Monday, May 23, 2016

SRI LANKA’S OFFICE FOR MISSING PERSONS: CRITIQUE BY THE TAMIL CIVIL SOCIETY FORUM

23/05/2016

In a letter addressed to Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, on 19 May the Tamil Civil Society Forum (TCSF) criticised the government’s lack of engagement with victims in setting up an ‘Office for Missing Persons’ (OMP). Stating that the “process to date has been handicapped by inadequate resources and has made very little progress,” the organisations said.. TCSF position is supported by 12 civil society organisations, and 12 individuals including those from Tamil clergy.

19 May 2016
Hon. Mangala Samaraweera, M.P,
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Colombo 01.
Honourable Minister,

Comments on the draft proposal to establish an OMP

We the undersigned organisations and individuals from the North-East of Sri Lanka submit as follows our view on the draft outline of the proposals put forward by the Prime Minister’s Secretariat and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the setting up of an ‘Office for Missing Persons’ (OMP). These proposals were put forward in a briefing held with selected civil society activists on the 9th of May at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a leaflet that was circulated by the Ministry on the 13th of May on the same.

A. The Process:

Consultation with regard to all Transitional Justice Mechanisms including the OMP were entrusted with the Task Force on Consultations functioning under the SCRM. However in the design of the OMP the perception exists that the Foreign Ministry has taken over the consultation process. The mandate and terms of reference of the Task Force are extremely vague and the process to date has been handicapped by in adequate resources and has made very little progress. In the midst of this, the Foreign Ministry, it appears, is seeking to rush through a tokenistic consultation process on the OMP. The undermining of the Task Force by the Foreign Ministry makes clear the disdainful and instrumental use of the Task Force on Consultation. This runs contrary to the observations made by the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparations and the Guarantee of Non-recurrence following his visit to Sri Lanka in April 2015 wherein he noted that, consultation with those affected by the violations is essential and that they cannot be simply presented with ‘solutions’ in the design of which they were given no role. In his observations on his second visit to Sri Lanka the Special Rapporteur noted that ‘consulting victims is crucial because it constitutes in itself a mode of recognition and respect – that people whose rights were violated, often in the most brutal ways, will be listened to respectfully and their views taken seriously as to the most effective ways of redressing those violations”.

The Government despite repeated requests has also refused to engage with victims who are abroad in the consultation exercise. (As to how the OMP will engage with these victims is also not clear). The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in its Rule of Law Tools on Consultations raises the need to consult with all victims even those abroad. We are unfortunately forced to conclude that there is no genuine willingness to consult the victims on the part of the Government in the setting up of mechanisms for Transitional Justice.

We categorically state that an OMP that is designed without proper consultation with the victims and their communities would be unacceptable.

B. Substance:

We are constrained in our ability to respond in detail to the substantive content of the proposals. The Foreign Ministry’s proposed consultation is being carried out with a two page leaflet that is quite insufficient on the details. A full draft of the proposals on the OMP should be made available for any meaningful consultation.

B.1. Missing Persons or Enforced Disappearances? : Not just about nomenclature

Enforced Disappearances is a recognised crime in international law whereas ‘missing persons’ is a generic term and may cover situations that do not amount to a crime. An example of the category of missing persons not falling under ‘enforced disappearances’ are Sri Lankan Army soldiers who are missing in action. The OMP’s mandate, if it is conceived as being part of the Transitional Justice process, has to be in relation to the crime of an ‘enforced disappearance’, at the the hands of the state, its security forces and non-state actors. The issue of soldiers missing in action is no less important, but should be kept distinct and should not be conflated with the crime of enforced disappearances. In this regard, the terminology of ‘tracing’ in the context of disappearances is problematic because it denies the fact that a crime has been perpetrated which must be investigated so that those responsible may be prosecuted. It is also not clear as to whether the OMP has been mandated to carry out investigations with a view to prosecutions. (It may be argued that this distinction is inconsequential given that the OMP does not deal with prosecutions. We refer to the artificiality of this dichotomisation in B.4)

B.2. Composition of the OMP:

Without international involvement in the OMP it will be extremely difficult for the victims to place faith in the institution. Given that the Sri Lankan Armed Forces are to-date involved in threatening victims and activists in the North-East and the veneration accorded to them by most if not all major political actors in the South, it will very difficult to envisage willingness and imagine the possibility of an OMP made up of exclusively Sri Lankan nationals, undertaking a vigorous process of evidence collection and tracing. For example, it is difficult to conceive how the OMP made exclusively of Sri Lankans, in the current power imbalance, will have the moral and practical courage to enter camps and prisons and properly investigate alleged acts of disappearances. The OMP will be sufficiently empowered to be independent only when qualified foreign individuals known for their integrity, independence and professionalism are included in its composition. We wish to stress that this is the underlying rationale of the hybrid process recommended in the OISL report and the UNHRC Resolution of March 2015 and that it should apply to all aspects of the transitional justice process.

We would recommend that the Government approach the UNWGED and or the OHCHR to recommend suitable names for appointment to the OMP. We also recommend that one half of the membership of the OMP is drawn from such a process. We also wish to emphasise that representatives of the victims and an adequate number of Tamils and Muslims with strong links to the community with lived experience in the North-East should be appointed to the OMP. Gender balance should also be a key consideration in designing the composition of the OMP.

