Friday, March 4, 2016

Vali North IDPs protest in Jaffna demanding resettlement

04 March 2016

Displaced Tamils from Valikaamam North, who have remained in IDP camps for over 25 years began a hunger strike on Friday, in protest at the failure to resettle them.

The hunger strike protest took place over all 32 welfare camps, beginning at 9am local time in the Kannagi IDP camp in Marunthanamadam.

IDPs join hunger strike protest at Sabapathypillai camp:

The Proposed New Constitution: Some Suggestions & Thoughts

By Rajasingham Narendran –March 4, 2016

Dr. Rajasingham Narendran

The Executive Presidency instituted through the 1978 Republican constitution and subsequently amended nineteen times (the 20th was on line) has to be faulted for most of the myriad failures in Sri Lanka’s democracy and governance. The Executive Presidency of Sri Lanka is a badly designed institution within a badly designed and subsequently further distorted constitution. It is probably the strongest office in the world! The constitution of 1978 was designed to bestow unbridled power on one man to do everything but change a man into women and vice versa, and ensure permanent governance by the UNP. It was designed to make the Executive Presidency dictatorial and unprincipled in the hands of the wrong person holding that office.

In the process all other institutions , the parliament, judiciary and public services, were deformed beyond recognition and made subservient to the Executive Presidency. Accountability, rule of law and everything else that define good governance had been comatose by January’1915. The impunity bestowed on the Executive Presidency, had reached and polluted every mound and crevice in Sri Lanka. Democracy had become a sham. Governance was/is no doubt at its poorest

A nation that had universal franchise 85 years (1931) back- much before other British colonies in Asia- and had a vibrant democracy at independence (1948) has since the 1977 constitution, sold the sovereignty of its people to elected tin pot dictators. The 18th amendment dealt a death blow to constitutional norms, principles of governance even as laid down, ethics, political morality and established principles of democracy.

The questions we have to ask are:

1. Is the concept of a Republican Constitution wrong or is OUR republican constitution deliberately designed wrong?
2. Is the concept of an Executive Presidency wrong or is OUR executive presidency deliberately designed wrong?

My answer to both these questions is the same. The constitution and the executive presidency within it have been deliberately designed wrong. They have been designed to elect a monarch, to whom all other institutions and the people are subsidiary and subservient. It also has paved the way to establish a familial monarchy of sorts. It has paved the way for elected Executive Presidents to assume pseudo-democratic legitimacy through various devices that breach moral and ethical principles, rule us with an iron fist, hiding mala-fide intent with smiling faces and what Nilantha Ilangamuwa (Sri Lanka Guardian. August 5, 2014) quoting Walter Lippmann chooses to call ‘Manufactured Consent’ in an article.

The concept of ‘manufacturing consent’ is not an innovation of the last government, but has been practiced by all governments before it, though the last government has made it a very sophisticated exercise. Money power, hired muscle power, mob squads led by yellow clad thugs, white vanning, murder, media manipulations , the police and armed forces, the parliament and the judicial system were used as never before to manufacture this ‘manufactured consent’. The manner in which Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake was removed from office will forever stand as an example of this ‘manufactured consent’! The manner in which the two thirds majority was constructed and the 18th amendment to the constitution passed is another. There is a multitude, more. What was ‘manufactured consent’ steadily morphed into ‘consent by the quiet and silence of a morgue’ enforced by blatant use of pressures of various types. We were made into the four monkeys that do not see, hear, speak or show!

Sri Lanka torture allegations continue as war crimes inquiry remains distant prospect

Amid a tense political situation and ongoing allegations of torture, a promised inquiry into Sri Lanka's bloody civil war appears no closer.

