A REFERENDUM ON A NEW CONSTITUTION WILL BE LOST ONLY BECAUSE OF GOVT. CORRUPTION

19/12/2016

Provisions of 19A not inconsistent with Constitution – Sumanthiran

Speech made by the TNA MP  M.A. Sumanthiranon 10th December 2016 at the budget debate.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for giving me the opportunity to speak at the concluding stages of the Committee Stage Discussion. One could hear the words “හොරා“, “හොරු” continuously in the Chamber.

ගරු මන්ත්‍රීවරයෙක්

(மாண்புமிகு உறுப்பினர் ஒருவர்)

(An Hon. Member)

හොරා.

ගරු එම්.ඒ. සුමන්තිරන් මහතා

(மாண்புமிகு எம்.ஏ. சுமந்திரன்)

(The Hon. M.A. Sumanthiran)

There you are! I can hear it again being traded from one side to the other fairly liberally. I will address that issue in a moment. But, let me begin with something that I want to mention in this House in my capacity as the Chair of the Committee on Public Finance. During the course of the Budget Debate, our Committee was supposed to tender two Reports to Parliament. We presented one Report.

A REFERENDUM ON A NEW CONSTITUTION WILL BE LOST ONLY BECAUSE OF GOVT.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

The specter of evil even devouring the good dep. Minister Ranjan is trying to do !

(Lanka-e-News -19.Dec.2016, 11.55PM) The good deputy minister Ranjan Ramanayake tried to do is being repulsed  by the evil for their selfish gains  , based on reports reaching Lanka e news inside information division.

The good Ranjan did was : refusal  to accept the proposed additional allowance of Rs. 100,000.00 plus the increased payment of Rs. 2500.00 for every parliamentary   sitting  that are  be to be granted to  the parliamentarians from next year. This good deed of Ranjan is something which cannot  be expected of the  politicians of the present day  – that is the present political sharks and Shylocks !

Ranjan has  sent letters to the speaker and the parliament general secretary on the 16 th  rejecting these payments vis a vis the  colossal debt of Rs. 900,000 million in which the country is now drowning.

Ranjan who spoke on the phone to the speaker who is on a tour of China had explained , because he is not married , and he has sufficient money based on his earnings from his acting to spend on behalf of the people of his electorate , it has become necessary for him to  refuse  to accept the payment of Rs. 100,000.00  granted by  the government at a time when the country is deeply in debt. 

It is learnt that the speaker has told him that this request can be accommodated.
 
Sadly however  following this announcement , evil (which is in a majority)  has started chasing behind Ranjan and devour the good he is seeking to do . 

It is obvious if Ranjan rejects this extra allowance , it is going to militate against the other parliamentarians  , for they may also be bound to make this sacrifice. On the other hand if they don’t, it will be Ranjan alone who will stand out as a hero and patriot .Consequently , a number of  MPs and ministers have expressed their opposition to Ranjan ‘s decision. 

Of course there are ‘indigent’ MPs who are not in a position to make the sacrifice Ranjan is prepared to make . But what most rudely shocks and irritates is ,the objections raised against Ranjan’s humane gesture by  inhuman ministers and MPs owning 5 to 6 helicopters  and ships.

No matter what , owing to pressures brought to bear on the government bigwigs by the other parliamentarians ,the bigwigs have phoned Ranjan and instructed  , not to act in a manner that would make him  a hero , but to accept the allowances which have been ratified by the parliament .They have also forced  Ranjan that in case  he does not need that payment , to  accept it and  distribute the allowance to ten people in the electorate at Rs. 10.000.00 each , which move will not stand in their way.

The deputy minister is now in a quandary owing to these pressures , and he has to withdraw the letters sent by him to the speaker and the parliament secretary , according to reports reaching Lanka e news inside information division.  

In the circumstances while this government  was installed to introduce a welcome ‘change,’ it is a pity even when one member  at least is committed to bring about the change , to  the others - the so called people’s representatives who are allergic to anything good , and who can never think of doing any good unless it finally serves their own selfish selves , nothing is more abhorrent than contributing  to the welcome change which  the entire country is earnestly anticipating.   

Maniacal obsession for super luxury vehicles

A simple example would elucidate  this situation …..

