How Israel helps settler groups grab Palestinian land

A Palestinian woman stands near graffiti spray-painted on her home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem in September 2011.Ryan Rodrick BeilerActiveStills

Charlotte Silver-12 May 2016

Last November, Muhammad Abu Ta’ah arrived at his property in Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem only to find it had been fenced off by contractors.

On the three-dunum plot of land, construction had begun on a four-story, 70-office building that would make up the new headquarters for the private settler group Amana.

The property had once been part of an expansive 4,000 dunums (nearly 1,000 acres) of land which Israel expropriated in 1968, one year after its military occupied East Jerusalem. On that land, the state built the French Hill and Ramat Eshkol settlements, in addition to a government compound.

Much of this land had been owned by the Abu Ta’ah family. Until now, they had retained this last slice of property, located between a Palestinian hospital and a main thoroughfare, rented part of it to a car business and turned the rest into a large parking lot.

But now it belongs to Amana, the development arm of the Gush Emunim settlement movement, which has beenintegral to Israeli colonization of many parts of the occupied West Bank.

Amana also owns Al-Watan, a company based in the West Bank that buys Palestinian land for Jewish settlement and which has been involved in forging Palestinian signatures in dubious land purchases.

A new investigation by the settlement watchdog group Peace Now reveals how several Israeli ministries, led by the Israel Land Administration (ILA), went to extraordinary lengths to steal the Abu Ta’ah family’s last piece of land in order to give it to Amana.

The investigation shows that at every step of the way, the ILA helped Amana circumvent bureaucratic roadblocks to ensure the land became theirs.

“First they exempted Amana from the duty to hold a tender,” Hagit Ofran of Peace Now told the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz.

“Then they approved its building plan without it having any real rights to the land. Later the finance minister signed an expropriation in order to retrospectively whitewash the transfer of the land to Amana, and finally, today too, the state continues to fiercely guard this illegal behavior in court, instead of righting the wrongs and returning the land to its owners.”

The series of measures taken to expropriate the land are considered illegitimate by even some of the occupation’s biggest defenders.

The Abu Ta’ah family’s attorney Steven Berman served for 16 years as a legal advisor to the Jerusalem municipality, often defending the city against Palestinian lawsuits against illegal land expropriations.

“I have nothing against expropriating lands, which is a necessary process,” he told Haaretz.

“But in this case they deviated from all rules. What happened here is that ILA officials inappropriately used their power to help a close political body.”

The theft

The misdeeds go back to 1992, at the very beginning of then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s government, when the ILA agreed to give the land to Amana without a tender. But as Peace Now documents, the ILA was not the owner of the land.

The plan was put on hold, Peace Now speculates, because the Rabin government had published a study scrutinizing the ILA’s misdealings with settler organizations in East Jerusalem. The Klugman report found that the ILA had transferred 68 plots of land to rightwing settler organizations Elad and Ateret Cohanim.

But the agreement was revived in 1997, when Benjamin Netanyahu was first installed as prime minister.

That year, Amana submitted its construction scheme to the Planning Administration claiming that the ILA was the owner of the land, but leaving off their signature as they knew they weren’t the legitimate owners.

Several months later, the Planning Administration noticed the missing signature and twice requested it from Amana before receiving a copy purportedly signed by the ILA’s Amalia Abramovich.

Peace Now intimates that Abramovich’s signature may have been forged, as that was proven to have happened in another case.

Amana also sent the Planning Administration a letter from the ILA’s Avraham Nawi, claiming the land was expropriated.

The deal met another obstacle in 2005, when the Land Registrar refused to register the plot because there was no record that the plot was ever expropriated.

Nevertheless, in 2009, finance minister Yuval Steinitz signed the expropriation of an invented parcel of land including the Abu Ta’ah property that the ILA submitted for expropriation, therefore finalizing the theft of the land.

In court

The government is now defending the expropriation as the family takes it to court.

A Jerusalem court rejected the family’s petition in March. Despite agreeing that there were “flaws” in the approving plan, judge Arnon Darel found that invalidating the agreement would cause too much damage.

Now the Abu Ta’ah family is appealing the expropriation to the Israeli high court.

Jews have settled on Palestinian property ever since Israel’s expropriation of approximately 24,000 dunums(6,000 acres) of privately owned land in the aftermath of its 1967 de facto annexation of East Jerusalem.

