Russia says US troops arriving in Poland pose threat to its security

Early deployment of biggest American force in Europe since cold war may be attempt to lock Trump into strategy 

 American soldiers during a welcome ceremony at the Polish-German border in Olszyna, Poland. Photograph: Natalia Dobryszycka/AFP/Getty Images

Ewen MacAskill Defence correspondent-Thursday 12 January 2017

The Kremlin has hit out at the biggest deployment of US troops in Europe since the end of the cold war, branding the arrival of troops and tanks in Poland as a threat to Russia’s national security.

The deployment, intended to counter what Nato portrays as Russian aggression in eastern Europe, will see US troops permanently stationed along Russia’s western border for the first time.

About 1,000 of a promised 4,000 troops arrived in Poland at the start of the week, and a formal ceremony to welcome them is to be held on Saturday. Some people waved and held up American flags as the troops, tanks and heavy armoured vehicles crossed into south-western Poland from Germany, according to Associated Press.

But their arrival was not universally applauded. In Moscow, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “We perceive it as a threat. These actions threaten our interests, our security. Especially as it concerns a third party building up its military presence near our borders. It’s [the US], not even a European state.”

The Kremlin may hold back on retaliatory action in the hope that a Donald Trumppresidency will herald a rapprochement with Washington. Trump, in remarks during the election campaign and since, has sown seeds of doubt over the deployments by suggesting he would rather work with than confront Putin.

But on Thursday Nato officials played down Trump’s comments, saying they hoped and expected that he would not attempt to reverse the move after he became president on 20 January.

That prediction was reinforced by Trump’s proposed defence secretary, James Mattis, and his proposed secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, who backed Nato during Senate confirmation hearings.

Mattis, in rhetoric at odds with the president-elect, said the west should recognise the reality that Putin was trying to break Nato.

Tillerson, who has business dealings in Russia, described Russia’s annexation of Crimea as “as an act of force” and said that when Russia flexed its muscles, the US must mount “a proportional show of force”.

Nato was caught out by the Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and has struggled to cope with Russia’s use of hybrid warfare, which combines propaganda, cyberwarfare and the infiltration of regular troops disguised as local rebels.

In response, the US and its Nato allies have been steadily increasing air patrols and training exercises in eastern Europe. The biggest escalation is the current deployment of US troops, agreed at last summer’s Nato summit in Warsaw.

The move was billed as an attempt to reassure eastern European states who have been calling for the permanent deployment of US troops in the belief that Russia would be less likely to encroach on territory where US troops are present.

Peter Cook, the Pentagon press spokesman, said: “The United States is demonstrating its continued commitment to collective security through a series of actions designed to reassure Nato allies and partners of America’s dedication to enduring peace and stability in the region in light of the Russian intervention in Ukraine.”

Poland in particular has pressed for a permanent US troop deployment since soon after the fall of communism in 1989.

Nato officials insist that the US and other alliance troops deployed to eastern Europe are not “permanent”, which would be in breach of an agreement with Russia. The US plans to rotate the troops every nine months, so it can argue they are not in breach of the Russian treaty, but effectively there will be a permanent presence.

Deployment was originally scheduled for later in the month but a decision was made last month to bring it forward, possibly a move by Barack Obama before he leaves office to try to lock the president-elect into the strategy.

The troops from the Third Armor Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, based in Fort Carson, Colorado, along with hundreds of armoured vehicles and tanks, were moved from the US to Germany last week for transit by rail and road to Poland and elsewhere in eastern Europe. The US is sending 87 tanks, and 144 armoured vehicles.

As well as being stationed in Poland, the US troops will fan out across other eastern European states, including Estonia, Bulgaria and Romania.

The UK is also contributing to the buildup of Nato forces in eastern Europe. The UK formally took command this week of Nato’s response force, made up of 3,000 UK troops plus others from Nato who will be on permanent standby ready to deploy within days. The contributing countries include the US, Denmark, Spain, Norway and Poland.

