Antibody helps keep man's HIV at bay for 10 months

By James Gallagher-26 July 2017

An experimental therapy has held back one man's HIV infection for 10 months, doctors have reported.

He was one of 18 people in a small trial testing injections of "broadly neutralising antibodies" - the natural weapons of the immune system.

They delayed the resurgence of the virus in other participants by around two weeks.

The findings are being presented at the ninth International Aids Society Conference on HIV Science in Paris.

The human body is inefficient at making antibodies that neutralise HIV.

Only one in five people infected with the virus develops them - and even then it takes many years and high levels of uncontrolled virus.

• HIV-prevention ring a hit with teen girls
• Drugs cocktail 'cut HIV deaths by 27%'
• Injections ‘next revolution’ in HIV

But more than 200 broadly neutralising antibodies have been documented, which doctors hope could be useful for both preventing and treating HIV.

Antibody infusion

The trial in Thailand, led by the US Military HIV Research Program (MHRP), took people who were controlling their infection with their standard HIV medication.

Some were given no treatment and others had an infusion of the antibody - codenamed VRC01 - into their bloodstream.

Inevitably the virus came back in those getting no treatment. It took an average (median) of 14 days, at which point they were put back on antiretroviral therapy.

In those receiving the antibody it took 26 days.

Image copyrightMHRP

Dr Jintanat Ananworanich, one of the MHRP scientists, said there was also the exceptional case.

She told the BBC News website: "[The patient] has been off treatment for around 10 months and has so far controlled the virus to very low levels."

He had the antibody infusion every three weeks for six months.

The field is still at an incredibly early stage, but the results point to the potential of antibody-based therapies.

Dr Ananworanich added: "It suggests there's some impact from the antibody, but how the antibody actually impacts the virus and the immune system - that's an on-going investigation.

"I do think antibody therapy has potential because the antibody, in the future, could perhaps be given just two or three times a year."

Immune booster

Animal research has suggested antibodies could have a greater impact than conventional therapies because as well as attacking the virus they also train the immune system.

When the antibody binds to HIV in monkey studies, they form an "immune complex" which other parts of the immune system might be able to recognise.

Dr Ananworanich told the BBC: "That perhaps stimulates the other arms of the immune system, like the T-cells, to better react to HIV - and in that monkey study the monkeys went into remission."

The next stage of the research is to go through all the blood samples collected during the trial to identify how the therapy affected both the immune system and the virus.

HIV is such a difficult virus to treat - it mutates constantly - that any future therapy would probably require multiple broadly neutralising antibodies.

However, antibodies are not a simple chemical. They are an intricate piece of immune biology, and that makes them expensive to manufacture.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said: "Antibodies are generally more expensive because they're biologics and they're more complicated to make than small molecules.

"But if we get an antibody that works I can guarantee you we can probably rev it up from a production standpoint to bring the costs down dramatically [so] that it would be available."

Follow James on Twitter

‘Government cannot be toppled by disrupting essential services’: Sampanthan

Sandasen Marasinghe and Disna Mudalige-Thursday, July 27, 2017

The government cannot be toppled by disrupting the essential services, Opposition Leader and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R. Sampanthan said in Parliament today.

He also said that disrupting the essential services is an act against democracy.

He added that the Joint Opposition is attempting to topple the government by interrupting the essential services.

“But everybody should realize the government has received the people’s mandate,” Opposition leader said. “

The provision of fuel to the people is essential. But the Joint Opposition is attempting to disrupt it. That is the reason why the President declared the distribution of fuel is an essential service.”

He also added that the trade unions are essential for a democratic country but they should not cripple the essential services of a country.

“During such situations, the government should take strong decisions to solve the problems of the people,” he said

Black July 1983 commemoration – 2017

July 1983

Jul 27, 2017

The commemoration event remembering the people who were massacred in 1983 was marked by a panel discussion organised by British Tamils Forum.