Though just a sliver of the original 4,000 dunums expropriated in 1968, the back door deal between the government and a private settler group demonstrates the active hand the Israeli state has played in the continued dispossession of Palestinian land in East Jerusalem.

The Israeli rights group Ir Amim states that “the settlement enterprises in the middle of Palestinian neighborhoods over the last 30 years were seemingly carried out by private bodies, but were in fact rooted in government policy and enabled by it.”

The group has said the land grab in Jerusalem “create[s] a contiguous swathe of right-wing Jewish housing cutting through Sheikh Jarrah and sever[s] areas beyond it from the Old City and historic basin.”

Meanwhile, on Monday, dozens of Israeli settlers occupied a large residential building near the Old City and then performed prayers in its courtyard that overlooks al-Aqsa mosque.

Germany: deadly knife attack at train station

A man who stabbed a passenger to death at a German train station and injured three others appeared to have mental health problems, according to the authorities.

TUESDAY 10 MAY 2016

Initially, police said witnesses had heard the attacker, who targeted commuters at a station near Munich, shout 'Allahu Akbar' ('God is Greatest' in Arabic).

But Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann later said there were no indications he had a migrant background.

He added that the man had been seen in a different part of Germany a few days ago and was suspected of using drugs. His behaviour had suggested he could be mentally disturbed.

A 27-year-old man was arrested at the scene and there are no other suspects.

A 50-year-old died of stab wounds in hospital shortly after being attacked on a train. The other stabbed men, aged between 43 and 58, sustained serious injuries.

The attack took place at about 5am local time at the train station at Grafing, a commuter town 20 miles from the Bavarian capital in southern Germany.

The Fate of Brazil’s Democracy Depends on a Man You’ve Never Heard Of

Sergio Moro is leading the biggest corruption investigation in the country's history. He'd better get it right.


BY NICHOLAS BORROZ-MAY 12, 2016 

The Brazilian Senate has just voted to impeach President Dilma Rousseff. The state-owned oil company is engulfed in the biggest corruption scandal in the country’s history, and the economy is contracting. Millions have taken to the streets in protest.

But all this turbulence may, in fact, end up stabilizing Brazilian democracy. That is, if Sergio Moro does the right thing.

If you don’t follow Brazil closely, you probably don’t know who he is. To Brazilians, though, Moro has become a household name.He’s the judge leading the charge in the massive investigation against corrupt businessmen and government officials who stole millions of dollars from state coffers.

What started out in 2014 as a money-laundering case has expanded, under Moro’s lead, into a series of revelations about a massive web of kickback schemes centered on Petrobras, the state-owned oil company. Rousseff, who was the company’s chairwoman from 2003 to 2010, may have been involved in this chicanery, a suspicion that catalyzed her impeachment process. The investigation has also exposed Petrobras’s financial weaknesses, which — given its importance as the largest company in Brazil and employer of over 80,000 people — partially explains why the country’s economic prospects are growing dimmer by the day.

Despite reforms in the 1988 constitution to separate the judiciary from the executive and legislative branches of government, Transparency International ranks Brazil as relatively soft on corruption. As an oft-cited maxim has it, “The police arrest, the courts set free.” But Moro’s tenacity highlights the independence of the country’s federal prosecutors and points the way forward. If all goes well, it could “further consolidate democracy in Brazil and begin the long-overdue assault on impunity so long enjoyed by Brazilian politicians and elites,” said Riordan Roett of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

But it remains unclear whether Moro’s actions will ultimately benefit Brazil. In fact, his zealotry has left many wondering whether he has unfairly targeted the ruling Workers’ Party to which Rousseff belongs. In particular, his sensational approach to the investigation — described as “gratuitous, media-orchestrated theater” by longtime Brazil analyst Perry Anderson — raises serious concerns about his motives. If this perception doesn’t change, Moro could fatally undermine the country’s rule of law instead of reinforcing it.

