China –Pakistan Economic Corridor and the 

Growing Rivalry in the Indian Ocean

2016 March 22  

( This paper on China –Pakistan Economic Corridor and the Growing Rivalry in the Indian Ocean". was presented  by Sri Lankan journalist and author Latheef Farook at the two day International Conference on China-Pakistan Economic Co-operation in Islamabad 14 and 15 March 2016)

In the aftermath of the collapse of the former Soviet Union in December 1979, United States, Britain, Europe, Russia and Israel   began invading and destroying Muslim countries in the Middle East and beyond in their drive to create Greater Israel by annexing  Syria and Iraq.

While the west was busy with their wars, China began peacefully entering African countries, concluding agreements and undertaking numerous development projects besides finding markets for its wide range of products.

As a result China’s trade with Africa which stood at around ten billion dollar in 2002 reached around 180 billion dollar in 2004. China’s four trillion dollar trade and seven million barrels of daily oil is transacted through the Indian Ocean sea route. 

Thus the Indian ocean is  indispensable to China. However there were fears that this sea trade route can be choked by blocking mainly Malacca Strait by hostile powers.

To overcome this threat China tied up with its longstanding trustworthy partner- Pakistan started building an alternate trade route as part of an ambitious 46 billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor-CPEC project.

The CPEC is unique in the sense that it connects China and Pakistan only. Also it connects China to the sea through the quickest route. Under this overall program China intends to build a web of networks such as the Southern Silk Road, the Central Asia Silk Road, the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and the CPEC.

It could be a pivot to China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) concept that aims to connect 60 countries on the Asia and European land mass. 

One of them was linking the strategically important Pakistani port of Gwadar in the Persian Gulf to China’s Xinjiang region through a vast network of highways and railways, upgrading and expanding infrastructure and overhauling of the transportation infrastructure, sea ports, imports oil and gas pipeline. This land route, shortens distance with the Gulf market by 10,000 kilometers, and it is bound to change the entire geo politics of the region

One should not forget that one of the main reasons why the now collapsed Soviet Union dispatched troops to Afghanistan was to gain access to warm waters of Persian Gulf.

Thus the development of the strategically located port of Gwadar and a modern airport there also bound to raise concern from Gulf sheikhdoms, Tehran, Moscow to Washington, London, Paris, Tel Aviv and New Delhi.

China also developed its own strategy for the Indian Ocean by setting up a series of ports in friendly countries along the ocean's northern seaboard from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. 

The Chinese government is also planning a canal across the Isthmus of Kra, in Thailand, to link the Indian Ocean to China's Pacific coast -- a project on the scale of the Panama Canal. This could further tip Asia's balance of power in China's favor by giving China's expanding navy and commercial maritime fleet easy access   from East Africa to Japan and the Korean Peninsula.

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Syrian forces fight their way into Palmyra, as Kerry and Putin hail thaw

Forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad gesture as they advance into the historic city of Palmyra in this picture provided by SANA on March 24, 2016.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) speaks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, March 24, 2016. REUTERS/Alexander Nemenov/Pool

BY JOHN IRISH, LESLEY WROUGHTON AND LISA BARRINGTON- Fri Mar 25, 2016

Syrian troops backed by Russian air support fought their way into the Islamic State-held city of Palmyra on Thursday, their biggest offensive yet against the jihadist caliphate, as Moscow and Washington hailed cooperation to help end the civil war.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in an atmosphere that was noticeably more amiable than past meetings, reflecting new diplomacy the two Cold War superpowers have championed in recent weeks.

Both men expressed hope for more progress towards ending the fighting.

In Geneva, where the first peace talks involving President Bashar al-Assad's government and his foes began this month, the opposing sides were expected to sign on to a U.N. document reflecting some initial common ground.

Moscow is the main ally of Assad's government, while Washington and other Western countries have backed foes trying to overthrow him during five years of civil war that has killed 250,000 people and led to the world's worst refugee crisis.

