9/11 Disinformation: Saudi Arabia Attacked America

The Saudis are fighting the war in Yemen for Washington. If the Saudis want to harm the US, why not leave the US to fight its own war in Yemen?

by Paul Craig Roberts

( May 27, 2016, Washington DC, Sri Lanka Guardian) The forever changing 9/11 story is entering a new phase. Blame is being transferred from Osama bin Laden to the Saudi Arabian government.

There are 28 pages classified secret of a congressional inquiry into 9/11 that allegedly found Saudi financial support for the alleged 9/11 hijackers. Neither the George W. Bush nor the Obama regimes would release the classified pages. Only a few members of Congress have been permited to read it, and they are not permitted to speak about it. Nevertheless, Congress now has before it the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act which, if passed, permits families of victims of the 9/11 attacks to sue the Saudi Arabian government for damages. In other words, although Congress has no information except rumor with which to support the bill, Congress is going ahead. Obama says if Congress passes the bill, he will veto it.

The refusal to declassify the evidence against the Saudis and the veto threat have put many commentators in high dudgeon.

What is going on here?

One possible answer is that the public’s confidence in the 9/11 story is eroding as a result of growing expert opinion that challenges the official line. In order to redirect the public’s skepticism, a red herring is being pulled across the trail. The Saudi angle satisfies the belief that some sort of government coverup is involved but redirects the suspicion from Washington to the Saudis. The Saudi angle also fits the neoconservatives’ original plan for overthrowing the Saudi government along with the governments of Iraq, Syria, and Iran. If the American people can be worked up against the Saudis, the neocons can get their wish for “regime change” in Saudi Arabia.

We are probably experiencing a deep state disinformation play designed to protect the false 9/11 story. The public’s skepticism is now directed at Saudi Arabia, and the public’s outrage is directed at the US government for covering up for the Saudis. Possible reasons that the report can’t be released are (1) it is just disinformation created as a red herring and if made public knowledgeable experts would expose it and (2) it is disinformation fed to the inquiry by neoconservatives who seized the opportunity to set up Saudi Arabia for attack.

No explanation has been provided as to why Saudi Arabia, with its long and tight connection to Washington and to the Bush family, has any interest in enabling a terrorist attack on the US. The Saudis need American protection. They have no interest in making their protector look so weak as to be humiliated by a handful of young men armed only with boxcutters. Such a weak protector is no protection.

Moreover, the Saudis are fighting the war in Yemen for Washington. If the Saudis want to harm the US, why not leave the US to fight its own war in Yemen?

Here is a Saudi’s take on the alleged involvement of Saudi Arabia in 9/11:http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/05/26/state-sponsors-terrorism-us-planned-and-carried-out-9-11-attacks-but-blames-other-countries-them-out.html

Katib Al-Shammari says that the US planned and carried out 9/11 in order to obtain hegemony over the Middle East and placed the blame for 9/11 on an ever changing list of culprits depending on Washington’s goal at the time. First, he says, it was Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Then Saddam Hussein and Iraq. A New York Court blamed Iran. Now Saudi Arabia is given the villian role. 

The Americans, he says, always come up with suspicious documents and claim to have evidence that they never show.

Americans would greatly benefit from reading the perspective of others. Do read the Saudi’s explanation of 9/11. It makes more sense than the official story

Xiaomi’s 4k Mi Drone takes off with ‘affordable’ price tag

The Xiamo MI Drone. Image via Xiaomi.

 27th May 2016 

CHINESE smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc has shaken up the drone market with the launch of its new Mi Drone, which boasts a 4k camera and is capable of being controlled over a 2km distance from the operator.

With the launch on May 25, Xiaomi is putting it up to DJI, which is widely known for its Phantom Series.

Most notable is the US$460 price tag, significantly cheaper than the DJI’s US$799 Phantom 3 4k. Those on a tighter budget can also opt for the 1080p version of Xiaomi’s drone, which costs around US$380.

According to engadget, the Mi Drone is mounted with a ball-shaped 4K camera beneath it and the camera uses a Sony 12.4-megapixel sensor that can capture video at up to 3,840 x 2,160 at 30 fps.

The drone can fly non-stop for nearly half an hour. Image via Xiaomi.

