Inspired by Philippines, Indonesia to add staff, firepower for drug war

Police cars block a street as they enforce an overnight curfew for minors in Manila, Philippines. Pic: AP

 7th September 2016

INDONESIA is looking to emulate the Philippine government’s ongoing war on drugs with plans by the republic beef up its police force with additional manpower and heavy weaponry.

Both countries have launched their war on the narcotics trade with the increase in executions of drug convicts in Indonesia, while thousands of bodies of drug suspects have piled up in the Philippines’ bloody crackdown on the illegal activity.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is slated to meet his Indonesian counterpart Joko “Jokowi” Widodo from Sept 8 to 9 after the ASEAN Summit concludes in Laos. Discussions during the meetings in Indonesia are expected to revolve around efforts to tackle the drugs trade in the region.

SEE ALSO: Indonesian president defends death penalty for drug offenses

According to Reuters, Indonesia’s national anti-narcotics agency (BNN) chief Budi Waseso on Tuesday said the government was adding weapons, investigators, technology and sniffer dogs to boost its enforcement.

Responding to a question by a reporter, Budi said the drug menace in Indonesia was as bad as the Philippines and that the war on narcotics in Indonesia could be similar to the neighbouring country.

“Yes I believe so. It can happen because (the drugs problem) in Indonesia is as bad as in the Philippines,” he was quoted as saying.

“The life of a dealer is meaningless because (he) carries out mass murder. How can we respect that?”

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

More than 2,000 suspected drug pushers and users have been killed since Duterte launched a war on drugs after taking office on June 30.

Some of the drug suspects died at the hands of Philippines security forces. Many others, however, were reportedly killed by death squads and vigilantes, driven by the president’s anti-narcotics message.

Duterte, who won his presidency in May this year on the anti-narcotics platform, has so far ignored condemnation from rights groups and leaders both from within and outside the Philippines, and has pressed on with his campaign.

The intrepid president who has been making global headlines for his harsh stance on the drug menace also vowed to stay relentless despite international concern over the wave of extrajudicial killings sparked by the campaign.

Hungarian camerawoman charged for 'tripping' fleeing refugees

A screengrab from footage filmed last year allegedly shows camerawoman tripping refugees as they run through the border (YouTube)

Wednesday 7 September 2016

A Hungarian television camerawoman who made headlines last September after appearing to trip and kick migrants who were fleeing police has been indicted, prosecutors said Wednesday.

"The accused is charged by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Szeged with breach of the peace," said a statement from Csongrad county chief prosecutor Zsolt Kopasz.

In the footage, which sparked global outrage, Petra Laszlo can be seen tripping up a man who was sprinting with a child in his arms, and kicking another running child near the town of Roszke, close to the border with Serbia.

"The violent actions of the accused did not inflict injury, however her behaviour was capable of provoking indignation and outcry in the members of the public present at the scenes," the statement read.

It later emerged that Laszlo, who was fired over her actions, had been working for N1TV, an internet-based television station close to Hungary's far-right Jobbik party.

The incident on 8 September 2015 occurred as hundreds of migrants broke through a police line at a gathering point close to the Serbian border. 

According to the prosecutor, an investigation concluded that more serious charges would not be brought as there had been no reasonable chance of the accused causing injury. 

Nor was there evidence that "the conduct of the accused was motivated by ethnic considerations or by the migrant status of the victims," said the statement.

Last September thousands of migrants crossed into Hungary each day as the country, a southern gateway into the EU's passport-free Schengen zone, became a temporary hotspot of the migration crisis.

A week after the incident, Hungarian soldiers completed the closure of the 175-kilometre-long border with a fence reinforced with razor wire.

Some 400,000 migrants passed through Hungary last year bound for western Europe, but the number plummeted after the border was sealed off.

The Syrian man allegedly tripped up by Laszlo was later given a job by a Spanish football coaching school, while his son ran with superstar Cristiano Ronaldo onto the pitch in Madrid before a match.

Black Lives Matter protesters close City Airport runway

Black Lives Matter protesters disrupt flights at London City Airport after locking themselves together on the runway.

(Video: Black Lives Matter)

TUESDAY 06 SEPTEMBER 2016

The nine activists, protesting about the environment, inequality and racism, may have reached the runway in the Royal Docks after swimming across the River Thames.

Flights in and out of the airport were seriously affected, as police waited for specialist equipment that would allow them to remove the protesters.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "We were called at around 5.40am to reports of a number of protesters who made their way air-side.

"There are currently nine protesters on the runway at the airport. They have erected a tripod and have locked themselves together.