Both superpowers share a common enemy in Islamic State, the Sunni Muslim fighters who have declared a caliphate to rule over all Muslims from territory in Syria and Iraq.

After Russia intervened with air strikes to shore up Assad last year, Washington and Moscow have jointly sponsored a peace process that has produced the first sustained ceasefire of the war and the first negotiations involving the warring parties.

"The serious approach that we have been able to cooperate on has made a difference to the life of people in Syria and to the possibilities of making progress on peace," Kerry said at the start of talks with Putin in Moscow.

"The people of Syria and the people of the region have as a result been able to taste and smell the possibilities of what it means to have a huge reduction of violence and receive humanitarian assistance."

Putin, who has announced he is winding down Russia's military involvement in Syria, even offered warm words for U.S. President Barack Obama, with whom his relations have sunk to a Cold War-era level of hostility since Washington imposed sanctions on Russia over its intervention in Ukraine in 2014.

"We understand that what we have been able to achieve on Syria has been possible only thanks to the position of the U.S. top political leadership, President Obama," Putin said at his meeting with Kerry. "I very much hope that your visit will allow us to bring our positions closer on moving forward to solve the Syrian crisis and ... on Ukraine."

The U.S. and Russian-sponsored ceasefire between Assad's government and his enemies does not cover Islamic State, allowing Damascus to ramp up its fight against the jihadists.

After months in which the West accused Moscow of helping Assad fight mainly against other foes, Damascus has launched a major offensive this month to take back Palmyra, which the fighters seized in their biggest Syrian offensive of last year.

The state-run news channel Ikhbariya broadcast images from just outside Palmyra on Thursday and said government fighters had taken over a hotel district in the west.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the army had advanced into the hotel district just to the southwest of the city and reached a residential area, after a rapid advance the day before brought the army and its allies right up to its outskirts.

Palmyra has some of the most extensive ruins of the ancient Roman empire, some of which were dynamited by Islamic State in what the United Nations calls a war crime.

BABY STEP

The peace talks in Geneva were due to be adjourned on Thursday until next month, with the sides expected to agree to a document drawn up by a U.N. special envoy outlining basic principles, in what one diplomat called a "baby step" forward.

The sides still have yet to address the biggest challenge: the nature of a post-war "political transition". Opposition leaders say Assad must leave power; the government says this is not up for negotiation.

Washington believes that Moscow, closely allied to Assad, can nudge Damascus to make concessions.

Before political talks can begin, U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura aims to establish if there are points held in common by the different parties and announce them.

"Basic principles have been laid out. De Mistura wants to announce that all sides have agreed so that he can move on to the transition issue at the next round," said a senior Western diplomat. "It's a baby step, but a necessary step. It's not a bad result."

A summary of the document seen by Reuters contains points including reforming state institutions, rejecting terrorism unequivocally and implementing United Nations Security Council resolution 2254 that guarantees a political transition of power.

It also calls for no tolerance of acts of revenge from either side, rebuilding the Syrian army on national criteria, ensuring a democratic non-sectarian state and preserving women’s rights in fair representation.

BATTLE FOR PALMYRA

The capture of Palmrya and further eastward advances would mark the most significant Syrian government gain against Islamic State since the start of Russia's military intervention last September.

Islamic State has lost territory in both Iraq and Syria since last year when it captured Palmyra in Syria and Ramadi, a provincial capital in Iraq. A sustained pause or outright end to hostilities between Assad's government and his other foes could allow for a stronger fight against the common enemy.

A soldier interviewed by Syria's Ikhbariya TV said the army and its allies would press forward beyond Palmyra.

"We say to those gunmen, we are advancing to Palmyra, and to what's beyond Palmyra, and God willing to Raqqa, the centre of the Daesh gangs," he said, referring to Islamic State's de facto capital in northern Syria.

The Syrian state news agency SANA showed warplanes flying overhead, helicopters firing missiles, and soldiers and armoured vehicles approaching the city.

