Peace for the World

Peace for the World
First democratic leader of Justice the Godfather of the Sri Lankan Tamil Struggle: Honourable Samuel James Veluppillai Chelvanayakam

Saturday, January 21, 2017

India: Crime of the Century – Financial Genocide

The banned bank notes constitute about 85% in value of all cash in circulation. India is a cash society. About 97% of all transactions are carried out in cash. Only slightly more than half the Indian population has bank accounts; and only about half of them have been used in the last three months. Credit or debit cards are extremely scarce – basically limited to the ‘creditworthy’ elite.

by Peter Koenig- 

(January 21, 2017, Boston, Sri Lanka Guardian) A Financial genocide, if there was ever one. Death by demonetization, probably killing hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, through famine, disease, even desperation and suicide – because most of India’s money was declared invalid. The official weak reason for this purposefully manufactured human disaster is fighting counterfeiting. What a flagrant lie! The real cause is of course – you guessed it – an order from Washington.

On 8 November, Narendra Modi, the Indian Prime Minister, brutally declared all 500 (US$ 7) and 1,000 rupee-notes invalid, unless exchanged or deposited in a bank or post office account until 31 December 2016. After this date, all unexchanged ‘old’ money is invalid – lost. Barely half of Indians have bank accounts.

The final goal is speedy global demonetization. India is a test case – a huge one, covering 1.3 billion people. If it works in India, it works throughout the developing world. That’s the evil thought behind it. “Tests” are already running in Europe.

The Nordic countries, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, are moving rapidly towards cashless societies. 
Electronic money, instead of cash, allows the hegemon to control the entire western world, all those who are enslaved to the dollar monetary system. Meaning literally everybody outside the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) that includes, China, Russia, most of Central Asia, Iran, Pakistan and – yes, India is an apparent candidate to join the SCO alliance.

There was no limit set in rupee amounts that were allowed to be deposited in bank or postal accounts. But exchanges or withdrawals were limited the first two days to 2,000 rupees, later to 4,000 rupees, with promises to further increases ‘later on’. The restrictions have to do with limited new bank notes available. The new money is issued in denominations of 500 and 2,000 rupee-notes.

On 9 November, none of the country’s ATM machines were functioning. Withdrawing money was possible only from banks. Queues behind bank counters were endless – lasting hours and in some cases days. Often times, once at the teller, the bank was out of cash. Imagine the millions, perhaps billions of labor hours – production time and wages – lost – lost mostly by the poor.

The banned bank notes constitute about 85% in value of all cash in circulation. India is a cash society. About 97% of all transactions are carried out in cash. Only slightly more than half the Indian population has bank accounts; and only about half of them have been used in the last three months. Credit or debit cards are extremely scarce – basically limited to the ‘creditworthy’ elite.

In rural areas, where most of the poor live, banks are scarce or none existent. The poor and poorest of the poor, again – as usual – are those who suffer most. Hundreds of thousands of them have lost almost all they have and will be unable to fend for their families, buying food and medication.

According to most media reports, Modi’s demonetization was an arbitrary decision. Be sure, there is nothing arbitrary behind this decision. As reported on 1 January 2017 by German investigative business journalist, Norbert Haering, in his blog, “Money and More”, this move was well prepared and financed by Washington through USAID. Mr. Modi didn’t even bother presenting the idea to the Parliament for debate.

In November 2010 President Obama declared with then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a Strategic Partnership with India. It was to become one of his foreign policy priorities which was renewed during Obama’s visit to India in January 2015 with the current PM Modi. The purpose of this partnership was not just to pull one of the most populous BRICS countries out of the Russia-China orbit, but also to use it as a test case for global demonetization. Mind you, the orders came from way above Obama, from the omni-potent, but hardly visible Rothschild-Rockefeller – Morgan – et al, all-domineering bankster cartel.

This horrendous crime that may cost millions of lives, was the dictate of Washington. A cooperation agreement, also called an “anti-cash partnership”, between the US development agency (sic), USAID, with the Indian Ministry of Finance, was worked out. One of their declared ‘common objectives’ was gradually eliminating the use of cash by replacing it with digital or virtual money.

It takes two to tango. The PM of the second largest nation in the world, one would expect, would have a say in the extent to which a foreign country may interfere in India’s sovereign internal affairs, i.e. her monetary policies – especially a foreign country that is known to seek only Full Spectrum Dominance of the globe, its resources and its people. The head of India, a prominent BRICS country (BRICS = Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), one would expect, could have sent the naked emperor to climb a tree – and say NO to this horrendous criminal request. But Modi did not.

