Suggestions for a new Constitution for Sri Lanka

The following statement issued by the People for Human Rights and Equality Inc. (PHRE)

( April 6, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) This submission is made by the People for Human Rights and Equality, a Melbourne based organization made up of persons of Sri Lankan origin of all communities, committed to promoting the values of multiculturalism and pluralism within the Sri Lankan community in Australia and a just resolution to the political conflict in Sri Lanka.

21 March 2016

The Government of the Republic of Sri Lanka has as its primary purpose the protection of the freedom of all its diverse peoples, finding it self-evident that they are in an involuntary civil association pursuing their diverse interests under the protection of the rule of law.

Given all laws are subject to the Constitution, they shall therefore be about procedures to be followed in the public, and about such shared activities of the civil association of its peoples and shall not be for the imposition on them of any unifying or overarching end.

Laws under the Constitution shall ensure the non-exploitation by traditional and non- traditional accumulations of power, of vulnerable individuals and groups including children, women, the disabled, the poor and minorities.

While enshrining the values and principles such as human dignity; non-racialism; non sexism; the rule of law; multi-party democracy; accountability, openness and responsiveness by which the country shall be governed, the Constitution shall ensure that all said values relate to public governance and shall not prevent to any degree the peaceful, lawful, non- exploitative pursuits of private individual or voluntary groups.

In order to achieve the aforesaid:

1. Recognition shall be given to the Supremacy of Constitution. All present and future laws to conform to principles in the Constitution including fundamental rights enshrined therein.
2. The Constitution shall prohibit all forms of direct or indirect discrimination including discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion, caste, political opinion or sexual orientation
3. The Constitution shall guarantee the fundamental rights of all its residents including the right to life, freedom of association, the right to healthcare, housing and education.
4. Accountability for fundamental rights to apply to both the private and public sector.
5. The Protection of the individual and group rights of all local minorities including social and cultural communities living in any part of the country in accordance with international law.

6. The Constitution shall guarantee independence of the judiciary and law enforcement agencies in their capacity to deliver just redress within strictly reasonable time limits.

In achieving the above purpose, it is suggested that:

• The jurisdiction to hear fundamental rights cases be extended to the Provincial High Courts.
• The State to proactively introduce administrative measures to improve access to justice. Such measures to include codes of conduct for lawyers and judges and time frames within which cases are to be heard.

7. Executive, parliamentary and administrative immunity to be confined to acts within the framework of the law.
8. Future devolved regional structures, councils, administrative units to be bound by the fundamental rights chapter of the Constitution.
9. Genuine and secure allocation of appropriate responsibilities to all levels of localised legislative and executive bodies in order to utilize local knowledge of needs, resources and priorities.
10. Where Parliament has decided that Sri Lanka be a signatory to an International Convention steps should be taken to incorporate it into domestic law within a specified time frame.
11. The appointment of a Gender Equality Commission to monitor, investigate, advise and report on measures to be taken to achieve gender parity and deal with violence against women and the girl child.
12. The principle of ‘the best interest of the child’ to be paramount in all decisions concerning the child. The concept of best interest to be informed by international law and best practice internationally and locally.
13. Children and young persons to be protected from economic and social exploitation.
14. The State to pro-actively protect the rights of the child to be cared for by the child’s family in the first instance and to provide the necessary economic and social support to the child’s family where necessary to realise this right.
15. State to protect the child from activities that restrict the child’s freedom and to that end to protect the child from recruitment to national services or religious bodies and organisations which restrict the child’s freedom and independence.
16. All state lands to be recognized as a national resource held in trust. The use of such land to be determined by a joint land commission that includes representation of local stake holders.

PM appointed unanimously to Chair Constitutional Council Steering Committee 

By Saman Indrajith-April 6, 2016, 7:07 am

The Constitutional Assembly, which met for the first time yesterday, appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe unanimously for the post of Chairman of the Steering Committee vested with the task of preparing a new Constitution for the country.

When it met with Speaker Karu Jayasuriya presiding, Chief Government Whip and Parliament Reforms and Mass Media Minister Gayantha Karunathilaka proposed the name of Premier Wickremeisnghe to the post of Chairman of Steering Committee of the Assembly and the names of 20 other MPs as members of the committee.

Gampaha District UPFA parliamentarian Dr. Sudarshani Fernandopulle seconded the proposal by Minister Karunathilaka.

