Sri Lanka: Are you happy now? Yes I’m

Children Lie-Children Lie-Children Lie-Children Lie-Children Lie-Children Lie

(April 5, 2017, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) March 23, 2017 is a golden day in Sri Lanka’s diplomatic history, said Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera.

That is due to two special incidents.

That is due to two special incidents.

“One incident was that President Maithripala Sirisena was invited by Russia after 43 years and he was accorded the highest form of welcome and treated like a king. This is a significant achievement and a sign.”

Sri Lanka Are you happy now Yes I’m.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

Body parts taken from SAITM are not Thajudeen’s:

2017-04-06

The Genetech Institute has informed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) that the body parts taken into custody from the laboratory of the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) last October were not a match for late ruggerite Wasim Thajudeen. 

  Twenty six body parts were seized from the SAITM laboratory by the CID on suspicion that they belonged to Thajudeen. 

The CID yesterday informed Colombo Additional Magistrate Prasad Silva that Senior Scientist Ruwan Ileperuma of Genetech Institute, Borella had submitted the DNA results. 

Highlights of the investigation launched into the missing body parts had been sent to the Attorney General’s Department for further instructions. (Nimanthi Ranasinghe)

Plight Of Northern Muslim IDPs In Sri Lanka

By Mohamed Shareef Asees –April 6, 2017

Dr. Mohamed Shareef Asees

It has been 27 years since the Muslims were forcibly evicted from their homes in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is reported that around 15,000 Muslim families were forcibly expelled by the LTTE from their homes in five districts: Jaffna 3,475, Mannar 8,200, Vavuniya 1,800, Mulaitheevu 1,000 and Kilinochi 525. The displaced Muslims moved to North-Western Province (Puttalam district) where they have been living as IDPs in the past two and half decades. It is reported that in 2006 there were around 65,000 Muslim IDPs lived in 141 IDP camps in four administration divisions: Kalpitiya (34, 809), Puttalam (20,992), Mundal (5,336), and Vannathavillu (2,008). Most of these IDPs were poor and faced many problems over the housings, infrastructure, education and health care services, etc. In 2007, the World Bank launched a housing project and provided 6000 houses for the Muslim IDPs. However, the rest of Muslim IDPs (over 40,000) continue to suffer in the IDP camps without any durable solutions.

The end of conflict in May 2009 brought a new hope for the resettlement of Muslim IDPs. However both the Sri Lankan government and International community prioritized the Tamil IDPs and resettled over 300,000 IDPs within six months. This has led some Muslim IDPs to feel isolation and began to go back their places of origin voluntarily. The former Resettlement Minister, Rishard Bathiudeen was able to negotiate with some Islamic organizations and they agreed to provide some houses for this marginalized Muslim IDPs. In 2012, Muslims in Marichukatti began their resettlement process with the support of Qatar foundation. Since then some Buddhist monks and media groups began to accuse their resettlement and claimed it was an illegal resettlement and violation of Wilpattu national forest. Further, a large area of their villages was declared as government forests by the Forest Department in 2012. It was challenged by the Minister Rishad badiudeen and he conducted series of media conference and debates with respective media channels and people. During the debate he showed all legal documents and proved that Muslims are entitled to live in those areas. However, none of the party who opposed these resettlements are not convinced and they continued their hate campaign against it. Two weeks ago President Maithripala Sirisena declared all these Muslim settlements (border villages) as Wilpattu without any concern from the local people. It seems that the Sri Lankan government which has the sole responsibility to protect the people acts against its ethics. This has brought some negative thoughts among the Muslims about the good governance in Sri Lanka.

Vulnerability Of Muslim IDPs

Internal displacement was a horrific event for many Muslim IDPs in Sri Lanka. The life in IDP camps have de-moralized men, women, children and elderly people and affected them physically, psychologically, socially, economically and educationally. As for the present challenges, the Muslim IDPs face many economic, political and cultural difficulties. In Puttalam there are 40,000 Muslim IDPs live in the North-west coastal region. The total population of this region doubled with the arrival of Muslim IDPs. When they first arrived, this region was among the least developed areas in the country and was in no position to offer economic opportunities to the IDPs. More than 90% of IDPs depended on dry food-rations provided by the Sri Lankan government and the World Food Program. It was not possible for the IDPs to stand on their own feet in such a resource-poor area. Moreover, the arrival of Muslim IDPs also created some contradictions and tense situation between the Muslim IDPs and the local residents in Puttalam.

