SRI LANKA: 14 year old rape victim reveals that a woman constable beat her at the police station

Place of incident: Haputale Police Division-July 14, 2016

Dear Friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information revealed by the young victim herself, which we wish to bring to your notice. On the 7th of July when she went to the Haputale Police station, a police woman constable, had beaten the young girl, and told her that when she is taken to the judicial medical officer, not to reveal that she had been raped by the bus driver. She had been beaten with a cane several times on her waistline and threatened her not to tell her story to the doctor – the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO). Despite such threats and being beaten by the police woman constable the young girl has revealed detailed information about her ordeal to the JMO of everything that had taken place during the abduction and rape. 

The conduct of the woman police constable at the Haputhale police station needs to be thoroughly investigated and she should be dealt with for the attempted sabotage of justice.

UPDATED INFORMATION:

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information revealed by the young victim herself, which we wish to bring to your notice.

On the 7th of July when she went to the Haputale Police station, a police woman constable, had beaten the young girl, and told her that when she is taken to the judicial medical officer, not to reveal that she had been raped by the bus driver.

She had been beaten with a cane several times on her waistline and threatened her not to tell her story to the doctor – the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO). Despite such threats and being beaten by the police woman constable the young girl has revealed detailed information about her ordeal to the JMO of everything that had taken place during the abduction and rape. She has explained to the JMO that she had been raped twice on the same day by the bus driver and that she was threatened by the woman police constable not to reveal her ordeal to anyone, threatening that if she reveals anything “her father and mother and everybody in the family will be killed”.

The conduct of the woman police constable at the Haputhale police station needs to be thoroughly investigated and she should be dealt with for the attempted sabotage of justice.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The a 14-year-old girl was abducted and raped by her school bus driver on 19th June 2016, she was later threatened by the police to keep quiet saying that her parents and other family members would be killed. Despite the family members filing a complaint with the Haputale Police Station, the case has not been investigated. The alleged suspect, who belongs to a wealthy family, was simply released, without him being produced before a Magistrate. The victim’s family says that as they belong to an ethnic and religious minority in the region, the police have not given them attention in their quest for justice. The case illustrates the collapse of the rule of law in the country.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

We urge you once again to request the Sri Lankan authorities to investigate and take prompt action regarding the abduction, rape and the attempted sabotage of justice by woman constable at the Haputhlae police station

To support this case, please click here: 

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear ………………..,

SRI LANKA: 14 year old rape victim reveals that a woman constable beat her at the police station

Name of Victim: Daughter of Ms. Violet Rose of Thotugala Estate, Haputale, Badulla District, Uva Province.
Alleged perpetrators: Officers - woman constable attached to the Haputale Police Station
Date of incident: 7 July 2016
Place of incident: Haputale Police Division

Dear Friends,

I have received updated information which have been revealed by the young victim herself about the incident of her rape by a bus driver in Haputhale, Sri Lanka.

On the 7th of July when she went to the Haputale Police station, a police woman constable, had beaten the young girl, and told her that when she is taken to the judicial medical officer, not to reveal that she had been raped by the bus driver.

She had been beaten with a cane several times on her waistline and threatened her not to tell her story to the doctor – the Judicial Medical Officer (JM0). Despite such threats and being beaten by the police woman constable the young girl has revealed detailed information about her ordeal to the JMO of everything that had taken place during the abduction and rape. She has explained to the JMO that she had been raped twice on the same day by the bus driver and that she was threatened by the woman police constable not to reveal her ordeal to anyone, threatening that if she reveals anything “her father and mother and everybody in the family will be killed”.

The conduct of the woman police constable at the Haputhale police station needs to be thoroughly investigated and she should be dealt with for the attempted sabotage of justice.

The a 14-year-old girl was abducted and raped by her school bus driver on 19th June 2016, she was later threatened by the police to keep quiet saying that her parents and other family members would be killed. Despite the family members filing a complaint with the Haputale Police Station, the case has not been investigated. The alleged suspect, who belongs to a wealthy family, was simply released, without him being produced before a Magistrate. The victim’s family says that as they belong to an ethnic and religious minority in the region, the police have not given them attention in their quest for justice.

I therefore, your good offices, once again to immediately intervene in calling and ensuring that a thorough investigation is conducted and that prompt action is taken regarding the abduction, rape and the attempted sabotage of justice by woman constable at the Haputhlae police station.

I look forward to your prompt action in this matter.

Yours Sincerely,

……………….

PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Mr. Pujith Jayasundara
Inspector General of Police
New Secretariat
Colombo 1
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 440440 / 327877
E-mail: igp@police.lk

2. Mr. Jayantha Jayasooriya PC
Attorney General
Attorney General's Department
Colombo 12
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 436421
E-mail: ag@attorneygeneral.gov.lk

3. Secretary
National Police Commission
3rd Floor, Rotunda Towers
109 Galle Road
Colombo 03
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 395310
Fax: +94 11 2 395867
E-mail: npcgen@sltnet.lk or polcom@sltnet.lk

4. Secretary
Human Rights Commission
No. 36, Kynsey Road
Colombo 8
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 694 925 / 673 806
Fax: +94 11 2 694 924 / 696 470
E-mail: sechrc@sltnet.lk

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)

Namal’ s arrest is political revenge say stupid politicos ;Vasantha pulverises their stupid arguments (Video)

(Lanka-e-News -13.July.2016, 11.30PM) In their acute desperation and dementia driven by inordinate power greed , the crooked and corrupt Rajapakses are offering all kinds of outlandish and bizarre explanations in connection with the  illicit collection of many millions of rupees as commission/ extortion on the sale of precious lands of the motherland to foreigners by Namal Rajapakse M.P. which led to his arrest and incarceration (remand custody) . Their explanation in defense of Namal’s colossal racket is , the complaint was made not by the relevant party but by Vasantha Samarasinghe belonging to another political party.

