UN rights expert to visit Sri Lanka to assess current situation of minorities 

GENEVA / COLOMBO (5 October 2016) – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Rita Izsák-Ndiaye, will carry out an official visit to Sri Lanka from 10 to 20 October 2016 to assess the current situation of national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities in the country.

“Experience has shown that the recognition and promotion of minority rights are critical, if not requisite, in achieving long-lasting peace and reconciliation, particularly in countries such as Sri Lanka that were once divided by ethnic conflicts,” noted the independent expert tasked by the UN Human Rights Council to monitor, report and advise in the field of minority rights globally.

“Considering the long-standing grievances that were at the roots of the 25-year civil war in Sri Lanka, any efforts towards accountability and reconciliation must include a careful examination of the extent to which the rights of minorities are protected and promoted in the country,” Ms. Izsák-Ndiaye said.

During her ten-day mission, the human rights expert will visit Colombo as well as other locations in the Northern, North Central, Eastern and Central Provinces to meet with minority communities to hear directly from them about their issues and concerns. The Special Rapporteur will also meet with a wide range of other stakeholders, including State authorities, the National Human Rights Commission and civil society actors.

Ms Izsák-Ndiaye, who visits Sri Lanka at the invitation of the Government, noted: “While I recognise the important advances made since the new administration was sworn in last year, the Government still faces immense challenges in terms of fostering unity, non-discrimination, peace and understanding among groups in the country.”

“My visit is intended to assist the Government and the Sri Lankan society at large in identifying challenges and solutions, as well as sharing experiences at this critical time for Sri Lanka,” she added.

The Special Rapporteur will present her preliminary findings and recommendations at a press conference to be held on Thursday 20 October 2016, at 2 pm, at the UN Conference Room, United Nations Compound, 202-204, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 7. Access to the press conference is strictly limited to journalists.

Ms. Izsák-Ndiaye will present her full report on the mission to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2017.

Ms. Rita Izsák-Ndiaye (Hungary) was appointed as Independent Expert on minority issues by the Human Rights Council in June 2011 and subsequently her mandate was renewed as Special Rapporteur on minority issues in March 2014. She is tasked by the UN Human Rights Council, to promote the implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, among other things.  Learn more, visit:http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Minorities/SRMinorities/Pages/SRminorityissuesIndex.aspx

The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

Check the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/Minorities.aspx

UN Human Rights, country page – Sri Lanka: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/AsiaRegion/Pages/LKIndex.aspx

For more information and media requests, please contact:

In Colombo (during the visit): Mrs. Niroshini Fernando, (+94 (0) 777 55 9261 niroshini.fernando@one.un.org, and Juan Fernández-Jardon, (+94 (0) 76 6925500 /   juan.fernandez@one.un.org)

In Geneva (before and after the visit): Ms. Olga Nakajo (+41 22 928 9348 / onakajo@ohchr.org) or write to  minorityissues@ohchr.org.

For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts:
Xabier Celaya, UN Human Rights – Media Unit (+ 41 22 917 9383 / xcelaya@ohchr.org)  

- See more at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20642&LangID=E#sthash.XJoBiL3S.dpuf

Notes on peace from northern Sri Lanka

 SWARNA RAJAGOPALAN | Wed, 5 Oct 2016-10:00am , dna webdesk

Peace is a mixed bag—hope and despair, tedium and anticipation, fear and freedom. It seems almost to depend on silence. For some, it is denial; for others, survival.

This year, I spent International Day of Peace in Jaffna and Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka. We drove up and down A9, a road I have always associated with military operations during the war, although its history precedes the conflict. Between Elephant Pass and Kilinochchi, war memorials line the highway, underscoring this association. At the southern end, at the entrance stands a concrete sign bearing the words, “Kilinochchi, the heart of hope and peace.” At the northern end, the sign reads “Kilinochchi: The rising city with peace, hope and harmony.”

“Now, there is peace.” What does peace mean?

It means that after decades of shunting between two warring parties, trying not to be either recruited or shot, people can breathe and think about other kinds of survival. Peace means the prospect of loans and of phones, of travel and of opportunity. Peace is the proliferation of banks and small hotels—the appearance of a small town on global travel websites. Peace is school-children riding bicycles on the road alongside military and tourist vehicles.

Peace is silky-smooth highways that link one rural road to another. It is the military-looking men— some police, some army, some navy—that desolately punctuate the highways, holding their rifles. It is the mammoth war memorials everywhere—as if those who suffered, and everyone suffered, can ever forget. Peace is the bus-loads of tourists who come to see the sites of war and enemy bunkers and it is also the military-run holiday beach resorts. Peace is driving down a long road with no check-points, but thinking as one sees a place-name, “Is this where...?”

Peace is a strange thing, but we are told, it is here.

The traces of war

The shiny and new, the run-down and the utterly ruined sit cheek by jowl as we drive these roads. There are abandoned houses everywhere. Some sit alone in the middle of fields. Some are on arterial roads we pass all the time. I cannot tell what they are and who they belong to. Some must have been mansions that belonged to wealthy families. I try to imagine the car that stood in their driveway or the cows tethered to a shed in the backyard. Some must have been family homes that saw a dozen grandchildren run up and down and sit down to eat together. Some stand forgotten, some have contesting claims.

Run-down shacks stand by the sea. Small temples, actually brick or cement boxes, with just a picture of some deity, remain here and there. The coast is full of shrines. God, in every form, is mute witness to everything that has happened, as are the sea, the sky and the trees that survived. The clouds, like people, have to move on.

