Trump puts Republicans in awkward spot again with Saddam comments

Remarks at rally praising Saddam Hussein for killing terrorists ‘so good’ sidestepped by GOP leaders days after controversy over ‘antisemitic’ tweet

Donald Trump praises Saddam Hussein’s ability to ‘kill terrorists’

Nicole Puglise-Wednesday 6 July 2016 

Republicans were again forced into awkward criticisms and defenses of Donald Trump on Wednesday, after the party’s presumptive nominee praised Saddam Hussein for killing terrorists “so good”.

“He was a bad guy. Really bad guy,” Trump told a crowd in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Tuesday night.

 “But you know what? He did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good. They didn’t read them the rights. They didn’t talk. They were terrorists. Over. Today, Iraq is Harvard for terrorism.”

Trump’s would-be allies in the Republican party were forced to react, yet again, to a statement that defied not only party orthodoxy but basic tenets of American society, including the right to due process. Before the US invasion of 2003, Saddam’s Iraq was listed as a state sponsor of terrorism.

The House speaker, Paul Ryan, who belatedlyendorsed Trump, seemed to distance himself from the comments during an interview with Fox News on Tuesday night, though he condemned only Saddam and not the candidate.

“He was one the 20th century’s most evil people. He was up there. He committed mass genocide against his own people using chemical weapons,” Ryan said. “Saddam Hussein was a bad guy.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Ryan made similarly careful criticisms about an image Trump tweeted showing Hillary Clinton, cash and a six-pointed star – a graphic found to originate from a Twitter user who posted white supremacist ideas.

“Look, antisemitic images, they’ve got no place in a presidential campaign,” Ryan told a radio show. “Candidates should know that. The tweet’s been deleted. I don’t know what flunky put this up there. They’ve obviously got to fix that.”

The campaign for Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, denounced Trump for his praise of Saddam. It released a statement from Jake Sullivan, a senior policy adviser, on Wednesday morning.

Citing Trump’s previous statements on China’s Tiananmen Square massacre, Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin, Sullivan said Trump’s “praise for brutal strongmen seemingly knows no bounds”.

“Trump’s cavalier compliments for brutal dictators, and the twisted lessons he seems to have learned from their history, again demonstrate how dangerous he would be as commander-in-chief and how unworthy he is of the office he seeks,” he said.

At least two Republican members of the House defended Trump on Wednesday. “His comment was just a factual comment that Saddam Hussein did not have a terrorist problem,” Chris Collins, a New York representative, told the Washington Post.

In February, Collins became the first member of Congress to endorse Trump, who has struggled to win the backing of established politicians and tried to make a selling point of it. “I think it would be better if [the party] were unified,” he said in May. “And I think there would be something good about it. But I don’t think it actually has to be.”

Darrell Issa, who made a more tepid endorsement of the party’s presumptive nominee, argued that Trump’s statement was more about nonintervention than Hussein personally. The California congressman told the Post that Trump’s position was akin to Barack Obama’s opposition to the Iraq war, and that they were “saying the same thing, effectively: that we shouldn’t have gone in”.

During the rally on Tuesday, Trump also denounced the FBI’s decision not to pursue criminal charges against Clinton before making his remarks on the former president of Iraq.

The Raleigh event was not the first time Trump had praised the dictator. In the past, he said the world would be “100% better” if Saddam or Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi were still in power.

Despite his claims to have opposed intervention in Iraq and Libya, Trump publicly supported military action in both countries. Before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, he told a radio host “I guess so” when asked about whether he supported war, and he told Fox News that George W Bush was “doing a very good job”. 

In 2011, he said on a video blog that the US should depose Gaddafi: “We should go in, we should stop this guy, which would be very easy and very quick. We could do it surgically, stop him from doing it, and save these lives.”

Trump has made false claims that he opposed the wars for months. His praise for authoritarian leaders has drawn only occasional rebukes.

After Trump made similar comments in October, Steve Russell, an Oklahoma Republican congressman and retired army lieutenant colonel whose unit aided in the capture of Saddam, spoke out against him.

“He is wrong. Regardless of what people think about the Iraq war, human rights advocates worldwide believe that the one silver lining that came out of the war was the demise of Saddam Hussein,” Russell told CNN.

“Are we kidding? This just demonstrates a complete lack of the facts and a complete lack of understanding of foreign policy.”

Maldives foreign minister resigns citing opposition to death penalty

by Ahmed Naish-July 05 2016

Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon has resigned this afternoon, citing opposition to the government’s plans to implement the death penalty.