During the recent past , super luxury vehicles for ministers and MPs costing countless millions were approved to be obtained  out of people’s funds. Of them only three parliamentarians rejected those. They were three deputy ministers , Ranjan Ramanayake , Dr. Harsha De Silva and Palitha Thevareperuma 

Yet , two  ministers who were not even elected on the people’s votes and secured pinnadi (gratis ) portfolios grabbed super luxury vehicles worth many millions of rupees at the expense of people’s funds not only for themselves but even for their families ! The price of the two vehicles obtained by Field Marshal Fonseka and his wife was  a whopping Rs. 70 million. The other minister who also obtained vehicles  for his family was S.B Dissanayake.  He obtained super luxury vehicles for himself , his wife and son. It is significant to note his son holds no official position in his ministry . The  value of the two BMW super luxury vehicles for S.B.’s wife and son is around Rs. 70 million .The value of the Benz vehicle obtained by S.B. alone is around Rs. 40 million ! Unbelievably ,all these were grabbed by them over and above the tax free vehicle permits granted to them ! What fat lot of concern they are showing towards the poverty stricken masses ! ‘Thanks’  to good governance for pampering them .

If any virtuous individual would come forward to conduct a survey on the maniacal vehicle obsession of the ministers and MP’s of the good governance government which on the contrary   came into power  to introduce welcome  ‘change,’   he/she can rest assured that we are  there to give utmost publicity to them .
 

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by     (2016-12-20 01:50:28)

Economics and unrest: Findings of the ILO in relation to social movements

By Ganidhu Weerasinha-Tuesday, 20 December 2016

Social movements have shaped and are shaping modern societies around the globe. From the American Civil Rights Movement to the Anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa, social movements have benefited and transformed the economic, political and social conditions of many people. But this is not always the case. This article will discuss in brief the political and historical background of social movements and the factors leading to civil unrest using data collected by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to further explore this issue.

The risk of civilian unrest is on the rise in many parts of the world. According to polling data presented in the ILO’s World of Work Report, it is estimated that “the risk of unrest has risen the most in advanced economies over the past five years, followed by the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.”

Countries with large populations of young, educated people with limited employment prospects tend to experience unrest in the form of protests

– Pic by Shehan Gunasekara

The people on the streets in protest from Washington to Seoul demonstrate the reality of ILO’s research findings on advanced economies. The ability to express our discontent in government policy is a fundamental attribute of a democracy. However, it is clear that protests and strikes that continue for a long period will obstruct the efficiency of government mechanisms and subsequently affect the economy negatively.

Prior to moving to the issues closer to home, one may first recognise the factors that contribute to an increased risk of civil unrest. The ILO puts forward six factors.

The first factor is income inequality and the perception of injustice. The perception of economic and social disparity and increasing social exclusion is said to have a negative impact on social cohesion and tends to lead to social unrest (Easterly and Levine, 1997).

In early 2016, junior doctors in the United Kingdom staged a series of strikes to renegotiate their contracts. Dissatisfied with the outcome, they took to the streets once more in October resulting in the cancellation of 100,000 operations and over one million appointments. On 2 December 2016, many private bus unions in Sri Lanka resorted to a strike opposing the recent Budget proposal to increase traffic fines leading to a major inconvenience in public transport island-wide.

The second factor is fiscal consolidation and budget cuts. ‘Austerity measures’ have led to politically motivated protests and social instability. This has been the case in Europe for many years, from the end of the Weimar Republic in the 1930s to today’s anti-government demonstrations in Greece (Ponticelli and Voth 2011). However, this has also been a feature in developing countries.

In September 2016, tens of millions of public sector workers went on daylong strike across India, protesting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic policies, particularly his plans to push for greater privatisation. This led to the temporary closing of thousands of State-run banks, government offices and factories and greatly disrupted public transport.

The third factor is higher food prices. In addition to collective frustrations regarding the democratic process, rising food prices were also central to the developments associated with the Arab Spring (Bellemare, 2011). More than 5,000 people staged protests across Jordan in “a day of rage” to protest against escalating food prices and unemployment.

Heavy-handed State

The fourth factor is the heavy-handedness of the State. In countries where the State has resorted to excessive use of force (police and military) to tackle social upheavals instead of focusing on the actual causes of unrest, such actions have often exacerbated the situation (Justino, 2007). In February 2016, a Government crackdown on illegal street food vendors turned violent in Hong Kong as riot police clashed with protesters in the shopping district of Mong Kok following Government officials’ attempts to evict street vendors selling from unlicensed stalls.