Perhaps most egregiously, Supreme Court Judge Teori Zavascki and other critics have argued that Moro behaved inappropriately when he decided to release secret transcripts of conversations between Rousseff and her predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The transcripts — in which the president appeared to offer Lula protection from prosecution by appointing him to a cabinet position — fueled street protestsagainst the Workers’ Party, and there’s no doubt the episode played a role in gathering momentum for Rousseff’s impeachment. The judiciary was widely criticized for inappropriately seeking to influence public opinion. Moro even admitted that he may have overstepped his bounds. “My ruling may have been considered incorrect, or even if correct, may have brought controversy and unnecessary constraints,” he wrote in a court filing after the Supreme Court asked him to explain himself.

Shortly before the release of the transcripts, Moro had ordered a sensational dawn raid at Lula’s home, allegedly to prevent him from destroying evidence that might have implicated him in the Petrobras scandal. This, too, was extremely controversial both in Brazil and abroad. Police removed Lula from his house in the “full glare of media [who had been] tipped off about the event,” wrote Brazilian journalist Eliane Brum.

Some analysts contend that disproportionately targeting the Workers’ Party is inevitable. “The Workers’ Party has been in power since 2003 and has been able to appoint most of the key figures at Petrobras.… [T]his means, essentially, that the Workers’ Party was necessarily at the heart of the country’s largest potential source of corruption,” said Alec Lee, a Brazil analyst at the Frontier Strategy Group.

But Moro’s sensational approach weakens the judiciary’s role as an impartial counterbalance to the politicians. If Workers’ Party supporters see their party as falling victim to an activist judiciary, their resulting alienation from the political process could lead to serious discord. In other countries, such as Turkey and Thailand, unelected bodies have aggravated conflicts by interfering in politics. Brazil is not impervious to such a scenario.

Moro still has time to change course. Simply put, he needs to stop targeting the Workers’ Party with sensational operations that can so easily be construed as partisan. If he conducts the remainder of the investigation soberly and impartially, he can change the perception of having become a “poster boy for anti-government protesters,” as the BBC recently described him. Given his newfound prominence, there is much Moro can still contribute to the creation of a system in which the judiciary really is impartial — the dream of democratic reformers everywhere.

Since Brazil’s transition from military rule to democracy in 1985, the country has been dominated by politicians who abused their positions to corrupt ends. The ongoing Petrobras scandal is one notable example of such malfeasance, but it is not the only one. After all, about 60 percent of Brazil’s members of Congress — including the recently removed speaker of the lower house and many of the politicians calling for Rousseff’s impeachment — are facing charges of bribery and other illegal behavior. So it’s certainly good news that corruption is being tackled in a high-profile way. The problem is that battling corruption dishonestly — or in a way that looks dishonest — can be worse than not doing it at all.

Moro must be smart enough to realize that, given the fervent debate catalyzed by his apparent activism, proceeding on his previous path would do his country more harm than good. For Brazil’s sake, he had better act on that knowledge.

In the photo, Sergio Moro smiles during a Senate session in Brasilia on Sept. 9, 2015.

Photo credit: EVARISTO SA/AFP/Getty Images

Philippines: A new era with President Duterte

The campaign was electioneering bombast, and it worked. I expect that the reality will be quite different. He will be a leader who won’t go around killing criminals, but he’ll certainly demand—and get—far more effective police work. Criminals will get caught at a much greater level.

by Peter Wallace

( May 12, 2016, Manila, Sri Lanka Guardian) Firstly, my congratulations to Rodrigo Duterte. He ran an amazing race, from nowhere to president. It was a phenomenon that sent a very strong message to anyone who wants to listen. That “anyone” is a politician. The public has had enough of the machinations of politicians more intent on bickering than getting things done. And on a judicial system that, quite simply, is not working.

It’s the same in America. The unreal ascent of Donald Trump is not Donald Trump, it’s “Fed-Up.” They’re also desperately unhappy with a leader who grows the economy—without them. Trickle down or, better, flood down, didn’t occur.

In 2010, 2.8 million were without a job; 2.4 million were in 2015. No real gain. Those in poverty (and that’s defined at the absurdly low level of P52/day—who could live on that?) were 24.2 million in 2013, 25.8 million in 2014. Social Weather Stations says 7.6 million in 2011, 11.2 million in 2015. It’s the greatest indictment of President Aquino’s rule.

Could this be the beginning of real change? I’m not frightened of a looming dictatorship; it’s not in Duterte’s nature, as I read it. Assertive control, yes. A determination to get things done over the objections of the “system,” yes. He’ll ride roughshod over those who don’t get things done, or trying to prevent things from getting done.