In a statement shared with the media, Dunya said the resignation was “one of the most difficult decisions” she has taken.

“Yet, the decision became inevitable because of the profound differences of opinion on the government’s policy in implementing the death penalty at a time when serious questions are being asked, and concerns being expressed, about the delivery of justice in the Maldives,” she said.

She added: “I remain convinced that the Government’s policy on death penalty, decided on a hasty fashion, would be detrimental to the image and reputation of the Maldives and would be a significant obstacle in achieving President [Abdulla] Yameen’s foreign policy goals, and building a resilient Maldives.”

Her resignation comes amidst an escalating power struggle between her father, former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, and his half-brother the incumbent for control of the ruling party.

Shortly before Dunya’s announcement, the Progressive Party of Maldives expelled her brother, MP Faris Maumoon, for voting against a government tourism bill at Gayoom’s behest.

The anti-corruption watchdog also summoned the elder Gayoom for questioning over an investigation into an audit report released eight years ago.

However, Dunya made no mention of the increasingly acrimonious PPM split.

She expressed gratitude to Yameen for “his guidance and support during the past two and half years,” and thanked cabinet colleagues, staff, and officers of the foreign service.

“I remain hopeful, however, that the Maldives would be able to overcome many challenges in implementing President Yameen’s foreign policy, protect and promote the independence and the good image of the Maldives, and make Maldivians proud.”

Yameen’s decision to end a six-decade moratorium has drawn criticism from UN human rights experts, the European Union and Amnesty International. They have called on the government to halt the planned execution of a 22-year-old death row inmate, Hussain Humam Ahmed, convicted of murdering a parliamentarian in a trial riddled with irregularities.

Gayoom has also opposed Humam’s execution.

Dunya’s time in office has seen a dramatic shift in Maldivian foreign policy towards China and Saudi Arabia in the wake of fierce criticism by traditional allies, India, the EU, the UK, the US and the Commonwealth over human rights abuses and the jailing of opposition leaders.

Under Dunya’s watch, the Maldives has so far avoided action despite a campaign for targeted sanctions on senior government officials by the opposition.

Dunya was appointed foreign minister in 2013 when Yameen assumed power. She had previously served as deputy minister for foreign affairs in Dr Mohamed Waheed’s government in 2012 and her father’s government in 2008.

She is Gayoom’s eldest daughter.

Her brother Gassan Maumoon is a junior minister at the president’s office. Her twin sister, Yumna Maumoon, quit the government without comment in April.

Thai military court orders release of student constitution protesters

Members of the New Democracy Movement (NDM) group arrive in custody with a police escort at the military court in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday. Pic: AP.

6th July 2016

SEVEN student protesters who were arrested last month for distributing leaflets urging people to vote against a proposed new constitution in a referendum next month were due to walk free this morning after a military court ordered police to release them.

An observer for the legal aid group iLaw, Yingcheep Atchanont, said the Bangkok Military Court ordered their release as police had already completed their investigation of the June 23 protest.

Six protesters had already been released on bail, while the other seven were detained after they refused to recognize the charges. Police at Bang Sao Thong Police Station wanted to detain the seven for a second 12-day period, but the court freed the students after a counter-petition by their lawyers.

They could still face several charges pending prosecutors’ acceptance of the case.

SEE ALSO: What the junta’s proposed constitution means for Thailand’s future

“Although this is not a victory for us, it shows that there are still ways to fight the state’s habit of putting people in jail on unreasonable grounds,” defense lawyer Krisadang Nutcharus said after the ruling was made, as quoted by Khaosod English.

The seven were to be released Wednesday morning.

Protesting outside the court Tuesday, Amnesty International Thailand called for charges against all 13 students to be dropped.

View image on Twitter

 

 Follow

Sunai 

✔@sunaibkk

Pressure works! 7 activist, arrested for campaigning against #Thaijunta's draft charter, will be released tomorrow.

6:48 AM - 5 Jul 2016

Thai people will vote in August 7’s referendum on a constitution drafted under the military government that took power in a May 2014 coup.

Critics say the draft is undemocratic, but are restrained from campaigning against it by very restrictive laws that could send them to prison for up to 10 years.

More than two years after Prayuth Chan-ocha’s military junta seized power, there is still no clear roadmap for a return to democracy. Elections have already been pushed back a number of times, and will now take place in 2017 at the earliest.

Additional reporting by Associated Press

Brazil says there is ‘almost zero’ risk of Zika during Olympics. Really?