The fifth factor is the presence of an educated but dissatisfied populace. Countries with large populations of young, educated people with limited employment prospects tend to experience unrest in the form of protests (Jenkins, 1983; Jenkins and Wallace, 1996). This has been the case recently in many parts of the world, from southern European countries such as Greece and Spain to South Asian countries.

For instance, in late August 2016 the Inter University Students’ Federation in Sri Lanka staged a large-scale protest march against a private medical university. Their attempt to enter a high security zone was halted by police intervention.

The final factor is the prevalence of mass media. Past studies have highlighted the impact of radio on the organisation of demonstrations and clearly the use of the Internet (e.g. through the use of Facebook and Twitter) have played a role in recent incidents of unrest.

In September 2011, 3,000 people assembled at Battery Park with the intention of occupying Wall Street to protest greed and corruption in the Government and financial system. They didn’t succeed geographically but with the use of social media the movement was able to gain momentum and spread to cities across the US and around the world.

The right to freedom of expression and the right to peaceful protest are crucial in a functioning democracy. The proliferation of information and ideas help inform political debate and are essential to public accountability and transparency in Government. It is important to note that there are cases where public demonstrations are clearly justified. However, the efficient functioning of Government institutions and mechanisms is paramount. Strikes, protest and other public demonstrations should be the last option for citizens to express their discontent. It is imperative to establish forums for discussion and dialogue for citizens to voice their concerns and for elected representatives to consult the public.

We can reflect on the words of the late US President Theodore Roosevelt: “Free speech, exercised both individually and through a free press, is a necessity in any country where people are themselves free.”

(The writer is a Research Assistant (intern) at the Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka (INSSSL) and an International Relations undergraduate from the University of London International Programme, Sri Lanka. This article does not reflect the stance of the INSSSL or the Sri Lankan Government.)

Over To God Tirupati

By Shyamon Jayasinghe –December 19, 2016

Shyamon Jayasinghe

“Loudest voices will dominate, irrational, ill-motivated decisions will be made and the complex arena of politics will turn into a crazy circus”~  (Anja Steinbauer-Philosophy Now, March-April 2014)

Even a sensible, balanced and informed personage like our Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has fallen into what I call the ‘Tirupati Mental Trap.’ We used to observe how, time and again, former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa rushed to the Tirupati Deyyo in South India-causing a measurable consternation among the Sinhala nationalists who formed the core of his political support. After all, Mahinda was not as strong as good old Tirupati. However, I had all along borne the opinion that Ranil was more strong-minded than even Tiru.

No leader in the prosperous, modern part of the world believes in God, or Gods, auspicious times, charms or pirith nool. Imagine our Malcolm Turnbull tying charms on his person! Or Merkel in Germany, for instance! Some of them might mouth ‘God,’ but that is to be politically correct among a deferential population.

The Sri Lanka case is totally different. The machine of governance is like Plato’s ‘ship of fools.’ The country is simply capricious for good rulers with a knowledge of statecraft. The best equipped to govern will have to fight hard to stay in power. “Loudest voices will dominate, irrational, ill-motivated decisions will be made and the complex arena of politics will turn into a crazy circus.”

Here’s the relevant news story from today’s (19/12/16) Daily Mirror: “Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will visit the Lord Balaji temple at Tirumala in Andh ra Pradesh, on December 22, an Indian news agency PTI reported today. ‘Wickremesinghe will arrive here (Chennai) on Dec 21 for the visit,’ it said quoting officials referring to the Sri Lankan Prime Minister’s tentative itinerary.  He will take a chopper from Chennai to reach Tirupati airport (Renigunta) which is about 130 kilometers from here and proceed to the temple by road from there, they said.  Wickremesinghe is set to return to Sri Lanka on the same day after offering prayers at the hill temple, they added.  He was in India in October last, for an official visit and had last year offered prayers at the Sri Krishna temple at Guruvayur in Kerala.”

Why do Sri Lankan leaders rush to Tiru and pray to the latter? I thought they had more of the grey matter given to them from the elephant-nosed “Lord Gana.”