Twenty other members of the committee are MPs Lakshman Kiriella, Nimal Siripala de Silva, Rauff Hakim, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, Susil Premaratne, Rishad Bathiudeen, Patali Champika Ranawaka, D.M. Swaminanathan, Mano Ganeshan,

Malik Samarawickrama, R. Sampanthan, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Dilan Perera, Dinesh Gunawardena, Jayampathi Wickremaratne, M. A. Sumanthiran, Dr Thusitha Wijemanne, Bimal Ratnayake, Prasanna Ranatunga and Douglas Devananda.

Leader of the House Minister Lakshman Kiriella proposed the names of seven MPs for the posts of deputy chairmen and the names were seconded by TNA MP Sumanthiran. The seven deputy chairmen of the assembly are Deputy Speaker Thilanga Sumathipala, Deputy Chairman of Committees Selvam Adaikkilanathan, Ministers Kabir Hahsim, Dr. Sudarshani Fernandopulle, MPs Tilak Marapana, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena and Dr Nalinda Jayatissa.

Speaker Jayasuriya said: "This is a historic occasion with the MPs in this Parliament entrusted with the task of drafting a new constitution or amending the present one in keeping with the aspirations of the people."

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said that 21 subcommittees would be appointed to assist the process of formulating a new constitution and they would be appointed in the near future.

None of the JVP MPs were present in the Chamber when the Constitutional Assembly met.

The Steering Committee met at Committee Room 3 of the Parliament complex with Prime Minister Wickremesinghe presiding yesterday evening.

Estate Workers: Deprived Working Community In Sri Lanka

by Hasitha Ayeshmantha-Wednesday, April 06, 2016

With the new government coming into power with a bagful of promises, especially towards the interests of the country’s deprived working community,The Sunday Leader learns that the estate sector salary issues are yet to fall upon the government’s watchful gaze.

Several sources from the plantations sector raised concerns over the deteriorating standards of the sector and said that the government should divert more attention towards investing in the wellbeing of the Sri Lankan estate worker community. According to our sources, without implementing a proper salary raise, the government could not expect higher revenue from the sector.

Even though the estate worker salary hike was proposed sometime back by several parties, according to estate worker unions, insufficient government intervention has resulted in present consequences. They allege that with a proper salary index and mechanism to tackle the requirement, the productivity of the sector will also continue to recline.

The union representatives said that already a large number of the estate sector workers, especially from the age group between 25-40 years, have started leaving the plantations industry and moving towards more urban areas in search of better employments. They warn that at the present rate, the industry would possibly face a labour shortage in the near future.

Further elaborating on the point, the union representatives said that to date, the estate workers have had no proper representation. Therefore, the necessities and the requirements of the estate working community are not being presented in the right context to the decision makers, lamented the union representatives.                Read More »

Sports: A Tool For Development & Peace Building

By Vositha Wijenayake –April 6, 2016

Vositha Wijenayake

Sport has long being recognised as a tool for peace promotion. Its disregard for borders across nations, and the ability to bring together societies has enabled sports to play a significant role in promoting social integration, and economic development. Sport is also a powerful tool to address many issues of the society, including the promotion of peace and development. Having the capacity to strengthen social ties and networks, promote ideals of peace, fraternity, solidarity, non-violence, tolerance and justice, sport could further provide avenues to address issues in post conflict situations, and bring create solidarity among different peoples.

Sport: a Tool for Peace-building

Professor John Paul Lederach, the well-known conflict resolution scholar defines the concept of peace-building as a comprehensive concept that encompasses, generates and sustains the full array of processes, approaches and stages needed to transform conflict toward more sustainable, peaceful relationship.

This points to the need for building strong interpersonal and inter-group relations throughout society. It also highlights the need for attention being allocated to the role that the civil society and all stake holders plays in the peace building process. Peace building is not limited to one actor, and it success is to be achieved, it needs to be a multi-actor driven process which is holistic. This applies the same to sports, sports should not be the only approach, but one of the means and the tools to achieve peace building.

Sport for Integration

Sport has the ability to create an environment in which there is the possibility of bringing people together which would in turn make it possible to work towards the same goal. It also allows to develop respect to one another, share space and equipment.

Studies on fostering social integration show that there are many factors that contribute to the use of sport being successful in bringing about exchange and building relationships between different groups. This includes sport as a non-verbal means of communication where groups are not able to communicate in the same language, and sport as a means to engage in collective experience which allows direct physical contact. It has also noted sport’s ability to transcend class divisions.