The campaign was electioneering bombast, and it worked. I expect that the reality will be quite different. He will be a leader who won’t go around killing criminals, but he’ll certainly demand—and get—far more effective police work. Criminals will get caught at a much greater level.

I detailed much of what I think he’ll do in my column last week. Once the dust settles and we hear of his early pronouncements and decisions, we’ll be able to take those issues forward further.

* * *

Let me now turn my space over to Nikki, my daughter, because I think it says well what the millennials think and want.

“I’ve been silent about the elections so far because I am not a registered voter here, so felt I had no right to contribute. But there have been so many people expressing fear and disbelief at our choice of President around me, both locally and overseas, so here is my two cents’ worth as to why my (half) nation picked Duterte.

“In one sentence: We are desperate for change.

“It really is that simple. The upper class and the foreigners and the businessmen may all be shaking their heads as they believe continuity is key. Let’s not scare away foreign investments. Don’t threaten our businesses. Be mindful of international relations.

“But the Filipino people, the poor majority, do not benefit from the wealth and the foreign investments. The Filipino people live in poverty and fear and hopelessness.

“GDP and FDI and the opinion of the late-night TV show hosts mean nothing to them.

“So they are taking a gamble on Duterte. They are voting for someone who is not like any of our other politicians. They are beginning to believe we need a firm hand to rule us. They are willing to give up some of their freedoms in the hopes that this is the change we need for better lives. They will forgive his crassness for the novelty of someone who appears genuine.

“Maybe they are wrong to assume Duterte will be good for this country. Maybe not. But until we can begin to understand what life is like for them, then we cannot judge their choices. We sit in our securely guarded apartments and villages, we know nothing of the desperation they must feel.

“So, even though I did not vote, I stand behind my country’s choice in leader.

“High risk, high reward/failure, he may be. But if anyone can rebuild a fallen nation if he does fail, it’s the Filipino people.

“So, let’s do this, Philippines. Let’s support the change and see where it takes us. Change is never easy but it’s never been more necessary than right now.”

* * *

Congratulations also to Leni Robredo, another phenomenal win, from nowhere just eight months ago to vice president for a woman who has more than proven her worth for the position. A win for another non-“trapo,” reinforcing even more that people want change in what kind of leader the country wants. I’d like to hope that Bongbong Marcos will act the gentleman and graciously accept the result, and not go to the Presidential Electoral Tribunal to challenge the result. Her calming nature is what the country needs now.

There’s a third congratulatory message to be delivered, and that’s to Andy Bautista and all those who worked tirelessly at the Commission on Elections, plus the ever-dedicated teachers and volunteers, in producing smooth, quick and uncontested elections. It’s a model that many others in the world may want to emulate. The glitches that occurred were inevitable in such a complex system, and too small to be of consequence.

For Duterte, it’s time to reach out to the business sector again. They need to know where he’ll be heading, what will be his policies and plans. New investment is dependent on it. Ongoing business need the reassurance; he’s too much of an unknown factor to business. He has treated them well in Davao, so will he now do so at the national level? With some detail. There’s a future to plan for here, for all of us.

A new era is about to start.

E-mail: wallace_likeitis@wbf.ph; Read his previous columns: www.wallacebusinessforum.com

Ex-Deutsche Bank executive given four-and-a-half years for insider trading

Martyn Dodgson and ex-finance director Andrew Hind jailed for making deals on stock markets using classified information

Reuters

Martyn Dodgson, a former managing director at Deutsche Bank, has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Reuters-Thursday 12 May 2016

A former Deutsche Bank managing director and an accountant have been sent to prison for “persistent, prolonged, deliberate, dishonest behaviour”, drawing a line under the UK financial watchdog’s eight-and-a-half year insider dealing inquiry.

Martyn Dodgson, a 44-year-old financier who advised the government during the financial crisis, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years on Thursday for his part in an elaborate scam that prosecutors said made more than £6.9m between 2006 and 2010. It is the longest UK prison term handed down for the crime.

Andrew Hind, a 56-year-old former finance director of Topshop, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years at Southwark crown court in London. Both were convicted of conspiracy to insider trade on Monday.

Insider dealing – using confidential information to trade on the stock market – carries a maximum seven-year sentence in the UK. But the longest term handed down to date had been four years.