Again, when I reflect, who else can save our miserable Paradise? The lot that it has fallen to over decades of ‘Avapaalanaya.’ (bad governance). As things are, Yahapaalanaya will always be a dream until Tiru steps in. Tiru didn’t help Mahinda probably because there was blood in the latter’s hands and enough cash in his pockets to help himself. Even Tiru has a moral code

Just look at the state of our country: We used to have a decent and civilised constitution before the watershed year of 1971. The evil British Empire was really responsible for that constitution although Kalu Suddas (Black-Whites) passed it in the new independent Parliament. The Constitution we had over those brief years was inspired by Lord Soulbury. Persons acceptable to their areas of inhabitance were nominated by the political parties to contest Parliamentary Elections. So we had decent MPs from the different electorates-be it Devinuwara, Galle, Baddegama, Hanguranketa, Matale,Pelmadulla, Jaffna and Chavakachcheri and so on. The simple reason for this was that these candidates had passed the first test of local popular acceptability. Only, basically good men could gain such popular clearance.The Constitution of JR in 1971 changed that with proportional representation. Party bosses and the corrupt political elite within parties did the picking of candidates. Upon election, these men and women (overwhelmingly men in a misogynistic society) wouldn’t care about a local population as they represented a ‘District,’ and a District was large enough to ignore local people and to pass the buck.

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RAJAPAKSA OPPOSES GOVT’S PLAN TO EMPOWER CHIEF MINISTERS

19/12/2016

Sri Lanka’s former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has warned the government against antagonising the Sinhala majority by “appeasing” the country’s Tamil community by mulling to grant more powers to provincial chief ministers in the proposed constitutional reform process.

In the recent weeks there has been a debate over a reported demand by the main Tamil Party — Tamil National Alliance (TNA) — to curb the powers of the provincial governors in order to empower the provincial chief ministers.

Addressing public gatherings, Rajapaksa said even in India the provincial governor executes the presidential authority.

“In India the governors can dissolve provincial assemblies, in our country they can’t do it, he said, adding that it would be dangerous in terms of preserving the unitary character of the state in Sri Lanka,” he said.

Rajapaksa’s Opposition Block in the recent weeks have stepped up their anti-constitutional reform campaign.

They label the attempt as a “give in” to Tamil demands.

He said the current government headed by his successor Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe were attempting to “appease the Tamil minority while antagonising the Sinhala majority”.

Sirisena has been advocating a constitutional solution to the Tamil demand for political recognition.

His electoral victory over Rajapaksa in 2015 was overwhelmingly backed by the Tamil minority.

The constitution making process to replace the 1978 adopted existing constitution was set in motion by Sirisena in January this year.

Reports of six sub committees now await to be received by the 21-member steering committee comprising members from all parties represented in parliament.

The government blames Rajapaksa’s Opposition Block for misleading the population in order to gain political advantage in the constitution reform process.

Rajapaksa was also critical of the government’s decision to create an industrial zone in his home district of Hambantota by granting 15,000 acres of land to the Chinese state-owned firms.

business-standard.com

PM should ask Gota how he messed up and try not to repeat

2016-12-20

wo weeks ago, Navy Commander Vice Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne assaulted provincial journalist Rohan Pradeep Kumara who was covering the protesting port workers at Hambantota port. The assault was videod, widely reported in the media and uploaded to You-tube. Given the obscene language and wanton thuggery unleashed during the whole affair, one could argue that the incident was a public relations disaster for the government. The government however was unmoved; it either thinks the laws do not apply to high-flying military ranks. If that is the case this is one thing the former regime and the incumbent can find common ground at last. Or it simply cannot act, because that would be against this whole grain of sacred national security. That was what the former regime argued as well, when the protestors were shot in Rathupaswala and dissidents were abducted in white vans.   
What is more disturbing is some of the government interlocutors blame the victim for getting beaten up. Others find themselves unable to speak up; even those who summon courage to talk, deliver a qualified apology. An assault is an assault, it does not cease to be so when it is the Navy Commander who is the alleged perpetrator.   The government has the right to dislike some media, but it does also have a duty to defend media, whether it likes their coverage of the government or not.   
This whole affair reminds me of an incident that occurred during the early years of the Rajapaksa administration. In 2007, journalist and then Deputy Editor of the Nation newspaper Keith Noyahr was abducted and tortured by a group of unidentified men, who subsequently dropped him by the road side. During his ordeal, Noyahr who under a pseudonym wrote a well- received defence column was asked to disclose the sources of one of his recent columns in which he was critical of a military higher-up. It was one of the earliest abductions and the media were unusually lively in protesting against the incident, for they themselves thought this could be an anomaly rather than the norm of the then government’s conduct. After a large media protest in Kollupitiya, Poddala Jayantha and Sanath Balasuriya who were then the President and General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ Association, who also happened to work in the Lake House were summoned to the Defence Ministry by the then Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa. His grouse was with the two media men ( not the army top brass implicated in the assault). He decreed that state media employees, who he described as government employees should not criticize the government. He refused to discuss, let alone to investigate the abduction and the complicity of the military top brass and threatened the worse if the media activists kept sullying the honour of the military. For him, feisty journalists and lowly civil society activists were formless, hapless disgusting creatures who needed to be put in their place. He did that in the following years with an admirable efficiency that would put to shame many Middle Eastern despots.  