Few at Nato seriously believe that war with Russia is likely but there have been dangerous developments, with escalation on both sides, including a buildup of Russian troops. Russia alarmed Poland and other eastern European states by moving nuclear-capable Iskander-M missiles to its naval base at Kaliningrad in the autumn. At the time Nato regarded the move as a response to its own deployments.

The Polish foreign minister, Witold Waszczykowski, voicing concern in eastern Europe that Trump might do a deal with Putin, said this week he hoped that any such reconciliation would not be at Poland’s expense.

Austria's far right struggles to win over Jews with charm offensive

Head of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPOe) Heinz-Christian Strache (L) visits ''The Valley of the Communities'' monument, which bears engravings with the names of some 5,000 Jewish communities destroyed by the Nazis or their collaborators, at Yad Vashem's Holocaust History... REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Files

By Kirsti Knolle and Francois Murphy | VIENNA- Thu Jan 12, 2017

Politically, it could be a fine example of chutzpah.

Six decades after it was founded by former Nazis, Austria's Freedom Party (FPO) is courting Jewish voters, hoping that its anti-Muslim message will resonate with the tiny community and help it overcome lingering accusations of anti-Semitism.

Jewish leaders are dismissive but the party, like others on the European far right, appears to have its image among the wider electorate in mind as it stages the charm offensive.

"Anti-Semitism, regardless in which form, is a crime against humanity," FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache told a panel discussion on the issue which his party hosted in November.

"If Israel as a state is threatened and ceases to exist, that is the beginning of Europe's downfall," he said. At the event held in a grand Vienna hotel, Strache also denounced "a political Islam that seeks world domination" - using the kind of language that the Nazis once directed at Jews.

The FPO's anti-immigration message is drawing support; it has surged in opinion polls and its candidate came close to winning the Austrian presidency last year.

Like France's National Front, the FPO has recently expelled members who have publicly expressed anti-Semitic views, including a member of parliament in 2015.

But the FPO has gone further and made overtures to the Jewish community, including visits by Strache to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem and the November event that featured Israeli politician Rafi Eitan, who led the 1960 operation to capture Nazi Adolf Eichmann.

Whether the FPO is displaying chutzpah - a term for audacity in the Yiddish language that millions of Jews spoke across central and eastern Europe before the Holocaust - is open to question. However, the party has failed to win over the Jewish Community of Vienna (IKG), the main body representing Austrian Jews.

"A couple of nice comments about Israel do not make this party kosher," said IKG president Oskar Deutsch. "The FPO's whole past - and in fact its present - are still xenophobic and its leaders are trying to set parts of the Austrian population against each other."

The FPO's Norbert Hofer lost a presidential runoff in May by less than a percentage point.

After a court ordered a re-run due to irregularities in the count, the IKG issued its first election endorsement in its history. It advised members to vote for Hofer's rival, independent Alexander Van der Bellen, who eventually won the re-run in December by a more comfortable margin.

POLITICAL MAINSTREAM

The FPO is one of several far right parties trying to ride a populist wave sweeping Western countries in the hope of fully joining the political mainstream.

National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who is expected to perform strongly in this year's French presidential election, has followed a similar path. Last year she rebuked her father, who founded the party, for making remarks that revived long-standing allegations of anti-Semitism.

Hungary's once virulently anti-Semitic Jobbik party also tried to show a more tolerant face by sending greetings to local Jews for their Hanukkah holiday last month.

In Vienna, Deutsch and other Jewish leaders say the FPO has not addressed its Nazi past as thoroughly as Austria's more mainstream parties, or fully purged its ranks.

David Lasar, an FPO lawmaker and the only prominent Jewish member of the party, rejects this view. "I think the party history has been dealt with," said Lasar, who has led the overtures to the Jewish community, pointing to the members expelled under Strache.

Jewish votes are unlikely to swing the result of any Austrian election - the community numbers little more than 10,000 in a country of 8.7 million.

Analysts say the overtures are aimed rather at winning favour among the general public. Opinion polls suggest it is already the most popular party, with support of more than 30 percent.

"It doesn't want to make an issue of it but is trying to rid itself of the image of a far-right party," political analyst Anton Pelinka said.