Their contention is ,if a crook  is accused of collecting commission / extortion , it is only the one who paid , or the one who received  shall make the complaint , and none other. This stupid and utterly baseless argument alone is adequate to prove beyond doubt that both the Machiavellian father Mahinda and the crooked son are truly  practicing  liars cum black coated crooks though they wear the professional black coats.

If Namal had received this huge sum of money of Rs. 70 million  from Krrish Co. for the Rugby tournament as he claims , then those monies should have been deposited  in the name of the Rugby cub , and not in the name of a private businessman , namely Nimal Perera. The huge question mark therefore is , then why were those monies credited to the latter’s account.?

 Perhaps Namal who knows he is more skilled in  cheating  and lying  and less skilled as a lawyer (synthetic) had  thought he can using his cheating and lying skills  circumvent  the  laws and hoodwink  the courts when he resorted to this fraud. Sadly , that hope against hope he nursed did not bear fruits for the Rajapakses this time – trying to play  the same  traitorous stroke with a crooked bat once too often .  Namal who aimed at a ‘glorious’ century was out for an inglorious  ‘duck,’   only to end  up within the four walls of the prison where he can now find enough worms to feed his duck .

It is hoped at least by now the Rajapakses (three members have already tasted prison life after cheating on public funds and continuing to  do so forever after getting the taste of it ) have realized selling the motherland  literally ( not to mention metaphorically)  is high treason committed against the people. The motherland is not their dowry property to do what they want to suit their whims and fancies.

Father and son who flock together to cheat the country together , despite being lawyers are apparently ignorant of the basic legal principle  that every citizen has a right  to prevent a crime from taking place , and that is good citizenship . It is unfortunate this father –son  duo  is unaware of this basic law despite being lawyers is because they have been practicing not the law but deception on their countrymen. In short , if a bystander noticing an individual trying to stab and murder another , intervenes to prevent the crime , and say the criminal dies at the hands of the bystander , the latter is not liable   to murder charges according to law. That immunity  is based on the right every citizen has to prevent a crime from being committed. 

Hence , Vasantha Samarasinghe by making the complaint against Namal has only exercised that right as a law abiding citizen by exposing a fraudster. Vasantha need  not be a convener of the anti corruption organization to act in the way he did, as a citizen with civic responsibilities, he still has that right.

Meanwhile Dinesh Gunawardena the politician well noted for his senile decay and a rare politico who has  outlived his utility on earth  before the earth could consume him , after visiting Namal in prison echoed the same stupid argument of the lying and cheating father and son hereinbefore mentioned.

Vasantha Samarasinghe  responding to them  said , when Vasantha and others  were launching   their   anti corruption voice , the FCID was not even in existence. The disaster that befell these Rajapakse crooks is  similar to the fate suffered by the cat that swallowed the ‘kumbala’ fish and got stuck in the throat . These Rajapakses are stuck inescapably in their own nets, he added.

The video footage of the idiotic  utterances of Dinesh suffering from acute senile decay , and the statement made by Vasantha Samarasinghe can be viewed hereunder 

---------------------------
by     (2016-07-13 22:52:42)

Two people set trap to kill wild animals arrested

- Jul 14, 2016

The Hambantota wildlife officers were able to arrest two people who were setting a trap to catch and kill wild animals for meat at the Gannoruwa area in Hambantota today 14th.

Today during a raid they were able to arrest two people who were setting a trap to kill wild animals. Due to the dry weather condition prevailing in Hambatota area, many animals come near the ponds to drink water and the racketeers set traps and catch animals for meat. Further the wildlife officers has able to find that the racketeers mix poison to the water to kill the animals.
 
The suspects caught would be produced before the Hambantota courts.

Pilots Guild Accuses SriLankan Airlines Chairman And Directors Of Being Selfish And Incompetent

July 15, 2016

SriLankan Airlines Chairman Ajit Dias is contemplating resigning from his post after the Airline Pilots Guild of Sri Lanka accused him and the airline’s Board of Directors of being selfish, incompetent and not setting a better example towards uplifting the cash strapped airline.

Capt. Renuke Senanayake

In a harshly worded email sent by Capt. Renuke Senanayake the President of the Airline Pilots Guild of Sri Lanka, Chairman Ajit Dias and the Board of Directors of the airline were reminded that they were political stooges and merely availing themselves of the airline’s privileges.

The provocative email was sent in by Capt. Senanayake after the airlines’ senior management changed its policy for the usage of the Business Class Lounge and its facilities accorded to airline employees who are entitled to Business Class staff travel privileges both locally and overseas.

However despite taking away these privileges from those entitled, the Chairman and the Board of Directors retained the same privileges for themselves, their wives and their other dependents.

This policy change made on the 1st of July 2016 was never communicated to the members of the ALPGSL until the 11th of July 2016. This was after an uninformed pilot and his travelling family was recently made to feel embarrassed, when they were denied access to the Business Class Lounge in Colombo.