"What is interesting in this country is that the rise and fall of fortune  and credibility of every government in recent times has been cyclical:  they all set-off pledging to be the epitome of good governance. "

That incident in 2007 set the broad guidelines of the then government’s relationship with the media. The government’s explicit conduct then outlined who was above the law and who did not count in that law. The military was above the law and became a law unto themselves. The media and many other kinds of noisy dissidents did not count in that law, so liable to be white-vanned, locked up and snuffed.At first, impunity was allowed in selected cases, but as it was proved, once the wheels of impunity were put into motion, it took a life of its own. Lately, even the ever vigilant Defence Secretary might not have known who was killing whom and who was  abducting whom, and for what? 
The rest of that is history; only that we have a long list of victims and a looming international antipathy, which has not yet faded away because of monstrosity that defined this country.  
The past can at times, provide a good deal of lessons. What is interesting in this country is that the rise and fall of fortune and credibility of every government in recent times has been cyclical: they all set-off pledging to be the epitome of good governance. People though do not believe in all that has voted them to power, because their predecessor had proved to be abysmal in every count. Then by the middle of their term, the government begins doing everything that its predecessors had done, and by the end of the term, it proves to be worse than its predecessor. By now the people had forgotten how egregious the predecessor had been, so cometh the election, they elect the Opposition. Thus a new cycle begins.  
There is no reason not to believe this government would not follow the same cyclical pattern, however it is still a bit too premature for it to destroy all its goodwill. The former regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa could have been very different if it addressed the early signs of impunity and abuse of power. If the killers of five-students in Trincomalee, one of the earliest of extra judicial killings, were prosecuted then and early attacks on media were investigated, the culture of impunity that enveloped the country and later convulsed the government could have been averted.  
The same lessons could well apply to the incumbent government as well. If it thinks military top brass are above the law, just as Gotabaya Rajapaksa did then, it is setting a very dangerous precedent - or more accurately it is following up the same precedent set by Gota.  
That is a recipe for disaster. Disaster would not happen overnight, but it surely will over the time, slowly but steadily. Perhaps Ranil Wickremesinghe should ask Gota how he screwed up, and try not to repeat it.  

Follow RangaJayasuriya @ RangaJayasuriya on Twitter  

Sri Lanka: Colombo based media exposed Rajapaksa & slain–Editor Telephone Conversation

An audio tape of Lasantha-Mahinda secret telephone conversation!

( December 19, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Colombo based media has exposed an audio tape of a secret telephone conversation between the slain ‘Sunday Leader’ editor Lasantha Wickrematunge and ex-president Mahinda Rajapaksa.

According to the report published by the Sri Lanka Mirror, an online daily news portal, “their conversation indicates that they had been very close friends.”

Lasantha was requesting President Rajapaksa to take immediate actions against those who are engaging in corruption. Then the President Rajapaksa asked possibilities of helping him catch at least a “small fish” who corrupted in the government to finish off, which Lasantha had agreed.

However, Rajapaksa was the president when Lasantha was murdered on 08 January 2009.

America’s Wanted Financial Scam Ringleader Rienzie Edwards Is Karu’s And Navin’s Chum

December 19, 2016

America’s wanted Sri Lankan Rienzie Edwards, alleged ringleader, swindler and money launderer is a close friend of both speaker Karu Jayasuriya and his son in law Minister of Plantation Industries Navin Dissanayake Colombo Telegraph can reveal today.

The 55 year old Edwards was on the 12th of December 2016 indicted by a Washington court along with five other accomplices on charges of swindling investors to the tune of over US $ 50 million.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya a close associate of Edwards, was earlier seen chaperoning the now accused US swindler, when an Indian Spiritual Guru visited the island nation. This was besides him being the chief guest on several occasions along with his Ministerial son in law, at the Royal Turf Club Nuwara Eliya horse races organized and conducted by Edwards.