"Officers are currently on scene and are negotiating with them. We are awaiting the arrival of specialist resources that are able to unlock the protesters. No arrests have been made at this stage."

It is not the first time that Black Lives Matter, a movement that was set up in the US after the killing of black teenager Trayvon Martin four years ago, has targeted London's transport links.

In August, the group stopped drivers from reaching Heathrow by lying down in a road leading to the airport. It mounted similar protests in Birmingham and Nottingham in a co-ordinated day of action.

'Designed for the wealthy'

The UK division of Black Lives Matter said it had targeted City Airport to protest about expansion plans that would adversely affect people living nearby.

It said: "Recently London City Airport was given approval to expand its capacity, a move that consigns the local community in Newham to further deterioration of their environment.

"The average salary of a London City Airport user is 136,000 euros (£114,000) and 63 per cent of them work in business, finance or other business services.

"It is an airport designed for the wealthy. At the same time 40 per cent of Newham's population struggle to survive on £20,000 or less.

"When black people in Britain are 28 per cent more likely to be exposed to air pollution than their white counterparts, we know that environmental inequality is a racist crisis."

An airport spokesman said: "We're currently experiencing disruption to all flights due to protesters at the airport. Police are currently on the scene."

Air travellers were also hit by a British Airways computer glitch that affected flights at Heathrow and Gatwick.

‘Biggest scandal’ in Swedish medicine touches Nobel Prize with two committee members asked to resign

Paolo Macchiarini speaks at a news conference in Florence in July 2010. (Lorenzo Galassi/AP)

By Travis M. Andrews September 7 at 5:20 AM 

Two high profile members of the Nobel Assembly were asked to resign as part of the fallout from the scientific scandal centered on Paolo Macchiarini — a scandal that left two people dead and tarnished the reputation of the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine.

Macchiarini was the first surgeon to perform a transplant of a biosynthetic trachea, but two of three patients to receive such a transplant have died. Swedish prosecutors are investigating Macchiarini on potential charges of involuntary manslaughter — charges which the surgeon has previously disputed, according to the Associated Press.

On Tuesday, the Nobel Assembly, which is in charge of choosing the recipient of the institution’s prize for physiology or medicine, asked Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson and Anders Hamsten, two of its 50 judges, to resign. Both are former vice chancellors of the Karolinska Institute, the Swedish medical university associated with the Karolinska University Hospital that employed Macchiarini.

In addition, Swedish Minister of Higher Education and Research Helene Hellmark Knutsson said publicly that she has dismissed Wallberg-Henriksson from her position as Sweden’s chancellor of all public universities.

Knutsson has also called for all Karolinska Institute board members who were active while Macchiarini was employed by the institution to step down. Any who choose not to resign will be replaced, Reuters reported.

The Karolinska Institute fired Macchiarini in March.

This week’s firings came after a pair of reports criticizing both Macchiarini and the institute were made public.

“Scandal is the right word,” Knutsson told the BBC. “People have been harmed because of the actions of the Karolinska Institute and also the Karolinska University Hospital.”

When Macchiarini first came to the institute, he was praised by the media as a super-scientist, a sort of wunderkind.

Macchiarini captured headlines in 2011, a year after he had been recruited by the institute, for his work in regenerative medicine. That year he implanted a “bioartificial” trachea, one made from plastic and the patient’s own stem cells, into a man named Andemariam Beyene.

It seemed groundbreaking, at the time.

“I almost refused,” Beyene told the New York Times. It had only been done in pigs. But [Macchiarini] convinced me in a very scientific way.”

Thomson Reuters BioWorld likened his work to “science fiction” and the New York Times called it “a first.”

But in January 2014, as the Iceland Review noted, the trachea Macchiarini had implanted became loose, killing Beyene.

He wasn’t the only patient of Macchiarini to die.

Including Beyene’s, Macchiarini performed three of these transplant surgeries at Karolinska University Hospital.

Two of the three died, and one has been in intensive care since the surgery in 2012, Science reported.

Macchiarini made headlines again in 2015 when an independent review found that he overstated his work — in shocking ways.

As The Washington Post’s Sarah Kaplan wrote at the time:

The investigator who examined his studies said that Macchiarini was guilty of scientific misconduct by omitting or fabricating information about his patients’ postoperative status to make the procedure seem more successful than it really was.

Macchiarini’s reported misdeeds were later found to run even deeper, when areport last week found that only one of the three patients signed a consent form. All were capable of doing so.

Even that one signed form “would not have been approved” since the patient wasn’t afforded the option of discussing the procedure with an independent medical expert, the report said.