Infrastructure development has clearly been a post-war priority because the main roads are surely the envy of this neighbourhood, but it is patchy enough that the new simply stands awkwardly next to the old and run-down. Banks, ATMs, supermarkets and boutiques have emerged but few large, local enterprises able to hire the thousands of young people in this area. Everything is here but still it’s a little bit like a world left behind.

War lingers in the silences. Every topic, every reason, every explanation is fair game. But in this time of peace, let us not mention war at all.

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Wigneswaran: The slow death of a moderate?

How did the sitar-playing, sage-like Chief Minister of the Northern Province fall within the grasp and influence of Tamil nationalists and bankrupt politicians in only three years? And can the TNA bring him back into the fold? 

Thursday, 6 October 2016

When Canagasabapathy Visuvalingam Wigneswaran took over as the country’s first democratically elected Chief Minister of the war-torn Northern Province, bureaucrats were awed by his stature and personality.

Soft strains of classical sitar music played over the sound system of the Provincial Council chamber in Kaithady, Jaffna shortly before the Chief Minister made his maiden address at the newly elected assembly. Bureaucrats chose the music carefully because Wigneswaran himself was a ‘master sitarist’, and they hailed the new leader of the Northern Province as a ‘rajarishi’ or Chief Sage.  An erudite man of deep religious faith, Wigneswaran had the unmistakable air of statesman about him when he was first elected to office.

In an election campaign fraught with tension, abuse and military led intimidation, the people of the Northern Province voted overwhelmingly for the Tamil National Alliance in the provincial council polls of September 2013. The TNA won 30 out of 38 seats – a two-thirds majority – in the Northern Provincial Council being constituted for the first time.

Running the provincial administration was never going to be easy. Contentious devolution arrangements, a military Governor and an administration in Colombo with a solid mistrust of ethnic minorities made for a rocky road for the new provincial assembly. The NPC was also the first real test of the India designed 13th Amendment to the constitution that offered limited powers over regional affairs to provincially elected leaders, in the postwar period.

TNA Leader R. Sampanthan’s choice for Chief Minister seemed like a masterstroke at the time. Wigneswaran was born in the capital Colombo and schooled in Kurunegala and Anuradhapura before entering Royal College – the educational institution most closely associated with the country’s ruling classes. He speaks Sinhalese fluently and during his career in the judiciary, Wigneswaran served in courts in the north and south. Having lived most of his life in the ethno-religious melting pot that is the capital, Wigneswaran was a far cry from an insular Tamil regional politician.

The TNA’s choice for Chief Minister was hailed widely in moderate circles of the South. There was certainty that Wigneswaran would bring to the new provincial administration the measured political approaches TNA leadership had adopted in the national arena in the post-war period.

In some ways, Wigneswaran carried not only the hopes of the Northern people who directly elected him but moderates and progressives in the South, who were backing greater devolution and political autonomy for the Tamil dominated regions. ‘With politicians like Wigneswaran at the helm of provincial affairs, what was to be feared from offering greater control over their own affairs to the periphery’ was the crux of the moderate argument in the south. Some analysts however warned that Wigneswaran’s lapses on the campaign trail 2013, when he hailed Vellupillai Prabhakaran as a hero like Keppetipola, were a dangerous sign of his willingness to sacrifice his principles at the altar of populism. 

2014: Staying the course

In his first year in office, the Chief Minister appeared to be living up to most of this expectation. There were allegations that the NPC was not doing enough to improve livelihoods or public infrastructure that had a direct impact on the lives of some 450,000 people who had reposed their faith in the TNA-led administration. But in 2013-2014, this was easily chalked up to intransigence by the Centre led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and powers afforded to the Northern Province Governor, retired Major General G.A. Chandrasiri who would continue to hold the provincial bureaucracy in his vice-like grip even after the election of the new Council.

Still, as the most recently elected representative of the Northern people, Wigneswaran retained a certain stature in national politics. Visiting foreign officials rarely skipped a meeting with the Chief Minister, affording him greater status than elected leaders of other provinces. Throughout most of 2014, Wigneswaran stayed the course, highlighting the grievances of the Tamil people and working collaboratively with the TNA.

The Chief Minister’s transformation began around the time that the Rajapaksa administration was ousted in a shocking election result in January 2015. On 4 February 2015, the new Government held Independence Day celebrations in a markedly different way, making a special statement of peace in solidarity with all victims of the 26-year civil war. For the first time since 1976, representatives of the country’s main Tamil party attended the Independence Day function, signalling the potential for a new era of cooperation between the Sinhala and Tamil political leadership. 

February 2015: First sign of rebellion

Just days later, in the wake of sharp divisions within the TNA about Sampanthan’s decision to attend the Independence Day function, Chief Minister Wigneswaran fired the first salvo.

On 10 February 2015, the NPC led by Chief Minister Wigneswaran adopted the now infamous ‘Genocide resolution’ that extremist elements in the Council had been agitating for over a period of time. Until February 2015, Wigneswaran had resisted pressure to bring this resolution to the Council, but his capitulation on this front seemed to be one of the first signs of the Chief Minister’s gradual process of radicalisation.

Disillusioned with the Government the TNA helped to bring to power, Wigneswaran opted to stay “neutral” during the 2015 Parliamentary Elections, while at the same time tilting heavily towards urging support for Gajen Ponnambalam’s hardline Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF).

As for his provincial administration, he allowed it to lapse into complete ineffectuality. The NPC has passed few statutes that make a tangible difference to the lives of people on the ground in the war-battered region. Fisheries is a devolved subject under the 13th Amendment and hundreds of South Indian fishing trawlers light up the horizons in islands off the Jaffna peninsula every week, stealing the livelihoods of impoverished Northern fishermen and depleting Sri Lanka’s marine resources. But the NPC has done little to address the problem or even to lobby the Centre for solutions, perhaps fearing pushback from Tamil Nadu, where Tamil hardliners find their greatest ideological support.