According to the allegations contained in the Indictment: From at least June 2013 through August 2016, Rienzi Edwards, Michael Jacobs, Ruby Handler-Jacobs, F.K. Ho, Lawrence Lester and Rachel Gendreau orchestrated and executed a fraudulent high-yield investment programme known as the “Cities Upliftment Programme,” or CUP, which the defendants falsely told investors was operated by the New York Fed. The scheme was principally designed and operated by Edwards, with the assistance of Jacobs and Handler-Jacobs, and was marketed to investors around the world through brokers, including Ho, Lester, and Gendreau.” The statement also said that, Michael Jacobs, Handler-Jacobs, Lester and Gendreau were arrested by the US law enforcement authorities. It also said that Edwards and Ho are currently at large.

The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe. Arraignment is scheduled for December 20, 2016, in federal court in Manhattan. “Edwards, 55, of Sri Lanka, Jacobs, 64, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Handler-Jacobs, 64, of Albuquerque, New Mexico are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of money laundering, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; one count of conducting monetary transactions in unlawful funds, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; one count of conspiracy to impersonate employees of the United States, which carries a maximum sentence of five years; one count of impersonating employees of the United States, which carries a maximum sentence of three years; and aggravated identity theft, which carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison.”

However claiming his innocence in an interview over the telephone, Edwards had told Sunday Times Business Online that he was unaware of these charges, as he had not been contacted by any US authoritative government body to date. He had also claimed that he did not know any of the others accused in this case.

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State Minister’s son granted bail after knocking down motorcyclist

By A. J. A. Abeynayake-December 19, 2016, 9:59 pm 

Colombo Acting Magistrate Sumithra Waidyasekera enlarged on bail State Minister of Finance Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena’s son, Oshadha, who was produced before the court for knocking down a motorcyclist while driving an SUV in the wee hours of yesterday near the Nelum Pokuna Theatre in Colombo 07.

Oshadha has been charged for driving a vehicle without a licence, injuring a motorcyclist and failing to prevent an accident.

He was enlarged on two sureties of Rs. 100,000 each.

The injured was admitted to the National Hospital, Colombo.

Cinnamon Gardens police had earlier given Oshadha police bail on condition that he would appear before courts.

Oshada’s counsel Pulasthi Rupasinghe informed the court that the motorcyclist had ridden at an excessive speed resulting in the accident and his client had already paid him Rs. 125,000 to cover the medical expenses. Acting Magistrate giving bail to the suspect fixed the next date of hearing the case to Feb. 28, 2017.

1,200cc Ducati bike seized



2016-12-20

A high-end, high powered motorcycle worth over Rs.4 million, which had been smuggled into the country under the patronage of the son of a former VVIP during the previous regime, was seized by the police from a place where it was hidden in Keselwatta, yesterday. 

The Colombo Central Divisional Law Enforcement Unit had raided a room on Silversmith Lane off Abdul Hameed Street, which was said to have been a secret hideout used by underworld operatives.

 Police had raided the place after receiving information that it was used by underworld operatives as a meeting place and to do drugs. Police had never expected to find an Italian made black coloured Ducati with an engine capacity of 1,200 cc. parked inside. 

A man was arrested on the spot and he had told the police that the expensive motorcycle had been given to him as a gift by one of his friends -- a clearing agent who had died sometime ago.

 According to police sources, the suspect and his acquaintances had been riding the motorcycle, which cannot be legally ridden on the local roads as its engine capacity is above the legal limit. 

Inquiries had revealed that the motorcycle had neither been registered with the Department of Motor Traffic nor brought in to the country with the knowledge of the Sri Lanka Customs. 

Police been told that the motorcycle had been smuggled into the country through illegal channels under the patronage of the former VVIP’s son. 

Under the prevailing motor traffic laws, clearance from the Ministry of Defence is required to import such high capacity motorcycles, and then too only for riding on race tracks. 

Police are conducting further inquiries to discover how the motorcycle was smuggled in and how it ended up with the suspect. 

Police, however, had found that the suspect had no criminal record. He was produced before the Maligakanda Magistrate yesterday and remanded.