PHOTO: Sri Lanka's civil war raged for decades.(Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi: Reuters)

Soldier wounded during battle with Tamil Tiger rebels receives medical treatment as family members w

Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa gestures during a meeting

Presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena casts Sri Lanka 2015 vote

PHOTO: Sri Lanka's former president Mahinda Rajapaksa is credited with ending the civil war, but has rejected calls to investigate torture allegations.(Andrew Caballero-Reynolds, file photo: Reuters)
PHOTO: President Maithripala Sirisena was supportive of an inquiry, but has bowed to pressure to exclude international involvment. (AFP: Ishara S Kodikara)

By South Asia correspondent James Bennett-March 3, 2016

Sri Lanka's new government had vowed to convene an internationally supervised probe into atrocities, allegedly committed by both government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels during the decades-long conflict, which ended in 2009.

However, with a worsening deficit and vocal opposition from nationalists to prosecutions, the coalition government indicated it will not be rushing to set up any inquiry.

Meanwhile, rights groups allege the abuses are continuing.

Freedom from Torture's director of policy Sonya Sceats said a culture of torture was "deeply entrenched" in Sri Lanka's security forces.

"It has been for decades and any assumption that a change of government has led to a rollback in torture is frankly naive," she said.

Ms Sceats said her organisation had been referred eight separate allegations of torture since the National Unity Government of Maithripala Sirisena took office last year.

"These referrals come to us from the NHS here in Britain, GPs, psychological staff and lawyers who act for asylum seekers," she said.

Other human rights groups have reported similar concerns of ongoing abuses.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein told the ABC an inquiry was imperative, during a visit to Sri Lanka.

"Unless you look at your past and distil the right lessons from it, it's never going to be enough," he said.

Mr Hussein said otherwise the country would run the risk of a "charismatic bigot" again whipping up ethnic division.

In light of the ongoing allegations of torture in Sri Lanka, Mr Hussein also renewed his criticism of Australia's policy of turning back asylum seeker boats.

( March 5, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Gehan Gunatilleke in this study on truth, memory and justice challenges the notion of a unique ‘Sri Lankan approach’ to transitional justice that may be applied in the post-war context.

The findings of the study are based on the views of interviewees who have experienced loss as a result of the many instances of communal and ethnic violence in Sri Lanka since 1983. The incidents explored in the study include the communal riots of 1983, the Southern insurrection in the late 1980s, the ethnic war that ended in 2009, and the Aluthgama riots of 2014. In an empirical assessment, the author challenges the idea that a uniform approach to coping with grief and loss exists among Sri Lankans. This is largely in response to claims made by sections of the Sri Lankan state that the scheme of reconciliation most appropriate to Sri Lanka is one of ‘restorative justice’. This scheme of reconciliation is based on the virtues of tolerance, forgiveness and leniency that is said to essentially reflect the cultural and religious ethos of the people of Sri Lanka as a whole. The author, through an exploration of the several contexts of loss, the group’s views on truth telling, the importance of memorialising loss, and their views on justice in the aftermath of loss, challenges the notion of a ‘one Sri Lankan approach’ to truth, memory and justice. He points to the multiplicity of views and preferences expressed by those who have suffered loss, and concludes that the most appropriate approach to transitional justice in Sri Lanka is one that can sincerely accommodate such multiplicity.

Key findings that emerge from participants’ recollections in this study:

Three important findings emerge from the participants’ recollections, observations and opinions.

Heterogeneity and the Reductive Narrative

This relates to the extraordinary heterogeneity detectable in the views of participants. Following the conclusion of the war, certain quarters within the Sri Lankan government attempted to construct a ‘Sri Lankan approach’ to justice. This line of reasoning sought to define the concept of restorative justice as closely related to notions of ‘forgiveness’, ‘tolerance’ and ‘leniency’ which was said to represent Sri Lankan religious traditions. Thus it was argued that ‘Sri Lankan approach’ was not to seek punitive measures.

The so-called Sri Lankan approach is normatively problematic because it promotes a limited understanding of restorative justice. At least three normative concerns might be raised in this regard.

Democracy between a rock and a hard place - Kishali Pinto Jayawardena

Mar 04, 2016

Following her participation at a CHRI mission to The Maldivian capital late last year, Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena assesses the political situation in this troubled island nation, drawing comparisons with her own Sri Lankan homeland and calling on the Commonwealth to speak out.