B.3. The Appointment Process:

The Constitutional Council cannot be considered to be a sufficiently independent body capable of ensuring an independent appointment process to the OMP. The Constitutional Council as provided for in the 19th amendment, contrary to common understanding, does not provide for an independent appointment process to public institutions. This is manifested for example in the fact that 5 out of 10 members of the current council are members of the ruling coalition. The partiality of the Constitutional Council should be offset by allowing, as suggested above, the UNWGED and/ or the OHCHR to recommend/appoint members to the OMP and mandating that the Constitutional Council work in close consultation with victims and their communities in making the domestic appointments. Representatives of victims should be allowed to vet nominations prior to appointment.

B.4. Prosecutions and Justice:

The leaflet issued by the Foreign Ministry says that prosecutions relating to enforced disappearance will be dealt with by ‘another mechanism’. For reasons explained below this ‘other mechanism’ we fear refers to the current organisational apparatus for criminal prosecutions – the Police, Attorney General’s Department and the Judiciary who have no credibility or willingness to investigate these serious crimes. No explanation has been provided for such dichotomisation of the tracing and prosecution aspects in addressing enforced disappearances. The International Convention on Enforced Disappearances, which Sri Lanka is signatory to, provides that the state is obliged to investigate acts of enforced disappearance and bring those responsible to justice.

As will be recalled the UNHRC Resolution is most explicit in its calling for foreign participation in the judicial mechanism. It is with regard to this commitment that the Government has been wavering ever since the resolution was passed, with the President suggesting that no foreign judges will be allowed. Given the above, it appears that the Government is keen on postponing the issue of prosecutions, while wanting to appear to be acting on setting up the OMP. This approach of focusing on the OMP first, we fear has been adopted for an instrumental purpose – to give the impression to the UNHRC, which is scheduled to hear an oral report from the OHCHR on the implementation of the March 2015 resolution, that progress is underway. The Government before setting up the OMP must state unambiguously its policy approach on the question of judicial prosecutions and as to whether they intend to honour those commitments laid down in the UNHRC resolution.

B.5. The right to truth:

We note with concern that the leaflet provides that the OMP will have discretion on the decision to share information received by it with the families of the victims. That this is not mandatory reduces the OMP’s usefulness even as a truth seeking institution. The families of the victims have a right to know and this cannot be compromised. Furthermore the Government is obliged to ensure that victims of enforced disappearance or those directly affected by it have a right to obtain reparation and compensation.

B.6. Witness Protection

The Assistance to and Protection of Victims of Crimes and Witnesses Act, as was acknowledged in the UNHRC Resolutions, falls far short of providing adequate protection. Those authorities from whom protection is required find representation in the National Authority established under the Act. Out of the twelve members of the authority seven are ex-officio and represent different organs of the state including the Police and the Attorney General’s Department. Given that the relatives of the disappeared are desperate for information it is likely that they will engage with the OMP even without adequate witness protection. But the Government should not take this for granted. It is the Government’s responsibility to put in a proper mechanism for witness and victim protection.

7th year Mullivaikkal genocide remembrance day in London

May 23, 2016

The British Tamil people gathered again in large numbers to remember and reflect their kith and kin who were massacred in a genocide by the Sri Lankan state and to demand for justice from the International Community.

As in the past six years, the commemoration event, co-ordinated by British Tamils Forum in the UK, brought together British Tamil people to remember their loved ones who perished in the Mullivaikkal Genocide in 2009.

Following a protest march from Waterloo Place to Richmond Terrace opposite the Prime Minister David Cameron’s residence, a vigil meeting was held and it began with the participants lighting candles in silence to remember those innocent Tamil people killed. Across the world, there were similar events were held to remember this painful time for the families of those killed.

At the last year's event, there was wide optimism among the international community that the change of government in Sri Lanka in January 2015 would pave way for an international independent investigation into the genocide and justice for the victims. This year’s event was held when those optimisms have evaporated as the international community has come to realise that the change of government has not resulted in any change with respect to justice for the victims of genocide or in respect to a political solution to the Tamil National question.

Human rights defenders, British Parliamentarians and people who support the call for justice to the Tamil people, attended and addressed the event. The Members of APPG for Tamils James Berry MP, Wes Streeting MP, Gareth Thomas MP and Bob Blackman MP, Paul Scully MP and the GLA member Cllr Keith Prince reiterate the need for an international independent investigation in Sri Lanka during their speech at the vigil meeting.

The leader of the opposition Jeremy Corbyn MP, Gavin Barwell MP, Jackie Doyle Price MP, Virendra Sharma MP, Tom Brake MP, John Mann MP, Joan Ryan MP, Mike Gapes MP, Stephen Timms MP, Roger Evans, Charles Tannock MEP, Syed Kamall MEP sent sympathy messages to the British Tamils Forum.

