Yahapalanaya in 2017: To be or not to be?

 

Friday, 13 January 2017

• The Yahapalanaya Government faces existential questions as it steps into its third year in office

Every year on 8 January, a quiet gathering takes place at a grave inside the Borella cemetery. Words are spoken softly about a life lived in glorious irreverence, a man remembered for his courage and capacity to inspire. Flower tributes are paid at his tombstone inside the tree-lined cemetery; memory sketches are drawn of an irrepressible spirit, ringing laughter and sheer cheek.

Yahapalanaya in 2017.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

The Women Are Still Here: The Mothers and Wives of Sri Lanka’s Disappeared and the Trope of Reconciliation

“Sri Lankan mothers from the “Dead and Missing Person’s Parents” organisation hold photographs as they takes part in a protest in Jaffna, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of Colombo. Photo: AFP” (International Commission on Missing Persons)

Note: This piece was commissioned for and originally published in Options Magazine, 51 edition, in Sri Lanka, in 2016. The full magazine is online here. This article is published here in full with only one minor edit.

Women are still mostly invisible from many of the processes which govern and shape our societies. The matter of women in politics is not the only matter at hand – but it does unsparingly reveal the crux of the problem. Keeping women from politics is about keeping women from a serious engagement with decision-making; it is about how women’s voices are shut down and discredited, the moment they appear in the public sphere. The world, in general, does not like listening to women. The very concept of listening to women still evades many people, many conversations and many spaces. The twenty-year long fight in Sri Lanka, to get the mandatory women’s quota in all political parties contesting in elections fixed at 25% (from an abysmal 2% before) was won earlier this year, but even then, not without ugliness. Our systems have a way of disappearing women.

But they are here; they are still here. In fact, in a post-war country where an armed conflict took lives for nearly 30 years, and other cycles and mechanisms of violence before, during and after claimed their own, there are, sometimes, only women. Many households, many communities, particularly in the North and North East of Sri Lanka, are women-led. The women are, emphatically, still here.

This year, in addition to the ‘25%’ victory, women are being heard marginally more than usual in Sri Lanka. The state has engaged women directly through critical consultative processes on significant issues. One was the mechanism of public consultations on constitutional reform; across Sri Lanka, women made daring submissions to the Public Representations Committee, which addressed issues of gender equality across the board.

The second such process is, of course, the Consultations Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms. The Consultations Task Force (CTF) has been receiving and reviewing public submissions since April this year. One of the key mechanisms mandated is the set-up of the Office of Missing Persons (OMP), and getting the OMP bill passed.

Enforced disappearances have been a deep, dark problem which Sri Lanka has had an intensely complicated relationship with. They happened in the North and North East to members of the Tamil community, with the war for nearly 30 years; they happened in the South to members of the Sinhalese community when previous governments tried to violently crush youth-led Marxist insurrections more than once. It remains one of grossest acts of violence committed on civilians in times of war and crisis, primarily because no government has ever admitted it to be true. Just recently, on the 23 August 2016, the speaker of parliament signed the Office of Missing Persons Act, making it a legal act.

While commissions have been appointed before to look into disappearances, many of those were for investigating disappearances in the South. The mandate of the OMP includes investigating disappearances in the North and North East. Finally, something is being said about the Tamil community’s losses. For the first time, steps have been taken by the state, post-war, to at least acknowledge disappearances which occurred as a consequence of the war, of war-related measures of ‘security’ taken by the Sri Lankan state and armed forces, under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

However, it is clear that the problem of enforced disappearances is yet to entirely disappear from our society – with the war ‘ended’, with a new government in place, there are serious indications that it still continues. With the OMP now in motion, the new government must also take steps to abolish the dangerously exploited PTA if it is serious about dealing with disappearances.

But it didn’t take the OMP to bring the topic of disappearances into our midst. Throughout the civil war in Sri Lanka, and throughout the other moments of violent conflict, it has been women – typically mothers and wives of the disappeared – who have been the face of all the disappeared, Tamil and Sinhalese, of this country; women, refusing to disappear, standing in for their loved ones who have been made invisible.

Through organisations like Poorani, Mother’s Front and The Association of War Affected Women and Parents of Servicemen Missing in Action, mothers and wives of the disappeared have made their voices heard – in a sustained, long-term manner, over decades, North to South. They have been in the struggle for justice for a long, long time.

In their story, the story of Sri Lanka’s civil war – marked by racism, violence and the strategic deepening of ethnic divisions – is immediately made less simplistic, less black and white, less ‘us’ and ‘them’; it complicates things, and in a profound way. Tamil and Sinhalese women have come together on several historic occasions to protest enforced disappearances, when relations between the two communities have been at their worst. Even when they protested among their own communities, in their own towns, their protests stand out in history as incredibly provocative: often, the moral and emotional authority of ‘mother’ and ‘wife’ ensured that these women could express their grief and rage without fear, and with gravity. But their demands were never simplistic: they wanted them back, or they wanted the people who had killed them to be tried through fair, concrete mechanisms.