The report pointed out that a different synthetic material was used in each transplant, which hinted at a lack of research into which one actually worked and suggested an unreadiness for usage in human beings.

“Too little was known about the material in order for it to be able to begin to be used in patients,” it stated.

[How scientists built the world’s first lab-grown limbs]

Finally, it stated that growth-stimulating drugs were used in at least two of the surgeries without the necessary permit from the Swedish Medical Products Agency.

Another report, this one led by former president of Sweden’s Supreme Administrative Court Sten Heckscher and released Monday, was also highly critical of the renowned institution itself, claiming that Karolinska “has a certain responsibility for the transplantation.”

The English version of the report stated:

There are many instances of KI employees being involved in the discussions preceding and following up surgery. KI has also, in several contexts, cited the transplantations as part of its own activities. For example, they have been quoted as research successes in KI’s evaluations of how research funding has been utilized.

This report opined that KI never should have hired Macchiarini in the first place, considering the references the institution received concerning the surgeon.

“KI received remarkably negative references, including information that Macchiarini had been blocked from a professorship in Italy, that there were doubts surrounding his research and that his CV contained falsehoods,” itstated.

Lastly, the report found the hospital extended Macchiarini’s contract twice — once in 2013 and one in 2015 — with “no real evaluation or assessment of Macchiarini’s work.”

“Instead, the department management asked Macchiarini to describe his work himself,” it stated. The description was translated and used in the proposal to extend his contract that was submitted to the Recruitment Committee.”

Bo Risberg, a professor emeritus of surgery at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, told Science that asking Hamsten and Wallberg-Henriksson to resign from the Nobel Assembly was the proper decision.

“The Nobel Prize and the Karolinska are intimately related, particularly to observers outside Sweden,” 

Risberg said, calling the situation “the biggest scandal we have ever had in Swedish medicine.”

Currently, prosecutors are investigating Macchiarini on potential charges of involuntary manslaughter relating to the two patients who died after receiving the transplants.

Macchiarini has not commented on the new reports, but has previously disputed all charges, according to the Associated Pres

Strangest Medical Conditions You Never Heard Of

Top weirdest medical conditions in the world. Beware of these shocking & rare medical syndromes that make up some of the worst and most bizarre in the world.

Patto: Sri Lanka must be held accountable for war crimes

Since Malaysia and Sri Lanka have not ratified the Rome Statute, the UN Security Council was the only way the latter country can be held accountable for numerous war crimes.

September 5, 2016

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia must make its membership in the UN Security Council (UNSC) worthwhile by lobbying for a Resolution to refer Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes, crimes of aggression, genocide and crimes against humanity, said Batu Kawan MP Kasthuri Patto in a statement.

She reminded the war crimes arise from the bloody massacre of over 200,000 Tamils — Hindu, Christian and Muslim — by the Rajapaksa regime.

How else can Malaysia hold a government accountable on war crimes, genocide and ethnic cleansing? she asked.

Both Malaysia and Sri Lanka have not ratified the Rome Statute on the ICC, she pointed out. “The UNSC was the only way that Sri Lanka can be made accountable for numerous war crimes.”

Crimes, under the Rome Statute, were all carried out by Mahinda Rajapaksa when he was President of Sri Lanka and by previous Presidents as well, charged the MP.

The UNSC’s powers under the UN Charter are the legal basis whereby the ICC can investigate certain crimes, she argued. “This needs no consent requirement by the states involved.”

Undisputed war criminal Rajapaksa’s hands are still fresh with the blood of innocent Sri Lankans, she lamented. “Yet he’s walking free without the slightest shred of conscience or ounce of guilt.”

Malaysia’s membership in the UNSC will end in less than four months, she noted. “This is an opportunity for the Najib administration to redeem itself after being grossly insensitive in welcoming a Sri Lankan war criminal to the country.”

Malaysia returned to the UNSC, after a 15-year absence, as a non-permanent member representing the Asia Pacific region for the period 2014 to 2016.

Malaysia’s priorities include strengthening UN’s peacekeeping operations, peace building, and mediation, promoting the Global Movement of Moderates (GMM) and reforming the UNSC.

China, France, the Russian Federation, the UK and the US are permanent members of the UNSC.

Besides Malaysia, the other nine non-permanent member nations are Angola, Egypt, Japan, New Zealand, Senegal, Spain, Ukraine, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Building More Viharas In The North-East Will Negate Reconciliation Efforts

By Veluppillai Thangavelu –September 6, 2016

Veluppillai Thangavelu

On August 23, 2016 the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) passed a resolution during the 56th sitting unanimously condemning the building of a Buddhist vihara by Sri Lankan troops on land belonging to a Hindu temple in Kilinochchi. The resolution was moved by NPC member Subramaniam Pasupathipillai.

