Full rescue ship forced to leave swimming migrants in sea off Libya

About 25 people threw themselves into water to attempt to swim towards ship, forcing captain to pull back

Migrants, who were rescued by Libyan forces on Saturday, rest at Tripoli Commercial Port before being transported to a detention centre (AFP)

AFP-Saturday 22 October 2016 20:00 UTC

Horrific scenes unfolded in the Mediterranean off Libya on Saturday as a full-to-capacity rescue ship was forced to sail away from desperate migrants trying to swim towards the rescuers. 

Nine people drowned and 10 were missing after a dramatic 24-hours in which the crew of the Norwegian Siem Pilot and MSF's Dignity rescued hundreds of panicked migrants in the dark, with only limited resources and in the face of aggressive people smugglers.

At least 8,000 migrants have been saved off the coast of Libya this week alone.

"I've never had a SAR (search and rescue) like it. We were in the process of transferring 1,000 migrants from the Okyroe (tanker) to the Siem Pilot when suddenly, in the dark, rubber boats appeared. It looked hopeless," said Pal Erik Teigen, the police officer in charge of the rescue operation.

Migrants aboard one of the rubber boats that had yet to be rescued desperately sought to reach the rescue ship that was by that point full-to-capacity and unable to take on more passengers, motoring towards it while crying out for help.

Around 25 people threw themselves into the water to attempt to swim towards the Siem Pilot, forcing the captain to pull back to deter others on the dinghy from doing the same.

Speed boats from the Siem Pilot later pulled the migrants from the sea and the dinghy and transferred them onto the tanker to await rescue by another vessel, while Medecins Sans Frontiere's Dignity picked up the dead.

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More than 200 #refugees and #migrants float in a rubber boat as they try to cross to #europe some 12 miles off shore #libya.

7:55 AM - 22 Oct 2016

 
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Teigen and his team are just one part of a massive efforts underway in the Mediterranean to rescue desperate migrants seeking to reach Europe.   

Jan Eriok Valen, an intelligence officer and crew member who also provided security for the operation which is part of the EU's Frontex border force mission in the region, described the panic that greeted him as he boarded the overloaded tanker during the initial rescue.

"It was chaos on the tanker. They were pushing us towards the only way off the boat, coming from everywhere and pushing for lifejackets, arguing over them," he said.

"Then they came up from behind us and we had to call for back-up. Other police officers from the Siem Pilot joined us with riot shields... we were banging our sticks on pipes to make a lot of noise, and we had to hit a few of them." 

Several of those who were rescued fainted during the operation and had to be dragged aboard the Siem Pilot.

"It was the craziest SAR I've ever experienced. At nighttime, with a wooden boat, dinghies, people in the water, and a transfer from a tanker," said Valen. 

One of the migrants passed a baby from a stricken inflatable launch into the hands of a rescuer. 

The Siem Pilot team faced not just the extreme danger of the sea rescues, but also had to contend with confrontational people traffickers.

'I wasn't aware of the risks'

"There was also a facilitator boat that was very aggressive all night. We used the ship's search light to scare it off but it was determined to try and retrieve the dinghies we had rescued the migrants from," said Teigen.

Following the nighttime operation, conditions onboard the dinghies deteriorated as temperatures soared and the crew was forced to stop any more migrants boarding the ship, according to an AFP journalist aboard the vessel.

Sitting in tight rows on the bridge of the ship, the migrants - mostly from sub-Saharan Africa along with a handful who said they were from Syria - had only a thin sheet of webbing to protect them from the baking sun.

Many of them used orange blankets to cover their bodies while their soaked clothes dried nearby.

Among the migrants were several young children, as well as entire families and some unaccompanied teenagers.

Scuffles broke out between some of the male migrants who had been rescued, prompting the captain to tell the men on the deck: "If you don't stop fighting I will disembark you from the boat!"

The number of people seeking to make the perilous journey has increased in recent weeks as migrants attempt to complete their journeys before winter brings treacherous conditions to the Mediterranean, limiting the opportunities for Europe-bound launches. 

The Italian interior ministry said on Friday that more than 146,500 migrants had landed in Italy so far this year.

As many as 25 people are still missing, feared drowned after men on a Libyan coastguard speedboat attacked a packed migrant dinghy during a rescue operation on Friday off the north African state.

And onboard another rescue ship, the Aquarius which is being operated by the SOS Mediterranee charity, recently rescued migrants spoke out Saturday about the horrors they had endured in an effort to reach Europe.

"I wasn't aware of what I would have to go through along this journey... But I promise I would never do this journey again," said a tearful 33-year-old migrant from Guinea.

Another individual, a 30-year-old from Ivory Coast who had just been rescued, added: "I would never advise to anybody to do the trip that I have done to arrive here. Even to my worst enemy, I would never tell him to do this. I wasn't aware of the risks when I decided to leave."

