It is Malik Samarawickrema the minister under good governance who provided ministerial security to Sajin Vaas and wife !

(Lanka-e-News -30.June.2016, 11.00 PM) The notorious Sajin Vaas Gunawardena of the Blue Brigand of the nefarious decade after he was  remanded has claimed falsely he is a crown witness  ,and therefore asked for ministerial  security . Unbelievably , it is Malik Samarawickrema , the minister of foreign investment promotion of the government of good governance who had taken measures  to provide ministerial security to this notorious fraudster and racketeer, based on reports reaching Lanka  e news. 

In addition to Vaas Gunawardena , even his wife was provided with ministerial security . May  we recall , Lanka e  news reported earlier on that Sajin Vaas proudly boasted, ‘ to me whether it is that or this government it is all the same.’

In last week, when leaders of the Civil Organizations met with the president and the Prime Minister (P.M.) , they questioned , how come Sajin Vaas who is not even an M.P. and a notorious crook of the blue brigand has been provided with ministerial security ? This question  was asked by Gamini Viyangoda. 

Both the president and P.M. replied no such orders had been given to provide ministerial security to Sajin Vaas. The president then inquired from the IGP in this regard via  phone.

The IGP Poojitha had replied  , even before he became the IGP , his predecessor Ilangakoon had provided that security to Vaas.  When the ex IGP was questioned over this , he said , Malik Sarawickrema informed him to provide ministerial security to Sajin Vaas and his wife, while also pointing out that since Vaas is a Crown witness , he ought to  be provided security. Though Malik Samarawickrema stated Vaas is a Crown witness  , there is no case that is being tried  in Sri Lanka in which Vaas is a crown witness. 

Malik Samarawickrema is a most intimate friend of the P.M. and often it is Malik who speaks on behalf of the P.M. Hence most state officers do what Malik requests. By the way Malik is one who entered parliament through the National list , and became a minister.

In any event , on the instructions of the president the security provided unlawfully to Sajin and his wife were withdrawn . Sajin is at present in remand custody .

From the foregoing it is absolutely  clear , some  powerful bigwigs are bypassing the president and P.M. in order to put  through illicit deals with the crooked and the corrupt brutal scoundrels. 

It is hoped it will  clearly be  understood by the  so called ‘gentlemen’, the people of the country who suffered lived in fear and suffered  abysmally for the last ten years , sacrificed precious lives and properties  in order to throw out the brutal, murderous , corrupt and crooked Rajapakse regime lock , stock and barrel on the 8 th of January 2015, not for the successors under the cover of good governance  to commit illegalities, or  for the politicians  to  promote their own businesses by putting  through  illicit deals in collusion with the rogues and rascals who ruined and routed the country’s economy on a scale as never before in SL’s history. 

We shall reveal shortly  via another report how Sajin Vaas during his days of power and pomp , collected millions and millions of rupees from businessmen via extortion . 

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by     (2016-06-30 18:03:16)

Landmark SC ruling on executive power

* Cabinet decision declared invalid

* SC expresses shock at manner Rs. 60 billion tender was awarded
*CJ says judiciary duty bound to pre vent abuse of power

By C. A. Chandraprema-June 30, 2016, 9:09 pm 

In this country, a court case rarely attracts much attention unless it has to do with something like murder or rape – preferably both. In a nation that has been discussing matters of corruption and graft and illegal money making, it is certainly surprising that a court case involving irregularities in the country’s biggest tender could goes virtually unreported in the media. What is even more surprising that even the landmark determination given by the Supreme Court in this regard hardly got any publicity at all. It’s true that ordinary folk would not be interested even in sleaze if it happens to be technically complicated. But, then how does one explain the wide publicity that the Central Bank bond issue got? That, too, was a technically complicated matter. The difference of course is that in the case of the bond matter, the loss to the country has already occurred whereas in the case of the coal tender the Supreme Court has stepped in to shoot a tainted tender down.

The Fundamental Rights case Noble Resources International Pte Limited vs Minister of Power and Renewable Energy et al, is a landmark case because the Supreme Court heard it as a matter of national interest even in a situation where the government contended that the Petitioner did not have the locus standi to invoke the jurisdiction of the court. The SC observed in delivering their judgement last week that the Court had granted leave to proceed in this case even though the Additional Solicitor General, appearing on behalf of the government raised the issue that the Petitioner did not have locus standi to invoke the jurisdiction of the Court because the Petitioner is a Company registered in Singapore which has petitioned the SC without a local representative.

In this regard, the SC observed that ‘it is essential to the maintenance of the rule of law that every organ of the State must act within the limits of its power’ and that ‘the Court cannot close its eyes and allow the actions of the State or the Public Authority go unchecked in its operations’. And further that ‘If the Petitioner with a good case is turned away, merely because he .... has no locus standi to maintain this application, that means that some government agency is left free to violate the law and this is not only contrary to the public interest but also violates the Rule of Law’. Chief Justice K. Sripavan stated that the court had decided to go into the merits of the case as some of the events that took place in the award of this tender ‘shocks the conscience of the Court’.

These are strong words indeed emanating from the country’s highest court. The SC further observed that ‘it will be a travesty of justice if, having found as a fact that a fundamental right has been infringed or is threatened to be infringed, the Court yet dismisses the application on a preliminary objection raised by the Respondents.’