IDPs are generally vulnerable when compared to refugees. In Sri Lanka the Muslim IDPs who chased from their homes also vulnerable when compared to Tamil and Sinhala IDPs in many ways. Firstly, regarding the forcible eviction, none of the ethnic groups either Tamil or Sinhalese were forcibly evicted by the LTTE within 24 hours. Further their entire assets both moveable and non-moveable were forcibly taken or looted by the LTTE at gun point. This never happened to any ethnic groups. It is estimated that due to the forcible eviction, the Muslims in the North lost around Rs. 100,000 Million at the time in 1990. Until now, there is no compensation or return of these losses. It shows that how vulnerable these IDPs in Sri Lanka.

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The ‘Sexual Politics’ ‘Sexual Politics’ MMDA Debate
Some Preliminary Thoughts

Women activists demand that reforms should address demands such as the minimum age of marriage and  reform of divorce provisions.

2017-04-05

The reformation of the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA) has become a hot button topic over the past few months. There is expectation that the committee headed by Justice Saleem Marsoof which is tasked with making recommendations on the reform of the MMDA will make their report public soon. Women activists both within and from outside the Muslim community have made clear that the proposed reforms should address a number of demands.These demands relate (among other things) to the minimum age of marriage, the requirement for the woman’s consent for marriage to be mandatory, reform of divorce provisions, practices relating to dowry and alimony, and significant reform of the Quazi court system including allowing for women Quazis.[i]The debate over the reform of the MMDA has thus far been bracketed as an internal discussion for the Muslim community, particularly since Muslims are only allowed to marry under the MMDA and not the general marriage law of the country. However, in this short essay I will argue that the debate over the MMDA is also an invitation to a much broader discussion on the relationship between sex, politics, and governance in Sri Lanka.   

The problem of governing sex and desire is one of the core questions at the heart of the current debate over the MMDA. For example, activists campaigning for stipulating a minimum age of marriage under the MMDA emphasize the need to ensure the “… bodily maturity and the ability to consent freely to marriage and sexual intercourse”.[ii]In contrast, the All Ceylon Jamiyathul Ulama (ACJU)argue against stipulating the minimum age of marriage on the grounds (among others) that “Ibn Hazm says: A father giving in marriage of his daughter before attaining puberty is possible and this is the evidence that Abu Bakkar (Radhi Allahu Anhu) gave A’ishah (Radhi Allahu Anhu) on marriage to Prophet (Peace be upon him) when she was 6 years old)”.[iii]For reformists, the emphasis is on the right of an adult woman (who is at least 18) to determine when and who she marries and by extension, has sex with. Desire is the implicit (yet, silent) partner in this demand for a Muslim woman’s right to consent. Conservatives in contrast, emphasize religious teaching and cultural tradition to argue against the need to radically alter the conditions under which the Muslim community currently makes decisions about marriage and sex. What undergirds both these seemingly contradictory stances is the question of how to and who should regulate/ govern sex and desire.  

• The problem of governing sex and desire is one of the core questions at the heart of the current debate

• It also reminds us of the need to consider how powerful groups within  communities can collude with the very structures that they claim pose a  threat to the community

• The campaign marked this out as a dastardly plot by radical elements in  the Muslim community to alter the demography of the island with a view  to eventually becoming the majority in the country

The concern with regulating sex and desire draws attention to the ways in which concerns about the population have increasingly become the focus of debates about the governance of minorities in the country. For example, it was only earlier this year that moves to include the decriminalization of homosexuality in the Human Rights Action Plan were rejected on grounds such as “social concerns”[iv], the need for “a future generation”[v]and the possibility of “cultural destruction” that could ensue.[vi] Similarly it was only a few years ago that a campaign was carried out on social media warning Sinhalese that certain Muslim department stores were allegedly handing out sweets that would result in impotency. The campaign marked this out as a dastardly plot by radical elements in the Muslim community to alter the demography of the island with a view to eventually becoming the majority in the country. Other social media campaigns have attempted to call on Sinhala women to procreate more frequently as a means of resisting the spread of the Muslim population in the country. There was also serious concern expressed at one point that the delay in publishing the final report of the 2012 Census was because the Muslim community now outnumbered the Sinhala community.[vii]These campaigns also echo long-standing concerns about declining fertility rates in the Sinhala community and its impact on recruitment to the military as well as the Buddhist clergy.[viii]What all these examples highlight is how the regulation of sex and desire is indexed towards exerting control over minorities and women in the country. The foregrounding of concerns about sex and desire draws our attention to the politics of governing and regulating populations and relationships between populations in Sri Lanka. Therefore, choosing to ignore or side-step the MMDA debate on the grounds that it is an internal discussion for the Muslim community fails to take into account the larger sexual politics at work in the country.   