Wigneswaran also squandered a golden opportunity to make a difference locally, while retired diplomat Siri Palikhakkara functioned as Governor of the Northern Province for one year after the new Government took office in Colombo. An efficient bureaucrat with moderate leanings, Palihakkara promised the Chief Minister he would negotiate with the Central Government to ensure the NPC had the capacity to function effectively as a regional administration. But the Chief Minister, increasingly in the thrall of a nationalist wave sweeping across the North and finding voice for the first time since the end of the war with the easing of military suppression in the region, would have none of it. 

Unrecognisable Chief Minister

The only mark the NPC has made having just completed half its term has been to pass several controversial resolutions, apparently with the sole aim of antagonising the Centre and the southern polity, and angering the TNA’s international partners who view this conduct as largely counterproductive to finding a permanent political solution to longstanding Tamil grievances.

Twenty months after the first signs of rebellion with the ‘Genocide’ resolution, the moderate and measured Chief Minister elected in September 2013 is almost unrecognisable today. A coterie of Tamil hardliners drawn from the ranks of Jaffna’s powerful civil society, ultra nationalist political parties and radical academics has cast a net around the Chief Minister, alienating him from TNA moderates and driving him towards an ever more nationalist political agenda.

Two weeks after he decided to lead the controversial ‘Eluga Tamil’ (Rise, Tamil!) rally, Sri Lanka’s first Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran remains in the eye of a relentless political storm. Wigneswaran has attempted to walk back some of the more controversial slogans of Eluga Tamil, claiming his remarks at the rally were misinterpreted by the southern media. Reading a statement out in Sinhalese at the National Sports Festival in Jaffna, Wigneswaran tried to clarify that it was unauthorised Buddhist structures being erected in the north with the support of the army that he was opposed to. According to the Chief Minister, these constructions did not have the necessary approvals from the provincial administration. 

Controversial slogans

But the clarification notwithstanding, there is no denying that the organisers of Eluga Tamil used the two most controversial slogans of the rally in the propaganda leading up to the event. Alleged Sinhalese colonisation and the construction of Buddhist shrines in the Hindu-dominated region were the main themes of the Chief Minister’s open letter published days before the rally, in which he called on the Tamil people to participate in the event.

Concerns about Sinhalese settlements being created with the support of the military and the many Buddhist shrines cropping up in the Northern Province in an alleged attempt to change the ethnic demographic and subsume the Tamil cultural identity of the region are hardly unfounded. But Eluga Tamil also highlighted a host of other Tamil grievances: continued militarisation, the release of private lands and a political solution based on federal model.  Yet the organisers chose to lead the meeting with the two demands that would play most controversially with the Sinhalese.

Political observers say this was a thinly veiled attempt to whip up a frenzy of nationalism in the south that could sabotage negotiations on power sharing arrangements to be included in the new constitution. Tamil hardliners who thrive on the politics of division and may even harbour residual separatist dreams, do not favour these negotiations and fear a breakthrough would relegate them to political irrelevance if the power sharing proposals are widely accepted by the Tamil people at a referendum.

In the aftermath of the rally, which continues to create waves in the South, proponents of the demonstration have sought to represent Eluga Tamil as an apolitical democratic mobilisation; an analysis that glosses over the problematic politics practiced by its main organisers who were responsible for mobilising the large crowds present at the meeting two weeks ago.

The critics also take a naive view of the intent of many of the Eluga Tamil organisers, which appears to have been an explicit attempt to antagonise the South and push southern politicians into reassuring their constituencies that they will not concede to Tamil demands on federalism and demilitarisation. The political discourse following the Eluga Tamil event is inflicting grievous harm to the constitution building process that seeks to deliver a final solution on the ethnic conflict. It has provided impetus to rabidly nationalist Sinhalese movements in the South to mobilise support against devolution proposals envisioned for the new constitution.

The rally has also exacerbated fears already prevalent in the Southern polity about granting greater powers for the provinces. Most disturbingly, the event appears to have empowered Tamil nationalists in ways that could create serious political volatility in the North. 

Heckling the moderates

Last weekend, at a book launch in Jaffna, a small group of radicals allegedly associated with the Tamil Peoples’ Council Wigneswaran chairs, heckled and disrupted three moderate politicians invited to speak at the event.

TNA MP Sumanthiran, TULF Leader Anandasangaree and NPC Opposition Leader Thavarajah were at the receiving end of the disruptions, for articulating moderate political positions. The same crowds wildly cheered Ponnambalam, Suresh Premachandran and others who also spoke at the launch.

Reports surfaced that attempts to harass Sumanthiran as he was leaving Saraswathy Hall had been foiled by the large crowds surrounding the TNA parliamentarian during his departure. While the radicals were greatly outnumbered at the book launch, the developments raise fears about the security of moderate politicians working in the North, even as nationalist sentiment takes hold in the region.

If the hysteria spirals out of control, it will not be Suresh Premachandran, Gajen Ponnambalam and NPC Member Shivajilingam on whom the volatility will be blamed. By his actions and his support, Chief Minister Wigneswaran has declared himself the spiritual leader of this nationalist movement. And it was of Wigneswaran, that greater things were expected.

