The Magic Of Pāda Yātrā

By Yudhanjaya Wijeratne –August 5, 2016

Yudhanjaya Wijeratne

Pada Yatra: rough translation, pilgrimage. They’ve been around for awhile, but the most famous is Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent Salt Tax protest. That original Pada Yatra started with 80 people and went down in history as the famous Dandi Salt March: it even inspired Martin Luther King, Jr.

Leave it to the Joint Opposition to organize their own Pada Yatra. Mahinda Rajapaksa and Co basically rallied thousands of people who marched, on foot, from Kandy to Colombo, while their political overloads trundled by gently in jeeps sucking on cheap ice cream.

It didn’t overthrow the British Raj, of course, but it was pretty impressive. It began in Peradeniya and spread to Nelumdeniya. Kiribathgoda was packed. Residents of Kelaniya reportedly hung grass from electric wires ‘for the protestors’. A disorganized crowd of several thousand strong preceded the actual rally. Most of us in Colombo didn’t feel it, but everyone on that route definitely did.

Let me get something off my chest first: that really should be Pādha Yāthra – unless our Media is having well-organized chuckle by making Mahinda’s rally sound like the Fart Pilgrimage. In that case, well played, Lake House, Wijaya. You’ve made us all proud.

Phew. Now, on with the conversation (photos by Shehan Gunasekara).

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Protest marches are generally organized around a single specific grievance – British India’s Salt Tax, the deployment of troops to Vietnam, Taylor Swift’s never-ending albums of breakup songs. The Joint Opposition, who likes to multitask, seems to have decided to go for a shotgun approach: let’s protest about everything we don’t like. Most of the slogans are divisible into four broad categories:

• Economic hardships under the current government
• ‘Selling the country’ to foreign masters
• National sovereignty threatened by constitutional reforms
• Miscellanious (stuff like Maithri being a muppet, Ranil being a fag and so on)

I find this whole thing stupid, and not just because they actually had a Maithri-muppet on display. Because if you step back and think about the first three slogans:

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Don’t ignore 2016 WHO consultation on CKDu

By Amarasiri de Silva, PhD-August 5, 2016, 8:17 pm

(Visiting Professor, University of Pittsburgh, USA)

An international expert consultation on Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Aetiology (CKDu)was held in Colombo in April 2016, organized by the Presidential Task Force for Prevention of Chronic Kidney Disease and the Sri Lanka country office of the World Health Organization (WHO). The report of the consultation is now available to the public on the WHO web portal (http://www.searo.who.int/srilanka/documents/report_international_expert_consultation_on_ckdu.pdf?ua=1). The report runs to 47 pages, and is organized into sections based on the three one-day sessions. The objectives of the consultation were to: a) develop a consensus on research priorities and cost-effective interventions based on the available evidence for the prevention and management of CKDu; b) review the knowledge on CKDu globally and in Sri Lanka, and identify gaps in that knowledge; c) prioritize an interdisciplinary collaborative research agenda; and d) develop a consensus on the monitoring and accountability framework for the implementation of the recommendations.

The list of participants shows that there were 59 consultants comprising epidemiologists, nephrologists, engineers, university professors and scientists. In addition to the Sri Lankan participants, the group comprised consultants from India, the United Kingdom, Australia, Cuba, El Salvador, Finland, Sweden, Canada and Costa Rica. There was no representation from the affected communities in Sri Lanka,nor any Sri Lankan activists working on the disease.

The outcome of the consultation was a set of recommendations, which, it was proposed should be incorporated into the National Action Plan on CKDu for Sri Lanka. The recommendations include 1. the development of a surveillance system to understand the burden, geographical distribution and time trends of CKDu in Sri Lanka;2. the establishment of a consortium of national/international researchers to conduct long-term interdisciplinary research;3. the strengthening of existing interventions and their implementation; 4. the provision of social support for patients in affected families and communities;5. the provision of human resources such as nephrologists, renal care nurses, social workers at the nephrology units and within communities, in order to enhance the coverage of renal care services and the provision of psychosocial support to patients and their families; and 6. the development of a framework for monitoring and accountability.