"MISTAKE"

FPO opponents point to recent cases that suggest lingering anti-Semitism by Strache and the party.

In 2012 Strache posted a cartoon on his Facebook page showing a fat banker with a hooked nose and six-point star buttons on his sleeve, gorging himself at the expense of a thin man representing "the people".

At Yad Vashem in 2010, Strache wore the cap of a student fraternity. The move drew criticism in Austria, where such groups are often steeped in nostalgia for the country's Nazi era, when the Jewish population collapsed from about 220,000.

"That might have been a mistake," Lasar said of the cap, but he rejected charges of anti-Semitism. "There simply is no place for anti-Semitism in this party. It doesn't exist anymore."

There are no reliable estimates of how many Jews voted for Hofer in the presidential run-off.

Lasar put the figure at 40-50 percent of Jewish voters, but said supporters he knew wished to remain anonymous. Several others, including a former head of the IKG and a journalist who runs a local Jewish news site, Samuel Laster, put the figure at around 10 percent.

"Jewish people certainly did vote for the FPO ... out of fear of Muslims and because of the growing number of terror attacks," said Ariel Muzicant, who led the IKG from 1998 to 2012. Several others said Hofer voters were more likely to be new arrivals in Austria, less aware of the FPO's past.

The IKG estimates that there are 10,000-12,000 Jews in Austria - far fewer than the roughly 600,000 Muslims, some of whom arrived during Europe's migration crisis - suggesting the FPO's overtures are not purely about Jewish votes.

"Fundamentally it is a strategic move," political analyst Thomas Hofer said. "It's clear that many in the Jewish community will see what the FPO is doing as chutzpah."

(Writing by Francois Murphy; editing by David Stamp)

Ban Ki-moon's brother and nephew charged with bribery

GETTY IMAGESImage captionAs secretary general of the UN, Mr Ban has played a central role in international politics and diplomatic negotiations

11 January 2017

US prosecutors have charged relatives of former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon with conspiracy to bribe a government official.

Mr Ban's younger brother and his nephew stand accused of offering money to a Middle Eastern official, through an American middleman.

They allege the two men bribed the official to use state funds to buy their building project.

Mr Ban served as UN secretary general from 2007 until 2016.

He was succeeded by former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres on 1 January 2017. Mr Ban is now being seen as a possible future president in his home country of South Korea.

Reuters quoted his spokesman as saying Mr Ban was unaware of the circumstances surrounding the allegations against his relatives.

GETTY IMAGESImage caption-Prosecutors say the two men sought a meeting with the head of state from the unnamed Middle Eastern country during a UN General Assembly session in New York

Prosecutors say that in early 2013 the South Korean construction firm Keangnam, of which Mr Ban's brother Ban Ki-sang was an executive, was faced with growing debt and sought to sell a building complex in Vietnam known as Landmark 72.

In a 39-page indictment unsealed on Tuesday at a Manhattan courthouse, prosecutors alleged that he and his son Joo Hyan "Dennis" Bahn, a Manhattan estate agent, stood to make millions of dollars in commission on the sale, valued at up to $800m (£657m).

US officials say that the two men paid millions of dollars in bribes and tried to trade on the prominence of their South Korean family name in order to persuade a Middle Eastern official from an unnamed country to arrange a purchase of the complex by that country's sovereign wealth fund.

Federal papers say the two even tried to secure a meeting to discuss the deal with that country's head of state during his visit to New York during an annual UN general assembly meeting.

Mr Bahn, who has pleaded not guilty, was released on bail.

According to the indictment, a $500,000 initial bribe was paid to US businessman Malcolm Harris who presented himself as an agent of the official, with another $2m promised upon the closing of the sale.

But Mr Harris allegedly double-crossed Mr Bahn and his father and made off with the money. Neither Mr Harris nor Mr Ban Ki-sang have been detained.

"This alleged bribery and fraud scheme offends all who believe in honest and transparent business," said US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara, "and it stands as a reminder that those who bring international corruption to New York City, as alleged here, will face the scrutiny of American law enforcement."

