With his London tweets, Trump embarrasses himself — and America — once again

People leave the scene of a terrorist attack on London Bridge in central London on June 3. (Chris J Ratcliffe/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

By Jennifer Rubin June 4 at 9:51 AM

The stoic determination and decency of the British people and their leaders were on full display in the hours after the latest horrific terrorist rampage. The Brits fought back, launching drinking glasses and chairs at the savages who attacked them. The police acted with lightning-fast precision, killing the three assailants within eight minutes of the emergency call. And, God Bless him, a man returned to the bar where he experienced Saturday’s horror — to pay his bill and tip. Civilization is not going to be driven out of Britain by three or three hundred killers.

Meanwhile — and it pains me to write this — our president acted like a clod, a heartless and dull-witted thug in sending out a series of tweets. He — commander in chief and leader of the Free World — first retweeted an unverified, unofficial Drudge headline about the unfolding terrorist attack. Then he aimed to bolster his Muslim travel ban (which is not supposed to be a Muslim travel ban). “We need to be smart, vigilant and tough,” he tweeted. “We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety!” (Aside from the inappropriateness of President Trump’s tweet, he fails to grasp that the courts in these cases are reaffirming our rights against an overreaching, discriminatory edict.)

Republicans and Democrats on June 4 commented on President Trump’s tweets calling for a travel ban and criticizing the mayor of London after an attack in Britain’s capital left seven people dead the day before. (Video: Bastien Inzaurralde/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

After receiving blowback for that obnoxious missive, he tweeted out, “Whatever the United States can do to help out in London and the U. K., we will be there – WE ARE WITH YOU. GOD BLESS!” But then he decided to slam the mayor of the city attacked, who had calmly warned his fellow Londoners: 

“Londoners will see an increased police presence today and over the course of the next few days. There’s no reason to be alarmed.” Trump took the second part out of context and responded viciously, “At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is ‘no reason to be alarmed!'” (The mayor, of course, was telling them not to be alarmed by the heightened police presence.) Trump was not done, however, inanely tweeting, “Do you notice we are not having a gun debate right now? That’s because they used knives and a truck!”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has said he is "appalled" and "furious" after the attack on London Bridge on Saturday, June 3. (Reuters)

One is prompted to ask if he is off his rocker. But this is vintage Trump — impulsive and cruel, without an ounce of class or human decency. His behavior no longer surprises us, but it should offend and disturb us, first, that he remains the face and voice of America in the world and, second, that his fans hoot and holler, seeing this as inconsequential or acceptable conduct. We wound up with this president because millions of Republicans could not prioritize character, decency and overall fitness to serve over their mundane and frankly petty partisan wish list (28 percent top marginal tax rate!). Self-appointed religious leaders fail to see that this soullessness — not the dreaded liberal elite who insist on saying “Happy Holidays” or refuse to countenance discrimination against gay customers — is a threat to the moral fiber of a democracy that requires a modicum of common sense and human decency to function.

 

June 4, 2017 Flowers and messages lie behind police cordon tape near Borough Market after an attack left seven people dead and dozens injured in London. Peter Nicholls/Reuters

Sure, Trump’s policies and rhetoric are incoherent and based on a tower of lies. Far worse, however, is his appalling character, which accelerates the erosion of democratic norms and social cohesion a diverse democracy requires. In instances like this, those who would lecture us on President Obama’s under-

appreciation of America’s unique place in human history or proclaim that they simply had to vote for Trump because Hillary Clinton was some sort of monster are exposed as fools or hypocrites or both.

The London attacks bring out the best in Britain and in Western leaders on the European continent; it brings out the worst in Trump and his followers. The former protect the soul of Western civilization; the latter drive a stake through the animating ideas that make America special.

Three men in a speeding van mowed down pedestrians on London Bridge before getting out and stabbing patrons at nearby bars and restaurants on June 3. (The Washington Post)

London Bridge terror attack: 7 dead, 21 victims in critical condition

4 JUN 2017

The attack began on London Bridge when three men drove a van at pedestrians in the same way as the Westminster Bridge attack in March before going on a rampage with knives.

As police have the area locked down, the main political parties suspended election campaigning. But there’s some fury in Labour that Theresa May unveiled a four point plan to change the way we tackle terrorism, even though she’s been in charge of it for seven years.