In a written statement and a video message, the leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn MP said, “my thoughts today are also with the wider Tamil community who have shouldered injustice for decades and remain resolute in their determination for justice”. Mr Corbyn has vowed to “stand” with the Tamil community “in the search for truth, justice, accountability and reconciliation, and of course the right of self-determination within Sri Lanka”.

The chair of the APPG for Tamils’ James Berry said “Sirisena has promised a lot but delivered almost next to nothing.” He called on the Sri Lankan government to produce evidence of lands released, set up a tribunal as promised to the international community and end on going torture in the country. James said, “it is not a time to take pressure off Sri Lanka.”

Gareth Thomas said, “we still hear huge human rights problems coming from Sri Lanka.” He promised to raise these concerns in the House of Parliament on behalf of the Tamil constituents in Harrow West.

The vice-chair APPG for Tamils’ Wes Streeting said, “there can be no peace and reconciliation unless there can be truth, justice and accountability.” He also said, “there can be no hiding place for people who committed those unspeakable crimes during the Sri Lankan civil war, the crimes that can only be reasonably considered as genocide.”

Bob Blackman said, “my view is that the people that committed war crimes must answer for these not in Sri Lanka but at The Hague.

The British Tamils Forum’s general secretary V Ravi Kumar said, “the Sri Lankan state is leading a shadow war on Tamil people to divert our struggle and the Tamil people should be aware of this and not fall this discreet approach.” Mr Ravi Kumar also said, “the Tamil homeland is still continuing to be occupied by the Sri Lankan military, mushrooming Buddhist temples / monuments of conquests in the Tamils' homeland, destruction of their cultural landscape, torture and rape against our people under the indefinite detention of the Tamil people without trial continues.”

The absence of a comprehensive list of the 18,000 people taken away at the end of the war and the fate of the missing 146,679 were kept in the limelight at the event.

The closing speech was deliver by the British Tamils Forum woman activists Chandrika recapped our memories of the last few days, weeks and months of Mullivaikkal in 2009.

The Tamil people will never forget their kith and kin killed by the Sinhala state and will not relent until an international independent investigation is conducted, the perpetrators of the genocide are held to account and justice is served.

Hats Off To Our WhatsApp Warriors

By Hilmy Ahamed –May 22, 2016

The floods in Sri Lanka have brought out the best in social media. Whatsapp and Facebook were used extensively to save lives and mobilize relief. An unprecedented initiative indeed, in this age when parents are concerned about the negative impact of social media on their children. Facebook in fact had initiated a post that confirmed the safety of Facebook members and or whether needed any support. Our own “PICK ME” service included boat rescue, a service provided free of charge by the Navy to evacuate stranded people. The value of Internet and communication technologies was showcased to its best in this time of disaster. With more mobile phones than our population, there is hope that these technologies could be further used in disaster management, education and development.

Rescue and relief operations were undertaken by individuals and groups, using WhatsApp including directing rescue boats to save lives. Thousands of rice parcels were directed to the needy using this modern wonder. Messages from groups included total strangers offering to reload mobile phone credit of volunteers in the field, confirming the importance of these social media phenomena.

Broadcast media, as usual came forward to support relief and were able to mobilize collection of mass scale relief supplies, but it is the social media that was in the forefront in providing immediate relief and saving lives.

Sri Lankans as a people are generous. We heard wonderful stories of even beggars emptying shelves of supermarkets of food and other relief items using their savings in support of the Tsunami victims in the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004.

May 23, 2016

The role of the Attorney General’s Department in terms of upholding the justice system in Sri Lanka, and rule of law is being critically examined from many quarters. The UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Ms. Monica Pinto severely critiqued the Attorney Generals’

Department in her Preliminary Observations and recommendations following her visit to Sri Lanka on 7th May 2016. Also, the UN Special Rapporteur against torture and ill treatment Mr. Juan E Mendez also examined the role of the Attorney General in terms of impunity and lack of accountability regarding the violations relating to torture and ill treatment as well as other human rights abuses. Meanwhile, the Anti-Corruption Fund (ACF) in a report bearing No 177 exposes how the cases that have been submitted by the Financial Crime Investigations Department (FCID), to the Attorney General’s Department are lying dormant at the Department as there are delays in taking action by the Attorney General’s Department.

Meanwhile the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong has enumerated a series of defects of the Attorney General’s Department that obstructs the administration of justice and the achievement of rule of law in Sri Lanka.

Speaking about strengthening the independence of administration of justice the UNSR for the independence of judges and lawyers Ms. Monica Pinto, states “…The country needs to conduct a strict exercise of introspection, so as to improve the quality of its judiciary and of the Attorney-General’s office. This includes reviewing and publicizing the criteria for the appointment of judges and the causes for removal through disciplinary proceedings, providing quality legal and technological training, including mandatory training in international human rights law. “The judiciary is a national asset”, said one of my interlocutors. It is also a permanent institution, one of the three branches of the State, which has a fundamental role to play in a democratic society based on the rule of law; therefore it should be robust and efficient.”