The U.S.-led military coalition against Islamic State said it had also struck targets in and around Palmyra, a rare example of the U.S.-led force attacking an area also under attack by Russian-backed government forces.

Russia's Defence Ministry said on Thursday it had carried out 41 sorties between March 20-23 in the region of Palmyra, attacking 146 "terrorist targets."

Civilians began fleeing after Islamic State fighters told them via loudspeakers to leave the centre as fighting drew closer, the Observatory said.

(Reporting by Tom Miles, Stephanie Nebehay, Suleiman Al-Khalidi, Maria Tsvetkova, John Davison and Dominic Evans; writing by Peter Graff and Peter Millership; editing by Giles Elgood)

An Interview with Paul Craig Roberts

Talk to Sri Lanka Guardian Paul Craig Roberts

( March 24, 2016, Washington DC, Sri Lanka Guardian) Paul Craig Roberts, former US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy, talks to the Sri Lanka Guardianabout supply-side economics, US foreign policy, the Obama administration, the dangers of TPP, the Sri Lankan economy and the upcoming US election

Here are some excerpts of the interview:

Nilantha Ilangamuwa (NI): Dr. Roberts, Welcome to the Sri Lanka Guardian. You were United States Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy under President Reagan in the early 1980s. This was the time that neo-liberal economic policies began to dominate the world market. You yourself were awarded the US Treasury’s Meritorious Service Award for “outstanding contributions to the formulation of United States economic policy. But your recent analyses express strong opposition to these policies, in which you played a leading role in developing. May we have your take on this?

Paul Craig Roberts (PCR): The Reagan administration introduced supply-side economics as a new policy in order to cure stagflation, the simultaneous rise of inflation and unemployment. Supply-side economics is not neoliberal economics. Supply-side economics corrected one of the many mistakes made by neoliberal economics. As a high official in Reagan’s government, I was under constant attack by neoliberal economists who opposed Reagan’s economic policy. The supply-side policy that I introduced cured the stagflation, and the US economy resumed growing without having to pay for the growth in rising rates of inflation.

Today the successful supply-side policy has been abandoned.  Policymakers at the Federal Reserve (the central bank) and at the US Treasury have returned to the failed neoliberal policy. They say that they are trying to restart inflation in order to revive the economy.  In other words, policymakers have returned to the neoliberal view that economic growth requires the stimulus of inflation.

Reagan was determined to overcome stagflation in order to have the economic resources to threaten the Soviet Union with an arms race unless the Soviets agreed to end the Cold War.

Reagan believed, correctly, that the Soviet economy was in such bad shape that the Soviets could not afford a new arms race.  Reagan was opposed to what he called “those awful nuclear weapons.”  He wanted to remove them as a threat to life on earth.  The reason I received the Meritorious Service Award is because the economic policy that I introduced succeeded, and the economic success allowed Reagan to achieve with Gorbachev the end of the dangerous Cold War.

NI: Since the end of the Cold War much has changed in US foreign policy. Sri Lanka maintains a high degree of diplomatic relations with the United States of America, and the Obama administration is generally well-considered. What is your take on the Obama administration’s record after eight years?

PCR: You asked me to evaluate the Obama regime.  Obama was chosen to be president by the powerful private interest groups who rule the US, because he was a neophyte with little experience of Washington and, therefore, easy to control.  The less a president knows, the easier it is to control him.  Despite any good intentions Obama might have had, Obama knew very little and did not know enough independent thinkers to staff his administration. It was staffed for him by Wall Street and the neoconservatives, essentially warmongers who proclaim American hegemony over the world.

As Mike Lofgren, a member of the US Congress staff for 28 years writes in his recently published book, The Deep State, “Obama, like any president, is literally a captive of the people who brief him on secret intelligence.”