SRI LANKA: TNA CONDEMNS KILLING OF 2 UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN JAFFNA; 5 POLICEMEN ARRESTED

21/10/2016

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) unequivocally condemns the incident that took place in Jaffna today, killing 2 university students, press release issued by the Alliance says.

The leader of the TNA, and The Leader of the Opposition, Hon R Sampanthan MP has met His Excellency the President Maithripala Sirisena while attending an event in Trincomalee this morning and raised concerns regarding the incident. Since then, a special police unit has been deployed to Jaffna to investigate the incident on the orders of the President and the police officers who had allegedly involved in the incident has been taken into custody.

Hon. Sampanthan  has also also spoke to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and expressed his dissatisfaction regarding the incident, has also requested the IGP to conduct an impartial investigation and take immediate action.

The TNA  has expressed its deep regret about this incident and would like to convey its condolences to the families, friends, and the loved ones of those deceased.

Meanwhile media statement signed by Government Information Department’s News Director Hilmy Mohammed says five policemen  were  arrested  in connection with the death of two Jaffna University students last night. They  have been were interdicted with immediate effect.

“The CID has taken over the investigation into the death of the two Jaffna University students at Kankesanthurai in Jaffna while they were riding a motorbike,” the statement says.

CID initiates investigation into the death of two students of Jaffna Campus; 5 policemen arrested



FRIDAY, 21 OCTOBER 2016

The Department of Government Information has released a communiqué this afternoon with regard to the death of two students of the Jaffna University, who were travelling on a motor cycle at Kokkuvil, in Jaffna at midnight yesterday. 

The communiqué stated that an investigation into the incident has commenced by the CID. 

It further noted that post-mortem is currently underway, and five police officers have been arrested in connection with the incident. 

The Department of Government Information also stated in its communiqué that steps have been taken to interdict the relevant officers.

University Of Peradeniya – May 1983: When Majesty Stoops To Folly

By Rajan Hoole –October 22, 2016

Dr. Rajan Hoole

While the author of a book strives to be accurate with his facts as the times and circumstance permit, there will invariably be more to be said, and some of it of considerable importance. In 2005 (four years after the book), UTHR(J) had the opportunity of meeting in Canada Mr. Balasooriyan, and consulting others familiar with events in the mid-1980s. Additional information of considerable interest that throws further light on the conduct of the university authorities at Peradeniya was published as:

Supplement to UTHR(J) Special Report No.19: Part II

University of Peradeniya – May 1983: When Majesty Stoops to Folly

– The Beginnings of Mass Mobilisation for the Tamil Militancy, 9th September 2005

For many Tamil students the violence at Peradeniya University in May 1983 was a greater factor in their radicalisation than the more sensationally brutal events of July, which quickly overshadowed it. Peradeniya was the country’s premier institution of higher learning. When Sinhalese students with UNP leanings attacked fellow Tamil students on three consecutive days in May; the authorities and the country’s leading intellects did little to stop it. The excellent report of the committee of inquiry chaired by Kenneth de Lanerolle (discussed at length in UTHR publication Sri Lanka: ‘Arrogance of Power: Myths, Decadence & Murder) created controversy because many thought it went too far. We would argue that good as it was, the report still did not go far enough.

The recently obtained testimonies below suggest that the report did not touch the rot that was at the root of the problem. There is evidence to suggest that violence was not merely the result of passive acceptance by the administrative and academic establishments, but of their active complicity in the actual direction of events. The punishments it recommended against identified offenders were not implemented and the report itself was suppressed.

Bala’s Ordeal

The main attacks on students on the 11th night took place almost simultaneously at Hilda Obeysekere Hall (HOH), James Peiris Hall (JPH) and Marrs Hall (MH). HOH was attacked about 9.45 PM by students armed with staves and parts of furniture. They were from other halls looking for particular students, some of whom were pointed out by fellow Sinhalese students. A particular target being out called by the mob was first year engineering student P. Balasooriyan who was editing a Tamil magazine and was accused of being a ‘tiger’. What follows is his testimony:

Unknown to Balasooriyan, 4 issues of the magazine ‘Puthusu’ (New) he was co-editing had arrived by post the same day and had been removed from the letter board and opened. The cover had the picture of a dove in a cage chained to a large metal ball. The picture was inspired by those commonly used then in Amnesty International publications campaigning for the release of political prisoners. That was enough to make Balasooriyan a ‘tiger’ although the political line of the magazine was sharply critical of the LTTE and its methods.

