldiers breaking the arms and legs of Arabs is reprehensible. The idea of Israel closing down towns and sealing them off is unacceptable,” the then mayor of Burlington, Vermont, said to a gaggle of reporters.

Sanders was referring to the television images that shocked the world in those early months of the first intifada, of Israeli soldiers methodically breaking the limbs of Palestinian youths on the orders of then defense minister Yitzhak Rabin.

A year later, Palestine solidarity activists were thrown out of a Sanders campaign rally in Boston and threatened with arrest for bringing a sign that read, “Will ya #FeelTheBern 4 Palestine?”

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Cairo’s Soviet-Style Silencing

The paranoid, authoritarian regime of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has turned the cultural capital of the Middle East into Brezhnev’s Moscow.

BY RULA JEBREAL-FEBRUARY 11, 2016

This week, dozens of Middle Eastern artists and performers are being welcomed and celebrated at Bill T. Jones’s renowned annual Live Ideas event. This year’s festival, titled “MENA/Future — Cultural Transformations in the Middle East North Africa Region,” is focused on cultural transformations in the region and features films, lectures, panels, and community dialogues with MENA artists, addressing ideas and ideals through the lens of culture, all in an effort to forge a third way forward, in a world engulfed by terror and tyranny.

On Monday night, I had the privilege to co-host the opening keynote event of the festival with the Arab world’s most recognized comedian, Bassem Youssef, a.k.a. “Egypt’s own Jon Stewart.” Sadly, Egyptians no longer can enjoy Youssef’s work — or many of these other national treasures — in their own country. If you are an artist or intellectual in Egypt, your choices are stark: Give up your creative freedom, or be forced into exile by the vicious authoritarian regime of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whose government murders, imprisons, and intimidates would-be critics into collective silence.

The Sisi regime’s systematic destruction of Egypt’s cosmopolitan cultural vitality has resulted in an epic, generational loss. Cairo has historically been the cultural capital of the Arab world. It is home to one of the world’s oldest opera houses and, since the 1920s, has been the Hollywood of Arab cinema, responsible for more than half of all Arabic-language movies ever made. The first Arab Nobel literature laureate, Naguib Mahfouz, was a lifelong Cairene. The director Youssef Chahine has been hailed as a giant of world cinema; the songs of Umm Kulthum have brought tears to the eyes of people across the Arab world for the best part of a century.

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US presses Russia for immediate ceasefire in Syria
Call comes after Russia offers 'specific' proposal to end hostilities as International Syria Support Group prepares to meet in Munich

The UN human rights chief described the situation around Aleppo as "grotesque" (AFP) 

Thursday 11 February 2016

The US is pressing Russia for an immediate end to its bombing in Syria, US diplomatic sources have said, as the country's top diplomats met before wider "moment of truth" talks on the five-year war.

AFP reported that the US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday was pushing for an "immediate ceasefire" from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, hours after Lavrov announced he had presented a "specific" proposal and was awaiting a US response.

Lavrov's comments come hours before the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) of 17 countries including Russia, Saudi Arabia and the US, was set to meet in Munich to discuss the war.

Earlier, Western officials told Reuters that Russia had proposed a ceasefire beginning on 1 March.

Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said on Thursday that Nato was "exploring the possibility" of joining the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group, meaning the alliance and Russian forces could both be fighting in Syria.

His comments came after a meeting of defence officials in Brussels.

Carter did not expand on what role Nato would perform in Syria and Iraq, but the US has already requested aerial reconnaissance assistance from the alliance.

Russia has intensified its bombing of Syrian rebels around Aleppo this month in its support of Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, sending tens of thousands of civilians running for the Turkish border.

AFP quoted a US diplomat as saying their country "continues to push for an immediate ceasefire. We are continuing to work through various ways to achieve one as soon as possible."

Kerry and Lavrov were reportedly scheduled to talk before the main ISSG meeting, and the Russian foreign minister said he would wait for an American response to his ceasefire offer before taking it into the evening meeting.

American 'Plan B'

Washington wants a ceasefire and humanitarian access to besieged rebel cities but has threatened an unspecified "Plan B" if talks fail, according to the AFP.