Heard before a three member bench of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice K. Sripavan, Justice P. Dep, and Justice Upali Abeyrathne, this was perhaps the court case of the year with the list of counsel appearing for the Petitioner and the Respondents reading like a Who’s Who of the legal elite in this country. This was a case relating to a tender for the supply of 6.75 million tonnes of coal over a period of three years to the Norochcholai power plant – a contract worth well over Rs. 60 billion. The tender had been awarded to Messrs Swiss Singapore Ltd, by Cabinet overriding a ruling by the Procurements Appeal Board to cancel the tender and call for fresh bids after considering an appeal made by one of the bidders Messrs. Nobel Resources of Singapore who charged that the tender criteria had been altered after the bids had been opened.

When Cabinet overrode the ruling of the Procurements Appeal Board, the aggrieved party Messrs Nobel Resources Ltd then petitioned the Supreme Court stating among other things that cabinet had not been informed of the material facts of the case and therefore they were unable to make an informed decision about this tender. Having considered the facts of the case the SC observed that the Government Procurement Guidelines required that bids have to be ‘evaluated strictly according to the criteria and methodology specified in the bidding documents’. The Technical Evaluation Committee had originally recommended to the Standing Cabinet Appointed Procurement Committee that Messrs Noble Resources Singapore was the lowest responsive bidder. Thereafter the Standing Cabinet Appointed Procurements Committee (SCAPC) had received a letter dated 29 June 2015 from Swiss Singapore Ltd. On the same day the SCAPC had convened and directed the Technical Evaluation Committee to re-evaluate the bids ignoring two of the criteria.

The lower granular size limit was among the two criteria removed from the bidding documents so that more powdery coal would be accepted. Messrs Swiss Singapore Ltd was thereupon awarded the tender by the SCAPC.

The Supreme Court observed that ‘no one, neither the State nor the SCAPC shall act contrary to the bid documents and the Government Procurement Guidelines’ and that ‘it is of utmost importance that all the necessary safeguards laid down therein should be complied with fully and strictly and any departure from them make the evaluation process void’ and that ‘if the SCAPC exceeds its authority, the purported exercise of power may be pronounced invalid’.

The Supreme Court determination reproduced, in full, a letter written by Maithri Gunaratne the Chairman of Lanka Coal Company (which procures coal for the Norochcholai plant) to the Secretary of the Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy expressing shock that the SCAPC has disregarded the clause in the company’s bid document which strictly prohibits bidders from contacting anybody involved in the award of the tender from the time of the opening of bids to the time the contract is awarded. Gunaratne stressed that ‘any effort by a bidder to influence the process’ should be rejected. Gunaratne had also warned in his letter that the award of tenders in this manner might bring disrepute on the governmental authorities. The Supreme Court stated that the Standing Cabinet Appointed Procurements Committee should have rejected the bid of Swiss Singapore Ltd for influencing the tender procedure.

In delivering the judgment, the Chief Justice quoted the words of a former Chief Justice Sharvananada in another case where the latter had stated that the "Rule of Law depends on the provision of adequate safeguards against abuse of power by the executive ... The Legislature has necessarily to create innumerable administrative bodies and entrust them with multifarious functions...the abuse of power by them, if unchecked, may ... bring about an authoritarian or totalitarian state. The existence of the power of judicial review and the exercise of same effectively is a necessary safeguard against such abuse of power."

The SC stated that having considered the contentions raised on behalf of the parties, the decision made by the SCAPC was outside its jurisdiction and therefore null and void. It should be understood that in this judgement, the Supreme Court was not merely castigating some bureaucrats. The highest court in the land struck at the very citadel of executive power by stating that the decision taken by the Cabinet of Ministers on 22 September 2015 to award the contract to Messrs Swiss Singapore Ltd could not be considered a valid decision.

The SC stated further that the power of the State was conferred on the members of the SCAPC and the Procurement Appeals Board to be held in trust for the benefit of the public. The Supreme Court being the protector and guarantor of fundamental rights cannot refuse to entertain an application seeking protection against the infringement of such rights. The Court must regard it as its solemn duty to protect the fundamental rights jealously and vigilantly. It has an important role to play not only preventing or remedying the wrong or illegal exercise of power by the authorities but has a duty to protect the nation in directing it (the executive) to act within the framework of the law and the Constitution.

Political tug-o-war over CB Governor

By Dharisha Bastians-Friday, 1 July 2016

A political tug-o-war over the appointment of the Central Bank Governor continued yesterday, with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe making a public statement that the controversial incumbent Arjuna Mahendran could not be removed from office since the charges against him had never been proved.

“We are not protecting anyone. If the charges are proved I will do the needful,” Wickremesinghe said on State-owned ITN yesterday.

The Premier’s announcement came one day after President Maithripala Sirisena tweeted from his official Twitter account that he would be appointing a new Governor for the Central Bank over the “next few hours,” a sign that the rift between the two leaders on the appointment was widening.

In an interview with the Independent Television Network which was aired yesterday morning, Premier Wickremesinghe directly contradicted President Sirisena with his remarks that he would act only if charges against Mahendran were proved.

“The Governor has said he needs to be exonerated from these charges, or there is no point. There may be charges but none of those charges have been proved yet. If it is proved, I will do what is necessary,” the Prime Minister told ITN during the brief interview.