It remains unclear how the moderate Supreme Court Judge was co-opted into a dangerous game by Tamil hardliners. But as he spent more and more time in Jaffna, Wigneswaran was brought increasingly under the influence of this groups, even as he actively distanced himself from the moderate TNA leadership. The Chief Minister claimed in an interview with Daily FT last month, that he had become a “native Jaffna man” who no longer sees issues from the perspective of the south.

“You adjust your thought processes according to the people around you,” the Chief Minister said, explaining the TNA leadership’s more conciliatory attitudes towards the Government of the South and the constitution-making process. “If I was in the South, my attitudes may have been the same,” he added. 

Divided loyalties

Yet from time to time and especially as he tries to defend himself against a storm of criticism following the rally, the Chief Minister also appears torn about his loyalties and still reluctant to break completely with ITAK and the TNA.

Reports are also surfacing that in light of ITAK opposition and growing southern suspicion for Eluga Tamil and its motivations, the Chief Minister had been expressing reluctance to attend the rally at the last moment. Politicians like Premachandran, whose EPRLF remains a constituent member of the TNA, had been at the forefront of convincing the Chief Minister to attend and make a speech at the event, highly placed sources told Daily FT.

Basking in the glow of large crowds Eluga Tamil managed to mobilise, Premachandran and other Tamil hardliners are convinced that the time is ripe to break with the TNA and strike out as a political alternative to the main Tamil party. Discussions about the timing of this break have already commenced, according to some sources in the North. The Chief Minister’s leadership is of course central to this plan. Without Wigneswaran the group planning to break from the TNA is made up of Tamil politicians whose brand of politics has no popular backing. Both Premachandran and Ponnambalam failed to secure seats at the 2015 Parliamentary election and the Tamil People’s Council made up of Jaffna professionals and academics has no electoral mandate. The Chief Minister, elected in 2013 with a majority of over 100,000 votes, is the only hope for a political future for this nationalist grouping.

So somehow, over the course of nearly two years, the Chief Minister has allowed himself to become a pawn in a game being played by lesser politicians in the Northern Province, whose ideas and politics have proven bankrupt at nearly every election since 2010. Wigneswaran offers this group legitimacy and perhaps even an electoral future. All they offer him in turn is the opportunity to squander his political legacy as the first Chief Minister of the North by driving him towards radical Tamil nationalism and intransigence on the ethnic question. 

Saving Wiggie? 

So far, Wigneswaran has resisted the calls to break away. True to character, he is likely to mull over that decision for several months more, barring some development in the North or the South that could hasten his choice. As the party contemplates its course of action with regard to its rebellious Chief Minister, it is this reluctance Wigneswaran is showing that could be giving the leadership pause.

In Parliament on Tuesday, even as he maintained the TNA position on the Eluga Tamil rally, Sampanthan defended his Chief Minister, saying his statements were being misrepresented in the press. The continuing tolerance of the Chief Minister and his antics is raising questions in the South about whether the TNA Leader could be using the increasingly hardline Wigneswaran as leverage in his negotiations with Colombo.

But in spite of this discourse, the TNA Leader is unlikely to make sudden decisions with regard to its Chief Minister yet. To begin with, that would be out of character for Sampanthan, party insiders say. The TNA Leader prefers to allow things to take its natural course and while his decisions have not always satisfied everyone in the party, Sampanthan has managed to keep an unwieldy coalition of Tamil parties together against all odds for six years.

For another, perhaps the TNA still believes Wigneswaran is not completely lost and could be brought back to the fold. The Chief Minister’s conduct offers little hope of such a scenario developing, but if there was a chance to reset the clock on his waywardness, that would still be preferable. The Chief Minister’s return to the path of moderate politics would strengthen the TNA’s hand at the negotiating table. It will also relegate bankrupt nationalist politicians riding high in the North today and their southern counterparts, back to the fringes where they belong. In the long term interest of winning the peace for all communities in Sri Lanka, that remains the best possible option. But can the Chief Minister still be saved? 

Justice Wigi: Time up for the Judgement Day !

The Chief Minister and the Councillors are not discharging their duties paid for and engaging in activities outside the scope of their contract with the Council. 

by Rajasingham Jayadevan -October 6, 2016

( October 5, 2016, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) First and foremost, let me welcome your forthcoming visit to London to inter-twine a relationship between the London Borough of Kingston and the Northern Provincial Council (NCP)to exchange knowledge and experiences between the two Councils. 

I am one of those who overwhelmingly supported your election as Chief Minister of NCP that you won with landmark support from the people three years ago. 

But unfortunately, the past three years of the NCP has caused considerable consternations for many. The issues fundamental and legal have been undermined and the NCP is only pulling through by engaging in matters that are outside its very scope of governance. 

This is my effort to initiate and energise a public debate to dissect in a critical light your performance as the Chief Minister of the NCP with the hope that there will be due diligence conduct in the management of the Council at least in your remaining years in office. 

Having discussed the very failures of governance of the NCP with authoritative sources with both section of the divide, I am numbed that these issues have not invited the much-needed interest of the media to invoke a just public debate. 

I humbly request you to forget for some moment that you are the Chief Minister of the NCP and  think that you are a Supreme Court Judge wearing the judicial attire of robe and hat to preside over a hearing and adjudge on a hypothetical Provincial Council that was formed under the 13^th Amendment to the constitution of Sri Lanka. 

The Claimant’s case is that the said Council: 

1.   Was duly elected in a first ever election for the said Provincial Council. The citizens who voted were the stakeholders (or the recruitment panel) and have elected a Chief Minister and the Council members having heard their views in the election campaign. The candidates elected were found to be fit and proper to administer the Council. 

2.   The employment contract of the Chief Minister and the elected Councillors is the provisions of the 13^th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka. There are defined sets of rules under the said Amendment for the administration of the Council.