Dodgson and Hind were convicted after a 12-week trial and, as he sentenced them on Thursday, Judge Jeffrey Pegden QC described them as having taken part in “persistent, prolonged, deliberate, dishonest behaviour”.

The investigation, dubbed Operation Tabernula, was a joint operation of the Financial Services Authority – now replaced by the Financial Conduct Authority – and the then Serious Organised Crime Agency. The investigation, which the FCA has described as its “largest and most complex insider dealing investigation”, cost nearly £14m.

Graeme Shelley, Paul Milsom and Julian Rifat pleaded guilty at earlier dates. Traders Milsom and Rifat were given sentences of two years and of 19 months with a £100,000 fine respectively, while Shelley was handed a two-year suspended sentence.

The FCA alleged that Dodgson had handed inside information that he had discovered through his work to Hind, who was then alleged to have passed it on to two other men to trade on their behalf. It was alleged that the group then split the profits, which the FCA claimed totalled £7.4m.
The three other alleged participants were all acquitted.

Mark Steward, the director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said the case involved serious offending over a number of years. “Insider dealing is ever more detectable and provable. And this case shows lengthy terms of imprisonment, not profits, are the real result.”

Dodgson is one of the most senior City figures ever to be charged with insider dealing. He moved to Deutsche Bank in October 2008 as a director and was later promoted. He was also part of a Deutsche Bank team advising the government on its stakes in the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group.

The FCA conducted the investigation with the National Crime Agency, whose branch commander Oliver Higgins said: “Dodgson and Hind tried to prevent us from uncovering their insider dealing by using unregistered mobile phones, encoded and encrypted records, and transferring benefit using cash and payments in kind.”

While the sentence is a record for the UK, Elly Proudlock from law firm WilmerHale’s UK investigations and criminal litigation practice, said it was still substantially shorter than it would have been in the US.
She said: “Although the sentence imposed on Mr Dodgson is the highest yet for insider dealing in the UK, it still falls significantly short of the sort of sentences we see coming out of the US. It will be interesting to see whether the government decides to follow the Bank of England’s recommendation to increase the maximum sentence for market abuse offences to 10 years, which would bring it in line with a number of other economic offences.”

Thailand launches manhunt after fatal drugging, rape of 8-year-old girl

The eight-year-old girl's body being taken on an ambulance to another hospital after her mother claimed her body. Image via Bangkok Post.

12th May 2016 

POLICE in Thailand on Thursday launched a manhunt for a man who is suspected of drugging and raping an 8-year-old girl, who died after the attack.

The rape of the child had happened in Trang province on Tuesday.

According to The Bangkok Post, the Bang Nong Trud station investigation chief Major Charnnarong Klonsom said the mother told police today that the girl had been raped by her 20-year-old neighbor.

Her daughter, he said, had died shortly after being sent to Trang hospital after showing symptoms of delirium and confusion.

Detailing the incident, the 31-year-old mother said the suspect had come to her house in the early hours of Tuesday while she and her husband were at work in a rubber plantation.

Their three children, an 11-year-old son, the victim and her four-year-old sister were home alone at the time of the incident.

SEE ALSO: 15-year-old girl dies in India after being raped, set on fire

The mother said the suspect had entered her daughter’s room on Tuesday and raped the girl. When she came back home at 6am, the daughter appeared to suffer from stomach pains.

Assuming that the girl had been struck by black magic, the mother took her to a fortune teller. However, the girl did not show signs of improvement.

At the Trang hospital where she was later taken, the girl had a gastric lavage. Under observation, doctors found that she had been raped.

Regaining consciousness, the girl managed to tell the mother about the neighbor, who had given her a soft drink which may have been laced with drugs the afternoon before.

The suspect, the mother said, was a known friend to the husband who lived about half a kilometer away from their house.

Doctors also found traces of methamphetamine in the soft drink given to the girl.

At press time, the girl’s body was sent to the Songklanagarind Hospital for a full autopsy.

The new 140-character war on India’s caste system

Indian women use their smartphones while traveling in the New Delhi metro car reserved for women. (Anna Zieminski/AFP/Getty Images)

By Rama Lakshmi-May 12 at 2:00 AM

NEW DELHI — When a bridge collapsed in the city of Kolkata, killing dozens two months ago, the usual outrage followed about shoddy construction companies and substandard material.