Sensing danger, Balasooriyan left his room and went to the room of Thayaparan, also on the first floor, where one bed was vacant. At this point Balasooriyan saw over the balcony the intruders searching his room in the wing across. The intruders came in and asked for their names. Balasooriyan gave the name of Appathurai Mohan. The intruders saw a Milk White calendar with a picture of Mahatma Gandhi on the wall and forced the two inmates to eat it. They went away and failing to locate their prey, came back asking for student record books. Balasooriyan said that he was a first year who came late, and had not got one yet. The mob started beating Tamil students. His fellow Tamil students who were protecting Balasooriyan felt this could not go on long and advised him to escape. He ran along the wing’s corridor and jumped one floor down at the Mahaveli River end. He was spotted and a cry went out. Lying on the ground, he found a torch flashing on him within 5 minutes. He was taken upstairs. He told the mob of 25 to 50 that he was asthmatic and frightened and that was why he jumped out. He denied he was Balasooriyan and gave Thayaparan’s as his room. The mob took him there, gave him water, asked him to lie down on the bed, switched off the lights and went away.

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Nimalarajan and the BBC – A Postscript

Oct 21, 2016

The name, Mylwaganam Nimalarajan is uttered every single day at the BBC headquarters in central London by BBC staff of different status and calibre. It is the legacy of dedication, professionalism and bravery. His story with the BBC began nearly two decades ago.

It was the morning after, sixteen years ago.  I can’t remember how I got to the office from home that day. But I still remember walking in to my regional editor’s office on the seventh floor in Bush House. I could only say “Sam, it was my responsibility, I failed!” Then I burst out crying. I cried like a child. 

My friend and colleague, Mylwaganam Nimalarajan was killed. Sixteen years had passed, I still feel responsible for his death and what happened afterwards. 

Nimalarajan started his reporting for the BBC Sinhala Service around early nineties. Soon he became a regular contributor in Sandeshaya programme. At the time, he was also writing for other Sinhala and Tamil publications. However his contribution to the Sinhala Service was significant. Many of his reports were translated and fed through to global news of the World Service. I felt that his safety and security was my responsibility. I failed him. I could not save his life or secure the safety of his kinfolk.

Once I flew in to Jaffna for a reporting assignment. I booked in to one of the few hotels operating in Jaffna at the time. I went out for a few minutes leaving my bags with the hotel reception. I came back to find Nimalarajan sitting in the lobby with my baggage in hand. He had the usual grin in his face. I was already checked out. “Comrade!” he said, “When you come to Jaffna, you don’t stay in hotels. You are coming home with me.” Soon after, I was sitting on the crossbar of his bicycle, going home with him. 

Nimalarajan, Saminathan Wimal and I rode around Jaffna that afternoon until seven in the evening when the curfew came in to force. 

His house in Kolombuthurayi Road in Jaffna was near a military checkpoint. It was in such close proximity, one could hear the sound of dogs barking in the house from the position where the sentries were. Many of the soldiers knew Nimalarajan. 

That night, I had a delicious meal cooked by his mother and wife. I bathed from their well and spent the night with his family. I was treated as a part of their family. To this day I call his parents, ‘amma’and ‘thaaththa’. It was the last time I saw Nimalarajan.

I am convinced that the assassins came through the check point as they were riding bicycles. They carried guns, knives and grenades more than two hours in to the curfew. That explains why the soldiers never reacted when they heard gun shots and explosion. They never shot at the terrorists getting away on bicycles.

While killing Nimal with three gun shots to his head and a grenade, the assassins asked the family members to kneel down looking at the floor to avoid any attempts of identifying the brutes. Nimal’s young nephew and the mother were bleeding with shrapnel wounds. To warn against any identification, one of the assassins slit Nimal’s father’s neck with a razor.

Few weeks before the incident, Nimalarajan told me that he was receiving death threats from Douglas Devananda. At the time, apart from his journalism, Nimal was also providing information about election campaign rules violations in Jaffna and the adjacent islands to election monitoring groups. 

I told him to leave Jaffna. His reply was, “Sahodaraya! If I leave, who is going to tell the story of my people to the world?” I respected his wish. Yet, thinking back now I wonder if I was driven by my selfish need to continue nonstop stream of exclusive news from Jaffna clouded my judgement. I am guilty of not persuading him to leave.

I could have saved his life.

Months before that, as a measure of safety and easy access through barriers, Nimalarajan asked me to issue him a BBC identity card. When I tried, I was told by management, that the BBC would not issue identity cards to freelancers without a contract. The senior producer of the Sinhala Service Chandana Keerthi Bandara managed to get a press card from ‘Haraya’ newspaper to facilitate Nimalarajan’s work for the BBC. That was the card he carried to the end. I failed again by giving in to BBC regulations without a fight.

BBC Tamil Service only used Nimalarajan occasionally. Their Senior Producer Anandhi Suriyapragasam was adamant that his Tamil language skills were not up to standard. For me, the contents of his reports were more important than his ‘imperfect’ Sinhala.

There are institutionalised discrepancies within the BBC between media workers who broadcast in English and other languages. The resources, wages, programme budgets and facilities remain to be different. In the case of smaller services the differences are wider. For a voice report from the field in Sinhala or Tamil, a reporter is paid around fifteen pounds. A journalist standing next to the language reporter, giving the same report (often based on information obtained from vernacular reporter) in English is paid three to four times more. Trade unions are often reluctant to fight on behalf of overseas media workers, as poorly paid reporters could not afford to pay membership fees. 