The ongoing genocide, land grab, proliferating Buddhist structures in Tamil's homeland and continuing impunity that perpetuates repeated acts of genocide against the Tamil people, were topics of discussion at the meeting.

The discussion moderated by Sutharshan of the Tamil Guardian had Paul Scully MP and Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils,Rt Hon Rt Hon Theresa Villiers MP and Former Secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Richard Gowing of Sri Lanka Campaign and Andrew Thorpe Apps of Together Against Genocide in the panel.

Rt Hon Theresa Villiers spoke about the continuing building of Buddhist structures in the Tamil areas where there were no Buddhists. She described these structures as "Expression of Power" over people who are non-Buddhists and stated that these acts severely impede reconciliation between the peoples of Sri Lanka.

Paul Scully spoke about the continuing culture of torture with impunity, land grab, disappearances, militarisation and the very slow progress on fulfilling Sri Lanka's commitment to the UN.

Richard Gowing stated that the events of July 1983 will remain etched in the collective conscience of the Tamil people. He emphasised that absence of justice ensured continuation of crimes and iterated that the effects of impunity affected all the peoples of Sri Lanka. Commenting on the progress on the UN resolution he pointed out that out of 25 commitments in the resolution only 8 have seen progress with 3 fulfilled and 5 partially achieved. There has been virtually no progress in the remaining 17. Enforced disappearances and use of torture is continuing unabated. The repealing of PTA is yet to materialise and more draconian legislation is being proposed to replace the PTA. He stated that the reinstatement of GSP plus by the EU was a missed opportunity that sent the wrong signals. He stated that the International community is failing to address the continuing impunity in Sri Lanka.

Andrew Thorpe Apps of Together Against Genocide (TAG) stated that torture continues a serious human rights violation in Sri Lanka. He insisted that Sri Lanka should sign the Rome Statute. He also condemned the heavy military interference in civilian life including their involvement in the kindergartens. He emphsised the need to attach conditions and auditing to monitor the use of funding given to Sri Lanka, by the donors. He called on individual countries to use their political, economic and trade relations to exert pressure on Sri Lanka to abide by its commitments to the International community. He highlighted the very little progress made in implementing the UN Resolution it co-sponsored and opined that a time scaled review process should be implemented to monitor progress and that Sri Lanka should be referred to the security council if it fails to adhere to the time scales. A cross section of the Tamil community representatives participated in the event.

Silenced stones mark hard path to Sri Lankan reconciliation

Security forces have erected numerous monuments celebrating their 2009 victory over Tamil Tiger rebels. No such privilege has been accorded to the Tamil insurgents or civilians who died in the fight

A monument to Sri Lanka's civil war victims. Photo: Duncan McCargo

By DUNCAN MCCARGO JULY 26, 2017

An eerie art installation near an idyllic Sri Lankan beach symbolizes many of the contradictions of this post-war society, comprising a sculpture of a man carrying his brutalized daughter, an old suitcase full of clothes and a small ‘graveyard’ punctuated by tiny stones.

The core sculpture was inaugurated on May 18, 2016 – the seventh anniversary of the end of the decades–long civil war, which the Sri Lankan government celebrates as a day of victory over the Tamil insurgents.

One year later, police obtained a court order preventing Father Elil Rajendram, the Tamil Jesuit priest behind the project (and an activist and co-spokesperson for the Tamil Civil Society Forum), from presiding over a ceremony to add some stones bearing the names of people who had died during the war.

The following day, after a legal challenge mounted by Kumaravadivel Guruparan, head of the law department at Jaffna University, the court decreed that the ceremony could only take place within the premises of the nearby church. The name-bearing stones have since remained out of public view, while Father Elil was questioned by the authorities on four separate occasions.

The police claimed that some of those memorialized might be members of the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) separatist group, better known as the Tamil Tigers, although Guruparan argued that commemorating the names of deceased LTTE members was not banned under any Sri Lankan law.