A member of the APGSL speaking to Colombo Telegraph on condition of anonymity as he is barred from speaking to the media said “If the Chairman and the Board of Directors are so concerned of reducing cost, then they should lead by example. ‘Who the bloody hell are they? They are nothing but political clowns using the national carrier as their own private circus. The Chairman Dias, CEO Capt. Suren Ratwatte and Chief Commercial Officer Siva Ramachandran recently spent millions on a tamasha booking the hospitality box in London to witness a cricket match at Lords. They have no love for this airline. It’s only about themselves. Tomorrow they will be gone, but we still remain”.

Earlier the APGSL even threatened to pull off a strike seeking the resignation of CEO Capt. Suren Ratwatte after he abused pilots at a meeting using uncouth language and also threatened to expose a senior pilot of a past misdemeanor. The ALPGSL however subsequently withdrew their threat after CEO Capt. Ratwatte verbally apologized to the members of the ALPGSL.

Mr. Ajith Dias,
Chairman,
SriLankan Airlines.

Dear Sir,

It is with a sense of profound disappointment that we received your communication dated 30th June 2016, with regards to the formulation of a new policy on the use of the Business Class Lounge.

The fact that we are entitled for Business Class travel as per Industry norms, but not for the lounge facility defies any rational thinking, especially since we have been entitled to this privilege for decades; including the period when we were under Emirates management. Coincidentally, it has been stated by numerous Government Officials that this period had been a profitable one, despite many internal and external controversies and disputes. If cost cutting at our debt ridden Airline was the primary objective of this policy, it is confounding that SriLankan Airlines sponsored a VIP hospitality suite at Lords for a few select individuals, during the recently concluded Sri Lanka Cricket tour of England. In addition, SriLankan Airlines sponsorship of Everest expeditions and mountain bike races have left many within the Airline as well as the general public, questioning the commercial logic of extravagant spending such as this and resulting gains, if any.

Read More

Four held for trying to smuggle heroin to Sri 

Lanka



July 14, 2016

 Four persons, including three Sri Lankan nationals, were arrested at Ramanathapuram Railway station near Rameswaram today for allegedly attempting to smuggle heroin weighing 2 kgs to Sri Lanka, police said. 

 Based on a tip-off, the Q Branch police rushed to Ramanthapuram Railway Station and saw Kannan (29) of Ramanthapuram, Yogeswaran (50), Mohammed Kansoor (45) and Mohammed Niroz (55) from Sri Lanka, acting suspiciously, police said. 

When the officials conducted a check, the suspects were found to be carrying a bag containing 2 kgs of adulterated heroin meant for sale. 

The accused had plotted to transport it to Sri Lanka by train, they added. The arrested are being interrogated by officials of Narcotics Intelligence Bureau.  Source: PTI -

Dead body of an infant recovered from a septic tank

Jul 14, 2016

On a Magistrate court order a new born baby’s body  dumped had been recovered from a septic tank today afternoon the 14th instant.

The incident is reported from Peradeniya Kosginna area.The mother of the child had been treated for hypertension at the Peradeniya teaching hospital. During her investigations it had been revealed that she had given birth to a child.

 

The hospital Police post had informed the Peradeniya Police.The authorities of the Peradeniya had arrested her for the offence for questioning.

 

The mother had confessed to the Police personnel that she had given birth to the child on the 12th instant.She had quipped that the inmates at home had not known that she had been pregnant. She had told that the stomach had bloated owing to gastritis. The child still born had died on birth she had conveyed to the Police. Hence she had added that she had thrown the dead child into the septic tank.

 

Accordingly when produced before Kandy Magistrates courts the acting Magistrate Mahinda Liyanage had ordered the body to be exhumed.

 

While the mother was been treated at the Peradeniya teaching hospital the police are conducting investigations into the incident.

Lankan arrested with Rs.2.9 M gold slabs


2016-07-14

A 48-year-old Sri Lankan man has been arrested and six gold slabs worth Rs.2.9 million seized, at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) last night, Deputy Customs Director Parakrama Basnayake said.

He said the man was arrested by Customs officers while trying to smuggle the gold to Mumbai, India. 

The gold slabs were found concealed inside his slippers, which were designed for the purpose. They were packed inside his slipper soles and wrapped in carbon paper. Each sole contained three gold slabs. 

Mr. Basnayake said the gold slabs weighed 600g. Further investigations are being conducted by Customs Central Investigation Directorate.

 The gold slabs were confiscated and a penalty of Rs.100,000 was imposed on the suspect. 

The customs investigations were carried out by the Assistant Customs Superintendents L.G. L. Sisira Kumara, K.A.R. Kuruppu, M.S.P. Pinthu, M.K. Rashmika Kumara and S.W.K. Habaraduwa. (Chaturanga Pradeep and T.K.G. Kapila)

Drawing Back the Curtain on Brazil’s Rotten Political System

Brasília’s corrupt power brokers have finally been exposed. Will that be enough to set the government straight?

BY ALEX CUADROS-JULY 14, 2016

Few would dispute the claim that Eduardo Cunha embodies the worst of Brazilian politics. The longtime congressman from Rio de Janeiro stands accused of taking tens of millions in bribes, including an alleged $12 million from an investment bank, and laundering the ill-gotten gains through an evangelical megachurch. He is also accused of taking millions of dollars in bribes to secure contracts with the state oil company, Petrobras, in a corruption scandal that has penetrated to the very highest levels of the country’s government: The Petrobras scandal was one of the main rallying cries of those demanding President Dilma Rousseff’s ouster.