BBC middle east correspondent’s driver was killed by an Israeli rocket attack a few weeks before Nimalarajan. BBC paid substantial amount of compensation to the bereaved family. I was told that it was not possible to issue any compensation for Nimarajan as he did not have a contract with the BBC. I was overwhelmed with disappointment and guilt. After days of tearful confrontations, and angry confrontations, with the aid of helpful individuals who went out of their way to help, I managed to find a fund held in an office 200 miles away in Bristol. We managed to persuade the fund holders to issue a substantial amount.

Immediately after the killing, rest of Nimalarajn’s family had to go into hiding for their own safety. Severely wounded father, mother, nephew along with severely traumatised wife and three small children under five, had to be taken to a safe location until arrangements were made to send them out of Sri Lanka. 

BBC correspondent in Colombo, Frances Harrison and Elmo Fernando voluntarily took the responsibility of looking after eleven members of the family. The family preferred to join their relatives in Canada. Frances worked hard to secure the necessary documents and visas for the family. Meanwhile, Chandana Bandara managed to persuade the Amnesty International to pay for the flights of eleven family members to reach Canada from Colombo. 

Later Nimal’s father told me that they had managed to buy a house in Canada with the money from the BBC. 

Confronting the management asking for equality in a large and complicated organisation can be the path to carrier suicide. I learnt it much later. Regardless of impending pitfalls, Nimalarajan had few more battles to fight. 

The first victory was getting the BBC to issue contracts for all regular contributors around the globe. With the contracts, all of them were issued with BBC identity cards. 

All journalists attached to the BBC in Sri Lanka were visited at home by a security expert from the UK. The BBC paid for any construction work needed to secure the homes of the journalists, according to the recommendations of the expert. 

Nimalarajan’s demise may have influenced many reforms within the BBC.

Nimalarajan’s name is written in a ten meter tall sculpture on the roof of the new BBC headquarters in Central London. A strong beacon of light is switched on every night through the cylindrical sculpture illuminating the night sky around the building. 

Every working day, BBC workers of different levels and status are twisting their tongues struggling to pronounce this incredibly long Tamil name, trying to book or attending a meeting in Mylavaaganam Nimalarajan meeting room situated on the 5th floor of the new building.

More recently, I was talking to Lillian Landor, the Controller of BBC Languages at the time. When I mentioned about death threats, she was dismissive, she shrugged and said, “Happens all the time. It is a part of the job!”

Sometimes the threats are not merely a part of the job of a journalist or even an assassin. 

Sixteen years ago, hiding under the darkness of that night, a group of cowards came with guns and grenades. They came to kill Nimalarajan. They failed.

Mylavaaganam Nimalarajan lives on! 

by - Priyath Liyanage - former editor BBC Sinhala Service

WAN WELCOMES RITA ISZAK-NDIAYE’S REPORT: SRI LANKA AT A CRITICAL STAGE & MUST NOT LOSE MOMENTUM

22/10/2016

Women’s Action Network welcomes U.N. Special Rapporteur Ms. Rita Iszak-Ndiaye’s report.

Women’s Action Network (WAN)* welcomes the 20th October 2016 statement by U.N. Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Ms. Rita Iszak-Ndiaye, following her ten-day visit to Sri Lanka. The special rapporteur cited the failure of successive governments to address minority grievances and called on the National Unity Government to seize the momentum to protect minority rights, build trust, and promote co-existence. WAN strongly agrees with the special rapporteur that Sri Lanka is at a critical stage, and the government must not lose momentum. Now is the time for the government to take concrete steps to build trust and demonstrate its political will to protect all of Sri Lanka’s communities.

The special rapporteur noted several broad challenges to minority rights in Sri Lanka, including:

• Inadequate minority participation in decision-making structures. To build trust in governance and transitional justice mechanisms and to foster shared ownership over these institutions, it is critical for minorities’ views to be included in decision-making processes.

• Inadequate minority representation in state institutions. For minorities to trust historically Sinhala-dominated state institutions, there must be greater diversity in the government, provincial offices, law enforcement, armed forces, education sector, and health institutions. WAN welcomes the special rapporteur’s suggestion to employ community liaison officers to these state institutions as a first step to build trust.

• Inadequate institutional protection of minority rights. The Human Rights Commission and other institutions must be strengthened and allowed to act independently to protect minority communities. WAN welcomes the special rapporteur’s call for an Independent Commission on Minorities to specifically monitor laws and policies and encourage programming to promote equal rights. Victim and witness protection measures must also be strengthened to promote engagement with the courts and transitional justice mechanisms.

• Inadequate language access. Tamil and Muslim communities struggle with not being able to use Tamil in speaking to local authorities, judicial officers, police, Army, and hospital staff. This is a key concern as well for the transitional justice mechanisms; there must be sufficient Tamil-speaking staff to build trust and promote engagement.