In the event, the police proved unable to confirm that any of the names were actually those of LTTE members: they were simply acting on suspicion.

A cemetery of stone markers inscribed with the names of victims of Sri Lanka’s civil war. Photo: Duncan McCargo

Mullivaaikaal, the beach in question, lies at the heart of ‘the cage’, a narrow isthmus where the remnants of the Tamil Tigers were slaughtered by the Sri Lankan army in the bloody culmination of a long-running civil war in May 2009. Tens of thousands of people were killed in what the government still refers to as a ‘humanitarian’ operation.

Sri Lankan security forces have erected numerous monuments to celebrate their victory and to recognize their war dead, but no such privilege has been accorded to those from the LTTE, nor to the Tamil civilians who perished during the fighting.

In refusing to allow ordinary families to honor or even to remember their dead, Sri Lankan authorities claim they are responding to pressure from hardline Buddhist groups who insist that brutal terrorists are not entitled to such decencies.

The outspoken Chief Minister of the Northern Province, former Supreme Court Justice Canagasabapathy Visuvalingam Vigneswaran, has been the one of the loudest elected voices for the Tamil cause in recent years.

A Tamil man holding the flag used by the former separatist LTTE, or Tamil Tiger, movement. Photo: AFP/Carl Court

This writer asked why he couldn’t erect a memorial to the Tamil war dead right in front of his office (there is a handy patch of waste ground right next to the gate), but he answered rather melodramatically that if he pushed too hard on this issue, even he could be taken into custody: the government has made holding meetings about memorials hard enough, let alone building them.

I later had chance to ask a senior military commander why the memorialization issue was so sensitive. While acknowledging that during many years of fighting the army had developed ‘a bit of an arrogant mindset’, he insisted that negative sentiments of people and politicians in the South were now the main obstacle to any memorial to Tamil victims or LTTE fighters, rather than military obstructionism.

Nevertheless, he personally believed such memorials should be possible in the future. Meanwhile, he noted, progress had been made – until recently, even private memorial ceremonies were banned, not just public commemorations.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena during a March 23, 2017 meeting in Moscow. Photo: Reuters/Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool

The 30-year civil war in Sri Lanka remains a subject of intense controversy. But since the more compromising and pragmatic President Maithripala Sirisena assumed power in early 2015 with the support of the country’s Tamil minority, reconciliation has figured prominently in public discourse.

The incoming government established the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR), chaired by the redoubtable former president Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.

Numerous worthy unity and reconciliation projects have been initiated, focusing on areas such as youth exchanges, vocational training, agricultural livelihoods and the construction of new homes for those displaced during the conflict.

Yet in the Northern Province – an overwhelmingly Tamil region where much of the fighting took place – local people remain skeptical about development-oriented, top-down reconciliation projects that are largely conceived and implemented by the bureaucracy and security forces. Among recurrent local concerns are missing persons, military land occupation and memorialization.

Sri Lankan special forces commandos take part in a military ceremony honoring battlefield commanders who led the final push against the LTTE on May 28, 2009. Photo: AFP/Ishara S Kodikara

Critical observers, such as human rights activist Ruki Fernando, argue that until these core issues are addressed, token projects will do little to assuage Tamil frustrations with the state. He argues that rather than exercising leadership, the Colombo government has become the captive of the military and Buddhist hardliners.

During the civil war, huge numbers of people were driven out of their homes in the North and East of the country. When they tried to return after 2009, many found their land occupied by the military. In the Jaffna peninsula alone, the military currently holds more than 10,000 acres of land, around half of it used for bases.

The military points to progress in releasing occupied land, but insists that for security reasons the process has to be incremental.

In recent months, there has been a mushrooming of protest encampments by villagers seeking the return of their property from security forces. These round-the-clock vigils illustrate a remarkable opening up of political space in Sri Lanka: they would have been unthinkable during the time of hardline former president Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Then Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa (R) waves to the crowd at a state-sponsored festival to commemorate the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels in Colombo on May 22, 2009. Photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman

Yet while they have attracted some attention from the media and Tamil political parties, and in a few cases have won concessions from the military, most of the protests are being quietly ignored. Similar vigils have been established in other locations to demand information about those who went missing during the war.