The signs are unmistakeable. Defensiveness edged with barely veiled annoyance underlies the responses of Maldivian ruling party officials as they respond to concerns regarding the Rule of Law in the Indian Ocean archipelago.

A sense of déjà vu
There is a sense of déjà vu in the experience. The resistance brings back disquieting personal memories of life under the Rajapaksas in Sri Lanka. That same instability seething under a deceptive surface of normalcy is now evidenced in the Maldives.

As the country is gripped by political repression, troubled Maldivians cling to the idea that somehow, some day, things will change. In a charged conversation during a mission of the New Delhi-based Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) to Malé in November 2015, one lawyer remarked in a hushed aside: ‘We look at Sri Lanka’s example in dealing with its rulers and hope that we can do the same.’

But matters are not so uncomplicated in both our countries, I hasten to add. The mere fact of regime change in Sri Lanka has not necessarily meant a miraculous turn for the better. Indeed, we are only now slowly awakening to the unpalatable fact that changing an entrenched culture of impunity requires far more than an election victory or two on a given day.

Commonalities and differences
marginalised Sinhalese extends far beyond the cripplingly autocratic Rajapaksa years. Transforming the aberrant Sri Lankan state is an agonisingly slow process. Since the 2015 elections, the political leadership has faltered in enlightened leadership, giving way to nepotism and corruption in its ranks. A promise made to the United Nations to establish a war crimes tribunal with ‘international participation’ to examine accountability questions during the Northern war has made this task even more complex. A communalistic Rajapaksa backlash, emboldened by the evident difficulties of Sri Lanka’s 2015 ‘rainbow revolution’, is looming in the shadows.

There are, of course, obvious points of departure between Sri Lanka and the Maldives, the strongest being the relatively recent emergence of the latter from feudal patriarchy. The Maldivians have a tenuous experience of democracy in contrast to Sri Lanka’s developed legal and constitutional antecedents. But some commonalities are striking, not least of which is the ‘managing’ and manipulation of internal turbulence in small island states by regional and international big powers. The tug of war between India and China and the strategic interests of the United States in the Indian Ocean has significant pressure points in Colombo and Malé.

Worry over the increased Chinese ‘footprint’
Exceedingly affronted by the docking of Chinese submarines in Colombo harbour amidst largesse flowing from Beijing to Colombo under the Rajapaksas, India appeared to be reassured by the transfer of power in 2015 to a seemingly less China-friendly government, a process in which India itself had more than a particular stake.

Indeed, the pendulum appears now to be teetering from one extreme to the other to the consternation of the Sri Lankan people. The latest controversy to envelop Colombo is a proposed Economic and Technology Cooperative Agreement (ECTA) with India. The secretiveness of the discussions has incensed Sri Lankan professionals led by the influential medical lobby, who argue that the country’s service sector will be overrun by incompetent foreign professionals. If the Sri Lankan government continues to grossly mismanage the dispute, this has all the makings of a mass agitation with potential social destabilisation.

This same regional power-play is evidenced in The Maldives. An increased Chinese ‘footprint’ in the archipelago has begun to worry the Indian government. The Maldivians have taken generous Chinese investment in their stride. Indeed, a recent amendment to the property laws allowing foreign ownership of land subject to particular conditions was passed without much protest, despite dark hints that this was aimed at further enabling Chinese assets.

All is not well in paradise
In the midst of the games that powerful nations play, it is the people who suffer most. Effusively described in tour brochures as the Indian Ocean’s paradise isles, Sri Lanka and the Maldives share strong bonds, not the least of which is the appealing nonchalance with which many Maldivians regard Sri Lanka as their second home. That affinity seems to be the first victim of pronounced strains between Colombo and Malé with the arrest of a Sri Lankan national for alleged complicity in an assassination bid on President Abdulla Yameen late last year.
In turn, the Sri Lankan government increased scrutiny of Maldivians entering the country with acerbic statements calling upon Malé to exercise greater restraint. Three individuals alleged to have hired the Sri Lankan sniper have been (reportedly) released by the Criminal Court due to the absence of credible evidence. No official explanation was given as to the evidentiary basis behind the suspects’ arrest in the first place.