3.   The governor is provided with the experienced civil servants by the government to transact the day to day business of the Council. 

4.   There is a concurrent list of powers. These are vested with the government and managed through the appointed Governor. The issues that needs to be responded to are the powers vested with the elected members to the Council. 

5.   The government allocates funds for the effective functioning of the Council. 

6.   The Chief Minister and the Councillors are the paid servants of the government to discharge their contractual responsibilities under 13^th Amendment to the Constitution. 

7.   Any international engagement with the Council on its defined mandate must have the approval of the government. 

The Claimant claims: 

1.  However limited the powers of the Chief Minister is, he has been elected to administer within those limited powers. 

2.  Greater emphasis is put on the said Council that was elected for the first time. Certain procedural and statutory processes must be established for the effective management of the Council. In that, the primary tasks were to establish:

i. A good rapport with the civil servants appointed by the government for guidance and smooth transactions of the business of the said council.

ii.  To pass the much needed statutes – some say it is 105 and the Opposition Leader of the Council claims it is 300.

Following on these: 

• The civil servants are half-hearted as a result of insults and abuse by the elected members that is frustrating the smooth administration of the Council. 
• Of the said statues, only three have been passed so far resulting in the Councils inability to fully use the funds allocated by the government.  These unused funds are forfeited as result of failure to pass the statues. But there are accusations that the government is unreasonably recalling the funds back.
• The Claimant also claims that a well-intended Non-Government Organisation (NGO)  and few concerned citizens had come forward to help the Chief Minister by amending the statutes of another well-functioning Provincial Council to passage the through the floor of the said Council. But the Chief Minister has disregarded their assistance for reasons unknown and have not passed the much needed Statues.

The Claimant also Claims: 

• The Chief Minister and the Councillors are not discharging their duties paid for and engaging in activities outside the scope of their contract with the Council. 
• They are preoccupied passing resolutions after resolutions that are not the scope or prima facie function of the Provincial Council. 
• They are involving in political campaign work and debates during working time and as a result are unable to administer the Council under the 13^th Amendment to the Constitution they have subscribed to. 
• They have used their time and resources of the Council to hold a public demonstration on issues that are not the mandate of the Council.

The Claimant ask you as the presiding Judge of the Supreme Court to: 

1.  Adjudge on the contractual status of the Chief Minister and the Councillors with their employer- the said hypothetical Provincial Council. 

2.  That the Chief Minister and the Councillors are functioning ultra-virus to the 13^th Amendment to the Constitution.

 3.  Rebuke the Chief Minister for the malfunctioning of the Council. 

4.  Set a deadline to pass the remaining statues. 

5.  Adjudge on passing of excessive resolutions that are not compatible to the administration of the Council. 

6.  Pronounce on the justification of engaging in a public demonstration outside the scope of the management of the Provincial Council during working time. 

7.  Find whether the elected members have abused their working time parameters by engaging in activities that are outside the scope of their contractual obligations with the said Council.  

8.  Opinionate whether people electing the Chief Minister and the Councillors fully understood the elected persons duties or was there lack or devoid of debate on the governance of the Council in the election three years ago.

'Whatever the army saw, they destroyed': looting and loss in Sri Lanka's civil war

In an extract from his memoir, A Long Watch: War, Captivity and Return in Sri Lanka, Commodore Ajith Boyagoda recalls senseless destruction by soldiers

A Tamil Tiger flag flies in the northern city of Jaffna during Sri Lanka’s civil war. Photograph: In Pictures/Getty Images

Commodore Ajith Boyagoda, as told to Sunila Galappatti-Tuesday 4 October 2016

One moment stands out for me as the most formative of my military career. This was in Karainagar, on another of the northern islands, immediately after our military operation there in 1991. Dealing with the civilian sick and weak you really feel the effects of war.

In April of that year, I was awaiting transfer to Jaffna, eight years after my last posting to the north. I was summoned a month early because the naval base at Karainagar was under siege. The news in the east, where I was when I received the order, was that the camp was about to be overrun by the Tigers. Apart from the sea route, all other approaches were under siege. The news we received by radio reported heavy mortar attacks on the base at night. When I left Trincomalee, many of my colleagues did not even want to shake hands with me and wish me good luck. They felt I was going to a certain death.

We left at night, journeying in a gunboat along the eastern coast and around the top of the island. We sailed from Trincomalee past Mullaitivu to Point Pedro and on to Karainagar by morning. Sea access was secure and the navy patrolled the Karainagar channel. As we approached the base, I saw casualties being removed and taken to the nearby air force base at Palaly.

Other personnel were going off shift – we were on a regular relief vessel going to remove troops and deploy new ones. The men leaving told us there had been a lot of bombing the night before and we should expect more that night. I was to be second in command at the base.

There is a routine even in these things. During the day there was generally a reprieve from fighting. There was better cover for the LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] at night, when they couldn’t be seen from the air, so this generally was when they attacked.

They were attacking with locally made mortars, known as Pasillan 5000 and Pasillan 2000. The numbers indicate the count of iron pellets inside the mortars. These are dispersed as shrapnel when the mortar explodes. This was custom made LTTE ammunition – cased in aluminium that had usually been removed from the floorboards of buses. But these mortars had to land directly on their nose to explode. Often we recovered unexploded mortars in the morning. In fact, most were wasted. Later on, they improved their technology.

For several weeks, as I remember, the bombardment went on almost every night. Towards the end of April, we broke out of our defensive position. At dawn, air force planes bombed the perimeter of the base to clear the way. Then armoured vehicles broke through the LTTE defences. Infantry troops followed. As army troops cleared the ground, naval troops took up position. We lost a few men and a few others were injured. There was a strategic importance to not losing this base.