“The Kanakambikai Amman Temple has historical importance,” said Mr Pasupathipillai “The military has occupied the house of the Gurukkal located inside the temple premises and approximately 4.5 acres of land. They are now constructing unlawfully a Buddhist vihara in the courtyard of the house.”

Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Sivagnanam Sritharan visited the area recently, which has barbed wire fences around its perimeter.

Mankulam

“This is a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing of Tamils from their traditional homeland,” Ceylon News quotes the MP as saying. “This is a concerted Buddhist supremacist offensive by the government in the north using the military force.”

The Tamil National People’s Front’s Selvarajah Kajendran also commented on the development, stating that the move was “unacceptable”.

Northern Provincial Council Chairman C.V.K. Sivagnanam has forwarded the said resolution to President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. In his letter to the President and Prime Minister the Chairman of NPC explained that the construction of the Buddhist temple is on a 4.5 acres of land belonging to Kilinochchi Kanagambikai Amman temple administration board, but presently occupied by the armed forces. “This is a public encroachment of temple property and it is completely against the religious and national reconciliation.

Paranthan

He also pointed out that this is a public encroachment of the temple property and it is against the religious and national reconciliation striving to be achieved by the government. Hence the NPC requests His Excellency President and Hon. Prime Minister to take appropriate actions to stop the construction of the Buddhist temple and to hand over the land belonging to Kanagambikai temple to temple administration board.

On November 26, 2015 during the reign of President Mahinda Rajapaksa a newly constructed ‘Ata Visi Buddha Mandiraya’ at the 24 Gemunu Watch (GW) Headquarters under the Security Force Headquarters – Kilinochchi (SFHQ-KLN) was opened by the army. Major General Amal Karunasekara, Commander, SFHQ-KLN placed the Buddha Statues at the ‘Ata Visi Buddha Mandiraya’ and conducted religious observances by consecrating the peace. Senior Officers and other ranks also attended the ceremony.

Troops from the Sri Lankan military orchestrated a religious ceremony and placed 28 Buddha statues in the newly constructed Buddhist vihara building in Kilinochchi.

Iranai Madu

Buddhist monks attended the ceremony and blessed the newly constructed ‘Ata Visi Buddha Mandiraya’ at the Sri Lankan Security Force Headquarters. Senior military officers and other ranks also attend the ceremony. Apparently, the armed forces consider the Northeast provinces as occupied territory, similar to Israeli occupied Palestinian (the West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip) territory.

This is not the first instance where Buddhist viharas/statues have been erected by the Sri Lankan armed forces occupying the Northeast, but the pace and intensity has escalated since the defeat of the LTTE in May, 2009. It is part of the long-term conspiracy in the continued Sinhalization and Buddhistization of the Northeast since independence. The master-mind was Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake who under the guise of settling landless Sinhalese peasants launched massive colonization schemes like Gal Oya, Allai, and Kanthalai in the east. His successors opened up similar colonization schemes like Mudalikkulam (renamed Morawewa), Nochchikulam (re-named Nochiyagama), Periya Vilankulam (renamed Mahadielwewa) etc.

Kokkulai

The colonisation scheme was extended into the Northern province with the launching of the Manal Aru (renamed Weli Oya) colonization scheme by the Mahaweli Development Board in 1984. Though Manal Aru covered the districts of Mullaitivu, Trincomalee, Vavuniya and Anuradhapura administration was handled from the Sinhalese dominated Anuradhapura district.

A total of 13,288 Tamil families living in 42 villages for generations including Kokkulai Grama Sevakar Division (1516 Tamil families), Kokku –Thoduvai Grama Sevakar Division (3306 Tamil families), Vavuniya North Grama Sevakar Division (1342 Tamil families) and other Divisions of Mullaitivu District including Naiyaru and Kumulamunai (2011 Tamil families) were asked to vacate their homes and farmlands within 48 hours, on pain of eviction by force in case of default. This threat was issued by the army over the public address system. Simultaneously, land given to 14 Thamil entrepreneurs, including Kent Farm and Dollar Farm, on 99 years lease was also cancelled and taken over by the government under a gazette notification. Settlements in the Weli Oya began in 1984 as a dry zone farmer colony under the land Commission, but it was later acquired by the Mahaveli Economic Agency in 1988 and declared as the Mahaveli ‘L’ zone.