• Inadequate demilitarization, release of detainees, progress in disappearance investigations, and land return. The government must show its commitment to minority rights by expediting the pace of demilitarization, releasing or charging the remaining security detainees, returning civilian land still held by the armed forces, and transferring civilian powers exercised by the military to civilian authorities. The government should also demonstrate progress in good faith by promptly investigating the disappearance cases currently pending before the courts.

WAN strongly agrees with the special rapporteur’s statement that minority women are a particularly vulnerable group and “often face unique challenges and multiple or intersecting forms of discrimination.”

• For Tamil women in the north and east, female-headed households face discrimination, displacement, economic insecurity, surveillance, harassment, exploitation, and gender-based violence. Former female combatants face particular stigma, both within and outside the Tamil community. As WAN has repeatedly emphasized, Tamil women’s unique views must be heard in designing transitional justice mechanisms and constitutional reforms. War-affected women also urgently need psycho-social support.

• For Muslim women, the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act of 1951 (MMDA) and Quazi courts deny Muslim women their fundamental rights. As Article 16 of the 1978 Constitution allows the discriminatory provisions of the MMDA to remain in effect, it therefore must be repealed. Under the MMDA, Muslim women face child marriage and child pregnancies, unequal divorce procedures, polygamy without conditions, arbitrary compensation practices and unequal treatment by the Quazi courts. These issues are not Muslim issues but rather human rights and child rights issues. The Muslim Personal Law Reform Committee, established in 2009, has yet to produce any report or update the public of its work. As WAN has repeatedly emphasized, cultural and religious rights cannot come at the expense of women’s fundamental rights. Muslim women’s voices must be fully heard in shaping constitutional reforms, and the new constitution must guarantee equal rights for Muslim women and children.

Women’s groups have been making these points for years, and we welcome their inclusion in the special rapporteur’s short statement. We hope the special rapporteur’s detailed report will go further to highlight other specific issues faced by minority women. For example, in connection with language access, despite the establishment of Children and Women’s Bureau desks at local police stations, minority women have reported difficulties communicating with these desks in Tamil. As a result, women who have suffered domestic violence and other violations must not only gather courage to make a complaint, they must do so in an unfamiliar language. The lack of language access doubly affects minority women, leading to a further reluctance in reporting violations.

Failing to consider and address the genuine grievances of minority communities has only divided Sri Lankans. To build trust and promote co-existence in a new Sri Lanka, the government must not lose momentum. As Special Rapporteur Iszak-Ndiaye has stated, minority voices must be heard and protected, and the government must take concrete steps to show its commitment to equal rights for all Sri Lankans. With the focus now on constitutional reforms and designing transitional justice mechanisms, it is critical for the government to ensure full and meaningful participation of minorities, and in particular, minority women.

*WAN is a collective of 8 women’s organizations that are working in the north and east.

– 21 October 2016

Emerging Scenarios Of An Independent State Of Thamil Eelam; Lessons From East Timor

By Surendra Ajit Rupasinghe –October 21, 2016

Surendra Ajit Rupasinghe

My intention here is to analyze a probable emerging scenario that could have the most consequential effects and decide our future for decades to come. This is in order to alert all concerned that unless serious and principled steps are taken to address and resolve the National Question on a democratic basis, we may be faced with some such eventuality as described here in the case of East Timor. It is to alert all concerned that if the government fails to act resolutely in all good faith, and if the chauvinist-fascist forces get command of the situation, such a scenario as in East Timor could very well be at our doorstep. The dynamics shall be different, and no doubt the case in Lanka is different from that of East Timor. But the lessons are there for those who care to learn. I personally do not favor separation and have consistently advocated a negotiated political settlement that would honor the dignity, equality, security, autonomy and democratic freedom of the Tamil nation- that is, the right of self-determination, within an undivided country. This is the only basis for a voluntary union that could withstand all obstacles and enemies-internal and external. The politics of division has always played into the hands of foreign powers. I do not wish for the Tamil nation to be played by foreign powers and become another puppet neo-colony. Nor certainly do I wish for the Tamil Nation to be held hostage to the geo-political strategic agendas of either the US, India, Britain, China, Russia, Japan, EU or any other foreign power to function as a military outpost. This is as much as I do not wish for the Land and the people of Lanka to become a hapless geo-strategic pawn in this deadly game of imperialist chess for world supremacy.