Other noteworthy specs, as highlighted by a Xiamo fan thread, can be seen in the following:

– 4-propeller system with detachable shields
– 17.4V battery 5100mAh, 27 minutes non-stop flying
– 1080p or 4K UHD camera, with 104° wide-angle lens
– 4K camera at 3840 x 2160 pixels; supports recording of stills in RAW format
– 720p live video with low latency from up to 2km distance
– Camera attached to a 3-axis gimbal, stabilizes up to 2000 vibrations per second
– Unbelievably lightweight design
– GPS + GLONASS + vision-based positioning for max precision
– Intelligently detects low battery and returns home automatically
– Real-time location tracking for easy retrieval even post crash
– Hovers automatically at the edge of no-fly zones
– Built-in PCB antenna array in remote control for maximum reach
– Modular design and foldable landing gear

The drone is programmed not to fly in restricted areas, but will automatically hover at the edge of no-fly zones.

The drone is also beginner-friendly, with a designated button for take off and landing. It can also auto-pilot its way back to the operator at a flick of a switch.

“Drones are an expensive toy for most of the people, therefore we decided to enter to this field. We hope to create innovation that everyone can enjoy, including drones!” the company said on the fan site

Rio de Janeiro police investigate alleged gang rape that has shocked Brazilians

Rio de Janeiro's Police Chief for Internet crimes Alessandro Thiers (L), Civil Police Chief Fernando Veloso (C) and Police Chief for crimes against minors Cristiana Honorato attend a news conference on the investigations on the gang rape of a teenage girl after a video of the assault circulated widely on social media in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 27, 2016. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

BY BRAD BROOKS-Sat May 28, 2016

Rio de Janeiro police are investigating allegations that more than 30 men and boys raped a 16-year-old girl, officials said on Friday, as outrage spread in the host city for the Olympics and reverberated across the country.

The reported assault was discovered after one of the suspects posted to Twitter a video of the nude, semi-conscious youth, with a few men brazenly insulting the girl, showing their faces, and one man heard saying, "more than 30 impregnated her!" The Twitter account where the video was posted has since been suspended.

Police said the girl told them more than 30 men had assaulted her, but they could not yet confirm how many took part in the alleged rape, as they are still investigating.

"There are all the indications that this rape did in fact happen, but we still have to investigate further before we can absolutely confirm it," said Fernando Veloso, head of Rio's civil police department, at a press conference on Friday.

Veloso said police have identified four suspects so far in the assault that apparently took place last Saturday in a western Rio slum - but have yet to make any arrests, saying further investigation is required.

Hashtags on Twitter such as #EstuproNaoÉCulpaDaVitima - Portuguese for "rape is not the victim's fault" - blasting the reported crime were among the top global trends.

Many Facebook users in Brazil, including suspended President Dilma Rousseff, the nation's first woman leader, changed their profile photos to the Venus female gender symbol with words calling for an end to a "culture of rape."

Brazil's interim President Michel Temer wrote on his Twitter account that he "vehemently repudiates" the alleged rape, and added that "it is absurd that in the 21st century we have to live with barbaric crimes like this."

Temer appointed a new government this month when Rousseff was suspended to face trial in the Senate for allegedly breaking budget rules. He came under intense criticism for excluding women and black Brazilians from his cabinet - something not seen in decades.

Temer said his justice minister would meet on Tuesday with the public security chiefs who oversee policing in Brazilian states to discuss how better to combat violence against women.

The interim president also said he would form a special department within the federal police focused on crimes against women, which would help to coordinate action and share information among the individual state security departments.

When Temer served as head of public safety for Sao Paulo state the early 1990s, he created the first police division in Brazil devoted to combating crimes against women, an idea that has since spread throughout the country.

RIO RESIDENTS SHOCKED

The cruelty of the alleged assault is the latest bleak chapter for Brazil and Rio.

The Olympic Games in August were meant to showcase a nation that had become a global power. Instead, they will take place as Rousseff faces an impeachment trial, the economy suffers its worst recession since the 1930s, an outbreak of the Zika virus prompts health concerns and a massive corruption scandal at state-run oil company Petrobras infuriates Brazilians.

In Rio, a city that has long dealt with serious violence often involving minors, the brutal nature of the allegations shook citizens.

Marta and Leticia Festes, a mother and daughter heading to work and university in the Rio neighbourhood of Copacabana, criticized a culture of sexism in Brazil. They said the slow and disorderly justice system lacked teeth and allowed for impunity.

"Some men think that they can get away with these things, especially in poor neighbourhoods where the police are never around," said Marta, 43, who works as a maid.

Her 20-year-old daughter, in her third year of studying computer science, said stricter and swifter justice was needed.

"Those guys, if they even catch them, might serve a little jail time and then they'll all be free again," she said. "But the victim's life has been ruined."