Speaking particularly of the need for transparent, decentralised, and democratic approach to the administration of Justice, The UN Special Rapporteur, Ms. Monica Pinto, particularly points to the appointments of judges as well officers to the Attorney General’s Office. She states, “… The instances participating in the appointment of judges, counsels of the Attorney-General’s office and judicial staff should publish the selection procedure, including the criteria and methods to be followed.” In this regard she points to the role that the Chief Justice needs to play in these matters; “…The Constitution provides for the Chief Justice to head many instances dealing with administrative matters in the field of justice and this restricts very much his abilities to manage such an important branch of government.”

She points to the strict and rigorous recruitment process that is essential for justice systems of high quality. What she says with regard to judicial officers in this regard, can also equally apply to the recruitment to the Attorney General’s Office; judicial officers should be appointed when meeting personal and technical requirements and after competitive examinations held at least partly anonymously. They should be trained in technical matters, including the administration of tribunals or the analysis of complex forensic evidence, as well as in human rights law, including gender and women’s rights. The lack of known and established criteria regarding the appointment of judges will equally apply to the members of the Attorney General’s Department.

She goes on to point to the need of independent impartial and transparent institutions, and also points to the need for independence, impartiality, competence, due process as well as right to appeal a decision to a higher body as essential requirements of a proper disciplinary proceedings. Mentioning that transparency is an essential requisite of rule of law, she states “institutions in Sri Lanka, including those that are crucial for rule of law regime, are generally opaque” meaning that they are neither transparent (allowing all light to pass through) nor translucent (allowing some light to pass through). Referring to the Constitutional council, she states “the constitutional council should publish the rules of procedures it established for itself and applies in discharging its appointment functions as well as criteria used to evaluate candidates’ suitability for a given position. Such publicity would contribute to dissipating possible accusations of deliberate opacity and arbitrariness.” Speaking about the appointments to the Constitutional Council, which as of present is seven politicians and the remaining three civil society representatives, she states “To avoid the politicization of the appointment processes under the purview of the Council and to increase its legitimacy, this current composition should be changed so as to include more civil society representatives, including possibly representation from the Bar Association and academia.”

Specifically, on the Attorney General’s role, Ms Pinto goes on to state that “…The Attorney-General is also de Chief Prosecutor, and, as such replaced the position of the Independent Prosecutor which existed in the past. In such a capacity, the Attorney-General should issue clear and proper guidelines for the investigation and prosecution of crimes, specific guidelines could be developed for the investigation and prosecution of serious human rights violations, including torture, and violations of international humanitarian law. He should also monitor how cases are substantiated so as to avoid the delays incurred by his office. Even in ‘ordinary’ non-conflict-related and non-political cases, the Attorney-General’s office takes too much time to produce an indictment. This is but one of the reasons for the long judicial delays in the administration of justice in Sri Lanka and which court users of to endure.

“The Attorney-General’s office acts as the representative of the State, which by no means should be equivalent to defending the government. His office should also be able to make a neat separation between the State and the public interest they act on behalf of and the persons behind the institutions so as to avoid any possible conflict of interest. Such conflict of interest have arisen for instance in cases where the Attorney-General’s office appears in the defence of police officers or military officers in cases of habeas corpus applications, as if the court decides that the respondent are responsible for the crimes they are accused of, the same office would be called to prosecute them.”

Comments by UN Special Rapporteur against torture and ill treatment

Mr Juan E Mendez, UN Special Rapporteur against torture points to the fact that a modern accusatory system begins with affording more guarantees for the defendant. He states that ‘In it, the public prosecutor is first and foremost the guardian of legality. He goes on to state that “ … Prosecutors must enforce the law against criminals but should also actively prevent miscarriages of justice by way of torture and manipulation of evidence, and intervene early on in the process. The accusatory system is more conducive than the inquisitorial system for the respect for human rights; but in its modern form it gives a lot of power but also heightened responsibility to prosecutors.”

Mr Mendez, points out the importance of judges and prosecutors to upon the obligation to consider bail for lesser and non-violent offences and to ensure medical examinations by forensic doctors properly trained, by the “Manual on Effective investigation and documentation of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment” known also as the Istanbul Protocol as soon as any suspicion of mistreatment arises. Then the Rapporteur points out to the duty of the Attorney General to initiate prosecutions against whomsoever may be responsible for torture or mistreatment, including the superiors who may have tolerated and condoned that act.

This reference to Superiors is quite important within the context of Sri Lanka, although literarily thousands of cases have been received each year, no action has ever been taken against officers above the rank of OICs – Officers in Charge, for their responsibility for condoning the practice of torture and ill treatment. In this context particularly the role of ASPs, who are required by the Police Departmental Orders to supervise the conduct of police stations, is important. The use of torture and ill treatment at police stations will come to an end if the ASPs play their role of supervising the officers of these police stations and take action against those who violates the law or the police regulations. There is no recorded instance in the recent times when any ASP has done his duty in this regard.

The Anti-Corruption Front Report

In the ACF report bearing No 177 dated 16th May 2016, there is a detailed enumeration of 38 cases which according to the report, the criminal investigations department or the FCID has completed their investigations. All the cases mentioned are those on allegations of serious corruption involving Minsters of the previous Government or other very senior officers involved in government administration.