On July 7, Cunha stepped down from his role as speaker of the lower house of Congress, just two months after he and then-Vice President Michel Temer joined forces to orchestrate the impeachment of Rousseff, making Temer acting president. With Cunha’s resignation, the depths of hypocrisy and scandal that engulfed Brazil’s government have finally come full circle.

But even in the face of a mountain of evidence that he took bribes, Cunha has his seat in Congress and remains one of the most powerful people in Brasília. In South America’s largest country, that’s politics as usual. His continuing influence is derived in part from the prospect that he could enter into a plea bargain, implicating the dozens of politicians whose campaigns he allegedly financed. This entrenched, high-level code of mutually assured silence, enforced by a network of threats that keeps all parties in line, is known locally as rabo preso, literally “tied tail,” which conjures an image of entangled rats.

Cunha is merely the latest Petrobras casualty. There are so many tails in Brazil’s rabo preso that few major political figures remain untainted by charges of wrongdoing. Among those suspected to have taken kickbacks from the scheme known as the petrolão, or “big oil,” are two former presidents and the head of the Senate, among many others. In a plea bargain revealed on June 15, a former oil official testified that Temer had asked him to funnel money from public coffers into an ally’s mayoral campaign in 2012. Rousseff, who is suspended from office while she awaits her impeachment trial in the Senate, has always clung to an image of personal upstandingness. But now, two former allies are saying that in 2014 she requested an off-the-books campaign donation. (Temer and Rousseff both deny the allegations against them.)

These scandals have revealed the underside of Brazil’s political system, long hidden by a weak judiciary and a docile press. Brazilians never had many illusions about the ethics of their leaders, but thanks to the crusading task force leading the investigation known as Lava-Jato, or Carwash, they are finally seeing just how the gears are greased. The probe started with Rousseff’s left-leaning Workers’ Party, in power since 2003, and soon ensnared much of the old establishment, including Temer’s Brazilian Democratic Movement Party.

With top politicians and executives facing real penalties on a scale never before seen in this country, Carwash represents a major institutional advance. The problem is that the legislative branch hasn’t proceeded at the same pace — a disconnect at the heart of Brazil’s unending political chaos.

“Brazil has a political system that has been cartelized,” says Greg Michener, a political scientist at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janeiro. “There’s a huge recruitment dilemma. The sense here is that the political elite is corrupt, so only the corrupt go into politics.” Even if they wanted to, it’s hard for potential reformers to break in. The biggest obstacle is that elections are expensive. In 2014, campaigns for president and Congress cost more than $2 billion, and that’s only what candidates declared officially. The cost owes partly to Brazil’s vast size and partly to a system in which candidates must compete state-by-state with other members of their own party — plus candidates from more than three dozen other parties. The most recent addition is the Corinthians Party, established in May by a São Paulo businessman and named after a popular soccer team.

Once politicians make it through this electoral gantlet, those who hope to change the system face isolation from their fellows in Congress. After 43-year-old Senator José Reguffe decided to forgo privileges such as free plane tickets and two extra months’ salary in an attempt to tone down congressional extravagance, his colleagues reportedly called him a“demagogue” and “Don Quixote.”

The high cost of elections is also an incentive for corruption. With so many parties lacking a semblance of coherent ideology, presidents form coalitions largely through patronage, by delivering ministries or state companies to lawmakers who milk the budgets for kickbacks. In recent plea-bargain testimony, a former congressman named Pedro Corrêa described a life in politics, stretching back to 1978, that more closely resembled a career in for-profit enterprise than one in public service. The petrolão, which siphoned off money from Petrobras, was just the latest slush fund to benefit Corrêa and his cohorts.

Brazil’s favor-based political system helps to explain why Temer, having once signaled he would appoint a cabinet of meritorious technocrats, brought on the sons of old oligarchies and congressmen implicated in corruption and continues to make deals with Cunha. Hoping to stanch a crippling recession, he appointed qualified officials only for economic posts. But he may have overestimated the willingness of the press, which had broadly supported Rousseff’s impeachment, to look the other way for governability’s sake. Thanks to fresh Lava-Jato revelations, three of Temer’s ministers were forced to step down during his first five weeks as acting president.

These revelations indicate that Temer and his allies had no intention of reforming the system that produced them. On the contrary, in a secretly recorded conversation leaked to the press, one of the ministers who stepped down, Romero Jucá, suggested that removing Rousseff was the first step toward a grand bargain that would allow them to put a halt to Carwash and maintain the status quo. Speaking privately with the same oil official who would implicate Temer in soliciting illicit campaign funds, Jucá expressed horror at the prosecutors who want to “put an end to the political class … to construct a new caste, one that’s pure.”