The arbitrariness of these actions encapsulates the failure of the Rule of Law. In the absence of developed criminal justice laws and procedures, confidence in the Maldivian legal process has plummeted to abysmal depths. The grotesquely staged ‘trial’ of former president Mohammed Nasheed lacked basic fair process safeguards. Presidential paranoia became aggravated after the arrest of former vice president Ahmed Adeeb following the failed assassination attempt, with show trials of the vice president and his supporters. Journalists critical of the Yameen regime routinely testified to threats which were disregarded by the police.

Systemic failures of the justice system
As the CHRI mission report Searching for a Lost Democracy, launched from London in February 2016, notes: ‘The Commonwealth’s core value of separation of powers is not respected in the Maldives’ (page 4). Many interviewees, including former judges, opined that the executive, the legislature and the judiciary do not act independently. There is judicial overreach, with contempt notices issued against lawyers who incur the wrath of politically compromised judges.

In a bizarre development, the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) was found by the Supreme Court to have acted ‘unlawfully’ in questioning the independence of the judiciary in a periodic report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council. In the face of this onslaught, the independence of oversight bodies has wilted

These systemic failures are accompanied by the rapid radicalisation of once easygoing Maldivian society, with attacks carried out on secular bloggers and moderate opinion makers. Maldivian journalist Ahmed Rilwan Abdulla has been missing since the middle of last year. Absent an effective counter-strategy by Malé, religious conservatism on the remoter atolls has become pronounced. Women are its first victims through flogging and the introduction of other Sharia punishments. Meanwhile a disconcertingly high percentage of disaffected Maldivian youth belonging to criminal gangs that operate with political patronage have joined the al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State. And the numbers are not going down.

The Commonwealth should not be silent
The problems that the Maldivian citizenry currently face are not necessarily limited to a particular political regime, even though matters may be infinitely worse under the current leadership. As an editor of a national daily observed to me, ‘We have become cynical of the government and the opposition; both are viewed with a degree of suspicion.’ In the final instance, however, the Maldivian people may need to opt for the greater or the lesser devil, as opposed to making a more luxurious choice between the known devil and the unknown angel. This is a dilemma which their Sri Lankan neighbours are also facing, though in a somewhat different factual context.

Meanwhile, as the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) meets in London in February, the Maldives is prominently on its agenda. But the Commonwealth’s record of standing up for its core values is not reassuring. The Rajapaksa presidency’s exuberant hosting of the 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, even while acting completely contrary to fundamental democratic norms, is one illustrative example.

One hopes that this distasteful precedent of Commonwealth inaction in the face of open authoritarianism will not be repeated.

- http://www.asianaffairs.in-

Proposal For New Constitution: PDC’s Submission

Dayapala Thiranagama

Proposal For New Constitution: PDC’s Submission

March 4, 2016

The People’s Democratic Centre (PDC) has submitted the following proposal to the Public representation Committee on Constitutional Reforms:

We wish to present the following proposals for the Constitution

Nature of the State

The Sri Lankan Constitution should provide the basis for a strong constitutional commitment to plural democracy, multiculturalism, gender equality and justice, secularism, the rule of law and the devolution of political power to the Provinces. The state should be inclusive of all the communities and their cultures in the country and without such an inclusiveness they do not feel that they belong to this country. The state should protect and foster the values of plural democracy as a hallmark of the Sri Lankan state. The Sri Lankan state should underpin the values of gender equality and justice and this is essential owing to the fact women now represent more than half of the Sri Lankan population. The Sri Lankan state should reclaim its previous constitutional status of secularism, which disappeared in the 1972 Republican Constitution. No one religion should have a special constitutional favor. Such constitutional guarantees discriminate other communities and faiths and that would affect the harmony essential for the peaceful coexistence of the multi-cultural and multi- religious communities in the country. The Sri Lankan state should be committed to the rule of law and the Constitution should make strong provisions to protect our people’s right to exercise the rule of law.