People relax on Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro in March. The city hosts the 2016 Summer Olympics. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

By Dom Phillips July 6

RIO DE JANEIRO — A small but growing number of athletes, from golfer Rory McIlroy to cyclist Tejay van Garderen, have canceled their trips to the Summer Olympics in Rio because of fears about the Zika epidemic.

But what are the chances that visitors and athletes could become infected?

“Almost zero,” Brazil’s new health minister, Ricardo Barros, said recently. He and other officials note that there are far fewer mosquitoes active in August, when the Games are being held, because it’s winter in the Southern Hemisphere. Already, reports of new cases have plunged in Rio state — from 3,000 to 3,500 a week earlier in the year to just 30 cases a week in June, officials say. Meanwhile, 80 percent of the city’s buildings have been inspected for mosquito breeding sites, authorities maintain.

Doctors and scientists agree that the Zika threat is declining. They caution, however, that there may be more risk than the government is acknowledging. And some Brazilians are skeptical of the official progress reports at a time when the country’s government and economy are in crisis.

“I am seeing an optimism which is a little exaggerated,” said Jesse Alves, an infectious diseases specialist at the government-run Emilio Ribas hospital in Sao ­Paulo.

[What you need to know about the Zika virus]

Since the Zika epidemic took off in Brazil’s northeast last year, it has been tied to 1,600 cases in this country of the birth defect microcephaly, which causes abnormally small heads and can result in learning and cognitive disorders. Zika is also linked to Guillain-Barré syndrome, a paralyzing nervous disorder.

In February, as Zika spread through the Americas, the World Health Organization designated the virus a public health emergency. The organization says pregnant women should not travel to Brazil. The warnings have spooked some athletes and tourists.

“People just aren’t comfortable going down there and putting themselves or their family at risk,” McIlroy told reporters last week.

Some 160,000 Brazilians have caught Zika this year. But reports of new suspected Zika cases have dropped 87 percent nationally from February to May following a publicity campaign urging people to eliminate breeding sites. The Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits Zika lays its eggs near standing water, in places such as flowerpots, buckets or old tires.

Few experts doubt there will be a further decline in cases in the next few months in Rio. Years of data on dengue, a disease also carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, show that there is typically a big drop-off in August and September.

“We will have less mosquitoes and less infected mosquitoes,” said Maria Sallum, a professor in the entomology department at the University of Sao Paulo. “I don’t know if there will be zero. I can’t affirm this.”

Laura Harrington, a professor of entomology at Cornell University, said mosquitoes slow down in lower temperatures, when the Zika virus takes much longer to go through its incubation period. Minimum temperatures in Rio in August are about 62 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit. But the days generally warm up to between 75 and 90 degrees. That’s enough for the insects to become active and bite.

“If there are Aedes aegypti out there flying around, then there is a risk,” Harrington said.

[How U.S. officials plan to protect Olympic athletes from Zika]

Some Brazilians have questioned the ability of the country’s interim government to respond to the Zika outbreak. A new cabinet and interim president were installed after President Dilma Rousseff was suspended in a controversial May 12 Senate impeachment vote.

Barros, the new health minister, has no medical degree. His arrival prompted the resignation of several top officials who disagreed with the change of government.

They include Claudio Maierovitch, who until recently was the top official in the department’s main branch dealing with transmissible diseases. He said that meetings between ministry technicians and regional health officials are less frequent under Barros and that decisions on the Zika crisis are not being made.

“I am very worried, and many other people are as well,” he said.

The new minister appeared unaware of how Brazil’s Zika data is gathered when discussing the epidemic with reporters in Rio recently. “We have a test that is done on everyone who presents symptoms,” Barros said. In fact, health officials in four states said laboratory tests for Zika are generally done only for pregnant women, children and victims who die. Everyone else showing symptoms of the disease, such as rash and fever, are listed as “probable” cases.

A Health Ministry spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity under internal regulations, denied that the political upheaval had hurt the ministry’s response to the Zika outbreak, noting in an email that “each department has a highly specialized and qualified technical team” in addition to political appointees.

The Rio city government says it has dispatched 3,500 “health vigilance agents” — who are normally used to fight diseases such as dengue — to inspect buildings for potential mosquito breeding sites. Daniel Soranz, the city health secretary, said they had visited 5 million buildings this year.

But some residents — and even health workers — have questioned this claim. “It is impossible,” said Sandro Cesar, general secretary of Rio’s health vigilance agents’ union, which threatened a strike in February over a lack of insecticide, repellent and uniforms.