They had a clear sense of what ‘justice’ meant, long before talks of transitional justice had begun in Sri Lanka. They had understood that these questions were going to need to be answered, in order for there to be ‘reconciliation’. Decades ago, these women were already telling us that ending the war wouldn’t be enough to really end the war.

In the reconciliation mechanisms processes, it is in the spaces of these women that some feeling of understanding seems to be making itself felt; it is these women who are beginning to talk to each other, to be the first to instinctively understand reconciliation and reparation. It is them who are crossing boundaries of race and mistrust to say, ‘I understand we have a shared experience of unthinkable pain; I also understand we, as members of different ethnic communities, have experienced the war entirely differently.’ It is in them that we see most clearly the need for accountability and justice; with them, we see that without accountability and justice, we cannot begin making the journey towards reconciliation and healing.

324763791-OPTIONS-51-2016 (1).pdf by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

Foreign or local judges

local judges

January 12, 2017, 9:09 pm 

Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike receiving the report prepared by the Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms from leader attorney-at-law Manouri Muttetuwegama at the Presidential Secretariat on Jan. 3. Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, Hindu Affairs Minister Swaminathan and Reconciliation State Minister Fowzie look on.

By Neville Ladduwahetty

With the recommendation by the Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms that a hybrid Court should conduct investigations into alleged violations committed during the conflict in Sri Lanka, the controversy as to the legitimacy of foreign participation has resurfaced. To address this issue it is best to start with the basics, namely the statement in the UNHRC Resolution.

Paragraph 6 of the UNHRC Resolution, A/HRC/30/L.29 of September 29, 2015, inter alia states: "… the Government of Sri Lanka to establish a judicial mechanism with a special counsel to investigate allegations of violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law, as applicable…"

The Resolution calls for investigations into allegations of human rights AND international humanitarian laws. This presumes that both laws could operate simultaneously in the same territory over the same period. This is a seriously flawed notion in view of the material presented below. This material clearly demonstrates that "two different paradigms" govern human rights and international humanitarian law violations. Therefore, it is only after determining which laws should regulate the investigations that appropriately qualified personnel, whether foreign or national, could be selected to handle the investigation.

Paragraph 182 of the OISL Report of the UNHRC states: "Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions relating to conflicts not of an international character is applicable to the situation in Sri Lanka…" AND Paragraph 181 of the UNSG appointed Panel of Experts states: "International Humanitarian Law applies because the hostilities clearly met the threshold of an internal armed conflict…". Therefore, the "applicable" law should be International Humanitarian Law (IHL) since such laws should apply "…in the case of internal armed conflicts, (to) the whole territory under the control of the party, whether or not actual combat takes place there (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Tadic case).

APPLICABLE LAWS TO REGULATE THE INVESTIGATIONS

An official publication of the ICRC titled "THE USE OF FORCE IN ARMED CONFLICTS: INTERPLAY BETWEEN THE CONDUCT OF HOSTILITIES AND LAW ENFORCEMENT PARADIGMS"(November 2013) states in its introduction: "In a situation of armed conflict , the use of lethal or potentially lethal force (hereafter ‘use of force’) by armed forces and law-enforcement officials is governed by two different paradigms: the conduct of hostilities paradigm, derived from international humanitarian law (IHL) and the law enforcement paradigm, mainly derived from international human rights law (hereafter human rights law)".

"The paradigms of the conduct of hostilities and law enforcement find their international legal basis in the legal regimes of IHL and human rights law. The IHL basic rules governing the conduct of hostilities were crafted to reflect the reality of armed conflict. They are based on the assumption that the use of force is inherent to waging war because the ultimate aim of military operations is to prevail over the enemy’s armed forces. First among those basic IHL rules is the principle of distinction. According to this principle, parties to an armed conflict must at all times distinguish between civilians and civilian objects on the one hand, and combatants and military objectives on the other hand and direct their attacks only against the latter.

Parties to an armed conflict are thus permitted, or at least are not legally barred from, attacking each other’s military objectives, including enemy personnel. By contrast, acts of violence directed against civilians or civilian objects are unlawful. Indeed, one of the main purposes of IHL is to spare them from the effects of hostilities. In elaborating the principle of distinction, IHL also prohibits inter alia indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks and obliges the parties to

the conflict to observe a series of precautionary rules in attack, aimed at avoiding or minimizing incidental harm to civilians and civilian objects. This set of rules (i.e. distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack) can be described as the main part of the conduct of hostilities paradigm. They regulate the means and methods of warfare.

Human rights law is based on different assumptions. It was initially conceived to protect individuals from abuse by their State. Its rules on the use of force in law enforcement essentially provide guidance on how force can be used by State agents when it is absolutely necessary in self-defence; to prevent crime, to effect or assist in the lawful arrest of offenders or suspected offenders; to prevent the escape of offenders or suspected offenders and in quelling a riot. In brief, human rights law regulates the resort to force by State authorities in order to maintain or restore public security, law and order. The essence of the principles governing the use of force under law enforcement in human rights is that lethal force may be used only as last resort in order to protect life, when other available means remain ineffective or without any promise of achieving the intended result.