He said the three-lawyer committee appointed to probe the alleged bond scam had not found evidence of wrongdoing by Mahendran. The Government then submitted that report to the Police in order to find out if there was a case to be filed.

“The Police said there was no legal case to be filed,” Wickremesinghe charged. “Then the fundamental rights application in Supreme Court was dismissed. So in these circumstances we can’t remove him,” he asserted.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said that the Government had finally even asked Parliament to probe the Treasury bond issue. “Now Parliament has begun that work through the COPE,” he said.

The Prime Minister made these remarkswhile he was at a ceremony to open a new ITN studio in Battaramulla yesterday.

Governor Mahendran’s term ended yesterday (30) and he has indicated to the Monetary Board of Sri Lanka, the Central Bank’s legal governing authority, that he would not be seeking reappointment until the Parliamentary oversight committee COPE completed its investigation into the controversial Treasury bond issues of 2015 and 2016.

The Premier’s remarks yesterday, compounded by the Government’s failure to announce its new appointee for Central Bank Governor, indicates that the issue has now become a major fault line inside the ruling coalition and has spilled out into the public domain, political observers said.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe is seen to be heavily backing the incumbent Governor, while President Sirisena went public in June 2015 with his opinion that Mahendran was unsuited for the office and should resign in the wake of the Treasury bond scandal. During a special statement ahead of the elections, President Sirisena warned that continuing to keep Governor Mahendran in office would damage the Prime Minister.

On Wednesday, social media and political circles were buzzing with speculation about the candidate for Governor after the President’s tweet, but the day closed without a formal announcement about the new candidate and news of a fresh stalemate within the coalition over the nominee.

Highly placed sources said the Prime Minister could be favouring a stop-gap appointment until the COPE investigation into the alleged bond scam was completed and Mahendran cleared paving the way for a re-appointment.

However, President Sirisena was inclined to appoint the senior most deputy governor as the new governor of the Central Bank, the sources said. Other analysts said a possible way out of the impasse is a compromise candidate with whom both the President and the Prime Minister can be comfortable with.

Meanwhile, the Monetary Board of Sri Lanka held an emergency meeting last evening, but stopped short of appointing a Senior Deputy Governor to oversee some of the functions and duties in the Governor’s absence. Governor Arjuna Mahendran’s term ended officially at 6 p.m. yesterday. However a formal announcement to this effect wasn›t made by the Central Bank.

Treasury lost Rs. 1.6b in Bond auctions claims AG

The Auditor General of Sri Lanka has concluded that the Treasury had lost a cumulative Rs. 1.6 billion from two controversial Treasury Bond auctions and found that Governor Arjuna Mahendran had failed to exercise “due professional care” demanded by his position.

According to sections of the Auditor General’s report to the Committee on Public Enterprises that were leaked on the internet and shared across social media yesterday, the Treasury lost an estimated Rs. 889.3 million in the February 2015 bond auction and an estimated Rs. 784.8 million in the March 2016 bond auction that his Department was commissioned to audit. “It has been concluded that authorities must take responsibility for the failure to prevent these losses,” the leaked report, dated 29 June 2016 states.

“According to information obtained by the Auditor General in drafting this report and as revealed in the preceding paragraphs, it has not been found that in the exercise of his duties, the Central Bank Governor has maintained the standards of due professional care expected of his position” the leaked version of the report states.

The special audit of the February 2015 and March 2016 Treasury Bond auctions was commissioned by COPE. (DB)

Video: Thewarapperuma’s suicide drama




2016-06-30
Deputy Minister Palitha Threwarappperuma is reported to have attempted to hang himself from the ceiling fan in a classroom at the Meegahathenna Primary school in protest against the non-admission of 10 students.

His attempted suicide today came after he staged a hunger-strike outside the school from Monday. 
He was admitted to the Nagoda Hospital. 

The deputy minister yesterday threatened to quit the Yahapalanaya Government if the demands made by the parents of the Meegahathenna Primary School students were not met.(Bandu Thambawita)

Gammanpila’s fraud : Pro MaRa judge ‘Pissu Poosa’ blabbers about saving culprit even before verdict is given

(Lanka-e-News- 30.June.2016, 10.25PM) Supreme court (SC ) judge Upali Abeyratne known among the legal fraternity as ‘Pissu Poosa’ owing to his unscrupulous and slimy ways is engaged in a conspiracy in collusion with the defeated and discarded  pro MaRa group to grant bail to Udaya Gammanpila the notorious  fraudster , based on reports reaching Lanka e news.

The lawyers for Gammanpila who is now in remand custody filed a fundamental rights petition in the SC against the remanding of their client. It is learnt , they are waiting  until a judge who is a stooge of  Rajapakse mounts the bench , and are holding back the filing of petition until the date on  which the two judges ,Upali Abeyratne and the chief justice (CJ) (not three judges ) hear cases ; and on that date to file Gammanpila’s petition.

It is a well and widely known fact that Upali Abeyratne was one who was appointed illegally by Mahinda Rajapakse as a SC judge on 2014- 12-17 .This appointment was illegal because , when there ought to be only 11 judges in the SC ,  Upali was appointed as the 12 th in excess. Moreover , he was such a bootlicking lickspittle and stooge of MaRa that while there were two judges above  Upali in seniority , junior Upali  was  still appointed ignoring  the seniors.