In interviews with three dozen residents in neighborhoods across Rio, The Washington Post found that fewer than half reported visits by the agents.

“They don’t go to poorer communities,” said Ezekiel Rodrigues, 27, from a low-income community in Taquara, a couple of miles from the Olympic Park.

Rio’s health secretariat maintains that the city has enough health vigilance agents for the work, despite not hiring additional employees. “What changes is the way work is organized, with more focus on fieldwork,” said a spokeswoman, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with internal policy.

The WHO recommends that people attending the Olympics use insect repellent and wear clothing that covers as much of their bodies as possible. Because Zika can be sexually transmitted, the organization is also urging travelers to practice safe sex or abstinence during their stay and for at least eight weeks after their return home. (For those whose wives or partners are pregnant — like van Garderen, the American cyclist — the safe-sex recommendation is for the duration of the pregnancy). Brazilian authorities say they will distribute 450,000 condoms at the Olympics.

The WHO says it sees no reason to move the Games, arguing that a change in location would not significantly alter the international spread of Zika.

Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at New York University, was among 230 academics and medical professionals from around the world who signed a letter calling for the Games to be moved or postponed. He said the Brazilian government should not depend on “best-case scenarios,” as even a small number of cases of Zika could result in tragedy.

“What if two or three babies are born with microcephaly afterwards? What will that do to the Olympic movement?” he said.

(Re)conceptualising Reconciliation: Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka

Featured image courtesy Sydesian

DR. SUJITH XAVIER on 07/05/2016

Transitional justice is a popular term in present day Sri Lanka. It is the means by which the various parties to the conflict have decided to bring about justice and reconciliation. The reason behind this move to employ transitional justice is two-fold. First, the international community, especially the United Nations, failed to intervene during the final stages of the conflict in 2008 and 2009. In fact, the United Nations specialised agencies did the exact opposite and pulled out of the North and East of Sri Lanka during this time, leaving the civilians at the mercy of the parties to the conflict. Second, the previous Sri Lankan government was unresponsive to the demands for justice.

Transitioning from a violent past to a peaceful future is the central focus of the dynamic field of transitional justice. Transitional justice seeks to understand how forward movement, from times of acute, often violent crisis, is possible. Moreover, it is the catalyst for transition to democratic rule from authoritarian, communist, and conflict societies. This transition from moments of acute crisis is made possible through various mechanisms such as truth and reconciliation commissions, reparations, and the prosecution of those responsible for human rights violations as a means to deliver justice to victims.

Numerous communities have grappled with how to move forward after a violent conflict or violence perpetrated by state officials. As Sri Lanka embarks on the long road to reconciliation, it is important to build upon and learn from the successes and failures of other experiences.

Canada’s experience with transitional justice is important. Settler colonialism, another important concept, describes the dispossession of Indigenous lands and the on-going colonisation of Indigenous peoples by Europeans and non-Europeans alike. In Canada, the on-going colonisation is reflected in how governmental policies and legalities continue the marginalisation of this particular community. The Residential School experiment was, until the late 1990s, part of this process. The Residential Schools can be described as forced boarding and educational facilities for Indigenous children. The last of the remaining Residential Schools closed its doors in 1996.

It is important to note that Canada’s policies towards racialised minorities within its borders are also problematic. Policies of exclusion focussing on black, Chinese and other groups that commenced with the birth of Canada continue to this day. Even today, policies of overt denial of service to black patrons rooted in the early 1900s have now been reformulated to institutional racism through such mechanisms as racial profiling.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was created as a Court instituted resolution to a class action litigation brought against the Canadian settler state by Residential School survivors and victims’ families. The TRC is one of the first instances in which a democratic state instituted a transitional justice mechanism.

The origins of the Residential Schools can be traced back to the birth of Canada and the British North America Act of 1867. The schools were horrible institutions in which Indigenous students were humiliated, tortured, raped and ultimately forced to forget their respective languages and traditions. Approximately 150,000 students went through the hallways of these draconian imperial institutions.

When reflecting on the process of reconciliation through transitional justice in the aftermath of war in Sri Lanka by drawing on insights from the TRC’s findings, it is imperative to recognise that Sri Lanka too has an Indigenous community. This community has been differently impacted by the conflict. Their way of life and traditional practices has been transformed in the last 30 years or so. In the proceeding sections, I will focus on transitional justice and reconciliation as it relates to various parties to the conflict.