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Will Sri Lanka Wake Up To The Realities of The ‘Panama Papers’ Exposure?

By LUKMAN HAREES- 04/06/2016

Featured image courtesy AFP/GETTY – Rodrigo Arangua 

On April 3, 2016, Suddeutsche Zeitung, Germany’s largest daily newspaper leaked 11.5 million files from the database of Mossack Fonseca, a law firm headquartered in Panama City, Panama. The firm is one of the world’s top creators of shell companies, corporate structures that can be used to hide ownership of assets. The files exposed financial dealings of some of the world’s richest and most powerful individuals. The documents included financial records, legal documents such as passports, and correspondences dating back over 40 years ,which reveal offshore accounts of current and former world leaders as well as individuals with close ties to political figures and business moguls around the globe. The files also revealed that it is not only politicians who are found to be tied to the alleged laundering of funds but many celebrities, professional sporting stars and even sporting bodies too. Now that the door is open, new revelations are bound to come forward to expose the depth of the Panamanian corruption scandal. The release of the Panama Papers is thought to be merely ‘Chapter One’ of a much more serious and larger case.

Analysts comment that these findings show how deeply ingrained harmful practices and criminality are in the offshore world and that the release of the leaked documents should prompt governments to seek “concrete sanctions” against jurisdictions and institutions that peddle offshore secrecy. The documents reveal that Mossack Fonseca, far from being an aberration, was an integral part of the operations of leading global banks. As the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) puts it, “The documents make it clear that major banks are big drivers behind the creation of hard-to-trace companies in the British Virgin Islands, Panama and other offshore havens. The files list nearly 15,600 paper companies that banks set up for clients who want to keep their finances under wraps, including thousands created by international giants UBS and HSBC. This leak is thus proof that despite explicit banking laws against tax evasion, criminal uses and money laundering, the global offshore shell game business remains open for the wealthy and well connected to exploit.”

This state of affairs bears much direct relevance to Sri Lanka as well, as the map, published by the Irish Times, titled as ‘secret companies around the world’ indicates that there were 3 Sri Lankan companies too which were listed in the report with 3 clients and 22 shareholders.

Therefore, there is direct interest for Sri Lanka to investigate further regarding this exposure about Sri Lankan companies and entities being named in this controversy. The Government should however not just limit their interest to a full detailed exposure of those companies and personalities involved, but also ascertain the extent of the tentacles of corruption and money laundering followed by politicos and businesses in stashing their ‘ill-gotten’ wealth abroad. One of the largest protests in Iceland’s history demanding Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson to step down after the leaked files revealed he and his wife were hiding investments worth millions of dollars behind a secretive offshore company, has much resonance to all of us following political developments in Sri Lanka.

Mangala Samaraweera went on record some time back saying that Sri Lanka had already secured support from four countries to track an estimated USD 18 billion in assets stolen by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family. The US and India had previously announced they were helping Sri Lanka’s new government track down stolen wealth stashed abroad, allegedly hoarded in tax havens.

Yet the start of the Maithripala-Ranil era too smacked of corruption. One prime example was the Central Banks Governor’s alleged shady deal, which dented this Government’s credibility to a great degree. It is therefore vital that the new government too, reads their mandate correctly, as it was the result of the winds of political change which swept through Sri Lanka in 2015. People demanded a clear plan of action to bring in good governance, transparency and accountability; not just small doses of them. Of course, 

investigative and law enforcement arms such as the Financial Crimes Investigative Division (FCID) and the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) were set up and/or strengthened. It has been a routine daily news bulletin item in the post-January 2015 period, with many parties submitting petitions to the Commission and the Police subsequently arresting and releasing various culprits. These staged dramas, now almost a source of public entertainment  rather than showing any significant results, have made the public question whether the ‘Yahapalanaya’ promise to have zero tolerance’ to corruption is merely an eye wash or a serious commitment to clean the stables and ensure a clean political culture.

Of course, there are noticeable improvements in accountability and transparency and press freedom, arming people with knowledge about how political leadership is managing public finances. However, people are quite rightly demanding concrete steps to achieve the ideal of zero tolerance to corruption; not just ‘flash in the pan’ marginal improvements to attract public attention or gain short term cheap political mileage by hunting down political opponents. The public also needs to know about the progress of the government’s drive to track down the nation’s wealth allegedly stashed abroad, which was a major campaigning point during election time.