The Politics of Supremacy and Duplicity

I do not have much faith in the government to act accordingly to meet the national-democratic rights and aspirations of the Tamil people. That would require exceptional leadership and statesmanship, which no leader, ruling party or government has displayed in our sordid legacy of sheer duplicity and betrayal. The present government is an integral part of the feudal-colonial status quo, although now tempered with some new constitutional gimmickry to appease the UN and the US and stay afloat somehow. There is also so much diabolical wheeling and dealing going on between these rival fractions of the ruling class. Or else, how could Mahinda Rajapaksa, in cahoots with Basil Rajapaksa and Tiran Alles, who are alleged to have bribed Prabhakaran to the tune of some hundred million to have him demand the Tamil people to boycott the presidential election, not be prosecuted under the PTA? This was even obliquely referred to by Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe at the recent UNP Convention. Is this not an act of ‘national betrayal’ by the self-appointed sole savior of the ‘Motherland’ and the sworn liberator of the Sinhala-Buddhist nation? Field Marshall Sarath Fonseka was simply and ingloriously hauled in jail for some relatively minor crime of corruption! How could Mahinda Rajapaksa not be prosecuted for plotting a coup to retain power when he had clearly lost the presidential election, and there is so much damning evidence and witnesses, including the Attorney General, Elections Commissioner, Chief Justice, Wimal Weerawansa and Ranil Wickremesinghe, who had arrived at the scene later? Are these not crimes of high treason? How could he not be prosecuted when there are so many well-grounded allegations of astronomical corruption and naked abuse of power? Is this the Rule of Law under the so-called government of ‘good governance’? What a travesty of justice and criminal reneging on the pledges made to the people! There is both contention and collusion between these rival fractions of the ruling class as they all cater to the chauvinist-supremacist aspirations of the masses in their respective electorates, which they have themselves whipped up! Nor do I have any faith that the chauvinist-fascist forces shall have any regard whatsoever for the unity and integrity of the people and the independence of the country, let alone for the national-democratic rights of the Tamil Nation, since they are driven by a supremacist political agenda simply to seize power, at whatever cost. This former regime had mortgaged the country to China and international lending agencies for endless generations. Such is the nature of their deceiving, diabolical ‘patriotism’. That despicable regime institutionalized graft and corruption throughout the length and breadth of the entire state apparatus, including the judiciary, bureaucracy and law enforcement agencies.

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In parched Sri Lanka, biggest shortage is of water policy: experts

By Amantha Perera-Tue Oct 18, 2016

MAHASENPURA, Sri Lanka (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - In this village in southern Sri Lanka's Hambantota District, water sales are big business.

Beset by a prolonged dry spell and day-time temperatures reaching above 36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Farenheit), the village has seen all of its wells run dry.

Water arrives once every three days in the form of a free government tanker, but it’s not always enough to last. Buying a tanker of water privately costs 5,000 rupees ($34), more than most people can pay.

Instead the village’s farmers and traders buy their water in one-liter bottles from small-scale vendors who charge four to 10 rupees a liter (less than one U.S. cent) for drinking water brought from about 30 kilometers away.

“We buy drinking water, and try to use other sources for cooking and washing,” said Sarath Mahanama, one villager. Those other sources include the muddy puddle left in the bottom of a nearly empty nearby water reservoir.

Mahasenpura is not alone in its shortages. Nine districts in Sri Lanka’s Southern, Northern, North Eastern and southeastern Uva provinces have been hit by drought. According to the national Disaster Management Center, by mid-October over 875,000 people were being provided with government tanker water in these areas.

The worst hit area, where over 160,000 people are currently dependent on water brought in from outside, is north-central Polonnaruwa District.

“This is what we undergo every year. After the floods, there will be a drought and we are almost dying of thirst,” said Tissa Poddibanda, a villager from the Lankapura area.

Lankapura is one of the worst-affected sites in the country, with close to 30,000 persons waiting for transported water.

DROUGHT TO FLOODS

As the weather becomes more extreme, Sri Lanka finds itself increasingly in a debilitating pattern of alternating between drought and floods – both of which can lead to shortages of clean water.

In May, large areas of the country were flooded which caused damages of more than $3 billion, according to the Finance Ministry. Three months later drought hit.

While weather experts and policy makers increasingly see the worrisome pattern, potentially effective national interventions are not yet in place, experts say.

Today, in some drought-hit areas of Sri Lanka, for instance, water remains in storage dams but officials are reluctant to release it, fearing there will not be enough irrigation water for farmers to plant in the next growing season that starts in November.

The Parakarama Samudraya, the largest reservoir in northern Polonnaruwa District, is currently at about 50 percent of capacity, officials say. But government irrigation officials say they don’t want to release the waters – and the next wave of heavy rains is expected only in mid-November, with the onset of the Northeast monsoon season.

As competition for water grows, better cooperation is needed between the various government agencies handling water to balance the needs of farmers, hydropower suppliers and household users, said S.L. Weerasinghe, director-general of the national irrigation department.

“Right now there is very little coordination between various entities handling water, from power to agriculture. We need a much more cohesive water management policy to safely release water stored for agriculture,” Weerasinghe said.

'NOT PREPARED'

Lack of public awareness about the extent of the country’s water problems – and how they might be better managed – is another problem, water management experts say.

“We are not prepared to meet these impacts” of climate change, said Kusum Athukorala, who heads the Sri Lanka Water Partnership, a non-profit national organization working on water management.