Transitional Justice: Prospects and Problems
Patricia Williams, a leading critical race scholar in the United States once remarked that: “Rights feels new in the mouths of most black people”. In a similar vein, international law and transitional justice feels new in the mouths of Sri Lankans. Williams reflects on this newness by suggesting that rights are “deliciously empowering” akin to a “magic wand of visibility and invisibility, of inclusion and exclusion, of power and no power”. In Sri Lanka’s post-conflict moment, transitional justice is on everyone’s lips.

Transitional justice is obviously delicious. It is a magic wand that will somehow make the 2008/2009 killing fields of Vanni more real. The various mechanisms housed under transitional justice will punish those who participated in the killings of thousands of civilians on all sides of the conflict. It will bring justice to the survivors of Mullivaikkal. It will bring justice to those that fled the blood trains in July 1983 and the countless victims of other atrocities committed during the bloody conflict.

But this symbolic belief in transitional justice is not enough in Sri Lanka. We know from our own lived histories that law has a tendency to be used by the powerful against the powerless. More importantly, law was the tool of our former colonial masters. It was used to create hierarchies between Europeans (the civilized) and the rest (people of colour and Indigenous people). Sri Lankan international law scholars like Antony Anghie, Vasuki Nesiah and Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah have devoted their academic careers to documenting the role of international law in colonialism and imperialism. My own recent academic scholarship has sought to locate the colonial legacies within international and hybrid courts. The turn to transitional justice, and in particular international law (arguably the handmaiden of colonialism and imperialism) must be seriously interrogated.

Transitional justice is a broad field that encompasses many aspects of international law. Leading transitional justice scholars like Rosemary Nagy have suggested that international criminal courts, hybrid courts, specialised chambers within domestic courts, truth commissions, apologies and amnesties, reparations and other mechanisms are tools that are part of the transitional justice toolbox. Each mechanism has its own respective enabling laws, norms and values that underpin the various theoretical boundaries.

There exist many different examples of transitional justice mechanisms. In the wake of the Cold War, the United Nations Security Council created international criminal courts for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. The International Criminal Court was created in 1998 and currently includes 124 signatory Member States of which, sadly, Sri Lanka is not a signatory. In the early 2000s, the then UN Secretary General, at the behest of the international community set up two hybrid courts in Cambodia and Sierra Leone. There are numerous specialised chambers within the domestic courts of newly formed Balkan states. Truth commissions have been used in a number of different places that have experienced acute crisis, including post-apartheid South Africa. Sri Lanka has a rich, but problematic, history with commissions of inquiries. There have been countless commissions of inquiry made possible through the Presidential Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1948. We also have examples of amnesties and apologies in El Salvador and other countries that have experienced mass human rights violations. As a consequence, almost all of the various transitional justice tools have been deployed throughout the globe.

International criminal courts are often imagined as the most powerful mechanisms within the transitional justice framework. These courts rely on international criminal law. At the moment, there are four specific international crimes: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression.

By focusing on international criminal law and its various courts, we know that there are significant problems with international and hybrid courts. Empirical evidence from the Rwandan Tribunal, for example, suggests that the judges had a pro-conviction bias. The Hutus killed the Tutsis. This simplistic narrative, based on questionable historical analysis, was the mantra of the Tribunal. More importantly, as noted by Elena Baylis, foreign nationals are the leading experts within international criminal and hybrid courts. These experts have no real understanding of local histories of the conflict or knowledge of the local languages, which contributes even further to the pro-conviction bias. These criticisms are emblematic of international law’s colonial legacies.

Similar criticisms can be leveled against other mechanisms within transitional justice.

Reconceptualising Reconciliation in Transitional Justice
So, what hope do we have for transitional justice in Sri Lanka? It is a sliver of hope that must be guided by the lessons of history, sentiments of the present and hopes for a better future.

Guidance must be obtained from the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report. While some may find the turn to an institution in the Global North perplexing – what is undeniable is that the Canadian Indigenous experience is also the result of colonialism and imperialism. Sri Lanka’s own history of colonialism and imperialism is significant in fostering an environment that led to the internal armed conflict.

The Indigenous peoples of Canada have long struggled to gain access to basic human rights, such as clean water, as well as public services, goods and institutions. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s findings highlight the sad realities of the Indigenous peoples and offers sound guidance for those seeking to move beyond past human rights violations.

In its findings, the TRC details the excruciatingly painful accounts of the survivors and provides one of the most comprehensive contemporary frameworks for reconciliation. The 94 recommendations force academic institutions, public authorities and public institutions, and governments to contend with, and confront their, internalised systemic racism. The TRC’s most important contribution however is its definition of reconciliation as an “ongoing process establishing and maintaining respectful relationships”. 