From the foregoing it is clearly evident that the situation in Sri Lanka was such that Human Rights Laws were inapplicable to the conflict. In view of this reality it is beyond comprehension how the UNHRC could incorporate provisions of human rights laws in addition to international humanitarian laws in the Resolution. The fact that the Government as well as the Task Force has accepted this contradiction without question reflects on the competencies of those associated with Geneva related activities. .

CONCLUSION

Since the OISL Report of the UNHRC and the Report of the UNSG appointed Panel of Experts both have concluded that the conflict in Sri Lanka was an "armed conflict", the applicable law should be International Humanitarian Law. As stated in the official ICRC Publication cited above, the investigations should then be on the basis of the "hostilities paradigm" and nothing more. Furthermore, such a paradigm should be applicable over the whole territory of the State and extend beyond the cessation of hostilities (ICTY in the Tadic case).

The fact that the Resolution calls for investigations to be regulated by both International Humanitarian AND Human Rights Laws amount to alleged violations being regulated by "two different paradigms". This is a seriously flawed notion because both Laws cannot exist at the same time over the same territory. Therefore, the ONLY applicable law is none other than International Humanitarian Law or "hostilities paradigm". Under the circumstances, for the Sri Lankan Government to have co-sponsored the Resolution without question and for the Task Force to meekly accept it without clarification reflects poorly on how issues relating to Geneva are handled.

The inability of UNHRC to appreciate fundamental differences between IHL and human rights laws is an impediment to the development of a clear remit to the proposed judicial mechanism. The focus should therefore be to first determine which paradigm is applicable to the investigations. Such a clarification should involve a revision to the current Resolution or in the least an understanding with the UNHRC that investigations should be regulated ONLY by International Humanitarian Law and not both.

Since International Humanitarian Laws are codified as to what is and what is not a violation during an armed conflict, the judicial process boils down to evaluating what actions amounted to violations of the "hostilities paradigm". Therefore the judicial process is really not a matter of expertise in International Humanitarian Law but on an objective evaluation of what would constitute a violation or not under provisions of International Humanitarian Law. Such a process is well within the capacities of existing judicial competencies. If on the other hand, the issue is one of credibility, all that is needed is a structural arrangement in the process to ensure adherence to due process in the conduct of the investigations.

A pertinent fact that has been overlooked by the Task Force is the need for constitutional amendments to accommodate the recommendations at issue. This was perhaps realised by the President and PM when they both said there would be "no foreign judges". Since such a recommendation would clash with Article 4 of the Constitution and a precedent has been created that Article 4 should be read with Article 3, any constitutional revisions would require a two-thirds majority of Parliament as well as a referendum. This being fundamental to the overall recommendations of the Task Force the omission brings into question the competence of the Task Force.

SOCIETIES THAT AVOID LOOKING AT THE PAST, FAIL TO BUILD SUSTAINABLE PEACE – FM SAMARAWEERA AT CHATHAM HOUSE

12/01/2017

“We are convinced and we recognize clearly, that societies that avoid looking at the past, fail to build sustainable peace. Sri Lanka has suffered conflict several times both in the South and in the North. There is hardly anyone in Sri Lanka who can claim to have not been affected by conflict. We know that traumatic memories don’t simply vanish and we have learned, through experience since Independence that grievances that are left unaddressed, can go on for generations, becoming entrenched, and holding the risk of descending into cycles of violence, ” said Sri Lanka FM Mangala Samaraweera while delivering his lecture on ‘The Reconciliation Process in Sri Lanka’, at Chatham House, London.

The full speech follows. Emphasises are form SLB.

SOCIETIES THAT AVOID LOOKING AT THE PAST.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

CM C.V. Vigneswaran’s speech at Brampton City Council- Jan 10, 2017

Northern Province Chief minister Hon. C.V. Vigneswaran is in Canada to participate at the  introduction of twin city Programs between City of Markham and City Of Mullaitiheevu in Sri Lanka and a similar program between City Of Brampton and City Of Vavunia in Sri Lanka.

On Jan 10, 2017 Mr. Martin Medeiros welcomed the Chief Minister of Northern Province Hon. C.V. Vigneswaran to the Brampton City Council where the C.M. addressed the government representatives and the Tamil Community. (Videos attached.)

It was announced that in the upcoming weeks and months City of Brampton staff,

specifically the staff of Economic development will be working with the officials at the City of Vavunia & the Government of Northern Province to develop a framework in to look for opportunities of co-operation that will be mutually beneficial and then staff to bring back a report to council and at that time council will explore the possibilities of Economic and friendship agreement.

As a first step of goodwill towards this agreement Brampton Tamils proudly announced the funding of $45,000 for the Administrative and Training Centre for the use of Spinal Code Injury in the North & East, in Mankulam, Vavunia District.

Both sides exchanged the gifts of goodwill and Ms Susi Raja delivered the vote of thanks.

The event followed by a reception at which time students of Smt. Sumithra Pathmalingam performed a welcome dance.

Coverage by Charles Devasagayam

416-697-0126

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GTF calls on the SL government to faithfully implement recommendations on reconciliation mechanisms

Jan 12, 2017

The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) welcomes the recommendations of the Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms (CTF) released on January 3, 2017 and calls on the Sri Lankan government to fully implement these recommendations.