Sri Lanka was ranked 83rd out of 175 countries, according to the 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index reported by Transparency International. Sri Lanka’s corruption Rank  averaged 81.79 from 2002 until 2015, reaching an all-time high of 97 in 2009 and a record low of 52 in 2002. Sri Lanka clearly need to aim for a consistent plan of action to achieve a higher rating on the Anti-Corruption Index of Transparency International (TI).

Black money is basically income from which tax has been evaded and tax havens are territories which provide a safe and easy environment for such money to come in. Such territories are “safe” because neither do they ask the depositors  where the money is coming from nor do they share such account information of depositors easily with other countries. It is a known fact that the flow of black money out of a country into tax havens of dubious nature, such as Mossack Fonseca in Panama (reportedly only the third largest in the world and certainly not the only one) can easily destabilise the financial market of a country.

It is developing countries like Sri Lanka that are impacted more due to such capital outflows, hence the need to take immediate and stringent measures to put these practises to an end. It has been estimated that every year, developing countries lose about $160 billion to such tax havens. Adopting urgent measures to curb such an outflow of black money is therefore the need of the hour for Sri Lanka at this crucial point of time, when there is a new government which has much more credibility than the previous one. There is clamour from the public and aspirations are at an all-time high to ensure a clean political culture for Sri Lanka. Besides, it is also important to reform the vital institutions of the judiciary and the law enforcement authorities, particularly the Police, to crack down on corruption and nepotism to regain public credibility . Perhaps, this is an opportune time to reflect on this national priority when constitutional reforms are also on the cards.

Will the Panama papers therefore propel Sri Lanka to go beyond mere verbosity and put their house in order – to take concrete action to bring culprits who have siphoned out public funds abroad to their advantage, to close the legal /financial loopholes and to hold public representatives to account by ensuring accountability and transparency on their part? Only time will tell.

However, in the best interests of future generations, Sri Lankans must insist that their government ‘walk the talk’.

Sri Lanka to negotiate $125 mln Chinese firm seeks for port delay

Ranil Wickremesinghe, leader of Sri Lanka's United National Party (UNP), waves at the Prime Minister's official residence in Colombo August 19, 2015. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte/Files

A demonstrator shouts slogans during a protest against the construction of Colombo Port City, a Chinese-backed real estate project, ahead of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's visit to China, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 4, 2016. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

 BY SHIHAR ANEEZ AND RANGA SIRILAL-Wed Apr 6, 2016

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is heading to Beijing on Wednesday to negotiate a $125 million penalty that a Chinese state firm is seeking from Sri Lanka for suspending work on a big port development project.

Sri Lanka ordered a review of the $1.4 billion Colombo port city project last year, citing irregularities in the award of the contract to state-owned China Communication Construction Company (CCCC) by a previous government.

Last month, the Sri Lankan government, facing a difficult economy, ordered the Chinese firm to resume work on the port city, the island nation's single biggest foreign investment project, that includes apartments, shopping malls and marinas near the capital, Colombo.

But CCCC, which had estimated that the shutdown would result in losses of more than $380,000 a day, has sought compensation of $125 million, said Patali Champika Ranawaka, a minister in the Sri Lankan government.

"We can't pay, we are going to negotiate," he said.

Wickremesinghe who began a four-day visit to China to rebuild investor confidence will be discussing the compensation demand with government leaders along with a mechanism to ease the debt burden, possibly by rescheduling loans, Ranawaka said.

Sri Lankan government data shows Sri Lanka has to pay about $8 billion to China in loans, a government minister told parliament last month.

Asian giants India and China are vying for influence in Sri Lanka. China has built roads and ports on the island that India has long seen as its area of influence.

Sri Lanka has sought to balance ties with China and India under President Maithripala Sirisena.

Both Sirisena and Wickremesinghe have visited India seeking investment, but the pace of Indian activity on projects is slow, offering China a chance to gain ground.

"Sri Lanka has been moving towards the middle after criticising China," said Sasha Riser-Kositsky, Eurasia Group's South Asia analyst.

Ahead of his visit, Wickremesinghe said Colombo wanted to build long-term economic and investment relations with China.

The flagship Colombo port city project would be given special status as a unique financial district with its own tax laws, he told China's official Xinhua news agency.

The two sides were also in talks on setting up a special economic zone in Hambantota in the south where China has already built a sea port and airport, he said.