For the Commission, a critical aspect of creating and maintaining respectful relationships is to repair trust by “making apologies, providing individual and collective repartitions and following through with concrete actions that demonstrate real societal change”.

The various players in the transitional justice spaces in Sri Lanka are all too well aware that reconciliation is only possible through multiple strategies making use of the various mechanisms like reparations, reconciliation and adjudicatory processes. It is undoubtedly clear that it is not enough to simply prosecute the perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Rather we need to include reparations, apologies and other truth seeking mechanisms as well to render justice.

What is missing from these debates about transitional justice in Sri Lanka is the reconceptualisation of reconciliation as a continuous process of (re-)building relationships. Much more importantly, the transitional justice conversation is not the impetus to bring about meaningful systemic change to the issues that caused the civil war in the first place in Sri Lanka.

Real societal change is only possible through equal access to public goods and services without discrimination. We know from history that discrimination is built into the very laws that govern us. To bring about societal change, we need human rights for all Sri Lankans, equal participation in the democratic process, access to public institutions, and broader redistribution of wealth in the North, East and South of Sri Lanka. This is the only way to move forward from the grave injustices of the past.

BTF welcomes the statement by UN High Commissioner on Sri Lanka

Jul 05, 2016

British Tamils Forum welcomes the statement by Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, on the situation on Sri Lanka.

The oral update shows the High Commissioner’s insight into the Sri Lankan state’s tokenism’s and lack of progress in delivering justice to the Tamil victims of genocide. The statement stresses the need for institutionalised change beyond token gestures designed to fool the international community.

The statement identifies that the military is in control in the north and east and is engaged in commercial activities including farming and tourism. These faming activities are carried out using land taken away from Tamil farmers. With regards to returning the land belonging to the Tamil people, the oral update states that “little progress has been reported and civilian leaders and officials seem to be struggling to secure co-operation from the military”. These are clear indicators of continuing military occupation of the Tamil homeland and the North and East of the island. The Sri Lankan military is being used to build Buddhist temples across the length and breadth of the Tamil homeland for the sole purpose of destroying the cultural landscape of the Tamil Homeland. Hindu temples, Christian churches and Muslim Mosques where Tamil speaking people worship are being destroyed and desecrated by the military for the construction of Buddhist temples in areas where there are no Buddhists. While this cultural genocide continues in the North and East the high commissioner has expressed concerns at the “continued aggressive campaigns in social media and other forms (such as Sinhale sticker campaign)” targeting non-Buddhists in the south.

On the issue of the investigation into the conduct of the genocidal war against the Tamil people, the high commissioner has reiterated the importance of international participation in the judicial mechanism and has denounced the pronouncements made by the Sri lankan political leadership reneging on this issue.

The High Commissioner has also clearly identified the threat faced by victims of crimes and witnesses in the hands of the Sri Lankan military establishment. He also rightly recognises that even those participating in a consultation process for a justice mechanism face harassment and intimidation. The High Commissioner also “emphasizes the need to include the voices of victims abroad and encourages further outreach in the diaspora”.

As the Diaspora organisation the British Tamils Forum welcomes the oral update by the High Commissioner and hope that the Sri Lankan state will heed his call.

Bonds; Now It’s All Greek To Me

By Mahesh Senanayake –July 5, 2016

Mahesh Senanayake

“It’s all Greek to me” is a famous English idiom which means “difficult or beyond understanding” and it has a greater degree of relevance in the current context of the national debate on the issuance of Treasury Bonds by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka of which one of the responsibilities is to, in simple language, find “money” for the government which in most cases in the form of “debts “. Treasury bond is one such tool used by the central bank for borrowing purposes which is now known to the most of the average Sri Lankan due to the topic being discussed at national level politics. However, the said topic failed to grab the public attention during the past decade except on one occasion where the story was all water under the bridge by the time the Sri Lankan citizen had had the privilege to know what had happened to the public funds as the rulers of at the time was smart enough to conceal the story and hoodwink the public who immersed in patriotism. Thus, we did not know what the bond was meant for and how the personal “bonds” of the people who ran the show marred the original script of “running the country” presented in elections manifestos which ranged from liberating the country from the clutches of terrorism and from the economic downfall and went on to promise unplugging the economy from the debt trap. Here begins the story of “It’s all Greek to me…”