We wish to congratulate the eleven-member panel headed by senior lawyer Manouri Muttetuwegama, who after exhaustive, countrywide consultations conducted over a year, have come up with a unanimous report. The fact that the panel members come from all communities and their consultations reflect aspirations and apprehensions of victims from different communities, gives us hope that the Sri Lankan society, at last, can transcend ethnic and religious differences based on shared universal human values and principles.

The official reception of the report by former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, the Chairperson of the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation, in the presence of three key  Ministers - Minister of Foreign Affairs Mangala Samaraweera, Minister of Prisons Reform, Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Hindu Religious Affairs, D. M. Swaminathan and Sate Minister of National Integration and Reconciliation, A.H.M. Fowzie - signifies that the implementation of this report is vital, a sine qua non, for genuine reconciliation among the three communities.

The report is timely as we approach the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) review in March. The contents of the report appear to be consistent with the spirit and letter of the UNHRC resolution which Sri Lanka itself co-sponsored – a fact clearly underscored by the tweet from the UNHRC chief Zeid: ‘welcoming CTF recommendations, especially clear backing of hybrid court with local and foreign judges.’

GTF welcomes the comprehensive recommendations related to the proposed judicial mechanisms, in particular, the need for ‘international expertise including judges in each transitional justice mechanism’, ‘both male and female judges representing all ethnic communities’, and ‘a special structure for women and children during examination of witnesses related to sexual crimes and crimes against children.’

We also commend the panel for recommending that ‘a number of confidence-building measures ranging from the expedited return of land held by the military, to the release of a list of all detainees and detention centres, the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and the immediate release of persons held under the PTA without charges, must be undertaken without delay to bridge the considerable deficit in trust and confidence.’ The report further recognises the urgent need to address lingering concerns of militarisation, enforced disappearances and livelihood opportunities to promote reconciliation.

The panel’s finding that ‘foreign participation is required as those who suffered during the conflict had no faith in local judiciary which lacked expertise to undertake such task’ very much resonates with the victims of the Tamil community. This is a long-standing view that is further reinforced with the recent verdict on the murder case of former Tamil parliamentarian Mr. Raviraj.

A credible and impartial judicial process is so fundamental to come to terms with our violent past that is littered with not only the crimes committed against the members of each community, but also on their behalf. GTF, therefore, is deeply dismayed by the statements of two responsible ministers in the unity government denouncing the recommendations of the Task Force calling for foreign participation in the judicial mechanisms.

We call upon the government to have the courage to take this momentous step at this crucial juncture by fully implementing the recommendations expeditiously.

The farce that is Yahapalanaya: Two years on and failing 

Friday, 13 January 2017

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will do well to remember the deceit of Madame Chandrika Bandaranayake Kumaranatunga in April 2004. The current President Maithripala Sirisena could repeat history as pressure mounts on him to save his Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP-M).

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (Maithri Faction), as per media reports, has connived and has decided not to abolish the Presidential system. They have proposed to forward President Maithripala Sirisena again for a second presidential term at the next elections. Maithripala Sirisena vowed, before and after winning in the January 2015 elections, that he will not contest again and that the executive presidential system would be scrapped or reformed to provide for a presidency that would be answerable to the Parliament. Can the President’s words be taken seriously as he is beginning to break all the pre-election promises?

President Maithripala Sirisena betrayed the Yahapalanaya commitments immediately after his swearing in, by bringing into his Government the undesirables and corrupt from the Mahinda Rajapaksa dynasty. In August 2016, he nominated the losing seniors in the SLFP on the national list, contrary to good governance principles. He partnered with the UNP to save his skin and the SLFP and called it a coalition for good governance. He didn’t dare to invite the Rajapaksa family into the coalition, but everyone else who campaigned against him was Kosher. What a tragedy for the regime changers who risked their lives to send Mahinda Rajapaksa and his SLFP vultures home. President Maithripala Sirisena who contested as the candidate of the common opposition in one of his early speeches said: “I may not be among the living if I had lost”. Just imagine the fate of the ordinary civil society activists and the grassroots supporter’s plight if Mahinda Rajapaksa had won or remained in the presidency through some other means. Most of them would have been fed to the vultures or white vanned. The international community would have come forward to rescue Maithripala Sirisena and his political elite.

The unprecedented corruption, nepotism, political assassinations and violence were the main campaign slogans of the Yahapalanaya in the run up to the Presidential elections in January 2015. Upon President Maithripala Sirisena’s outstanding and hard fought victory in the rainbow revolution, the country demanded that the corrupt during the decade-long rule of Mahinda Rajapaksa be brought to justice and the loot recovered. The Maithri-Ranil campaign spoke about the trillions squandered by the Rajapaksa family and their cohorts, some of whom have now fled the country. Others have spent a few days in custody and are enjoying the fruits of their ill-gotten loot. No truckload of money has been recovered or none of the big sharks netted. Is it because of the high tech deception of the money trail or has the loot been shared as was alleged with the LTTE trillions held by KP (KumaranPathmanathan)?

The bond scam and other excesses by government ministers equal or surpass the scandals that beset the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration. The Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe hereto Mr.clean, has been tarred with allegations of complicity in the Bond scam. His attempt to save his guru and former diplomat Charlie Mahendran’s son Arjuna Mahendran, the sacked Governor of the Central Bank along with his son-in-law Arjun Aloysius turned out to be the biggest political blunder in the Prime Ministers’ political history. Where did the proceeds of the Bond scam go? Was it to finance the outstanding bills of Maithripala Sirisena’s January 2015 Presidential campaign or the UNPs August Campaign? The country needs to know. The Prime Minister’s brilliant googly of sending it to the Attorney General was the best way to divert attention and buy time to let the memory fade away from the people’s minds, but the ghosts would remain and will wake up at the appropriate time.

The most respected venerable Sobitha Thero spearheaded the civil protest against the Rajapaksas. He died a disappointed and depressed man. Millions of his followers are disillusioned and probably will not forgive the Yahapalanaya at the next elections. His untimely demise is a blessing for Yahapalanaya or he would have the majority on the streets, demanding action against the undesirables.

The Yahapalanaya promise of a ten thousand-rupee increase in salaries for the non-productive and lethargic state sector employees was honoured but is seen today as an ill-conceived political bribe to woo voters against the Rajapaksa administration. To address this folly, taxes have been increased, driving the cost of living sky-high, and the farming community has been let down. The rupee has plummeted to its worst and has forced the Government to borrow as much as the Rajapaksas or more. The stranglehold by China has increased.

The “Saffron Robe to the Fore” concept of the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration, and currently endorsed by the President himself against the minorities, proved to be a disaster in Hambantota last week when the Ruhunu Development Project was inaugurated. The monks who were coaxed to lead were all red, dripping with blood when suspected thugs imported to Hambantota from Mattakuliya stoned them. Imagine if the Tamils in Batticaloa or Muslims in Aluthgama had stoned the Buddhist monks. The Government ignored the saffron robe brigadewhen monk-led extremists went on rampages against the minority communities in recent months. Thank God, Hambantota did not become the Rathupaswala of the current Government.

The sellout to China, the entire districts of Hambantota and Monaragala, the deceit that was been portrayed as the investment by Volkswagen and probably many other lies have given a boost to the Joint Opposition and Mahinda Rajapaksa to stage a comeback. The President and the Prime Minister are confident that they can weather the storm and lead the country towards prosperity, but there is a serious threat to stability and peace.

As a private citizen, and someone who believed in the January 2015 silent revolution, I have questions that should have been answered yesterday.

Stolen billions

Where is all the loot that was promised to be brought back? Billions in dollars or trillions in rupees were said to be in bank deposits in many countries, including Dubai and Seychelles. It was alleged that they even set up a Bank of Ceylon branch in the Seychelles Islands to launder their loot. If there was any, the current Government should have access to that information, even if the Dubai banks refused to provide details of Sri Lankan bank accounts. Where is the expensive real estate supposedly held overseas by the Rajapaksa sons and siblings? Have they been traced and questioned, and why are they not being investigated and charged?

Avant-Garde

What happened to the Avant-Garde scandal? Ministers Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe and Vajira Abeywardene of Yahapalanaya were suspected of protecting the corrupt deals of Avant-Garde. Many senior retired Navy and other defence personnel are suspected of being employed/involved. Why is it that the key stakeholders of these scandals are not arrested and taken to task? Was this a fabricated canard to discredit former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and win elections?

Wasim Thanjudeen

The much talked about Wasim Thajudeen murder during election campaigns is a forgotten case now. Wasim was an innocent, popular ruggerite and a brilliant sportsman who enjoyed life. The Yahapalanaya campaign claimed that the Rajapaksas killed him, probably over a love scandal. His remains were dug up and a new autopsy performed in time for the Muslim community to vote the UNP at the August 2015 parliamentary elections. Even his original autopsy reports and samples had gone missing. The OIC of the Narahenpita police and the infamous Rajapaksa stooge Senior DIG Anura Senanayake who is accused of covering up the murder of Wasim Thajudeen has been in remand prison for a long period. Quite often, there are leaks to the media that senior DIG Anura Senanayake was going to spill it all out and justice would be served. He may have revealed all to the investigating officers, and the Government may be holding it as ransom for Shiranthi/Mahinda Rajapaksa obedience. Nothing is going to happen to this lovable compassionate kid because the killers are known and needs to be protected to ensure that President Sirisena’s SLFP would not split. Wasim Thanjudeen’s ghost will catch up soon to haunt Yahapalanaya. A split SLFP would mean that the SLFP (Maithri wing) would stand no chance at any electoral contest. Make no mistake, the UNP, even though not as popular, will still command its block vote and lead the list. The Mahinda clan with its ultra-nationalist and racist groups will come as a close second. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has a good chance of coming third, especially at the local government elections, driving President Sirisena to the fourth position. Herein lies the main reason for the postponement of the LG elections by many months under a government of good governance.

Hate campaign against minorities

The hate campaign against the minorities has started again after President Sirisena elevated the butcher of Aluthgama, Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero to the same level as the Asgiriya and Malwatte Mahanayakes. Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, while being a UNP Member of Parliament is suspected of providing the cover for racists to target minorities, to ensure his Maharagama Sinhala Buddhist vote. He is also suspected of destabilising the current Government to ensure a smooth win, should former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa enter the fray at the next presidential or parliamentary elections. The support for the hate campaign by Yahapalanaya is reward provided on a platter for the Muslim and Tamil communities for making the regime change in January 2015.

During the Rajapaksa era, Ven. Gnanasara and his bunch of racist hooligans created violence against ordinary mortals, but now they have elevated it to insult almighty Allah, our beloved prophet and the holy Quran. There were 538 incidents of hate, violence and intimidation of Muslims during the Rajapaksa presidency, which allowed them to target the minorities with impunity. There have been over 140 incidents reported under Yahapalanaya and it is increasing by the day. The Yahapalanaya has allowed the extremist Buddhist monks to harass the Muslim and Eastern Tamil communities with impunity. No arrests have been made even though over 50 police complaints have been registered against racists. The Government also has allowed Facebook warriors to threaten and intimidate Muslims. Dan Priyasad saga is a good example of how this menace could be controlled.

The Muslim Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)

Minister Rishard Bathiudeen, a close confidant of Mahinda and Basil Rajapaksa during their decade-long rule, crossed over, risking his life, to the common opposition and joined the fray to support presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena. He brought along 62 local government members, six Provincial Council members and two parliamentarians. His demand was that the Muslim IDPs should be resettled in their former homes within the shortest possible time. Regretfully, even the little that Basil Rajapaksa, head of the Presidential Task force for Northern Resettlement, did from 2013 is being reversed now through presidential orders. Some environmentalists have joined extremist Buddhists to deprive the resettlement of over 100,000 Muslim IDPs who were evicted in 1990 by the LTTE in the worst ethnic cleansing operation in Sri Lanka.

The scorecard looks gloomy and the future prospects look scary, especially at the thought of a parliamentary coup that could be staged by Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Joint Opposition to take over the government. The Prime Minister and the President will need to look at their old notebooks to ensure that ethnic tensions are minimised and reconciliation fast tracked so that they need not go to Geneva as often as the previous administration did.

UK exported 500 cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia in 1980s, admits MoD

Defence secretary’s confirmation in letter to MP follows calls to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia over use of the weapons

 Cluster bombs in Sri Lanka. Use of the weapons was banned in 2010 under an international treaty signed by Britain. Photograph: Tamilsagainstgenocide.org

Tuesday 10 January 2017

Britain exported hundreds of cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia in the late 1980s, official figures show.

The defence secretary, Sir Michael Fallon, said 500 cluster munitions were delivered to Saudi Arabia from the UK between 1986 and 1989.

This is the first time the Ministry of Defence has said how many of the devices were exported to Saudi Arabia since it emerged last month that a “limited number” had been used by Saudi-led forces in the current war in Yemen.

The UK has faced accusations of war crimes and calls to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia over the use of the weapons, which were banned in 2010 under an international treaty signed by Britain.

Last month, Fallon said he was satisfied that use of the bombs had not breached international law, and he had asked the Saudis to destroy their remaining stock of UK-supplied cluster munitions. He was unable to tell the Commons how many had been exported in the first place.

However, in a letter to the Conservative MP Philip Hollobone, Fallon confirmed: “The UK delivered 500 BL755 cluster munitions under a government-to-government agreement signed in 1986. The final delivery was made in 1989.”

He also wrote that the UK, which backed the Oslo convention that withdrew support for cluster munitions, had not been able to carry out any surveillance of the weapons since 2008.

The prime minister of Yemen’s rebel Houthi government has accused the UK of war crimes for supplying arms to the coalition, which is conducting military operations to restore the regime overthrown last year.

Cluster bombs are designed to release dozens of smaller bombs over a wide area, but the smaller munitions do not always explode, posing a future risk to civilians.

Amnesty International has previously accused the UK prime minister, Theresa May, of burying her head in the sand over the issue, given the “clear risk that UK weapons could be used to commit breaches of international humanitarian law in Yemen”.

Sri Lankan Muslim body takes up Muslim issues with US envoy

By P.K.Balachandran  |  Express News Service  |   Published: 12th January 2017

COLOMBO: The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka (MCSL) met the US Ambassador Atul Keshap here on Wednesday and apprised him of the issues facing the Muslim community in the light of a recent resurgence of Sinhala-Buddhist extremism with the tacit support of a section of the government.

Briefing Express on the meeting, MCSL member and media personality Hilmy Ahamed said that the Ambassador was concerned about the fate of the post-war ethnic reconciliation process and said that he, along with some other envoys, was talking to various sections of the government about the need to keep the process on track.

While several incidents involving hate speech were worrying the Muslims, the one which brought all Muslim political leaders together and which led to the MCSL to seek an audience with the American Ambassador, was the Wilpattu Forest Reserve encroachment issue raised by a band of anti-Muslim Buddhist nationalists and “misinformed” environmentalists.

Even as the Muslims were pointing out that they had not encroached on the Wilpattu forest reserve and that the hamlets they were occupying were outside the park and were also lands which they had been cultivating since 1906 with government permits, President Maithripala Sirisena issued a gazette notification on December 30, 2016, extending the land area coming under the Wilpattu  National Park nullifying the Muslim settlements.

“This shocked the Muslims who were trying to get back to their own lands to rebuild their shattered lives,” wrote Latheef Farook, a well-known commentator on Muslim issues, in The Colombo Telegraph.

The gazette notification covers the villages of  Marichichukaddy, Karadikuli and Palaikkuli in the Musali South area of Mannar district, while the Wilpattu National Park is entirely in Puttalam district. The Muslims had lived in these villages for generations with valid title deeds. In 1990, they were expelled from here en masse by the LTTE.

MCSL official Ahamed said that these places look like forests now because no one was living there after the Muslims’ expulsion in 1990. But the existence of dilapidated buildings and mosques are a testimony to Muslims having lived there before. There are Muslims peasants with land titled dated 1906. There is a mosque constructed in 1940.

“When the Muslims tried to return to their lands after the war in May 2009, racist elements created many controversies distorting facts and giving an ethnic twist to prevent them from returning to their lands. The Muslims suspect it was under the influence of such elements that President Sirisena may have issued his 30 December 2016 order,” Farook writes.

When the Musali South Muslims were cooped up in refugee camps in Puttalam district from 1990 onwards, the earlier Mahinda Rajapaksa government acquired a major part of their traditional lands under various pretexts, Farook says.

According to Ahamed, any area with vegetation with a height of six feet and above could be deemed forest land and taken over by the forest department. The lands of the Muslims which showed heavy overgrowth because of 26 years of neglect, were deemed forest lands and taken over.

“First around 40% of their traditional lands in the Musali South was acquired. This was followed by the acquisition of another 30 percent of their land without any consultation or consent to put up Security forces Establishments.

Muslim owned lands were acquired for a naval agricultural project. A Navy Regional Commanding Office was established in two prominent villages and the Muslims were prevented from entering their own lands, dwellings and other properties.”

The last Veddas of Sri Lanka

A life traded as a heritage token is an imperiled life, writes Kevin Childs.

A class of Vedda tribe children. Dambana, Sri Lanka. Alessandro Pucci under a Creative Commons Licence

Published on January 10, 2017 by Kevin Childs

Last month the United Nations Special Rapporteur on minorities Izsák Ndiaye praised the current Sri Lankan government for offering ‘a glimpse of hope’ to excluded communities across the island. However ‘challenges remain,’ and beyond the Sinhalese and Tamil friction, another minority is fast disappearing altogether.

The Veddas, or the Wanniyala-Aetto as they are traditionally known, are the last indigenous people of Sri Lanka. Traditional hunter-gatherers and forest-dwellers, they may in fact become extinct within a generation. Here, the interplay of history, conservation, and human rights rub shoulder to shoulder, and the Wanniyala-Aetto’s future remains uncertain.

The world currently retains 370 million indigenous people, and 70-80 per cent of which live in the Asia-Pacific region. ‘Emerging Asia’ is a term bandied about the development sector, but despite modernization, more than half the continent lives below the poverty line. Indigenous people are generally, the poorest of the poor. Despite the UN’s International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, and a raft of legislation from the International Labour Organization, low education, high unemployment and poor health, remain common.

No matter how much the Wanniyala-Aetto assimilate into the dominant culture, they will still be seen as imposters and stigmatized regularly

The Wanniyala-Aetto are now consigned to a tourist attraction; courtesy of Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Culture. But a life traded as a heritage token is an imperiled life to say the least. Professor of Sociology Premakumara De Silva, is a foremost authority of the Veddas. Escaping the ivory towers of the University of Colombo, he has ventured into Wanniyala-Aetto settlements to find out the wider picture. He concedes, the Wanniyala-Aetto ‘community is facing stresses that threaten to modernize them which could easily result in vanishing them as cultural group.’ However, it is true many maintain their traditional way of life, against the turn of the tide.

Clothed in a sarong, naked from the waist-up and an axe slung over the shoulder, they continue to hunt, fish and forage Sri Lanka’s forests. They also continue to practice traditional religious rites like the worship of the Na Yakku spirits of dead. However, even with their new protected status, in real life, they fare badly. The Wanniyala-Aetto traditional customs are now being abandoned or impinged upon to the extent that weapons and tools are becoming obsolete. Water scarcity and land alienation pave way to rising levels of malnour-ishment and obesity. Finally, social and economic exclusion is leading to friction with Sri Lanka’s police department and politicians. It appears, the 21st century has caught the Veddas in its crosshairs, and they con-tinually find themselves undergoing a process of ‘Sinhalization and Tamilization.’ Or being converted to Buddhism, Christianity, and of course Modernity.

The Wanniyala-Aetto displacement has been stretched out over decades. The south-east corner of Sri Lanka, the Uva Province, contains 3,300 square miles of dry zone. In the last 50 years, this land has been deforested, irrigated and marked for continuous redevelopment. Land acquisition of the region began almost immediately after 1948 independence. The Gal Oya project of 1949-53 and the Mahaweli Development Scheme 1964-83, were particularly important in raising living standards. However, such programmes, for the Wanniyala-Aetto, led to forced eviction and relocation to government reserve villages. Forced to adapt or die while living in exile, they have been in decline ever since. Yet there are other factors at work too.

The 21st century is the century of species extinction. A recent Living Planet Index study, has concluded that the earth is set to lose two thirds of animals by 2020, and quite rightly societies have become increasingly concerned about conservation. Poaching and logging continue to contribute to the decline of the natural world. When the Sri Lankan government nationalized forests turning them into nature reserves, hunting was made illegal and even fishing required permits. So not only do we now see health problems in Wanniyala-Aetto, their lifestyle has been made illegal. This led to an upsurge in dangerous livelihoods revolving round an informal economy. Premakumara De Silva notes: ‘Instances where women and children are alleged to have become in situ and ex situ sex workers […] Led by extreme economic deprivation’ and also incidents of ‘children and women who are coerced, procured and trafficked’ into domestic servitude. Even when the Wanniyala-Aetto are able to get conventional jobs such as rice farming or construction work, it has been to the detriment of their identity. As their living space shrinks year by year, and economic pressures mount, many abandon their heritage altogether.

On the clay wall of the thatched house the ceremonial bow and arrow remain unused and obsolete – a warning for the Wanniyala-Aetto

Unfortunately, no matter how much the Wanniyala-Aetto assimilate into the dominant culture, they will still usually be seen as imposters and stigmatized regularly. Either considered noble savages or backward primi-tives, they are seen as choosing to ignore the unstoppable rise of modernism. The truth is, some remain as part of their indigenous community, but many will leave it. Either way, while the word ‘Vedda’ is thrown about in common parlance as an insult, the Wanniyala-Aetto continue to face language barriers, educational barriers, and employment barriers. This means they are locked out of wider society. As one indigenous community member, Uru Varige Sudu Banda, Henanigala, relates, discrimination becomes the norm:

‘Officers promised to build a tank and allow us to use forest resources. Now we are losing those […] He said that we will disuse our traditional ancestral worship. He was right. Now those traditions are not practiced.’

What’s left of Sri Lanka’s forest remains partial to the natural rhythms of the island rather than the constitu-tion. The Wanniyala-Aetto will continue to practise hunting and fishing regardless of the legal status. Con-servation laws regarding the natural world are in direct conflict with the human rights laws of indigenous people. It’s a complex problem, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be solved. The living Planet Index makes clear it is not indigenous hunting practices that destroy ecosystems, but rapid land acquisition. Considering the finite number of the Wanniyala-Aetto, it would be sensible to grant exceptional rights to exceptional people. If we don’t they will disappear.

Is there hope, beyond the government’s National Heritage draft bill, which sees the Wanniyala-Aetto con-fined to heritage sites? Izsák Ndiaye, the UN Special Rapporteur for minorities, cites a large-scale ‘trust def-icit’ in Sri Lankan society. In order for this problem to be addressed, the government ‘must include guaran-tees that minorities become part of decision-making processes.’ Whether this means mandatory quotas, or outreach work which promotes advocacy and engagement, it’s a question for the Sri Lankan people. Profes-sor Premakumara De Silva, also believes power is vested in the Wanniyala-Aetto community itself. Among the Wanniyala-Aetto, 64 per cent wish to remain true to their indigenous roots, and this bodes well for the future. As T.B Gunawardena, Pollebedda, another indigenous community member, asserts:

We will be respected only if we remain as Veddas. If we become identical to the common Sin-halese, we will lose the pride of being Veddas. Therefore, we prefer to carry on our ancestry.’

It is this defiant note of self-determinism and self-identity, that means the 10,000 remaining Wanniyala-Aetto may not only survive, but continue to remain indigenous for this generation and even the next. On the clay wall of the thatched house, however, the ceremonial bow and arrow remain unused and obsolete – a warning for the Wanniyala-Aetto, that they too may become relics of Sri Lanka’s past.

Believers Undeterred After Militants Set Fire to Sri Lanka Church

By Editor on January 11, 2017

Sri Lanka (Mission Network News) — Sri Lanka is known as the “Pearl of the Indian Ocean.” The moniker describes a beautiful picture, but the struggles reveal something darker.

It’s considered the third most religious country in the world. Although the constitution guarantees religious freedom while favoring Buddhism, minority Protestants have experienced violent persecution as well as discrimination.

Although it is legal to convert to Christianity in Sri Lanka, Christians often face opposition from politically active Buddhist monks. The Voice of the Martyrs notes the persecution of Christians has escalated in recent years with the rise of militant Buddhist nationalist groups in Sri Lanka. In fact, more than 250 churches have been destroyed or damaged in sectarian violence.

Asian Access has a presence in Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, they are not immune to the trouble. Adrian DeVisser is the national director for Asian Access/Sri Lanka and A2 vice president for Partnership Development. He describes what happened to a church plant on January 5th.