A government offensive on the north-eastern city of Aleppo and its surroundings, which is being pushed with the support of Russian air strikes, has forced tens of thousands to flee what was once Syria's largest residential hub.

Observers say 500 people have been killed inside the city, with the UN warning that hundreds of thousands of people who have been unable to flee could become trapped without basic aid after government forces took control of the last supply line into the city from Turkey.

Amid the ongoing offensive, foreign ministers of a 17-member Syria group including the US, Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia, began meeting in the German city of Munich on Thursday.

Kerry has dubbed the Munich talks a "moment of truth" for the future of the conflict after the break down of UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva in early February.

The UN human rights chief meanwhile described the worsening situation around Aleppo as "grotesque" and has warned that up to 300,000 people are at risk of being besieged.

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said on Thursday that about 51,000 civilians had fled since the offensive began last week.

"The warring parties in Syria are constantly sinking to new depths, without apparently caring in the slightest about the death and destruction they are wreaking across the country," he said, adding that peace talks must resume as soon as possible. 

China warns on South China Sea as U.S., India consider patrols

The artificial island at the southern end of Mischief Reef showing a newly-built seawall on its north side and a completed dock are shown in this Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative January 8, 2016 satellite image...

Thu Feb 11, 2016

China on Thursday responded to a Reuters report that the U.S. and India are discussing joint naval patrols in the disputed South China Sea, warning that interference from countries outside the region threatens peace and stability.

"No cooperation between any countries should be directed at a third party," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in an emailed statement to Reuters, in response to a request for comment on the report published on Wednesday.

"Countries from outside the area must stop pushing forward the militarisation of the South China Sea, cease endangering the sovereignty and national security of littoral countries in the name of 'freedom of navigation' and harming the peace and stability of the region."

The United States wants its regional allies and other Asian nations to adopt a more united stance against China over the South China Sea, where tension has spiked since China's construction of seven islands in the Spratly archipelago.

China lays claim to most of the South China Sea, while Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims.

A U.S. defence official told Reuters this week the United States and India had held talks about joint naval patrols that could include the South China Sea.

RELATED COVERAGE

• › Exclusive - U.S. and India consider joint patrols in South China Sea: U.S. official

The Indian navy has never carried out joint patrols with another country and a navy spokesman told Reuters there was no change in the government's policy of only joining an international military effort under the U.N. flag.

Neither the United States nor India have claims to the area, but the United States says it is concerned about shipping lanes running through the South China Sea, which carry an estimated $5 trillion of trade every year.

Hong urged caution.

"We hope that the relevant parties speak and act with caution, refrain from intervening in the South China Sea issue, and especially avoid being manipulated by certain countries and ultimately harming their own interests."

China illustrates its claim to almost the entire South China Sea with a "nine-dashed line" on maps, that loops far to the south, with sections far closer to the coasts of countries like the Philippines and Vietnam than to its shores.

China's more assertive claim has included dredging to build up islands and the construction of air fields and shipping facilities on some reefs. It recently launched flights to one artificial island.

The United States has responded by sending navy ships close to the islands China claims. China has condemned that as provocative.

India has a long-running land border dispute with China, and has stepped up its naval presence far beyond the Indian Ocean in recent years, deploying a ship to the South China Sea almost constantly, an Indian navy commander said.

(Reporting by Megha Rajagopalan and Pete Sweeney)

 Police sergeant’s ‘problematic’ Facebook post allegedly compares Beyoncé dancers to KKK

By Lindsey Bever-February 11

Detroit’s top cop said a police sergeant is under investigation after he apparently posted a photo on social media, drawing comparisons between Beyoncé’s Super Bowl dance troupe and the Ku Klux Klan.

The sergeant, who has not been named, posted a meme showing Beyoncé’s dancers on the top and hooded Klansmen on the bottom, according to Fox affiliate WJBK.

“If the dance troupe at the top is okay for this year’s half-time show, then the one at a bottom should be okay for next year, right?” the sergeant wrote, according to WJBK.

The Facebook post pointed to Beyoncé’s live performance of “Formation,” which seemed to depict Black Panthers marching into an “X” formation — perhaps in a nod to Malcolm X.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig told WJBK that he received complaints from employees throughout the department about the post.