Vadduvagal

In fact colonization of Manal Aru colonization scheme commenced as early as 1984 and the Sinhalese army’s presence in the area dates back from the same year. The Sinhalese army did use force as promised and scores of Thamil villagers, some of them Hill country Thamil refugees, victims of earlier Sinhalese violence in 1983, were murdered and the rest fled in terror. The successive governments have used or abused the armed forces as an instrument of state terror against the Thamil people. This is true even today and the bulk of the army is deployed in the Northeast. Out of 20 army divisions, 14 of them (Jaffna – 51,52,53, Kilinochchi – 57,64,66, Mullaitheevu -59,64,68 and Vavuniya – 21,54, 56,61,62) are in the north and 3 (22,23, 30) in the eastern province. The highly politicised army is resisting release of thousands of acres of private lands owned by Thamils but falling within High Security Zones (HSZs) established by the army.

Kanagarayankukam (Tupa)

In 2014, after completion of Sinhalese colonization, Manal Aru area was re-attached to Mullaitheevu district. During the presidential election campaign in 2014, Mahinda Rajapaksa handed over title deeds to the land to 3,000 Sinhalese families at a ceremony held in Kilinochchi. A separate Sinhalese AGA division has been created for the area.

Since May, 2009 viharas/ statues have mushroomed in the Northeast, especially the north where there is heavy army presence. Here is a short list of districts where the army/navy has constructed Buddhist temples/statues though hardly there are Buddhist worshippers. The list is by no means complete.

(1) At Kanagarayankulam in Kilinochchi district a Buddha statue and a Stupa have been erected.

(2) At Mankulam in Vavuniya district a Buddhist vihara has been built. Electricity has been provided to this elaborate structure.

(3) At Iranaimadu in Mullaitheevu district a sculpture of a meditating Buddha has been installed under a peepul (Bo) tree.

(4) A Buddhist vihara has been constructed at Vadduvaakal in the Mullaitheevu district.

(5) A huge Buddhist vihara is under construction in Kokkulai in Mullaitheevu district after destroying the Hindu temple Karunaaddu Pillayar.

(6) A Buddhist vihara named Mahatota Raja Maha Vihara has come up within 50 meters of the famous Thirukethiswaram temple in Mannar district. The ancient name for Thirukethiswaram area was Mahathottam. The army planted a 1500 kilo metal Buddha statue on the shores of Palavi Theertham in the ancient temple. The fear is Thirukethiswaram may be converted to a Buddhist temple like Kathirkamam temple in the south.

Kilinochchi

Kathirkamam temple, the 2,500 years old Hindu shrine is now in the hands of Sinhalese. The Ohm sign above the entrance to the shrine has been removed. Those interested in projecting Kataragama as a Buddhist centre have capitalised on the colourful festival procession by introducing Buddhist rituals into it. On the day before the water-cutting ceremony, Lord Murugan goes to Kiri vihare to the Buddhists. Now, a `relic` is taken ceremoniously from the Buddhist temple (formerly Perumal Hindu Temple), to the Murugan temple, and then placed on a caparisoned elephant and made to lead the procession. Lord Murugan no more understands Thamil!

Sadly, but not surprisingly the Governor of the Northern province has strongly defended the building of Buddhist temples in the province saying that it is only part of a boom in the building of places of worship there.

“Big Hindu kovils are being built and many Christian denominations have come up with their buildings. But there are only 13 Buddhist temples in the entire Northern Province, we don’t object to the Hindu kovils and Christian churches coming up. We welcome them, I wonder why some should object if the Buddhists built their viharas” was his answer to a question put to him by a reporter at a press conference held in Colombo on 16th August, 2016. The reporter queried him why a Buddhist temple is being built on a person’s private property at Kokkulai in Mullaitivu district. A subject that has created tension among the local population.

Kanagarayankulam

Defending his stand, the Governor went on to say that the Buddhist temple had secured the permission of the local Pradesha Sabha and in a case against it; the court had upheld the construction. It also has the support of hundreds of Sinhalese families living there.

The Thamils see the construction of Buddhist temples as an extension of Sinhalese-Buddhist hegemony in the North after the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Thamil Eelam (LTTE). Thamils wonder why Buddhist temples are being built and Buddha’s statutes are erected in areas where there are no Buddhist worshippers. What is more irritating is the fact most of them are constructed by the armed forces. The message is just a reminder telling the Thamils they are under the Sinhala – Buddhist regime run by colonial governors. They are second class citizens with inferior status compared to Sinhalese.