(Additional reporting by Paulo Prada; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Protests grow as Greece moves refugees to warehouses ‘not fit for animals’

Closure of Idomeni sees families living in military-run accommodation blocks with no running water or electricity

Children inside the new camp at an abandoned factory in Sindos, a suburb of Thessaloniki, where conditions are said to be abysmal. Photograph: Sakis Mitrolidis/AFP/Getty Images- Tents are pitched on filthy concrete floors at the warehous in Sindos. Photograph: Phoebe Ramsay

A row of tents installed to house refugees in an abandoned factory in Sindos Photograph: Phoebe Ramsay-A woman sits on stairs inside a new camp for refugees and migrants set in an abandoned factory in Sindos Photograph: Sakis Mitrolidis/AFP/Getty Images

Mark Townsend-Saturday 28 May 2016

Conditions inside a network of new permanent refugee camps in Greece have been described as so bleak and lacking in basic amenities that they are “not fit for animals”. Around 3,000 refugees were last week transported to the sites after a vast makeshift camp at Idomeni, near Greece’s border with Macedonia, wasfinally cleared by police.

Photographic evidence and the first accounts from volunteers allowed inside some of the military-run accommodation blocks reveal a dire lack of amenities such as running water, and filthy conditions in derelict warehouses that appear unfit for habitation.

The closure of Idomeni also means that 4,000 men, women and children remain unaccounted for following the demolition of what was Europe’s largest makeshift refugee camp. The missing refugees, including an undefined number of unaccompanied minors, are thought to be living on the streets of Greek cities such as Thessaloniki, hiding in forests near the Macedonian border or to have been taken by smugglers north into Europe.

With the border now shut, refugees heading for Europe are continuing to makethe fraught journey from north Africa across the Mediterranean. Two boats capsized in a 24-hour period off the coast of Libya last week. At least five people died, and the Italian navy rescued 562, taking the total transferred to the country this year to around 40,000.

On Thursday, as the Idomeni camp was officially closed, the Italian coast guard announced it had coordinated 22 separate rescue operations that had saved more than 4,000 lives, making it one of the busiest days of the Mediterranean migrant crisis.

Initial reports from inside the Greek camps have prompted calls for action. Images taken inside one new camp, in an industrial zone at Sindos, on the outskirts of Thessaloniki, reveal dirt-strewn warehouses lined with tents pitched on filthy concrete floors

“There was no running water, no medical care, let alone translators, no provisions for infants, no environmental assessment, no evacuation plan,” said Phoebe Ramsay, a volunteer who has been helping refugees in northern Greece since the start of the year.

“The conditions in the new army camps are abysmal, and range from depressing and sterile to actually unsafe and not fit for animals,” she said, suggesting that conditions were even worse than at Idomeni, 50 miles north.

Volunteer Alexandria South, who visited another camp set up in an old leather factory on the outskirts of Thessaloniki, described atrocious conditions including piles of broken glass, and warehouses with all windows smashed.

She said: “There was no running water or showers or electricity or firewood. Mothers had no hot water for baby formula or to sanitise bottles, and had to use cold water.”

She said that conditions deteriorated when the Greek military, who were overseeing the evacuation of Idomeni, ran out of water and began ordering volunteers who were providing food and water for refugees to feed the army first.

“The first day the army was providing limited water bottles for families,” said South. “But on the second day there was absolutely no water left – even with new arrivals showing up, some reporting that they were held for three hours without water at the camp.”

She said there were just six chemical toilets for an estimated 1,000 refugees and that no Wi-Fi had been provided, so it was impossible for people to make asylum claims. Similarly, refugees had not even been told where in Greece they had been relocated.

Greece’s migration spokesman, Giorgos Kyritsis, from the governing leftist Syriza party, rejected accusations that the camps lacked basic provisions. “There is water and electricity everywhere. One of the reasons why we chose ex-industrial buildings instead of open-air camps was for that very reason.

“Every time a new site is opened there are shortages in the beginning but then we add amenities and in due process we resolve them. We’re not saying conditions are perfect, we want to improve them but there is absolutely no comparison between the new facilities and Idomeni. At least now they have a roof over their head. When it rains they don’t get wet and they’re not being forced to live in the mud. Surely that’s an improvement?”

He denied that thousands of refugees had gone missing after the Idomeni camp had been closed.

Other charities, including Médecins Sans Frontières, have reported a number of tearful patients who had been asked to leave Idomeni without clear information on their destination.

On Friday the UN urged Greece to rapidly improve “substandard” conditions in what it described as poorly ventilated derelict warehouses and factories with insufficient food, water and toilets. The International Rescue Committee has also expressed concerns. It called for immediate action to improve standards.