But a wealthy businessman, Motilal Oswal, created a stir on Twitter when he chose to blame it on the country’s engineers — who he said graduate not because of talent but because of affirmative-action set-asides for lower-caste groups, a hot-button issue in India.

He was retweeted by hundreds of people opposed to set-asides, but faced a strong pushback on Twitter from the Dalits, once known as the “untouchables” in India’s centuries-old rigid caste system.

Within hours, Oswal deleted the tweet and apologized.

Much like the “Black Twitter” movement in the United States, Dalits with popular Twitterhandles are now routinely flexing their muscles on the microblogging site, acting as community watchdogs and highlighting issues of bias, brutality and bigotry that they say India’s predominantly upper-caste media tends to ignore.

 

Dalits launched an angry counterattack on Oswal on Twitter with the hashtag #BoycottMotilalOswal and asked followers to file a complaint of caste prejudice. They also pointed out that the company that was building the bridge did not have job quotas for lower-caste engineers, and that set-asides in colleges and government jobs are a fundamental right guaranteed by the nation’s constitution.

They widely shared screen shots of Oswal’s offending tweet and of his apology.

“Twitter has given a new language and energy to the Dalit movement against the caste system in India,” said Pradeep, who runs the Ambedkar Caravan Twitter handle. He uses only one name because surnames in India often reveal one’s caste.

India’s lower-caste groups have been marginalized for centuries. The majority of Dalits toil as landless farm laborers, cannot use community water pumps, live in segregated village enclaves and work as manual scavengers. The marriage of an upper-caste member to a Dalit is largely frowned upon, and can even be fatal in some villages. Many Dalits are too poor to own smartphones or access the Internet.

But more than six decades of affirmative-action policies has created a small but vocal Dalit middle class composed of bureaucrats, doctors, politicians and engineers.

Recently, Dalits on Twitter forced a big Indian company that makes ceiling fans to remove a TV commercial that they said showed affirmative action in a poor light. The ad celebrated a lower-caste student who refuses the benefits of affirmative action in college.

“For upper-caste people, Twitter is just another invention. For Dalits, it has the potential for a revolution,” said Chandra Bhan Prasad, a Dalit writer. “There is no barrier for Dalits’ entry here. Nobody will filter your words here or chop your thumb for daring to write what you feel.”

 

Although Dalits have preferred Facebook for activism for some years, their attention shifted to Twitter when the site enabled the use of hashtags in six more regional Indian languages last year.

A little more than 22 million Indians used Twitter in 2014, according to one report, but many say it is growing in its power to shape public debate. Many politicians, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, tweet regularly. Political parties have huge Twitter armies to propagate their views or troll opponents. Communities also use it to influence or criticize the stories that the mainstream media covers.

Yet the Indian media remains largely an upper-caste bastion with no formal affirmative- action policy to hire Dalits, say media experts, one reason that “Dalit Twitter” has found its niche.

“The national media has no active interest in covering Dalit issues on a regular basis,” said Dharma Teja, of the Twitter handle Dalit Camera.

In March, the body of a 17-year-old Dalit student was found inside the water tank of her college dorm in the western state of Rajasthan. Her parents said she had been raped and killed by the college physical training instructor, but the college said it was suicide. As protests grew on the ground, the national television networks were consumed by the suicide of a TV soap-opera actress instead.

“By amplifying the voices of Dalit protests on the ground, we forced the national media to pay more attention to the student’s case,” Teja said.

During a recent campus face-off between Dalit students and university administrators in the southern city of Hyderabad, sparked by the suicide of a Dalit PhD student, these Twitter handles actively posted videos, photographs and oral testimonies.

Journalists in New Delhi said they used these handles as a key source of information on the protest.

When there is a violent incident, many like the Dalit politician D. Ravikumar use the hashtag #DalitLivesMatter.

Some, however, say they do not use Twitter merely to highlight violence.

“Ask anybody in India who the top 10 Dalit women in history were, they would struggle to name even two. That is how total the erasure of our history has been,” said Thenmozhi Soundararajan, whose handle is Dalit Diva. She uses #DalitHistoryMonth and #DalitWomenFight in many of her tweets. “We are trying to liberate our history.”