 Colombo Central Divisional Law Enforcement Unit OIC, CI Janak De Silva is conducting investigations, instructed by Senior DIG (Western Province) Nandana Munasinghe, DIG Colombo Lalith Pathinayake, SSP Central Division Saliya de Silva and SP Sanjaya Irasinghe. (Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana)

In West Bank, Israel “replacing one land theft by another”

Maryam Hamad, from the West Bank village of Silwad, is pictured with the Israeli Ofra settlement in the background. She is one of the landowners on whose land the nearby Amona outpost was built. According to an Israeli high court decision, the settlers must evacuate this month.Keren ManorActiveStills

Charlotte Silver-19 December 2016

Christmas Day is the court-ordered deadline to evacuate around 330 settlers from the Amona outpost. The colony is built on the farmland of Palestinian families who still live nearby, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

Eighty-year-old Maryam Hamad, who lives in the neighboring Palestinian village of Silwad, owns six acres there, where she once cultivated wheat.

She has not been able to visit her land for 20 years, since Amona was established in the mid-1990s. She expects to return to the land when the settlers leave.

If the evacuation is implemented, Palestinian are at risk of revenge attacks by settlers.

After first refusing to peacefully evacuate, the settlers of Amona only conceded when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a video on Facebook promising them to crack down on what he calls illegal building in Palestinian neighborhoods in present-day Israel.

The government is preparing a $36 million budget to evacuate the outpost and generously compensate the settlers for the move.

Anti-settlement group Peace Now reports each family in Amona will receive approximately $260,000.

The group says the compensation sends a clear message: that “crime and threats pay.”

“Willing to crush basic rights”

Hamad told *Haaretz,” “My feeling for the land is something that only farmers could understand. I’m dreaming of the day I can return. I wouldn’t trade this land for its weight in gold.”

But Amona – one of around 100 so-called unauthorized outposts – looks like it will be the exception.

The Israeli government is now pushing through the so-called Regulation Bill, legislation that will retroactively legalize all Israeli outposts built on privately owned Palestinian land.

But even the 41 families of Amona won’t go far: the Israeli government has offered them a new allotment of land, still in the occupied West Bank, that is also owned by Palestinian families.

“The Israeli government is replacing one land theft by another,” Peace Now said. “It is willing to crush basic rights of Palestinians, bend Israeli law and violate international law – all in order to satisfy 41 families who knowingly settled on private Palestinian lands.”

Israel’s Regulation Bill has been greeted with condemnatory statements from the United Nations, the European Union and Israeli politicians from the so-called opposition parties.

They all warn the bill sounds the death knell for the two-state solution. But these apocalyptic pronouncements overshadow the government’s years-long process of ushering the outposts into the folds of Israeli legitimacy.

“Legalizing” outposts

Beginning in the mid-1990s, following the signing of the Oslo accords, Israel stopped officially establishing new settlements, but began funding and supporting settler groups who colonized West Bank hilltops under the pretext of expanding existing settlements.

In 1998, then-foreign minister Ariel Sharon called on Israelis to “run and grab as many [Palestinian] hilltops as they can to enlarge the [Jewish] settlements because everything we take now will stay ours… Everything we don’t grab will go to them.”

Though these “outposts” were portrayed as rogue, the Israeli government was essential to their survival. 

The legal status of “unauthorized outposts” and “settlements” has no distinction outside Israel: all Israel’s settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.

In 2005, the government commissioned former state prosecutor Talia Sasson to investigate the outposts.

Sasson found that at least 105 outposts had been established “in blatant violation of the law” and documented how government officials in the housing, defense and other ministries helped to establish them.

The Israeli government did not just provide material support to these outposts, it also began to defend their legality.

This August, before Israel’s governing coalition introduced the Regulation Bill, The New York Times revealed that one-third of the outposts had already been retroactively legalized or were on their way.

“Netanyahu’s government in 2011 had already quietly introduced what it called a new ‘combined policy,’” The New York Times reports.

“The idea was that Israel would remove settlement structures built on privately owned Palestinian land, but, in areas that Israel has declared as state land, would instead ‘regulate the planning status’ — or, in other words, legalize construction after the fact.”

According to Peace Now, the vast majority of the outposts are built on privately owned Palestinian land.

This policy was quietly announced through state responses to anti-settlement petitions in the courts. In fact, settlers have credited anti-settlement lawsuits with pushing the government to commit to supporting the outposts.

But except for a few high-profile cases, the government left most outposts on private land alone, and in the case of Amona, defended their right to remain.