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Government consolidates relationship with international community – next steps

By Jehan Perera-September 5, 2016, 7:48 pm 

The visit last week to Sri Lanka of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was in contrast to his previous visit in 2009, a few weeks after the country’s three decade long internal war came to its violent denouement. With the aftershocks of the war still subsiding his visit was neither encouraged nor welcomed by the then government. This time around the Sri Lankan government actively sought the visit of the UN Secretary General. It had achievements to show, and highlight, as they were oriented to good governance and reconciliation. Mr Ban Ki-moon appreciated the passage of the 19th Amendment to the constitution whereby the newly elected president voluntarily relinquished some of the extraordinary powers vested in the presidency. He also referred to the Right to Information Act which brings Sri Lanka to the fore of transparent government in terms of its potential.

In a speech he delivered during his visit the UN Secretary General said "This is my first visit to Sri Lanka since 2009, when I saw great suffering and hardship. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced and in need of humanitarian aid after the terrible conflict that tore the country apart…Today, the picture is very different. I congratulate the Government and people of Sri Lanka for the progress you have made." The aftermath of the war’s end in 2009 saw the incarceration of about 300,000 people who had been living in the battleground areas of the last phase of the war. These included tens of thousands of children, nursing mothers and the elderly and feeble. With single minded zeal to safeguard the country from terrorism, these war survivors were held in barbed wire camps in primitive conditions to ensure that LTTE members amongst them could be weeded out.

What seems to have impressed the UN Secretary General most of all was the visible difference he saw in the north of Sri Lanka that has occurred between2009 and 2016. When he visited Sri Lanka in 2009 he personally witnessed the incarceration of the 300,000 people. He also saw the vast destruction that war had brought to the north of the country. This time when he visited the change is remarkable. There is considerable reconstruction that has taken place with the road system better than it ever was in the past and with construction boom of new buildings, both by government and private investors. There is freedom of movement and freedom of speech. Freedom from fear is almost total, except for the apprehension that the present situation may not be sustainable and the past will come back to haunt the country.

OPEN GOVERNMENT

The rebuilding that has been taking place in the north, and which favourably impressed the visiting UN Secretary General is not a recent phenomenon. The large scale investments in infrastructure, including roads and public buildings, began shortly after the war ended under the previous government. It was unfortunate that the suspicions of the then government towards the Tamil people and international community meant that they did not trust members of the international community to come and see for themselves how life had changed in the country after the war. The previous government even debarred the handpicked team of investigators appointed by the UN Secretary General to visit Sri Lanka to investigate the last phase of the war. If they had been permitted to visit Sri Lanka and collect their information they would have seen for themselves that changes for the better were taking place after the war.

The major transformation in Sri Lanka at the present time is the openness of the government to the international community in all aspects. The passage of the Office of Missing Persons Act through Parliament shows that the government is serious about keeping its promises regarding the transitional justice process. The government is aware that it co-sponsored the UN Human Rights Council resolution on achieving post-war reconciliation and upholding of human rights, and therefore needs to keep its side of the agreement. It also knows it has to honour economic contracts, such as those with China, even if they were signed by members of the previous government on unfavourable terms to Sri Lanka. In addition, Prime Minister Ranil Wickemesinghe is travelling to different countries taking with him the message that Sri Lanka can become an example of post-war reconciliation and economic development.

Last week Sri Lanka hosted the 6th annual Defence Seminar which was appropriately titled "Soft Power and its Influence on Global Issues" and was attended by leading military commanders and scholars from around the world. The country defeated separatist militancy through the use of hard military power. The thrust of Foreign Secretary Esala Weerakoon’s concluding speech was that Sri Lanka’s soft power will also be how to win the peace and ensure that the country’s security forces are a respected and trusted part of the state alongside other institutions of good governance and rule-based systems such as an independent judiciary, public service, election commission and human rights commission. From January 2015 onwards, with the election of a national unity government headed by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sri Lanka has been on a course of democratic transition that has brought a shift in policy and in thinking on issues of governance and the protection of human rights meet international expectations.

DOMESTIC CHALLENGE

Now that the government is winning the hearts and minds of the international community, it is necessary to focus its attention on achieving similar success with the local population. At the time it defeated the previous government headed by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the new government generated enormous goodwill and positive expectations, particularly from those sectors of the population who felt under threat from the ethnic nationalism of the previous government which utilized the hard power of the state to intimidate and suppress them. However, this goodwill is in danger of being eroded due to the failure to implement changes on the ground. In recognition of the disillusionment that can set in, President Maithripala Sirisena’s affirmed that the problem of displacement will be addressed within three months in an effort to win the hearts and minds of the Tamil people.