Amounts involve, and vary from LKR 2 Million to 700 Million. In all these cases where the investigations have been completed the status of the indictments is that either such status is not yet unknown, or “status of charges or indictments unknown”, “AGs advise is unknown”, and delay in the AGs Department.

The AHRCs listing of the defects of the AGs Department

The prosecutor’s role if played in Sri Lanka by the Attorney General’s Department. This Department has also seen serious degeneration of quality due the following factors.

1. Under the previous Mahinda Rajapaksa government the entire department of the Attorney General was brought under the control of the Presidential Secretariat. This was a fundamental violation of the tradition of independence of the Attorney General’s Office, as was maintained for a long period. Bringing the Department under the control of the Presidential Secretariat was a blow to this independence and also brought down the image of the institution before the public eye. It also brought severe demoralisation into the institution. Although the new government has acknowledged this problem, it has not done enough to correct the damage done and of raise the status of this department.

2. The department is also perceived as having seriously suffered the politicisation processes as mentioned in the above paragraph which applied to the entirety of the public service.

3. During the previous government the department also abandoned the earlier held position regarding non-appearance on behalf of public officers, who were respondents in fundamental rights applications before the Supreme Court, relating to torture and ill treatment. The department officers not only began to appear for the defence of these officers, they also often prevented issuing of Leave to proceed in fundamental rights application by providing information which were bias, even before Leave to proceed has been issued. The applicants in these cases had no way to contradict the information provided by some of the officers of the department as the applicants did not have any notice of the information provided by these officers to the courts. The following observation of the UN SR for independence of judges and lawyers, is relevant; “…The Attorney-General’s office acts as the representative of the State, which by no means should be equivalent to defending the government. His office should also be able to make a neat separation between the State and the public interest they act on behalf of and the persons behind the institutions so as to avoid any possible conflict of interest. Such conflict of interest have arisen for instance in cases where the Attorney-General’s office appears in the defence of police officers or military officers in cases of habeas corpus applications, as if the court decides that the respondent are responsible for the crimes they are accused of, the same office would be called to prosecute them.”

4. It is acknowledged that the Department does not have adequate number of state counsel, it is often said that the number available is less than half of the required number. One of the results of inadequate number of state counsel is that it often causes the delay in criminal trials and also leads to rather unprincipled forms of settlement of cases purely for the sake of speedy ending of cases. This has included sometimes agreements to grant suspended sentences, even for serious crimes such as rape and sometimes even murder.

5. Extraordinary delays in filing of indictments in the high court regarding serious crimes.

UN SR on torture and ill treatment states that “…We understand that the average delay for State Counsel to bring a criminal case before the High Court after remand ranges from 5 to 7 years. This is a serious violation of due process and the presumption of innocence, and results in what is commonly known as an “anticipated penalty” without trial. It also violates the principle that provisional detention should be the exception and not the rule. I urge Sri Lanka to consider measures to make more non-violent offenses bail able and to experiment with alternatives to incarceration.

6. The Attorney General and his department has failed to issue clear and proper guidelines for the investigation and prosecution of crimes and also to make specific guidelines for investigation and the prosecution of serious human rights violations, including torture, and violations of international human rights law.

For all appearances, on matters of public law, the Attorney General’s Department acts not as having a role in the protection of the rights of the people but as representing state however repressive the state may be. The Attorney General’s Department acts more like a defender of repression rather than one acting for the protection of individual rights.

The Attorney General has also failed to ensure that his department does not contribute to the delays in the courts and to issue instructions to the state counsel, to avoid delays.

7. As the Attorney General acts also as a legal advisor, this office should be exercised as it was done in the earlier period to advise purely on the basis of legal principles and not to justify illegal and unjust actions of the state. In the recent decades, there is nothing on record to show that the Attorney General opposed an unjustifiable action taken by the Executive, particularly in order to suppress dissent, and to limit media freedoms and to use the legal process to harass individuals. Cases against the former Army General Sarath Fonseka particularly immediately after the Presidential elections in which he was the common opposition candidate. There are also other cases like Jayaprakash Sittampalam Tissainayagam.

It is time for the Government and the Attorney General’s Department itself, to seriously examine the nature of damage the institution has suffered during the previous decades and to take the necessary initiatives for reform to prevent the department becoming an obstacle to the achievement of rule of law in Sri Lanka.

Anura Senanayake remanded : his ‘maage kirilli’ (my female birds ) fly away when he turns into a jailbird !

(Lanka-e-News -23.May.2016, 10.45PM) Former DIG Anura Senanayake was arrested by the CID in connection with the murder of Rugby player Wasim Thajudeen based on charges of suppression of evidence , exerting undue pressure on the police officers and conspiring to commit murder. After being produced before the Colombo additional magistrate Nishantha Peiris , he was remanded until the 26 th.

Lanka e news always first with the news , best with the views , reputed for fearless and forthright reporting, earlier on reported that ‘a video tape with Anura Senanayake in shorts has been discovered.’ Today , in the B report produced to the court by the CID , the Lanka e news revelation was mentioned. In the report of the CID to court today , it was stated there is evidence that on the day Thajudeen was murdered Anura Senanayake was on the main road between 2.45 and 3.20 in the early hours of the morning near the Shalika playground , Narahenpita.