Full Story>>>

Cuba Has a Lung Cancer Vaccine—And America Wants It
Lung cancer. Coloured X-ray of the chest of an 84 year old woman with a malignant (cancerous) tumour (yellow) in the apex of the right lung (top left).  DU CANE MEDICAL IMAGING LTD/GETTY IMAGES

• AUTHOR: NEEL V. PATEL.NEEL V. PATEL SCIENCE
 
• DATE OF PUBLICATION: 05.11.15.05.11.15

CUBA HAS FOR several years had a promising therapeutic vaccine against lung cancer. The 55-year trade embargo led by the US made sure that Cuba was mostly where it stayed. Until—maybe—now.

The Obama administration has, of course, been trying to normalize relations with the island nation. And last month, during New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s visit to Havana, Roswell Park Cancer Institute finalized an agreement with Cuba’s Center for Molecular Immunology to develop a lung cancer vaccine and begin clinical trials in the US. Essentially, US researchers will bring the Cimavax vaccine stateside and get on track for approval by the Food and Drug Administration.

“The chance to evaluate a vaccine like this is a very exciting prospect,” says Candace Johnson, CEO of Roswell Park. She’s excited, most likely, because research on the vaccine so far shows that it has low toxicity, and it’s relatively cheap to produce and store. The Center for Molecular Immunology will give Roswell Park all of the documentation (how it’s produced, toxicity data, results from past trials) for an FDA drug application; Johnson says she hopes to get approval for testing Cimavax within six to eight months, and to start clinical trials in a year.

How did Cuba end up with a cutting edge immuno-oncology drug? Though the country is justly famous for cigars, rum, and baseball, it also has some of the best and most inventive biotech and medical research in the world. That’s especially notable for a country where the average worker earns $20 a month. Cuba spends a fraction of the money the US does on healthcare per individual; yet the average Cuban has a life expectancy on par with the average American. “They’ve had to do more with less,” says Johnson, “so they’ve had to be even more innovative with how they approach things. For over 40 years, they have had a preeminent immunology community.”

Despite decades of economic sanctions, Fidel and Raul Castro made biotechnology and medical research, particularly preventative medicine, a priority. After the 1981 dengue fever outbreak struck nearly 350,000 Cubans, the government established the Biological Front, an effort to focus research efforts by various agencies toward specific goals. Its first major accomplishment was the successful (and unexpected) production of interferon, a protein that plays a role in human immune response. Since then, Cuban immunologists made several other vaccination breakthroughs, including their own vaccines for meningitis B and hepatitis B, and monoclonal antibodies for kidney transplants.

The thing about making such great cigars is, smoking is really, really bad for you. Lung cancer is the fourth-leading cause of the death in Cuba. Medical researchers at the Center for Molecular Immunology worked on Cimavax for 25 years before the Ministry of Health made it available to the public—for free—in 2011. Each shot costs the government about $1. A Phase II trial from 2008 showed lung cancer patients who received the vaccine lived an average of four to six months longer than those who didn’t. That prompted Japan and some European countries to initiate Cimavax clinical trials as well.
To be fair, Cimavax probably won’t be a game-changing cancer drug in its current form. The vaccine doesn’t attack tumors directly, instead going after a protein that tumors produce which then circulates in the blood. That action spurs a person’s body to release antibodies against a hormone called epidermal growth factor, which typically spurs cell growth but can also, if unchecked, cause cancer. (Although most people normally think of a vaccine as something that prevents a disease, technically a vaccine is a substance that stimulates the immune system in some way.) So the point of Cimavax is to keep lung tumors from growing and metastasizing, turning a late-stage growth into something chronic but manageable.

But in the US and Europe, people with lung cancer already have treatment options with the same goal. Roswell Park researchers say they plan to explore the vaccine’s potential as a preventative intervention—making it more like a traditional vaccine. Furthermore, epidermal growth factor plays an important role in many other cancers, like prostate, breast, colon, and pancreatic cancer. “All those things are potential targets for this vaccine,” says Kelvin Lee, an immunologist at the company. Mostly for financial reasons, Cubans didn’t test Cimavax that way at all.