Mr Ban's relatives are charged with corruption, money laundering and conspiracy.

Over 70pc of Japan’s biggest coral reef dead from bleaching – report

90.4 percent of the reef’s coral is at least partly bleached. Source: Gavin Bain (Flickr CC)

12th January 2017

Over two-thirds of Japan’s biggest coral reef has died, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Japanese environment ministry.

The survey was conducted at 35 points along the Sekiseishoko coral reef, an area set between the remote Ishigaki and Iriomote islands, about 1,200 miles (1,900km) southwest of Tokyo.

SEE ALSO: Can the Coral Triangle be saved from overfishing, pollution and climate change?

A Japan Times report on the survey quoted a ministry official as saying that a phenomenon called bleaching was responsible for the drastic reduction in coral, likely as a result of warming sea temperatures due to climate change.

Bleaching occurs when unusually warm water causes coral to expel the algae living in their tissues, causing the coral to turn completely white. Unless water temperatures quickly return to normal, the coral eventually dies from lack of nutrition.

2016 saw a worsening of bleaching on the reef due to ocean temperatures occurring that were one to 2ºC higher than normal between the months of June and September. Some even reached the unusually high temperature of 30ºC, the local daily reported.

According to the survey, more than 91 percent of the reef’s coral is at least partly bleached.

SEE ALSO: New study says Great Barrier Reef could be dead by end of century

This comes after scientists confirmed the largest die-off of corals ever recorded on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef last year with the worst affected area, a 700km swath of reefs in the northern region of the Great Barrier Reef, losing an average of 67 percent of its shallow-water corals over an eight month period.

As global temperatures continue to rise as a result of manmade climate change, The Reef Studies Centre warns that similar events will be the new normal, occurring every two years by the mid-2030s.

Study: Smoking will kill eight million a year by 2030

Study conducted with US National Cancer Institute says 80 percent of deaths occur in low and middle-income countries.

10 JANUARY 2017

Smoking will kill more than eight million people a year by 2030, according to a World Health Organization study.

The study, which was conducted with the US National Cancer Institute and released on Tuesday, found that more than 80 percent of these deaths occur in low and middle-income countries.

Smoking also costs the global economy more than a trillion dollars annually.

Those costs far outweigh global revenues from tobacco taxes, which the WHO estimated at about $269bn in 2013-2014.

"It is responsible for over $1 trillion in healthcare costs and lost productivity each year," said the study, peer-reviewed by more than 70 scientific experts.

The economic costs are expected to continue to rise, and although governments have the tools to reduce tobacco use and associated deaths, most have fallen far short of using those tools effectively.

Jeremias Paul, the head of WHO's Tobacco Control Economics Unit, told Al Jazeera that the most effective form of reducing smoking is increasing the tax on tobacco.

"It is also the most underutilised method for tobacco control," he said.

The total number of smokers worldwide is rising [Mohamed al-Sayaghi/Reuters]

Taxing tobacco will have the most effect in low-income areas because money is hard to come by. Right now tobacco is really cheap in those areas, Paul explained.

Tobacco taxes could also be used to fund more expensive interventions such as anti-tobacco mass media campaigns and support for cessation services and treatments, it said.

Governments spent less than $1bn on tobacco control in 2013-2014, according to a WHO estimate.

Furthermore, tobacco use accounts for a significant share of the health disparities between the rich and poor. These disparities are exacerbated by a lack of access to healthcare.

Although smoking prevalence is falling among the global population, the total number of smokers worldwide is rising.

China alone will suffer two million deaths a year by 2030, unless actions is taken to reduce the number of smokers.

An anti-smoking campaign will soon be launched in the country.

In Beijing, where it is illegal to smoke inside public buildings, a group of volunteers has the authority to hunt for smokers in these public spaces and fines them when they are caught in the act.

Governments spent less than $1bn on tobacco control in 2013-2014 [Michaela Rehle/Reuters]

Brain activity 'key in stress link to heart disease'

SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYImage caption-Researchers say they have identified how stress can lead to inflamed arteries

12 January 2017

The effect of constant stress on a deep-lying region of the brain explains the increased risk of heart attack, a study in The Lancet suggests.