Since 1994, the government has received more than 65,000 complaints relating to missing persons: in the absence of death certificates, their surviving relatives face serious problems over access to bank accounts, inheritance and re-marriage.

A major government initiative is needed to resolve these issues, but so far efforts to address them have been piecemeal; the president only finally approved the establishment of a long–promised Office of Missing Persons on July 20.

Land, missing persons and monuments are important examples of reconciliation-related issues. All highlight the importance of granting agency and authority to victims in a post-war order like Sri Lanka’s. Similar challenges have dogged other post-conflict societies such as that of Northern Ireland: education and development projects can only go so far, if sensitive core concerns remain unaddressed.

While the international community is now pressing for large-scale transitional justice initiatives in Sri Lanka, neither a hybrid tribunal nor a truth commission will be easy to realize. In the meantime, displaying the names of some Tamil war victims near a Northern beach might be one small place to start.

Duncan McCargo is the author of Tearing Apart the Land (2008), a study of the Southern Thai conflict

This Government Is Unable To Tolerate Dissent – Even Peaceful Protest: FUTA

JULY 27, 2017

The Federation of University Teachers (FUTA) has strongly condemned the suppression of student activists in recent times.

Prof. Arjuna Parakrama

“The most recent incident, the violent suppression by the police of the peaceful protest at Lipton Circle, followed by the arrest of 13 students shows the brutality of state action against university students,” the FUTA said in a statement.

Issuing a statement yesterday, the Secretary of the FUTA, Prof. Arjuna Parakrama said: “As witnessed by several academics who were present at Lipton Circle during this incident, the ‘occupation’ by the medical students of the Lipton Circle was peaceful and it was not disturbing anyone: the traffic was not disrupted, none of the activities in the area was disturbed. Yet, the police arrived with a court order, accompanied by the riot police and water cannons and ordered the students to leave within 15 minutes. When they did not do so, they were chased away by baton-wielding police and pelted with water. Within minutes the banners put up by the students were torn off; the shelters they had built on the roundabout were demolished. We also note that there were several people not in police uniform who arrived with the police to participate in the demolition work. It was an extremely efficient and brutal display of state intolerance of dissent.

“This incident demonstrates the fact that this government is unable to tolerate dissent – even peaceful protest. It has demonstrated utter contempt for democratic values, freedom of speech and the rights to protest – all values that it claims to uphold and boasts that it restored after it came to power. This government has now lost any legitimacy it may have had of being the government of ‘good governance’. Worryingly, the Government seems to be using the law to block dissent and to detain student leaders. The attempted arrest of Ryan Jayalath, Convenor of the Medical Students Action Committees, is another instance where the response and behaviour of law enforcement officials was entirely out of proportion. We cannot forget the fact that this country has seen repeated instances of disappearances, torture, arbitrary detention and the politicisation of state machinery to crush dissent in its post-independence history. The militarised apparatus that has been steadily built up for this purpose is evidently still intact.

“We demand that the Government uphold the right of dissent and protest of all, and that it immediately ceases the suppression of student activists. We call upon the Government to heed the strength of public resistance to its policy on SAITM and to engage in a meaningful and honest effort to resolve the crisis brought about as a result of SAITM.

Read More

Youths of North light lamps in memory of Sinhala sergeant who sacrificed his life for Tamil judge !

உயிரிழந்த மெய்ப் பாதுகாவலருக்கு யாழ் பல்கலையில் அஞ்சலி

(Lanka-e-News - 26.July.2017, 7.15PM)  A large number of youths in Jaffna lit lamps on 24 th evening  at the place where the police sergeant (24330) Sarath Hemachandra died, to commemorate the tragic death of  Hemachandra who was a security personnel of Jaffna high court Judge. Hemachandra  was shot at and killed in the vicinity of Nallur Kovil when trying to safeguard  the judge.