For many on the left, this secret scheming proves that Rousseff’s removal is a literal coup — like the one carried out by the military in 1964, only dressed up in legalistic cloth. At the very least, it does seem clear that many who voted for impeachment cared less about saving Brazil from corruption or economic crisis than about saving their own skins. The deeper problem, though, is that Brazil’s political system has rarely ever hinged on democratic motives. The Workers’ Party itself, to get its projects through Congress, used the petrolão to win over many of the same lawmakers who later voted for impeachment. Further complicating the narrative of a coup, Jucá’s plan for a grand bargain hinted at protecting Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, popularly known as Lula, Rousseff’s predecessor and political mentor. Politician Luciana Genro, one of the minority on the left to diverge from the Workers’ Party line, described the fight for impeachment by tweeting, “The dispute between Lula and Temer was to see who could convince politicians about which power bloc had more power to halt Lava-Jato.”

“I think purging corruption is a great thing, it’s just not a solution,” Michener says. How then will Brazil ever change? Rousseff has called for fresh elections, and given Temer’s sharp turn to the right since taking over the government, this would give Brazilians a much-needed chance to weigh in on the future of their country. But it would offer few options from outside this broken system. Among those leading polls are Lula and Rousseff’s main opponent in the 2014 election, Aécio Neves, both of whom are under investigation in Lava-Jato. Even Marina Silva, a self-branded outsider who came in third place in 2014, has recently been accused of receiving undeclared campaign donations (a charge she likewise denies). Only Jair Bolsonaro, a former soldier and congressman with a radically conservative platform, is free of corruption allegations. He does, though, face charges of inciting sexual assault after he declared that he wouldn’t rape a fellow member of Congress because she didn’t “deserve it.”

With so few appealing alternatives, it comes as no surprise that many Brazilians have given up on politicians altogether. Even those who marched against Rousseff didn’t show much love for her opposition. One survey revealed that nine out of 10 working-class Brazilians couldn’t name anyone to lead the country out of its crisis — with the few who felt able to answer most commonly naming Pope Francis. And yet, some are optimistic about Brazil’s future.

The country’s prosecutors, investigators, and judges are far from perfect, sometimes testing the bounds of due process in their zeal to incriminate their targets. But Maurício Santoro, a political scientist at Rio de Janeiro State University, calls their efforts “more important than those of the majority of lawmakers in terms of impacting the political system.” This goes beyond the purge currently under way. In the mass protests that have erupted periodically over the past few years, one message unites the disparate groups that have taken part: dissatisfaction with the establishment. While this partly reflects the popular discredit of politicians, it may also be taken as a sign of promise. Key legislation on plea bargains, which has allowed Lava-Jato to advance as it has, emerged after mass protests in June 2013. More recently, prosecutors have proposed a package of reforms known as the Ten Measures, which would speed up convictions for corrupt lawmakers. And changing the incentives for politicians could change the popular idea of what to expect from the political system, albeit gradually.

“What we’re seeing is a clash between the values and expectations of different segments of Brazilian society,” Santoro says. “Brazil is not a banana republic. At some point, these more modern and dynamic segments are going to win more representation.” It just isn’t going to happen overnight, as the transition from Rousseff to Temer makes clear. If a new political culture is to emerge, the birth pangs may just be beginning.

Photo credit: VICTOR MORIYAMA/Getty Images

Red Cross cuts family visits to Palestinian prisoners

Relatives of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons hold a sit-in at the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the West Bank city of Ramallah, March 2015.Shadi HatemAPA images

Clare Maxwell-11 July 2016

Naimeh Shamlawi missed her youngest son more than ever during Ramadan, which concluded earlier this month.

Ali, 19, has spent the last three years in Israeli military detention on attempted murder charges. Israeli prosecutors claim that he and four friends threw rocks at an Israeli settler’s car, causing a crash that resulted in the death of a young Israeli girl.

Though they took a plea deal, Ali and his friends, known as the Hares Boys, have maintained their innocence throughout their trial and incarceration.

The evidence against them, they say, was based on “confessions” extracted under torture. But that’s small comfort to their mothers who say they felt the loss acutely every time the rest of the family gathered to break the Ramadan fast.

Naimeh, who has been permitted see her son only twice a month, is determined to spend every moment she can with him even though it means a six- or seven-hour journey for a 45-minute visit.

“The last time I saw my son, he told me not to come during Ramadan, because the journey would be too difficult while I am fasting,” Naimeh recalled. “But how can I leave him, especially now?”

Unfortunately for the Shamlawis, as well as thousands of other Palestinian families who have loved ones in Israeli military prisons — according to Addameer, a prisoner advocacy group, as of May 2016 there were a total of 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli detention — the opportunities to visit are about to be drastically reduced.

Halving visiting time

In late May, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced that it was reducing coordinated visits between adult male Palestinian prisoners and their families from the West Bank by 50 percent, starting in July.

Families of prisoners from Gaza are exempted.

The announcement has worsened already fraught relations between Palestinian prisoner advocacy groups and the ICRC, but the latter shows no sign of relenting.

The rationale, according to Nadia Dibsy, a public relations officer with the ICRC in Jerusalem, is due to a decrease in the number of families showing up for scheduled visits. Based on the number of those participating in the program, the ICRC does not have the budget or personnel necessary to support twice-monthly visits, she said.

“Following an in-depth assessment, the ICRC decided independently that the second visit per month that it is currently facilitating will continue to be provided only for minors and female detainees.

“This decision is based on the fact that in the last few years, we have noted a clear decrease in the number of people showing up for these visits. This concern was communicated repeatedly in the last years to the families, the detainees and the authorities.”

Naimeh Shamlawi relies on coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit her son Ali in Israeli prison.