In a study of 300 people, those with higher activity in the amygdala were more likely to develop cardiovascular disease - and sooner than others.

Stress could be as important a risk factor as smoking and high blood pressure, the US researchers said.

Heart experts said at-risk patients should be helped to manage stress.

Emotional stress has long been linked with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), which affects the heart and blood vessels - but the way this happens has not been properly understood.

This study, led by a team from Harvard Medical School, points to heightened activity in the amygdala - an area of the brain that processes emotions such as fear and anger - as helping to explain the link.

The researchers suggest that the amygdala signals to the bone marrow to produce extra white blood cells, which in turn act on the arteries causing them to become inflamed. This can then cause heart attacks, angina and strokes.

As a result, when stressed, this part of the brain appears to be a good predictor of cardiovascular events.

But they also said more research was needed to confirm this chain of events.

Inflammation insight

The Lancet research looked at two different studies. The first scanned the brain, bone marrow, spleen and arteries of 293 patients, who were tracked for nearly four years to see if they developed CVD. In this time, 22 patients did, and they were the ones with higher activity in the amygdala.

The second very small study, of 13 patients, looked at the relationship between stress levels and inflammation in the body.

It found that those who reported the highest levels of stress had the highest levels of amygdala activity and more evidence of inflammation in their blood and arteries.

Dr Ahmed Tawakol, lead author and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said: "Our results provide a unique insight into how stress may lead to cardiovascular disease.

"This raises the possibility that reducing stress could produce benefits that extend beyond an improved sense of psychological wellbeing.

SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYImage caption-The amygdala is one of the most primitive parts of the brain linked to strong emotions, such as fear and anger.

What does the amygdala do?

It's the part of the brain that prepares you for fight or flight, becoming activated by strong emotional reactions.

The amygdalae (because there are two of them - one on each side of the brain) are almond-shaped groups of cells located deep within the medial temporal lobes of the brain.

In humans and animals, the amygdala is linked to responses to both fear and pleasure.

The term amygdala - which means almond in Latin - was first used in 1819.

---

Dr Tawakol added: "Eventually, chronic stress could be treated as an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which is routinely screened for and effectively managed like other major cardiovascular disease risk factors."

Commenting on the research, Dr Ilze Bot, from Leiden University in the Netherlands, said more and more people were experiencing stress on a daily basis.

"Heavy workloads, job insecurity or living in poverty are circumstances that can result in chronically increased stress, which in turn can lead to chronic psychological disorders such as depression."

Emily Reeve, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke from stress normally focused on controlling lifestyle habits such as smoking, drinking too much alcohol and overeating - but this should change.

"Exploring the brain's management of stress and discovering why it increases the risk of heart disease will allow us to develop new ways of managing chronic psychological stress.

"This could lead to ensuring that patients who are at risk are routinely screened and that their stress is managed effectively."

Sri Lanka: Adopt Task Force’s Justice Proposals

Consultations Highlight Broad Accountability Concerns

Family members of people who disappeared during the war between government forces and Tamil Tiger guerrillas, protest against what they say are continued abductions, in front of the U.N. office in Colombo. © 2016 Reuters/Dinuka Liyanawatte

JANUARY 11, 2017 7:00AM EST

(New York) – Sri Lanka’s government should promptly implement recommendations on transitional justice proposed by the Consultation Task Force (CTF) in a report released on January 3, 2017, Human Rights Watch said today. The report reflects the first broad survey of Sri Lankan citizens on their aspirations for truth and justice, as called for by the October 2015 resolution of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

Key among the task force’s recommendations is the creation of a war crimes court comprised of both international and national judges and other officials, with no time limit on its jurisdiction. Support for this court included ethnic Sinhalese, whose population suffered thousands of enforced disappearances three decades ago for which there has been no accountability. The task force also recommended a countrywide response to disappearances, financial and symbolic reparations, a constitutional and political settlement, resolution of longstanding land disputes, and attention to psychosocial needs.