After the operation was completed we emerged from our base. We realised then that the LTTE attack had not itself been that bad. I’m not sure it was much more than a few guys lobbing mortars at the base. But we saw a different kind of destruction when we came out.

In Karainagar, everything had been broken open. It felt like 90% of the houses had been forced open by the marching troops. It was here I really saw the mentality of a Sinhala army walking through a Tamil village. Whatever they saw, they destroyed. Wardrobes had been opened, clothes pulled out, family photographs smashed. The cattle and the goats had been let loose. I saw cows inside houses. I think anyone returning to one of those homes would not have thought twice. If they were young, they would enlist with the LTTE.

People had been directed to move to the temples. The army announced the instruction. Any marching army, seeing a figure moving inside a house, will fire at it, out of suspicion. But the code is never to open fire on a religious shrine. So that is where people were told to congregate. It was also for easy scrutiny, afterwards.

Within a few days, the army had control of the island. They would also take charge of screening civilians, to root out any LTTE infiltration. But I could see other kinds of aggression. So, when they asked for the segregation of men and women I objected, fearful of what could be in store for the women.

I told my superior, the northern commander, that the navy should intervene. The ultimate responsibility would be ours so we should intervene now. Although the army was in charge of the military operation, the navy would be responsible for the security and welfare of the people. I said the actions of our colleagues would be our burden to bear, so we should take charge from the start. I suggested that families should be kept together at all cost. I think people only feel secure with their families, not even with their neighbours. It was established that the naval commander in charge should make the final decisions regarding civilians.

Gradually, the soldiers began to vacate the island. We had a big issue with troops removing loot as they left. I told the officers in charge that they must take control of their troops.

The looting was systematic. The troops knew that the shrine rooms of houses generally contained the family safe. So, this was what they broke into, looking for gold. I had heard about looting of course. But this was the first time I saw it with my own eyes.

Just imagine: your house is intact today. Suddenly you’re told to vacate it; go to some place. After a week or so, when you return, you find a ransacked house. How would you feel? A life’s earnings maybe, gone at once. Maybe the work of generations, undone.

Take a family album: it doesn’t mean anything to a stranger. But to you it is a treasure. There can be a lot of memories kept safe inside. Now all those memories have been desecrated.

I remember some casual talk after dinner when I asked a few young officers why there was so much looting. Why did they let their troops do this? I asked. Weren’t they clearing the way for [Velupillai] Prabhakaran [the LTTE chief]? They told me a long story about how soldiers needed insurance in case they lost limbs to anti-personnel mines. I told them – “Look here, you don’t have to worry about your soldiers’ limbs. There is a government, there is a ministry. They are responsible people who will look after the welfare of your soldiers. You don’t have to rob civilian people.” Even to tell such a story was to set a bad example to their men and to one another.

They argue that in war these things happen. Maybe. But if we are trained and honest soldiers, we should at least correct the troops we each command. If some of us managed to do it, it wasn’t that it couldn’t be done – but that people didn’t want to. Was it that they benefited too? Or was it just the easier option?

It was standard navy practice for troops to be checked for stolen goods before leaving a place. Sure, troops complained about being mistrusted. But it was just another drill, like checking a gun. After any firing practice you have to demonstrate that both the gun and your pockets are empty. It’s a safeguard, nothing to get hurt about. Gradually these procedures were commuted, on the grounds we were in a war situation. But wrong is wrong, whether you’re in peacetime or at war.

I couldn’t stop the looting but I could stop the troops taking their stolen goods off the island. The soldiers were to be transported in naval vessels so I issued an instruction that nothing other than their military belongings should be allowed on board. Heaps of goods had to be dumped on the pier. They collected in great piles there. There were wedding photos in frames amongst the goods left on the pier. These were photographs of strangers, taken from the houses of strangers. So, it was not just about money. I don’t know how you start to explain these things. There were children’s toys, bicycles, just about anything. Initially, it seems to be a rational theft and then it becomes something completely different – collecting trophies of war. Perhaps when you are ordered to destroy things, you develop an instinct to spoil everything.

• A Long Watch: War, Captivity and Return in Sri Lanka by Commodore Ajith Boyagoda, as told to Sunila Galappatti, is published by Hurst (£20)

Journalist threatened inside police station in Sri Lanka

05/10/2016

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its affiliate the Free Media Movement (FMM) in condemning the inaction of the police while a TV journalist was threatened inside a police station in Sri Lanka on September 27. The IFJ demands that the authorities immediately investigate the incident.

Ranjith Karunaweera, a journalist with Hiru TV in Mahiyanganaya of Badulla District in Uva Province of central Sri Lanka, was threatened over a news story by a group of people when he arrived at the Hasalaka police station to give his statement in a case filed against him.

Local sand miners had filed a complaint at the police station after Karunaweera’s news report on illegal sand mining in the Mahaweli river bed and how it threatened the environment and stability of Weraganthota bridge. His story showed visuals of heavy machinery being used for sand mining although the use of heavy machinery is prohibited.

The police summoned Karunaweera for a statement and upon his arrival, a group of nearly two dozen sand miners used abusive language and threatened to kill him. Other journalists who accompanied him and were waiting outside the police station led him to safety. Following the intimidation, Karunaweera filed a complaint at the Mahiyanganaya Police Station against the Hasalaka police for not acting upon the death threats.