When asked about the disagreements between the two countries since Sri Lanka's new government took over, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said it was natural for countries, even good friends, to have differences on certain bilateral projects at certain times.

"This does not impact upon the generally friendly relationship between China and Sri Lanka nor their determination to keep deepening these ties," Lu said.

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani, Robert Birsel)

WHITHER THE JVP...-IS IT A POLITICAL CARCASS?

2016-04-06

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”-Confucius April 5 marks the 45th Anniversary of the famous 1971 insurrection. It claimed many thousands of lives; destroyed an untold number of families, small businesses and aspirations of a whole generation. It was led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). JVP has a storied history. Ever since its beginnings in the late Nineteen Sixties, first as a revolutionary movement and then as a recognised political party, it has been amongst the leaders in the following five categories:

• A Marxist-Socialist political entity with no tolerance for the capitalist system
• Draws its mainstay from the youth of the country n An ostensible appeal to the downtrodden classes and castes in Sri Lanka
• Sustaining an aura of authenticity and sincerity in commitment to the cause
• Led by a demagoguery populist leader It is not the intention of the writer to pen a historical narrative of the development of the JVP. Many books and essays have been written and orations delivered by many pundits and luminaries on the saga of a movement that progressed from a ‘cellish’ political organisation into a full-blown party.

It was instrumental in not only triggering two violent uprisings on two different occasions, but lending leadership and then spearheading both revolts. Those two revolts led to the death and destruction of many Sri Lankan youth, families and properties. All hallmarks of an unorganised uprising, an insurrection whose fundamentals were at best, childishly clumsy and organisationally juvenile and at worst, brutally phoney and blatantly insincere. The youth of any country, the late Tyrone Fernando, a former Minister described as far back as 1975, as the ‘barometer of change’.

By the time Tyrone wrote this piece in the then published Weekend newspaper, the 1971 insurrection had already had its day and failed; many thousands of our youth were in Police custody or in rehabilitation camps. A countless number of them were killed, tortured and maimed- the most infamous among them was the murder of Premawathi Manamperi in Kataragama. The youth who were roused by the then JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera to work incessantly for the election campaign of the then coalition United Left Front (ULF) led by Sirima Bandaranaike took up arms against the very regime that they helped put in power. It all happened within one year of the ULF assuming office. The conversion from loyalty and reverence to armed confrontation and violent outbreak was visceral.

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A sudden meeting between Mahinda & Ranil

WEDNESDAY, 06 APRIL 2016

Former President Kurunegala District MP Mahinda Rajapaksa has suddenly met Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at Prime Minister’s office in Parliamentary Complex a few moments before the Prime Minister left to China. The Prime Minister and Mr. Rajapaksa had a secret discussion for about 20 minutes on a special matter say reports.

Despite several MPs from Mahinda faction had come to the PM’s office with Mr. Rajapaksa, they had been asked to wait outside by Mr. Rajapaksa saying the discussion he was having with the PM was a private affair. The MPs had waited outside until Mr. Rajapaksa had come out of the PM’s office.

MPs of Mahinda faction are perturbed due to the sudden meeting Mr. Rajapaksa had with Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe a few hours before the Prime Minister left to China.

According to Parliament sources among the topics discussed by former President with the Prime Minister are investigations being carried out against family members of Mr. Rajapaksa and the removal of army from his security.

Video: Unemployed Graduates’ protest

2016-04-06
Unemployed Graduates’ Union today staged a protest at Lotus Road in Colombo demanding the Government to provide them with employment. Police were seen blocking the march of the protesters. The Lotus Road, and Bank of Ceylon Mawatha were completely blocked which resulted in heavy traffic congestion in the area. Pix by Kushan Pathiraja

Manusha, who petitioned against Maithri, becomes deputy minister!

Apr 06, 2016

President Maithripala Sirisena has become so generous that he has given the foreign employment promotion deputy minister position to Galle district MP Manusha Nanayakkara, who had worked against him in support of Mahinda Rajapaksa. It is now well known that after getting elected from the votes of the UNPers of Galle, Manusha had joined the Rajapaksa regime, to ‘strengthen the hands of Mahinda Rajapaksa’, and for that he had obtained a Rs. 50 million bribe in dollars at the Neluwa estate of a leading businessman.