There is also a need on the part of the government to keep the general public informed about the reforms it is planning both with respect to constitutional reform and the reconciliation process. It was reported last week that the government has fast-tracked the process of drafting the new Constitution. The Steering Committee which is drafting the constitutional proposals has decided to hold meeting on consecutive days so as to complete its task as early as possible. Four out of six sub-committees appointed to work on different aspects of the Constitution have submitted their reports to the Steering Committee headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The remaining two subcommittees were requested to submit their reports by the end of last week. The Steering Committee will incorporate the recommendations before compiling the final report to be presented to Parliament.

However, the general public knows little or nothing about the content of these constitutional reform proposals. This was reflected in a civil society meeting which was addressed by an opposition parliamentarian also last week. The theme of the discussion was the lack of transparency in the constitutional reform process and the dangers that can arise from it. He had said that there was a proposal to have a special constitutional court that would not be under the Supreme Court in matters of governance, and this could lead to authoritarian rule. The problem with the present lack of transparency is that it enables the opposition to make the case that both the constitutional reforms and the reconciliation process are jeopardizing the sovereignty and unity of the country. The less than enthusiastic local media coverage of the UN Secretary General’s visit reflects this suspicious thinking within the larger society whose hearts and minds are yet to be won over to the government’s political reform process.

SRI LANKA: HOW PTA VIOLATES THE RIGHTS OF POLITICAL PRISONERS

( National Movement for the Release of Political Prisoners continues to campaign for the release of political prisoners ©s.deshapriya)

05/09/2016

A memorandum showing how the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) violates the rights of political prisoners.

During the last 30 years due to the war that prevailed in the northern and eastern areas of Sri Lanka arrests were made. While the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) was made use of from arrests like that up to the court proceedings through that those persons as well as the Tamil people as a community of people were subjected to a grave violation of human rights.

The persons who were arrested under the PTA during the past from time to time were released though judicial processes as well as though political decisions. (ex: the detainees of all armed organizations operating in the north and east who were arrested and detained were granted release based on political decisions during the 1987 period. In 2001 when the government changed and the peace agreement was signed the release of detainees on political decisions has taken place). Such releases took place in instances when the war situation has not ended.

While the arrests and detentions under the PTA prevailed at a very high level during the last stages of the war with the end of the war fifteen thousand (15,000) had been under arrest. They have got the release though various methodologies and got integrated with the society and only a small number of persons still remain under detention in prisons.

Up to date seven years have lapsed after the end of the war.

Even from time to time arrests and detentions are made making use of the PTA.

During a period of more than 30 years making use of the PTA from the point of arrest up to the point of acquittal or conviction within the judicial process have entailed grave violations of human rights and disregard of the law causing intensive injustices and it still continues to happen.

We are presenting below major concerns  we have identified.

1.    Arrest

•    While the arrest have happened in an arbitrary way what has happened in most instances were abductions.
•    Few days after the abduction the detention within a police division comes to be known.
•    Unidentified groups abducting and handing over to legitimate security divisions after detaining at unknown places for weeks or months.
•    The abductees have been subjected to torture in terrible ways.

2.    Detention

•    After arrests keeping in detention under Detention Orders for long periods (most detainees for one and a half years or more unlawfully) purportedly for investigations in various police divisions and thereafter remanding them.
•    There are persons who have been kept under the custody of investigation divisions for more than 5 years. They have been indicted in High Courts while being detained as such and are being produced in courts for the cases under the custody of those divisions. They have not been presented in a Magistrate Court even for one day.
•    Had been subjected to torture while being under detention.

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In first visit to Sri Lanka since end of war, Ban flags role of human rights and sustainable development on path to stability

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon addresses event in Sri Lanka on “Sustaining Peace – Achieving Sustainable Development Goals.” UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe--A young girl and her mother at a displaced persons camp in Vavuniya, Sri Lanka (2009). Photo: IRIN

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon meets residents of the resettlement area in Palai Veemankamam South Village, Sri Lanka. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe-Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (at lectern) addresses a press conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka, at the conclusion of his official visit to the country. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

2 September 2016 – In his first visit to Sri Lanka since the end of its civil war seven years ago, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised the country’s steps towards peace and reconciliation, while also highlighting the importance of and need for more progress with human rights and sustainable development for that progress.

“This is my first visit to Sri Lanka since 2009, when I saw great suffering and hardship. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced and in need of humanitarian aid after the terrible conflict that tore the country apart,” Mr. Ban said in his speech to an event held on the theme ‘SDG16: Sustaining Peace – Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals,’ held in the capital, Colombo.