The judges were told 28th to look for ways to release Gammanpila .The lawyers for Gammanpila via a motion filed 27th made the request with supporting evidence to produce Gammanpila in the supreme court.  But the true position is , there is no such procedure. The Fundamental rights (FR) petition of an accused who is remanded on the orders of a lower  court is not examined by summoning him before the SC. It is common knowledge that the Supreme court does not have a place to detain  the prisoners . Besides , bail is not granted by the SC.  Even if the Supreme court  decides that the remanding is illegal , the bail can be secured only from the lower court that remanded the accused.

In the circumstances and  despite these glaring facts , it was because of the conspiracy hatched in collusion with  Upali Abeyratne , the request was made via a motion to produce Gammanpila before SC,  in order to secure  a judgment in favor of Gammanpila ,and thereafter make a huge publicity ‘circus’ via the media  .

Sadly , that conspiracy proved unsuccessful yesterday.

While Upali Abeyratne the infamous Pissu Poosa who is blabbering foolishly about the verdict even before the case is  heard , the people are on the other hand watching intently  whether Pissu Poosa  would  stoop to the level of trampling  justice  despite being a judge and overriding  the CJ in order to  shamelessly  carry out  the sordid biddings of Rajapakses .

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by     (2016-06-30 17:04:11)

Is ‘Yahapaalana’ govt. too, afraid of Welikada killers?

Jun 30, 2016

A period in which a pack of unmitigated, callous rulers did not value human lives and preyed on them at their will has just passed. But, as a country what we are used to do is to let things pass by or forget them as time goes on. One such instance is the Welikada massacre that claimed 27 human lives within a space of one night, at a place surrounded by a high wall which claims ‘prisoners too, are humans.’

The incident has been written about much, but should be mentioned here briefly.

The then state intelligence chief C.N. Wagista sought the permission of prisons minister at the time Chandrasiri Gajadheera to enter the Chappel Ward where prisoners on death row are being kept, and other wards in order to seize heroin, cannabis and mobile phones. After the minister’s permission was received, the operation began with the support of a team from the STF. The order for the operation came from the then defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, to Wagistra and STF commandant, DIG R.W.M.C. Ranawana.

The STF and the Borella police team that conducted the operation in the afternoon of November 09, 2012 were led by one of the most infamous officers in the police, ASP Sylvester Wijesinghe. In blatant violation of the world accepted norm not to enter a prison carrying firearms, the armed team began the operation amidst objections by prison officers, saying the order came from Gotabhaya.

Sylvester’s operation began with the clear motive of starting a clash, and L ward inmates were assaulted and the team created trouble with the prison officers too. From there, they proceeded to Chappel Ward and started assaulting its inmates too. By that time, prisoners could not stand the treatment being meted out to them any longer and showed their protest. Blinded by the power of the camouflage uniform, but without an iota of brains, the STF ended the operation by cornering the prisoner and unleashing a teargas attack on them. Unable to withstand the onslaught any longer, the prisoners reacted, broke the doors, seized weapons from the STF and that led to a big commotion.

If the operation’s motive was to create a clash, that motive has been achieved by now. A group, armed with the seized firearms as well as those in the armoury, got onto the roof of the prison, while others broke open the doors and tried to getaway in a three wheeler. That ended with the three-wheeler getting riddled with bullets, and all its occupants murdered in cold blood. STF commandant Ranawana too was shot. Eleven prisoners were killed.

By nightfall, the hour of the uniformed killers began. Gotabhaya this time used the Army to bring the situation under control. One of his best pupils, Brig. Shantha Dissanayake, Suresh Salley of Army intelligence and notorious DIG Anura Senanayake were all summoned to the place. Police anti narcotics bureau’s Inspector Neomal Rangajeewa also arrived there.

Rangajeewa is the most disreputable ‘deal maker’ in the PNB. Fearing the revelation of his connections with drug traffickers, this was an opportunity for him to get in the clear. Senanayake, as all know, is a darling of Gotabhaya and one who shouldered any garbage of the Rajapaksas. Armed with a list of names needed to be silenced in order to cover up the sins of the royal family, they came for a hunt.

Shooting their way into the prison, the Army brought things under control, and then began selecting their targets to kill. Rangajeewa pointed out the prisoners who should be eliminated to cover up heroin deals, and Senanayake showed those connected to Rajapaksa contracts, such as the killing of a monk and the stealing of a sword at Kotte Rajamaha Vihara etc. The fate that befell them was to be shot, leaned against a wall on the outside of which was written ‘prisoners too, are humans.’ By dawn next day, 27 prisoners had been murdered.

Setting a thief to catch a thief is complete absurdity. It is pointless to talk about the Rajapaksa period investigations into the Welikada murders, where the killers were the investigators.

However, on 08 January 2015, the gang of murderers was expelled from the top seat as the people wanted justice instead of repression. The Yahapaalana’ government came to power on the strength of thousands of promises for justice.

It is now one-and-a-half-years since the ‘Yahapaalanaya’ gained power. No magisterial inquiry has so far taken place into the Welikada murders. A three-member committee headed by retired judge Wimal Nambuwasam was appointed to investigate and its report was handed over to the prime minister. Recommendations of the report that wanted the investigations handed over to the CID as soon as the inquests were held, were referred to the then IGP N.K. Illangakoon. Going to meet Illangakoon, PNB’s DIG Nalaka Silva and Rangajeewa asked that the probe into the incident be swept under the carpet, as notorious criminals were the ones who had been killed. Illangakoon, a die-hard loyalist of the Rajapaksas, sent the recommendations to the dustbin.