Since the route north through the Balkans closed earlier this year, an estimated 54,000 people have been stranded in overcrowded camps in Greece. However, arrivals have fallen significantly since the European Union’s deal with Turkey came into effect two months ago.

Additional reporting by Helena Smith

Indian man with huge 20kg arm is forced to flee his home after being dubbed 'a devil's child' and disowned by his family

• Bablu suffers from local gigantism, which caused arm to grow excessively 
• He was called 'devil's child' by neighbours who didn't understand condition
• The 25-year-old was 'disowned by his family' and decided to flee to Mumbai
• Local journalist spent time with him recently and filmed his daily struggles 
• 
  

By JAKE POLDEN FOR MAILONLINE- 25 May 2016

A man with a rare condition that caused one of his arms to grow to an incredible size was forced to migrate after being 'disowned by his family'.

Bablu suffers from local gigantism and was cruelly dubbed a 'devil's child' by his neighbours.

According to a local journalist, they didn't understand why his arm had developed in such a way.

As a result, Bablu was forced to flee his hometown to start a new life for in Mumbai.

It is not known exactly where the 25-year-old was previously living in India. 

Prejudice: Bablu suffers from local gigantism and was cruelly dubbed a 'devil's child' by his neighbours-Heartbreaking: The rare condition caused one of Bablu's arms to grow to an incredible size and he was 'disowned by his family'

Hard: The journalist explained that the 25-year-old has also found it hard trying to get a job of any kind-A video shows Bablu demonstrating the difficulty he has in doing something as simple as holding a cup

A man with a rare condition that caused one of his arms to grow to an incredible size was forced to migrate after being 'disowned by his family'.

Bablu suffers from local gigantism and was cruelly dubbed a 'devil's child' by his neighbours.

According to a local journalist, they didn't understand why his arm had developed in such a way.

As a result, Bablu was forced to flee his hometown to start a new life for in Mumbai.

It is not known exactly where the 25-year-old was previously living in India. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3609140/Indian-man-enormous-20kg-arm-forced-leave-home-cruelly-dubbed-devil-s-child-disowned-family.html#ixzz49zoaAJly

Sri Lanka: Consultations Lacking on Missing Persons’ Office

Ratification of Convention Against Enforced Disappearance Important Step

MAY 27, 2016

(New York) – The Sri Lankan government ratified the Convention against Enforced Disappearance but in the same week created an Office of Missing Persons without promised consultations with families of the “disappeared,” Human Rights Watch said today. The government should honor its pledge to hold meaningful consultations with the affected families and nongovernmental representatives about the missing persons’ office and the other transitional justice mechanisms.

At the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva last year, the government had agreed to hold nationwide public consultations on all transitional justice mechanisms. However, on May 24, 2016, Sri Lanka’s cabinet approved the new Office of Missing Persons without talking with the families who have long waited for justice. At the same time, it kept a key promise on May 25 by ratifying the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

“The Sri Lankan government is creating important structures to address the scourge of disappearances in the country,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “But it should only do this after receiving input from the families most affected.”

The Office of Missing Persons is one of four transitional justice mechanisms Sri Lanka agreed to establish during the September 2015 Human Rights Council session in Geneva. In line with this promise, the government established a task force on public consultations in January 2016. The task force has been receiving public submissions with the final deadline for submissions extended until June 24, after which it will submit a full report.

The government will submit a report on its progress on transitional justice issues at the June session of the UN Human Rights Council.

Tens of thousands of people were forcibly disappeared in Sri Lanka since the 1980s, including during the last months of the war between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009. In recent months the government has proceeded quickly to create the Office of Missing Persons. On May 9, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera presented an outline of the proposed office to a few civil society groups for comments within two weeks, but did not share it with a broader group or the public. On May 13, a leaflet with a basic outline of the proposed office was sent out to a small group. Several prominent civil society leaders objected to the haste, the lack of transparency, and the lack of consultations, particularly outside of Colombo, the capital.

A government memorandum said that the new office would be empowered to search and trace missing persons, clarify the circumstances of enforced disappearances, and identify ways to provide redress. The office would work in tandem with the other transitional justice mechanisms to bring prosecutions arising from any criminal evidence unearthed, but would not have prosecutorial powers.