SP Shani Abeysekera of the CID making his submissions in court before the magistrate today said , there is enough evidence testifying to Anura Senanayake suppressing evidence and conspiring to commit the murder.

It is a well and widely known fact that during the lawless and brutal Rajapakse era, Anura Senanayake rode the high horse even overriding the IGP, and exploiting his evil police powers he became a millionaire businessman. He illegally appropriated valuable properties ; engaged in extortion and used the police officers separately to collect extortion monies for him; carried out the illegal orders of the Rajapakses including abduction of people and killing them ;and gave the necessary protection to the white van murderers.

Following the Rainbow revolution of 8th January , in order to save himself and to ingratiate himself into the favor of the law enforcing authorities , he donated a sum of Rs. 10 million to the Police welfare fund saying this was his earning from the sale of his CD cassette.

In any event , today when retribution overtook him , and was being taken to the prison handcuffed , his contribution to the welfare fund based on his criminal earnings could not overpower divine retribution. There weren’t his ‘ maage kirilli’ (his birds) either ,to accompany , kiss or caress him when he was turned into a jail bird.

It is worthy of special mention that this investigation is being conducted by a top flight police officer, a most reputed detective Shani Abeysekera who is considered as on par with the FBI of the US based on his efficiency , integrity and probity.

Photos: courtesy Lankadeepa

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by (2016-05-23 17:31:40)

Celebrating The Diversity Of Our Planet: Doyen Of Nature-TV Is 90 Not Out

By Kumar David –May 22, 2016

Prof. Kumar David

It takes mastery and achievement to become an icon. In broadcasting in English (the one international language I am fluent in) there are a few. Walter Cronkite (1916-2009), CBS News anchor in the 1960s and 1970s, was called “the most trusted man in America” because he took responsibility for what he said – he, not CBS made decisions at a time of Vietnam-era lies in American officialdom and media. Then there was “Letter from America” by Alistair Cooke which ran from 1946 to 2004 (the longest running speech radio programme in history) on BBC Home Service, Radio 4 and the World Service. It was a 15 minute letter he read on a topical issue, sometimes poignant, sometimes humorous always informative. There were nearly 2900 letters which stopped less than a month before Cooke died at 95. It seems that one must be a nonagenarian to be certified as an institution. David Attenborough made it on 8 March 2016; Queen Elizabeth crossed the touchline on 21 April.

Attenborough, the world’s most influential figure in nature broadcasting, visited Lanka before his January 2003 documentary where he mentions the island (I am not sure of dates and he may have come again after the tsunami), but one thing to vouch for is that not much has changed in the last 10 million years. Wikipedia has this gem: “In Sri Lanka he spent time with a troop of toque macaques – one of the most studied groups of monkeys in the world. It has been discovered that the creatures are born into a class system in which position brings privileges”! It has also been observed that the servile classes squirm for favours before the ruling monkeys.

To commemorate his 90th birthday the BBC is releasing an app that will feature more than 1,000 clips of his work studying the natural world. The Story of Life app, which will be available free worldwide, will include clips from his earliest work Zoo Quest, through Planet Earth, to Frozen Planet. We will discover hundreds of animals and environments and the man himself thinks: “Knowing and understanding the natural world is one of the greatest gifts that humans can possess. If we lose our connection with nature, we lose ourselves”.

Conservation and environmentalism, not evangelism

Attenborough’s ability to share his enthusiasm and love of wildlife with his audience has popularised conservation. Though he is not confident of how much of the world’s wild places, forest cover and exotic species will be left in fifty years, the power of his images and narration builds positive vibes all over the world. “The future of life on earth depends on our ability to take action. Many individuals are doing what they can, but real success can only come if there’s a change in our societies and our economics and in our politics. I’ve been lucky in my lifetime to see some of the greatest spectacles that the natural world has to offer. Surely we have a responsibility to leave for future generations a planet that is healthy and inhabitable by all species”.

Ninety and still not out of the woods

He is an agnostic who says: “It never really occurred to me to believe in God”. He opposes creationism and ‘intelligent design theories’ and in 2002 with leading clerics and scientists opposed their inclusion in the UK school curriculum. They called for “creationism to be banned from school science curricula and for evolution to be taught widely”. In a programme on Darwin he flatly declared “Evolution is as solid a historical fact as you could conceive. What is a theory is whether natural selection is the sole mechanism”. Sexual selection of course was known to Darwin, the full title of whose second great opus was The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. It is interesting that recent work has shown that sexual preference for blue eyes, blond hair and tallness, and for lactose tolerance motivated by the economic benefits of animal husbandry, have aided the propagation of these traits in Europe in the last 10,000 years, an evolutionary blink of an eye.

Many criticised mainstream media’s failure to highlight sufferings of Muslim victims.

by Latheef Farook :

May 21, 2016

It is a welcome sign that Muslim civil society went into action in full swing to help the victims of torrential rains, widespread floods, landslides and gale force winds wreaked havoc since 14 May 2016. Hundreds of thousands were turned overnight into homeless and penniless destitute.