Though only very little publicity via media was given to this commemoration ceremony , there was an overwhelming response , said S. Kajadeepan who organized this event. The youths who attended this ceremony were most grieved and expressed their sorrows profoundly , he added.

---------------------------
by     (2017-07-26 14:24:28)

Judge vows to care for children of policeman shot in Nallur

By Yusuf Ariff-July 27, 2017

Jaffna High Court Judge M. Illanchelian says that he will take care of the children of the late Sub Inspector Sarath Premachandra, the police officer who died following the shooting in Nallur while escorting him. 

The officer, a Sergeant who was posthumously promoted to the rank Sub Inspector, was on a police bike escorting the High Court Judge when the gunman had opened fire at the vehicle near the Nallur Kovil in Jaffna on July 22.

He was hospitalised with a gunshot wound and succumbed to injuries the following morning. The officer is survived by his wife and two children.   

“I have two kids. Both are boys. From today I will look after Premachandra’s daughter and the son. Now I have four kids,” Justice Illanchelian said, speaking to reporters. 

The HC Judge said that he will definitely look after the officer’s two children for their education and future until his death.

“I can’t give them my love and affection like their father. On the other hand economically, financially definitely I will safeguard these children. That’s my duty, my responsibility.” 

Illanchelian stated that at the same time he will educate Premachandra’s daughter all the way to university level and that he will even financially help for her marriage. “Till my death both these kids are like my children.” 

Vijayakala behind Lalith Jayasinghe in Vidya murder suspect release 

Thuvarakeshan with PM Ranil Wickremesinghe

Jul 27, 2017

The Sri Lankan society was shaken by the abduction, gang rape and murder of Sivaloganathan Vidya on 13 May 2015.

The entire country was enraged by the crime. However, it was not minions who had intervened on behalf of the criminals, according to the revelations. It was the then Jaffna senior DIG Lalith Jayasinghe who had allowed the main suspect Mahalingam Shashikumar alias Swiss Kumar to flee from custody after he was cornered by the area residents at Pungudutivu, Jaffna. In previous articles, we revealed how Jayasinghe and Colombo university’s law faculty dean Prof. Thamilmaran got involved. Two years later, Jayasinghe was arrested and suspended by the police.

Women’s affairs state minister asked to free suspect

Report say Prof. Thamilmaran got involved due to children’s affairs state minister Vijayakala Maheswaran. She had called him and said, “This boy is good. He is known to us. He is in the Swiss. Help him now and he will help you” and got him to release Swiss Kumar through Jayasinghe, a pupil of Thamilmaran. There is another secret behind Vijayakala’s request – Thamilmaran hopes to contest at a future election from Pungudutivu on the TNA ticket. Shashikumar is a racketeer in the area and his help will be needed for Thamilmaran to contest an election.

Vijayakala and Thuvarakeshan

Vijayakala is the widow of slain UNP MP for Jaffna Thiagaraja Maheswaran, who had struck deals with Mahinda Rajapaksa and paid ransom to the LTTE to have a business monopoly in the northern province. He was killed by the LTTE over an extortion matter, it is said. After him, his younger brother Thiagaraja Thuvarakeshan comes to head that business empire. Vijayakala and Thuvarakeshan fight against each other to over this business empire. They struck deals when Rajapaksa was in power, but they are now under the shade of the UNP. The Maheswaran family members are still at Temple Trees and with that political power, they use racketeers and goons to their advantage. Swiss Kumar is part of that story.

Who brought Swiss Kumar to Colombo?

Unconfirmed sources say that it was Thuvarakeshan who had brought Swiss Kumar to Colombo after Jayasinghe freed him at Thamilmaran’s request. Vijayakala and Thuvarakeshan might have an enmity, but both helped the racketeer. Thuvarakeshan does not stop there. He has threatened family members of Vidya not to obtain the services of their lawyer K.V. Thavarasa, who appears for them free of charge.