FMM convener Seetha Ranjanee and secretary C. Dodawaththa in a statement said, “The police officers in the station did not take any action to stop the threats. The FMM expresses its displeasure over the police for not taking appropriate action against the violent behavior of the sand miners and for acting in favor of them.”

The FMM requested the Inspector General of Police to order an unbiased investigation into the incident and demanded necessary action to ensure personal safety of journalists. The FMM added, “Instead of inquiring into the threats, the police supported the creation of a threatening environment for the journalist.”

Condemning the sand mining lobby for threatening and intimidating a journalist from carrying out his duty, and the Sri Lanka police for allowing such intimidation within the police precincts, the IFJ said, “Such incidents undermine journalists’ safety and their ability to report without fear. The IFJ demands immediate investigation into the case and appropriate punishment to those found guilty.”

Minister’s wife had 12 henchmen appointed

Ayurvedic Drug Corporation bigwigs before COPE: 

By Saman Indrajith-October 4, 2016, 10:30 pm

Chairman and Managing Director of the Sri Lanka Ayurvedic Drugs Corporation yesterday admitted before the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) that 12 henchmen of Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne had been recruited on the recommendations of the minister’s wife, according to highly placed sources.

Two top officials of the corporation admitted before the COPE that out of 61 workers they had hired after assuming duties in the corporation, 43 had been recruited without following stipulated procedure.

The COPE summoned top officials of the corporation including the Chairman and MD yesterday to Parliament. Two female officials cried when they accused the higher officials of using foul language on women. All lower ranking officials complained that they had to undergo numerous difficulties because of the present management.

Of the 12 persons recruited on letters of recommendation from Minister Senaratne’s wife six had been recruited as project coordinating officers and others as security officers, the chairman told the COPE. Though each of them had been paid a salary of Rs 20,000 none of them worked at the corporation; they were serving as staff members of the minister. They had been recruited from Agalawatte, Panadura and Mathugama areas, the officials told the COPE.

The two top officials also admitted that seven million rupees had been spent on an exhibition held in December, 2015 to introduce seven new Ayurvedic drugs. It transpired at yesterday’s COPE meeting that only two new drugs had actually been introduced while the remaining five were rebranded old ones.

The officials also admitted that they had bought a vehicle for passenger transport at a cost of Rs 7.9 million but used it for transporting goods after removing its seats.

The chairman who is a kinsman of the minister has been appointed without the approval of the Committee on High Posts. The official had failed to send a copy of his CV to the High Posts Committee but he had forwarded a copy of his CV to the COPE, a senior COPE member told The Island last evening.

RAVIRAJ MURDER: DEFENCE REQUESTS SINHALA SPEAKING JURY

05/10/2016

Defence attorneys appearing on behalf of the accused in the alleged murder of former TNA Jaffna District MP Nadaraja Raviraj, yesterday requested for a special jury trial consisting of Sinhala speaking members into the murder of the former MP.

However, the Counsel who appeared on behalf of the aggrieved party, raised objections against the request stating that a trial by jury could not be proceeded in this case since three charges out of five had been levelled under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

High Court Judge Manilal Waidyatilleke directed the parties to file written submissions regarding the jury trial on October 11.

At a previous occasion, the Colombo High Court allowed to proceed with the Raviraj murder trial in absentia of the three accused Palana Sami Suresh alias Sami, Sivakanthan Vivekanandan alias Charan and Fabian Royston Tusen who were evading Court since the initiation of investigations.

The indictments were filed against six accused Palana Sami Suresh alias Sami, Prasad Chandana Kumara alias Sampath, Gamini Seneviratne, Pradeep Chaminda alias Vajira, Sivakanthan Vivekanandan alias Charan and Fabian Royston Tusen on five counts, including committing the murder of former MP Nadaraja Raviraj and his security officer Lokuwella Murage Laksman under

the provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and Penal Code.

Three accused who were not present before Court, had been identified as ex-LTTE cadres affiliated to the Karuna faction. Wijeya Wickrema, Manamperige Sanjaya and Preethi Viraj was made State witness for the Raviraj murder trial.

Raviraj was shot dead near his residence at Manning Town in Narahenpita during the period between November 9, 2006 and November 10, 2006 when he was driving his vehicle along Martha Road. The CID recovered the trishaw and the weapon alleged to have been used in the killing of the former Parliamentarian.

Deputy Solicitor General Rohantha Abeysooriya appeared for the Attorney General. Counsel Anuja Premaratne appeared for the accused, while Counsel K.V.Thavarasa appeared for the aggrieved party.

by Lakmal Sooriyagoda

Daily News

DNA tests on samples recovered at SAITM

2016-10-05

Deputy Solicitor General Dilan Ratnayake today told court that the prosecution was expecting to conduct a DNA test on the remains recovered from Laboratory of the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) in Malabe over the inquiry into the missing body parts of late ruggerite Wasim Thajudeen.

 Meanwhile, Former Western Province Senior DIG Anura Senanayake and former Narahenpita Crimes OIC Sumith Perera were ordered to be further remanded till October 19 by the Colombo Additional Magistrate Nishantha Peiris today. 

More than 26 skeletal remains were recovered from Laboratory of SAITM by the CID when a team of experts searched the SAITM Laboratory based on the information revealed during the investigation, that former Colombo JMO Ananda Samarasekera had dispatched the samples to the SAITM. (Shehan Chamika Silva)

A clamor in Kandy saying " we do not want "Nila Sevana"

Oct 05, 2016

In Mahawatta area in Kudasale Kandy against the proposed construction of flats a number of problems had arisen for the people of the area.Hence a protest had taken place in the Kandy town in the morning of the 5th instant  by the residents of Mahawatta.