The criminals, who got the Army to murder selected persons in the cold blood in order to cover up evidence for their crimes, are still at large. Gotabhaya who gave the order to kill is preparing to enter active politics soon.

The ‘Yahapaalakayo’ are seeing all these, but are faking that they are sound asleep. The question to be asked is, is the present regime still afraid of these killers? Or else, are these all deals?

See photos here 

CCTV shows businessman brutally assaulted by gang

2016-06-30

A CCTV footage, which shows a businessman being assaulted in an inhumane manner by a gang at a hotel in Godagama, Homagama had been released to media.

Earlier a complaint had been lodged with the Athurugiriya Police against former Homagama Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Indika Koralage as assaulting a businessman. 

The assaulted businessman had been hospitalised. (Buddhika Kumarasiri)

Can you beat that ? High court judge brutally attacks female stenographer on duty – Criminal judge free ! victim operated

(Lanka-e-News- 30.June.2016, 10.30PM)  As a result of a brutal assault launched on a female    stenographer recording court notes , by Ratnapura high court judge Rohana Anura Kumara Herath , the victim had to be admitted to hospital where she had to undergo surgery.

Is this the Sri Lanka the much boasted miracle in the making or debacle in the making..?

This high court judge had flown into a demonic rage because she had recorded a statement of the judge incorrectly . The judge had attacked the victim with a heavy law book  causing serious injuries to her throat (trachea) necessitating immediate surgical intervention at the Ratnapura hospital.

This attack launched during the duty hours  is a grave crime which makes it imperative that the judge is immediately taken into custody , but so far , not even a complaint has been recorded. At the time the victim was admitted to the hospital , the hospital police had not taken any action to  arrest the assailant (judge) . Neither had any law enforcement action taken place despite the fact the judge should be immediately arrested. 

The officials of the trade organization  of the court stenographers and the Judicial service commission are  moving heaven and earth to suppress this incident , and rescue the brute of a criminal judge rather than enforce the laws and mete out justice duly on behalf of the victim ,  based on reports reaching Lanka e news . 

Whither justice in Sri Lanka the debacle in the making ?

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by     (2016-06-30 17:47:37)

Jack Reed: Cluster Bomb Cheerleader

Cluster bomb munitions hold dozens of bomblets that, once air-dropped, spread over large swaths of land. Bomblets often end up in high population areas and can fail to detonate immediately, leaving unexploded ordnances scattered for innocent people to find.

by Aniqa Raihan

( June 29, 2016, Boston, Sri Lanka Guardian) Cluster bombs are some of the cruelest available weapons of war, banned in 119 countries and counting. This June, in a close vote of 204-216, the House of Representatives voted against an amendment to stop the sale of US made cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia, which uses them to commit grievous human rights violations in Yemen. Now, as the bill moves on to the Senate, one of its major opponents is Democratic Senator Jack Reed, the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees. While 164 Democrats in the House voted to stop the sale of cluster bombs, Senator Reed opposes the proposal and his colleagues for one simple reason: the cluster bombs are produced in his state.

Textron Systems is the last remaining American producer and the US military’s sole supplier of cluster bombs and Jack Reed is the senior Senator from Rhode Island, where Textron’s cluster bombs are produced. Coincidentally, he also happens to be the recipient of  $11,000 in campaign donations from Textron.  In 2011, he refused to cosponsor aproposal to require the US and its allies to minimize civilian casualties of cluster bombs, and now, despite the concerns of international bodies like Oxfam and Human Rights Watch, he is once again siding with cluster bombs instead of human rights.

Cluster bomb munitions hold dozens of bomblets that, once air-dropped, spread over large swaths of land. Bomblets often end up in high population areas and can fail to detonate immediately, leaving unexploded ordnances scattered for innocent people to find. The leftover bomblets can detonate at any point afterward, posing a threat to civilians for decades to come. While there are no exact numbers for cluster bomb casualties in Yemen, it is well documented that cluster bombs have already maimed and killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Vietnam, Iraq, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine, and beyond. The evidence of human rights abuses is so clear that 119 countries around the world have signed a treaty prohibiting the development, sale, and use of cluster bombs, but the US and Saudi Arabia have continuously refused.

Jack Reed

Saudi Arabia has been known to use US made cluster bombs in its war against Yemen, an action that has been repeatedly condemned by the United Nations, theEuropean Union, and Amnesty International. Saudi-led airstrikes have already led to over 8,000 civilian casualties. The continued use of cluster bombs makes more casualties inevitable, especially children, who are often attracted to the small, shiny remnants of undetonated bomblets.

In 2015, Rhode Island-based Textron raked in over$13.4 billion in profits, of which $1.5 billion came from weapons sales. It sold more than 8,200 cluster bombs, each of which contained dozens of bomblets. It then poured $4.5 million into lobbying efforts, including$350,000 to Republican congresspeople, $11,000 to Senator Jack Reed, and over $30,000 to House Democrats who voted against this year’s proposed ban on cluster bomb sales. The devastating reality is that Textron and Senator Reed stand to benefit from increased use of cluster bombs while thousands of innocent Yemeni men, women, and children will pay the price.