And that drug isn’t the only one with potential in the Cuban pharmacopeia. Thomas Rothstein, a biologist at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, has for six years worked with the Center for Molecular Immunology on another vaccine to treat lung cancer called Racotumomab, with an entirely different mechanism. (It messes with a particular lipid found in tumor cell membranes.) “Investigators from around the world are trying to crack the nut of cancer,” Rothstein says. “The Cubans are thinking in ways that are novel and clever.”

Although President Obama has used his executive power to lift some restrictions against medical and research equipment, Congress must lift the Cuban embargo before collaborative research can ramp up. Johnson hopes to see Cuba embrace more entrepreneurialism in science, and see the US soak up more creative approaches to medical research. Constrained by politics, the Cuban researchers had to innovate in ways the US and Europe did not. Now maybe they’ll be able to teach their colleagues what they learned.

No foreign judges?

Editorial-March 22, 2016, 7:56 pm 

President Maithripala Sirisena has recently said at a gathering of judicial officers that he won’t accept foreign judges in any investigation into human rights violations here. Stating that he has his faith in local judges and judicial administrators he has stressed the need to ensure judicial independence.

President Sirisena may have his faith in the judiciary. But, the question is whether the discerning public is on the same page as he on this score. Didn’t the champions of good governance who threw in their lot with Sirisena at the last presidential election apportion the blame for the 18th Amendment to the judiciary, which they said, had not stood firm? Didn’t they rake the then Chief Justice over the coals for having prepared the ground for that amendment to be steamrollered through Parliament?

Some judicial officers have become putty in the hands of politicians and wealthy crooks. They keep court houses open till midnight to remand Opposition politicians. But, when ruling party politicians are brought there they are granted bail in next to no time! Double standards of this nature take a corrosive effect on the independence and legitimacy of the judiciary. The recent appointment of the state prosecutor has also left a bad taste in many a mouth.

Water is capable of purifying itself if pollution levels are reasonably low. The same goes for the judiciary. A prerequisite for enabling the judiciary to cleanse itself and restore its independence is for politicians to keep their dirty hands off that institution. Most of all, judges who have become pliable tools in the hands of politicians and unconscionably do political work for governments must be weeded out.

The judiciary cannot function properly unless other key state institutions such as the police and the Attorney General’s Department cooperate with it fully. The less said about the police the better! They are responsible for the extremely low conviction rate (4%). They swing into action when they are ordered by their political masters to arrest someone for keeping an elephant without a permit, but they baulk at investigating even serious allegations against ministers.

The Attorney General’s Department has been reduced to a mere appendage of the ruling party. The previous administration used it as a bludgeon against its opponents and manipulated it to let its backers off the hook. Those who expected the situation to improve following the Jan. 08, 2015 regime change are as disillusioned and disappointed as Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera, the chief architect of the present government, was at the time of his untimely demise.

As for the war crimes court to be set up the government should pat itself on the back for having outwitted its political opponents. Initially, its critics cranked up pressure on it not to agree to a war crimes probe in Geneva at all. Then, they hung their campaign on a section of the UNHRC resolution, which provides for the involvement of foreign judges in the war crimes court. Now, the government says foreign judges will not be involved in the process. It may be telling the truth, but the fact remains that the war crimes court will be there!

Foreign judges do not necessarily have to sit on the bench for war crimes trials to be manipulated. There’s more than one way to shoe a horse, as they say. The Saddam Hussein trial in Iraq is a case in point.

Anchored as the Iraqi Higher Criminal Court, which tried Saddam Hussein et al was in the Iraqi justice system, foreign powers exerted influence on its judges and proceedings. Hussein minced no words when he condemned what he was being subjected to as a political show trial. He told a judge in open court in July 2004: ‘I do not want to make you feel uneasy, but you know this is all theatre by Bush to help him with his election campaign.’