Things may be beginning to change.

Last month, a news portal called thenewsminute.com became the first mainstream English media outlet in India to run a Dalit History Month series on caste discrimination, Dalit poetry and art.

Dhanya Rajendran, editor in chief of the portal, said such stories do not find much space in the media because “there is an assumption that the audience is upper-caste and urban.”

Readers accused the portal of dividing society along caste lines by running the series.

One reader commented: “What is Dalit history? Don’t take up old prejudices for publicity. New India not like that.”

Dalits on Twitter said they face a volley of abuse and rampage trolling.

“This shows that it’s working,” Soundararajan said. “They are scared of the rising power of Dalit Twitter.”

How To Lose Face Fat?

May 10, 2016

How To Lose Face Fat?

The face and cheeks are not immune from carrying excess fat. Chubby cheeks and double chins endorse that statement. Losing weight from a specific part of the body is technically difficult. You will have to work on your entire body, to tone your face and reduce puffiness. Here are a few tips to reduce face fat.

Tips to Lose Face Fat

1. Face Yoga/Exercise

Doing facial exercises, or facial yoga, is a natural way to make your face look younger by firming muscles and reducing wrinkles. There are approximately 50 muscles in your face, and exercising them has the added benefit of helping eye strain and releasing neck and facial tension. A few facial exercises you can practice are:

• Widen your eyes and concentrate on a particular point in front of your face. Hold this for 10 seconds and then relax. Repeat this exercise 4 times.
• Make a fish face by sucking in your cheeks. Practice this about five times.
• Fill your mouth with air. Press your lips together and then close your mouth. Next, move the trapped air from one side to another. This will help you get rid of chubby cheeks, if practiced daily for 5 minutes.
• Take a deep breath and then exhale from the mouth. Do this 4 times.
• Look upwards and blow air from the mouth, as hard as you can. This will strengthen the jaw line.

[Read: Can Water Exercises Burn More Fat Than Regular Exercises?]

2. Water

The one simple trick to losing weight is drinking a lot of water. This will help you get rid of all the toxins in your body. Also, Excess alcohol, sugar, and salt intake are all linked to fuller faces. They can all cause your body’s tissues including those in your face, to hold onto water. Reduce consumption of these face bloaters and increase your intake of water.  When you are dehydrated, your body is more apt to retain any water flowing through it.

3. Eat Healthy food

Fill yourself up with some fresh vegetables, fruits, fibrous foods and protein rich foods instead of sugar rich foods and salty foods. Eat your meals at the correct time for good digestion. You could also indulge in healthy snacking having small portions of fruits and vegetables.

Apart from the top 3 you must also remember to sleep well. You could also go in for a facial massage, clay mask, or even change your hairstyle that can make you look slim around the face. If you’ve come across any other tips to lose face fat, leave them in comments below

Preliminary observations and recommendations of the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers - Ms. Mónica Pinto* of the Official joint visit to Sri Lanka – 29 April to 7 May 2016 

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers and Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment

Preliminary observations and recommendations of the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers - Ms. Mónica Pinto*

Colombo, 7 May 2016

* This statement should be read in conjunction with the preliminary observations and recommendations of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Find the statement here:


Introduction

At the invitation of the government, my colleague, Mr. Juan E. Méndez – the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment – and I visited Sri Lanka from 29 April to 7 May 2016 to assess the situation and remaining challenges concerning torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and the independence of judges and lawyers.

Preliminary Observations and Recommendations of the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and La... by Thavam Ratna

Tamils suffered genocide in Sri Lanka says British MP at parliamentary Mullivaikkal remembrance event


11 May 2016

“What happened to Tamils in Sri Lanka is Genocide,” said Member of Parliament for Enfield Joan Ryan and vice chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPG-T), speaking at a Mullivaikal remembrance event at the House of Commons on Tuesday.

See live tweets from the event here.

The event which was organised by the Tamil Co-ordinating Committee (TCC), saw a cross-party turn-out from MPs.

Condemning ongoing torture of Tamils in Sri Lanka, the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils MP for Kingston and Surbiton James Berry, said, “We must also shine a spot light on the disgraceful and continuing practice of torture. Whether or not it is sponsored at the highest level, it is taking place in Sri Lanka – last year, last month and probably yesterday. It is taking place frequently and Freedom From Torture produced a compelling report on this.”