“The task force report is remarkably comprehensive and clear in setting out the concerns and needs expressed by Sri Lankans across all communities on the transitional justice process,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “The government should now own the report’s recommendations and set out a framework for putting them into action, in line with its pledges at the Human Rights Council.”

The Consultation Task Force was formally appointed in February 2016, and began receiving submissions in April 2016 on the proposed mechanisms outlined in Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1, in which the government promised to deliver justice, accountability, and reconciliation in the aftermath of Sri Lanka’s 26-year-long civil war. The task force, aided by civil society representatives, received 7,306 submissions from the Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, and other communities, as well as the security services during the course of their hearings.

The CTF concluded its consultations in August 2016. The task force reported that there had been no government interference or attempts to impede their work, and that the report reflected the views of all 11 members. In a news conference held after the report’s release, CTF members noted that concerns about justice and accountability were raised both in the country’s north and south by many in all communities.

Sri Lankan governments have avoided addressing wartime accountability despite credible reports of thousands of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, torture, and sexual violence committed by both government forces and the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). A new government, elected in January 2015, undertook a more conciliatory approach to domestic and international efforts to address the matter, and in October 2015 agreed at the Human Rights Council to establish at least four mechanisms on transitional justice, of which the consultations were part.

Sri Lanka is on the March 2017 agenda of the Human Rights Council, where High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein is expected to report on Sri Lanka’s compliance with the resolution.

The government should recognize that its commitments were not only to concerned governments in Geneva, but to its own citizens seeking justice and reconciliation after a terrible war. 

Brad Adams

Asia Director

This will include the government’s willingness to promptly implement the CTF report recommendations. However, the immediate response by senior officials has been disappointing. Justice Minister Wijedasa Rajapaksa and Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne both separately ruled out the participation of foreign nationals on the special court, while Finance Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene said that President Maithripala Sirisena rejected the inclusion of foreign judges and would not allow the government to prosecute “war heroes.” The cabinet spokesperson claimed that Al Hussein had agreed that there should be no foreign involvement in the court during a previous meeting – a claim that Al Hussein himself immediately rejected.

The report recommendations also contain important confidence-building measures that the government could adopt immediately. These include a robust victim-witness protection law, meaningful outreach by the government across all communities, symbolic gestures to allow public grieving and memorialization, and a minority rights commission.

“The Sri Lankan government took the bold step of agreeing to a multi-ethnic task force for broad consultations on transitional justice,” Adams said. “Now that the task force has listened to the country, it’s crucial that the government doesn’t drop its key recommendations. The government should recognize that its commitments were not only to concerned governments in Geneva, but to its own citizens seeking justice and reconciliation after a terrible war.”

Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka: Lessons So Far and the Long Road Ahead

Photo courtesy Open Democracy

BHAVANI FONSEKA on 01/11/2017

The new year in Sri Lanka commenced with some noise around aspects of transitional justice, largely due to the release of the report by the Consultation Task Force (CTF). The report capturing over 7000 views from across Sri Lanka is the first officially sanctioned process that consulted people on their views on the proposed mechanisms on transitional justice and touches on many other critical areas on reconciliation. Despite being an important initiative, only particular aspects of the report have been discussed in the public domain and reported by most media, with no acknowledgement yet to date from either the President or the Prime Minister. The handover ceremony of the report on 3^rd January in itself speaks volumes. This event initially planned for late 2016 was rescheduled for early 2017 with an indicator that both the President and the Prime Minister would be present to receive the report. Neither made an appearance at the January event. Instead, the report was handed over to former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in the presence of government ministers, the Opposition Leader and officials.

The CTF report is one of many reports in recent years that examine key issues relevant to transitional justice in Sri Lanka, and the lack of an official response from the leadership can be attributed to a host of issues from competing processes, prioritization, busy schedules, lack of interest/commitment etc. Yes, the CTF report is bulky (three volumes to be precise) and reading it is a daunting task to most. But a commendable task of the CTF is the production of a shorter volume of just over 100pages with an executive summary and recommendations containing summaries in all three languages. For anyone interested in the different aspects and elements involving reconciliation in Sri Lanka and to understand the views of thousands across Sri Lanka, reading the full report is highly recommended. Apart from the rich narrative, the CTF report is yet again a reminder of the many challenges and complexities and the need for immediate action if peace and reconciliation is to stand a chance in Sri Lanka.