She said that since Sri Lanka’s devastating 2004 tsunami the island has upgraded and strengthened its disaster response capacity but hardly any work had been done on preparing for disasters and building public awareness about them.

Villagers such as Poddibanda, who are the mercy of changing rainfall patterns, have had little help in learning to manage water better, though it is crucial to their economic well being, experts say.

Poddibanda, like most farmers in water-short Lankapura, waits until he believes rains are close to arriving to prepare his paddy rice plot for cultivation – and he expects the government to provide free irrigation water, irrespective of rain and reservoir levels.

He said he has not responded to government requests for farmers to break with tradition and plant when water is available, rather than at traditional times.

“I don’t know how to do that,” Poddibanda admitted.

Athukorala said a sustained public awareness campaign is needed to build community knowledge about water management, and a national water management policy is needed to coordinate water planning among sectors such as power, agriculture, weather, irrigation and disaster management.

In addition, “we have to take care of each spring, each river, each well. You do preventive medicine and spend less on curative medicine,” she urged.

(Reporting by Amantha Perera; editing by Laurie Goering :; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, women's rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit news.trust.org/climate)

Is Sri Lanka becoming a lawless country?

2016-10-22

Judiciary faces obstacles due to unreasonable delays in publishing legislative enactments

 Legislative Enactments  of Sri Lanka
In order to make this letter short, I append below the first two paragraphs extracted from the Preface in Volume I of “Legislative Enactments of Ceylon”, in force on 30th June 1956, prepared under the authority of the “Revised Edition of the Legislative Enactments of Ceylon Act No. 2 of 1956”. Vide Section 2 therein, The Hon. Hema Henry Basanayake, Chief Justice was appointed as the Commissioner for the purpose of preparing a new revised edition of the Legislative Enactments of Ceylon in force up to 31stDecember 1954, or such later date * as the Governor General may fix by proclamation published in the Gazette. {* By Gazette No. 11013 of 30th. November 1956, the later date was fixed as 30th June 1956.}  

 Preface 
 The scheme of grouping our legislative enactments under Titles and Chapters was first introduced into our statute law revision in 1938. It was then intended to keep the edition up to date by annual supplements and bring out a revised edition every ten years. But owing to the Second World War the publication of annual supplements was suspended after 1941 under the Annual Supplements (Suspension of Publication) Ordinance, No. 26 of 1941, and never resumed thereafter.

 This revised edition has been considerably delayed and is issued twenty-one years after the last. This long delay is due entirely to reasons beyond my control. The preparation of this edition was started as far back as October, 1948, with the intention of publishing in 1950 the enactments in force on 31st December, 1949. Later it was decided to extend the date to 30th June, 1950, so as to include enactments such as the Land Acquisition Act, the Air Navigation Act, and the Electricity Act, all of which were enacted in the first half of 1950. 

At the end of the Preface, Hon. H.H.Basanayake, Chief Justice has thanked Mr. H. Deheragoda, Crown Counsel and Mr. L.H.R.Peiris, Advocate for the assistance rendered by them in the preparation of the edition.  

Thereafter, ‘Supplement to Legislative Enactments – Volumes I & II – 1958’ was prepared on the authority of the ‘Revised Edition of the Legislative Enactments (Supplements) Act, No. 26 of 1961.’ Section 3 of this Act, stipulates,  

 As soon as possible after the commencement every year following the year in which the first supplement to the revised edition comes into force, the Legal Draftsman shall prepare a supplement hereinafter referred to as an “annual supplement” to that edition. 

I am sorry to say that, I was not able to lay my hands on any such “annual supplement”. Failure to comply with the above referred thoughtful and meaningful stipulation, may have created an undue backlog of work for the Commissioner for the Revision of Legislative Enactments and his staff.  
The next attempt (which incidentally, was the first after Sinhala was declared the official language of Sri Lanka) to consolidate all legislative enactments was in 1980. This attempt was partly successful as stated in the Preface in Volume I of the legislative enactments prepared by E.R.K.D.M. Hector Deheragoda, former Judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, assisted by,Mr.U.D.J. Jinadasa, Attorney -at-Law & Assistant Secretary to the Ministry of Justice, Mr. G.Piyadasa, Attorney-at-Law & Asst. Legal Draftsman, Miss. P.I.Senaratne, Attorney-at-Law & Asst. Legal Draftsman and Miss. F.R.C. Arokiasamy, Attorney-at-Law & Asst. Legal Draftsman.  

Preface
This Edition of the Legislative Enactments is termed “Unofficial”. An explanation is due as to why it is so. The original scheme was to bring out the Revised Edition in Sinhala, Tamil and English simultaneously as an official publication. Later, owing to certain legal and technical obstacles and practical difficulties in the expeditious preparation of the Sinhala and Tamil Editions, this scheme was temporarily abandoned, and it was decided to bring out an unofficial English Edition for the guidance of judicial officers and legal practitioners pending the authorization of such Edition in all three languages by the enactment of an Act of Parliament in due course. Each Volume of the unofficial publication will be released as and when it is ready.