The MMDA debate draws our attention to these larger questions about the function of sexual politics within the country.For example, the sexual curiosity of children is often proffered as an argument against increasing the minimum age of marriage among the Muslim community by law. However, at the heart of this argument is the question of to what extent law is an effective form of regulating sex and desire. We can see how the MMDA debate resonates with the conversation over the use of the death penalty as a way of regulating the sexual proclivities of child abusers and rapists. The reader may remember that at the time, the proponents of the death penalty strongly argued that the reintroduction of the death penalty would regulate the sexual desire of these criminal elements. A related question is also what purpose does the regulation of sex and desire within a community serve. These arguments over regulation are an attempt to establish control for those who wish to be identified as the gatekeepers of morality. The struggle by men to preserve their status as the gatekeepers of the morality of their community is indexed as a way of determining who can be considered a ‘true’ Muslim. By establishing the parameters for inclusion and exclusion, these power struggles work towards concretising and defining membership in a community. If we remember that the earliest concerns with defining the parameters of cultural identity were rooted in attempts to further colonial control of subject populations, we begin to be far more suspicious of these projects of definition.

"The debate over the MMDA is also an invitation to a much broader discussion on the relationship between sex, politics, and governance in Sri Lanka. "

It also reminds us of the need to consider how powerful groups within communities can collude with the very structures that they claim pose a threat to the community. Therefore, supporting the moves for reforming the MMDA also affords a way of challenging many of the colonial legacies that continue to play a role in determining how the country is governed today.   Contextualizing the MMDA debate within the struggle over the trajectory of Sri Lanka’s sexual politics makes it possible to open more pathways for understanding and coalition building between various groups around the country. Therefore, it is no longer possible to bracket off the MMDA struggle as a solely Muslim concern. When we begin to trace the flows of power, we begin to see how the MMDA reform debate has much broader repercussions. We see how the regulation of sex and desire are increasingly staked as the terrain for determining the relationship between law and social control. Nor can our stance on the MMDA be divorced from the question of how projects of definition are linked today to the drive to police women’s bodies, sex, and desires. The debate also demonstrates how the logic of sexual regulation through insecurities about birth rates, infertility, and spread of minority cultures is increasingly coded in discussions on governing populations in Sri Lanka. In other words, the reform of the MMDA is not only circumscribed by the question of the rights of women within Muslim personal law. It challenges us to consider how the very terms of this debate continue to invoke the relationship between the disciplinary logic of sexual regulation and the production of populations for more malleable governance of the country. And when we begin to see that we can no longer afford to cast aside the questions raised by the MMDA reform movement as irrelevant to larger debates over rights, populations, and governance in Sri Lanka today.  

The writer is a Senior Researcher attached to the Social Scientists’ Association, Sri Lanka. He can be contacted via email – andi@ssalanka.org  

Privatisation is bad, peoplisation is good

Wednesday, 5 April 2017

Privatisation is selling a state-owned asset to the highest bidder. Peoplisation of a state-owned entity is creating a new public company and selling its shares to the public and ensuring that no single individual owns more than point one percent of the company.

Privatisation is bad, peoplisation is good.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

H’tota port agreement for 50 year period?

Apr 06, 2017

The government is to handover Hambantota port to a Chinese company for a 99 year period. However, the president hopes to get that period reduced to 50 years, said port and shipping minister Arjuna Ranatunga in Kandy yesterday (05).

The minister called on the Malwatte and Asagiriya Mahanayake Theras and thereafter spoke to the media. The president has appointed a committee to inquire into the port handover and once its report is received, cabinet approval will be obtained for the agreement. Therefore, the president and the prime minister have agreed, to enter into the agreement with China. The secretaries have signed a basic agreement, but that is not enforceable, he added.