Reason for Vidya murder

The end motive of the Vidya murder too, is money. If it was a revenge, the gang rape needed not have been videoed entirely. Swiss Kumar wanted to sell the video at a very high price over the internet. He played the role of the organizer of the gang rape, supplied alcohol etc. to the rapists.

What their punishment should be?

Swiss Kumar even had an alibi. The crime was committed on 13 May 2015, and he had booked a lodge at Wellawatte for May 12 to May 15, paid the money and obtained a receipt to prove his alibi. However, the lodge owner gave a statement that Swiss Kumar arrived only on the 14th.

Underworld culture

Another aspect that is exposed here is the underworld culture in Jaffna. It reached a climax with the shooting that targeted a judge in the Vidya case at Nallur. Jaffna has become a haven for gangsters, who receive protection by the political authority. Both Vijayakala and Thuvarakeshan bribe the thugs and maintain them.

When Thiagaraja Maheswaran was living, he was referred to as kerosene oil Maheswaran. His trade empire had various businesses, whose owners today are Vijayakala and Thuvarakeshan. The former is a key figure in the human trafficking racket to Australia, also involving the former Navy spokesman who is presently in remand custody. Swiss Kumar too, is a member of that racket.

Now, Thuvarakeshan has introduced a cyber underworld culture. He has filled his facebook page with pictures of him with PM Ranil Wickremesinghe and other top government politicians, and insults businessmen who are his enemies.

At the Vidya case hearing on July 25, Jayasinghe’s lawyer Kalinga Indatissa made a two hour long submission, detailing the above rackets. During the Rajapaksa rule, Jaffna had suffered under Douglas Devananda and his goons, and today in this Ranil-Maithri era, it has to undergo the same fate due to the followers of Vijayakala and Thuvarakeshan. Already repressed due to caste issues, average masses of Jaffna suffer further due to this.

This proves the country’s state minister in charge of children’s affairs has played a part in getting freedom for the main suspect in the abduction, gang rape and murder of an 18-year-old schoolgirl. In such a country, to whom children could turn to, for their protection?

CID to take Lalith Jayasinghe to Jaffna!

Collection from police stations to pay Lalith Jayasinghe’a lawyer fees!

SL ambassador to France who does not know to unfurl national flag unerringly and hypocritical monks flock in Paris !

(Lanka-e-News - 26.July.2017, 7.15PM)  Thilak Ranaviraja , the Sri Lanka (SL) Ambassador to France who boasts and brags at every turn that he has been in government service for the last 40 years and  held various posts in the government service , recently demonstrated clearly despite all his braggadocios  that he does not even know to hoist or unfurl the national flag of the country unerringly  !

That is , at a function in which he was the chief guest at his office of ambassador , he unfurled the flag using  the posterior (tail) side of the Lion on the flag (photo depicts and confirms) .

Perhaps Ranaviraja still respects his own ancestral tail he got from  the monkeys in the jungles  more than his own onerous human duties as a SL  ambassador in France .

What was disgraceful and vilifying to the country more  than Ranaviraja’s tail (rather Lion’s tail display by him)  was , the presence of a group of bhikkhus in that midst who pretended not to notice this glaring blunder  thereby making  a display of  their own abysmal unconcern for the damage caused to  country’s image. The irony of ironies is  these are the very counterfeit monks who boast , pose and parade as most concerned about giving a true  Buddhist and cultural character to the country’s administration !
 
May Lord Buddha give us the strength and spirit at least to save the fragrance of the saffron robe even if we cannot those draped in it ! 

---------------------------
by     (2017-07-26 13:51:20)

Murder of Nadarajah Raviraj: Court issues arrest warrant for SL Navy Officer

By Ayshwarya Yapa-July 27, 2017

The Court of Appeal has issued a warrant for the arrest of Prasad Hettiarachchi, an officer of the Sri Lanka Navy.