The scheme followed in the preparation of this Revised Edition is similar to that of 1956 Edition – namely, enactments grouped under Titles and Chapters, kindred enactments being grouped together under each Title.

This revision covers the period 1st July, 1956 to 31st December, 1980. All enactments which have been repealed expressly or by necessary implication or which have been expired or have become spent, or have had their effect have been omitted. Certain enactments which were in force on 31st December, 1980, and not reproduced in the Revised Edition ( for the reason that such enactments were to be repealed or likely to lapse in the near future) have been listed in the “List of Enactments omitted from the Revised Edition” contained at the end of each Volume.

Only Volumes I to V of the total 20 Volumes of the unofficial edition of 1980 had been translated into Sinhala. None toTamil. At the end of each of the 20 Volumes of the ‘1980 Revised Edition (unofficial)’ publication, an ‘Alphabetical Index to the revised edition’ indicating the Volume No. and the Chapter is given as a ready reckoner  

.  An ‘unofficial’ Cumulative Supplement to the Revised Edition of the Legislative Enactments of 1980 had been published in 2 Volumes covering the period, 1stJanuary 1981 to 31st.December 1984, which incidentally was the last I was able to lay my hands on.  

Blackhall Publishers in Ireland has published in English, eight volumes titled, “Blackhall’s Laws of Sri Lanka”, in force as at 31st July, 2014. Since, there is no indication of the author responsible for compiling the contents in any of these Volumes, and the publisher’s statement that they do not accept any liability from errors, omissions, etc., as a result of the information contained therein, a doubt arises whether this publication could be accepted as authentic.  

Spiritual-wise, we have the ‘Tripitaka’ as the sacred book for Buddhist, the ‘Holy Bible’ for the Christians, the ‘Koran’ for the Islamic faith and the ‘Bhagawatha-githa’ for the Hindus. Material-wise, it should be legislation, because legislation is enacted by the legislature of a country to protect its value system. However, it is unfortunate that we do not have such an updated officially recognized Law Book. 

 As a nation, we should be ashamed of ourselves since we are still struggling with ‘Cumulative Supplements’ to the Revised Unofficial Edition of 1980. Failure to periodically consolidate and publish legislative enactments in a country (as expected by Act No. 2 of 1956) while being a major obstacle to the Judiciary, personnel practicsing, teaching and studying law, researchers and to the authorities expected to enforce legal provisions, could create a notion around the world, that Sri Lanka has become a lawless country. Investors from the western world will be particular to know the laws of a country, especially because of the “Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007” in the UK. I am aware of an organization having links with the UK, paying almost double the amount of the minimum compensation stipulated in Sri Lanka’s Workmen’s Compensation Ordinance on account of an accident in 2009, that resulted in three deaths.   

The Ministry of Labour, on the initiative taken by the then Secretary, Mr. Mahinda Madihahewa, consolidated the legislative enactments under its purview and published its first consolidation in 2000 (updated up to 31st December, 1999) and the second in 2010 (updated up to 31st December, 2009), titled “Labour Code of Sri Lanka”.  

In view of the above stated, I request Hon. Dr. Wijedasa Rajapakshe, Minister of Justice, in good faith, to initiate immediate action to consolidate the existing Legislative Enactments in Sri Lanka. May I propose the following course of action.  

 1. Instead of publishing periodic Cumulative Supplements to the Revised Edition 1980, recommend to consider it as the base and consolidate it with the enactments so far enacted and to be enacted up to 31stDecember 2016. The volume of work to be done in the Sinhala and Tamil will be very much more than in English.   

2. The Sinhala stream should start translating the Revised Edition 1980 (from Volume VI onwards) while consolidating the entire 1980 Revised Edition up to 31st December 2016.   

 3. The Tamil stream should start translating and consolidating from Volume I onwards up to 31st December 2016.   

 4. The respective Ministries, Authorities, Commissions and other bodies responsible for enforcing legal provisions could be requested to assist the Legal Draftsman by preparing the respective basic drafts, in all three languages embodying the Amendments, if any, to the principal Ordinance/Act//Law, in order to reduce the work load for the Legal Draftsman.   

Translations will be required only up to the day Bills were required to be tabled in Parliament in all three languages.   

The final outcome will be a Revised Edition 2016 and the next, hopefully should be 2026.  
 After each such consolidation, it will be necessary for the Legal Draftsman to prepare an “Annual Supplement”, similar to the requirement as stipulated by Section 3 of Act No. 26 of 1961. Compiling “Annual Supplements” on the computer will reduce the spadework necessary for the next consolidation.  

Since what I have enumerated above is an important and essential aspect of consolidating legislative enactments in Sri Lanka into a compact form, I would greatly appreciate if you could express your views through a Press Release.  
Thank you.  

V.M.Karunaratne, Former Deputy Commissioner of Labour and Chief Factory Inspecting Engineer.