 Clare Maxwell

Naimeh and her family, however, rely on the ICRC to help with travel permit applications, coordination with the Israel Prison Service, and buses to take families from the West Bank into Israel, which they are restricted from entering without a permit, and on to faraway prisons such as the Ramon prison in the Naqab desert where Ali is currently being held.

Without the buses, the cost of traveling to Ramon could cost approximately $250 per visit, according to the family. Obtaining the necessary permit to cross into Israel in the first place becomes much more difficult without ICRC support.

The ICRC has worked with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention — most of whom are convicted for political reasons — since 1948. The prison visit program started in 1968 and has remained one of its most important human rights programs in Israel and the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The organization’s role there is governed by the Fourth Geneva Convention, which stipulates that it is illegal for an occupying power like Israel to transport prisoners out of occupied territory such as the West Bank.

Yet out of 19 Israeli detention centers that hold Palestinian prisoners, just one is located within the West Bank. Ensuring prisoners incarcerated in Israel have the same visitation rights they would enjoy if they were held in facilities in the West Bank becomes a matter of upholding their rights under international law.

Fraught relations

Already on every Tuesday, a coalition of prisoner support groups holds a sit-in outside the ICRC offices in the West Bank city of Ramallah to push for action on a number of issues. And since the decision to reduce the number of visits was announced, the coalition has included a demand for twice-monthly visits on their agenda.

Samidoun activists in New York City have also staged a protest outside the ICRC offices there, demanding that the program of visits continue as is.

For its part, the ICRC is adamant that it has been communicating with families, detainees and advocacy groups over the possibility of reducing visits.

Yet representatives from prisoner rights groups insist that the announcement came as a surprise to them. Communications with the ICRC have fallen to the point, they say, that they depend on weekly protests to relay their demands. And disappointment with the decision among the protesters during one recent visit was palpable.

“Our work is the same as the Red Cross,” said Khitaan Saafin, who works with the Union of Palestinian Women and is a regular protester outside the ICRC offices in Ramallah. “But they do not respond to us.”

Ali Shamlawi is due to spend another 12 years in prison. His mother will be 69 by the time he is released. Naimeh is afraid she won’t be alive then. For her, every moment they can spend together is precious, even if it is in an Israeli prison, surrounded by guards and with a plate glass window between them.

She’s already lost a lot of time with her son; now she is losing even more to bureaucracy.

Still, she will take what she can get. Even if they can only spend a total of nine hours a year together, they’ll make the most of it.

“I will spend every minute with him,” Naimeh said.

Clare Maxwell is a journalist and human rights activist working in the Salfit region of the West Bank.

India vows more tough action, and aid, to tackle Kashmir conundrum

An Indian policeman pulls concertina wire to lay a barricade on a road during a curfew in Srinagar July 12, 2016.REUTERS/DANISH ISMAIL - RTSHIRO

BY FAYAZ BUKHARI-Thu Jul 14, 2016

India will go on hunting militants in Kashmir despite widespread protests over the killing of a young separatist commander, officials said, as the government bets that force coupled with development will quell rebellion in the restive state.

The strategy for the Muslim-majority region contested by nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan has worked in part.

The number of militants crossing into Jammu and Kashmir state from Pakistan to launch attacks against India has dropped in the last few years, and home-grown fighters are estimated to number only around 100, according to one security official.

Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is closely aligned to the Hindu nationalist right, also pledged 800 billion rupees ($11.9 billion) in investment there.

That has not prevented violent protests and rioting from breaking out when security forces killed Burhan Wani, a separatist militant commander and a Kashmiri, last Friday.

At least 34 people were killed - almost all shot by Indian security forces - and more than 1,500 people wounded in the worst violence in Kashmir since 2010, underlining how the crackdown on militants is not enough to solve a conundrum that has frustrated India since independence in 1947.

The government must also find a way to persuade local people that it is on their side, observers said, something it has failed to do since winning a landslide election in 2014.

    "There is no denial in Delhi ... that a problem exists," said retired Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain, an Indian army corps commander in the area from 2010 to 2012 who was deployed there seven times during his career.

"But no one seems to be clear on how to get into engagement with the people on the ground."

    Under Modi, whose BJP is also in a coalition government in Kashmir, the federal government has taken a harder stance on engaging in political dialogue with the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, a separatist alliance.

While Hurriyat leaders travelling to Delhi and meeting Pakistani officials had been accepted before, Modi's government has objected to such interactions, saying Pakistan should not interfere in Indian affairs.

"WHY THIS HATRED?"

    Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the head of the alliance, said separatist political leaders felt isolated.

    "The government of India cannot continue to deal with Kashmir with a clampdown," he said.

    The state's deputy chief minister, Nirmal Singh of the BJP, said the government was ready to engage with the Hurriyat under a legal framework.

"They are not ready, but they try to exploit every situation," Singh said.

    A senior BJP mandarin in New Delhi also said the government was open to talking to the Hurriyat, but did not appreciate it when they spoke with Pakistan.

He added that the government will continue to go after militants, but with time it hoped the people in Kashmir would "realize that their anger is misdirected."

    "Be it jobs, education, health or any other amenities, the Kashmiri population gets all the same opportunities and benefits as any other Indian," said the BJP official.

"Why this hatred against the Indian government?"

    A senior government official in New Delhi said Wani was a criminal facing 14 separate cases, including the murder of elected politicians and security forces, and that popular support for him was beside the point.