Confronting Challenges In the New Year

Some in government and many in media seem to have merely latched on to the CTF recommendation on a hybrid accountability mechanism with the participation of foreign judges. The uproar on a hybrid mechanism is not new. The consensus resolution at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in October 2015 was historic in that for the first time the government of Sri Lanka recognized past abuses and agreed to take steps within the four pillars of transitional justice: truth, justice, reparations and non-recurrence. These translated into specific commitments including four mechanisms [a special court and special counsel’s office, a truth commission, an Office on Missing Persons (OMP) and Office for Reparations], law reforms, confidence building measures and others. Soon after the adoption of the resolution, many leaders in government distanced themselves from the commitment on the participation of foreign judges. The CTF’s recommendation merely revives this opposition. Those loudly commenting on this single issue seems to have missed the many other findings and recommendations. The CTF goes into detail on a truth telling mechanism, the OMP, reparations, confidence building measures, psychosocial issues and a host of other areas. Those who take the time to read the report will be confronted by a diverse range of issues and the sheer complexity linked to transitional justice in Sri Lanka.

Transitional justice is not new to Sri Lanka. Nor is the issue of internationals participating in domestic processes. The previous government of Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed several state initiatives to learn lessons and investigate past abuses including missing persons. The Udalagama Commission, the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) and the Paranagama Commission are some of the more well known initiatives, two of which had international involvement. The Advisory Council to the Paranagama Commission, appointed by former President Rajapaksa in 2014 was provided an extension by the Sirisena government. While there are differences between the past examples and what is proposed, it is advisable for those commenting to take a moment to learn of the past exercises and why internationals are necessary for specific tasks if impunity is to be addressed in Sri Lanka.

The transitional justice process in Sri Lanka has been beset with challenges since its inception. There is no coherent strategy to address transitional justice, despite highlighted by several including by the High Commissioner for Human Rights in June 2016 in his oral update to the UNHRC. Similarly, the government has failed to sufficiently communicate and explain what they committed to in 2015 and what is presently in motion. Government’s failure to introduce a comprehensive outreach program around the OMP legislation in August 2016 resulted in many in civil society having to step in and explain what the proposed legislation was meant to achieve. Apart from the many technical issues, a fundamental issue confronting transitional justice is the absence of political commitment and leadership. The inability to proceed with many of the commitments made in 2015 demonstrates not merely a lack of capacity or outreach. It is much more. Political leadership has been and continues to be absent in terms of the transitional justice process. Many have commented on the absence of the President and Prime Minister at the January 3^rd event, but this absence and the inability to give political leadership to an area critical to reconciliation in Sri Lanka is not new. These challenges, and many others, continue to confront the government and if not addressed urgently, may cost Sri Lanka’s unique opportunity to deal with the past.

What Next in 2017?

Despite the noise in the first few days of 2017, the prognosis for transitional justice in Sri Lanka is bleak. Since 2015, very limited demonstrable progress has been made. Delays and inefficiencies have resulted in frustration and suspicion among many. Those more hopeful are weary the full implementation of commitments made in 2015 is unlikely in the near future. But the CTF report and several others are a reminder why we as Sri Lankans must not let this moment pass.

March 2017 will see a reporting back to the 34^th Session of the UNHRC on progress made with the 2015 commitments. It is likely that the weeks leading to the session will see some developments around the commitments. The negotiations around GSP+ will also likely keep the pressure on some areas under consideration. While progress is needed, concerns remain with substance and process. If the OMP process is an indicator, civil society and others must keep the pressure on the need for a transparent and inclusive process as well as ensure proposed legislation and mechanisms address the grievances of victims. Questions will also need to be asked on sequencing, ensuring that the government does not stop at truth and reparations but accountability is kept on the table and that there is no weakening of the commitments made in 2015.