There is no excuse to prioritize profit over human rights. Senator Jack Reed and the rest of Congress have made themselves fully complicit in Saudi Arabia’s war crimes and thedestabilization of Yemen. The continued sale of cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia violates theArms Export Control Act andPresidential Policy Directive 27, both of which dictate that US made weapons should not be used to further human rights violations.

If you believe in ending war and ensuring human rights for all, then tell Senator Jack Reedthat continuing to sell cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia is both illegal and immoral. Reed should renounce his support of cluster bombs and refuse Textron’s donations to his campaign, money that could be put to better use helping survivors of cluster bomb explosions, because life is worth more than $11,000.

Aniqa Raihan is a senior at the George Washington University and an intern with CODEPINK: 

Women for Peace. She gets fired up about feminism and politics. She can be reached at aniqa@codepink.org

 Israel can’t crush solidarity

The mother of Murad Ideis, accused of stabbing and killing a woman living in a settlement in January, stands on the rubble of her home in Beit Amra after it was demolished by the Israeli army on 11 June.Wisam HashlamounAPA images--Israeli soldiers on the streets of Yatta during an arrest raid on the village on 15 June.Wisam HashlamounAPA images

An Israeli soldier grabs a Palestinian man as the army demolishes sheds on the pretext that they lack a building permit near Yatta village, 19 June.Wisam HashlamounAPA images

Budour Youssef Hassan-30 June 2016

Amal Mukhamara is fed up with the questions. She is tired of journalists inquiring why her son Khaled and his cousin Muhammad killed four Israelis in Tel Aviv earlier this month. She is tired of being asked if she condemns their actions or if she knew of their plans beforehand.

“No mother will allow her son to put his life in danger,” she said. “But our sons do not ask us for our opinions or approval. They are driven to act because of all the injustice and aggression they have been subjected to by Israel.”

The killings took place in an upmarket Tel Aviv square. Both of the alleged attackers were wounded before being arrested.

Israel is using the Tel Aviv killings as a pretext to inflict more injustice and aggression on their family and neighbors in Yatta, a town near Hebron in the occupied West Bank.

Almost 300 members of the extended Mukhamara family had work or travel permits canceled by Israel after the killings, according to Jamal Bheis, deputy mayor of Yatta.

Since the killings occurred, Israel has subjected Yatta’s inhabitants to repeated raids, violent house searches andrandom arrests. All entrances to the city have been closed at times.

With Israel serving notice that it plans to demolish the home where nine members of Khaled’s family live, local residents have set up a protest tent. Regular visits to the family are being undertaken in order to demonstrate solidarity.

The family has moved furniture out of the building in anticipation of the possible demolition. Muhammad Musa Mukhamara, Khaled’s father, worked as a lawyer from home, but has been forced to find a new office. Last year he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

The Israeli government in 2015 decided to accelerate the demolition of homes where the families of Palestinians involved in armed resistance lived.

Such demolitions are part of a deliberate policy of collective punishment which Israel inflicts on Palestinians.

Such measures violate international law. The Fourth Geneva Convention states that nobody living under military occupation may be punished for something they have not done.

Yatta and other communities near Hebron have experienced collective punishment repeatedly. For example, Israeli forces set up checkpoints on the roads into Yatta following the outbreak of a Palestinian uprising in October 2015.

“Heavy price”

Many Palestinians believe that Israel regards collective punishment as a means of exerting pressure. By resorting to it, Israel may be trying to sow division among Palestinians.

Making communities suffer could be a tactic to try and turn Palestinians against those who resist the occupation. The Israeli military has stated as much: in 2014, it issued a warning that armed resistance “carries a heavy price.”

Rather than sowing division, however, the tactic has actually strengthened the sense of community in Yatta.

“These policies seek to crush any seed of resistance by making the entire community pay such a massive price,” Bheis noted. “But the response of the people of Yatta has been outstanding.”

It appears that most people in Yatta do not blame Khaled and Muhammad Mukhamara for Israel’s decision to close roads and withdraw travel and work permits. Instead, they have turned their wrath on the Israeli occupation.

“If permits will make us obedient servants of the occupation or come at the expense of our dignity, we do not want them,” said Rafat al-Adra, a volunteer at the Red Crescent humanitarian organization and a member of a group that rebuilds demolished homes in Yatta.

“The collective punishment to which they have subjected us has only increased the solidarity in the community,” he added.

Wadha Mukhamara, grandmother of Khaled and Muhammad, knows what it is like to wait for a demolition.

The 70-year-old woman still vividly remembers when Israeli forces bulldozed the home of her son Taleb back in 2003 after he and his brother carried out two separate attacks at the Ziv crossroads near Yatta in 2002. Both her sons — uncles of Khaled and Muhammad — were sentenced to life and their home was demolished, she said.

“I raised Khaled and Muhammad and felt they were my only solace after my two sons were imprisoned,” she said. “Now I will probably never see them again, just like I haven’t seen my sons since their imprisonment.”

Amal, Khaled’s mother, is in deep shock. She feels that time has frozen since she learned her son was involved in the Tel Aviv killings.

Khaled had been studying engineering in Jordan. He took a semester off in January, according to his mother.