    CYCLE OF VIOLENCE

    In Wani's case, the security crackdown appears to explain his path towards militancy, and raises the possibility that other Kashmiri youths may follow.

    His father, school headmaster Mohammad Muzaffar Wani, told Reuters in an interview last year that Wani's decision to take up arms was linked to an incident in which he and his brother were beaten by Indian police.

The brother, not known to be a militant, was killed by Indian security forces last year in circumstances that remain unclear.

Wani, who was 22 when he died, grew in popularity through videos posted on social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp in which he would appear without a mask.

Authorities have been accused by some of using excessive force to control the protests that followed his death.

The Doctors' Association of Kashmir said in a statement that security forces launched tear gas shells into a hospital where victims were being treated, and officers beat hospital staff and damaged ambulances.

    Asked whether police and paramilitary forces used excessive force to control crowds after Wani's killing, BJP's Singh replied: "It is a matter of concern: this should not have happened. It is a worry as the anti-national forces will try to exploit the situation."

    The inspector general for operations at the Central Reserve Police Force, a paramilitary organization with some 60,000 troops in Kashmir, said his men had been told: "Don't get into confrontation with locals, defuse the anger."

    The official, Zulfiqar Hasan, said 300 of his men were injured in four days.

(Writing by Tom Lasseter; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

UK: Theresa May’s first speech as Prime Minister — full text

by Theresa May

( July 14, 2016, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) I have just been to Buckingham Palace, where Her Majesty the Queen has asked me to form a new government, and I accepted. In David Cameron, I follow in the footsteps of a great, modern Prime Minister. Under David’s leadership, the Government stabilised the economy, reduced the budget deficit, and helped more people into work than ever before. But David’s true legacy is not about the economy, but about social justice. From the introduction of same sex marriage, to taking people on low wages out of income tax altogether, David Cameron has led a one nation government, and it is in that spirit that I also plan to lead. Because not everybody knows this, but the full title of my party is the Conservative and Unionist Party. And that word unionist is very important to me.

It means we believe in the union, the precious, precious bond between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. But it means something else that is just as important, it means we believe in a union not just between the nations of the United Kingdom, but between all of our citizens, every one of us, whoever we are and wherever we are from. That means fighting against the burning injustice that if you’re born poor you will die on average nine years earlier than others. If you’re black, you’re treated more harshly by the criminal justice system than if you’re white. If you’re a white, working class boy, you’re less likely than anybody else in Britain to go to university. If you’re at a state school, you’re less likely to reach the top professions than if you’re educated privately. If you’re a woman, you will earn less than a man. If you suffer from mental health problems, there’s not enough help to hand. If you’re young, you’ll find it harder than ever before to own your own home.

But the mission to make Britain a country that works for everyone means more than fighting these injustices. If you’re from an ordinary working class family, life is much harder than many people in Westminster realise. You have a job but you don’t always have job security. You have your own home but you worry about paying the mortgage. You can just about manage, but you worry about the cost of living and getting your kids into a good school. If you’re one of those families, if you’re just managing, I want to address you directly. I know you’re working around the clock, I know you’re doing your best and I know that sometimes life can be a struggle. The Government I lead will be driven, not by the interests of the privileged few, but by yours. We will do everything we can to give you more control over your lives. When we take the big calls, we’ll think not of the powerful, but you. When we pass new laws, we’ll listen not to the mighty, but to you. When it comes to taxes, we’ll prioritise not the wealthy, but you. When it comes to opportunity, we won’t entrench the advantages of the fortunate few, we will do everything we can to help anybody, whatever your background, to go as far as your talents will take you.

We are living through an important moment in our country’s history. Following the referendum, we face a time of great national change. And I know because we’re Great Britain that we will rise to the challenge. As we leave the European Union, we will forge a bold, new, positive role for ourselves in the world, and we will make Britain a country that works not for a privileged few, but for every one of us.

That will be the mission of the Government I lead. And together, we will build a better Britain.

Boris Johnson ‘lied a lot,’ says French foreign minister

Speaking July, 14, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said his new British counterpart, Boris Johnson, lied during the Brexit campaign. (Reuters)

By Michael Birnbaum and Griff Witte July 14 at 1:46 PM

BRUSSELS — Britain’s new top diplomat, Boris Johnson, swept into office Thursday on a cloud of acrimony, amid worldwide disbelief that the irreverent campaigner for a British break from the European Union will now be his nation’s main voice abroad.

From composing a dirty limerick about the Turkish president and a goat to comparing the E.U. to Hitler to calling Hillary Clinton a “sadistic nurse,” the mop-haired Johnson spared few world leaders in his previous career as the devil-may-care mayor of London. On Thursday, it was payback time: France’s foreign minister declared that the “leave” campaigner had “lied a lot,” and Germany’s top diplomat called him “irresponsible.”

The unusually sharp rhetoric from Johnson’s new peers reflected the degree to which he has alienated Britain’s global partners and the challenges he faces as he takes part in his nation’s divorce from the E.U. From Washington to Paris and Berlin to Ankara, leaders uttered bitter cries of surprise at the appointment of a man who has reveled in dishing offense, not making friends. Critics said Britain appears to be taking further steps to disengage from the world.