The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances ranks Sri Lanka as the country with the second highest number of disappearances in the history of its tenure. Most of those reported disappeared during the three-decade long conflict between government forces and the LTTE are ethnic Tamils. A short-lived but violent insurgency with a majority Sinhala militant group in the country’s south in the late 1980s also led to many enforced disappearances and other abuses by both sides. Various commissions of inquiry established by successive Sri Lankan governments in response to pressure from victims’ groups and others have produced reports that have largely remained unpublished and have not resulted in criminal prosecutions of those responsible.

“The government deserves high marks for ratifying the Convention against Enforced Disappearance, but it needs to take urgent steps to build confidence with affected communities,” Adams said. “The government should ensure communication, transparency, and dialogue in all its transitional justice mechanisms.”

On the path of reconciliation in Sri Lanka

Featured image courtesy Afriel Youth Network

SHAKTHI DE SILVA on 05/27/2016

“Knowledge is power vs. power is knowledge”

Politics has played a significant role in the Sri Lankan conflict which some consider to be an “ethnic” conflict, some as a “civil” war while others as a “state versus terrorist” war. Moving aside from the semantics and syntax, the conflict itself caused significant pain and turmoil in the hearts and minds of people across the island and even among communities abroad.

In this article I hope to focus on a key issue that runs through our country – division. I argue that the current negative “attitude” towards dialogue and exchanges in inter-ethnic communities are fueling existing divisions among them, i.e. that conversations with supposed/alleged “extremists” (often grouped as a set of individuals not entirely in the same frame of mind as most, belonging mainly to the minority ethnic communities) is not conducive to peace. Reconciling this ‘two-sided’ division and coming to a consensus is key to solving the issues that has plagued our country since the time of independence.
To look back at the quote I wrote above, many reiterate that knowledge is power; but this relationship can be inverted. For example if one has “power”, say in terms of legislative power or executive power, then that individual has power over the knowledge of the other. Thereby the person who possesses “power” has the ability to regulate and decide what sort of knowledge becomes disseminated among the people of the country.

One of the key issues in the discourse between the varied communities of the country during the last few years has been reinterpreting versus revisiting the past. The historical analogies as against the historic differences between the communities have been a topic that many learned intellectuals have commented on in the past and present. The fact that, each “ethnic” side promulgates its own unique and ‘independent existence’ in relation to the other, is by nature divisive and is not conducive in leading to societal assimilation and/or political accommodation among the different communities of the country. This sometimes violent contention that has divided society in the past and continues to do so at present must be stopped and increased dialogue through a holistic framework must be promoted.

While our diplomats-since independence-led the way in the diplomatic problem solving of contentious issues, Sri Lanka has not been effective in diplomatically solving its “ethnic” grievances and its power sharing methods. Both in 1972 and 1977, the constitution(s) were hailed as “great” from one side and vehemently condemned by the other. More often than not, the media (mainly newspapers) played into the hands of the side in power resulting in the diminishing of criticism regarding the frailties and weaknesses of the constitution(s). Moreover when such news items were relayed to the people they, more often than not, showed the ‘Sinhalese’ (often the opposition party to the government) condemning the actions of the ruling party; principally due to party politics. The ideas of the minorities were rarely expressed in many media outlets and unfortunately that seems to be the case even at present.

Read More

Is the plantation sector denied Rs. 2500 allowance?

May 26, 2016

Tamil Progressive Front said that the plantation sector should be given the Rs. 2500 allowance which was given to the private sector workers during the last budget. The Tamil Progressive Front started a fasting campaign against the estate employer’s federation today 26th in the Colombo fort.

The Tamil progressive front consist of the National Workers Union of minister Palani Digambaram, Kandurata People’s Front, minister Mano Ganeshan’s Democratic People’s Front, other political parties and plantation workers trade unions. The organization said a Rs. 100 allowance should be added to the daily wages of the plantation workers.

Recently there was a debate in the parliament regarding this and a proposal was adopted in the parliament to give this allowance.

Minister Palani Digambaram said although the Prime Minister and the government have accepted to give the allowance to the plantation workers the estate employer’s federation has denied the proposal. The minister said although a proposal was adopted to add Rs. 100 to the workers daily wages the employer’s federation has not approved the proposal.

Meantime MP. Vasudewa Nanayakkara representing the joint opposition who joined the protest said although he has a contrary political opinion he would give his maximum support for the increment of this allowance to the plantation workers.

Time to seize the moment in Sri Lanka

Alan Keenan, Inside Story  |   25 May 2016

The bloody end of Sri Lanka’s long civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has been marked across the country this month in very different ways, highlighting both the tentative progress made over the past year and the profound divisions still be overcome seven years into peacetime.