The consultation has concluded that cadmium in water is unlikely to account for the disease, and that arsenic alone is unlikely to be the causative agent of CKDu. The association between pesticides and other agrochemicals and CKDu, as reported in some research, is seen as inconclusive. The increased risk of developing CKDu among those who drink well water, as opposed to spring water,suggested by some researchers, is seen as speculative and based on anecdotal evidence: as the report says, even if this hypothesis is accepted, the preponderance of males among those suffering from the disease cannot be explained if drinking well water is the major cause. The group observed that any statistical results suggesting genetic factors maybe attributable to the effects of shared environment, which may include the use of shared wells. Heat stress and leptospirosis (an infectious disease caused by a particular type of bacteria called a spirochete transmitted by rats and other rodents) were seen as potential risk factors. The group is of the view that the agrochemicals that are known to cause the disease can begradually phased out to reduce the exposure in endemic areas [This statement is somewhat contrary to the observation made earlier in the report that the association between pesticides and other agrochemicals and CKDu is inconclusive]. The early detection and treatment of CKDu are highlighted as necessary steps to follow andthe lack of community-based surveillance and of coordination between the screening programmes and patient registry were identified as important gaps. The absence of a single clear definition of the disease delays in data entry and inadequate analysis to inform policy makers were seen as major gaps and obstacles in the current data maintenance and surveillance arrangements.

The group that focused on social interventions noted that there are huge gaps in knowledge among patients and in service provision. The group further says, ‘the needs of the patients and families should be elucidated through a consultative process, and patients’ views taken into consideration when planning interventions’ (p26), but, as revealed in the list of participants, there was no community representation in the consultation meeting, on the second day when social interventions were discussed. The group has recommended excellent social interventions that include psychological counselling for patients and their families, assistance to children of affected families through school-based and foster-family programmes, establishing bank accounts for such children to continue their education uninterrupted, and setting up self-help groups in communities to assist and care for affected families. However, the strategies suggested by the group – such as setting up a national level intersectoral group to implement the community intervention program with a ‘dedicated’ budget and an intersectoral team - are overly ambitious. The strategies should focus on each affected community, the Tulana or the Grama Niladhari Division,and be implemented by community organizations and monitored by the District Secretariat to be effective.

The overall framework for monitoring, implementation and accountability were discussed on day 3, and a three-pronged structure,comprising a national committee on CKDu, an independent expert review group and an intersectoral coordinating mechanism, was proposed. The intersectoral coordinating committee will comprise people from the relevant ministries, civil society, academia, the private sector and affected communities. The overall framework is somewhat sketchy with no details on how the various links and loops are to be established or how an uninterrupted information flow from the lowest level of patients and theirfamilies, through affected villages, Grama Niladhari Divisions, District Secretariats, and Government Agents to the National Committee on CKDu is to be guaranteed. This is a huge structure and a formidable task when it comes to implementation and monitoring, even before considering issues of accountability. Given the range of responsibilities already placed on local administrators at various levels, this new function will add significantly to their workload. It would be sensible to decentralize the tasks and carry them out through civil society organizations such as the suvasahana kamitu (health committees) established in affected villages.

It is also important to prioritize the various tasks in order to achieve the objectives of the consultation. The last section of the report on ‘moving forward’ sets out various tasks under sub-headings. It does prioritize the activities with details on targets, budgets, time schedules etc. However, no information is provided on who contributes to what or how the various responsibilities and tasks are to be shared among the participating agencies. Without such a detailed plan, this consultation could become yet another event that has merely produced a report that will lie on the shelves of the ministries and be displayed on websites.

The first recommendation highlights the most important lacuna pertaining to CKDu identified by the consultation, namely the lack of proper monitoring of the disease. The consultation recommends a robust surveillance system to understand the disease burden, its geographical distribution and time trends. As I have stated previously (Island Newspaper, December 14, 2015), the clinical data pertaining to the CKDu patients who visit nephrology clinics and hospitals in the affected districts are a potentially powerful resource, which, with proper analysis, can be effectively used for public health programmes, disease management, and the identification of trends and geographical spread. If the data were entered on to a computer every day after each patient visit, this would generate a massive and comprehensive data set. This task should be given the highest priority. It is as simple as setting up a computer with a data entry programme installed on it in each clinic and hospital. The data entered would be transferred to a central location, where a further computer programmewould be used to generate information on trends, patterns, geographical distribution etc. for analysis by officials and scientists. If the data entry programme were backdated to cover the period from 2000, when the disease was first identified, then the total picture of how the disease has progressed, and how it is distributed geographically, by age and gender, occupation etc. would become readily apparent. If this task could be accomplished, that in itself would be a major achievement of the 2016 WHO consultation, and is a stepping-stone towards more practical action.

7 in same family sentenced to death

By Chandrasiri Mahagama- Hawa Eliya-2016-08-06

Nuwara Eliya High Court Judge Lalith Ekanayake yesterday sentenced to death seven members of a family on conviction of collective culpability in a killing in year 2000.
Those sentenced to death were Palani Muthuraj, Palani Arimar, Palani Neela Mogan, Palani Subramanium, S Vigneswaran, Neela Mogan Kamalanadan and Neela Balachandran respectively.
Muthuraj, Arimar, Neela Mogan and Subramanium are brothers, while Vigneswaran who was also sentenced to death is the son of Palani Subramanium.
Kamalanadan and Balachandran are sons of Neela Mogan, one of the seven found guilty and sentenced to death by the Nuwara Eliya High Court Judge. 