Is India with PM Modi still a viable BRICS country? Or more importantly, India is currently poised to become a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Is India under Modi worthy of being admitted into this powerful Asian economic and military block, the only authoritative counterbalance to the west? – At this point, putting hundreds of millions of his countrymen at peril by obeying Washington’s nefarious dictate, Modi looks more like a miserable traitor than a partner of the New East.

USAID calls this operation “Catalyst: Inclusive Cashless Payment Partnership“. Its purpose is “effecting a quantum leap in cashless payment in India” – and of course, eventually around the globe. According to the Indian Economic Times, this program had been stealthily financed by USAID over the past three years. Funding amounts are kept secret. Who knows, where else in the world Catalyst is quietly funding and preparing other human financial disasters.

All fits into the Big Scheme of things: Reducing the world population, so less resources are needed to maintain 7.4 billion people – and growing – many of them finite resources that can be used by a small elite, supported by a few million slaves. This is the world according to still ticking war criminal numero UNO, Henry Kissinger. Forcefully reducing the world population is his one big objective since just after WWII, when he became a key member of the Rockefeller sponsored Bilderberg Society.

Some of the same people are currently spreading neo-fascist mantras around the world, at the infamous WEF (World Economic Forum) in Davos, Switzerland (17-20 January 2017). WEF attendees (by invitation only) are a mixed bag of elitist ‘private’ billionaires, corporate CEOs (only corporations registering at least US$ 5 billion in sales), high-flying politicians, Hollywood’s cream of the crop, and more of the kind. Pretty much the same definition applies to the Bilderbergers.

Like with the Bilderbergers, the key topics discussed at the WEF, those themes that are supposed to guide the world further and faster towards the New (One) World Order, are discussed behind closed doors and will hardly surface into the mainstream. It is, however, highly likely that the “Cashless India” decision – a trial for the rest of the world – had previously been discussed and ‘ratified’ by the WEF, as well as the Bilderbergers. None of this is known to the common people, and least to the Indians.

All-out efforts are under way to maintain highly lucrative disaster capitalism, or at least to slow down its decline – because its end is in sight. It’s just a question of time. Hence, the term Catalyst (accelerator) for the USAID program is well chosen. Time is running out. One of the best ways of controlling populations and unbending politicians is through financial strangleholds. That’s what a cashless society is all about.

According to Badal Malick, former Vice President of India’s most important online marketplace Snapdeal, later appointed as CEO of Catalyst: “Catalyst’s mission is to solve multiple coordination problems that have blocked the penetration of digital payments among merchants and low-income consumers. We look forward to creating a sustainable and replicable model. (…) While there has been (…) a concerted push for digital payments by the government, there is still a last mile gap when it comes to merchant acceptance and coordination issues. We want to bring a holistic ecosystem approach to these problems.“

This is further supported by Jonathan Addleton, USAID Mission Director to India: “India is at the forefront of global efforts to digitize economies and create new economic opportunities that extend to hard-to-reach populations. Catalyst will support these efforts by focusing on the challenge of making everyday purchases cashless.”

What an outright heap of bovine manure!

Those who are supporting the Catalyst idea in India – and presumably elsewhere in the world, are, as per an USAID Beyond-Cash report, more than 35 Indian, American and international organizations (http://cashlesscatalyst.org/), mostly IT and payment service providers, including the Better Than Cash Alliance, the Gates Foundation (Microsoft), Omidyar Network (eBay), the Dell Foundation Mastercard, Visa, Metlife Foundation. All of them want to make money from digital payments – another transfer from the poor to the rich – another catalyst for widening the rich-poor gab – worldwide.

Interestingly, the USAID – Indian partnership to temporarily banning most cash coincides with Raghuram Rajan as President of the Reserve Bank of India (September 2013 – September 2016). Mr. Rajan has also been chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, and there is talk that he may be poised as Mme. Lagard’s successor at the helm of the IMF. It is clear that the IMF, and by association the World Bank, is fully aboard with this project to transform western society into slavehood of digital money – with emphasis on wester society, because the East, the Russia-China-Iran-SCO axis, where the future lays, has already largely detached itself from the dollar based western – and fraudulent – monetary scheme.

Mr. Raghuram Rajan is an influential but also highly controversial figure. He is also a member of the so-called Group of Thirty, “a rather shady organization, where high ranking representatives of the world’s major commercial financial institutions share their thoughts and plans with the presidents of the most important central banks, behind closed doors and with no minutes taken. It becomes increasingly clear that the Group of Thirty is one of the major coordination centers of the worldwide war on cash. Its membership includes other key warriors like Rogoff, Larry Summers and others” (N.Häring, 1.1.2017). On the other hand, Rajan is extremely disliked by the Indian business society, mostly because of his tight monetary policy as head of the Indian Central Bank (go figure!). Under pressure, he did not renew his term as India’s central bank governor in 2016.