[Boris Johnson has said some very undiplomatic things]

“I have no worries about Boris Johnson, but you know well what his style is,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told France’s Europe 1 radio on Thursday. “He lied a lot during the campaign.”
Britain’s new top diplomat, Boris Johnson, came under sharp fire from his European counterparts on Thursday, with France’s foreign minister declaring that the “leave” campaigner had “lied a lot” during the push for Britain to break with the European Union. (AP)

Ayrault was referring to a range of later-discredited claims by the anti-E.U. side before last month’s referendum on a British exit from the European Union, including the amount of money Britain pays to the E.U.

The criticism from the usually buttoned-down Ayrault is almost without precedent in the discreet world of European diplomacy, where top leaders typically attack one another’s policies, not their characters.

It foretells the reception that Johnson is likely to receive during the coming years of fraught negotiations with the 27 other E.U. foreign ministers, almost all of whom personally blame him for the chaos unleashed by the British decision to leave the bloc. The ministers will meet in Brussels on Monday in Johnson’s first test as foreign secretary.

“Sorry world,” read a cardboard sign that one British wag tied to the gate of Johnson’s London residence, captured on camera Wednesday night by Sky News.

The Sky News journalist noted that Johnson would have a long list of people to apologize to, including President Obama. Johnson has criticized Obama as a “part-Kenyan” who harbored anti-British attitudes because his father’s nation was once part of the British Empire.

Barely stifling a smirk, Johnson said that “the United States of America will be in the front of the queue.”

[New British prime minister vows “bold” future for U.K.]

Johnson will have to contend with France and Germany — the E.U.’s most powerful nations — and potential roadblocks to any advantageous deal for Britain as it navigates its split from the bloc. German and French politicians may have little tolerance for a man who during the referendum campaign in Britain compared E.U. efforts to unify Europe with Napoleon and Hitler.

“Boris Johnson doesn’t do good personal relationships with other politicians,” said Simon Tilford, deputy director of the London-based Center for European Reform.

Johnson’s German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, also appears to hold a dim view of the newly minted British diplomat.

Hours before Johnson’s appointment was made public Wednesday, Steinmeier lashed out at him without using his name, criticizing “irresponsible politicians” who lured Britain toward a “Brexit,” then “didn’t take responsibility and instead played cricket.”

Johnson disappeared from public view in the days after the referendum and instead played cricket at a friend’s country estate.

In a short session with reporters outside the British Foreign Office on Thursday, Johnson shrugged off in his typically colorful fashion the European expressions of horror at his appointment.

“After a vote like [the referendum], it is inevitable that there is going to be a certain amount of plaster coming off the ceilings in the chancelleries of Europe,” he said. Asked about the French foreign minister’s assertion that Johnson had lied during the referendum campaign, he suggested that Ayrault had taken a very different tone in private communications.

Johnson said he was determined to ensure that Britain remains “a great global player” and said he and U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, speaking by telephone Thursday, had agreed on the need to maintain Britain’s leading role in world affairs. The two will meet Monday in Brussels.

[Theresa May puts stamp on new government with mass firings]

Johnson has taken a softer line toward Russian actions in Ukraine than his predecessor, blaming the E.U. in part for the crisis there. And he has advocated working with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to defeat the Islamic State militant group, an idea that is anathema to many in Washington and Europe.

Johnson’s fellow Conservatives generally stood firm behind the appointment, having resolved to end the internecine warfare that has nearly torn the party apart in recent months.

But the opposition Labour Party reacted with dismay. Angela Eagle, who is challenging party leader Jeremy Corbyn for his job, was making a campaign speech when a member of the audience shouted out the news. “They’ve made Boris foreign secretary?” she asked, bewildered, before whirling her back toward the crowd in shock.

Johnson’s day-to-day involvement in Brexit negotiations has yet to be defined, with two other Euro-skeptic leaders taking prominent roles in Prime Minister Theresa May’s new government. David Davis, another “leave” campaigner, was given the new role of “secretary of state for exiting the E.U.” In Europe’s complex decision-making system, foreign ministers typically focus on E.U. relations with the rest of the world, not issues within the union’s borders. But Britain is now a special case.

Still, foreign ministers are often to be found heading faraway missions to places such as Papua New Guinea — which Johnson once suggested boasted orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing — or Washington. That may have been one of May’s strategies in appointing Johnson to the job, sidelining a critic who otherwise would have taken aim at her from his column in the Daily Telegraph.

One of the biggest disruptions of Johnson’s appointment may be to U.S.-British relations — an irony since he was born in New York, and public documents released in May showed he was still a dual U.S.-British citizen. Because the United States taxes its citizens on earnings across the world, Johnson owed U.S. taxes on the 2009 sale of his London home, a bill he paid only last year, according to British media.

“This is someone who at times has appeared to discount the relationship,” said Julianne Smith, a national security analyst at the Washington-based Center for a New American Security, who has served in the Obama administration.

“He’s a very prickly personality and doesn’t appear to be someone who has spent much time thinking about foreign policy,” she said, joking that the general reaction in Washington to the appointment was “shock and awe.”

Turkey is another nation where Johnson will have to lobby for couples counseling. In May, he penned a naughty limerick suggesting that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had “sowed his wild oats with the help of a goat, but he didn’t even stop to thankera.”

“May God help him and reform him,” Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told the BBC on Wednesday, before Johnson’s appointment was announced. “And I hope that he won’t make any more mistakes and try to make it up with the Turks.”

Witte reported from London. Ylan Mui in Washington contributed to this report.