“He told me that he wanted to work for a few months to raise money for his studies,” Amal said. His father had recently undergone an operation and the family was struggling to pay Khaled’s tuition fees and those of his sister, who was also attending university. “I was disappointed at the start because I wanted him to graduate, but I respected his decision.”

Khaled worked as a construction worker in Israel in recent months. His cousin Muhammad was also a construction worker.

More collective punishment

The Mukhamara family’s situation bears similarities to that of the Ideis family in Beit Amra, a village on the outskirts of Yatta.

Murad Ideis recently turned 16 under Israeli detention. He is accused of killing a woman in an Israeli settlementin the South Hebron Hills in January.

After that killing, the Ideis family received a demolition order from the Israeli authorities. They appealed against the order to the Israeli high court.

But the demolition went ahead.

“After what happened in Tel Aviv, we expected that the demolition would take place very soon,” Murad’s father, Badr Ideis, told The Electronic Intifada.

The demolition forced seven members of his family to find alternative accommodations through the help of their relatives, Badr said.

Before demolishing his home, Badr added, Israel canceled his work permit.

Prior to the revocation of his permit, Badr worked in tiling inside Israel. Israel routinely cancels work permits of Palestinians whose relatives are involved in attacks against Israelis.

Badr was given a part-time job in Yatta to support him after the ban. But the family is mainly relying on their savings to make ends meet.

“We are raising funds to build a house for him and for anyone affected by revenge demolitions,” said Rafat al-Adra, the Red Crescent volunteer. “But now we are looking for a suitable piece of land.”

Finding land is a difficult task. Under the Oslo accords — signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1990s — the town of Yatta was designated as being part of Area A. That part of the West Bank is nominally under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

Yet many of the villages around Yatta are within Area C, a zone covering more than 60 percent of the West Bank which is under full Israeli administrative and military control.

Receiving a permit to build in Area C is virtually impossible for Palestinians. Nearly all applications are turned down by Israel.

Not only is Israel shrinking the amount of space available to Palestinians, it is actively displacing Palestinians and denying them their livelihoods. But not without resistance.

“Israeli soldiers know that if they come to demolish the home of the Mukhamaras, they will be met by fierce resistance,” said one Yatta resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“We will not welcome with roses the bulldozers that come to destroy a home in our city. It’s great that people are donating to rebuild demolished homes, but we will also work to prevent the demolitions from taking place.”

Budour Youssef Hassan is a Palestinian writer and law graduate based in occupied Jerusalem. 
Blog:budourhassan.wordpress.com. Twitter: @Budour48

Israeli girl, 13, fatally stabbed in her bedroom in West Bank

Palestinian assailant also injured security officer before being shot dead, and two Israelis are stabbed in separate incident in Netanya

Israeli soldiers outside the house where the girl was killed. Photograph: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty

Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem-Thursday 30 June 2016

A 13-year-old Israeli girl has been stabbed to death as she slept in her bedroom in the West Bank by a Palestinian youth who was subsequently shot dead.

The victim, Hallel Yaffa Ariel was a US citizen, according to the Department of State. She died shortly after sustaining wounds to her upper torso.

According to early reports, Israeli civilian security officers arrived at her house in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, next to the Palestinian city of Hebron, shortly after the attack and broke down the door.

One officer was stabbed and seriously injured before another shot the perpetrator dead. Palestinian officials named the assailant as Mohammed Tarayreh, 17, from the nearby village of Bani Na’im.

The Israeli military released a photograph showing Hallel Yaffa Ariel’s blood-stained bedroom. Photograph: @IDFSpokesperson/Twitter

Malachi Levinger, chair of Kiryat Arba’s council, told Army Radio that the perpetrator had climbed over the settlement’s security fence.

Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, called on both the Palestinian leadership and all “enlightened nations” to condemn the killing.

“The horrifying murder of a young girl in her bed underscores the bloodlust and inhumanity of the incitement-driven terrorists that we are facing,” he said.

Netanyahu agreed at an emergency meeting with his defence minister, Avigdor Lieberman, to close off Bani Na’im to all but humanitarian and medical traffic. It was thought likely that the assailant’s family home would be destroyed, a tactic that remains controversial in Israel.

The victim was a cousin of the far-right Israeli minister Uri Ariel, who said Israel would make every effort to build up settlements in the West Bank.

Adnan Tarayreh, a cousin of the assailant, suggested that Tarayreh – who had dropped out of school and was working in a bakery – may have been influenced by a recent incident in which another relative had been shot dead in a car that had rammed into Israelis in Kiryat Arba.

Later on Thursday, a Palestinian man stabbed two Israelis in the coastal city of Netanya, wounding one seriously, before he was shot dead.

Police said the perpetrator was from Tulkarem, a Palestinian town about 12 miles from Netanya, on the other side of the “green line” separating the West Bank from Israel.

The victims of the attack, which took place close to the city’s open air market, were said to be an ultra-orthodox man in his 40s and a woman in her 30s.

The incidents follow dozens of attacks by Palestinians over the past nine months, which have killed 33 Israelis and two Americans. About 200 Palestinians have been killed, the majority identified by Israel as attackers or would-be attackers.

The spate of violent incidents appeared to have abated in recent weeks, though Palestinian gunmen killed four Israelis this month in Tel Aviv’s busy Sarona market.