The Group of Thirty sounds akin to the highly secretive Board of Directors of the infamous Basle-based BIS (Bank for International Settlement), also considered the central bank of all central banks, which meets once a month in secret (during a weekend for lesser visibility) and no minutes taken. The BIS is a Rothschild controlled private bank, close associate of the FED, also privately owned. It is clear, with the FED, BIS and IMF in connivance, the dice are cast for a cashless (western) society.

Washington’s interest in a cashless society goes far beyond the business interests of IT, credit card and other financial institutions. More importantly is the surveillance power that goes with digital payments. 

As with electronic communications today – every one of them read, listened to and spied on throughout the world – some 7 to 10 billion electronic messages per day – every digital payment and transfer will be controlled and checked worldwide by the Masters of the dollar-based hegemony. Every transfer will be registered and monitored by an American-Zionist control mechanism. This is the only way (totally illegal) sanctions can be dished out to governments that refuse the dictate of Washington and its western European lackeys. Cases in point are Russia, China, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Syria — the list is endless. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) recently reported that Employees of a German manufacturing firm doing completely legal business with Iran were put on a US terror list, which meant that they were shut off most of the financial system and even some logistics companies would not transport their furniture any more.

Norbert Häring concludes, “Every internationally active bank can be blackmailed by the US government into following their orders, since revoking their license to do business in the US or in dollars, basically amounts to shutting them down. Deutsche Bank had to negotiate [in September 2016] with the US treasury for months whether they would have to pay a fine of 14 billion dollars and most likely go broke, or get away with seven billion and survive. If you have the power to bankrupt the largest banks even of large countries, you have power over their governments, too. This power through dominance over the financial system and the associated data is already there. The less cash there is in use, the more extensive and secure it is, as the use of cash is a major avenue for evading this power.”

Back to India. It is not difficult to imagine what the implications of such a massive demonetization operation might have in a country like India, where hundreds of millions live in or near poverty, with a large rural population, where almost all transactions are carried out in cash – and where cash is everything for survival. This is death by financial strangulation.

No blood, No traces – no media coverage. It is a clandestine willful mass-murder, carried out by the Indian government on its own people, while instigated by the chief assassins, operating from within the Washington Beltway killer farms, no scruples, no morals, no ethics – what Washington knows best to achieve its purpose.

This no-holds-barred strategy is accelerating, as time runs out. The ship is slowly but surely turning towards another dimension, another world view – one of in which humanity may gain back its status of a solidary being. These atrocities around the globe may go some ways – but I doubt they will go all the way. There is a spiritual limit on how far evil can go.

Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a former World Bank staff and worked extensively around the world in the fields of environment and water resources. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance.

Myanmar rebuffs Malaysia for organising OIC meeting on Rohingya

Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak talks to the media beside Indonesia's President Joko Widodo after a bilateral meeting at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, August 1, 2016. REUTERS/Beawiharta
YANGON: Myanmar rebuffed Malaysia on Saturday for organising a meeting of Muslim governments to put pressure on Myanmar over the plight of Rohingya Muslims following a military crackdown that sent at least 66,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh.
Hosting a meeting of representatives from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on Thursday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak called on Myanmar to stop attacking, and discriminating against the Rohingya minority.
Najib urged the OIC, which groups 57 Muslim nations, to act to end the unfolding "humanitarian tragedy".
In response, Myanmar, a mostly Buddhist country, said it was "regrettable" that Malaysia had called the meeting, and accused Kuala Lumpur of exploiting the crisis "to promote a certain political agenda" and disregard for the government's efforts to address it.
"The Government has been endeavouring to safeguard lives and ensure the security of the people from the violent attacks of new extremists," said Myanmar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement printed in the country's state-run daily, the Global New Light of Myanmar.
The ministry is run by Nobel Peace Prize winner and de facto leader of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, who won 2015 elections in a landslide after decades of pro-democracy struggle, ushering in Myanmar's first civilian government for about half a century.
Myanmar authorities say the military launched a security sweep in response to what they say was an attack in October by Rohingya insurgents on border posts near Myanmar's border with Bangladesh in which nine police officers were killed.
Since then, at least 86 people have been killed and the United Nations says at least 66,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh.
Residents and refugees accuse the military of killing, raping and detaining civilians while burning villages in northwestern Rakhine State.
The government denies the accusations and insists a lawful counter-insurgency operation is underway.
About 56,000 Rohingya live in Malaysia having fled unrest and persecution in Myanmar.
Kuala Lumpur summoned Myanmar's ambassador last year to protest against the treatment of Rohingya, breaking a tradition of non-intervention by members of the Association of South East Asian Nations in each other's affairs.
Najib said it would be a disgrace if the Southeast Asian group did not do its utmost to "avert the catastrophe that has been unfolding".
On Friday, a United Nations human rights investigator criticized Myanmar's operation and urged the military to respect the law and human rights.
(Reporting by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