The likely scenario of movement with certain commitments in the first few months of this year should not be taken as a guarantee that the momentum stays beyond March 2017. With limited progress with the commitments so far, it is critical that the UNHRC continues its engagement with Sri Lanka and a comprehensive resolution calls for continued monitoring on the situation and reporting back at a later date. The limited movement so far and the many challenges confronting Sri Lanka is an indicator that continued support is needed beyond March 2017.

Finally, there must be attention beyond the immediate and the symbolic to more long-term reforms targeting broader structural issues. The government organized 8-14^th January as the ‘National Integration and Reconciliation Week’ but such a symbolic gesture must be followed by real action. Action should also not be seen as an exercise at checking boxes or done at the behest of the international community or other actors. 2017 so far has seen some aspects of transitional justice in the news but one hopes that the rest of the year sees movement beyond the rhetoric and empty promises. 2017 should be the year that the government and its leaders considers the views of thousands of Sri Lankans and design a transitional justice process grounded on a comprehensive strategy. This is essential if Sri Lanka is to reckon with its past.

North must be declared drought-affected says NPC

11 Jan  2017

The North must be declared drought affected and farmers and agricultural workers be given compensation to prevent starvation, the Northern Provincial Council has urged.

In the NPC’s 82nd sitting, members called for emergency action to be taken to prevent starvation and also to provide clean water to the people of the North.

Extreme drought in the region has caused widespread failure of rice crop cultivation, the council stated.

Court of Appeal petitioned for retrial of Raviraj murder case under anti-terror act

All five suspects in the murder of former TNA Jaffna District MP Nadaraja Raviraj, acquitted by Colombo High Court early today (24) morning.

By P.K.Balachandran -11th January 2017

COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan Attorney General Jayantha Jayasuriya on Wednesday petitioned the Court of Appeal for a retrial of the Nadarjah Raviraj assassination case by a judge and not a jury, and under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), not ordinary law.  

The Colombo High Court had acquitted the five persons accused of killing Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian N.Raviraj on the basis of the view of an all-Sinhalese jury.

The judge had ordered trial by jury under ordinary law, ignoring the fact that one of the charges against the accused was under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) which does not allow trial by jury, M.A.Sumanthiran, counsel for Raviraj’s family told Express.

“When there is a charge under a special law like the PTA, it over rides normal law, and the entire judicial process has to be held under the provisions of the PTA,” Sumanthiran said.

The accused were charged under PTA because the victim, Raviraj, was a member of parliament and a leading Tamil politician.

Predictably, the all-Sinhalese jury acquitted all the five accused on the grounds that there was no clinching evidence against them.    

Human rights activists protested against the trial by an all-Sinhalese jury in a politically charged case involving the sentiments of two communities. But others like the Joint Opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa, castigated Sumanthiran for injecting ethno-centric politics into established judicial practice.

The law permits the accused to be tried by a jury and even to demand an all-Sinhalese or an all-Tamil jury ,Rajapaksa said.

“One cannot assume that the jury will necessarily be communal minded. In a case I had in Batticaloa, an all-Tamil jury found a Tamil accused guilty,” Rajapaksa recalled.

But Sumanthiran’s argument is that the High Court might have come to a different conclusion if the trial was by a judge (whose would strictly go by the law and available evidence) and not a jury.  In a jury, sentiments might play a role. And at any rate, legally, the trial should have taken place under the PTA in which case the process would have been more stringent, he asserted.  

Raviraj, who represented Jaffna District in parliament as a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) member, died in hospital after being shot by unidentified gunmen in Colombo on November 10, 2006.    

Those accused in the case were Prasad Chandana Kumara, Gamini Kumara, Pradeep Chaminda, Sivakanthan Vivekanandan alias Karan and Xavier Royston Christopher Hussein. Another accused Palaniswamy Suresh had died. Three of the accused were naval intelligence personnel. Two from the pro-government “Karuna” faction of the LTTE, had absconded.