When Manusha met Mahinda’s relative Nirupama Rajapaksa to get her signature for a petition that the ex-president should remain the party leader, Nirupama said honestly, “What our generation had done was to ruin the country. Maithri has no such accusation. Let’s give a chance to Maithri.” Leaving her in a hurry, Manusha had gone straight to Mahinda and told him, “See, sir, how your own ones treat you now.”

But, it was not Nirupama, who had talked on behalf of Maithri, but a deal striker like Manusha who had tried to sabotage his work, benefited from Maithri. Some time ago, Manusha had told MP Buddhika Pathirana, “This is my last chance to enter parliament. I will somehow have to do something for myself this time.” For that, Maithri today paved the way for Manusha.

From Palestine to Honduras, every day is Land Day

Berta Cáceres was one of three indigenous land rights activists murdered in Central America in March. (CIDH)

Protesters march in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran, against Israel’s planned demolition of the village, on 30 March. Annual Land Day demonstrations commemorate the six Palestinian citizens of Israel shot dead by Israeli forces during mass protests against land seizures in the Galilee on the same date in 1976-Oren ZivActiveStills

Budour Youssef Hassan-6 April 2016

Berta Cáceres was one of three indigenous land rights activists murdered in Central America in March. (CIDH)

On 30 March 1976, Palestinian citizens of Israel declared a general strike and held large demonstrations against land expropriations by Israeli authorities in the Galilee.

Now observed annually as Land Day, these events marked the first organized popular rebellion by Palestinians inside present-day Israel. They had undergone three decades of disenfranchisement and intimidation.

In 1948, Zionist militias, which would later constitute the Israeli army, occupied the majority of historic Palestine.

Using force and the threat of force, some 750,000 Palestinians were expelled.

Those who remained in the territory then unilaterally declared as Israel were granted Israeli citizenship, but the new authorities imposed military rule on them that was not lifted until 1966.

Even after military rule, systematic Israeli attempts to squelch Palestinian dissent and colonize both land and minds continued.

The Zionist project is fixated on controlling as much land as possible with as few Palestinians on it as possible. It has used both naked violence and legal frameworks to gradually reduce Palestinian land ownership in present-day Israel to just a tiny fraction of what it was before 1948.

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Pakistan says it has arrested Afghan intelligence agent in province

People wave flags and celebrate at a national day rally during the country's 69th Independence Day in Peshawar, Pakistan, August 14, 2015.REUTERS/KHURAM PARVEZ/FILES

BY GUL YOUSAFZAI- Wed Apr 6, 2016

Pakistan on Wednesday arrested a suspected Afghan spy believed to be behind assassinations and bombings in its Baluchistan province, security and government officials told Reuters.

The move comes two weeks after Pakistan detained another man it said was an Indian spy who illegally entered the country and was also captured in the mineral rich province.

"The arrested man is an Afghan national living in a rented house in Boghara area at the outskirts of Chaman town. Paramilitary forces raided the house on intelligence and detained him," Manzoor Ahmed spokesman for the paramilitary force said.

"He was working for Afghan spy agency National Directorate of Security (NDS)," Ahmed said. Initial interrogation pointed to an NDS role in killings and blasts in the Baluchistan cities of Chaman and Quetta.

The accused has not been identified and Afghan authorities did not immediately comment on the arrest.

"He was on the payroll of NDS," said Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar, spokesman for the Baluchistan government.

Security forces also said they had seized a large arms and ammunition cache due to information gleaned from the Afghan.

Pakistan has uneasy relations with neighbour Afghanistan. Kabul has long accused Pakistan of sheltering the Afghan Taliban insurgency's leadership, a charge Islamabad denies.

For its part, Pakistan has demanded that Kabul do more to capture leaders of the separate Pakistani Taliban. They are believed to have sought refuge on Afghan soil after being dislodged in a Pakistani military operation from North Waziristan along the border.

Pakistan last month said it had detained a spy from regional arch rival India in Baluchistan who had illegally entered from Iran. It later released a videotaped confession by the man.

India has confirmed that the man was a former Indian navy official but denied he was a spy.

(Writing by Syed Raza Hassan; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Azerbaijan Blasts Kim Kardashian

BY JOHN HUDSON-APRIL 6, 2016

Kim Kardashian may have 66 million followers on Instagram, but that doesn’t make her an expert on the frozen conflict in the mountainous Caucasus enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

That, at least, is the view of the Azerbaijani ambassador to the United States, who blasted the reality TV star in an interview with Foreign Policy after she appeared to weigh in on behalf of the ethnic Armenians battling Azerbaijan for control of the restive region.