Across the north and east, Tamils held public events to remember the victims killed during the final weeks of the government offensive in May 2009. While officially sanctioned on a much wider scale than last year, these commemorations often took place under the watchful, often intimidating, eyes of the military or police.

In Colombo, meanwhile, president Maithripala Sirisena and prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe sponsored a War Hero commemoration alongside the armed forces, police and civil security. But the commemoration’s cultural program, the Reminiscence of Reconciliation, represented a notable shift from the triumphalist, military-led Victory Day celebrations presided over by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, whose administration criminalised all Tamil remembrance activities.

Despite the welcome change in tone and moves to improve relations between the majority Sinhalese community and Tamils, who represent 15 per cent of the country’s population, the “national unity” government needs to redouble its efforts to promote reconciliation. In fact, much more work remains to reverse the damage done to all communities in Sri Lanka by the decade of Rajapaksa’s authoritarian rule.

Addressing the painful legacy of the war is just one aspect of an extremely ambitious agenda that includes drafting a new constitution, strengthening the rule of law and rebuilding democratic institutions. But it remains unclear how far the government is willing and able to go to tackle the hardest reforms, particularly justice for wartime abuses and greater devolution of political power to deal with the ethnic conflict.

Worryingly, the government appears to be backtracking on vital plans for transitional justice. The enormity of the crimes committed makes them impossible to ignore, yet difficult for the military, and most Sinhalese, to accept responsibility for.

Both sides committed atrocities throughout the many years of war, which lasted from 1983 to 2009. In September 2015, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights presented a detailed report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, documenting a “horrific level of violations and abuses” by government forces, pro-government paramilitaries and the separatist Tamil Tigers. The long list of crimes included indiscriminate shelling, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and sexual violence, recruitment of children, and denial of humanitarian assistance. The report confirmed victim and survivor accounts of systematic war crimes committed during the final months and immediate aftermath of the civil war.  

The new government – brought to power by elections in January and August 2015 – was prepared for these explosive findings, and announced its ambitious reform agenda at the start of the Human Rights Council session. It agreed to the Council’s groundbreaking resolution on promoting reconciliation and accountability, which was adopted by consensus. Key commitments included the creation of a truth commission, reparations and missing persons offices and, most controversially, an independent special court for war crimes with “participation of Commonwealth and other foreign judges, defence lawyers and authorised prosecutors and investigators.”

The resolution was potentially transformative, yet the government has missed a series of deadlines for its implementation and is sending mixed messages about its overall strategy for justice and reconciliation. Doubts about the government’s political will are growing domestically and internationally.

Dealing honestly with the legacy of the civil war is hard and painful work, complicated by Sri Lanka’s internecine political rivalries. President Sirisena is struggling to counter a faction of his Sri Lanka Freedom Party that remains loyal to his predecessor. Meanwhile, strains are growing within the unity government coalition.

The government is also fearful of angering the military and security services, which maintain a dangerous degree of autonomy. Recent arrests of Tamils under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act – which the government promised the UN it would repeal – and continued reports of the torture of detainees have sown concern about the government’s ability to rein in abuses. Many Tamils and rights activists are growing increasingly discouraged by what they see as slow progress.

Changing attitudes on all sides will be difficult. Sinhala nationalism remains entrenched within the state and society, and this in turn feeds Tamil nationalism and, for some, continued dreams of a separate state. Frustrated by the slow pace of reform, there is little public acknowledgement by Tamil political activists of the lasting pain caused by Tamil Tiger atrocities.

Despite the deep obstacles, though, now is the best opportunity in Sri Lanka’s recent history for the country to work together to build a lasting peace. To seize the moment, the government must reinvigorate the “good governance” agenda that won it popular support in the first place.

Measures to address the war’s legacy need to be pursued and presented as an essential aspect of the broader agenda to strengthen the rule of law, end impunity and tackle corruption and abuse of power. These issues resonate across the country, from the Tamil-majority areas of the north to the Sinhalese heartland in the south. The government should launch a coordinated outreach campaign to educate communities about the value of transitional justice and its links to other reforms, while giving stronger backing to the nationwide public consultations on designing reconciliation and justice measures.

Continued international support is essential to keep the reform process on track – both by building Sri Lanka’s technical capacity for reforms and reminding the government of its promises when politics threaten to win out over principle.

In the end, though, it is Sri Lankans who will lead the ongoing effort to make a more durable peace. There is no better place to start than by acknowledging the suffering and injustice experienced by all communities – and the equal right to remember and mourn.

We, Displaced.

[Featured image courtesy IRIN News.