“Certainly this does not and shouldn’t represent our police officers,” he told the news station.

Amid the outcry, the department has launched an investigation.

[The night Beyoncé won the Super Bowl]

Although Beyoncé’s act was met with widespread praise, it also sparked a debate about whether the artist should have dragged politics onto the football field.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Monday called it an “attack” on police officers, and some critics launched a social media campaign using the hashtag #BoycottBeyonce.

“This is football, not Hollywood, and I thought it was really outrageous that she used it as a platform to attack police officers who are the people who protect her and protect us, and keep us alive,” Giuliani said on “Fox & Friends.”

An unidentified group is now planning to protest Beyoncé next week at NFL headquarters.

[Anti-Beyoncé protest planned at NFL headquarters]

The Detroit police sergeant later retracted his post and replaced it with an apology, according to local news reports.

ABC affiliate WXYZ reported that the sergeant acknowledged that he had “apparently ruffled some feathers.”

“My intent was to draw attention to what I felt was a poor decision by the NFL,” he wrote, according to the station. “However, the imagery I used may have been in poor taste. For that, I apologize.

In a surprise release a day before her Super Bowl performance, Beyoncé dropped the song "Formation" and its music video. Here's a guide to the video, the lyrics and things you might have missed. (Nicki DeMarco/The Washington Post)

The police chief told WJBK that the Facebook post was inappropriate.

“We work in a city that’s certainly well over 80 percent African American,” Craig said, “and to post something that has to do with a hate group like the Ku Klux Klan is problematic.”

The chief could not be immediately reached for comment.

Singapore food bloggers hit back at celebrity chef Jimmy Chok

by Carlton Tan-11th February 2016

SINGAPORE’S food bloggers have hit back at high-profile chef Jimmy Chok after he criticised them in a Six-Six interview for their unprofessionalism and incompetence.

Raising an instance when a blogger brought four friends along when the invite was only for one person, then arguing with the restaurant about it, Chok says “they are all paid, they are doing it for the money”.

According to Chok, a lot of food bloggers are young people who are not qualified to eat. What they write, however, can affect a chef’s career.

“Don’t do it at other people’s expense,” he says.

Food bloggers have not taken this lying down. Calling him an “unappreciative idiot,” blogger Kenneth Lee points to several glowing reviews of Chok’s restaurants. These reviews are not paid for, he says. “’They are all paid’ is such a sweeping statement, I don’t think you’ve actually put any thought into it.” Lee adds.

Lee then rebuts Chok’s claim that 20-year-olds cannot eat well.

“Palates can be cultivated from a young age, especially if that palate has been around the world. At the same time, eating more doesn’t mean knowing more.”

Another food blogger, Johor Kaki, points out that sometimes restaurants want bloggers to bring their friends.

“‘Please bring your family and blogger friends along’ I am often told. It’s for very practical reasons – who is going to finish the food?”

At the same time, Johor Kaki adds that he respects Chok’s clarity and forthrightness. It is a “complex, multi faceted social media scene” he says.

But this is not the first time questions about the impartiality of food bloggers have been raised. If anything, it is their tendency to give good reviews, not bad ones, which leaves readers wondering whether or not they can be trusted.

One reader asked, “Every bloggers says the food is good. How can all restaurants be good?”

Perhaps a little enmity between chefs and bloggers is a good thing for the rest of us. Let the sniping begin.

Follow Carlton Tan on Facebook or Twitter.

Scientists detect gravitational waves, hypothesised a century ago by Einstein

Gravitational waves are small ripples in space-time that are believed to travel across the universe at the speed of light.

• JACOB KOSHY- February 11, 2016
• 
  

After four months of analysis, a consortium of scientists— including from India — confirmed Thursday that they had detected a signal from space from 1.3 billion years ago. The signal, which travelled as a gravitational wave was from the fusion of two black holes into a single one — the first time ever that such a phenomenon was observed — and registered as a “çhirp’’ at two highly sensitive detectors, called the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) located in Washington and Louisiana.