While wheeler dealer Muslim politicians disappeared from the scene, enterprising Muslim individuals, institutions and organisations, companies and many others rushed to the affected areas in their drive to rise to the occasion to rescue those floating in water to safer areas. In doing so they too floated with the victims in the flood water.

It was prompt and spontaneous Muslim civil society response.

They treated all alike and helped all affected families without any discrimination which touched the hearts and admiration of many non-Muslims. This is a humanitarian disaster and national tragedy affected all alike in different areas. They were in the scene long before even politicians came with their television crews.

One volunteer who was helping victims from the very first hours said “ hours after the tragedy Muslim volunteers went into action on their own to ensure that the victims were first recused and then fed and clothed as they all left their homes high and dry to save their lives from rising flood water. One elderly lady said that it so happened and the house went under flood water so fast that she could not even find time to collect her valuable documents including birth and marriage certificates, deeds and the like.

Buddhist monks distributing food parcels to Muslim victims

One after the other almost all organisations gathered their volunteers, equipped themselves with cloth, food, water and other essentials and went to the affected areas.

First to enter the affected areas were All Ceylon Tawhid Jamaath, All Ceylon Jamaathe Islami and All Ceylon Young Men’s Muslim Association, YMMA. Jamaathe Islami also opened a health centre providing emergency health care service.

Meanwhile National Shoora Council, NSC, umbrella body of 18 national Muslim organisations, appealed to all Muslim organisations and individuals to do their best to alleviate the sufferings of ever increasing number of victims.

Later National Shoora Council, All Ceylon Jamiathul Ulema, Colombo District Masjid Federation, Muslim Council of Sri Lanka and other organisations jointly formed a Relief Coordinating Committee, RCC, to ensure relief works were undertaken in an organised manner and reach the needy in time.

The RCC which deals with all relief related activities have formed different committees and entrusted different tasks such as fund collection, distribution and the like to ensure relief work continues smooth. As a result there is no duplication of work and each committee concentrate only on responsibilities entrusted to it.

Meanwhile on Friday 19 May 2016 the weekly sermons in all mosques at noon time prayer were confined to helping the victims. They also explained the importance of charity in Islam and the need to generously help all affected people alike. They also emphasised the need to exercise caution in distributing aids to ensure that these aids do not fall into the hands of frauds.

The preachers also explained to donors of the facilities they had arranged to collect and deliver to the proper people.

In fact almost every one stood up to the occasion. For example Zahira College Group 2009 together with retail outlet Factory Outlet began collecting clothes for men, women and children for immediate delivery. Meanwhile individuals, businessmen and others alike were busy collecting food, clothe and water besides arranging accommodation.

In the affected hilly areas in and around Aranayake, Mawanella and several other areas both Sinhalese and Muslims worked together like one family. In several places Buddhist monks were seen coordinating with the volunteers and distributing food to all. The disaster in fact brought the two communities together.

However the major rescue efforts were undertaken by the armed forces whose yeomen. service won the hearts and praise of all alike.

Meanwhile many criticised the mainstream media for not highlighting the sufferings of Muslim flood victims. They said the overall coverage in general ignored the plight of Muslim victims especially in areas which went completely underwater.

Coming out of the economic crisis: Time is running out for Sri Lanka

For Sri Lanka to attain its goal, it is of utmost importance to consolidate the budget which has gone out of control due to falling revenue and soaring expenditure

Tuesday, 24 May 2016

Crisis manifesting as a foreign exchange shortage

Sri Lanka’s economic crisis has now been manifested in its severest form as a shortage of foreign exchange, pressure for the rupee to depreciate and the need for IMF to extend a helping hand. This last manifestation, dubbed as ‘rescue of last resort’, arises when a country has no any other source to turn to.

Sri Lanka is a member of IMF and, hence, there is nothing wrong in the country seeking IMF assistance. On the other hand, it is also in the interest of IMF to prevent a member country from sinking. However, had IMF extended its helping hand to Sri Lanka one year ago, the situation would have been different. But IMF which fielded missions to Sri Lanka several times in 2015 maintained stubbornly that the country needed no foreign exchange support.

The implication of this ruling is that Sri Lanka could come out of its economic crisis on its own, a quality of the economy which the Central Bank used to call as ‘resilience’ in all its reports including the most recent press release on monetary policy.

The belated support from IMF

IMF had made this ruling despite there had been some unmistakable signs of a crisis manifesting themselves from around 2012. These signs began to show up when exports started to lag, trade deficit to balloon, external debt to soar and economic growth to slow down. They were correctly read by independent analysts, professional bodies like the Sri Lanka Economic Association or SLEA and think-tanks like Institute of Policy Studies or IPS.

For evidence, one has to peruse only the proceedings of the annual sessions of SLEA or the State of the Economy reports of IPS in the last few years. It is strange that IMF which has global experience relating to economic crises in other countries could not correctly read those signs. Even as late as October 2015, the need for the country to seek IMF support to come out of the crisis was emphasised by this writer when he delivered the keynote address on the occasion of the release of IPS’s State of the Economy Report for 2015 (available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igsAaLP2wBY ). Had the country acted fast at that time, it would have put itself on the corrective path well in time and avert the crisis in which it is deeply mired today.