Due to the centralization of political power at the center during the colonial times and its continuation after independence despite the opportunities of dismantling it we have paid a heavy price. Both the Constitutions of 1972 and 1978 failed to address the issues of centralization and its harmful effects on community cohesion as far as the regional democratic aspirations are concerned. Therefore, regional power sharing needs to be non- reversible part of the state and the Constitution should make a strong commitment to power sharing.

Form of Government

We would like to propose the abolition of the executive presidential system of government. Any effort to replace it with an executive prime minister would result in the same political disaster experienced in the executive presidential system of government. The country has given a clear mandate to abolish the executive presidential system in the 2015 elections.

However we would also like to propose the appointment of a non-executive President and a Vice President by the members of Parliament in order to carry out certain functions. We would like to see the constitution making recommendations in relation to the ethnic sensitivity in this regard. If the President is appointed from the majority community the Vice President should be appointed from a minority community. If the President is appointed from a minority community the vice President should from the majority community.

With the abolition of the current executive presidential system we also propose that the leadership and power should be given to the prime minster and the cabinet. The ministries should be empowered to act as executive committees and it is important to consider the possibility of appointing independent scholars who are competent enough in the their respective fields to act in these cabinet committees. These appointments should be non-partisan.

I have never been in politics for power: ex-Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga

Chandrika Kumaratunga. File photo. Reuters

by Seema Guha Mar 4, 2016
Chandrika Bandarnaike Kumaratunga, is much more than a former president and prime minister. She is the architect of the political arrangement which showed strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa the door. She may not be a minister or hold a party position, but remains the glue which holds together this government of national unity, headed by SLFP President Maithripala Sirisena and run by UNP Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe.

Kumaratunga was in Delhi for the Raisina Dialogue, and took a few minutes off her busy schedule to speak toFirstpost. Kumaratunga revealed for the first time that the slain LTTE leader Prabhakaran regretted not accepting the political package she had given to the Tamils while she was president. She was told about this by a expatriate Tamil professional who worked out of London and often traveled back home to Jaffna.

Prabhakaran is said to told this man, ``I regret I didn’t take it.’’ Kumaratunga’s offer was the most that any Sinhalese leader could have extended to the Tamils. She admits that today, the government is not in a position to offer what she had done at that time. Nor are the Tamils asking for it as they know that Sinahala chauvinism fanned during the Rajapaksa regime would never give as much.

Chandrika was the main mover in getting the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party, (a party founded by her father) to join hands with the United National Party and to throw out President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the January 2015 presidential polls. Without her backing, Sirisena, a low key minister in Rajapaksa’s cabinet would never have been accepted by the majority of the SLFP. Her voice, not just as a former president but the daughter of two former prime ministers lent weight to the argument and led to the eventual defeat of the Rajapaksa.

Chandrika Bandarnaike Kumaratunga, is much more than a former president and prime minister. She is the architect of the political arrangement which showed strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa the door. She may not be a minister or hold a party position, but remains the glue which holds together this government of national unity, headed by SLFP President Maithripala Sirisena and run by UNP Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe.

Are the people bitter ?

CK : Not bitter, but frightened. But not with me. I am certainly neither frightened nor bitter about myself

How do you see the future of the UNP and the SLFP? Two opposing parties came together to save the country from the Rajapaksa’s rule, but afterwards what happens?

CK : We will finish the full five year term. Next elections we shall see. Possibly contest as two parties and form the government again together

And your political future ?

CK : I am not greedy for power. I have done my bit for my country. I don't want to be pinned down. Me and my family have never been in politics for power. We have given and not taken. My foundations are my passion and I also involved with the Chair for National Unity and Reconciliation.

Armed forces and accountability

Hariharan's Intelligence blog

Col R Hariharan-February 2016

Sri Lanka government while going through the difficult process of implementing the UN Human Rights Council resolution to carry out a “credible justice process” to inquire into the alleged war crimes during the Eelam war seems to have run into bit of trouble over the issue, at least with sections of the armed forces.