The latest story related to the bonds occurred in March 2015 with the advent of the yahapalana government with an accusation hurled by the members of the joint opposition towards the government that they had used the issuance of bonds to raise funds required to pay the bills for the cost incurred at the presidential elections and to get ready for the forthcoming general elections. The critics were smart enough to write a script that could unfold a severe blow to the newly appointed rulers, so that they could discredit the new rulers without accurate facts in hand. The concocted story presented a bleak picture of how the “precious” government security known as Treasury bonds were issued giving undue advantage to a primary dealer who was connected to the government and the governor of the central bank. They started calling it a “bond scam” and gave birth to the first part of “it’s all Greek to me”

Hither, the new Governor of the Central Bank appointed by the yahapalanaya government took immediate steps to strictly follow a transparent method in issuance of bonds through a public auction system. In contrast, his predecessor adopted a system which is called private /direct placement where the transaction took place between two parties which occurred quite unnoticed with no due scrutiny. The preference for private placement by the previous rulers is evident in the number of occasions wherein the bonds were issued through private placements and auctions which stands 80 % in favor of the former mode. The auction system is believed and accepted as the most transparent mode in contrast to the private placements. Yet, some critics who were silent contributors to the corrupt Central Bank practices, attempt to create public opinion that private placement is the best practice or else not a bad practice and, go on saying that corruption is prevalent in the auction system.

Read More

Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy excellent fit for the job

By Rathindra Kuruwita-2016-07-05

Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy was appointed as the Governor of the Central Bank on Saturday. A number of my friends, who campaigned for the removal of former Governor Arjuna Mahendran, have convinced themselves, and are now trying to convince others, that the new appointment was a victory of President Maithripala Sirisena.

According to their narrative, President Maithripala Sirisena realizing that the Central Bank staff had divided themselves into two camps, one supporting Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, the most senior CB Deputy Governor and his (the President's) favourite and P. Samarasiri, a loyalist of Mahendran and that appointing either Weerasinghe or Charitha Ratwatte, nominated by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe would lead to a serious political crisis, decided to appoint Coomaraswamy, who is well respected and is close to Wickremesinghe.
However, it is a well-known fact that the President was adamant that Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe should have been appointed as the Governor of the Central Bank. It was Weerasinghe whom he had in mind when he Tweeted that he would appoint a new Governor, last Wednesday (29). The President's decision was well known to the ministers and that is why State Minister of Finance Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena stated, speaking at the Cabinet press briefing on the same day, said that someone 'experienced' will be appointed; Nandalal Weerasinghe is the most senior Deputy Governor. The President declined to appoint the Premier's nominee for the post of CBSL Governor, Charitha Ratwatte, twice and until Friday afternoon; a number of close associates of the President told me that the President will definitely appoint Weerasinghe. However, by late night they told me that Coomaraswamy would be appointed and insisted that it was a victory for the President as Ranil Wickremesinghe would be 'compelled' to accept him given how closely Coomaraswamy has worked with the Prime Minister. And the Prime Minister did not contest Coomaraswamy's nomination as he had done regarding Weerasinghe. Indeed, as I wrote in my article about Coomaraswamy's appointment on Sunday, the Prime Minister would be quite happy with Coomaraswamy's appointment.

Coomaraswamy and Ranil: peas in a pod
Coomaraswamy was functioning as an advisor to the Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade under Malik Samarawickrema, and was also appointed last week to a committee tasked to prepare a report on improving economic relations with the rest of Asia. Among the members of the above mentioned committee are Charitha Ratwatte, who Wickremesinghe insisted must replace Mahendran, R. Paskaralingam, one of PM's close allies and Arjuna Mahendran. Coomaraswamy also was involved in the Economic and Technological Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) with India, and is a firm believer that such an agreement would benefit Sri Lanka. Coomaraswamy is also a neoliberal economist who believes in de-regularization of capital markets and 'free trade'.

Given that the UNFGG administration, at least the UNPers in it, are adamant in pushing a trade agreement, that can be described as missionary or even sinister, with India, with a zeal and that it will have to impose a number of unpopular policies to adhere to conditions insisted by the IMF to grant us assistance in the coming years, Coomaraswamy would be an ideal Governor for the UNP. Any trade agreement with India would be controversial and unpopular as many fail to see any benefit Sri Lanka can gain with a second level Asian power that has a surplus of labour. The same is true with conditions imposed by the IMF.