“I called for fast reconciliation and action to build peace, in the knowledge that conflict can recur in fragile post-war societies. Today, the picture is very different,” he added. “I congratulate the Government and people of Sri Lanka for the progress you have made. There remains much hard work ahead, but you have moved with determination along a new path with great promise for all the country’s people.”

The United Nations supported political efforts to resolve the civil war and, during its final stages in 2009, strongly advocated respect for human rights and a humane and orderly end to the fighting. In the aftermath of the conflict, according to the UN Department of Political Affairs, the world body – through the work of its agencies, funds and programmes – has assisted with the return and resettlement of civilians uprooted by the conflict. It has also encouraged the Government of Sri Lanka to adopt policies to promote political reconciliation and a credible accountability process for allegations of wartime violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.

Although much to be done, Ban commends progress so far

In his remarks, the Secretary-General took note of Sri Lanka’s progress since the end the civil war, especially since a new government – that of President Maithripala Sirisena – took office in January this year.

He commended its efforts to move forward on a comprehensive transitional justice agenda and on a constitutional reform process, as well as symbolic steps such as the decision to sing the National Anthem in Sinhala and Tamil on the country’s Independence Day last February – the first time this had happened since the 1950s.

“These steps have built confidence and trust, and strengthened transparency and accountability,” Mr. Ban said. “But more can and should be done to address the legacy of the past and acknowledge the voices of the victims. Sri Lanka is still in the early stages of regaining its rightful position in the region and the international community. There is still much work to be done in order to redress the wrongs of the past and to restore the legitimacy and accountability of key institutions, particularly the judiciary and the security services.”

Links between 2030 Agenda and Sri Lanka’s path to stability

In his remarks, the Secretary-General also highlighted the links between the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sri Lanka’s own path to stability and peace.

“The 2030 Agenda marks a watershed in the way we have formally linked peace and security to sustainable development,” said Mr. Ban. “It points the way towards reducing violence, promoting harmony and prosperity, and making the world safer for all. The entire 2030 Agenda is centred on respect for human rights. It aims to ensure that no one is left behind, by reaching out to the most vulnerable and marginalized first.”

In particular, he singled out SDG16, which is centred on the promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, the provision of access to justice for all and building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

“Goal 16 is a benchmark for peaceful and inclusive societies. It demands action against corruption and crime. It requires that institutions function in a transparent and efficient way, based on the rule of law, and that access to justice is guaranteed for all,” the UN chief said. “These are important targets in themselves, but they are also crucial for achieving all the other Goals.”

Importance of a human rights-based approach

The Secretary-General flagged that a human rights-based approach is fundamental both to post-conflict reconciliation, and to global peace and prosperity.

“Here in Sri Lanka, the world’s work for human rights faced one of its most difficult tests. The decades-long civil war saw terrible violence, terrorism, the use of human shields and other grievous violations of human rights and humanitarian law,” he said. “In the conflict’s decisive final stages, tens of thousands of civilians perished. The war was ended – an unquestionable good for Sri Lanka, the region and the world. But we also know that even in its ending, the price was high.”

“I again commend Sri Lankans for examining the difficult period you have now begun to leave behind. I am sure those efforts will continue to generate important lessons for the international community that can save many lives in many places,” Mr. Ban added.

He noted that all sectors of society, in particular women and youth, must be involved in planning for peace and sustainable development, and the results must benefit all.

Recalling his meeting with youth at an event in the southern city of Galle yesterday, the Secretary-General said he was inspired by their vision for a peaceful and sustainable future. He also called for women to “take their rightful place,” and paid special tribute to Radhika Coomaraswamy, his former Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, for having worked tirelessly for women and children throughout her many years of public service for the UN.

In concluding his remarks, the Secretary General called on all sections of the country, as well as its international partners, to come forward with coordinated support for the framework the government has put in place. He said he looked forward to their contributions in taking this country forward on the new path of peace and reconciliation.

Ban addresses news conference

Also on Friday, the Secretary-General addressed a news conference in Colombo, during which he noted the progress the country has made since his last visit, particularly in relation to a visit made earlier today to the northern city of Jaffna, which has a large Tamil population. While there, he met with the Tamil political leadership, civil society members and the governor and discussed the government’s efforts on transitional justice, peacebuilding and reconciliation.

“Great progress has been made in alleviating the problems associated with mass displacement,” Mr. Ban said. “When I was there almost seven years ago, they were all staying in refugee tents. Now they have been building brick houses. While I was also sad to see that they are still suffering from all of these, I saw that they were very busy, they were making their own lives with the help of the international community, UNHCR and other United Nations agencies.”