Scientists say that this detection is as momentous as Galileo, 400 years ago. first using the telescope and getting a glimpse of what several celestial objects looked like magnified. “This is the first time that the universe has spoken to us in the language of gravitational waves,” said David Reitze, Executive Director of the LIGO Project. The discovery is proof that researchers, through gravitational waves, can now observe a new class of astronomical phenomena just as observing x-ray signals from space brought alive pulsar, neutron stars and a host of other unprecedented celestial objects.

Though the detectors were American, Indian scientists have contributed significantly in terms of designing algorithms that were used to analyse the signals registered by the detector and be sure that it was indeed from a gravitational wave. Indians have also made, three decades ago, theoretical contributions to understand how such black holes may collide into each other.

“It is an extremely significant find and Nobel worthy,”” said Bala Iyer, a theoretical physicist and among the leaders of the Indian consortium that contributed to the find. Immediately after the confirmation of the waves were formally announced, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his congratulations and announced approval for a project to have a gravitational-wave detector in India, a project that has been on the anvil for several years.

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Zika virus: 'Strongest evidence yet' of effect on babies

• 10 February 2016

One of the US's most senior public health officials has revealed the "strongest evidence to date" of the effect on babies of the Zika virus.

Dr Tom Frieden, head of the Center for Disease Control (CDC), was testifying before politicians in Washington.

He said that data from the cases of two infants in Brazil who died soon after birth indicated the virus had passed from mother to child.

However, he said the suspected link was still not definite.

There are thought to have been more than 4,000 cases in Brazil alone of babies born with microcephaly - abnormally small brains - and where the transmission of Zika virus from mother to child is suspected of being the cause.

Dr Frieden said intensive research was under way to find out much more about the mosquito-borne virus and to develop a vaccine for it, although he warned that that could still be years away.

"We will likely see significant numbers of [Zika] cases in Puerto Rico and other US territories," Dr Frieden warned.

He said the CDC would issue grants to US states at risk of Zika to better control mosquitoes.

Also on Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO), which has called the outbreak a "global public health emergency", issued guidance for women on how to protect themselves.

It said that until more is known on whether sexual contact can transmit Zika, "all men and women living in or returning from an area where Zika is present - especially pregnant women and their partners - should be counselled on the potential risks of sexual transmission and ensure safe sexual practices".

"These include the correct and consistent use of condoms, one of the most effective methods of protection against all sexually transmitted infections," the WHO said.

The use of contraception is a controversial issue in the region because of the Catholic Church's stance against it.

However, the Church has rejected calls from liberal Catholics for a softening of its position on the issue in light of the outbreak.

"Microcephaly has been occurring in Brazil for years. They are taking advantage of this moment to reintroduce the abortion topic," Bishop Leonardo Ulrich Steiner, secretary general of the Brazilian Bishops' Conference, told the Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper.

The WHO said it was not advocating travel restrictions to the area but advised pregnant women, or those trying to become pregnant, to seek medical advice before travelling to areas where Zika is present.

IHL, Genocide & Investigation On Sri Lanka

By R.M.B Senanayake –February 10, 2016

RMB Senanayake

Report of the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (Advance version)

The Human Rights Council adopted Resolution 255/1 in March 2014 requesting the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to “undertake a comprehensive investigation into alleged serious violations and abuses of Human Rights and related crimes by both parties during the period covered by the LLRC to ensure accountability for any alleged violations and crimes.”

The mandate for the Investigation was to cover the period from February 2002 to November 2011. There was the Ceasefire Agreement of February 2002.

The Report is organized in a series of chapters under headings like “Unlawful Killings; ”Violations related to the depriving of liberty; Enforced Disappearances; Torture, Sexual and Gender based violence; Abduction and Forced disappearances; the recruitment and use of children in hostilities. There is also documentation on the impact of hostilities on civilians in the final few months of the conflict, by way of controls on the movement or civilians and the denial of humanitarian assistance.

The Report states that the OISL conducted a Human Rights investigation and not a criminal investigation. But it states that it sought to identify the patterns of large scale violations of International Human Rights and the humanitarian law. They were says the Report executed by a number of persons with a hierarchical command structure and may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity if established in a Court of Law. It also refers to the impunity with which these violations have been carried out and points out that the victims and relations of such victims have been prevented from exercising their rights to truth, justice and reparations.

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