Discipline and punish
It has been reported that exasperated by Prime Minister's insistence on appointing Charitha Ratwatte, the President has told Minister Malik Samarawickrema to ask the Prime Minister 'not to act as a child on this matter'. The childish behaviour referred to by the President is the tantrum thrown by Wickremesinghe after the events that transpired at the Central Bank on Wednesday (29.) After announcing that he will appoint a new Governor the President told his close allies that he will visit the Central Bank in the evening, talk to the Deputy Governors and appoint Nandalal Weerasinghe as the next Governor. He had not invited the Prime Minister to accompany him but after hearing of the President's decision, Wickremesinghe followed the President to the Central Bank and prevented the appointment of Weerasinghe. He also insisted that one of his protégées should be appointed as the Governor. And ultimately the President caved in and did not appoint Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, his pick from the beginning. And unlike him, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe was not banking on one candidate; he just wanted the Governor to be one of his protégés. And what is Coomaraswamy, if not a protégé of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe?

In June 2015, President Maithripala Sirisena dissolved Parliament to save his ally, Ranil Wickremesinghe, from embarrassment after the COPE led by D.E.W. Gunasekara threatened to put before Parliament a tier report on the first Treasury Bond scandal. By doing so Sirisena sacrificed a golden opportunity to pass 20A on electoral reforms which was another of his pet projects. And last year we have seen him let Wickremesinghe have his way over and over again. So using his own lingo, he has repeatedly given in to the tantrums of a naughty child, who has become increasingly making bigger demands.

Making the President change his mind about his pick as the CBSL Governor and ensuring the appointment of Coomaraswamy, who has similar economic and political opinions, was a victory for the Prime Minister. Those in the Pro-Sirisena camp can attempt to shape the narrative, so that it would look a victory for the President, but once again that doesn't change the fact that Wickremesinghe came out on top in this exchange.

Already the President has very little say in how the Sri Lankan economy is managed. Our economic policy is formulated and implemented by the Prime Minister and his associates, Malik Samarawickrama, R. Paskaralingam and Charitha Ratwatte. Coomaraswamy who shares their economic and political vision, minus the embarrassing scandals, is an excellent fit to this club.
Rathindra can be contacted via rathindra984@gmail.com

‘Macro economic variables militating against Sri Lanka’s stock market growth’

By Hiran H.Senewiratne-July 5, 2016, 6:58 pm 

Sri Lanka's macro economic variables are not favorable to the country's stock market development. Current high interest rates and balance of payment issues, for instance, are getting in the way, Colombo Stock Exchange chairman Vajira Kulatilaka said.

"At present the CSE is not performing well owing to world market conditions, interest rate fluctuations and the balance of payment crisis, where exports/imports are concerned. Present market conditions are not conducive to a better performance by the local stock market, Kulatilaka explained to The Island Financial Review.

He said that the appointment of new Central Bank Governor Dr Indrajith Coomaraswamy is an excellent positive move to build local business confidence.

The CSE chairman also said that due to these external reasons foreign investors are exiting the market but it will come to a stable position soon.

"Th CSE is at a highly volatile stage because business confidence is not building up fast due to past bad experiences and the manipulation of the market by a few people, Professor of Economics, University of Colombo Dr. Sirimal Abeyratne said.

There are two types of significant entities in the stock market: these are long term investors and speculators. "Speculators are a community which makes a short term profit out of making speculations on the economy while the investors pump in money to the stock market. But the latter have lost faith in the local stock market, Abeyratne said.

He said the investor part is currently the weaker out of the two entities but they are the ones that keep the flow of currency within the stock market as well. Now, with the Fitch ratings aspect coming into play, the investors will decide on withdrawing their interests and companies will also reduce the number of shares that they disperse on the Colombo stock market.

He said that investors in the bond market will have a very hard time in the days to come as they will be directly affected by the gravity of the situation. With the interest rates going up, the demand for bonds will increase.

Abeyratne believes that this will set the tone for a different outcome which will drive investors out of the stock market and ultimately diminish investor confidence.

Providing insight to the upcoming IMF engagements, Dr. Abeyratne said that "the IMF loan will provide a short term solution for a long term problem." Elaborating on his remark he said that the country has been following the same path since the 2009 crisis and that this government too has decided to ‘apply a plaster’ over the bleeding wound.

According to Abeyratne, the IMF loan will keep the country afloat for a period of three-four months, at which point, the country will have to start paying off that as well. Proposing a solution to the matter, he said that the country should have approached the issue with caution and only after implementing proper policy reforms.

Sri Lanka being a small country, any powerful individual or the government itself is able to manipulate the stock market, he said.

"Since the Sri Lankan stock market is the smallest in the region, even smaller than that in Singapore, fluctuations of this magnitude will create immediate repercussions on the economy. Such repercussions will have a huge impact on the stock market, he added.