Thousands join Hong Kong vigil for Tiananmen Square anniversary

Thousands of people take part in a candlelight vigil to mark the 28th anniversary of the crackdown of the pro-democracy movement at Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, at Victoria Park in Hong Kong, China June 4, 2017. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu---A woman takes part in a candlelight vigil to mark the 28th anniversary of the crackdown of the pro-democracy movement at Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, at Victoria Park in Hong Kong, China June 4, 2017. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

Thousands of people take part in a candlelight vigil to mark the 28th anniversary of the crackdown of the pro-democracy movement at Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, at Victoria Park in Hong Kong, China June 4, 2017. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu---A woman reacts during a candlelight vigil to mark the 28th anniversary of the crackdown of the pro-democracy movement at Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, at Victoria Park in Hong Kong, China June 4, 2017. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

By J.R. Wu and Katy Wong | TAIPEI/HONG KONG

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Hong Kong on Sunday for a candlelight vigil to mark the 28th anniversary of China's crackdown on pro-democracy protests in and around Beijing's Tianamen Square, while Taiwan urged China to make a transition to full democracy.

Nearly three decades after Beijing sent tanks and troops to quell the 1989 student-led protests, Chinese authorities ban any public commemoration of the event on the mainland and have yet to release an official death toll.

Estimates from human rights groups and witnesses range from several hundred to several thousand killed.

Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997, is the only place on Chinese soil where a large-scale commemoration takes place, symbolising the financial hub's relative freedoms compared with the mainland.

This year's events are especially politically charged, coming just a month before an expected visit of President Xi Jinping to mark 20 years since Hong Kong was handed back to China.

"When Xi Jinping comes, he’ll know the people of Hong Kong have not forgotten," Lee Cheuk-yan, an organiser of the annual candlelight vigil, said.

On a sombre night, many held aloft flickering flames, sang songs and listened to speeches calling on Beijing to fully atone for the crackdown.

Organisers of the vigil, held in Hong Kong's Victoria Park, said the event drew some 110,000 people, enough to fill more than six football pitches. Hong Kong police estimated the crowd at 18,000.

"The students who died (in 1989) still haven't got what they deserve. They fought for their future, in the same way we're fighting for our future," Yanny Chan, a 17-year-old high school student at the vigil, said.

Video clips were shown of the relatives of four men who were arrested last year and charged earlier this year for subversion by Chinese authorities for manufacturing and selling bottles of Chinese liquor, or "baijiu", with specially designed labels commemorating June 4.

In Taiwan, President Tsai Ing-wen marked the anniversary with an offer to help China to make the transition to democracy.

Tsai said that the biggest gap between Taiwan and China was democracy and freedom, needling Beijing at a time when relations between China and the self-ruled island are at a low point.

"For democracy: some are early, others are late, but we all get there in the end," Tsai said, writing in Chinese on her Facebook page and tweeting some of her comments in English on Twitter.

"Borrowing on Taiwan's experience, I believe that China can shorten the pain of democratic reform."

Beijing distrusts Tsai and her ruling Democratic Progressive Party because it traditionally advocates independence for Taiwan. Beijing says the island is part of China and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control.

On Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China had long ago reached a conclusion about June 4.

"I hope you can pay more attention to the positive changes happening in all levels of Chinese society," she said without elaborating.

In Beijing, security was tight as usual at Tiananmen Square, with long lines at bag and identity checks. The square itself was peaceful, thronged with tourists taking photos.

One elderly resident of a nearby neighbourhood, out for stroll at the edge of the square, said he remembered the events of 28 years ago clearly.

"The soldiers were just babies, 18, 19 years old. They didn't know what they were doing," he told Reuters, asking to be identified only by his family name, Sun.

While some search terms on China's popular Twitter-like microblog Weibo appeared to be blocked on Sunday, some users were able to post cryptic messages.

"Never forget," wrote one, above a picture of mahjong tiles with the numbers 6 and 4 on them, for the month and day of the anniversary.

(Reporting by J.R. Wu; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard and Philip Wen in BEIJING; Venus Wu and James Pomfret in HONG KONG; Editing by Tony Munroe, Kim Coghill and Jane Merriman)

The Gentleman’s Agreement That Could Break Apart Nigeria

The stability of Africa’s most populous nation has hinged on an unwritten political rule that might be coming apart.

BY MAX SIOLLUN-JUNE 1, 2017

ABUJA, Nigeria — For the second time in seven years, the political stability of Africa’s most populous nation hinges on the health of one man. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is once again in Britain for medical treatment because of an undisclosed illness. He was there for almost two months earlier this year, and in June 2016 he spent nearly two weeks abroad being treated for an ear infection. In the past month, he missed three straight cabinet meetings due to sickness, and perhaps more tellingly for a devout Muslim, he missed Friday mosque prayers in Abuja, where he usually attends without fail.

Buhari’s unwillingness to disclose the nature or extent of his illness fuels rumors that he is terminally ill or, periodically, that he has already died. Last month, Garba Shehu, a spokesman for the president, was forced to issue a series of tweets denying that anything unpleasant happened to the president.
He added that reports of Buhari’s ill health are “plain lies spread by vested interests to create panic.” Buhari’s wife recently tweeted that his health is “not as bad as it’s being perceived.”
Regardless of the severity of his illness, Buhari’s extended absence risks igniting an ugly power struggle that would threaten not just the political fortunes of his ruling party but also a long observed gentleman’s agreement that has been critical to maintaining the stability of the country.

The unwritten power-sharing agreement obliges the country’s major parties to alternate the presidency between northern and southern officeholders every eight years. It was consolidated during Nigeria’s first two democratic transfers of power — in 1999 and 2007 — and it alleviated the southern secessionist pressures that had festered under decades of military rule by dictators from the north. For a time, this mechanism for alternating power helped keep the peace in a country with hundreds of different ethnic groups and more than 500 different languages. But it was never intended to be permanent, and as Buhari’s illness demonstrates, it has increasingly become a source of tension rather than consensus.

If Buhari, a northerner, doesn’t finish his term of office, and power passes to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, a Christian from the south, it will be the second time in seven years that the north’s “turn” in the presidency has been cut short. In late 2009, then-President Umaru Yar’Adua, who like Buhari was a Muslim from the north, traveled abroad for treatment for an undisclosed illness. When Yar’Adua died in office the following year, his southern Christian vice president, Goodluck Jonathan, succeeded him, setting the stage for an acrimonious split within the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) over whether Jonathan should merely finish out Yar’Adua’s term or run to retain the office in the 2011 election.

In the end, Jonathan ran and won in 2011. But not before 800 people were killed in riots in the north after the PDP allowed Jonathan to contest the election. The anti-Jonathan faction later resigned in protest and defected to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) party. Buhari led the APC to victory over the PDP in 2015.

An eerily similar scenario is now playing out in Buhari’s APC party. If Buhari dies, resigns, or is declared medically incapacitated by the cabinet, it would likely ignite a similar struggle within the APC over whether Vice President Osinbajo should permanently succeed him as president. A group of prominent northerners has already stated that Osinbajo should serve merely as an interim president and that he cannot replace Buhari on the ticket in the 2019 presidential election.Should Osinbajo succeed Buhari, win the 2019 election, and serve a full term, a Christian southerner will have been president for 18 of the 24 years since Nigeria transitioned to democracy in 1999.

Should Osinbajo succeed Buhari, win the 2019 election, and serve a full term, a Christian southerner will have been president for 18 of the 24 years since Nigeria transitioned to democracy in 1999

There is a chance that APC leaders will convince — or force — Osinbajo to stand down in favor of another Muslim candidate from the north. But sidelining Osinbajo would pose other sectarian risks. He was chosen as Buhari’s running mate in part to counter southern accusations that the APC is a Muslim party.
And although he is seen as a technocrat, Osinbajo is a powerful political force in his own right — too powerful, perhaps, to be sidelined in 2019 without alienating millions of voters. He is a pastor in the country’s largest evangelical church, which has some 6 million members, and his wife is the granddaughter of Obafemi Awolowo, one of Nigeria’s early independence politicians who is beloved in southwest Nigeria.

Yet if the north’s “turn” in power is interrupted again, it will further alienate the region — already home to the bloody Boko Haram insurgency, which has thrived in part because of government neglect — and make north-south cooperation on security, development, and a host of other critical issues more difficult. It could easily lead to another round of deadly riots, as it did in 2011. But there is a way out.

Nigeria should abandon the convention of north-south presidential power rotation now that it has outlived its purpose. At the same time, it should deepen power sharing in state and local governments, which have steadily gained influence relative to the national government since 1999. Many of the country’s 36 states and 774 local governments already practice some form of power rotation among politicians from different ethnic, religious, and geographic groups. The key will be to frame the abolition of power rotation at the presidential level as an opportunity to strengthen these norms at the state and local levels — not a chance to terminate them everywhere at once.

The reality is that most Nigerians experience government at the local level anyway. Regardless of whether Buhari or Osinbajo is in the presidential palace, state and local officials have the most purchase on the lives of ordinary citizens. Letting go of a dangerous convention at the national level while devolving more power to inclusive governance structures at the local level offers a way out of the current impasse.

SEYLLOU DIALLO/AFP/Getty Images

Gunfire during ceasefire stops civilians fleeing fighting in Philippines

Thousands remain trapped in city of Marawi after 13 days of fighting between Isis-linked militants and government forces

 People carry their belongings in Marawi as they attempt to flee along a deserted street. Photograph: Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Images

 Duterte visits a hospital in Cagayan de Oro. Photograph: Presidential Photographers Division/Handout/EPA

Reuters in Marawi-Sunday 4 June 2017 

Thousands of civilians hoping to flee fighting in the Philippine city of Marawi remained trapped on Sunday after a four-hour ceasefire to evacuate residents was marred by gunfire.

Only 134 were freed on Sunday, despite government hopes that more than 1,000 would be able to leave a city battered by 13 days of intense fighting.

The president, Rodrigo Duterte, predicted the siege would be over within days despite fierce resistance by fighters aligned to Islamic State in the dense urban heart of the southern Philippine city.

“This will be over in about three more days,” Duterte said on Saturday after visiting a hospital in Cagayan de Oro where wounded soldiers were being treated. “I will not hesitate to use every power available.”

About 400 local militants reinforced by about 40 foreign fighters stormed Marawi on 23 May, using sophisticated battlefield tactics to take control of large swaths of the lakeside city.

They have been pushed back to the city centre by Philippine forces over the past week after about 4,000 ground troops were bolstered by helicopters and aircraft deploying rockets and bombs.

Many residents have said the airstrikes caused extensive property damage and dozens of civilian deaths. Authorities raised the civilian death toll from 20 to 38 on Sunday – but said all those fatalities were caused by militants.

A presidential spokesman said 120 militants had died, along with 38 government forces.

Duterte said the use of air power had been restrained so far. “I can end this war in 24 hours,” he said. “All I have to do is to bomb the whole place and level it to the ground.”

Duterte has asked the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, an Islamic separatist movement based on the Philippine island of Mindanao, to help negotiate a peace settlement with the Islamist fighters, who are predominantly drawn from the Maute group based in and around Marawi.

Marawi, known as the “Islamic city of Marawi”, is also on Mindanao, which has a large Muslim population in a predominantly Catholic country and has been destabilised by separatist insurgencies for decades.

Moro Islamic Liberation Front cadres organised Sunday’s ceasefire, which was to run until noon. They used loud hailers to urge residents to leave, but by 9am, gunfire had broken out, apparently deterring residents from joining a mass exodus.

Marawi’s mayor, Majul Gandamra, told reporters on Sunday morning he was expecting “more or less 1,000-plus to be rescued today”. In the end, 134 were evacuated, fewer than on previous days when there were no ceasefires. About 2,000 civilians remain in the city.

Irene Santiago, appointed by Duterte to organise the “peace corridor”, said the effort had been a success, noting that the fighting was several kilometres away from where the evacuation took place.

She said negotiations were continuing with the Maute for another temporary ceasefire on Monday.

Countdown to Eclipse 2017: Get Ready!

ODOT’s advice: Arrive early / Stay put / Leave late

NASA EDGE Solar #Eclipse2017 Preview-Jun-04-2017 

(SALEM, Ore.) - Oregon will be the first state where you can view the total solar eclipse crossing America Monday, August 21.

For about two and half hours, daytime will gradually yield to dusk—and to darkness for about two minutes—as the moon passes in front of the sun. ODOT is planning ahead to keep Oregon moving, and we encourage you to do the same. An estimated 1 million visitors are coming to Oregon to view this celestial spectacle.

That many people—about a quarter of the state’s entire population—will have a huge impact on highways, gasoline supplies and other basic needs. What you do to plan ahead will make or break your eclipse-viewing experience. Expect delays. Traffic backups are inevitable. Preparation ensures a good time for visitors and residents alike.

Expect traffic changes. Normal travel paths may be disrupted. Communities may close streets to through traffic or ban left or right turns to keep traffic moving, especially around venues with many visitors.

Be prepared. If traveling, plan for your basic needs such as food, water, gas for the car and bathroom breaks in case you’re stuck in traffic.

If friends or family are coming to visit, warn them to #DriveHealthy: Arrive early, stay put during the eclipse, and leave late afterwards, in case everyone else jumps on our highways all at once. Remember, all travelers have a shared responsibility to stay safe.

Stock up early. Food, prescription medications, water and gasoline may be hard to obtain if you don’t get them early. You’ll be ready and stores can restock for our visitors.

Do what you can to help. Can you work from home or flex your work schedule when your local roads are full? Avoid roads being used to get people in or out of a local event. Ride your bicycle when possible, to avoid congestion!

Look out for each other. This is a rare opportunity but it brings potential hazards. We all must do our part to be prepared. You may see travelers unfamiliar with the area. Be friendly, helpful and patient!

For more information on the eclipse: https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/. To see the eclipse path, view NASA’s video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX7AxZhPrqU.

Source(s): ODOT; Travel Oregon #Eclipse2017

Dutch families win right to test DNA of sperm bank doctor

Some of the donor children implicated in the case speak to the media

2 June 2017

A Dutch court has approved a request by families seeking DNA tests on the belongings of a late fertility clinic doctor accused of using his own sperm in dozens of cases.

Jan Karbaat is suspected of fathering about 60 children at the centre he ran in Bijdorp, near Rotterdam.

Tests will now be conducted on items seized from his home after his death in April, at the age of 89.

A lawyer for his family said there was no evidence to support the claims.

Physical resemblance

Jan Karbaat called himself "a pioneer in the field of fertilisation".

His clinic was closed in 2009 amid reports that he had allegedly falsified data, analyses and donor descriptions and exceeded the permitted number of six children per donor.

At a court hearing last month, a lawyer for the 22 parents and children said that the suspected cases included a client's child who had brown eyes when the sperm donor was supposedly blue-eyed and a client's son who physically resembled the doctor.

'This is a huge step' - lawyer representing donor children

The DNA profile will remain sealed until the children can show there is cause to believe he is their father, the BBC's Anna Holligan, who was at the district court in Rotterdam, reports.

Eventually, if the DNA profile matches, the children, most of them born in the 1980s, hope to sue the doctor, possibly on the grounds that they should not exist, our correspondent adds.

Joey, who believes Jan Karbaat may be his father, told the BBC: "It means everything to me... We hope to get the answers."

The Karbaat family's lawyer argued against any DNA tests taking place. While alive, the doctor himself refused such tests.

However, last month, Jan Karbaat's son donated his DNA for tests, which showed that the doctor could be the father of 19 children, born though IVF, AFP news agency reports.

It is not clear whether the 19 are among those involved in the court case.

Remembering the dead is not a crime

Jun 2, 2017

During the first two weeks of May 2017 he was visited six times by military intelligence. On several occasions, he received anonymous late-night phone calls. Between 16-20th May he was summoned by the police three times to provide statements. And yesterday, a court order restricting his activity and mandating an official investigation in the interests of “national security”, was extended by a further two weeks.

For a month in which there were over 20 reported attacks and hate speech incidents targeting minority communities across Sri Lanka, many would be forgiven for assuming this recent flurry of police activity to be in connection to one of the several high profile nationalist extremists allegedly involved in orchestrating the latest wave of intimidation . The individual in question however is Father Elil Rajendram, a Tamil Jesuit priest and human rights defender based in the North of Sri Lanka. The activity that has so captured the attention of the police and intelligence forces: his role in organising a remembrance service for Tamil war victims on the 8th anniversary of the end of the armed conflict.

The service, which was planned to take place on 18th May in the vicinity of St Paul’s Cathedral in East Mullivaikkal – the date and site of the war’s conclusion – was the third of its kind to be held openly in the area since 2009. Following years of aggressive crackdowns against commemoration activities under former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, during which public mourning by Tamils was effectively criminalised, early shifts initiated under the Presidency of Maithripala Sirisena seemed to suggest a relaxing of the government’s heavy-handed approach. Remembrance activities in 2015 and 2016 saw continued high levels of surveillance and judicial obstruction, but a decline in incidences of physical obstruction and explicit threats against organisers – as well as an overall decrease in the presence of military personnel around events – prompted some cautious hopes about the direction of change.

The latest wave of persecution against Father Elil and others has however dimmed those hopes, exposing the hard limits that the government of Sri Lanka continues to impose on the rights of it is Tamil citizens to grieve. They are limits that not only aggravate the personal anguish of those seeking to remember their loved ones, but which also continue to foster the kind of mistrust which make reconciliation and lasting peace impossible.

In a worryingly regressive move by the Sri Lankan authorities, a court order was issued against Father Elil on the evening before the event prohibiting any commemoration activity on the land adjacent to the Cathedral. The order was duly observed by participants on May 18th, who conducted the service within the grounds of a nearby church amid oppressive surveillance, yet harassment of Father Elil has continued unabated since. The source of interest by the police and intelligence services appears to relate to plans by local family members participating in the service to lay stones carved with the names, ages and dates of death of their loved ones in a nearby field – with anxiety stemming in particular from speculation that some of those names might include former LTTE cadres.

No evidence has been provided by police to substantiate such links. Irrespective, there exists no legal basis for the suggestion that they could give rise to criminal wrongdoing. While police officers involved in the case have continued to allude to provisions in the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) regulation prohibiting the use of LTTE symbols as justification for their ongoing investigations, plainly even the most blanket provisions in this draconian legislation were not designed to ban the use of names of former combatants in this way. The right to remembrance is a fundamental and universal one, and it is not open to any government to restrict it on the basis of the affiliation of the dead. For the Sri Lankan authorities to suggest otherwise indicates a chillingly authoritarian attitude towards the rights to freedom of expression, thought and memory of their citizens. It also gives rise to the prospect of a particularly cruel form of double punishment against those families mourning loved ones who were forcibly recruited into the LTTE’s ranks during the final stages of the war.

Despite various interventions last week from Sri Lankan civil society groups, senior diplomats, and international human rights organisations the Sri Lankan authorities have showed few signs of letting up their campaign of harassment and intimidation. The government of Sri Lanka must now urgently act to put an end to this disturbing series of events, by intervening to see that the court order extending investigations to the 12th June is rescinded, and by calling for an immediate halt to surveillance of Father Elil and his colleagues. The international community for its part, must take a firmer stand. Justifying the recent decision to restore GSP+ preferential trade status to Sri Lanka, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom insisted earlier this week that no “blank cheque” had been granted to the government of Sri Lanka, and that the EU would continue to act to “hold Sri Lanka to its commitments to improve human rights”. Now is the time to show the world what that means – by standing up for Father Elil, and for the rights of all Tamils to remember.

Act now: join Amnesty International’s Urgent Action in support of Father Elil by writing to one of the named Sri Lankan government officials, or to your local political representative. Encourage the international community to raise this case with the government of Sri Lanka by tweeting your concerns to the following handles: @EU_in_Sri_Lanka @MalmstromEU @UKinSriLanka @USEmbSL @CanHCSriLanka. Thank you.

HRC’s role needs to be respected: Satkunananthan

Zahrah Imtiaz-Saturday, June 3, 2017 

The Government needs to respect the role of the Human Rights Commission (HRC) and have a proper understanding of it, Human Rights Commissioner Ambika Satkunananthan said yesterday as she explained lack of effectiveness of the HRC in the current policy making and legal reform process.

“For the Human Rights Commission to be successful in pushing for policy and legal reform, the government has to be responsive. The government has not shared draft legislation with us, there have been instances where we have made repeated requests and to date we have not received any of what we asked for,”added the Commissioner.

She was addressing a forum at the launch of the National Partnership to End Violence Against Children by 2030.

HRC Chairman Dr.Deepika Udugama too had earlier voiced concerns over the same issue.

Satkunananthan also asked that the government take a more constructive approach to dealing with social issues and fulfilling its obligations in the international arena,

“We have a culture of denial, we have a problem in denying we have a problem in domestic violence or child abuse; especially when we are in front of international fora. When we go before treaty bodies, when we go before periodic reviews, we need to take a more constructive approach and note that these recommendations are helpful for us to bring about change and not look at it as adversarial process,”she said as she referred to Sri Lanka’s poor performance in the international human rights arena.

Despite such failures to act, the Women and Child Affairs Ministry’s efforts at launching the National Partnership to work with government and Non-Governmental Organisations to end violence against children will look at the issues of; improving quality of the evidence on violence against children, physical and humiliating punishment, sexual and gender based violence, children in institutions, child marriage, online safety and emotional wellbeing and mental health of children.

Satkunananthan who touched on a recent study conducted by the HRC on children in 11 state institutions remarked that, “Institutionalising of children was increasingly becoming a first option of care, rather than adopting other child friendly alternatives such as community integration or working closely with families to support these children”.

In addition, socio-economic factors were also driving parents who cannot afford to childcare to institutionalize their children.

A total of 14,175 children at present live in 414 state institutions which mostly lack minimum facilities and standards to operate.

Satkunananthan recommended that; a period of time for institutionalisation should be mentioned, every district should have transit home to house children, institutions should have at least one permanent counsellor in their cadre, compulsory education at least up to age of 14 be provided, more juvenile courts are needed to fast track cases and minimize psychological damage to children who are already traumatized, establish a one-stop service which provides the child with all legal and other support so the child does not have to keep repeating the same story, proper information management system of children’s information and sharing of this information with different institutions that have to coordinate, mandatory training for staff, minimum standards for institutions.

“Most importantly, the issue needs to be approached in a rights based perspective rather than that of charity”, said Satkunananthan and as she added, “The primary goal should be reunification with the families and strengthen family structures for both mothers and fathers”. 

Conflict Of Interest On HRCSL Member Pieris Applying For And Getting ‘Silk’

JUNE 4, 2017

Serious questions are being asked in both the legal and human rights community about the conflict of interest arising due to member of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka lawyer Saliya Pieris applying and obtaining the honorary title of ‘President’s Counsel’ from President Maithripala Sirisena in recent weeks.

In terms of the Constitution, the President is given the entire discretion as to whom he may name as ‘PC” once applications are made to him. The PCs List is chosen on the arbitrary executive preference of some lawyers over others. Outrage arose in regard to this years’ list which listed several ‘yahapalayana lawyers’ to whom the conferral of the honour was seen as a political reward. The selections were also gender discriminatory. Not a single woman lawyer was listed among the several new PCs who were appointed.      

Pieris was already serving as a member of the HRCSL at the time that he made the application for PC and President Sirisena appointed him. Earlier, he had been appointed a member of the HRCSL after submitting his application to the Constitutional Council and upon the CC recommending his appointment to the President. The HRCSL has a statutory mandate to monitor the compliance of government bodies with constitutional protections on fundamental rights and to inquire into and investigate, complaints regarding infringements or imminent infringements of fundamental rights by state actors. The executive arm of the State is a key focus of that monitoring process. 

Questions have therefore arisen as to how can a member of the HRCSL which is supposed to act as a fetter to prevent abuse of power by the executive could be seen as applying for a favour for the conferral of ‘silk’ from the very executive which the body of which is a member, is supposed to monitor? This leads to an obvious conflict of interest and puts the very legitimacy of the HRCSL in doubt, a senior lawyer said. Is there not an inference that the member of the HRCSL would thereafter be beholden to the President for the ‘honour’ conferred upon him, he questioned.

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I will protect right of objective criticism: Mangala

2017-06-03

Finance and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera called on the private media to expose corruption and shortcomings, if any with sufficient evidence and he would protect the right of everybody for fair criticism.

Addressing the staff of the Government Information Department for the first time after he assumed duties as the new Media Minister, Mr. Samaraweera stated that Private media always highlighted the Opposition views apparently due to their ignorance about the truth.

He said the Government Information Department should be the centre of the government in future promoting democracy, reconciliation and development. "Politics is immaterial in this exercise as political colours and parties are not relevant in the course of democracy, reconciliation and development" he added.

Samaraweera observed that when it comes to democracy, it was not a right limited only to those voted for the ruling party. Also reconciliation signifies all communities, Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Malays and Burghers marching forwards with a sense of Sri Lankan identity, the minister stated.

He argued that not only those who voted for the swan, elephant and the hand symbols but also those who try to scuttle the government programmes through demonstrations with abusive slogans would also benefit when Sri Lanka becomes the economic hub of the Indian Ocean.

The Minister opined that the country cannot march forward as a nation divided as Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims. He called on the fellow countrymen to accept the diversity in the society while maintaining the Sri Lankan identity of every individual.

"We cannot allow extremists to push the country into another war or terrorism again. We can see some people trying to spread extremism in the south and the northern counterparts are waiting to exploit that situation. Some people are trying to ignite a Sinhalese- Muslim riot in the country. Those who are frustrated because of their failure to come to power again want to fulfil their aspirations even through a bloodbath," Samaraweera charged. (Thilanka Kanakarathna)

Too many excuses for incompetence of government

Sunday, June 04, 2017

The very idea that more law is needed to effectively operate relief to affected persons hit by natural disasters in Sri Lanka, as put forward by some bright ministerial sparks in recent days, is an asininity which needs to be peremptorily dismissed.

Have we lost all propriety?

Let us be very clear. The issue is not the law. It is the sheer woeful incompetence of the political leadership and more specifically the imbeciles in charge of disaster management even though many government officials rendered yeoman service in helping the afflicted in recent weeks.

It is only in nations as unfortunate as ours that the Minister in charge of the subject can dawdle overseas in some international conference or the other in some luxurious resort or the other while the country staggers under the worst floods in a decade or more. True, no member of the human species (politicians included with some perceptible reluctance) could be blamed for being overseas when disaster strikes. But the fundamental principle surely is that returning home must be at the earliest opportunity. Have we lost all basic notions of propriety in the first instance, let alone more grandiose calls to proper governance?

Last week, this column referenced the plight to which Sri Lanka has been reduced to due to the actions of a few incompetent imbeciles in the unity alliance. Deliberately tautologous language was used. This severe indictment was heightened by events thereafter. The unbridled arrogance on the part of the responsible Minister at the time, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa in meeting questions that were raised regarding the accountability of the Government even after he returned belatedly to a grief stricken populace, beggars the imagination.

Are the afflicted supposed to live on the streets?

The ministerial worthy could only snap that the Department of Metereology should be closed down if it is thought to be of no use. Let alone accountability at ministerial or official level, there was not even the slightest sense of empathy in responding to an unprecedented disaster. The other fantastical notion put forward by this worthy was that Sri Lankans are unique in that they do not want to leave their homes even when there are warnings issued of impending disaster and that therefore a law was needed to compel such action to be taken, when it is so warranted.

So is this what we have now been reduced to? Absent any proper disaster management plan, absent sophisticated technological equipment to predict turbulence in weather patterns despite millions of rupees being wasted on such equipment in the past, our politicians can only yap about laws?

Pray, where are these people, liable to be now dragged out of their homes in anticipation of future disasters supposed to go to? Nearby Bangladesh coped far more effectively with the sweep of cyclonic fury that hit Sri Lanka. The Bangladeshis did so by putting effective disaster response schemes into place. In contrast, in this unfortunate paradise isle, the afflicted of past disasters have yet not been given relief, including those caught up in the Salawa explosions. How can a populace allow its politicians to escape without any minimum responsibility in this manner?

Learning lessons in general

While that is so on one side, the so-called Joint Opposition can only capitalize on the misery of the people by saying that government officials are afraid to help due to fears of action being taken against them by the Financial Crimes Investigation unit. Certainly its leader, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa does not need to be educated on the benefits of natural disasters, given the corruption that took place directly under his command in the Helping Hambantota Fund.

And lest we forget, when investigations were launched by the police into the Helping Hambantota corruption, a former Chief Justice of this country, Sarath Silva not only absolved Rajapkasa of all culpability but ordered costs against the police officer who had investigated. The exercise degenerated from farce to comedy when this same former Chief Justice apologized for his actions when his political loyalties switched. One wonders (if one bothers) as to whether one would be privileged to witness another apology for that past apology in these shifting winds of political allegiance?

Regardless, there is a greater lesson to be learnt. These nonsensical exercises are not limited to a particular political period. And let us not be led astray by the magnanimous proposal by the unity alliance that the millions reserved for luxury vehicles of politicians will be shelved for this year in the wake of the flood disaster. These are palliatives meant merely to soothe rising tempers rather than signal a genuine change in policy.

Proving the extremists wrong

Indeed, the argument that the law must be revised has two dangers. First, it has the same opportunistic ring as the protestations of the Rajapaksa regime when it claimed that the existing law was not sufficient to deal with crimes of religious violence against the country’s minorities in the wake of violence targeting the Muslim community.

As we all know now, the reality was different. It was not the law which was at fault but powerful members of the ruling Rajapaksa cabal who sanctioned and indeed drove carefully manipulated incidents of violence. It was politically engineered. During the recent weeks, when the mayhem of the floods hit innocent people with no sensible disaster prevention policy in place, ordinary Sri Lankans reached out to help one another, untouched by race or communal hatreds. This is what gives the lie to those who scream till they are blue in the face against one race, one community or one religious group.

Extremism is not limited to marauding monks in yellow robes; there are Islamic fundamentalists as well. They are all silenced when the silent majority refuses to be cowed by fear or by fascism. But when the focus becomes the law it diverts attention away from political responsibilities. It is this diversion which must be firmly resisted. Secondly given this Government’s dubious track record in amending laws or enacting new laws in general, one must be wary of whatever is being proposed.

Cosmetic changes will not suffice

In sum, the imbecilic character of the establishment goes beyond this most recent disaster and the unprepossessing personage of the Disaster Management Minister.

Put simply, this characterizes the systemic collapse that has been evidenced in Sri Lanka for some time. The simplistic belief that these failures could be tackled by a cosmetic change of heads should surely now be stripped of all its pretensions.

Much deeper thinking is needed in regard to addressing the systemic rot.