According to a report in the Sunday Times, foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera had assured security force commanders and divisional commanders that the government would protect the interests of the security forces, when he addressed them recently in Jaffna. Apparently this was in the context of implementing the UNHRC resolution and inquiring into war crimes. However, he rejected a proposal by Major General Gallage, GOC of 51 Division, to include a military representative in the task force appointed by the government to enforce the provisions of the Geneva resolution. Days later, Gen Galage was transferred out of Jaffna to take over as director general of infantry at the Army Headquarters. It is interesting to note that Gen Gallage was formerly in charge of presidential guards during the Rajapaksa regime.

Well known columnist DBS Jeyaraj has quoted former naval chief Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekara as telling the media “the sudden and unwarranted transfer of war hero Major General Gallage from the North to Colombo for voicing his opinion is a case in point and the government has victimized those who spoke against its actions inimical to the country’s interests.” The admiral was probably expressing the feelings of sections of the armed forces, which are increasingly concerned over the ambivalence in government’s attitude while deciding on the issue, unlike president Mahinda Rajapaksa who had out rightly refused the demand for an international inquiry into the war crimes allegations.

The armed forces are a powerful pillar of support to the government all along. The public hold them in high esteem for their victory in the Eelam war which eliminated the Tamil separatist insurgency after decades of struggle. So it would be fool hardy for the national leadership to antagonize the armed forces.

Moreover the Sirisena government would not like to provide political space for former president Rajapaksa to use the issue to whip up Sinhala nationalist sentiments to stage a comeback.

This is probably the reason for the national leadership to indulge in a bit of doublespeak particularly on the issue of international participation. It also reflects the differences within the ruling elite. While president Sirisena is opposed to it, prime minister Wickremesinghe’s stand is not clear as he would like to retain the support of the international community which supports him without antagonizing the public at home who voted for him.

On the other hand, foreign minister Samaraweera, though fully aware of the popular feelings of Sri Lankans, has been speaking for international participation in the process to improve the country’s credibility at home with minorities as well as with other UN member countries. In an interview in the U.S., the foreign minister had said that Sri Lanka was looking at all options including foreign judges, forensic experts, investigators, prosecutors etc. He added that in the next five or six months the “contours and architecture” of the court would be worked out after consulting all parties including the Tamil National Alliance.

Whatever be the process the government finally adopts, pro-Rajapaksa opposition would not miss out the opportunity to channelize popular opposition and turn it to its advantage. In view of these sensitivities, the Sirisena regime is likely to take the final decision after damage control measures are in place. So the ambivalence in government pronouncements is likely to continue till then.

Demand for a Muslim state

Basher Segu Dawood, chairman of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) has once again revived the party’s original demand for the creation of a separate province for Muslims. The party secretary general Hasan Ali said the demand would be included in their proposals for constitutional reforms. However, many of the community leaders including Aman, son of MHM Ashraff the founder of SLMC, have condemned Segu Dawood for raising the “outdated” demand. Aman clarified that his father had originally demanded the creation of a separate Muslim province in the early stages of SLMC’s creation only in the context of granting the Tamil demands for a separate province.

Generally, the SLMC is considered representing the liberal segment of Muslims. So it is not clear why its chairman Dawood has raised the demand now. With the constitutional reform process under way, he was probably vocalizing the concerns of sections of Muslims on preserving their distinct cultural and religious identity, lest they are missed out by the constitution makers. Dawood’s demand also probably reflects his desire to consolidate his leadership position within the SLMC which is ridden with factionalism. Perhaps this is the reason for the silence of Rauf Hakeem, the senior leader of the party and minister in the Sirisena cabinet, who has not commented on the issue so far.

The demand for a Muslim state is unlikely to gain more support from the community; many members of the community are happy that the present national unity government has put the anti-Muslim Sinhala Buddhist fringe groups like the Bodu Bala Sena under pressure unlike the Rajapaksa regime which had ignored their attacks on Muslims. But if Dawood persists with the demand it would give a lease of life to the anti-Muslim fringe elements struggling for political space since the dethroning of Rajapaksa from power.