Land grabs

Two years ago the Israeli government lost its final battle in the high court to keep Amona settlers on Palestinians’ land. The high court ruled that settlements could not be founded on private Palestinian land and gave the settlers two years to relocate.

In prior cases, the court has ruled that Israeli settlements can be built on “state land.” The distinction between state and private land – like the distinction between outposts and settlements – is an invention of Israeli law to enable the colonization of the West Bank.

Accordingly, Israel has recently been aggressively reclassifying private Palestinian land across the occupied West Bank as “state land.”

The government’s defeat in the Amona case in 2014 may have disappointed the Israeli government, but it did not derail a process it had begun several years before: to retroactively legalize scores of outposts throughout the West Bank.

The court defeat may even have helped the Regulation Bill by mobilizing the parliament against the judiciary. On 14 November, a day after the high court rejected the government’s request to postpone the Amona evacuation, ministers unanimously approved the bill.

Peace Now does not believe the timing was a coincidence.

Far-right Knesset member Bezalel Smotrich, who co-sponsored the bill, said the “legal terror of left-wing organizations against settling the land has come to an end.”

The bill must still pass three more readings in Israel’s parliament, and Israel’s attorney general says it breaches international law and he would not be able to defend it in the high court.

The government announced the final readings would not take place until after US President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated in late January.

But with or without the bill, there will likely be no let up to Palestinians being forced off their land and terrorized by the settlers and the army that protects them.

At least 9 dead as truck rams crowd in Berlin Christmas market

At least nine people were killed after a large truck plowed into a Christmas market in Berlin. German authorities said the motivation for the attack was unclear. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)

By Anthony Faiola and Stephanie Kirchner December 19 at 5:10 PM

BERLIN — A massive black truck plowed into a Christmas market teeming with holiday revelers in west Berlin on Monday, killing nine people and wounding dozens more.

The incident had echoes of the truck assault in the French city of Nice in August, which killed 86 people and was claimed by the Islamic State. But German authorities said it remained unclear whether terrorists were involved in Monday’s attack. Police said they had taken a suspect into custody who matched a description of the truck driver, and a dead body was found in the passenger side of the vehicle.

A devastating scene unfolded at the Christmas market, where the truck careened into the market near the historic Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church shortly after 8 p.m., sending panicked people scattering. After steering the truck — which had a Polish license plate number — onto the sidewalk, the driver continued between 50 and 80 yards, police said.

On the scene, first responders were carrying off people in stretchers Monday night as police with machine guns cordoned off the area.

“It’s terrible, just terrible,” said Berlin Mayor Michael Müller. He said it was up to authorities to establish the facts, adding, “We always hoped that we wouldn’t have this kind of situation in Berlin.”

Although Germany’s Bild newspaper reported that authorities were investigating the attack as a possible act of terror, two senior security officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity said it was too early to determine the motive. “We cannot make any clear statement about the causes or the background” of the incident, said Winfried Wenzel, Berlin police spokesman.

Following the incident, police said, witnesses reported that the driver fled the scene, running toward Berlin’s sprawling central park knows as the Tiergarten.

The incident took place near Breitscheidtplatz in a chic shopping district in west Berlin, and at one the busiest of the city’s famous Christmas markets. Witnesses said fairgoers were drinking traditional mulled wine and taking in the lights and sounds of the market when they heard a loud noise.

“We were enjoying the Christmas markets and some mulled wine,” one witness, Emma Rushton, told CNN. “We heard a loud bang and we started to see to our left Christmas lights were being torn down.” At that point, she said, she saw a truck crashing through the crowd.

The suspect, police said, was arrested near the towering Victory Column in Berlin’s Tiergarten.

Although the motive behind the incident remained unclear, authorities for months have feared that terrorists might target Germany’s famous Christmas markets.

German prosecutors last week said they were investigating an incident in which a 12-year-old boy allegedly plotted a nail-bomb attack at a Christmas market in the southern city of Ludwigshafen. 

According to German media, investigators said that they think the boy, who holds dual German and Iraqi citizenship, was guided by a member of the Islamic State.

In August, a Tunisian-born man drove a 19-ton truck along the beach front in Nice, mowing down 86 people during French Bastille Day celebrations. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State.

Souad Mekhennet in Frankfurt contributed to this report.

Correction: an earlier version of this article misspelled the name of the newspaper Bild and said the attack occurred in east Berlin. It happened in west Berlin.