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Sri Lankan parliamentarians appear to have been moved to unseemly mirth regarding the floodwaters which devastated the country this week, causing more than sixty three officially reported deaths and thousands more missing, with even greater numbers rendered homeless and destitute.

Warranting a serious response

As sorrowful scenes were recorded across the island, the gravity of the deluge had yet to be taken seriously on the floor of the House. Indeed, as much as Atlas shrugged in the disturbing portrayal by Ayn Rand of capitalist and greedy businessmen projected as the real heroes of society, here too we may aptly say that parliamentarians laughed on the banks of the Diyawanna Oya even as the muddy waters came right up to the door of the Parliament.

These rude bursts of laughter were in response to Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe’s wisecrack on Friday that if the self styled Joint Opposition members had not engaged in coconut smashing rituals, this calamity would not have occurred. But the issue here surely warrants a far more serious response than such hilarity?

The sheer ineptitude of the Government in bringing relief and redress to the affected people is one facet of the problem. This was the recurring theme throughout the country as the displaced wailed before television cameras that they had not been helped by government agencies. No doubt, there were determined and selfless government servants who devoted themselves to the arduous task of flood relief but the stern commitment shown by the Government itself as an entity was certainly lacking.

Result of disastrous development

At an even more distressing level, there appears to be no acknowledgement of government policies and practices which have directly contributed to this flood devastation. Public officials are fond of advising people not to occupy lands that are susceptible to landslides and floods. Yet they conveniently forget the fact that much of this damage is done by politicians themselves. We are familiar with the ruthless acquisition of land by politicians for commercial purposes such as building hotels and the like. These are lands which should have been preserved for water retention purposes, both in major cities and elsewhere.

All these ‘projects’ were without environmental approval as obliging public officers rubber stamped acquisitions of land even (unbelievingly) in the mangrove marshes of Negombo. So as former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brothers profess sympathy with affected victims, it must be clearly understood that disastrous ‘Rajapaksa’ development was a major contributory factor to the present crisis.

Neither is the Government in power free from responsibility. Despite all the sanctimonious outrage regarding the Port City project when its politicians were campaigning for the popular vote last year, they have tamely acquiesced to continuing with the project minus some minor changes. This makes nonsense of the Prime Minister’s claim during electioneering that this project would devastate the coastal line from Colombo to Beruwala and that he would forthwith cancel the project if his party assumed power. We are not assured by the Government’s claim that environmental conditions have now been complied with. Quite apart from this, this Government appears unable to clean even a culvert properly. This is a breakdown of the provincial and local government machinery in a most essential sense.

Past warnings of such calamities

The dangers attendant on proper environmental safeguards not being followed prior to ambitious development projects being undertaken are now alarmingly evident. This week’s treacherous flooding of parts of the Southern Expressway, once praised as Sri Lanka’s flagship expressway project is a good illustration. More than a decade ago, this columnist was part of the legal team which challenged the shifting of the trace of the Southern Expressway from one route to a completely new direction. This shift was despite the fact that the relevant environmental assessment had not been properly carried out in respect of this new direction of the expressway named as the ‘final trace.’ This was in contradiction to the Central Environmental Authority (CEA)’s injunction that any changed route should avoid traversing through wetlands of the area.

The legal challenge was based on a number of factors including the risk of environmental damage if the changed route was adopted. At the time, though the Supreme Court before which the matter finally went on appeal, responded by awarding compensation to the petitioners whose lands had been acquired without following proper procedures, (SCM 20.01.2004), the judges balked at ordering a complete change in the routing of the expressway, probably due to the massive expense that this would involve.

However both in the Court of Appeal and in the Supreme Court, the crucial importance of conducting a proper environmental assessment was stressed. As found by a committee of judges appointed to undertake an empirical study of the affected area, the changes adversely affected property rights of poor villagers. Decision makers were put under a duty to consider all relevant environmental consequences and afford affected persons an opportunity to voice their opinion. As the Court of Appeal affirmed, ‘this fosters dialogue between decision-makers and involved parties, which is an essential pre-requisite of any development project for such project to have sustainability over a long period.”

Discrimination between the poor and the affluent

But in the years following this decision, even that bare judicial and environmental review of development projects went by the board. The impact of the Mundy decision on Sri Lanka’s political leadership, in so far as preventing ill planned development projects, has been negligible. This has ramifications for proposed expressways as well, including the Kandy-Colombo Expressway. A continuing failure to satisfy environmental safeguards presents a nightmare scenario of environmental devastation far worse than what was experienced in May.

This accentuates the profound discrimination that we saw a few days ago between the poor left stranded on the top of their houses, clutching pitifully meager belongings and the affluent. While the more privileged enjoy expressways should the less privileged be left to suffer such fates due to corporate and political greed ?

These are questions that should reflectively occupy our minds, quite apart from reaching out to the affected through relief provisions. And parliamentarians may perhaps refrain from hilarity when addressing this calamity which afflicted the country in these generally serene Vesak weeks. Surely this is the minimum that Sri Lankans should forcefully demand.