Hybrid courts with foreign participation to varying degrees have gained wider acceptance among western powers and human rights groups as the International Criminal Tribunal lost its credibility following the Milosevic trial and due to its inherent flaws and, above all, the cost factor. Quasi domestic courts help the governments tasked with conducting war crimes probes counter allegations that they are compromising national sovereignty. It may be recalled that an Iraqi justice minister, in spite of being pro-American, was constrained to remark that the presence of foreign judges would undermine Iraqi sovereignty and undercut the value of the Iraqi judiciary.

In Iraq, the court which tried Hussein was less internationalised than those in Cambodia and East Timor, but Hussein and his loyalists were hanged following trials which reeked of political interference. So much for the independence of ‘domestic’ war crimes courts!

RECONCILIATION: COLOMBO SET TO LAUNCH CONSULTATIONS

(Manouri Muttetuwegama, chairperson of the reconciliation task force, said the process would go on for a few months.)

23/03/2016

Face to face consultations with stakeholders throughout Sri Lanka are expected to commence early next month to design reconciliation mechanisms.

Face to face consultations with stakeholders throughout Sri Lanka are expected to commence early next month to design reconciliation mechanisms.

Town-hall meetings, focus group discussions and structured interviews will be part of the consultation process.

Manouri Muttetuwegama, chairperson of the Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms, told The Hindu that the process would go on for a few months.

At present, the Task Force is seeking through its website (http://www.scrm.gov.lk/) submissions from stakeholders concerned on the design of reconciliation mechanisms. Among the mechanisms planned by the Sri Lanka government are an Office of Missing Persons; a Truth, Reconciliation, Justice and Non-Recurrence Commission; an accountability mechanism and an Office of Reparations. During the September-October 2015 session of the UN Human Rights Council where a resolution on accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka was adopted, the government mooted the idea of having the proposed mechanisms.

Meanwhile, the UN has reiterated its position for a “credible investigation” into alleged violations of human rights in the final phase of the civil war.

Asked about Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena’s reported comments against the participation of foreign judges to carry out the investigation, Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, told reporters in New York on Monday: “We want to make sure there is a credible investigation into this. And, we have made clear what our guidelines are for what a credible investigation will entail and so we will continue to be in dialogue to make sure it happens.”

Early last month, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein had told reporters here on the issue of Sri Lanka too sponsoring the UNHRC resolution that it was the country’s commitment to both itself and to the world to confront the past honestly and, by doing that, take out comprehensive insurance against any future devastating outbreak of inter-communal tensions and conflict.
The Hindu

Foreign Ministry Confirms President’s Son Sought UK Visas

March 23, 2016

In a letter addressed to Colombo Telegraph, S. Rodrigo, Acing Director General – Public Communications confirmed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did in fact intercede on behalf of Daham Sirisena, son of President Maithripala Sirisena, and three other persons to facilitate the obtaining of UK Visas.

Colombo Telegraph publishes below the full text of the response sent by Rodrigo to the Colombo Telegraph news story on Daham Sirisena’s UK Visa application, including his covering note:

Editor
Colombo Telegraph

Dear Mr. Kurukulasuriya,

Please find enclosed a letter from the Ministry addressed to you regarding an article that appeared in the Colombo Telegraph on 21 March 2016.

We would be grateful if the contents of the letter could be given the same prominence as the original. A copy of the text of the letter in Word is also attached.

Yours faithfully,

Satya Rodrigo
Actg. DG/PC
for S/FA

An article on your website regarding the application for visas submitted by Daham Sirisena and three others to visit the UK has been brought to the Foreign Ministry’s attention. Regrettably, the article contains a number of inaccuracies and distortions.

The actual facts are outlined below.

• The passport of Daham Sirisena and three others was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 1st March, 2016 requesting the Ministry’s assistance to obtain visas to visit the UK.
• The Ministry issued a Third Person Note to the British High Commission to facilitate the issue of visas.
• The relevant visa was issued to Daham Sirisena. However, due to insufficient information the remaining three applications were withdrawn.

At no point did the Secretary/Foreign Affairs nor the Chief of Protocol summon the Deputy High Commissioner of the UK Mission to the Ministry to lodge a protest regarding the issue of the relevant visas.