 The murder had taken place at the Kancodiawatta Estate in Kandapola at around 9.30 pm on 1 February 2000. The murder victim was 33 year-old P. Hariraman, a father of two.

The victim had died shortly after admission to the Nuwara Eliya Hospital with critical injuries caused by the seven men convicted of his murder.

Central Bank officials scheduled to meet the COPE

Aug 05, 2016

Chairman of the COPE committee parliament MP Sunil Handunnetti said the committee is anticipating calling the central bank officials in front of the parliamentary committee on public enterprise (COPE) to inquire about the financial irregularities of the issuance of bonds.

Therefore Central Bank officials are scheduled to be called to the COPE committee on the 12th of August. Before this, the officials were called before the COPE few times.

The Politics of Hitchcock’s The Birds and Islamophobia

In some plays of Shakespeare, in Macbeth for instance, there is the idea that human order and the natural order are parts of the same continuum so that disruption of the former leads to chaos in the latter. I don’t think that this idea is peculiar to Shakespeare or the West. I have the impression that people all over the world have the propensity to blame Governments for the destruction wrought by major natural disasters

by Izeth Hussain

( August 6, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Many works of fiction and film, more particularly those of high quality, are susceptible to varying interpretations, even to the extent that sometimes totally opposed interpretations could have equal plausibility. This applies to Hitchcock’s 1963 film The Birds, which was based on a 1952 story by Daphne du Maurier. I am here offering an interpretation of the film that ties it up with the case argued in my recent article in which I explained the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the Western commitment to Israel as arising out of a Western racist dread of advancing Asiatic hordes, more particularly an Islamophobic dread.  

I shall provide here no more than a very brief synopsis of the plot of the film, indicating in outline its main features that are significant for my argument and leaving it to the interested reader to turn to the internet for more details about the plot. A wealthy and glamorous female feels insulted by a lawyer in a San Francisco bird shop where he sought unsuccessfully to buy a pair of love birds as a birthday gift for his kid sister. The female pursues him all the way to the seaside resort where he spends his weekends with his mother and kid sister, and clandestinely places the caged love birds in his house. Another of the main protagonists is a school teacher, the former girlfriend of the lawyer. Inexplicably the heroine is attacked by a sea gull, and by stages the entire seaside resort comes under attack. All the inhabitants flee, apparently the last being the lawyer and his family accompanied by the heroine.

The film can be enjoyed as a straightforward horror film, with all the compelling power to be expected of a successful Hitchcock film. Certainly, it is a film that once seen can never be forgotten. But it cries out for interpretation, which is a characteristic of films of high quality. If you take Billy Wilder’s Witness for the Prosecution, you have an excellent film that apparently bears comparison with the best of Hitchcock, but it doesn’t cry out for interpretation. Likewise with the other films of Wilder, which put him in a class far above average. But all the same, he doesn’t invoke comparison with the cinematic greats, such as for instance Bunuel who was declared by Hitchcock to be the greatest of all film makers – an assessment that I incline to share. I have in mind the distinction between verse and poetry: verse has one line of meaning like prose, whereas a poem – in the best definition I know of it, that of Riffaterre – says one thing and means something else.

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Movie Trailer

So, what does The Birds mean? Obviously, birds don’t attack human beings in real life and therefore the core of the film cries out for a symbolic interpretation. What seems to have become established is a Freudian interpretation of the film. The family of the hero consists of himself, his mother, and kid sister, with himself acting as a surrogate father in the absence of a real one. It is an Oedipus situation in which the mother is cast as a possessive female who wants to prevent her son getting together with the heroine. But I haven’t seen details substantiating that interpretation. When the mother meets the heroine for the first time she is uneasy and suspicious, but that is explained soon afterwards: the heroine is a notorious member of the international rich set who has recently received newspaper publicity for jumping naked into a fountain in Rome. That, and not an oedipal fixation, could make the heroine an unsuitable companion for her son. There are many details in the film that cannot be fitted into a Freudian interpretation. What is one to make of the self-sacrifice of the school teacher in trying to save the children? Above all, why do the birds attack? That brilliant and eminent intellectual Slavoj Zizek, if I understood him correctly, held that the attack represented an eruption of female libidinal energy. But why do the birds attack, not just that family, but the entire seaside resort? Something of a collective order, not just of an individual or nuclear family order, is clearly indicated.

The birds evidently symbolise subconscious insecurity and dread of an alien invading force. A French film critic whom I read long ago held that the film derived its power from the subconscious Western dread of the Chinese, a notion that in my view gains plausibility if the film is seen in the context of its time. The 1952 du Maurier story from which the film derives ends with the destruction of the entirety of British humanity by the birds, which could be taken as a metaphor for the wartime blitz and possible destruction by the atom bomb. For his 1963 film Hitchcock took over from that story only the idea of a destructive alien force. For the chief protagonist of the story, a Devon farmer, he substituted a glamorous American member of what used to be known in the ‘forties and the ‘fifties as the “international rich set”, who were much publicised even in the Sri Lanka newspapers. We can safely assume that Hitchcock, who we must remember had an exceptionally strict upbringing as a Catholic, would have regarded that set as representing the West at its most irresponsible and its most vulnerable. That was shown by the heroine jumping naked into a Rome fountain and later smashing a shop window. By way of contrast to her, the seaside resort is delineated in loving detail as a close-knit community in which people are helpful to each other as a matter of course. The school teacher is not jealously obstructive towards her competitor, the heroine. The intrusion of the latter, an alien force, disrupts that community and allows the eruption of the destructive force symbolised by the birds. But in the course of the struggle against the birds, she learns responsibility and wins her man.

I must add something about why the birds attack. In some plays of Shakespeare, in Macbeth for instance, there is the idea that human order and the natural order are parts of the same continuum so that disruption of the former leads to chaos in the latter. I don’t think that this idea is peculiar to Shakespeare or the West. I have the impression that people all over the world have the propensity to blame Governments for the destruction wrought by major natural disasters. The Government’s wrong-doing is seen as making everything go topsy-turvy, including the natural order. Perhaps this idea is as old as humanity, and perhaps it gives tremendous force to Hitchcock’s film at a subliminal level.

But why bring in the Chinese? The West, more particularly the Americans, had a dread of the yellow peril, meaning that the West, in effect the civilised world, would be overwhelmed by the Japanese and the Chinese, a dread that began in the late nineteenth century and went on for decades. The 1905 military defeat of Russia by Japan, of a white power by a coloured power, was seen as epoch-making and as a possible portent of things to come. China, however, remained a powerless victim of the Western predators, and Japan was defeated in the Second World War, making the notion of the yellow peril seem preposterous. But the Communists came to power in China in 1949, it was seen that China had stood up, and it was expected that sooner or later it would start marching forward. The Western reaction to that prospect was insanely racist. It was held that Taiwan represented the whole of China or that there were two Chinas, Taiwan and mainland China. Furthermore, the two super powers, the US and the Soviet Union, got together against China, an anomaly because it was never the practice for two leading powers to get together against a weak third power. Perhaps the explanation was racism: the two leading white powers were ganging up against an emerging yellow power. Anyway, it was in that political context that that French film critic held that Hitchcock’s birds symbolised the Chinese. Very probably many Westerners would have reacted to the film in those terms.

Hitchcock was not, of course, pointing his finger at the Chinese in his film – we are addressing here the question of what happens at a subliminal level in experiencing works of art. However, the colour symbolism in the film makes it clear that he is pointing at dark forces that could become invasive. The film which is in colour begins with black birds figured on a creamy white background, and the most destructive birds are black in colour, which are at one point designated as crows. The viewer could be expected to experience all that as pointing to the potential invasive power of dark Afro-Asiatic hordes, represented at present by the Islamic world. A point of interest – a detail that cannot be fitted into a Freudian interpretation of the film – is that the kid sister takes along with her the caged lovebirds as the family make their exit from the house. Is there a moral there? Birds could be dark invasive creatures but they could also be gorgeously plumed enchanting creatures if they are caged, tamed, civilised.

Police snub Court order to arrest Namal

By Ishara Ratnakara-2016-08-06

Though Additional Colombo Magistrate Nishantha Peiris had ordered the arrest of Joint Opposition (JO) and SLFP Hambantota District MP Namal Rajapaksa on charges of having carried out illegal transactions at the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) using political clout, the Police have failed to arrest him to date though nine days have elapsed since the Court Order was given.
The Colombo Additional Magistrate issued order for the arrest of the suspect on 28 July this year. 

The Attorney General (AG) had named the JO MP as the chief suspect in the case. He is the owner of NR Consultants and Gowers Corp, both company cited in the allegations, while its directors Indika Karunajeewa, Nithya Samaranayake, Sudarshana Ganegoda, Pavithra Bogollagama and Iresha Silva have been named as suspects.

Rs.402 million more for ‘yahapalana’ agricultural building

FRIDAY, 05 AUGUST 2016

Minister of Agriculture Duminda Dissanayaka has presented a cabinet paper requesting for another sum of Rs. 402 million to make necessary changes to the building rented out for the Ministry of Agriculture.

The building was rented out for 5 years at a cost of Rs.1855 million.

The consulting section appointed to recommend necessary alterations to the building to convert it to an office complex and to buy furniture had estimated that Rs.402 million more would have to be spent before it could be used as the Ministry complex.

They had also said it would take about a year to transform the building to an office complex and authorities have taken a decision to hand over the transformation of the building to the private sector to get the work done quickly.

The private sector too would take several months to complete the work. Already, the ministry has paid Rs.84 million at a rate of Rs.21 million for four months to D.P. Jayasinghe Tours and Transport, belonging to the owner of the building, the husband of film actress Sabitha Perera.

It has been reported that the deal to rent out the building for the Ministry of Agriculture was a result of an agreement between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and D.P. Jayasinghe Tours and Transport and the cabinet paper presented by the Prime Minister was not opposed by any minister.

Persons arrested for plundering medicine from the Police hospital

Aug 05, 2016

Colombo additional magistrate gave an order today 5th to remand the two suspects who robbed medicines worth of 20 million from the Narahenpita police hospital stores until 12th of this month.

Following the CID investigations it has been revealed that these suspects have robbed nearly 20 million worth of medicines.

 

The main suspect has spent 10 million from that money and bought a luxury house to a female relative of her. The CID informed the courts.

What’s really behind Israel’s attack on Christian charity World Vision?

Israel claims that World Vision’s Gaza director Mohammad El Halabi, right, funneled funds to Hamas’ military wing. (via Facebook)

Ali Abunimah- 5 August 2016

Israel grabbed global headlines on Thursday with sensational allegations that tens of millions of dollars from the Christian relief and advocacy organization World Vision had been diverted to the military wing of the resistance group Hamas in Gaza.

But a day later, the Israeli claims look more than ever like sloppy propaganda. A World Vision official says Israel’s sums don’t add up and it has also emerged that a Mossad-linked Israeli group has been stoking allegations against the charity for years.

An Israeli general has said that Israel is relying on a “confession” extracted by an intelligence agency which is notorious for using torture.

Israel has also instructed its diplomats to smear World Vision, especially among Christian communities around the world.

But if Israel’s intention was to damage international humanitarian efforts in Gaza, it can chalk up a success, at least for now.

Australia, which has given World Vision about $5 million in the last three years for projects in Gaza, said it was suspending contributions pending an investigation.

Indeed, ending humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip, or at least bringing it under even tighter Israeli control, looks like the purpose of the allegations.

“It doesn’t add up”

In June, Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency arrested World Vision’s Gaza director Mohammad El Halabi and interrogated him for more than 50 days, a fact that only came to light this week.

Israel claims Halabi had diverted up to $50 million to Hamas over the last six years.

But on Friday, the CEO of World Vision Australia said this could not be the case.

Tim Costello told Australia’s SBS public broadcaster that World Vision’s program in Gaza amounts to only around $2 to $3 million a year.

“If every cent has been diverted, it doesn’t add up to $50 million,” he said.

“I’ve been there, the [Australian] Department of Foreign Affairs has been there, PwC [professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers] audit our books,” Costello added.

“Confession”

“After a long investigation, it’s clear that Hamas is using the money which the world donates to international organizations such as World Vision in Gaza, and the evidence is the confession of the detainee Mohammad El Halabi, the director of the organization in Gaza, that he was transferring money to Hamas, millions of dollars,” General Yoav Mordechai, the head of COGAT, Israel’s military occupation bureacracy that rules the lives of millions of Palestinians, said, according to SBS.

But this apparent reliance on an alleged confession is deeply troubling, not least to World Vision’s Costello.

“It certainly concerns me that a person can be in detention for 25 days without seeing a lawyer,” Costello told ABC. “Over 50 days without seeing family members and even World Vision staff.”

Shin Bet, the agency that detained Halabi, routinely uses torture when interrogating Palestinians.

Mossad-linked group

In another twist, the far-right-wing Israeli lawfare group Shurat HaDin said on Friday that it has been warning for years that World Vision funds “were being utilized for terrorism.”

In comments to The Jerusalem Post, Shurat HaDin said that last year it had “cautioned the Australian government that World Vision was operating as an active arm of the PFLP [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine] and other terror groups.”

It added that World Vision’s Australia arm and the Australian government had rejected the allegations.

Shurat HaDin’s accusation is odd given that the Israeli government’s charges against the charity’s Gaza director involve the Islamist movement Hamas, rather than the leftist and secular PFLP.

Shurat HaDin director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner has previously admitted that her organization has effectively acted as a proxy for Israel’s spying and assassination agency Mossad.

Her group’s principal activity is to attempt to sabotage the work of Palestine solidarity, human rights and other organizations by lobbing lurid allegations presented without evidence and filing baseless lawsuits.

This method is on full display in this case: in a post on Facebook, Shurat HaDin asserted that Israel’s mere allegations against World Vision’s Gaza director Halabi meant that its own warnings about the charity had been “proven true.”

Targeting humanitarian aid

In recent months, Israel has launched a major crackdown on domestic and Palestinian nongovernmental organizations through intimidation campaigns and repressive legislation.

There are indications that the assault on World Vision is the international counterpart to this campaign.

Israel has ordered its representatives around the world to go on an offensive over the matter.

“Specifically, the diplomats were instructed to spread the news of Halabi’s alleged actions among liberal and religious groups who support World Vision,” the Israeli news website Ynet reported.

“Contacts, journalists and relevant opinion makers should be briefed, and an emphasis needs to also be put on the digital arena,” a senior foreign ministry official reportedly ordered.

Diplomats were also armed with “detailed background materials about the case and talking points to be used in meetings, posts on social media and infographics,” Ynet said.

Dore Gold, the director-general of Israel’s foreign ministry, wrote a scaremongering letter to his counterparts around the world claiming in effect that humanitarian aid to Gaza amounts to support for terrorism.

“It’s important to note that Hamas has close ties to the security apparatus in Iran, which is looking for ways to expand its military influence from Syria to Yemen. Beyond that, Hamas has also been closely working with ISIS militants in northern Sinai,” Gold wrote, according to Ynet.

“The bolstering of Hamas’s military abilities – made possible by humanitarian aid – serves the strategic interests of the big destabilizing powers operating in the Middle East today.”

That both Iran and Hamas are mortal enemies of ISIS is apparently no obstacle to Israel making such claims.

But by spreading sensational allegations that a group as well-known as World Vision is “funding terrorism,” Israel may seek to put other organizations and the Israel-friendly Western governments that fund them on notice that all their operations, especially in Gaza, are at its mercy.

It may also be an effort to break growing solidarity for Palestinians in churches, where there has been a strong push to hold Israel accountable through boycott, divestment and sanctions.

Israel has already effectively succeeded in bringing the UN to heel, making it complicit in the so-called Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism through which Israel strictly controls the entry of reconstruction supplies into the territory.

As The Electronic Intifada revealed in January, a top international expert in UN law had warned in a confidential memo that the GRM was illegal and violated fundamental rights of Palestinians.

In an ominous sign, Shin Bet sources have already warned that World Vision is likely to be only the first of many humanitarian organizations and even UN agencies targeted by allegations that they support “terrorism.”

The Philippine Government Claims That After Killing 400 Drug Dealers, Half-a-Million Turned Themselves In

BY SIOBHÁN O'GRADY-AUGUST 5, 2016


Recently elected Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s aggressive war on drugs has killed more than 400 people in the past month. And on Friday morning, furious after visiting a town where suspected drug dealers shot a police chief in the chest, Duterte told reporters that he had given police orders to shoot to kill when they come across anyone they believe to be involved in drug trade.

“I’ll really have you killed,” he said Friday. “My order is shoot to kill you. I don’t care about human rights, you better believe me.”

Activists have urged Duterte to scale back his countrywide hunt for drug dealers in order to give suspects an opportunity for due process and a fair trial before they are executed on the country’s streets. But Duterte has not relented.

He promised on the campaign trail that he would halt the drug trade after six months, and in addition to the 400 already killed, another 4,400 have been arrested.

And, according to officials in Duterte’s camp, some 500,000 people have turned themselves into authorities to avoid being violently targeted by the police. Those numbers were made public by Duterte’s administration and have not been confirmed by outside parties.

But if he does have half-a-million people in custody, Duterte likely doesn’t know what to do with them. Some plans have been floated for rehabilitation centers, but they are reportedly still in the works.

Even local politicians are not free from the new government program intended to entirely wipe drugs out of the country. Three mayors turned themselves in this month to avoid retribution.

“I will not hesitate to kill you … don’t think that you’re a governor or a mayor,” Duterte said. “You’ll be the first to go before the civilians.”

Duterte earned his hardline reputation when he served as mayor of Davao City, on the southern island of Mindanao, and ruled by the mantra that killing criminals was the best way to keep the city safe.

After winning the May presidential election, it was clear he would bring that philosophy to the whole nation.

“Double your efforts. Triple them, if need be,” he said in a July speech. “We will not stop until the last drug lord, the last financier, and the last pusher have surrendered or put behind bars — or below the ground, if they so wish.”

Photo credit: Dondi Tawatao/Getty Images

Morocco arrests six after teen rape victim set herself on fire

Morocco begins investigation into death of teenage rape victim who set herself alight after her alleged rapists threatened to tell all

Moroccan mounted police patrol the beaches of Agadir, southwestern Morocco (AFP)

AFP-Friday 5 August 2016

Morocco launched a probe on Friday into the death of a teenage rape victim, who set herself on fire after her alleged rapists threatened to tell all, a rights group said.

The Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH) said an autopsy after the girl's death last week showed she was pregnant.

In 2015 "eight young men abducted the girl", who was then 16, from her hometown in Ben Guerir, north of Marrakesh, "and then took turns to rape her", said AMDH Marrakesh head Omar Arbib.

The girl's family lodged a complaint and police later arrested seven suspects, who were referred to the prosecutor for questioning, said Arbib. An eighth suspect was arrested later.

But according to Arbib, the prosecutor granted the suspects a provisional release.

He said that after being freed, they threatened the girl, saying they would "publish pictures of the rape, which they had taken with their mobile phones, unless she drops the complaint against them".

"This is the reason why last Friday she set herself on fire," Arbib said.

The girl suffered third degree burns and died the following day in hospital, he said, adding that the autopsy showed that she was pregnant.

Her death prompted the prosecutor to order the arrest of six of the eight suspects, who were detained on Thursday, said Arbib. It was not immediately clear why the other two suspects were not arrested.

Sexual harassment is commonplace in Morocco, as in numerous other Arab countries, despite the adoption of a new constitution in 2011 that enshrines gender equality and urges the state to promote it.

Moroccan NGOs say that 80 percent of sexual attacks affect children, aged mostly between 5 and 14, and that in a high percentage of cases the assailants are family members.

In January 2014, Morocco scrapped a highly controversial law that allowed rapists of children to escape punishment if they marry their victims.

The article made international headlines in March 2012 when Amina Filali, 16, killed herself after being forced to marry the man who had raped her and who remained free.

South Africa's ruling ANC party loses control of Nelson Mandela Bay

Defeat in area named after beloved former president comes as millions of voters abandon party across the country

The Democratic Alliance leader, Mmusi Maimane, waves to supporters during the election campaign in Port Elizabeth. Photograph: Luvuyo Mehlwana/Reuters

Emma Graham-Harrison-Friday 5 August 2016

South Africa’s ruling ANC party has lost control of the symbolic Nelson Mandela Bay area as millions of voters abandon it across the country in local elections that could rewrite the country’s political landscape.

Twenty-two years since the party came to power, South Africans used the local government elections to warn the ANC that its historic achievement of overturning the apartheid system no longer guaranteed it the right to govern.

Frustrated by a stagnant economy, crippling unemployment and corruption scandals swirling around the president, Jacob Zuma, voters have turned awayfrom the party of Nelson Mandela in huge numbers.

They cast their ballots for the Democratic Alliance (DA), a party once considered a champion of the white middle classes that now has its first black leader, Mmusi Maimane.

South Africans also voted in smaller but significant numbers for the Economic Freedom Fighters, a radical far-left party led by the former ANC firebrand Julius Malema that is likely to serve as kingmaker in areas where the ANC or DA are forced to form coalitions.

Although voters were only choosing local councils, the elections were widely seen as a referendum on more than two decades of ANC rule.

Eyewitness News quoted Malema telling party activists: “We are happy that the EFF is the first organisation to humble the ANC – the most arrogant organisation.”

The first victory the DA claimed was the Nelson Mandela Bay area, named after the revered former president and once home to other heroes of the anti-apartheid movement.

The DA will have to rule in coalition, but the loss was still difficult for the ANC to digest. Long after it was clear that support for the party had collapsed there, the deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said it was too early to analyse the election results. It would be like reading “somebody’s tombstone before they die,” he said.

“It was a hotly contested area, where we as the ANC had a number of challenges and problems. We accept that the people have spoken.”

In Johannesburg and the urban sprawl around Pretoria, results were still being counted nearly two days after polling stations closed, with support for the ANC and the DA too close to call.

Even if the ANC ultimately only loses control of one city, it will have been chastened by the election result. 

It looks set to hold on to a slim overall majority nationwide, but this is the first time since Mandela took power that it has secured less than 60% of the vote.

“We need to have a serious introspection,” the ANC chief whip, Jackson Mthembu, told reporters at the main counting centre in Pretoria.

The challenge, particularly for the DA, as it takes power in new areas as part of a coalition, will be coming good on election promises to rule for all, including the poorest black communities frustrated by inequality.

About 80% of South Africa’s 54 million citizens are black, but most land and companies remain in the hands of white people, who make up less than 10% of the population.

“We’ve given the DA a chance to show what they can do. I hope they don’t let us down,” said one township voter, who spoke to Reuters, but asked to be named only as Tando because of the stigma still attached to his choice. “Where I come from, there is a lot of pressure to vote for the ANC.”

The DA has built up a reputation for competent management in Cape Town, its only power base until now, but has been dogged by lingering accusations of racism.

As recently as last year, a shadow cabinet member was demoted after sharing a Facebook post praising the apartheid president PW Botha.

The DA has worked hard to distance itself from that legacy. In a major speech at the start of the year, Maimane spelled out that the party did not want votes from anyone not committed to a diverse South Africa.

“If you’re a racist and you are thinking of voting for the DA, please don’t. We are not the party for you,” he told an audience at the apartheid museum, in a landmark speech on identity and race.

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Bangladesh says Philippines president commits to return heist money funnelled via Manila

A ''No Cash'' sign is pictured at an ATM machine of Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) outside a supermarket in Paranaque city , Metro Manila, Philippines August 2, 2016.REUTERS/ERIK DE CASTRO

BY KRISHNA N. DAS, KAREN LEMA AND NEIL JEROME MORALES- Fri Aug 5, 2016

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has given a commitment that $81 million stolen by cyber criminals from the account of Bangladesh Bank in New York and funnelled through bank accounts in Manila would be returned, the Bangladesh ambassador to the Philippines said on Friday.

A Bangladesh central bank team visiting Manila to recover the money said earlier on Friday that it was close to getting back $15 million of the loot frozen by the Philippines.

Cyber criminals tried to steal nearly $1 billion from Bangladesh Bank's account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February, and succeeded in transferring $81 million to four accounts at Manila's Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. The money was then laundered through the city's casinos, according to investigators.

Only about $18 million, including $2.7 million frozen by the Philippines' casino regulator, has been accounted for.

The Philippines' Department of Justice (DoJ) has asked the Bangladesh Bank delegation to file a legal document staking its claim to $15 million of that, but the casino money will have to be pursued separately, said two sources close to the visiting team.

"We are very hopeful that we will get the total $81 million," said Ambassador John Gomes, who is helping the bank representatives on a four-day visit to Manila ending Friday.

"The reason is I got a commitment from the president himself," he said.

He added Bangladesh's finance minister might come to the Philippines to meet Duterte to help in the recovery of the money.

Gomes said the bank felt RCBC should be held responsible because it did not follow a stop-payment request from Bangladesh Bank, and its lawyer Ajmalul Hossain said it would sue RCBC if it was not able to recover the entire $81 million.

The Philippine central bank said on Friday it would fine RCBC 1 billion pesos ($21 million) in relation to failings over the heist, the largest amount it has ever approved "as part of its supervisory enforcement actions".

In March, RCBC's then president Lorenzo Tan acknowledged at a Philippines senate hearing there had been "some judgment error from the people on the ground".

RCBC said earlier on Friday that the transfers were made based on authenticated instructions over payments network SWIFT, and the hackers had used stolen Bangladesh Bank credentials.

"Going to court instead of the media and various Philippine government agencies is the proper procedure," it added.

PROVE IT

Ricardo J. Paras III, chief state counsel of the Philippines DoJ, told Reuters that it has already drafted court documents to begin recovery of the $15 million, but it was important for Bangladesh to prove it is their money.

The Bangladeshi delegation has prepared an affidavit citing a letter by the New York Fed to the Philippines' central bank, in which the Fed said the money was stolen from Bangladesh Bank's account. The affidavit will be given to the DoJ, the sources said.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), a government body that regulates casinos in the country, has promised to cooperate with Bangladesh Bank to help it recover the $2.7 million it has frozen, Gomes said.

"The money is with Solaire (Resort and Casino)," PAGCOR President Alfredo Lim told Reuters. "It will put us in a bad light if the money is not immediately released to them."

Solaire, operated by Bloomberry Resorts Corp, has said about $29 million of the funds came to the casino and most was transferred to the accounts of two junket operators.

Solaire declined to comment on Friday.

Bangladesh Bank is relying on internal RCBC documents to buttress its assertion that the bank’s Jupiter Street branch in Manila ignored suspicions raised by some RCBC officials when the money was first remitted to the accounts on Feb. 5, and then delayed acting on requests from RCBC’s head office to freeze the funds on Feb. 9.

Gomes said Bangladesh Bank would also sue Philrem Service Corp, a remittance company that anti-money laundering investigators said was used to transfer some of the $81 million.

"They have the responsibility to return the money or face the consequences," he said.

A lawyer for Philrem, who speaks on behalf of the company, was not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Krishna N. Das, Karena Lema and Neil Jerome Morales in MANILA; Editing by Will Waterman)