“She’s very famous and beloved by her fans, but matters of war and peace are a little too serious for a reality-TV star,” Elin Suleymanov said in telephone conversation.

“I personally would be a very bad reality-TV star, so I try not to cross into areas I’m not familiar,” he added. “I’m not sure Ms. Kardashian is a military or political analyst, so maybe we should all do what we do best.”

The world-famous model and TV personality posted an image sympathetic to Armenian security forces on Monday that featured military helicopters and tanks flying the Armenian flag with the message “Praying for everyone in Armenia and all around the world!”


Kardashian, who is of Armenian descent and traveled to the Armenian capital of Yerevan last year with her husband Kanye West, added the hashtag “#PrayForPeace” in an Instagram post that quickly generated more than 500,000 likes.

A publicist for Kardashian did not respond to a request for comment.

Nagorno-Karabakh, a landlocked region within Azerbaijan that is run by an ethnic Armenian majority, has been contested since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, but is experiencing some of its worst violence in decades. Armenian separatists receive financial and military support from the Armenian government, which has threatened to recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The fighting reportedly escalated on Friday when Azeri forces pushed past Armenian separatist lines in an apparent effort to recapture a strategic area within Nagorno-Karabakh. As of Wednesday, the governments of Azerbaijan and Armenia said they had halted hostilities, which have killed dozens of people though the exact casualty numbers have not been independently verified.

For years, the government of Azerbaijan has been fighting an uphill battle for influence in Washington against a well-organized and influential Armenian-American community highly critical of Baku and Turkey, Azerbaijan’s regional ally.

Suleymanov said he’s often frustrated by how the conflict is portrayed in the U.S. as a religious battle between Azerbaijan, a Muslim majority country, and Armenia, a Christian majority country. “These references are misleading because there is not a religious aspect of this conflict,” he said.

But Azerbaijan’s considerable oil wealth has also helped fuel its own PR efforts in Washington — a multi-million dollar campaign that often underscores Baku’s importance to the United States as an energy supplier, close friend to Israel, and able partner in the fight against terrorism while downplaying human rights concerns.

“We now have a long track record of being a strategic partner with the United States on a wide variety of topics,” said Suleymanov.

Despite Baku’s efforts, though, Armenia’s allies in Congress condemned Azerbaijan as soon as the violence broke out.

“I am deeply disturbed by and condemn this terrible new escalation in Azerbaijan’s aggression against Nagorno Karabakh in the form of a significant military assault,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) in a statement on Saturday. “Until Azerbaijan faces strong and meaningful consequences over their policy of escalation and violence … there is little chance of resolving the conflict and avoiding further bloodshed.”

During the interview, Suleymanov chafed at the remarks of Schiff, whose district in California is home to an influential Armenian-American community.

“He’s beholden to his constituents,” Suleymanov said. “This is not the position of the United States. It is not based on any objective assessment.”

Hitting back, Schiff said it is the Azeris who are opposed to an objective assessment given their refusal to install cease-fire monitoring equipment near the most contested areas in Nagorno-Karabakh. “The answer, of course, is clear: the belligerent does not want to be confronted by the fact of its own belligerence,” Schiff told FP.

The Obama administration has avoided backing either side in the conflict — a position that previous administrations have also maintained. On Tuesday, State Department spokesman Mark Toner applauded both governments for accepting the ceasefire.

The U.S. is not “picking sides” in the conflict, said Toner. Instead, he added, Washington  supports multilateral efforts to “mediate a fair and just resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”

The Panama Papers: An Introduction

The Panama Papers

By ICIJ Staff-Apr 3, 2016

The Panama Papers is a global investigation into the sprawling, secretive industry of offshore that the world’s rich and powerful use to hide assets and skirt rules by setting up front companies in far-flung jurisdictions.

Based on a trove of more than 11 million leaked files, the investigation exposes a cast of characters who use offshore companies to facilitate bribery, arms deals, tax evasion, financial fraud and drug trafficking.

Behind the email chains, invoices and documents that make up the Panama Papers are often unseen victims of wrongdoing enabled by this shadowy industry. This is their story.

• Executive producer: Hamish Boland-Rudder
• Producer: Carrie Ching
• Animation artist: Arthur Jones
• Report: Will Fitzgibbon
• Narrator: Eleanor Bell Fox
• Supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting