Philippines: Helicopters deployed in battle to retake Marawi from Islamist rebels
Government troops are seen during an assault on insurgents from the so-called Maute group, who have taken over large parts of Marawi City, in Marawi City, southern Philippines May 25, 2017. Source: Reuters/Romeo Ranoco--Government troops walk past a mosque before their assault with insurgents from the so-called Maute group, who have taken over large parts of Marawi City, southern Philippines May 25, 2017. Source: Reuters/Romeo Ranoco


Residents run to evacuate during government troops assault with insurgents from the so-called Maute militants, who have taken over large parts of the Marawi city, southern Philippines May 25, 2017. Source: Reuters/Romeo Ranoco 



25th May 2017

TROOPS backed by attack helicopters battled dozens of militants linked to the Islamic State group holed up in a besieged city in the southern Philippines on Thursday after attempts to secure volatile areas met heavy resistance.

The army sent about 100 soldiers, including US-trained special forces, to retake buildings and streets in mainly Muslim Marawi City held by militants of the Maute group, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State.

Thousands fled as rebels seized large parts of the city and torched buildings in running battles with government forces that erupted on Tuesday afternoon after a failed raid by security forces on one of the group’s hideouts.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte imposed martial law on impoverished Mindanao, the country’s second-largest island, to prevent the spread of extremism after the Maute rebels rampaged through the city of 200,000 people.

SEE ALSO: Philippines: Nationwide martial law possible as fighting continues in Marawi

 At least 21 people have been killed since then. Religious leaders have also accused the rebels of using Christians, taken hostage during the fighting, as human shields.

“We’re confronting maybe 30 to 40 remaining from the local terrorist group,” said Jo-Ar Herrera, a spokesman for the military’s First Infantry Regiment.

“The military is conducting precise, surgical operations to flush them out … The situation is very fluid and movements are dynamic because we wanted to out-step and out-manoeuvre them,” he said.

Islamic State claimed responsibility late on Wednesday for Maute’s activities via its Amaq news agency.

Hostilities had eased overnight but flared again later on Thursday morning when troops advanced towards a strategic bridge held by Maute fighters.

Air support

The military sent in two helicopters with machine guns to flush out rebels and take control of the bridge, one of three operations in the city.

Trucks were being sent to evacuate any remaining civilians. A total of seven government troops, 13 militants and one civilian had been killed since Tuesday, Herrera said.

A Reuters witness could see soldiers crouched behind armoured vehicles and walls around lunchtime on Thursday, firing volleys of gunshots towards elevated positions occupied by Maute rebels. Smoke could also be seen on the horizon.

Marawi is located in Lanao del Sur province, a stronghold of the Maute, a fierce, but little-known group that has been a tricky opponent for the military.

Its activities are a source of concern for Mindanao native Duterte, who is familiar with separatist unrest but alarmed by the prospect of Islamic State’s radical ideology spreading in the Philippines.

Hundreds of civilians, including children, were sheltering in a military camp in Marawi City on Thursday. The Maute had taken more than a dozen Christians hostage and set free 107 prisoners from two jails since Tuesday.

Bishops and cardinals had pleaded with the Maute rebels, who they said were using Christians and a priest as human shields. The status of the captives was unknown.

SEE ALSO: Marawi siege: Maute militants reportedly holding priest, civilians hostage

Duterte threatened harsh measures to prevent extremists taking a hold in Mindanao and said martial law would remain in place for as long as it took to restore order. It was not clear what exactly Duterte planned to do to achieve that once the Marawi siege ends.

Human rights groups are concerned about possible abuses by the military and police in places under martial rule, but Duterte has insisted he will not allow that to happen.

The military has not explained how Tuesday’s raid on an apartment hideout went so badly wrong and spiralled into urban warfare.

The operation was aimed at capturing Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of the Abu Sayyaf group notorious for piracy, banditry and for kidnapping and decapitating Westerners.

“Based on our intelligence, Isnilon Hapilon is still in the city,” Herrera said. – Reuters

Brazil police accused of shooting at anti-government protesters

Officials investigate after media images appear to show officers firing weapons at demonstration calling for resignation of president Michel Temer

 A protester stands in front of a line of riot police in Brasilia on Wednesday. Photograph: Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images

Staff and agencies in Brasilia-Thursday 25 May 2017

Brazilian authorities are investigating reports that police officers opened fire with live ammunition during clashes with protesters demanding the resignation of the president, Michel Temer, over corruption allegations.

Troops were deployed in the country’s capital late on Wednesday following a day of protests in which fires broke out in two ministries and several were evacuated. Protesters also set fires in the streets and vandalized government buildings. 

Images in national media appeared to show police officers firing weapons, and the secretariat of public security said it was investigating. In all, 49 people were injured, one by a bullet.

On Thursday, Temer canceled the troop deployment after criticism that the move was excessive and merely an effort to hold onto power amid increasing calls for his resignation.

In a decree published in the official diary, Temer revoked the order issued a day earlier, “considering the halt to acts of destruction and violence and the subsequent re-establishment of law and order”. On Thursday afternoon, however, soldiers were still stationed in Brasilia.

Temer’s popularity has been in a freefall since he took office a little more than a year ago after he helped engineer the impeachment of his predecessor, Dilma Roussef. Some Brazilians consider him illegitimate because of the way he came to power, and his efforts to pass a series of economic reforms to cap the budget, loosen labor laws and reduce pension benefits have made him even more unpopular. 

In addition, several of his advisers have been linked to Brazil’s massive corruption investigation, known as Operation Car Wash.

As part of the Car Wash probe, Temer is facing allegations that he endorsed the paying of hush money to a former lawmaker who has been jailed for corruption. Brazil’s highest court is investigating him for alleged obstruction of justice and involvement in passive corruption after a recording seemed to capture his approval of the bribe. Temer denies wrongdoing.

Many Brazilians want him out one way or another: they are calling for him to resign or be impeached. The calls for resignation have heated up since the release of the recording and came to a head in Wednesday’s protest, when 45,000 demonstrators took to the streets.

In Congress, meanwhile, opposition lawmakers have submitted several requests for his impeachment. Later Thursday, the respected Brazilian bar association plans to submit another such request – a move that carries symbolic weight since the association is not partisan.

The use of troops in the nation’s capital is particularly fraught in Brazil, where many still remember the repression of the country’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship. Images of soldiers patrolling the streets increase the impression that Temer is struggling to maintain control and further ratcheted up pressure on him.

Temer defended the decision as necessary to restore order and within his rights.

“Order was restored, the respect of life and order was restored,” the defense minister, Raul Jungmann, said in a news conference. He also countered accusations that the move was highly unusual, noting that the military had been called to patrol the streets of cities 29 times since 2010.

This report includes material from the Associated Press

Get ready for the ‘impeachment election’

President Trump. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

By David Ignatius Opinion writer May 23


President Richard Nixon was heading for a big reelection victory in November that would confound his critics. He had just returned from a pathbreaking visit to China and had big, transformative ideas for foreign policy. Yet he felt hounded by his enemies and a media elite that opposed him at every turn.

And there was that pesky FBI investigation into a “third-rate burglary” at the Watergate office building, about which the media were asking meddlesome questions. Nixon wrote in his diary after a later, revelatory Post scoop about Watergate that this was “the last burp of the Eastern Establishment,” recalls Evan Thomas in a recent book. Nixon was trying to do the people’s business, but he felt angry, isolated and embattled.

Then Nixon did something very stupid. On June 23, 1972, he instructed his chief of staff to contact the CIA and have its deputy director, Vernon Walters, tell the FBI to back off on its investigation: “They should call the FBI in and say that we wish for the country, don’t go any further into this case, period.” 

The tape recording of this conversation became known as “the smoking gun.”

President Trump, it’s said, doesn’t read presidential biographies. That’s a shame. For he appears to be making the same mistakes that destroyed Nixon’s presidency. That’s the thrust of The Post’s big story Monday night reportingthat Trump asked U.S. intelligence chiefs to challenge the FBI’s investigation of possible links between his campaign and Russia.

“History does not repeat, but it does instruct,” writes Timothy Snyder in his new book, “On Tyranny.” Some people, apparently including Trump, just don’t learn.

The Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus explains why lashing out might not be the best legal move for President Trump. (Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)

The world is probably baffled by Washington’s obsession with the Russia scandal. Trump seems popular abroad, as Nixon was. That’s especially true in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and China where leaders are tired of being lectured by the United States and the public is fascinated by the cartoon-like “big man” character that Trump projects.

Give Trump credit for the unlikely foreign policy success he’s had: His trip to Saudi Arabia embraced a Muslim monarchy that is trying to break with its intolerant past. He persuaded the Saudis and other Persian Gulf states to ban financing of terrorists, even by private citizens. That’s a win for good policy.

 Earlier, he cajoled China into playing a stronger role in dealing with North Korea. Yes, these are “flip-flops” — reversing his earlier, inflammatory anti-Muslim and anti-Beijing rhetoric — but so what? They’re smart moves.

Yet no foreign or domestic success will stop the slow unfolding of the investigation that is now underway. That’s the importance of last week’s appointment of the impeccable Robert S. Mueller III as special counsel to investigate the Russia matter. The process can’t be derailed now. If the president or his associates are guilty of wrongdoing, Mueller will find out. If they’re innocent, he’ll discover that, too. From what we know about the former FBI director, he won’t tolerate leaks about his investigation.

For all Mueller’s probity, this investigation has an inescapable political destination. Mueller must refer any evidence of wrongdoing by Trump himself to the House of Representatives as evidence of possible “high crimes and misdemeanors” that might warrant impeachment. Would this GOP-dominated House begin impeachment proceedings, even on strong evidence of obstruction? Right now, you’d have to guess no.

The real collision point ahead is the 2018 midterm election. This will be the “impeachment election,” and it may be as bitterly contested as any in decades. Trump seems unlikely to take Nixon’s course of resigning before the House votes on impeachment. He’ll fight all the way — a combative president trying to save his mandate from what he has described as a “witch hunt.” This appeal would resonate with a populist base that already feels disenfranchised by jurists and journalists.

As Mueller proceeds with his investigation, the world of Washington needs to be level-headed. The politics of polarization is only beginning. Trump’s war on the media and its sources will get nastier. How do citizens hold Trump accountable without the process seeming like vengeful payback from media and political elites? Graham Allison, director of Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, notes that elite opinion may already regard Trump as “unfit for office,” but he cautions: “When I contrast this with what many fellow citizens believe about elites, yikes.”

Under our Constitution, the House and Senate are prosecutor and jury, respectively, for serious presidential misconduct. But this legal process probably won’t be triggered without a poisonously divisive election. If recent history teaches anything, it’s unfortunately this harsh fact: In the battle for America’s soul, Trump could win.

Puerto Rico's Oscar Lopez Freed After 36 Years in US Prison

Oscar Lopez Rivera walks free after 36 years in prison. | Photo: EFE

17 May 2017

Lopez Rivera was the longest-held political prisoner in the United States from Latin America.

Puerto Rican independence leader Oscar Lopez Rivera was released Wednesday from house arrest in Puerto Rico after former U.S. President Barack Obama commuted his sentence in January, days before Donald Trump was inaugurated.

"I thank the whole world, and I ask for love for the whole world," Lopez Rivera said to media in his first words once he was freed, adding that now that he has returned to the island, he will continue his fight for independence and reach out to Puerto Ricans to hear about their needs.

RELATED:
Who Is Puerto Rico's Oscar Lopez Rivera?

"I like to listen," Lopez Rivera said. "I want to visit each municipality, listen and see what we can do."

Lopez Rivera also spoke out about the massive cuts targeting the island's main public post-secondary education institution, the University of Puerto Rico, which has seen funding slashed as part of a harsh austerity plan to tackle the Puerto Rico's crippling debt, sparking widespread protests.


"The University of Puerto Rico has to exist, it has to continue to get better. To students, they need to fight," Lopez said. "We will never resign and will always push forward. We can. We are a beautiful people and I think we can come together."

In early February, Lopez Rivera was transferred from the Terre Haute penitentiary in Indiana, where the leading activist spent about two-thirds of his more than 30-year prison term, to his daughter's home in Puerto Rico.

His electronic bracelet was removed one day before his official release. Various artists are expected to perform at a party organized to celebrate his freedom on the island.

ANALYSIS:
Oscar Lopez Rivera’s Puerto Rico Independence Fight Lives On

The independence leader will finally meet with his old comrades and plans to travel to Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, among other countries, in order to thank those who supported his release, said his lawyer to the media.

Lopez Rivera was born in Puerto Rico in 1943 and later moved to the United States. After being drafted to serve in the Vietnam War and returning to Chicago, Lopez Rivera joined the struggle for Puerto Rican rights. In 1976, he joined the fight for Puerto Rican independence from U.S. colonial rule as a member of the Armed Forces of National Liberation, also known as FALN.

He was arrested in 1981 and charged with “seditious conspiracy” for his role in a variety of FALN activities.

During his trial, Lopez Rivera and other FALN activists told the court their actions were part of an anti-colonial war against the U.S., declaring themselves prisoners of war and requesting that their cases be handed over to an international court. That request was denied, and Lopez Rivera was eventually sentenced to 55 years in prison — a sentence almost 20 times longer than those handed down for similar offenses.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton offered Lopez Rivera a pardon in 1999, but the independence activist rejected it in an act of solidarity with other Puerto Rican activists who had not been offered clemency and because he refused to publicly renounce the right of colonized peoples to resist through armed struggle.

Taiwan’s High Court Rules in Favor of Same-Sex Marriage

BY RUBY MELLEN-MAY 24, 2017

Taiwan just got a lot closer to becoming the first place in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, after a landmark court ruling declared it unconstitutional to keep people of the same sex from getting married.

Videos on social media showed people in the streets celebrating the news, a culmination of decades of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, and queer (LGBTQ) activism in Taiwan.

“Disallowing two persons of the same sex to marry, for the sake of safeguarding basic ethical orders” has no “rational basis,” the court wrote Wednesday, adding that “sexual orientation is an immutable characteristic that is resistant to change.”

The court, formally known as the Council of Grand Justices, has given Taiwan’s parliament two years to either amend its current law or pass new legislation to legalize same-sex marriage. But many are worried conservative and religious groups in the region might continue to stall such an effort.

While Taiwan is at the forefront of same-sex rights in Asia — it has held an annual gay pride parade since 2003 — some religious conservatives believe Taiwan’s fourteen high court justices should not affect such an extreme shift in the country’s policies.

“The majority of the population does not know what’s happening,” Robin Chen, a spokesman for the Coalition for the Happiness of Our Next Generation — which links support for same-sex marriage to an uptick in HIV infections — told the Guardian. “We need to discuss things on different levels because family is the foundation of society.”

Last year, when a bill to legalize same-sex marriage was presented in parliament, an estimated 20,000 conservatives came to protest in Taipei.

However, since Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party came to power last year, it has done much to bolster LGBTQ rights. President Tsai Ing-wen openly supported it on the campaign trail, though she has since declined to put her full weight behind the issue. Nevertheless, the office of the president reinforced the court’s ruling in a statement, urging government agencies to draft new legislation “as quickly as possible.”

The ruling has also instilled hope in activists abroad.

“The decision by Taiwan’s Constitutional Court is a huge victory in ensuring the right of loving and committed same-sex couples to marry,” said Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin. “Coming at a time when LGBTQ people around the globe are being targeted and harassed just because of who they are, this victory reinvigorates our crucially important work to advance equality.”
If parliament fails to pass a bill in two years, the court says, “two persons of the same sex who intend to create the said permanent union shall be allowed to have their marriage registration effectuated … by submitting a written document signed by two or more witnesses.”

The ruling came in response to two separate petitions: one from Chi Chia-wei, a long-time LGBTQ activist in Taiwan, and another from the capital city of Taipei, which was sued after it refused to grant marriage licenses for same-sex couples.

Photo credit: SAM YEH/AFP/Getty Images

Agony of Mother Earth (I) The Unstoppable Destruction of Forests

This is the first of a two-part series on how humankind has been systematically destroying world’s forests—the real lungs of Mother Earth. Part II will deal with forest depletion for wood-fuel.

The Selm Muir Forest of West Lothian, Scotland. Credit: UN Photo/Robert Clamp

By Baher Kamal-Thursday, May 25, 2017

ROME, May 18 2017 (IPS) - The world’s forests are being degraded and lost at a staggering rate of 3.3 million hectares per year. While their steady destruction in many Asian countries continues apace, deforestation of the world’s largest tropical forest – the Amazon – increased 29 per cent from last year’s numbers. And some of the most precious ecosystems in Africa are threatened by oil, gas and mineral exploration and exploitation.

Agony of Mother Earth (I) The Unstoppable Destruction of Forests.docx by Thavam on Scribd

Modi's generics-only drugs plan worries health experts, Indian pharma sector

A patient holds free medicine provided by the government at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) in Chennai July 12, 2012. REUTERS/Babu/Files

By Zeba Siddiqui | MUMBAI-Thu May 25, 2017

India's plan to bring in a law to ensure doctors prescribe medicines only by their generic names risks proliferating the sale of substandard drugs in a country where regulation is already lax, doctors and pharmaceutical executives say.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said last month that the government was looking at such a law to improve affordability of medicines in the country of 1.2 billion people, where the majority live on less than $2 a day.

The government has not given any details or timeframe for the planned legislation but some in the industry fear that hasty execution could harm, not help, public health.

Large drugmakers in India such as Cipla and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries that mostly sell generic drugs under their own brand name, or 'branded generics', compete with much smaller garage manufacturers, many of which operate with scant quality checks.

It is a fiercely competitive, high-volume market, dominated by the big players like Cipla, who employ armies of salesmen to sell their drugs. Some doctors say they tend to prescribe branded generics to patients because they are confident of their quality.

While the government wants to make cheaper non-branded drugs available to consumers, pharmaceutical executives said any law would have to stipulate that the drugs consumers get from pharmacists meet certain quality standards.

"I think the quality aspect is very important for the government to address ... to make sure that all companies in India are on the same quality footing," said Cipla's CEO Umang Vohra.

There is no national data comparing the quality of branded generics, versus unbranded ones. But small studies have shown that unbranded drugs, typically procured by the government for the public health system, have quality issues.

A report by the country's federal auditor in 2012 showed that 31 percent of drugs procured by the government for the Armed Forces Medical Stores were substandard in 2010-11, up from about 15 percent in 2006-07.

Results of the government's largest-ever national survey to test drug quality showed this year that roughly 10 percent of the drugs in the government supply chain were not of standard quality, versus 3 percent of drugs available at pharmacies, which are usually branded generics.

"Generics are fine, but there has to be a proper rigorous mechanism to enforce quality, like the U.S., and unless India evolves on that it will be disastrous," said Nilesh Gupta, managing director of Lupin, India's No. 3 drugmaker by sales.

IMPRACTICAL

Substandard medicines range from drugs that don't work at all to those that don't work as expected, thereby contributing to antimicrobial resistance - a major global health problem.

"The idea is very good, but the government needs to ensure the availability of good quality generics," said Vijay Panikar, a Mumbai-based diabetologist.

Indian drugmakers' manufacturing standards, including those of big companies such as Sun Pharma, have been found to have fallen short of international standards in recent years. An industry official said last week that it will be at least five years before Indian manufacturing and data reliability meet the standards of the United States, India's biggest drugs export market.

"It's a work in progress ... I think the bigger companies understand the problem and are working to fix it," said Gupta of Lupin.

Health experts warn of a series of problems with the implementation of a generics-only rule. For example, half the Indian market is made up of combination drugs, and it would be impractical to ask doctors to prescribe a series of chemical names, said S. Srinivasan, a doctor and member of the People's Health Movement, a New Delhi-based NGO.

Doctors opposed to the planned new rule warn it would put too much power in the hands of the chemists.

"Today if I write a generic, the chemist will decide which drug to give, and he will obviously give the one in which he has the biggest margin, without caring about quality," Panikar said.

(Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in Mumbai; Editing by Euan Rocha and Susan Fenton)

Ancestry.com denies exploiting users' DNA

By Harry Kretchmer-25 May 2017

A leading genealogy service, Ancestry.com, has denied exploiting users' DNA following criticism of its terms and conditions.

The US company's DNA testing service has included a right to grant Ancestry a "perpetual" licence to use customers' genetic material.

A New York data protection lawyer spotted the clause and published a blogwarning about privacy implications.

Ancestry told BBC Radio 4's You and Yours its terms were being changed.

Headquartered in Utah, Ancestry is among the world's largest for-profit genealogy firms, with a DNA testing service available in more than 30 countries.

'Perpetual'

The company, which uses customers' saliva samples to predict their genetic ethnicity and find new family connections, claims to have more than 4 million DNA profiles in its database.

Ancestry also stores the profiles forever, unless users ask for them to be destroyed.

AncestryDNA told the BBC it would be removing the 'perpetuity clause' from its terms and conditions - still present at the time of writing

The company's terms and conditions have stated that users grant the company a "perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide, sublicensable, transferable license" to their DNA data, for purposes including "personalised products and services".

In a statement to You and Yours, an Ancestry spokesperson said the company "never takes ownership of a customer's data" and would "remove the perpetuity clause".

It added: "We will honour our commitment to delete user data or destroy their DNA sample if they request it. The user is in control."

'Unaware'

Joel Winston, a consumer rights lawyer and former New Jersey State deputy attorney-general, was one of the first to spot the legal wording and to warn of the possible implications.

"Ancestry.com takes ownership of your DNA forever; your ownership of your DNA, on the other hand, is limited in years," he said.

He added: "How many people really read those contracts before clicking to agree? How many relatives of Ancestry.com customers are also reading?"

More than 4 million customers worldwide have used AncestryDNA, which requires users to send a saliva sample for testing

Image captionMr Winston also warns that many consumers are unaware of the additional uses of the data.

In its terms and conditions Ancestry makes reference to "commercial products that may be developed by AncestryDNA using your genetic information".

One customer, Richard Peace, used AncestryDNA to learn more about his family history.

'Not happy'

He told You and Yours he "knew nothing" about the commercial use when he signed up for the test.

"I'm not happy about it and today I will be emailing them to ask them not to use the information," he said.

Ancestry told the BBC: "We do not share user data for research unless the user has voluntarily opted-in to that sharing."

The company added: "We always de-identify data before it's shared with researchers, meaning the data is stripped of any information that could tie it back to its owner."

The ambitious scale of Ancestry's plans does have support among some academics.

Debbie Kennett, a genetics researcher at University College London, welcomed the aim of building a large, global DNA database.

"For genealogy purposes we really want, and rely on, the power of these large data sets," she told You and Yours. "A DNA test on its own doesn't tell you anything at all."

You and Yours is on BBC Radio 4 weekdays 12:15-13:00 GMT. Listen online or download the programme podcast.

Pace of reforms have slowed considerably: EU

OMP to ‘sate’ all grievances, but what’s next?

2017-05-25

The European Union (EU) noted that the pace of reforms in Sri Lanka had slowed significantly with straightforward deliverables such as the operationalisation of the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) yet to materialise.

Ambassador of the EU to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Tung-Laï Margue said that more needed to be done quickly to hasten reconciliation efforts.

He expressed these views when he met National Integration and Reconciliation State Minister A.H.M. Fowzie at his ministry last week.

Issuing a statement, the EU delegation yesterday said Ambassador Margue and Minister Fowzie had discussed the Government's priorities with regards to reconciliation as well as the EU's wide-ranging support to the Government's reforms.

During the discussion on resettlement, Minister Fowzie had noted the progress in land returns and underscored the complex realities of resettlement and land restitution in the former conflict zones.

Minister Fowzie had assured greater cooperation between his ministry and the EU and expressed the country's appreciation to it for funding already pledged towards strengthening the reconciliation process in Sri Lanka.

The EU is providing EUR 12 million to strengthen the reconciliation process by seeking institutional consensus across various government entities and civil society, in addition to contributing to strengthening the linkages between the government and the people at the grass-roots. 

The programme will also facilitate initiatives that link reconciliation and non-recurrence by addressing language barriers and psycho-social needs as well as using arts and culture to break down barriers between communities. 

The statement said the EU will provide a further EUR 8.1 million to support long-term peace-building efforts.

A new constitution need of the hour – NMNC

May 24, 2017

The National Movement for New Constitution (NMNC) demanded the  Government to bring new constitution soon, preferably before the budget this year.

Addressing the press breifing held recently in Colombo, Dr. Nimalka Fernando said that it is absolutely important to bring new constitution

    “We are urging Prime Minister and President,” emphasized Dr. FErnando. She added that this time is a golden opportunity to build a new country and therefore the Government should bring the new constitution.

She pointed out that the concept of new constitution is not new to Sri Lanka. “Since 1994 people urged the government to bring a new constitution. There were many suggestions for a new constitution such as that of the Managala Munasinghe report. It is a pledge made by the Yahapalana government to bring the new constitution,” she pointed out.

Prof. Sarath Wijesooriya, Gamini Viyangoda, Saman Ratnapriya, Sudarshana Gunawardene and K. W. Janranjana also spoke about the timely importance of bring new constitution.

    (Reported by Lawrence Ferdinando)

Parliament

Crop compensation delayed – Farmers take to the streets

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Govt. to fill approximately 1,000 vacancies in North: Sagala Ratnayake

The Government will take immediate measures to fill approximately 1,000 vacancies in the North to address the unemployment issue in the area, Law and Order Minister Sagala Ratnayake informed Parliament yesterday.

The minister was replying to an Adjournment Motion moved by Opposition Leader R Sampanthan on the unemployment of youth in the North and East.

The minister told Parliament that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe visited Jaffna over the weekend and had lengthy discussions on the matter of unemployment of youth.

“The Northern Chief Minister, several Jaffna district MPs and NPC ministers also attended the meeting. The protracted war had stopped employment creation in the area. The PM wanted me to communicate to the House that as the first measure to address this problem, approximately 1,000 vacancies in the North will be filled.

“These will be as Development Officers and Teachers. Mostly Arts Graduates will be recruited and they will be given some training. Similar measures will be taken to address the unemployment issue in the East,” he said.

The Opposition Leader demanded the immediate intervention of the Government to solve the unemployment issue in the North and East, also pointing out that almost eight years have lapsed since the end of war.

SLMC wants PSC appointed to look into archaeological destruction

Sri Lanka Muslim Congress Leader Minister Rauff Hakeem yesterday in Parliament, requested for the appointment of a Parliament Select Committee (PSC) to look into allegations of destruction of archaeological sites and forests.

The minister made this request when Environment and Mahaweli Development Deputy Minister Anuradha Jayaratne and Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam brought the attention of the House that the destruction of archaeological sites was a matter of concern in the North and East.

Deputy Minister Jayaratne told Parliament that a total of 94 archaeological sites in Ampara, Trincomalee and Batticaloa had been destroyed during the period from 2013 to 2017.

He said out of them, 47 sites were in Ampara, 30 in Trincomalee and 17 in Batticaloa.

He said it had been identified following a census that Ampara had 430 archaeological sites that needed to be protected. Commenting on the issues surrounding the Wilpattu forest, the Deputy Minister said the President has appointed an independent committee on May 17 to look into complaints by the people after declaring forest lands North of Wilpattu as a reserve. He said the report of this Committee was due within a month, adding that it would help to resolve the remaining problems in Wilpattu.

The issue came up as Chief Opposition Whip and JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake pointed out that the Government should have made direct and immediate intervention when the issues of the Wilpattu forest clearing and destruction of archaeological sites in the East cropped up. “Had the Government dealt with these issues immediately and more effectively, the intervention of other organizations or groups would have been unwarranted,” he said.

Education Minister Kariyawasam pointed out the conduct of the Archaeological Department over the past years was highly questionable, adding that its inefficiency and apathy contributed to the sad state of affairs of the country’s archaeological heritage. “Now we are restructuring this Department. Many vacancies in it had not been filled in the past, but we have now taken measures to fill them,” he said.

Minister Hakeem intervening at this point, requested a PSC to look into the matters pertaining to archaeology and wildlife, adding that they have concerns over the Government’s recent decisions with regard to those matters.

“Some are using these very issues to trigger communal tensions. Let us have a broad discussion and solve them once and for all,” he said. Speaker Karu Jayasuriya said the proposal to appoint a PSC would be taken up at the next Party Leaders’ Meeting.

If former govt sorted out delimitation issue, no delay in holding LG elections: Minister Mustapha

The proper way of holding Local Government Elections without any unnecessary delay would not have been a problem if the previous government had sorted out the delimitation issue, said Provincial Councils and Local Government Minister Faizer Mustapha in Parliament yesterday.The Minister further said that instead of solving the issue, the then Minister Hisbullah was dancing to the tune of the then Minister Basil Rajapaksa, creating delimitation in a Cool Room. He added that the previous government had created this mess, leaving us to sort out the mess they had created. That was one of the reason for the delay in holding the Local Government elections,” Minister Mustapha said.

The Minister made these observations in response to a question raised by Joint Opposition MP Dullas Alahapperuma.

The Minister also said that he always acted in a just manner. He added that the delimitation was a practical issue which had been made worse by Hisbullah during the previous regime. He added that had MP Dullas Alahapperuma been the minister responsible for preparing the delimitation during the previous government, it was sure that he (Minister Musthapa) would not have this problem today.

He also said that the government had cleared up the mess, while there were some political issues to be sorted out. He added that sorting out the technical problems had been completed.

He added that there were some political issues to be sorted out which were out of his purview.

“The minority and minor parties need to discuss matters with the Prime Minister and other party leaders to sort out political issues,” the Minister said.

Police should take responsibility in controlling such incidents: Minister Ratnayake

There had been several incidents that had caused communal disharmony in the recent past and there were flaws in implementing law and order against them from the Police, said Law and Order and Southern Development Minister Sagala Ratnayake in Parliament yesterday.

He said the Police should take responsibility of controlling those incidents. He added that the Police should implement the law impartially, irrespective of religious and communal differences.

He made these observations in response to special statement made by EPDP Parliamentarian Douglas Devananda and Chief Opposition Whip and JVP Parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayake under Standing Order 23(2) on several incidents that could have affected communal harmony.

However, the Minister said the Police had informed him that investigations to the recent incidents of violence were in progress and they needed more time to provide him with complete findings of the recent incidents. “The Police needed several days more,” Minister Ratnayake said. “Once investigations are over, the House would be informed.”

Minister Ratnayake further said that there had been several incidents of law and order being taking place and the Police could have acted fast. At this stage, JVP Leader Dissanayake said that not only the Police, but the government too could have done so.

“Yes, the government too,” Minister Ratnayake said. “We regret such incidents and we have paid them our fullest attention. We have emphasized to the Police that the law should be implemented and those responsible for the crimes should be dealt with. We would try to prevent the incidents of hate speech. We also accept that peace and maintenance of law and order is of paramount importance.” Minister Ratnayake further said the bomb explosion at Manchester brought back memories of the dark era of our past to our minds. “I as Minister of Law and Order, assure you that the government would to its best,” the Minister said.

The minister also said that such isolated incidents have been accounted as acts against communal disharmony. “One such incident was the Kahawatta incident. No body had attacked a shop owned by a Muslim person. One boutique had caught fire and the walls of the adjoining shop of the Muslim person had been gutted by the fire,” the Minister said. “The fire at the Muslim shop in Elpitiya was also another similar incident. CCTV footages proved a thief had robbed the shop and fled after setting fire to the shop. However, it was found that the suspect had been convicted for another theft in Kadugannawa two years ago.”

Govt. slack in arresting culprits propagating racial harmony in country: JVP Leader

The Government has done nothing to arrest the culprits concerning several incidents that had taken place during the past several days that had caused racial and communal disharmony in the country, accused JVP Parliamentarian and Chief Opposition Whip Anura Kumara Dissanayake in Parliament yesterday.

He made this observation moving a special statement under Standing Order 23 (2).

MP Dissanayake said the majority of Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities abhor such violence. He added that none of them wanted to see the country being pushed towards communal disharmony. He also added that only a small group of people in our communities attempt to resume violent activities. They seem to have various intentions and motivations, including the creating of a Sinhala and Muslim clash. It is the duty of the government to act fast and prevent the country from being pushed towards disharmony by such groups.

“The government should have acted fast in preventing a situation that could push the country towards another bloodbath,” MP Dissanayake said. “There are serious doubts in the minds of the public that the government in the face of social and economic problems, was trying to make use of these violent incidents to divert the minds of the public.”

EPDP leader Douglas Devananda too making a special statement on the incidents of communal disharmony, reported in the recent past and urged the government to take immediate action to prevent the furtherance of similar incidents.

Act to suppress media: A wrong and incorrect statement: Dy. Minister Paranavithana

Parliamentary Reforms and Mass Media Deputy Minister Karunaratne Paranavithana refuted the statement that there was an attempt to move an Act to suppress Mass Media.

The Deputy Minister expressed his views in Parliament yesterday in response to a statement made by Joint Opposition Member Sisira Jayakody, who said that there was a rumour that the government was getting ready to pass an act to suppress the media.

“It is a wrong and incorrect statement,” said Deputy Minister Paranavithana. “There was a proposal pointing out the need of setting up an Independent Commission to regulate the media. It also was a proposal made by the media themselves.”

Deputy Minister Paranavithana said that acting on the proposal, a media advertisement was published to get the views of the public to set up an independent media mechanism.

Angunakolapelessa Prison to be opened next month: Justice Minister

The Angunakolapelessa new prison will be opened next month, Justice Minister Dr Wijayedasa Rajapakshe said in Parliament yesterday.

The construction of the prison complex commenced in 2014. The opening of this prison complex built with modern facilities by spending a large sum of money was postponed at a previous occasion as the President declined the official invitation to attend the ceremony.

The minister also said plans were afoot to shift the Welikada Prison to Horana. He said these moves would help to ease the overcrowding in prisons. He pointed out that about 17,000 persons are in prisons at present, adding that about 50 percent of them are youth imprisoned for drug related offences.

Rajapakshe was moving Civil Procedure Code (Amendment) Bill for debate yesterday.

The minister said amendments were aimed at addressing the delay in civil court cases. He pointed out a total of 745,888 cases had been piled up in the country’s courts of law, adding that the majority of them were at Magistrate and District Courts. As at December 31, 2016, there were 3,566 cases in the Supreme Court, 4,837 cases in the Appeal Court, 171,896 cases in District Courts and 539,392 cases in Magistrate Courts, the minister said. He also said the Government is working to introduce a new Civil Procedure Code and Criminal Procedure Code to suit modern times. He added that two Committees comprised of legal experts are working for that purpose.