Robotic sleeve 'hugs' failing hearts



Picture of a robotic sleeve that envelopes the heart
BBC
By Smitha Mundasad-19 January 2017
Scientists have developed a robotic sleeve that can help hearts pump when they are failing.
The sleeve - made of material that mimics heart muscle - hugs the outside of the heart and squeezes it, mimicking the action of cardiac muscle.
The early study, published in Science Translational Medicine, shows the concept works on pig hearts.
The British Heart Foundation describes it as a "novel approach" that requires further trials.

'Synchronised movement'

Over half a million people in the UK have heart failure.
It is a long-term condition that gradually gets worse over time.
For people with the illness, the heart is unable to pump blood around the body properly - most commonly because cardiac muscle has been damaged, after a heart attack, for example.
Scientists based at Harvard and the Boston Children's Hospital, and in Leeds, say their soft sleeve was inspired by the actions and structure of real heart muscle.
The silicon-based device stiffens or relaxes when inflated with pressurised air.
Fixing it around six pig hearts, scientists found they were able to synchronise the sleeve with each heart's shape and movements.
The study shows the robotic sleeve helped boost the amount of blood being pumped around the body.
And when the hearts stopped beating, the sleeves helped restore blood flow.
Currently, mechanical devices can be implanted in the heart to help it pump. But because they are in direct contact with heart tissue, the body can react to them - leading to the risk of dangerous blood clots.
Researchers argue their sleeve could help cut this risk by "hugging" the outside of the heart rather than being implanted inside it.
But they acknowledge their research is still at an early stage and much longer-term animal studies and then human studies would need to be carried out before it could be used in patients.
Christopher Allen, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: "People living with end-stage heart failure are in desperate need of symptom relief, and some will even require a heart transplant.
"We currently don't have enough hearts available to meet the needs of those who require a heart transplant, so we're always looking for innovative new ways to buy time to give people the best chance possible of receiving a new heart and a new lease of life.
"This early research suggests a novel approach to help support heart function, and it will be interesting to see if this translates successfully in human trials in the future."

Friday, January 20, 2017

Our failure to accept our diversity as a multi ethnic, multi-cultural and multi lingual society - FM

Our failure to accept our diversity as a multi ethnic, multi-cultural and multi lingual society - FM

Jan 20, 2017

'Sri Lanka’s need of the hour is breaking through the greatest obstacle that has held Sri Lanka back since Independence – our failure to accept and celebrate our diversity as a multi ethnic, multi-cultural and multi lingual society ' said by Mangala Samaraweera, MP Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka at the Round Table Discussion on Sri Lanka’s Peace and Reconciliation Process in Stockholm in Sweeden.

The full text of the  speech the FM as follows
Mr. Niklas Swanstrom,
Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Sweden Damayanthi Rajapaksa,
Distinguished Invitees,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am honored to have the opportunity to speak at the Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP), one of the leading think tanks of Sweden. It is also a great pleasure to be back in the historic city of Stockholm. Nearly 22 years ago, I visited your beautiful city in an earlier incarnation as the Minister of Telecommunications of Sri Lanka. Today I feel fortunate to be here once again when the guns and the bombs have finally fallen silent and Sri Lanka following a new political trajectory.
The month of January holds special significance for Sri Lankan people; it was on 8th January 2015 that Sri Lanka’s transformational journey began following the presidential elections. The month of January is now associated with peace and reconciliation. In fact, last week, Sri Lanka observed the National Integration and Reconciliation Week that was declared by the Cabinet of Ministers from 8th to 14th January.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In 1948 Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, was seen as one of the newly independent countries most likely to succeed. A British newspaper predicted a bright future for Ceylon, and wrote that it would no doubt become the Switzerland of the East in an Editorial on the 5th of February 1948.
Sri Lanka at independence was considered a model Commonwealth country with a relatively good standard of education, two universities of high quality, a civil service largely consisting of trained locals, and with experience in representative government.
Ceylon was a flourishing and robust democracy with universal adult franchise introduced to us in 1931. The women in Sri Lanka started enjoying the franchise way before other Asian countries. Sri Lanka elected female legislators to local government bodies and the national parliament. In fact my own mother was the first female councilor elected to the Matara Urban Council in the late 1950s. And of course, as you all know, Sri Lanka had the privilege of electing the world’s first female Prime Minister, the late Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike.
However, as Lee Kuan Yew wrote, Sri Lanka squandered away all the opportunities over the years; in his memoirs from “Third World to First World”, he writes…“during my visits over the years, I saw a promising country go to waste”.
Communal disharmony and discord became the order of the day and wise and respected leaders of our nation, succumbed to the   small but vociferous groups of extreme nationalists and their slogans of hate and mistrust.
The Presidential elections in January 2015 followed by Parliamentary elections in August heralded a new beginning for Sri Lanka under the leadership of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The people of Sri Lanka came out in droves twice in one year to end authoritarianism, corruption and the politics of hate. In short, they voted for a new democratic Sri Lanka where democracy, reconciliation, the rule of law and sustainable development would flourish.
Having achieved a significant number of promises set out in the 100 Day Work Programme of the Government, the most significant being the repeal of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, and the adoption of the 19th Amendment, fresh Parliamentary elections were called in August 2015.
     The 19th Amendment, as most of you I am sure are aware,
-    Re-introduced the two-term limit of the Presidency,
-    Reduced the term of the Presidency from 6 to 5 years,
-    Established a Constitutional Council,
-    Restored Independent Commissions,
-    Recognised the Right to Information as a fundamental right, and
-    Recognised the Promotion of National Reconciliation and Integration as duties of the President.
The Government also had in its hands, the task of restoring Sri Lanka’s relations with the outside world, and restoring lost credibility.  
The Government, since January 2015, therefore, started reaching out to the international community, re-engaging with governments and international organisations. Many Foreign Ministers and Heads of Government have visited Sri Lanka in the last 02 years, including your Foreign Minister Margot Wallström last year in April. The first by a Swedish Foreign Minister.
The power of Parliament has been strengthened. Oversight Committees have been set up with Opposition members chairing several key Committees.
The Right to Information Act, which was enacted by Parliament last year and is now in the process of being operationalised.
In two years, Sri Lanka has made considerable strides from soft-authoritarianism towards consolidating a rights-based democracy with deeply entrenched institutions and values.
Ladies & Gentlemen,
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.
 
It is these realisations that cry out to us that our nation will never be able to achieve the full socio-economic development potential that our nation can reach, and our citizens are so deserving of, if we fail to address grievances, that risk plunging our nation into conflict once again, that led us to co-sponsor the Resolution that we worked on with members of the Human Rights Council in October 2015.
As the President said in his Independence Day speech in February last year, Sri Lanka is committed to the implementation of that resolution so that we as a country can deal with the past honestly and truthfully, accept that past, put it behind us, and then move forward to build our Sri Lankan nation anew.
The set of actions that the Government has identified to deal with the past in a comprehensive manner, addressing the grievances of all victims, include truth seeking, justice, reparation and measures for guaranteeing non-recurrence. As a first step, we have enacted legislation to set up an Office on Missing Persons. Now that the Consultation Task Force set up to seek the views of the public has just handed over its Report to the Government on the 3rd of January, the relevant experts of Government, in an exercise coordinated by the Secretariat that has been set up to Coordinate the Reconciliation Mechanisms will be studying the Report and finalizing the designing of a Truth-Seeking Commission and a Reparations Office.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As you are aware, one of the first steps taken by the National Unity Government in January 2015 itself was to restore civilian administration in the North and the East of the country. We have also taken a series of symbolic steps to establish equality of all citizens, such as singing the National Anthem in both Sinhala and Tamil; promising the people to ensure that we don’t allow our country to plunge into conflict and the shedding of blood of our citizens by adopting a Declaration of Peace on Independence Day in February 2015.
As an important measure to prevent non-recurrence of conflict, the Parliament, last year, unanimously adopted a Resolution for the Parliament to sit as a Constitutional Assembly to draft a new Constitution that would, among other provisions.
Much of the preparatory work for the new constitution has now been completed. Wide-ranging public consultations were conducted for the first time in Sri Lanka’s constitutional history; much study, reflection and negotiation was undertaken to arrive at consensus at the six sub-committees  set up and final negotiations on a draft are currently underway.
Above all, Sri Lanka’s need of the hour is breaking through the greatest obstacle that has held Sri Lanka back since Independence – our failure to accept and celebrate our diversity as a multi ethnic, multi-cultural and multi lingual society.

Ladies & Gentlemen,
But for Sri Lanka’s democratic and reconciliation journey to succeed, its economy must flourish and its people must prosper. The peace dividend must reach all segments of our society in the form of economic benefits, better standards of living and more job opportunities for our youth. It is in this respect, our government is committed to make Sri Lanka one of the most advanced trade and economic hubs in the Indian Ocean.
We are tremendously encouraged that the EU Commission, in recognition of our commitment to sustainable development, good governance and human rights and the progress being made, has recommended Sri Lanka’s GSP Plus application to the European Union Parliament and the Council just a few days ago.
The government’s plan of making Sri Lanka an Indian Ocean hub are beginning to bear fruit; The Colombo international financial city; The Hambanthota, Colombo East and Trincomalee ports; and the Katunayake and Palali airports are all hives of activity. Then by 2020, Sri Lanka will have the necessary infrastructure, regulations, and companies in place to achieve its hub ambitions.
Our history tells us that Sri Lanka was the marvel of the ancient world when she embraced multiculturalism, openness and trade. Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, at their heights, were home to people of all races and creeds. A spirit of celebrating diversity prevailed, and our civilization was enriched with ideas and practices from Rome, Persia, Egypt, Greece, India, South East Asia and China. We were a connected civilization proud of our position at the centre of Indian Ocean trade.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The lessons and the choices of our history are clear to us today. We have a choice between impunity, conflict, corruption, extremism and poverty, or the rule of law, accountability, equality, multiculturalism, openness and trade. We have a choice between conflict and poverty, versus peace and prosperity.
As Sri Lanka stands at the crossroads of change, now more than ever, it needs the support and friendship of the international community. In fact, I would like to specially mention that Foreign Minister Margo Wallström has remained a steadfast friend. Even though our two countries may be in two different corners of the world, our shared values of social democracy bind us together, and Sweden remains an inspiration for Sri Lanka in our journey forward.
I thank you.

Implement CTF Recommendations: International Commission Of Jurists Tells Sri Lanka


Colombo Telegraph
January 20, 2017
The Sri Lankan government must deliver on the clear demand for justice from Sri Lankans nationwide by implementing the Consultation Task Force recommendations without further delay, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said last night.
ICJ926Among these recommendations, the calls for a special court with international judges and a bar against amnesties for crimes under international law are of particular importance, the ICJ added.
The Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms (CTF), a panel of 11 independent eminent persons appointed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in January 2016, publicly released its final report on 3 January 2017.
The report, reflecting the views of people across the country gathered through island-wide public consultations on transitional justice, highlights the lack of public confidence in the justice system’s capacity and will to deliver justice for victims of Sri Lanka’s nearly 30-year armed conflict that ended in 2009.
“The CTF report highlights a widespread lack of trust among Sri Lankans across the country, regardless of region, ethnicity, religion or language, in the ability of the criminal justice system in its current form to address serious human rights abuses stemming from the conflict,” said Nikhil Narayan, the ICJ’s South Asia senior legal adviser.
The report also calls upon the Government of Sri Lanka to take necessary steps to ensure a credible transitional justice process in line with the October 2015 UN Human Rights Council resolution 30/1 that it co-sponsored.
“If the Sri Lankan government wants to restore public confidence in the system, it must seriously consider victims’ voices and implement the CTF recommendations on truth, justice and reparation consistent with the commitments it voluntary undertook at the Human Rights Council,” Narayan added.
Importantly, the CTF report reiterates the commitments pledged in HRC resolution 30/1, calling for active international participation in a special judicial mechanism established to deal with accountability for human rights abuses committed during the conflict by both sides, and for a bar against amnesties for international crimes.
According to the ICJ, the Sri Lankan government took an important first step towards reconciliation when it adopted the UN resolution and later established the CTF to carry out public consultations to hear a cross section of voices on transitional justice.
“Unfortunately, since then, it has been disappointing in its lack of urgency in implementing much of those stated promises and in its apparent disregard for the CTF recommendations,” Narayan said.
Several members of the government have dismissed the CTF’s recommendations, especially with regard to the inclusion of at least one international judge on every bench of the special judicial mechanism.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs recently spoke of the need for “an independent and credible domestic mechanism” without alluding to any international participation, as has been reiterated by those seeking redress as a crucial element to ensure faith in the justice mechanism.
The ICJ has in the past highlighted Sri Lanka’s culture of impunity in the justice system looking at a number of emblematic cases, and called into question the State’s capacity and political will to use the criminal justice system and other ad-hoc measures to deliver justice and accountability to victims and survivors of serious human rights abuses.
Thajudeen Murder: CCTV footage of suspicious vehicle to come under further probe



2017-01-20

Colombo Additional Magistrate Jeyaram Trotsky yesterday allowed the prosecution to send the CCTV footage relating to the suspicious vehicle that chased Thajudeen's vehicle on the day he was found dead, to the Colombo University for further examination.

 Deputy Solicitor General Dilan Ratnayake informed court the prosecution was in need of getting more clarified details about the unidentified vehicle that had chased Wasim Thajudeen's vehicle.

 The Prosecution also said the DNA test report on the recovered 19 femur bone pieces and seven bone pieces of the chest area at the SAITM laboratory by the CID was still pending. 

Earlier, the CID and a team of experts searched the SAITM Laboratory based on information revealed during the investigation that the former JMO Ananda Samaraseka had dispatched few body parts of Wasim Thajudeen to the SAITM. 

Then the recovered body parts were sent to the 'Genetech' to conduct a DNA test using DNAs of Thajudeen's mother. 

Additionally, in line with the earlier court order, the Sri Lanka Medical Council submitted a comprehensive report in court informing the current progress of the inquiry conducted by the council against former chief JMO Ananda Samarasekara on the irregularities reported during the first autopsy of the late Thajudeen. 

The prosecution said that the suspects -- former SDIG Anura Senanayake and former Narahenpita Crimes OIC Sumith Perera -- had been charged under Sections 113 (Conspiracy) and 32 (Liability for act done by several persons in furtherance of a common intention) of the Penal Code, and that according to the provision in Section 13 of the Bail Act, a person who had been charged with an offence punishable with death or with life imprisonment, shall not be released on bail except by a judge of the High Court. 

The former SDIG and the former Crimes OIC have also been charged with causing the disappearance of evidence, fabricating false evidence, using it to shield the offender and conspiring under Clauses of 189,198 and 296 of the Penal Code.

 Considering that the suspects had already filed revision bail applications in the High Court, Additional Magistrate Jeyaram Trotsky re-remanded the suspects till February 2.(Shehan Chamika Silva)


Prez rescinds a two-thirds majority for reimposition of Emergency

HR action plan 


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By Shamindra Ferdinando-January 20, 2017, 9:31 pm

President Maithripala Sirisena has directed that proposed National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (NHRAP) shouldn’t in any way be an obstacle to imposition of Emergency Regulations.

President Sirisena, who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces had instructed that a controversial clause pertaining to the declaration of Emergency be removed forthwith.

Skills Development and Vocational Training Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe called the NHRAP as the second such report since Sri Lanka’s victory over the LTTE. Samarasinghe handled the first report that dealt with 2013 to 2016 period.

Samarasinghe has revealed the intervention made by President Sirisena recently at a meeting attended by members of the UNP-SLFP coalition cabinet.

Addressing the media at SLFP office at the T.B. Jayah Mawatha on Thursday, Minister Samarasinghe quoted President Sirisena as having said that the parliament should retain the right to impose Emergency Regulations with a simple majority. President Sirisena has pointed out that the proposal to subject Emergency regulations to a two-thirds majority in parliament could cause unnecessary problems, hence the decision to abolish that particular clause.

The meeting was told that it would be extremely difficult for a political party represented in parliament or a coalition of political parties to secure a two-thirds majority.

Minister Samarasinghe said that Premier Wickremesinghe and other members of the Cabinet accepted President Sirisena’s stand.

Sri Lanka had been under Emergency rule since the JRJ presidency during the war.

Minister Samarasinghe said the NHRAP had been prepared by the Foreign Ministry in consultation with all relevant ministries and was cleared by President Sirisena and the cabinet of ministers following three amendments. In addition to abolition of the clause pertaining to imposition of Emergency regulations, the government removed what Minister Samarasinghe called a non-discriminatory section as well as a clause that dealt with economic and social rights.

Minister Samarasinghe said that some members of the cabinet felt that the non-discriminatory clause could be exploited though there hadn’t been any reference to homosexuality therein. President Sirisena has directed the clause to be removed. The section relating to economic and social rights had to be amended as it was certainly viable in respect of provision of housing and land to all. Minister Samarasinghe said that the government proposed tangible measures over a period of time till 2013 to achieve objectives.

Samarasinghe stressed that the proposed plan would be beneficial to Sri Lankans. The SLFPer denied the notion that the move was meant to appease the international community.

Minister Samarasinghe told The Island yesterday that the NHRAP would be ready before the next sessions of the Geneva-based Human Rights Council in March, 2017.

Minister Samarasinghe explained Sri Lanka’s efforts at Geneva to address accountability issues since the conclusion of the conflict in May 2009. Responding to a query at Thursday’s briefing, Minister Samarasinghe pointed out that the country had to pay a heavy price for the failure on the part of the previous administration to address accountability issues. The previous government lacked political will to meet international obligations.

Minister alleged that those who had been at the top of the decision making process in spite of being told of the situation simply failed to take any tangible action to correct the situation.

Sri Lanka had GSP and the GSP plus was received in the aftermath of Dec 2004 tsunami, he noted.

Ex-Governors Gang Up Against Constitutional Reforms


Colombo Telegraph
January 19, 2017 
Several ex-Governors have ganged up against the ongoing Constitutional reforms process, expressing their reservations saying that the reforms can seriously undermine the power and the role of the Governor. They have also said that the weakening role of the Governor could undermine the ability of the Sri Lankan State to prevent the inexorable threat to the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka, while also warning that if powers of the Governors are taken away, Sri Lanka will cease to be a unified country.
President Sirisena
President Sirisena
In a letter addressed to President Maithripala Sirisena early this month, eight ex-Governors from the Central, North Western, Southern, Eastern, Northern, North Central and Uva provinces said that after studying the recommendations recently tabled in Parliament by the sub committees appointed by the Constitutional Assembly for Constitutional reforms, they were compelled to express their reservations on some aspects as it will seriously undermine the power and the role of the Governor. “This will adversely impact on the centre periphery relations affecting the unitary nature of the State that was envisaged when the 13th Amendment was introduced to the Constitution in 1987,” they said in the letter to Sirisena.
The letter was signed by Ex Governor Central Province Tikiri Kobbekaduwa, Ex Governor North-Western Province Tissa Balalla, Ex Governor Southern Province Kumari Balasuirya, Ex Governor Eastern Province Mohan Wijewickrama, Ex Governor Northern Province G.A. Chandrasiri, Ex Governor North-Central Province Karunarathne Divulgane, Ex Governor North-Central Province Jagath Balasuriya and Ex Governor Uva Province C. Nanda Mathew.
“As per the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, Provincial Councils are autonomous bodies and derives its authority and power from the Constitution and Acts of Parliament. The functions of the Government and the Provincial Councils are clearly listed in the Ninth Schedule to the Constitution, which comprises of three lists that clearly indicate the power enjoyed by the Provincial Councils where it can make statutes (laws) applicable to that province without violating the Constitution. The Governor is appointed by the President and as such he is his representative. All executive action of the Governor is taken in the name of the President. He gives assent to the Statutes passed by the Council before they can become law,” the letter said.
The governors listed several apprehensions on the recommendation made by sub committees ;
1. The power to assent statutes adopted by a PC to be transferred to the Chairman of the Council from the Governor and the Governors power to refer any statute inconsistent with the Constitution to the Supreme Court for a determination through the President to be abolished. It has been recommended to review the Statutes by a Constitutional Court to be established.
The Constitutional Court would be outside the Court structure and will consist of seven members, not all of them necessarily be judicial officers appointed by the President on the recommendations of the Constitutional Council. The Centre will not have any control in the event of a Province making a Statute inconsistent with the Constitution and will have to solely rely on the Constitutional Court.
2. As per Article 154F of the Constitution, the Governor appoint the Chief Minister (CM) who has the support of the majority of elected members or when one political party obtains more than half of the seats in the Council the leader of that party. The Governor appoints the Provincial Board of Ministers (BOM) on the advice of the CM. The Governor shall at all times act on their advice, except where under the Constitution is required to exercise his functions or any of them in his discretion.
The ‘sub committees’ have recommended to appoint the Governor with the concurrence of the Chief Minister (CM) and will have to perform duties on the advice of the CM and provincial Board of Ministers (BOM). The power where the Governor is required to exercise at his own discretion also had been recommended to be removed. Can the Governor appointed with the recommendation of a CM be independent during a situation where the majority members in the council decides to remove or change the incumbent CM as provided in the Constitution
3. Under the 13th Amendment the Governor is required to report to the President any failure of administrative machinery as per the Article 154L of the Constitution. The ‘sub committees’ have recommended this condition to be deleted. The new recommendation is for the President and Prime Minister to make such determinations. Such determinations also will become subject to Judicial Review if challenged.
4. As per Part (IV) of the Provincial Council Act No. 42 of 1987 the Governor determines all matters relating to members of the Provincial Public Service including the formulation of schemes of recruitment and the codes of conduct for such officers. He is also the Director of Establishments for the Provincial Public Service. The ‘sub committees’ have recommended the Governor’s authority over the provincial public service especially the appointment, transfers and disciplinary control of Secretaries, Deputy Secretaries and Department Heads be carried out on the advice of BOM subjecting to the risk of politicising the public service and compromising its independency. Furthermore, by allowing the Provincial Public Services Commissions to decide on cadre needs including that of the local authorities without the approval of the Treasury will result the present uniformity adopted for all provinces and appropriating funds for salaries and emoluments.
5. The ‘sub committees’ have recommended the list of Concurrent Powers in the 9th Schedule to the Constitution that are wielded by both the Central Government and the Provincial Councils be done sway with and transferred to the Provincial Councils. To further this objective, it has been recommended that the Divisional Secretaries who now function under the District Secretaries networked with Central Government and Grama Niladaris who function under the Divisional Secretaries be placed under the authority of the Provincial Councils. The above may certainly have an impact on the development activity pursued under Ministries of the Central Government in the respective division. Consequently a whole new structure would need to be created to implement 75% of the Central Budget to implement Central Government functions.