Mr Berry highlighted the need for the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) to be repealed whilst stressing the need to pressure Sri Lanka to demilitarise the Tamil homeland in the North-East of Sri Lanka.

MP for Ilford North Wes Streeting, lamenting that the world looked away and did not act fast enough in 2009, reiterated his commitment to ensuring that the UNHRC resolution is fully implemented, adding,

“We have not taken our eye of the ball in ensuring the resolution is implemented. Plenty of parliamentarians who will not look away this time.”

“It is important Sirisena knows that the international community is watching,” he concluded.

MPs that attended the event heard the compelling experiences of Dr Navaratnarajah Uyatchi, who was heading the last hospital in Mullivaikkal until the early hours of May 17th.

Dr Uyatchi reiterated that he witnessed the Sri Lankan airfore drop chemical weapons within the vicinity of the hospital.

The son of the killed Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) political head Nadesan, recounted finding out that his father and mother and been tortured and killed despite surrendering to Sri Lanka’s military through an internationally arranged white flag surrender process.

Responding to the harrowing accounts of May 2009, MP Joan Ryan said,

“Unless we hear this kinds of testimony that makes us realise inside ourselves what we mean when we talk about war crimes and what prices have been paid. Unless we have that kind of accountability, then we do not get a lasting peace. That’s why we must keep striving for what the UN Human Rights Council has told Sri Lanka must happen.”

Adding context to the event, Dr Madurika Rasaratnam of Kent University reminded MPs that the armed conflict was symptomatic of Sri Lanka’s inability to structurally change to accommodate Tamil aspirations and address grievances.

Dr Rasaratnam added that Sri Lanka’s commitment to the UNHRC resolution was only possible due to sustained international pressure it received.  

Noting that since Sri Lanka’s change of governance, “there is some resistance in the international community to accept that the new government may not deliver,” Dr Rasaratnam added,

“The actions of the new government make this even clearer as time passes. Sri Lanka will not change without sustained pressure.”

Responding to questions on whether the Conservative party would follow Labour in officially supporting the Tamil aspirations of self-determination, the British Tamil Conservative Chair said in private many current government ministers supported the Tamil political aspirations in Sri Lanka. 

The event ended with concluding remarks from the co-editor of the Tamil Guardian Sivakami Rajamanoharan who highlighted that “the recent spate of arrests of Tamils in the North-East reiterate that even 7 years on they are confronted with a climate of intimidation and torture that does not allow them to mourn their dead.”

Citizens’ Engagement In Local Administration; Vital Factor For Good Governance

By Dinesh Kirthinanda –May 11, 2016

Dinesh Kirthinanda

An indigenous model for peoples’ participation in local governance, invariably will be an effective tool to make the local government institutions to be just, equitable, transparent, accountable, responsive, inclusive, efficient and consensus oriented.

It would pave the way for the emergence of a system which could well become a panacea for all ills of the nation not excluding the process of reconciliation and building a Sri Lankan identity.

However, the million dollar question stands tall; will the government take the plunge? Yes or No.

Citizens’ engagement in the local government administration is a concept worth pursuing in Sri Lanka. It is timely and appropriate to set the process in motion right now; as the country has the ideal situation and a conductive environment for the purpose.

Good Governance

The present government has been voted into power with an overwhelming majority cross cutting all geographic, demographic and socio-economic factors with a strong mandate to usher in good governance.

Civil society movement, becoming more prominent and dominant than the political parties, spearheaded by the brave and unbowed erudite Buddhist prelate the late Venerable Maduluwawe Sobitha Nayaka Thero took the message of good governance direct to the villages throughout the island transcending all ethnic, religious and other differences.

The concept of good governance started flowing to every nook and corner in the length and breadth of the country in the latter half of 2014 with the anticipation of the proclamation of a Presidential election; after four years in office by the then incumbent President.

Yahapalanaya, the literal translation in Sinhala for good governance soon became the buzz word in Sri Lankan politics, which got into the daily parlance of the people; well anchored now to stay put for long. They perceived it as administration free from corruption committed to creating a just society where all beings are treated equally before the law. Although it encapsulates all the goodness of good governance in an abridged version, the circumstances demand a clear definition of the concept with a broader analysis.

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