Rajapaksas in the dock

Non-payment of ITN dues: According to the Colombo weekly Sunday Leader, the Presidential Commission on Large Scale Fraud is to take legal action against former president Rajapaksa and a few others for not paying the dues of the state owned Independent Television Network for airing election propaganda during the last presidential campaign. The Commission is said to have already completed questioning several people including the former president in this case.

Inquiry into media excesses: In yet another case of investigating the excesses committed during the Rajapaksa regime, president Sirisena is appointing a Presidential Commission to probe into the attacks on several journalists and media organizations including Sirisa TV and Lankaenews. Already the investigations have been reopened in two other cases botched up earlier - murder of Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickremetunga and the disappearance of cartoonist Preeth Ekneligoda (now confirmed as murder). The investigations in these cases have progressed and the judicial action is likely to commence shortly.

Thajudeen murder case: The Colombo additional magistrate has ordered the arrest of six suspects including two sons of former president Rajapaksa - SLFP parliament member Namal and naval officer Yoshitha and the personal chauffer of the former president in connection with the murder of national rugby star Wasim Thajudeen. Yoshitha is already in custody in the case of money laundering by the Carlton Sports Network in which he was a director. Both the Rajapaksas have denied their involvement in the two cases.

Written on February 29, 2016

[Col R Hariharan, a retired MI officer, served as the head of intelligence of the Indian Peace Keeping Force from 1987 to 90. E-mail: haridirect@gmail.com Blog: http://col.hariharan..info

Courtesy: South Asia Security Trends, March 2016 issue. www.security-risks.com

Mano’s official website launched

Mar 04, 2016

Renowned artist Jayalath Manorathna’s official website was launched yesterday 3rd.

The latest creation of Manorathna’s “Handa nihanda” was staged yesterday at Lionel Wendt theatre and parallel to that his new official website was also launched by the chairman of the Telecom Kumarasiri Sirisena.

Manorathna’s website can be opened by clicking the link below an see his artistic life and related information.

http://jayalathmanorathna.org/

Firearms and lethal weapons in possession of wife of Ex DIG Vaas fires in wrong direction – she joins family in prison..!

(Lanka-e-News -03.March.2016, 8.20PM) Shyamali Priyadharshini Perera the wife of ex DIG Vaas Gunawardena (who was found guilty and sentenced to death in connection with the murder of Mohomed Shyam) has been taken into custody for illegal possession of arms and lethal weapons , and transporting them. After she was produced before Colombo additional magistrate yesterday (02) Nishantha Peiris ,she was ordered to be remanded until 16 th.

Lanka e news always first with the news and best with the views was the first to expose as far back as in 2013 , that not only Vaas’ wife , but even his elder son Ravindu and younger son Hasindu were using firearms illegally. Moreover , Lanka e news also posted a report on how monies collected as extortion payments after threatening law abiding citizens by Vaas’ family were flaunted in public by them ( we are herein publishing again the photos that were revealed then)

Incredible but true , during the heydays of the brutal corrupt Vaas family, just because a son of Vaas was made a butt of a joke , the son’s school mate who fooled him was abducted , taken to their home , and assaulted. Mind you it was Vaas’ wife now arrested who trampled that student nad kicked him in his head then after putting him down.

In any event , police must be thanked for at least enforcing the law after so many years .

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by (2016-03-03 14:50:30)

Teachers in North Central Province take to the streets

FRIDAY, 04 MARCH 2016

Teachers in North Central Province held an agitation in Anuradhapura town yesterday (3rd) demanding that foreign tours spending Rs.3.9 million should be stopped, the teachers who teach more than 260,000 students should be paid their arrears and they be given their due promotions.

The General Secretary of Lanka Teacher Services Union Mahinda Jayasinghe said arrears for 30 months of teachers in North Central Province have been slashed, their promotions have not been formalized and while teachers are inconvenienced due to all these issues Members of North Central Provincial Council have organized a foreign tour for themselves spending millions from public money.