INDRANI BALARATNAM on 05/26/2016

Editor’s note: This is the second of a series of poems submitted by the author as entry criteria for the Write to Reconcile Programme, which brings together emerging writers with the goal of writing fiction, memoirs or poetry on the issues of conflict, peace, reconciliation, memory and trauma in Sri Lanka, post-war.]

She marched through the streets in ’09,
For a country thousands of miles away,
For the people she had never met.
She marched, and she stood side by side
Thousands.

Thousands, who, like her, did not know
The country that they marched for.
Thousands, like her, who did not know
The people they cried for. And yet,

They marched.
Because, strangers though they were,
They were our strangers.
They were her brothers and sisters she does not know,
They were one community.

It wasn’t enough.
Marching through London while people
fled to refugee camps worldwide,
What she was doing was not enough.
She knew she needed to help.
She could understand Tamil; struggled to speak,
Her skills were so limited, but her compassion limitless,
She left.

I lost count of how many bodies
I passed in that refugee camp.
Bodies without life, yet bodies with so much soul,
Bodies that were lost, and those upon whom
the journey had taken its toll.
The screams in the night
I will never forget,
The blood on their clothes
stained my mind as I tried to understand
How did we get here?

I saw her from afar.
I was alone, no family, no friends.
The furrows on my head mapped out years of this war,
The loss behind my eyes captured the scars of so many.
I come from Tricomalee,
My son was killed in the strike that I fled,
My wife, I lost, and cannot find.

My home of 60 years was destroyed in mere seconds.
I am alone.

She doesn’t know how to express that her tongue
is not trained to move in a way I can understand,
but her ears knew how to process my words, so she listened.
I spoke.

I spoke, as though I had waited for so long to be heard,
She listened as though she was fleeing carnage with me.

She had never visited the places I spoke of,
the quiver in her lips as I spoke showed me
she longed for the communities I described.
A tear rolled down her face as I talked of
the mango trees in my garden, and I saw
a loss behind her eyes:
a cousin to the loss entangled behind mine.

Through her broken Tamil, she stammered.
She knew not what to say.
My grief had transferred to her heart,
My pain, dripped, into her tears.
She reached into her bag and pulled out a box.
Her grandmother was from my village,
and for years, this girl held onto this,
which belonged to her Ammamma as a little girl.

She held my hand as she struggled to explain
how much this gift meant to her,
and how much she wanted me to have it.
When she longs for the country thousands of miles away,
For the people she has never met
She holds this and remembers:
She is not alone.

She opened the box and presented to me:
A broken toy.
A toy, wrapped in the scraps of a sari,
A toy that does not work, but it carried with it
The love of a family.
The strength of our people.
The connection to community.

The girl left a few days after we met.
She was a mere visitor to my life.
Several years have passed.

I lost my family, I lost my home
I don’t fit in,
and I spent years searching for a mango
that tastes like home.
But, when sorrow sets in and
I reflect on all that was left behind,
I look at this toy and I remember:
My loss is not alone.

PM discusses truth commission with Army chiefs

Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.-Truth and reconciliation commission

May 27, 2016

A truth and reconciliation commission will soon be set up to inquire into allegations of human rights violations during the war, said prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The PM announced this at a meeting at Temple Trees yesterday (26) with defence secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi and senior Army officers.

The matters that cannot be resolved through this commission will be referred to the Supreme Court, he said, adding that foreign lawyers would give advice, but would not attend the hearings.

The country is not under pressure by any international organization to investigate the allegations, but action should be taken to safeguard human rights, said the PM.

He has previously said the commission would be set up by June this year.

Wickremesinghe also explained development work in northern and eastern provinces and stressed the need to return to the owners the private land taken over by the military during the war.

South African experience

South Africa too, had a truth and reconciliation commission that investigated allegations of human rights violations and crimes during a protracted conflict between two communities.

It failed to give justice to all or punish the criminals, but it led to reconciliation among communities, and therefore, has been hailed as a success.

Why JO wants rival war heroes commemoration?

2016-05-23

Torrential rains and floods shattered the prospect of two rival war hero commemorations. It also relived the horror and trauma of the war, unleashing a wave of destruction that wiped out villages, burying many dozens in unmarked graves and causing mass displacement.   Finally, the government held the  official ceremony at the Parliament grounds sans its predecessor’s usual display of military hardware and parades. (The ex-president had postponed the rival event to some unknown date in the future).

 Soldiers and military assets were better deployed to salvage the survivors buried in landslides and trapped by rising flood waters. At the ceremony held in front of the Ranaviru statue, President Sirisena honoured the men and women in the security forces who sacrificed lives and limb to save the country and civilians who died in the vicious war.  He spoke about challenges in peace-building and promoting interracial harmony. 

 In Mullivaikkal, Northern Province Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran and several councillors commemorated the civilians who perished in the last leg of the conflict. He was categorical that he and the others were commemorating civilians, and not terrorists, the latter was annihilated there in the final decisive battle. In the Jaffna psyche, drawing that distinction between the terrorist and the civilian is not easy.  The dead Tiger cadres, all of them, were someone’s sons and daughters, siblings and spouses.  On Mr. Wigneswaran’s part, it is courageous to make that difference -- it is a bit unusual though, especially since he more than any other Northern Politician has sought to capitalize on perceived grievances of the Tamil people, to the extent that some sensible people in the South fear that he is undermining reconciliation efforts.

On the other hand, it is disingenuous for the South to decide as to on whom the Tamils could mourn and not.  More so, when the Tamil civilian victims were forgotten in the war heroes commemorations in the past and reduced to a footnote at the present. Such an omission makes Tamils bitter and complicates reconciliation. What Sri Lanka as a nation ought to do is to commemorate all the war dead and help reintegration, and possible reparations to all victims of war. The war was a monumental tragedy and many thousands from both sides who perished in it, and were condemned to life-long suffering were unwilling victims of that vicious conflagration. War created conditions that consumed all and left no choices for its victims. 

And empathy towards civilian and militant victims of the conflict does not devalue the military victory which brought an end to a brutal conflict, rather it helps translate the military victory to a sustainable peace. 

The problem with the previous regime was that it failed to do that, and rather choose to perpetuate a self -defeating  and mutually acrimonious culture of post war triumphalism.  It was not so much about as to how the war was won. The fight against a maximalist terrorist group had to be conducted ruthlessly, if it were to be effective. Civilians who were long trapped in this vicious conflict and held as human shields perished in considerably high numbers. Sri Lanka’s is not the only war in which it happened; from Chechnya to Israel and Iraq  to Vietnam, civilians have paid a heavy price. However, this was the only war that was brought to an end, and the terrorists were conclusively defeated -- and more significantly, not a single bomb has exploded since then. That is quite an achievement. It is a shame that the previous regime failed to translate those military gains to a just and lasting peace. Instead, like an ancient monarch who derived a mandate from heaven, ex-President MR schemed to derive legitimacy from the military victory to perpetuate his familial rule. 

He refused to take an objective look at the conduct of the war and to investigate, even nominally, some of the excesses (which happen in any war) and went to monopolise the credit for defeating one of the most egregious terrorist groups that ever walked on the earth. His regime’s penchant to use extra judicial measures even after the war left a bad taste even for the Sinhalese who cherished military achievements. Through its conduct, the former regime discredited the military victory both at home and abroad; his post-war conduct emboldened only the fringe sections of the diaspora.

The new government has sought to atone for the ills of its predecessor. However, it seems we will not be left to ourselves by self-righteous international busybodies lecturing us as to how we achieve our reconciliation. The frequency of unsolicited advises are gradually declining though. Canadian Premier Justine Trudeau was the only Head of the State to do that this year.

There are limits that the new government could go -- no matter how genuine they are in devolution. However, it could push boundaries, rightly so, as the existential threat in the form of  LTTE  has long been extinguished. And the Southern opinion is evolving to the better and the ultra-nationalism has beaten a retreat in recent times, after the fall of the former regime. However, a polarized South would find it hard to agree on the sort of solution it was offering to the Tamils.  It has been the case in the past, though no solution short of a separate State might have satisfied the LTTE. That made the military solution the only solution to the terrorist aspect of the Tamil problem.

Now that the terrorists are vanquished, that handicap has been removed. However the polarization in the South remains a problem. A rival war hero commemoration of the Joint Opposition is a case in point. Sometimes, the government’s conduct itself is not helping bridging the Southern divide.  

Why the Rajapaksa acolytes wanted to hold a rival event was partly because the ex-president was not invited to the official event. Exclusion of MR does not sound like a sensible decision.
After all, albeit all his other misdemeanours, it was his regime that defeated terrorism. He surely has a share in that glory, though he wanted to monopolize it.

It would be hard to reach a Southern consensus on reconciliation and, more importantly on devolution without the ex-president and his followers, there are still quite a lot of them.
The government should co-opt them in the search for a solution. By trying to exclude them,  the government would only cause self-harm.
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