In Jerusalem, tensions have risen at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount site holy to Jews and Muslims, with Palestinians throwing rocks, one of which lightly injured a 73-year-old Israeli woman.

The violence started after police broke with the practice of recent years by allowing in non-Muslim visitors including tourists during Ramadan, after a relatively calm first 10 days of the holy month. Police have reimposed the visitor ban until Ramadan ends next week.

In separate incidents in the West Bank, five people were killed and at least 16 injured in two overnight intra-Palestinian shootings. Palestinian police said that in one of the incidents a gunman attacked the home of a police officer in the city of Nablus. When other officers arrived to investigate, they came under fire and two were killed.

In the other incident, three Palestinians were killed when a dispute between extended families over a wedding hall in the village of Yaabad spiralled into a shootout.

EXCLUSIVE: Iraqi troops' heavy toll for Fallujah victory is revealed

Iraqi military sources tell MEE that hundreds of soldiers and thousands of IS militants died in battle for Fallujah

Iraqi police patrol Fallujah on 30 June after recapturing it from IS (AFP)

Suadad al-Salhy-Thursday 30 June 2016

BAGHDAD – Hundreds of Iraqi soldiers were killed and more than 3,000 wounded during the five-week battle to recapture Fallujah from the Islamic State (IS) group, Middle East Eye can reveal.

Since the beginning of Iraq's war against IS in June 2014, when almost a third of the country's territory was seized after the dramatic collapse of the Iraqi army, officials have either refused to comment or downplayed the numbers of casualties among Iraqi security forces.

General Hadi Erzaje, deputy of the Fallujah military operations commander, previously told MEE: "We have casualties, but not that many. We are involved in fighting so we cannot reveal such information.”

But a senior security official speaking on condition of anonymity told MEE that at least 394 members of the security forces were killed and 3,308 wounded in the battle, which started on 23 May and ended earlier this month.

Medical and other military sources put the death toll even higher, telling MEE this week that more than 900 soldiers were killed in the battle.

These numbers do not include members of militias slain while fighting in Fallujah. Nor have Iraqi officials released figures for deaths of Fallujah residents. More than 80,000 residents are estimated to have been displaced during the fighting.

The same sources said that 35,000 Iraqi forces, backed by multi-sect paramilitary troops and the US-led international coalition against IS, killed thousands of militants during the offensive.

The recapture of the city represents a "devastating blow" to the organisation, analysts and military officers told MEE.  

A US military official told the Military Times on Thursday that the true size of IS’s fighting force was in question after Fallujah.

For at least the second time in recent weeks, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Sunday announced the liberation of Fallujah and raised the Iraqi flag on government buildings in the city centre.

But until now, it has been unclear what the cost of the campaign has been for Iraqis. 

'A nuclear bomb'

Most of the security forces who died in Fallujah were killed either by suicide car bombs or rocket attacks used by the militants on a wide scale towards the end of the battle to block the advancing forces, sources said.

The Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Squad, an elite fighting unit, had the lowest number of deaths. The highest casualties, military sources said, were among federal police troops who fought without air cover in the northern region of Fallujah and also secured the city centre.

"We are not army or counter-terrorism services, we are federal police… We do not have tanks or jets. We were fighting in our flesh," General Lieutenant Ra'ad Jawdat, the commander of Iraqi federal police, told MEE.

Jawdat said federal police operating in the city’s northern hub were attacked by 90 suicide car bombs.

"If we put them together, their impact would be equal to a nuclear bomb," he said.

Jawdat would not comment on how many police died in Fallujah.

Militant casualties

Fallujah - which is also called the City of Mosques after the hundreds of places of worship built in the era of Saddam Hussein, who encouraged Sunni Muslim merchants to build the religious establishments tax-free - had been the base of most of IS’s senior commanders in Iraq and Syria.

Some experts say its capture may mark the beginning of the end for IS in Iraq, although the group still controls the key northern city of Mosul.

"Fallujah was the brain of the insect,” Hisham al-Hashimi, an Iraqi expert on armed Islamic groups and a governmental security adviser, told MEE.

Hashimi and most Iraqi officials that MEE spoke with say that Fallujah was the weak flank of Baghdad, Babil, Karbala, Najaf, Salhudeen and Anbar provinces and was used as a launching pad for most suicide attacks that targeted these provinces over the past decade.

Iraqi military sources told MEE that at least 2,500 IS fighters were killed in Fallujah and its suburbs. Another 2,186 were arrested by Iraqi forces trying to flee the city among displaced families.

"They [IS militants] left the city with the fleeing families. Some of them used fake IDs, others were disguised in women’s clothing," General Erzaje told MEE.

The number of arrested militants may increase because Iraqi security authorities are still screening the records of another 6,000 detainees held by local security authorities in temporary detention sites near Fallujah, Erzaje said.

The number of casualties on both sides is also expected to increase as current figures do not include those deemed missing or the bodies of soliders and militants still in the city, the sources said.

Despite the losses, some analysts said the recapture of Fallujah should be seen as a triumph that has raised the morale of Iraqi forces.

"Fallujah was the dynamo of the organisation. Whoever won the battle in Fallujah, won the war," Hashimi said.

"Now, we can say Daesh [IS] lost the war. When it lost Fallujah, it lost the war in Iraq.”