He said the Provincial Council should immediately mediate in solving the issues of the teachers and added that failure to solve teachers' issues would result in stern trade union action. He said his trade union was prepared to give leadership to teachers' struggles to win their rights.

If You Are Not Dead Already, You Should Be!

By Arjuna Seneviratne –March 4, 2016

Arjuna Seneviratne

The dumb citizen’s sellout to toxic foods and the disaster to national health

So, you are fairly well to do. You commute daily to your great job or your profitable business. You return each day to a stable family. You take a vacation every few months. You own a few acres and couple of houses and a car or three. You go often to the bank to make a deposit to an already fairly fat nest egg. It’s a great, solid, decent, socially mandated routine and you are probably thinking you do well in terms of the societal norms by which you live. Society probably considers you a smart man and you probably believe that yourself.

Oh, and by the way, you also complete that routine by becoming sick five times a year, going in for a checkup every six months with your spouse in attendance and taking a sick child to this OPD or that battery of specialists every month for treatment for a cocktail of illnesses. Your kitchen cabinet resembles a mini-pharmacy. You hammer the well-woman clinic, the hair-loss treatment clinic, a dozen deals that come couched in health check-up packages from diabetes to prostrate to toe-nails, every next advert claiming that you can be saved if you gulp this, pop that or drink the other thing.

Who are you?

You are one of a whole host of upper-middle class citizens of this country that believes, religiously, blindly, that your life is great despite every indication to the contrary. You believe you are doing alright with your diabetes, your hypertension, and your clogged arteries.

You think that chronic kidney disease is something that affects poor rural farmers who live surrounded by a fog of toxic agrochemicals. You have no clue that a full 10-15 percent of the population of Sri Lanka will be subject to serious renal disease by 2025 and that you, thirty-something now will probably be having dialysis as a forty-something.

You have no idea why your wife had to suffer so much to give birth to a child and had to go visit a doctor fourteen times during pregnancy or why your child needs every kind of shot, pill and glug imaginable just to keep it breathing over its first five years. You haven’t figured out why most women are half dead by the time they have a single child these days and you have no clue why you have penile dysfunction at thirty. You do not wonder that each time you go to a hospital there are, literally, thousands of others crowding in, pushing you out and jostling for position. You have no need to understand why the fastest growing and most profitable business sector in Sri Lanka is the health sector. You think this is the norm and you are not even listening when your dad tells you that in his day, he visited the doctor maybe once a decade and even then, there were just a couple of others in the waiting room with him. You have no idea two thirds of your productivity is lost to your little stash of diseases. You have no idea why in the past, people were cured by medicine but now, they are forced into chronic use of drugs simply to keep them going and going in a twilight existence while buying and buying “controllers”.

President calls for report into compulsory website registration!

- Mar 04, 2016

Web journalists as well as free media activists are concerned by a media statement that announces the Media and Information Ministry’s compulsory registration of websites operating from Sri Lanka before the 31st of this month. They describe this regulatory move as the beginning of the Yahapaalana government’s taking to the same path that of the Rajapaksa regime. Web journalists and free media activists point out that what the Media Ministry wants through this compulsory registration is to control websites the way the government wants.

After the social media unit of the president’s media unit brought this matter to the attention of the president, he has instructed the Ministry to submit a report to him immediately. He has asked the Ministry secretary as to why such regulatory measures were being taken despite his previous instructions not to ban, under any circumstances, even the websites that cross the limit of ethics to attack him and the Yahapaalana government.

Making a special statement to the Ceylon Daily News, acting Media and Information Minister Karunarartne Paranawithana said the government's move to continue with the registration of news casting websites is not intended to control them, but to give web journalists a recognition to be on par with mainstream journalists. He said web journalists once registered with the ministry would be provided with a media identity card allowing them access to press conferences and various other media events.

Given below is the facebook posting by acting minister Paranawithana in this regard: