Olympic games : When chameleons Hemasiri and Maxwell turn Olympic ‘champions’: Weerawansa turns pseudo trainer

40 officers for 9 participants !! Most vital doctor not in the touring group but a pseudo trainer taken along

(Lanka-e-News -14.Aug.2016, 11.55PM)  Sri Lanka National Olympics has become a hotbed of corruption and rackets with Hemasiri Fernando at its helm   pretending as  the ‘Olympic champion.’ Hemasiri has been best  known as a chameleon despite parading  as ‘Olympic champion,’ wherever and whenever  he held positions and as one   who is all the time obsessed with  achieving  only his  own self seeking goals and self centered gains.

The sports ministry is unable to probe into the  perfidies and rackets because the Committee has been brought under the International Olympics Committee .The National Olympic  Committee annually receives many thousands of dollars from the International Olympics Committee towards development of sports , and enhancement of tournament standards. 

The all powerful official of this Committee for over a decade is Hemasiri Fernando. He has made it his nest best known for nefarious purposes , and he pretends he is  the monarch of all what he surveys. Beginning from the time of Chandrika Bandaranaike , followed by Mahinda Rajapakse and the present UNP , no official general meeting had been held throughout that  period.

In fact , former Minister Mahindananda made a loud din that the three Fernandos who are monopolizing the sports arena  shall be chased out , but before Hemasiri the crooked champion cum chameleon ,he was no match.

Hemasiri who doesn’t care two hoots for the sportsmen and sportswomen , once  abused Susanthika in raw filth .On the last occasion too he had furiously berated Indrajith Cooray the leader of the Sri Lankan team in front  of the Olympics secretary just before the team  left for the Rio Olympics .

Olympics for the entire family of the Secretary

Hemasiri who built an Olympic ‘mansion’ out of National Olympic funds in Colombo 07 ,gave away   half of it to a Chinese Restaurant . Yet  there is nobody to probe into what murky activities and cash flow are taking place within it.

Another ace crook Maxwell De Silva cast in the same mould of Hemasiri is the secretary of the Olympics Committee . They are birds of a feather racketing together .This scoundrel who had done nothing beneficial towards Sri Lanka’s sports was the officer in charge of the  Olympic team for Rio games , while at the same time  enjoying all the perks and privileges of the secretarial position. His wife and daughter are currently in Brazil. His daughter who has been provided the opportunity  to be a voluntary worker there treats every sportsman and sportswoman like lackeys and slaves. 

A majority of journalists who promote sports in SL are lackeys  and lickspittles of Hemasiri and Maxwell. These scoundrels who do not say or write a word against these two diddling duo , sell their professional dignity and ethics only to get  berths with the  others when touring abroad. They even hurriedly cast aside their dresses even ready to travel  nude if they are given an opportunity to do a foreign tour.

It is Dinesh Weerawansa of Lake House who is the favorite henchman of this diddling and national wealth pilfering duo. Dinesh who was attached to the Daily news like a fungus for many years as a Sports editor  got himself transferred to the Observer as chief editor using the equally or more unscrupulous and corrupt Mahinda Rajapakse .

This  rascal  with satanic traits who held the post of editor Observer for 9 years during the Mahinda Rajapakse’s era , without entrusting the Daily news sports editor task to another , exploiting that position too went on the foreign tours continuously for SAAF, Asian and Olympic games . Dinesh who went on tours fully sponsored  by the Olympic Committee made it a habit to get around countless sponsors for himself . Consequently , Dinesh the culprit who went for some time as a  journalist now joins the touring team mostly as a media guest.

Most vital doctor not in the touring group but a pseudo trainer taken along….

Unbelievably Dinesh Weerawansa the masquerader has travelled to the Rio Olympics as a trainer . This is the biggest joke of the century ! In fact this is the biggest insult inflicted on the genuine trainers by the SL Olympic committee.  What is even most irksome and irritating is Hemasiri of all people who parades as a paragon of virtue not including a doctor in the Olympic team but including  bogus trainers like Dinesh. This being a most serious corrupt and sinister action , the Parliament ought to probe into this. Hemasiri who loudly blabbers against corruption and perfidies as he opens the mouth  must offer an explanation in this regard to the nation . If not the nation is going to ask which stinking orifice  he uses to blabber against corruption.  Surely he cannot be using the mouth while himself indulging  in corruption and perfidies  brazenly.

The other shady character in the Olympic Committee is Harin Perera. For sometime he has been travelling  with the Olympic touring teams as a reporter though he never reports to any media. Now he had launched his own website. Prins Gunasekera of Dinamina is another play acting character like him. He doesn’t permit anybody else to tour with the Olympic team , and travels on every Olympics team tour. He was Kolonnawa local body member during the Rajapakse era , and after the end of that era , while these rascals and scoundrels  are augmenting  their political power within Lake House , Saman Wagaarachis are in a  deep slumber. Though the latter were appointed to put Lake House on the right track, it seems their own two wheels at the bottom are not  moving on the right track.

It is incredible but true ! 40 officials for  9 athletes  !!

Minister of Sports Dayasiri Jayasekera who brags publicly  about providing the necessary facilities to the trainees is now leaving behind all his tasks and is running after the Olympic ‘travels and tours.’  He too along with his media secretary and a group have gone on the tour.

There are only nine  participants  in this year’s Rio Olympic games. Yet , believe it or not  as many as 40 officials have arrived in Brazil. It is noteworthy these expenditures are met out of people’s funds. An air ticket to Rio Olympic games is  nearly Rs. 400,000.00  !!

A far as we are aware  , until SL can look forward to  an Olympic medal , it cannot feel proud.  After Duncan White and Susanthika , there seems to be no prospects of such a sportsman or sportswoman being produced. 

Neither the Olympics Committee nor the Ministry of sports seems to have any  need or interest to develop  sports in SL and raise its standards . What concerns them is tours and travels at the expense of games , sports and the country,    in order to  make those foreign ‘shopping’ tours . Their attitude is ‘devil may care’ for it is the government that is defraying all their  expenses. The media personnel who  point these out are also no longer extant in this country – because they have also joined this bandwagon of culprits whose obsession is going around the world until dooms day (not in ‘eighty days’) using the Olympic games banner. 

 ( In the photograph is masquerading Dinesh Weerawansa the pseudo trainer , and the sports officers )

Lanka e news  special correspondent 

Translated by Jeff  

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by     (2016-08-14 22:17:40)

Sri Lanka: Ex-Judge of the Top Court, who alleged sexually assaulting a girl, Dies

August 15, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Former Supreme Court Judge Sarath Abrew has died from a fall from the top floor of his residence in Atthidiya, Ratmalana, suburb Colombo, local media reports.

He was taken to Kalubowila Teaching Hospital after his fall but was pronounced dead upon admission.

A case was being heard in Court against the former Supreme Court Judge on a charge of sexually abusing a domestic servant.

Divaina “war hero” has evaded the CID!

Aug 15, 2016

The Divaina newspaper’s fearless war hero journalist Saman Gamage who add confessed it is reported that he would even sacrifice his life for war heroes had flouted court orders had refrained from reporting or at least informing the criminal investigations division on the 12th instant.

It is reported that through the “divaina’ Sunday column he had been in the habit of continuously criticizing the work of the officials of the criminal investigation unit. It is reported that during the period of the Rajapaksa regime he had been labelling murders as war heroes and misused the media freedom. It has been reported by a senior independent media personnel of the Upali Newspapers organization that he had been instructed to do so by the chairman of Upali Newspapers Ltd Nimal Welgama.

It is also reported that Saman Gamage who is a resident of Matugama the same area as Nimal Welgama had joined the Upali newspapers organization as a ordinary employee. But the manner he is conducting himself now to become a national hero within a short space of time. This information has been divulged to the Lankanewsweb site.

It is also reported that he had been advised not to proceed to the CID by the attorneys at law of the joint opposition. He had been advised to get remanded on behalf of the war heroes

The intention is for him to become in future a person seeking refugee under foreign political prisoners status.It is also reported by the CID that this fearless war hero had been paid from an account that is not subjected to audit of the intelligence service.

In this context it is learnt that the fearless war hero is at present desperately in the process of preparing a statement to be furnished by him for his defense.

Holland probes threats against Palestinian group’s lawyer at The Hague

Nada Kiswanson says that she is being targeted because of her role seeking accountability for Israeli war crimes at the International Criminal Court.Anne PaqActiveStills

Charlotte Silver-15 August 2016

For the last six months, Nada Kiswanson has received a steady stream of death threats while she has worked with the International Criminal Court as it probes possible war crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians.

The Jordanian-Swedish human rights lawyer with the Palestinian group Al-Haq has reported receiving intimidating phone calls, emails and a bouquet of flowers with an ominous message, threatening the lives of her and her family. She has been also been contacted by someone impersonating a Dutch governmental official.

Al-Haq and Kiswanson believe the intimidation campaign is designed to discourage their advocacy.

This month Kiswanson received a message stating she was “not safe at all and hopefully this would remain.”

“It’s very clear that the reason I’m being threatened is because of the work that I do in Europe and particularly at the International Criminal Court,” she told the Associated Press.

“My channels of communication have been totally compromised,” she told Reuters.

Sophisticated, organized attacks

Kiswanson believes that Israel may be behind the threats because of the sophisticated nature of the harassment campaign and the substance of her work.

For instance, within a day of purchasing an anonymous prepaid cell phone, she received threats in English, Dutch, and “broken Arabic.” Threats have also reached her through her family’s prepaid cell phones. She told Reuters that one of her relatives in Sweden was called and told that Kiswanson would be “eliminated.”

FIDH, the International Federation for Human Rights, describes the campaign as a well-organized, sophisticated pattern of attacks that requires financial backing. One incident involved thousands of flyers bearing Al-Haq’s logo and Kiswanson’s personal details being distributed throughout her neighborhood.

Amnesty International temporarily closed its office in The Hague after an employee’s email account was hacked to send Kiswanson a message. Three other organizations working with the International Criminal Court on Israeli war crimes have also shut down as a precaution, according to the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad.

Al-Haq first revealed its employees had been targeted last March, but has kept the details and scope of the harassment discreet.

Last week the Dutch authorities announced they were investigating the threats made against several human rights organizations.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon dismissed suspicions of his government’s involvement, telling the Associated Press, “We do not react to such preposterous allegations.”

But Dutch authorities have said they are not excluding that possibility. The prosecutor has said they are investigating “various scenarios” but have not come to any conclusions.

The Dutch authorities say they are providing Kiswanson with security.

“We are taking this very seriously,” prosecutors told the Associated Press, saying they’ve requested international assistance.

Herman von Hebel, the registrar of the International Criminal Court, told NRC Handelsblad that the body has never seen such threats to employees of nongovernmental organization working with the court. He said the Dutch authorities were dismissive of the problem until the court intervened.

“We saw immediately: these threats are serious. This should be looked at. And there should be more protection for [nongovernmental organizations] in the Netherlands,” he said.

Von Hebel emphasized that the International Criminal Court relies on groups like Al-Haq to provide documentation which is used by the court to determine whether there is a criminal case.

“It is an attempt to prevent someone to give us information. That is an attack on the very idea of ​​fighting large-scale injustice,” he said.

Wider campaign

Another Palestinian group advocating for prosecution at the International Criminal Court has also been threatened.

The Gaza-based Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights stated last week that its staff had been “subjected to a protracted campaign” of harassment and intimidation, including an email sent to a senior staff member threatening him and his family with death, showing “recent pictures of his house [taken] from a close range.”

“These attacks have intensified when our staff members were working on international litigation, including reporting to the International Criminal Court, and international advocacy focusing on accountability for serious violations of international law by the Israeli military,” the group added.

Al-Mezan said they decided to go public once the harassment, which included “suspicious email messages, Facebook posts, [and] telephone calls to staff, donors and friends” escalated to direct death threats.

“This pattern of attacks follows a wave of hostility towards human rights [nongovernmental organizations] involved in advancing accountability in what Israel considers as ‘lawfare.’”

Documenting war crimes

Since January 2015, the ICC has been conducting a preliminary examination of possible war crimes committed by Israel in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip in the summer of 2014. The investigation will also look into allegations of war crimes committed by Palestinians during the same period.

More than 2,200 Palestinians were killed during Israel’s assault on Gaza that summer.

In November, Al-Haq joined several other human rights groups, including Al-Mezan, Al Dameer and thePalestinian Center for Human Rights, in delivering documentation of alleged crimes committed by the Israeli army during the 51-day onslaught to the International Criminal Court prosecutor.

Amnesty International has urged the Netherlands to commit more to protecting Kiswanson and other human rights workers.

“We call upon the Dutch government, at the highest level, to publicly state that these grave threats, which may be international in origin, are unacceptable on Dutch territory,” the group stated.

Russia 'close to agreeing joint Aleppo operations with US'

Russian defence minister quoted as saying nations close to 'fighting together to bring peace' to besieged city

Sergei Shoigu said Russia and the US were in 'very active phase' of negotiation (Reuters)

Monday 15 August 2016

Russia is close to agreeing joint military operations against militants in Aleppo, the Russian defence minister was quoted as saying on Monday.

Sergei Shoigu was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying defence officials were in "a very active phase of negotiations with our American colleagues".

"We are moving step-by-step closer to a plan - and I'm only talking about Aleppo here - that would really allow us to start fighting together to bring peace so that people can return to their homes in this troubled land."

Follow latest developments from Aleppo on MEE

The statement came as rebels in Aleppo reportedly continued to gain ground on forces loyal to the Syrian government and their Russian allies.

Aleppo is home to myriad rebel groups including some considered "moderate" by the US, such as the Free Syrian Army. However, other groups such as the al-Qaeda linked Nusra Front, which recently rebranded itself Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, also operate in the city.

Shoigu said Moscow and Washington were still deeply at odds over Aleppo, and accused rebels of holding civilians hostage and using suicide bombs.

"In the eastern part of Aleppo, people are hostages," he said. "That's moderate opposition? Who is this?"

He blasted accusations that Moscow had imposed a blockade on rebel-held areas of the city as "untrue" and "propaganda".

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday said Syrian rebels had also used temporary Russian ceasefires in Aleppo to regroup and rearm.

Lavrov, speaking in Yekaterinburg, said he realised that brief daily ceasefires in place now to allow aid to enter and civilians to leave were not sufficient.

But he said it was difficult to make the ceasefires longer for the moment because of the risk of militants using them to regroup and rearm, something he said they had done in the past.

Russia to meet opposition in Qatar

Separately Lavrov's deputy, Mikhail Bogdanov, told RIA that he would meet representatives of the Syrian opposition in the Qatari city of Doha on 16 August.

The statement did not say which rebel groups would be in attendance, and there was no confirmation from the opposition.

Last month, Lavrov said Russia and the US had agreed on “concrete steps” to ensure a long-term ceasefire in Syria and fight their common enemies, Nusra and Islamic State.

Russia claims it is targeting "terrorist groups" in Aleppo but many sources say their bombing is indiscriminate and deliberately targets hospitals and civilian areas in the city.

Lavrov's comments came after meeting in Russia with his US counterpart, John Kerry.

“We have confirmed our goals to destroy the threats that come from the so-called Islamic State, Nusra and other terrorist organisations and to stop feeding terrorism, which comes from the outside,” Lavrov said.

Kerry noted that “the concrete steps we have agreed on are not going to be laid out in public in some long list because... they need more work.”

UN peacekeepers in South Sudan 'ignored rape and assault of aid workers'

Victims claimed that embassies, including the US embassy, also did not respond during 11 July attack of Juba residential compound in which journalist was killed

Associated Press in Nairobi-Monday 15 August 2016

The soldier pointed his AK-47 at the female aid worker and gave her a choice.

“Either you have sex with me, or we make every man here rape you and then we shoot you in the head,” she remembers him saying.

She didn’t really have a choice: by the end of the evening, she had been raped by 15 South Sudanese soldiers.

On 11 July, South Sudanese troops, fresh from winning a battle with opposition forces in the capital, Juba, went on a nearly four-hour rampage through a residential compound popular with foreigners, in one of the worst targeted attacks on aid workers in South Sudan’s three-year civil war. They shot dead a local journalist while forcing the foreigners to watch, raped several foreign women, singled out Americans, beat and robbed people and carried out mock executions, several witnesses told the Associated Press.

For hours throughout the assault, the UN peacekeeping force stationed less than a mile away refused to respond to desperate calls for help. Neither did embassies, including the US embassy.

The Associated Press interviewed by phone eight survivors, both male and female, including three who said they were raped. The other five said they were beaten; one was shot. Most insisted on anonymity for their safety or to protect their organizations still operating in South Sudan.

The accounts highlight, in raw detail, the failure of the UN peacekeeping force to uphold its core mandate of protecting civilians, notably those just a few minutes’ drive away. The Associated Press previously reported that UN peacekeepers in Juba did not stop the rapes of local women by soldiers outside the UN’s main camp last month.

The attack on the Terrain hotel complex shows the hostility toward foreigners and aid workers by troops under the command of South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, who has been fighting supporters of rebel leader Riek Machar since civil war erupted in December 2013.

Army spokesman Lul Ruai did not deny the attack at the Terrain but said it was premature to conclude the army was responsible. “Everyone is armed, and everyone has access to uniforms,” he said.

A report on the incident compiled by the Terrain’s owner at Ruai’s request, seen by the AP, alleges the rapes of at least five women, torture, mock executions, beatings and looting.

The attack came just as people in Juba were thinking the worst was over.

Three days earlier, gunfire erupted outside the presidential compound between armed supporters of the two sides, at the time pushed together under an uneasy peace deal. The violence quickly spread. By Monday, as both sides prepared to call for a ceasefire, some at the Terrain started to relax.

And then the soldiers arrived. A Terrain staffer from Uganda said he saw between 80 and 100 men invade the compound after breaking open the gate.

“They were very excited, very drunk, under the influence of something, almost a mad state, walking around shooting off rounds inside the rooms,” one American said.

For about an hour, soldiers beat the American and fired bullets at his feet and close to his head. Eventually, he was told to leave. He made his way to the nearby UN compound and appealed for help.

Meanwhile, soldiers were breaking into a two-story apartment block in the Terrain which had been deemed a safe house because of a heavy metal door guarding the apartments upstairs.

The soldiers then sexually assaulted women and shot through the door of a bathroom where several people were hiding, said Jesse Bunch, an American contractor who was hit in the leg.

“We kill you! We kill you!” the soldiers shouted, according to a western woman in the bathroom. “They would shoot up at the ceiling and say, ‘Do you want to die?’ and we had to answer ‘No!’”

The soldiers found John Gatluak, a South Sudanese journalist. The tribal scars on his forehead made it obvious he was Nuer, the same as opposition leader Machar.

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The soldiers then forced the foreigners to stand in a semi-circle, said Gian Libot, a Philippines citizen.

One soldier ranted against foreigners. “He definitely had pronounced hatred against America,” Libot said, recalling the soldier’s words: “You messed up this country. You’re helping the rebels.”

Then Gatluak was hauled in front of the group. One soldier shouted “Nuer”, and another soldier shot him dead.

From the start of the attack, those inside the Terrain compound sent email, text and Facebook messages pleading for help.

“All of us were contacting whoever we could contact. The UN, the US embassy, contacting the specific battalions in the UN, contacting specific departments,” said the woman raped by 15 men.

A member of the UN’s Joint Operations Center in Juba first received notice of the attack at 3.37pm, 

minutes after the breach of the compound, according to an internal timeline compiled by a member of the operations center and seen by the AP. The timeline shows other appeals for help.

The American who was released requested help from three different UN battalions.

“Everyone refused to go. Ethiopia, China and Nepal. All refused to go,” he said.

“The peacekeepers did not venture out of the bases to protect civilians under imminent threat,” Human Rights Watch said Monday in a report on abuses throughout Juba.

Eventually, South Sudanese security forces entered the Terrain and rescued all but three western women and around 16 Terrain staff. A private security firm rescued the rest the next morning.

Asked why UN peacekeepers didn’t respond to repeated pleas for help, the UN said it was investigating.

“Obviously, we regret the loss of life and the violence that the people who were in Hotel Terrain endured, and we take this incident very seriously,” Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman for the UN secretary-general, told reporters Monday.

The US embassy, which also received requests for help during the attack, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Indonesia’s Gotta Catch All the Communists

A red scare is sweeping Indonesia, digging up the ghosts of the 1965-1966 mass killings, and threatening a fragile democracy.

BY AUBREY BELFORD-AUGUST 12, 2016


JAKARTA, Indonesia — What do Pokémon Go and half a million dead communists have in common? They’re both things that, within the space of a few days, Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu described as tools of shadowy forces bent on doing the country harm.

On July 18, Ryamizard, a conservative former general, warned the public that the hit game was likely being used by foreign intelligence services to harvest information on vital sites in Southeast Asia’s largest country.

Three days later, it was the dead reds. Following the conclusion of an activist-initiated “people’s tribunal” in The Hague that found the Indonesian government “responsible for genocide” in the 1965-1966 killing of at least 400,000 people suspected of being associated with the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), Ryamizard again fronted the press.

The tribunal’s findings were “lies,” he said. “If we listen to them, we will break apart,” he warned. “This is the work of the PKI.”

In reality, neither of these things is true. Pokémon Go might be annoying to some — and it did suffer from a gaping initial privacy hole — but it’s still just a game. And the PKI, for its part, was wiped from the Earth; those killings half a century ago effectively eradicated the left from Indonesia’s political map, along with many ethnic Chinese. The slaughter, in turn, paved the way for the rise of the late dictator Suharto, whose kleptocracy lasted until 1998 on a base of steady anti-communist propaganda. Even today, both Marxist teachings and the PKI are banned under Indonesian law.

But Ryamizard’s comments are part of a worrying wave of often xenophobic paranoia under the presidency of Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, who was elected in 2014. Despite campaigning on promises of deepening democratic reforms — and pledging to resolve past rights abuses like the 1965-1966 killings — the former Jakarta governor’s rule has been marked by a series of panics over threats that are either grossly exaggerated or straight-up fictional.

Some have come from Jokowi himself. The president has been a strong advocate of the idea (based on questionable evidence) that the country faces a “drug emergency.” Under Jokowi’s direction, the country has executed 18 drug convicts since last year, including four last month. The vast majority of those killed have been foreigners.

Of more concern have been two intertwined scare campaigns being run by reactionaries both inside and outside Jokowi’s administration — often in ways that embarrass and undermine the president.
One is the red scare. Since mid-2015, police, soldiers, and vigilantes have broken up dozens of events, from film screenings to meetings of massacre survivors, which have been labeled “communist.”

Meanwhile, Islamists and nationalist groups have held rallies of thousands of people vowing to “crush” communism in cities and towns, and the media have carried grave warnings by prominent Indonesians of a looming red takeover.

At the same time, there has been a rising panic about so-called proxy wars being waged by unnamed foreign enemies against Indonesia. Armed forces chief Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo, appointed by Jokowi last year, has frequently raised the specter of these enemies spreading immorality and drugs in order to create chaos and steal Indonesia’s wealth. In February, amid a nationwide campaign of hate speech against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Indonesians, which was sparked by a backlash against a support group at the University of Indonesia, Ryamizard labeled the fight for LGBT rights as a threat with the potential to do more harm than nuclear weapons.

The defense minister was a driving force in the creation last year of Bela Negara (meaning “Defend the Nation”), an organization that claims 1.8 million members and aims to instill nationalism through paramilitary-style training, including reportedly teaching civilians how to use weapons. Paramilitary groups have been popular in Indonesia since before the Suharto era and played a key role in both the 1965-1966 massacres and violence across the country in the years surrounding Suharto’s fall.

The nationalist tide has left Jokowi’s administration in a policy muddle. Jokowi has pledged to address the troubled legacy of the 50-year-old massacres and in April organized the country’s first symposium featuring both survivors and the military. But no matter what happens, a state apology for the killings is off the cards, presidential spokesman Johan Budi told Foreign Policy.

Budi pointed out that Jokowi has already instructed overzealous authorities to rein in raids against events deemed “communist.” This has indeed happened. But the president has done nothing to muzzle senior figures invoking the red menace or talking of proxy wars.

“The president can’t ignore reports from the community … that there are some people trying to bring the communist party back in Indonesia,” Budi said. “The president has to respond.”

Jokowi’s attempt at the middle road is pleasing no one.Despite the fact that he has given Cold Warriors open slather in his administration, opponents frequently seek to label him as a red in disguise. In June, a collection of former Suharto-era generals organized their own symposium to counter the government’s reconciliation effort. The crowd included members of Islamist street thug groups such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), an organization formed by generals in 1998 to fight pro-democracy protesters in the streets. Also in attendance were uniformed members of Bela Negara.

Jokowi’s support for even limited reconciliation over the mass killings means “he’s pretty much part of efforts to bring communism back,” Ahmad Shobri Lubis, the head of the FPI, told FP. “It’s a twisted, crazy step. It goes against common sense that the government would ask for forgiveness from criminals. It’s madness.”

But not everyone in Indonesia has bought into the hype. Social media has frequently pilloried the more hysterical announcements, and reactions from some of the establishment — including military types — have ranged from eye rolling to alarm.

In Indonesia’s muddled party system, opinions similarly vary, including within Jokowi’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). Former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who championed Ryamizard’s appointment and has a reputation for brittle nationalism, heads the party.

Others take a different view. The paranoid upsurge is “all bullshit,” T.B. Hasanuddin, a former general and a senior PDI-P politician, told FP.

Behind it all is a collection of former generals who are being driven by two factors, Hasanuddin said. One is fear that a reckoning over the bloody legacy of the 1965-1966 killings — in which the military and traditional elite are deeply implicated — could unleash chaos. The other is a more concerted attempt to use vague bogeymen to fight the country’s democratization, he said. For some, these fever dreams are simply a cynical ploy. For others, they are indisputable fact, born of indoctrination during Suharto’s 31-year New Order regime.

“There are those from the military who, in the way they analyze things, always need there to be threats. If there are no threats, then they need to make them up,” Hasanuddin said. “Now it’s communism.”

Why is all this happening under Jokowi? Less than two years ago, the former furniture salesman was hailed as a new hope in a political system dominated by old faces with ties to the New Order. Liberals flocked to Jokowi’s campaign, seeing him as a democratic bulwark against his main rival, Prabowo Subianto, a former general (and former son-in-law of Suharto) implicated in serious human rights abuses.

But Jokowi has long sought to accommodate the old guard. Even during the transitional period between his election and taking office, Jokowi began an embrace of hard-liners close to Megawati, who retains undisputed control of the PDI-P.

“He’s just weak,” said Ian Wilson, an Indonesia expert at Australia’s Murdoch University. “He’s been outmaneuvered by seasoned players, seasoned brokers, and the kind of warlords of elite politics, including someone like Megawati, [who is] an ultranationalist and a militarist.”

Observers of Indonesia have hoped of late that Jokowi might finally be finding his feet. But even if he is increasingly calling the shots, the result is still a doubling down on his embrace of the old dinosaurs. In a late July reshuffle, the president sidelined Luhut Panjaitan, a relatively liberal former soldier, as the chief security minister and replaced him with Wiranto — who, like many Indonesians, only goes by one name — a former general indictedby a United Nations-backed tribunal for crimes against humanity in East Timor.

Wiranto, a man accused of having command responsibility for militia violence in 1999 that is believed to have killed well over 1,000 civilians, is now in charge of handling the government’s response to past abuses. This includes the 1965-1966 killings and his own alleged crimes.

Few rights advocates now expect much from Jokowi’s administration.

Photo credit: AGOES RUDIANTO/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort named in Ukraine anti-corruption probe

Paul Manafort’s Ukraine connections drew scrutiny during last month’s Republican convention, when the party platform committee weakened language that would have called for U.S. military support of Ukraine. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

By Tom Hamburger and Andrew Roth August 15

Donald Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has been named in a corruption investigation in Ukraine, where officials are trying to track illegal payments from a pro-Russian political party that once hired the Washington-based political consultant.

More than $12 million in undisclosed cash payments were earmarked for Manafort by the party of Ukraine’s former president, Viktor Yanukovych, who fled Ukraine for Moscow after being ousted in 2014, according to a statement released Monday by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine.

Manafort denied receiving any improper payments, saying in a prepared statement Monday that he has “never received a single ‘off-the-books’ cash payment.”

“The suggestion that I accepted cash payments is unfounded, silly and nonsensical,” Manafort said, adding that he never worked for the governments of Ukraine or Russia and that he stopped working in Ukraine after the October 2014 elections there.

“The simplest answer is the truth: I am a campaign professional,” Manafort said in the statement. “It is well-known that I do work in the United States and have done work on overseas campaigns as well.”

 

Manafort’s role in the Ukraine inquiry, first reported by the New York Times, serves as a reminder that Trump, who has faced bipartisan criticism for unusually friendly views toward Russia and has sought real estate deals there, has relied on advisers with personal and financial ties to Moscow and the former Soviet Union.

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a former military officer whom Trump briefly considered naming as a running mate, was paid to give a speech and attend a lavish party with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin honoring the Kremlin-

funded media company, RT Television. Another foreign policy adviser, Carter Page, has said he holds stock in Gazprom, the Russian energy firm, whose stock price has stumbled since the imposition of U.S. sanctions following the Russian invasion of Crimea.

Manafort’s Ukraine connections drew scrutiny during last month’s Republican convention, when the party platform committee weakened language that would have called for U.S. military support of Ukraine. Manafort has denied that the campaign played a role, but committee members told The Washington Post that Trump aides were involved.

A spokeswoman for the anti-corruption bureau, Darya Manzhura, said Monday that payments to Manafort were listed in a ledger recovered from the headquarters of Yanukovych’s political party, the Party of Regions. Investigators did not specify the reason the money was designated for Manafort from 2007 to 2012.

The ledger includes more than 20,000 line items, and investigators are sifting through the names as they investigate whether government resources were misused during the period Yanukovych was in power.

The anti-corruption bureau cannot make indictments but must pass on any evidence to prosecutors, who can decide whether to file charges. Manzhura said that processing the list will take a long time, as will matching signatures to individuals and proving that money actually changed hands.

For investigators, she said, Manafort is not the priority.

“He’s not a Ukrainian government official, so taking into account the role and tasks of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, Paul Manafort is not the number-one priority to investigate on this list,” Manzhura said.

The Ukraine investigation is the latest example of international intrigue that has followed Manafort, , 67, a longtime lobbyist, Republican strategist and global dealmaker. He was hired by Trump earlier this year and has gained enormous clout inside the campaign.

His lobbying clientele included two corrupt dictators, Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, both of whom stole billions of dollars from their countries.

And Manafort has parlayed political relationships around the world into an array of intricate financial transactions with billionaire oligarchs and other controversial investors that have at times spurred legal disputes.

In one case, reported by The Post in April, Manafort tried unsuccessfully to build a luxury high-rise in Manhattan with money from Dmitry Firtash, a billionaire backer of Yanukovych.

Roth reported from Moscow. Katie Zezima and Anne Gearan contributed to this report.

Philippines: Duterte may face international court for drug deaths, senator says

President Duterte could face charges over drug deaths. Image via Concept News Central.

 15th August 2016
PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte could face charges for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the spate of killings that followed his declared war on drugs, Senator Leila de Lima said.

According to the Inquirer, De Lima told a media interview that her claim was not meant to threaten the president but was based on fact.

“There are some experts who are saying that… if this spate of killings go unabated and unchecked, it could reach that point that the ICC could send a prosecutor to our country and investigate all these for possible prosecution under the Rome Statute,” she was quoted saying.

“This is not a joke. The last thing we need right now is for our dear president to be subjected to an investigation by an international tribunal like the International Criminal Court.”

“I am not threatening the president. I am just stating a fact,” she added.

De Lima pointed out that hundreds have been killed since the Duterte administration took over, and said this can be viewed as “widespread” and trigger greater international concern.

Should charges be brought against Duterte at the ICC, she warned, the president would not be protected by immunity.

Inquirer said its “Kill List” showed that a total of 601 drug suspects were killed since Duterte was installed last June. Other media reports say that in the same period, over 5,000 drug suspects have been arrested while nearly 600,000 have turned themselves in.

According to GMA Network, De Lima today also urged Duterte to keep close watch over the hearings to be held this month by the Senate committee on justice, which she chairs.

The committee will be holding a two-day inquiry on the drug killings beginning August 21.

Last Friday, the U.S. Embassy reportedly told the Duterte government that the hundreds of millions of military aid to the Philippines depended on its adherence to rule of law and respect for human rights.

“We are concerned by reports regarding extrajudicial killings of individuals suspected to have been involved in drug activity in the Philippines,” it said.

“We strongly urge the Philippines to ensure its law enforcement efforts are consistent with its human rights obligations,” the embassy said, according to AFP’s report.

A spokesperson from the Philippine foreign department yesterday confirmed to the news agency that the government took note of the U.S.’ views on the matter.

“Nevertheless, while pursuing this objective, the Philippine government is committed to the rule of law, and the protection of human rights for all.”

The official also said that Filipino authorities were investigating the killings and will “bring the perpetrators to justice”.

Earlier this month, Duterte said in a speech that most drug dealers and addicts slain in gunbattles with police had put up a fight, but added that he was sure some were “salvaged,” a local term for extrajudicial killings usually by law enforcers.

Despite admitting to possible abuses, however, the president refused to relax his stance in the war against drugs.

According to the Inquirer, Duterte said he would provide “protection” towards state forces involved in shooting incidents.

“For as long as it is done in the performance of the duty by the police and soldiers, that is my responsibility, that is my official and personal guarantee,” he was quoted as saying.

“If there are police involved in an encounter, do not investigate them anymore, that is my order,” he added.

China: Statement Over Torture of Rights Lawyer Xie Yang

Following the news of Xie Yang’s case being sent to the prosecutors for possible indictment, details of Xie Yang’s torture were brought to light by lawyers who met with police at the end of July. In recent days, family and lawyers’ requests for meeting Xie Yang (谢阳) have been repeatedly denied. Xie was taken away by police on July 11,2015, while he was on business trip in Huaihua, western Hunan Province. Later he was placed under “residential surveillance at a designated place,” China’s term for secret detention, for “disturbing courtroom order” and “inciting subversion of state power.” Xie Yang was among the lawyers arrested inJuly, 2015, as part of a nation-wide crackdown on human rights lawyers and activists. Show trials of four of the 24 lawyers and activistshave been widelycriticized (here, here, here, and here). We provide translations of two statements: one by Xie Yang’s wife (Chinese), and the other by his parents and other relatives(Chinese), as part of our continued effort to track development of the “709crackdown.” — The Editors, China Change 

Statement by Wife Chen Guiqiu: Xie Yang Has Been Tortured and Requests for Meetings Denied. What Are You Afraid of?

( August 14, 2016, Beijing, Sri Lanka Guardian) Xie Yang’s case has finally been sent to the prosecutors for indictment, lawyers can finally meet him and read the files, and I can finally learn about how Xie Yang incited the subversion of state power and how he disrupted courtroom order. From the day he was arrested to this day, none of us — the lawyers I appointed for him, Xie Yang’s lawyer friends, and myself — believed that Xie Yang could possibly have committed these two offenses.

On August 8, the lawyers and I went to the Changsha procuratorate to submit a power of attorney letter and a request to meet the client. We were told that the prosecutor in charge of the case was not there. We went again the next morning and handed in the papers. In the afternoon of August 9, we went to the detention center, certain that we would see Xie Yang. But we were told that we had to wait until 9 am the next day. We went in the morning of August 10, and the detention center said the prosecutors were interrogating Xie Yang and it would last the entire day. The third day (August 11) we went, we were told that he was still being interrogated. On the fourth day (August 12) we were again told that he was still being interrogated. It’s been more than 48 hours, and you’re still interrogating and preventing lawyers from meeting Xie Yang! You are violating the procedural law in your handling the case. How many more days are you going to thwart us with this pretext? Why are you keeping the lawyers from meeting Xie Yang?

Are you afraid of something? What are you afraid of? Are you afraid that Xie Yang will expose details of his torture?

In late July when the lawyers and I were summoned by the security police for a meeting at the Huazhilin Restaurant (花之林餐馆), we learned that the Public Security had arranged a meeting between lawyers and Xie Yang for the former to do “thought work” on Xie Yang [to confess to his wrongdoing]. Xie Yang told the lawyers that police had tortured him to extract confessions, and he had screamed for help. Given that I myself also received information about Xie Yang’s torture from a separate source, I am inclined to believe that he has indeed been subjected to torture. I also learned from the lawyers that, in the detention center, Xie Yang was locked up in the same cell as death row criminals, and one of them purposefully provoked Xie Yang with a burning cigarette, resulting in a fight. Xie Yang was badly beaten by the death row inmate, sustaining injuries to his head. We also learned that, one month after his arrest last year, the police’s surveillance video showed that Xie Yang had lost a lot of weight and his eyes were so swollen that he could barely open them. This is what you have done to him!

The police have repeatedly asked me to coax Xie Yang to confess, promising that if he does, he would be given a suspended sentence. But Xie Yang told the lawyers unequivocally: “I will not confess, because these two charges against me are spurious. I will never dismiss my own lawyers, and I want to meet with my lawyers according to normal procedure. I hope that more lawyers will take part in my case.”

You have done evil. To hide it, you want to silence the lawyers and the relatives. You continue to thwart meetings, prevent access to files, and threaten to dismiss them.

It’s clear why you are preventing lawyers from meeting Xie Yang: first of all, you want to continue to keep him incommunicado so you can continue to pressure him and force him to confess; secondly, you are afraid that your brutality will be exposed; and thirdly, following what they are doing to lawyers and activists detained in Tianjin, you are preparing for a secret trial.

Do you know that what you have done to Xie Yang has infuriated many people?

Chen Guiqiu (陈桂秋), wife of Xie Yang.

August 12, 2016 | Telephone of Changsha detention center: 0731-84074902
Statement by Xie Yang’s Family on His Torture

Our beloved Xie Yang, a lawyer from Hunan, was one of the individuals arrested during the “709” crackdown. On July 11 at 5:40 a.m., he was taken away on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power” and “disturbing public order,” and was placed underresidential surveillance at a designated place. Later, he was locked up in the Changsha No. 2 Detention Center in Hunan.

A couple of days ago an individual familiar with the situation revealed that last August, Xie Yang was subject to torture at the location he was being held in — he had yelled out of the window for help while the police weren’t watching, and was then beaten unconscious, before being sent to the 163 Hospital for emergency rescue. This July at the Changsha No. 2 Detention Center, the authorities purposefully arranged death row criminals to move into his prison cell. He was first provoked, and then savagely bashed with the iron manacles of the death row prisoners, leading him to suffer severe bodily harm. If the above is investigated and ascertained to be true — that the Changsha No. 2 Detention Center abused its power by subjecting a detainee to illegal violence — then, as family members, we express our extreme shock and fury. We strongly censure the relevant authorities and urge that they cease the violation of human rights of Xie Yang, investigate those guilty of abuse and the public officials who bear responsibility for it, and together safeguard the reputation of China as a great country subject to the rule of law.

Lawyers are the workers of the laws of a society, and they lay the foundation of modern civilization. According to the regulations in China’s Lawyer’s Law (律师法), the duty of a lawyer is to defend the legal rights of his clients, ensure the correct implementation of the law, and safeguard fairness and righteousness in society. As family members of Xie Yang, we have always considered him to be a hero, and we are proud of him and the sacredness of his profession. For years Xie Yang has been a pillar of spiritual support for his parents — he’s the backbone of our whole family. Among his siblings, Xie Yang has been the one who called his aging parents the most, checking how they were doing and letting them know that he was all right. He belongs to a big family of six married siblings, but he is close to everyone and maintains regular contact with each of them because of his warm-hearted nature. Whenever his parents visit him in the city, he always receives them happily. After disaster befell him, no one in the family has been at peace.

Xie Yang is a person with a strong sense of righteousness. Whenever his brothers or sisters find themselves in difficulty, he does everything to help them out, seldom refusing, and so has an excellent reputation back home. He treats his friends and colleagues honestly, he’s generous, and he fights for what’s right. We believe that Xie Yang has never once had the unlawful motive of “inciting subversion of state power.” He has simply exhibited uncommon courage and bravery in the face of abuses of public power and violations of the law.

Firstly, in the various public incidents that he was involved, the portion of illegal or suspected-to-be-illegal activities of public officials cannot be equated with the government, and even less be equated with “state power.” Punishing and lodging complaints against these individuals, within the scope of the law, does not undermine the foundation of the regime — instead it does the opposite, restraining the illegal use of state power and ensuring the right of supervision conferred upon citizens by the constitution. It also assists to drive forward the progress of the rule of law in China, and is beneficial to China’s transformation to rule of law.  On the other hand, not respecting the right of the citizenry to supervise officials creates a breeding ground for a corrupt bureaucracy, bringing no benefits but myriad harms to the state and the people.

Secondly, Xie Yang was born and raised in the countryside and later established himself modestly in Changsha. He didn’t come from power or wealth and has no political capital. To put it plainly, he’s simply a commoner. Saying that someone like him is “inciting subversion” is like “accusing a mantis of trying to stop a chariot.” Those who really have the power to oppose the Party, those who lust for power, are the likes of Bo Xilai. It’s not us humble commoners without authority or power. If the relevant organs insist on fixing the crime of “inciting subversion” on Xie Yang, it will really be an unbelievable charge. It will also leave behind an inglorious page in the history of China’s path to becoming a great country ruled by law!

In sum, we hope that the relevant departments will conscientiously carry out their duties, respect the objective facts, not take a predetermined stance, not make up “the true circumstances,” and truly ensure that the basic rights of citizens are not violated. Our entire family is awaiting the arrival of justice.
Jointly undersigned by Xie Yang’s family:
Father Xie Huicheng (谢惠成)
Mother Liang Fengying (梁风英)
Sister-in-law Huang Yi (黄仪)
Older brother: (谢扬军)
Eldest sister Xie Cuiping (谢翠平)
Brother-in-law Xiao Song (肖松)
Second older sister Xie Baolian (谢保连)
Brother-in-law Qin Mingnan (秦名南)
Third older sister Xie Chilian (谢池连)
Brother-in-law Huang Yuanyou (黄渊友)
Fourth older sister Xie Wanlian (谢晚连)
Brother-in-law Yuan Bangqun (袁邦群)
Younger sister Xie Juping (谢菊平)
Brother-in-law Lin Youguo (林又国)
Nephew Xie Xuhua (谢续华)
Nephew’s wife Ning Haiyan (宁海燕)
August 12, 2016