The Ministry is well aware that any decision on visa matters rests with the Mission concerned.

Editor’s Note: We thank the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for responding to our report and confirming all the main elements we have exposed.

Our report said that Daham Sirisena and his three friends (the Ministry simply calls them ‘others’) requested Ministry assistance to obtain visas to visit the United Kingdom. We challenge the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to reveal the names of the three friends who they describe as “others.”

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Drugs distributed through post

Mar 23, 2016

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) reported the courts yesterday 22nd that it has started a rigorous investigation into a large scale international narcotic racket centralized in London and distributed by the workers of Colombo General Post Office and people who aided the racket.

The CID reported this to the Colombo additional magistrate Chandana Kalansooriya by producing a Pakistani suspect named Zaid Mohamed Ilfan. The CID also informed the courts that it has started a joint rigorous investigation with the Pakistan international police and with the Scotland Yard of the UK.

The CID has started the investigation through personal information received by the officer in charge of the fake currency note section. According to the section 49/57 of the 2015 National Drug Regulatory act, the suspect has committed a crime under the section 131 said the CID.

The CID informed the courts they received a personal tip of a parcel containing drugs has come from Karachi Pakistan to the Colombo speed post. The CID informed the courts the parcel containing drugs has come to Sri Lanka on the 17th and the data transmission of the speed post service has been updated at the time but no remarks has been stated about the receipt and dispatch.

On the 18th of this month the logistics of the stores has been updated but indicated that this doubtful parcel has been dispatched.

Following the doubt and during the investigations it was revealed that this package has been dispatched without customs check bypassing the regular procedures.

The parcel has been dispatched through the direct parcel service to a person at the first cross street Colombo 11 and from that lead a Pakistan national businessmen was arrested from no.9, Daya Road.

During the arrest the CID was able to take nine packages of 12Kg dangerous drugs and another two packages of 2kg drugs dispatched to the Katunayaka airport to send to the UK was taken into custody.

The CID told courts that they have started investigations to arrest everybody linked to this for the distribution and aiding this racket and to obtain a report from the national drug regulatory authority about this doubtful 14kg of narcotics.

The magistrate considering the facts ordered to remand the suspected Pakistan national till 1st of April.

The officer in charge of fake currency notes of the CID police inspector Priyadharshana reported the courts by producing the suspect.

Human trafficking racket busted in Maradana


2016-03-24
Foreign Employment Bureau (FEB) officials and the police yesterday busted a human trafficking network and rescued ten victims including six teenage girls, who were forcibly detained for more than six months. 

Three sub-agents were arrested during the raid on several lodges in Maradana. 

Those rescued had come to the sub-agents seeking job opportunities in Middle Eastern countries. Preliminary investigations had revealed that the sub-agents had arranged forged travel documents for the victims and promised to send them for Middle Eastern countries through the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA). 

FEB sources said some of girls were between the ages of 17 and 20 and residents of Empilipitiya, Monaragala and Deniyaya. 

Three suspects who pretended to be sub-agents of the FEB had been arrested and investigations are ongoing to arrest the main suspect in the human trafficking racket. He is said to be a resident of Akkaraipattu in Ampara. 

The arrested sub-agents are residents of Maradana. “The women and the men have been forcibly detained for more than six months in several lodges located in Maradana. 

They had made payments to the suspects on the promise that they will be sent to the Middle East as housemaids. Forged passports had also been arranged by the suspects. They had made arrangements to send them abroad on visit visas. "A woman aged 40 was also among those rescued,” an official of the Foreign Employment Bureau said. 

The Bureau's Investigation Department is expected to record statements from those resuced. Meanwhile, the three suspects would be produced in Court. (Piyumi Fonseka) 

Govt. In Deeper Crisis, As SriLankan Unable To Pay $ 1 Billion Debt

March 23, 2016

The debt ridden national carrier, SriLankan airlines is dragging an equally debt ridden government into a fresh crisis having no way of paying up a nearly US $ 1 billion debt.

Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe disclosed that within the next six weeks, his government will have to decide if the government had the capacity to absorb this debt, else the future course of action that should be taken to address this issue.

“Minister Kabir Hashim has informed me that this debt could be higher,” Wickremesinghe said.

The national carrier ran into huge debt under the chairmanship of Nishantha Wickramasinghe, the brother in law of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

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Prez, PM urged to probe Ven. Sobitha Thera’s demise

Prelate’s successor warns govt of dire consequences unless impartial probe is held

By Shamindra Ferdinando-March 22, 2016

The National Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ) has warned President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to probe sudden demise of Ven Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera or face the consequences.

Ven. Sobitha Thera had been the leader of the NMSJ at the time of his death last November. The prelate died in Singapore, while undergoing medical treatment.

The Ven. Thera’s successor Prof. Sarath Wijesooriya of the Sinhala Department of the University of Colombo yesterday told The Island that the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration should immediately initiate an investigation into the alleged conspiracy.

The NMSJ spearheaded a major campaign against President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s re-election bid at the January 8, 2015 presidential polls.

Asked whether the NMSJ suspected foul play in Ven. Sobitha’s death, Prof. Wijesooriya emphasized that the bone of contention was the specific allegation in respect of Ven. Sobitha’s death made by Ven. Uduwe Dhammaloka Thera. Therefore, it would be the responsibility of President Maithripala Sirisena to probe the death of Ven. Sobitha.

Responding to another query, Prof. Wijesooriya said the government couldn’t afford to ignore Ven. Dhammaloka Thera’s claim on the basis it was a politically motivated statement. "Of course, Ven. Dhammaloka has made a calculated move in the wake of him being arrested for illegally keeping a baby elephant," the professor alleged.

Having watched Ven. Dhammaloka accusing the government of Ven. Sobitha’s sudden demise on television on March 17 and a subsequent statement to the media on March 20, the NMSJ decided to seek President Sirisena’s attention. Prof. Wijesooriya said that he on behalf of the NMSJ had written to President Sirisena, PM Wickremesinghe and IGP N.K. Illangakoon requesting an immediate inquiry.

Prof. Wijesooriya said the NMSJ had sought the government intervention before Ven. Dhammaloka called a media briefing at the Abhayaramaya in Narahenpita where the accusation was repeated on Monday. Ven. Elle Gunawansa Thera and Ven Muruttettuwe Ananada, too, addressed the media. Pivithuru Hela Urimaya leader and UPFA MP Udaya Gammapila repeated the allegation at a separate media briefing on the same day.

In a letter addressed to President Sirisena, Prof. Wijesooriya has said that Ven. Dhammaloka Thera accused the government of assassinating Ven. Sobitha Thera. He says that the accusation will certainly make those who had loved the Ven. Thera sad. The existence of the NMSJ, too, was in jeopardy due to allegations, Prof. Wijesooriya said.

President Sirisena has been also informed that the claim of several monks critical of the government facing mysterious deaths was an extremely serious issue which couldn’t be taken lightly.

Prof. Wijesooriya said that Ven. Dhammaloka had directed the allegation in respect of Ven. Sobitha’s sudden demise at PM Wickremesinghe.

Prof. Wijesooriya said that Ven. Dhammaloka made the original accusation from Aluthkade court premises.

The NMSJ chief said the police should request Ven. Dhammaloka and other monks and politicians having information and evidence to submit them. This should be done immediately to thwart bankrupt politicians from deceiving the public. Prof. Wijesooriya pointed out that those who had accused the government of Ven. Sobitha Thera’s demise also repeated conspiracy theory over. Ven. Gangodawila Soma Thera’s death.

Prof. Wijesooriya said Ven. Sobitha had been very disappointed over the government’s failure. "In fact, I strongly criticized the government and pointed out Ven. Sobitha’s anger at the way yahapalana rulers behaved. But, those trying to exploit Ven. Sobiha’s death should be exposed. Therefore, a thorough inquiry is required."