After Hambantota Port Project... Govt. bound to face differences in Trinco Oil tank farm project 

• Ravi K’s 100-metre liquor bar periphery rejected   
• Trinco, Hambantota projects face growing public outcry  
• PM tells party stalwarts: Minimise foreign trips; focus on LG polls  
• Challenging May Day for JO

2017-04-06

The government is still struggling to get clearance from all the stakeholders to proceed with the Hambantota Port project with a Chinese company. It is hampered due to differences within the government itself and legal issues arising from the original text of the agreement.   

It will mar the process of signing the agreement any time soon. Be that as it may, the government is bound to be hit by yet another wrangle involving the proposal to lease out the Trincomalee Oil Tank Farm to India for development under a joint venture between the Sri Lankan authorities and Lanka Indian Oil Company (LIOC).   

Already, a delegation of China Merchants Ports Holding Company, selected for the Hambantota project, is in town to negotiate areas with hurdles. The Cabinet subcommittee appointed to look into this matter is working out its report to be handed over to President Maithripala Sirisena.   
Amidst efforts underway to sort the matter out with the Chinese side, the Cabinet of Ministers on Tuesday took up for discussion the proposed move to develop the remaining oil tanks in Trincomalee in partnership with India.   

Earlier, a Cabinet memorandum had been presented seeking approval for the establishment of a Joint Venture in this regard with LIOC. The matter came up again on Tuesday for consideration. The original proposal, made in consequent to Indian PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka, is opposed by Petroleum and Petroleum Gas Minister Chandima Weerakkody.   

Minister Weerakkody raised objection to this agreement to lease out all the tanks to LIOC to develop under a Joint Venture. Instead, he insisted that 15 tanks should remain with the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC). The Minister represents the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) in the unity government, whereas the original lease proposal was mooted by the United National Party (UNP) led by Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe.   

The two parties fall apart in their policies on the deal to develop the Hambantota port with the Chinese company as the majority shareholder. Similar differences are bound to widen with regards to the project in Trincomalee involving India. President Sirisena decided to subject the port agreement for a review after growing public controversy on the decision to hand over 80% of equity to the state-owned China Merchants Ports Holding Company. The original deal is now renegotiated.   

It is now widely anticipated that a similar review would be undertaken over the Trincomalee project involving India. According to reports, the Prime Minister is slated to visit India later this month to discuss this project amongst others.   

Actually, the original agreement was signed on February 7, 2003 between the then UNP government and LIOC. The agreement was to hand over the Oil Tank Farm to LIOC for operation for a period of 35 years. Alongside, a separate lease agreement was to be signed giving effect to this. So far, no such agreement has been signed. The previous government was not keen on it, and, as a result of that, the project was delayed indefinitely. However, LIOC is utilizing 14 tanks up to now since 2003.   
Yet, there are 84 tanks remaining in the Upper Tank Farm. The current proposal is to develop all of them under the proposed Joint Venture with LIOC. The CPC maintains that the ownership 15 tanks should be vested with it, and the rest could be considered for development jointly.   

JO again fails to challenge a controversial Bill in Court 
The Joint Opposition placed a vigorous fight against the enactment of the Office of Missing Persons Act in Parliament. It even demonstrated in the Well of the House. However, it stood the chance of challenging it in the Supreme Court before it made its way to Parliament. Yet, it failed to resort to this effective means of thwarting the enactment in its original form. It missed the chance in this respect.   
Likewise, it laments once again that it missed yet another opportunity to challenge the Bill to give legal effect to ‘International Convention for the Protection of All People from Enforced Disappearances’. Sri Lanka is a signatory to the International Convention. Legal advisors of the JO view this as a dangerous piece of legislation due to the inclusion of certain provisions. It could have been challenged in court. But, it is now impossible because the time stipulated for such action in terms of the Constitution has lapsed.   

“In terms of this Bill, not only a foreign government but also an institution on behalf of a foreign government can appeal for the extradition of a Sri Lankan political leader or military leader on the ground of command responsibility. “This is not for something they have done, but also for something which had happened within their scope of responsibility. Sri Lanka has to abide by all the provisions enforced by the International Convention. The Prime Minister keeps saying Sri Lanka is not a signatory to the Rome Treaty and that a Sri Lankan could not be tried before the International Criminal Court. What would happen if the country that was seeking extradition had signed the Rome Treaty? Then, there is the damage of military or political leader extradited ending as a defendant before the ICC,” Prof. G. L. Peiris argued.   

He said , “There is a provision to set up a special High Court in Colombo to try offences of this category. No bail can be granted. The Police will be given the authority to investigate in the absence of investigations. The NGOs are given an extensive role to be more active in the area and to give assistance to complainants.”   

Dinesh takes on Sumanthiran
The Steering Committee meeting turned tense somewhat on Tuesday after the JO parliamentary group leader Dinesh Gunwardene took Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP M.A. Sumanthiran to task over remarks made by him to the Daily Mirror that broad agreements had been reached in connection with the proposals on power devolution.   

MP Sumanthiran said such agreement was reached at the party leaders’ meeting. However, MP Gunawardene queried how could MP Sumanthiran utter such falsehoods without consulting others in the Steering Committee. The two were involved in a heated argument, and finally the PM too had to intervene.   

The TNA advocates far-reaching Constitutional Reforms, whereas even the SLFP has categorically stated that it will not move for reforms that warrant approval of people through a referendum.   

Ravi K’s proposal rejected
Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake presented a Cabinet paper on Tuesday seeking to reduce the periphery earmarked for the sale of liquor from the places of religious worship. Currently, it is 500 metres. The periphery was sought to be reduced to 100 metres. However, it was met with resistance by others in the Cabinet. So, it did not get the go-ahead.   

Challenging May Day for JO
The Joint Opposition leaders had a meeting with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the chair on Tuesday evening to discuss the preparations for the May Day Rally at the Galle Face Green. It sought permission well in advance to conduct the rally there. The Sri Lanka Ports Authority readily agreed to it.   

Now,  looks a challenging task for the JO because it is a vast area that needs to be filled with people. Politically savvy people will judge the success of such an event by the number of participants. A head count is practically impossible. So, they assess the number from how crowded the ground would be. It is a gigantic task for the JO to attract as many people as possible.   

Let its leaders look at it positively. When a rally is conducted at such a location in the heart of Colombo, it becomes the central point of political attraction. SLFP has chosen to conduct its rally in Kandy and the UNP in Colombo. The JO is working hard to make this a success.   
Meanwhile, the UNP Working Committee that met yesterday also discussed arrangements for its May Day rally. Already, the UNP MPs had visited ten districts to meet with the party organizations in view of May Day. It is intending to bring 100,000 strong crowd. The remaining districts would be covered during the weekend by the MPs.   

UNP getting ready for elections 
Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe, in the capacity of the party leader, instructed the Working Committee members to minimize foreign travel during the time ahead, especially with two elections to be held before the end of the year. The UNP discussed about the pending election to the local authorities and three Provincial Councils. It held the view that the elections should be conducted whenever they are due no matter what comes first. It would start the organization of the party after the New Year period.

Sirisena And Rajapaksa Import Brand New Jeeps Using MP Duty Free Permits

April 6, 2017

Both President Maithripala Sirisena and former President and Kurunegala district MP Mahinda Rajapaksa have imported brand new jeeps using MP Duty Free Permits.

President Sirisena has imported a brand new Toyota Land Cruiser on 14th October 2016 for USD 62.500. According to the custom’s declaration form the total tax waived off for Sirisena’s vehicle is Rs 33,457,500.00.

Former President Rajapaksa has imported a brand new Toyota Diesel Station Wagon on 19th September 2016 for AUD 82,203.70. The total tax waived off for Mahinda Rajapaksa’s vehicle is Rs 33,457,500.00.

Maithripala Sirisena’s MP Duty Free Permit:

Mahinda Rajapaksa’s custom’s declaration form:

Meanwhile, Rights Activist Nagananda Kodituwakku has said that the country has been defrauded at least 7 billion rupees in tax revenue due to the abuse of the tax-free car permits given to the MPs.

In a letter to President Maithripala Sirisena, Kodituwakku has also once again challenged the credibility and integrity of the former Director General of the CIABOC, Dilruksh Wickramasinghe and has once again accused her of abusing office of the Director General of CIABOC to confer benefits and favours to MPs.

The activist said that from the citizens viewpoint, this is a very important case about the betrayal of their sovereign rights by all three organs of the government that exercise people’s sovereign rights purely on the trust placed in them (Article 4 of the Constitution), misuse or overstep of which tantamount to the breakdown of the rule of law and blatant disregard of the norm of representative democracy.

The activist also draws the attention of the President Sirisena to observe that the absence of accountability process in the exercise of people’s sovereign rights by the organs of the government has already come under scrutiny by the United Nations Human Rights Council, compelling the Government of Sri Lanka to concede that the people have no trust and confidence in the administration of justice system, persuading it to co-sponsor the Resolution (A/HRC/RES/30/1) passed on 01st Oct 2015 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Providing the information inside out about this scam involving the MPs and Cabinet of Ministers, (including an up to date schedule of vehicles imported tax-free) the activist urges the President Sirisena to discharge the office as per his Constitutional Oath and in terms of Article 33 (1)(c) of the Constitution, ensuring proper functioning of the CIABOC, by appointing an independent person with high degree of integrity to the office of the Director General of the CIABOC with clear mandate given to initiate Criminal proceedings in terms of Section 70 of the Bribery Act against all individuals holding office as MPs and the Cabinet of Ministers, including the former Director General of CIABOC Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe for abusing the office held for public good but misused the office to confer benefits or favours for themselves or others causing tremendous revenue loss to the government.

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IGP wreaks havoc not enough his koloma (clowning) on Police sports meet day !

-How can discipline be maintained when IGP misbehaves? High rung officers ask

(Lanka-e-News- 05.April.2017, 3.40PM)  The Police  held its  80 th annual Information division athletics meet for three full days at the police playground . However to the utter dismay of all   ,  IGP Poojitha Jayasundara  under the influence of liquor  made an exhibition of himself by behaving most offensively hugging and embracing the police constables (male and female) while joking around like a clown   during the  musical  show that followed in the night on the 2nd.   In fact his behavior or rather misbehavior had been frowned upon and bitterly condemned by the high rung police officers.

The police officers who conduct themselves responsibly have charged, due to this misbehavior of the IGP wildly dancing and clowning under the influence of liquor despite being  the highest in the hierarchy of the police force , is turning the police department into a mental asylum and  the discipline of the police  force is fast crumbling to dust.

Much worse ! Poojitha behaved like a lunatic and clown not only on the musical night , but even on the previous days . Wearing a sports  event  Tee shirt he  was seen   squeezing the bums of youthful officers  ( male and female ), and conducting himself most obnoxiously and disgracefully. Witnesses say they have seen this type of squeezing and groping  being  done  only in buses  ,by uncouth frustrated  rowdies and pickpockets.

During the women’s marathon event , at the end of the marathon   when the young women officers were tending  to fall , the IGP has hugged and squeezed them  shamelessly   most unbecoming of an IGP.
 
An officer who respects decorum and  dignity said , this is the first time an IGP conducted himself so frustratingly , disgracefully and disgustingly. Never did any other IGP voluntarily or otherwise degrade himself like this  in the past  during which period 79 such annual events were held . 

Even during the fireworks display  on the final day , grave issues have cropped up. Though the playground was in the vicinity of the President’s residence , the PSD providing security to the president was not informed of the firework display .

Therefore the sudden fireworks display has alarmed the PSD , and they have beefed up the president’s security detail. Unbelievably , all this tension to presidential  security has been created by the Police sports meet in which the IGP of all people  participated .  Since never before at a Police athletic meet there has been a fireworks display , a complaint has been made to the president. As the Police force hasn’t funds to waste on such fireworks displays , it is being probed whether that display was sponsored by a heroin magnate associated with Poojitha. 

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by     (2017-04-05 10:19:34)

“Are you mad, Malli. SAITM is a chance to overthrow the govt” - Namal

 Apr 06, 2017

A group of medical students of SAITM met MP Namal Rajapaksa recently. That is because the MP, as chairman of Tharunyata Hetak, is sensitive to issues of youths.aThe students hoped to inform the MP about problems with regard to their education and find a solution.

They explained to him about the history of SAITM and the problems they have to face, and they asked him to mediate. But, the MP gave them an unexpected reply, “Are you mad, Malli. We are going to use SAITM to overthrow the government,” which left them perplexed.

One the students asked him, “Then Mr. MP, What do you have to say about the Rs. 50 million given by Mr. Neville Fernando for your election work? Wasn’t your father who handed over scholarships to SAITM students? Have you forgotten them?”

Disturbed by the question, he said, “Those are not valid any more. Times change. This is the only chance to overthrow the government. Therefore, we cannot let go of our opposition to SAITM.”

Constable arrested after snatching gold chain at Viharamahadevi Park

By Yusuf Ariff-April 6, 2017

A Police Constable has been arrested for snatching a gold chain from the neck of a woman at the Viharamahadevi Park in Colombo.

An individual who snatched the gold chain worth around Rs 85,000 was captured by the woman’s husband and security personnel at the park while he was handed over to the Cinnamon Gardens Police.

It was then revealed that the suspect is a Police Constable attached to the Cinnamon Gardens Police Station.

He is to be produced at court while Cinnamon Gardens Police is conducting further investigations. 

Spy or die

Amal Shubeir’s son Ahmad, who was born with a heart defect, was denied a permit to travel for medical treatment after his family refused to collaborate with Israeli intelligence. He died in January. (Image courtesy of the Shubeir family)

Nirmeen Abu Yousif was buried in Turkey after her death in February 2016. (Photo courtesy of Luay Qufaisha)

Hamza Abu Eltarabesh-5 April 2017

When you walk through the front door, the first thing you see is a large photograph of a smiling teenager. It’s homely and warm, the kind of thing you would see in a happy house.

But this is not a happy house.

The house belongs to the lawyer Hasan Shubeir, 54, and the photograph is of his son Ahmad, who died of heart failure in January at the age of 17. But that, his father says, only tells a fraction of the story. Ahmad may have had a heart condition, but he was really the victim of Israeli blackmail.

Stories like that of Ahmad Shubeir are not unusual in Gaza. Shut off from the rest of the world and with a health infrastructure in tatters, Palestinians in Gaza with specialized or acute medical needs have to rely on outside health care.

That mostly means traveling to Israel or the West Bank and requires permission from the Israeli military, which has operated a highly restrictive permit regime since 2003. Consequently, say human rights activists and families, patients and their relatives are vulnerable to blackmail and pressure to spy for Israel.

This is not a new phenomenon, and the group Physicians for Human Rights-Israel has been keeping tabs on such coercion, especially as it relates to Gaza. According to their latest report, Palestinian medical patients face a trend of “continued interrogation,” exacerbated by a “disconcerting rise” in the number of medical permit applications rejected in 2016.

Old enough to collaborate

It is what happened to Ahmad, his father told The Electronic Intifada.

Ahmad was born with a congenital heart defect that needed regular treatment in Israel. He went there some 40 times during his short life, according to his family.

December 2015, says the family, marked the first attempt by officers of the Israeli Security Agency – Israel’s domestic intelligence agency also known as Shabak or Shin Bet – to pressure the child and his mother, Amal, 40, who was accompanying him to the Erez checkpoint, to spy for Israel. Evidently, the family speculates, he had come of age and was seen as a potential collaborator.

Throughout 2016, even as his condition worsened, the pressure grew. Permits to enter Israel, which the child had always been able to obtain, suddenly stopped being issued. Ahmad and his mother did make one final visit to the Tel Hashomer hospital in Tel Aviv in April 2016 to prepare him for the open-heart surgery scheduled for September. But that was the last time he was allowed across.

Permits to travel for the operation were denied. Instead, the family received a summons for questioning with the Israeli Security Agency at the Erez checkpoint.

Amal has told her story to B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights organization. She and her husband both allege that in November 2016, Ahmad and his father went early in the morning to the Erez checkpoint where they were to endure a 12-hour “interrogation,” in the words of Hasan, intended to turn one or both into spies for Israel.

They both refused. “We care for our country and our people more than you do,” Hasan said he told the intelligence officer.

No permit was issued to Ahmad again, even though appointments were repeatedly made at the Tel Hashomer hospital. Then, on 14 January 2017, Ahmad woke up early and helped his mother do some house work. Tired, he went back to bed.

“He closed his eyes and never opened them again,” his mother said. “He died, just like that.”

Cruel, inhuman, degrading

The permit regime and Israel’s control over movement makes the Erez checkpoint a “trap” for vulnerable patients and their relatives, according to Issam Younis, director of Al Mezan Center for Human Rights.

Al Mezan counted 44 arrests at the Erez checkpoint in 2016, among them four patients, according to Younis, while hundreds were simply denied permission to pass for “security reasons.”

B’Tselem reported in December that the number of would-be patients being summoned for questioning at the Erez checkpoint spiked dramatically last year, with 601 medical permit applicants being asked in for interrogation in 2016, compared to 146 in 2015 and 179 in 2014.

Meanwhile, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel has denounced a “disconcerting rise” in the number of permit applicants being turned down, calculating that the rate at which permits are issued dropped by about 13 percent compared to 2015.

Al Mezan found a steeper nearly 17 percent decrease in the rate of permits issued and calls the treatment of patients at Erez “cruel, inhuman and degrading.”

The human rights group has called for an independent investigation into Ahmad’s death and other similar cases.

Two such cases are those of Nirmeen Abu Yousif and Zein al-Deen Samour.

In 2014, Abu Yousif, a mother of two, passed out. Then she did so again. When these losses of consciousness kept recurring, she went to the hospital. Doctors diagnosed her with an advanced liver ailment caused by hepatitis C and determined that she needed an emergency transplant. After much delay at Erez, she was initially referred to An-Najah National University Hospital in Nablus, where doctors were unable to help her.

After some procrastination – her husband is a member of Hamas – the office of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah eventually helped facilitate her transfer to Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem. But there she languished while her sister Samira, the putative organ donor, was unable to secure a permit to get to Jerusalem.

It was then, said her husband Luay Qufaisha, 35, he started receiving phone calls from an Israeli intelligence office.

Qufaisha had been part of a prisoner release deal in 2011 that saw him forcibly transferred to Gaza. His 10 years in jail – he was convicted of the killing of an alleged Israeli spy in his native Hebron in the West Bank – had left him accustomed to dealing with interrogators, but he was still shocked that he was being blackmailed over his wife’s health.

“He was bargaining with me over the life of my wife to be a spy,” Qufaisha told The Electronic Intifada, while flicking through an album of photos of his late wife.

The bargaining failed. And even though Abu Yousif’s father, through Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah’s office in Ramallah, secured passage for Nirmeen for treatment in Turkey, it was too late. She passed away after arriving in Turkey in February 2016.

Samira now helps care for the couple’s two children, Nafez, 4, and Eileen, 2.

“I miss her. And my heart breaks every time the children ask about her and when she is coming back.”

Long road to justice

Zein al-Deen Samour was born with a congenital heart condition that caused doctors in Gaza to immediately refer him for treatment in Israel. In January 2013, Hidaya al-Tattar, 28, Zein al-Deen’s mother, took the infant to Tel Hashomer hospital in Tel Aviv where he received what was supposed to be the first in a series of procedures on his heart.

She was sent home with instructions to bring the child back in two years. Eight months after that visit, Hidaya told The Electronic Intifada, she received a phone call from a woman who said she worked at the Erez checkpoint.

Hidaya was immediately suspicious. The woman knew about Zein al-Deen’s heart condition and offered assistance. On condition: “Help us and we will help you,” is how Hidaya remembered the pitch.

Hidaya did not accept. But when she next tried to secure a permit for Zein al-Deen it was denied. Her sole option was to seek treatment elsewhere, but the only other exit from Gaza is through the Rafah crossing to Egypt, only intermittently open.

By the time Hidaya and Zein al-Deen managed to cross, time had run out. The boy died in February 2016, in Turkey, during a procedure that came too late.

“They asked me to sell my homeland and people for my baby’s life,” Hidaya said.

Her husband, Sharif, 35, said “I hold Israel accountable. I want those responsible to be tried in an international court. These are crimes against humanity.”

Whether the family will ever see any such investigation is highly unlikely, however. Israel regularly cites security risks as justification for preventing patients from receiving treatment, security risks that Israeli law does not compel the military to explain.

But for Palestinians, the pressure and extortion brought to bear on the vulnerable is a clear violation of human rights standards, said Ramy Abdu of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.

“Israel has exploited the suffocating siege and the needs of Palestinians in Gaza to leave for their business, study or medical treatment,” he told The Electronic Intifada.

And it is an accusation that Physicians for Human Rights-Israel echoes. In its last report on Israel’s control of movement over Gaza, the organization criticizes the “problematic behavior” at places like the Erez checkpoint, behavior that stems from Israeli government policy.

“These policies involve the continual trampling of the basic rights of Palestinian inhabitants living under Israeli control, especially their right to health, life and dignity.”

Hamza Abu Eltarabesh is a journalist from Gaza.