The residents have complained that owing to the construction of the proposed  huge flats complex.the residents in the area are to confront problems to their dwellings and lands with regard to the refuse collected and other constraints.

 

The protesters had gathered near the George E de Silva gardens with placards and walked towards the Kandy divisional secretariat and protested for about an hour.Thereafter they had walked towards the office of the Central Province governor and handed over their complaint to Governor Niluka Ekanayake. They had mentioned that after a number of years of laying the foundation stone it had got off the blocks owing to the governor's intervention and to request the President also to intervene to resolve their issues. 

Confidential Central Bank Document On An On-Site Examination Of Perpetual Treasuries Limited Leaked

October 5, 2016

A highly confidential document by the Department for the Supervision for Non-Bank Financial Institutions of the Central Bank has been leaked, with the report highlighting serious concerns against the manner in which the controversial Perpetual Treasuries Limited (PTL) had conducted itself, while also benefiting vastly in terms of borrowing billions of rupees under extremely low interest rates during the tenure of Arjuna Mahendranas the Central Bank Governor.

Arjuna Mahendran

The 25 page report in the possession of Colombo Telegraph is addressed to the Monetary Board based on the findings of the on-site examination of PTL which was conducted by the Public Debt Department.

The onsite investigation conducted during the periods of 24th to 26th November 2015, 26th to 28th July 2016 and 4th to 8th August 2016 has highlighted several concerns with regard to the company, which initially had direct links to Arjun Aloysius, the son in law of Mahendran.

In the findings submitted to the Monetary Board, the department raised several concerns including the company’s failure to record the customer information in the Lanka Secure System promptly and accurately; Failure to enter into Master Repurchase/Reverse Repurchase Agreements with customers, although by May 2016 PTL had already signed 172 MRAs and 132 customer agreements.

Another crucial concern highlighted in the document following the on-site inquiry was that PTL’s excessive bidding at auctions without adequate funding lines. According to the document, PTL bid a total of Rs. 49.4 billon for T-bond auctions held on March 29, 2016 and March 31, 2016. On April 1, 2016, PTL had to settle Rs. 42 billion to secure the T-bonds accepted at the auctions.

However, PTL did not have sufficient funds amounting to Rs. 36 billion by the settlement date and it had to resort to borrowing a significant portion of it from the Reverse Repo Auction, Intra Day Liquidity Facility and Money Market. “However, as PTL was short of acceptable securities to provide to the Central Bank, it was unable to secure adequate settlement funds. As a result, PTL was subject to a penalty of Rs. 21.3 million,” the document said.

The document also said that PTL had a practice of bidding off-market rates. The document noted that bidding at off market rates in other jurisdictions is not allowed and is also a severely punishable offence.

Despite initially not having the necessary funding, PTL is reported to have made extraordinary capital gains of Rs. 4,652.7 million in April and May 2016 from trading T-bonds purchased from Primary Auctions, the document said.

“These securities were purchased mainly using Central Bank’s liquidity assistance available to market participates (borrowing from Reverse Repo and using ILF. By the memo dates 08.04.2016, Domestic Operations Department has highlighted their observation on the excessive use of re-repo facility by Primary Dealers. As informed by the Domestic Operations Department, from 1st to 8th April from the total borrowed amount of Rs. 89 billion by all PDs, out of which PTL had borrowed Rs. 66 billion (75%),” the document said.

Meanwhile, a highly placed official attached to the Ministry of Finance said that this report that had been leaked appeared to be authentic.

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Kaduwela MC and UNDP kick start Waste to Energy Project

Co-Financed Project looking at Effective Solid Waste Management to Generate Bio Gas Energy

(Lanka-e-News- 04.Oct.2016, 4.45PM) The United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) entered into its first Government Co-Financed project with the Kaduwela Municipal Council to effectively manage solid waste in the area to generate bio gas energy.

In 2015, UNDP provided technical assistance to Kaduwela Municipal Council (KMC) to pilot the Solid Waste Management Project under the ‘Every Drop Matters’ Project which contributed to the ‘Pavithra Ganaga Programme’ of Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment. Together with the local partner, Janathakshan, the innovative treatment technology was tested and used during this phase and was then expanded to adapt to the locally designed bio gas technology for Waste Management.

The Waste Management Unit in Kaduwela currently accommodates 1 MT of degradable solid waste per day and the gas produced by the system is fed in to a 5 kW generator. The electricity generated through this unit is then used by the Municipal Council to supplement the electricity requirement of the Waste Collection Center.

The Rs. 20 million agreement signed today between UNDP and the Kaduwela Municipal Council will scale-up this initiative to accommodate 10 MT of Solid Waste per day and the electricity produced by the Bio Gas Unit will eventually contribute to the national grid.

Furthermore, this project is also expected to contribute to the Greenhouse Gas abatement intentions of the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) as well as to the 2015 Government’s Energy Sector Development Plan for 100% renewable energy in Sri Lanka by 2030 by significantly reducing waste respective landfills by 80%.

It will also result in improving the standard of living of the communities living around the landfills whilst serving as a model for Waste Management in other Municipal Council areas.

With a contribution of Rs. 9 million, UNDP, as the development arm of the UN working in Sri Lanka for five decades, is pleased to be working with the Kaduwela Municipal Council to provide technical assistance to address Waste Management challenges in Sri Lanka.

Picture depicts UNDP Sri Lanka Country Director, Jorn Sorensen and the Municipal Commissioner of the Kaduwela Municipal Council, Lekha Geethanjali Perera after signing the agreement. 

(A Statement issues by UNDP)

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by     (2016-10-04 11:24:40)