Prasad Hettiarachchi has been named as a respondent of the petition submitted by Nadarajah Raviraj’s wife, through which she requested that the murder case of her husband be taken up for hearing again.

When the relevant petition was taken up for consideration today (27), the counsel representing the petitioner’s side stated before the Court that summons had already been issued to five of the defendants who have been named as respondents.

The counsel then proceeded to request that the Court issue an arrest warrant owing to the fact that Prasad Hettiarachchi, one of the named respondents, had failed to appear in Court.

After considering the petitioner’s case, the Appeal Court panel of judges issued a warrant, and ordered that Hettiarachchi be arrested and produced before the Court.

The late Parliamentarian Nadarajah Raviraj who represented the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) from the Jaffna District, died in hospital after being shot by unidentified gunmen in Colombo on November 10, 2006.

He was shot as he left his house in Colombo for work. One of his guards, Sgt. Lakshman Lokuwella, was also killed in the attack.

Nadarajah Raviraj, a former mayor of Jaffna and a lawyer by profession, had his own law firm: “Raviraj and Associates”. 

He was a native of Chavakachcheri in the Thenmaratchy sector of Jaffna.  Raviraj was elected as a Councilor to the Jaffna Municipal Council in 1997.  

He was elected to the Parliament in the 2001 General Election for the first time representing Jaffna district and was re-elected in 2004.

Raviraj’s murder took place within one year of the killing of veteran Eastern Province Parliamentarian, Joseph Pararajasingham. 

Prageeth is still with me – Sandya Ekneligoda

Jul 27, 2017

Given below is an interview Lanka News Web had with Sandya Ekneligoda, wife of senior journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda, who was a victim of enforced disappearance in January 2010.

How many cases into Prageeth’s disappearance are over now?

Not a single case. There was talk within the court that the habeas corpus case will have an influence on the other case. So, it is now pending in a manner that can be recalled as we wish. There is another in the CID ‘B’ report.

How many cases in all?

I have only filed the habeas corpus case. For certain other cases, we have requested interventions. One case was withdrawn. The other is continuing.

What do you think about the incident involving Gnanasara Thera?

I am waiting to see justice. Two incidents happened on the same day – threatening and abusing me and a contempt of court. On the same day submissions were made over the contempt of court, and Gnanasara Thera was remanded. On February 09, I filed a complaint over Gnansara Thera’s threatening me and a case was filed under the victims and witnesses protection act. The contempt of court case was filed. Both were referred to the Attorney General’s Department in October 2016. But, the AG’s Dept. is yet to file my case. So, I am awaiting justice.

Have you gained anything from this struggle since 2010?

The main thing is Prageeth lives. Prageeth’s disappearance means he lives. If not for this struggle, a Prageeth will not be in this country.

Do you have any connection with the association of the missing persons?

No. In the beginning, they invited me for certain functions. I got involved in some of their work. But, no one has mediated to make a direct intervention.

How do you meet your daily expenses?

In the beginning, organizations outside Sri Lanka helped in my younger son’s education. Some friends in Sri Lanka helped from time to time with Rs. 10,000, Rs. 5,000 or so. Other than those, only Mr. Upul Jayasuriya did something big. In addition, Mohan Lal Grero allowed my two children to do their A/Ls. Those two were the biggest help I received within Sri Lanka.

For two years, you have been seeking a meeting with the president?

I tried to hand over a letter. I was not allowed. In the end, I handed it over to the security at his official residence. I don’t know if he got it. There is no reply either.

You received a foreign award?

Yes. For being one of the 13 most courageous women in the world. It was organized by the US State Dept. and civil society organizations. They have been doing that for many years. I was able to be one of the 13 in 2014.

Do you personally believe Prageeth is still living?

That is irrelevant to me. I do not think about that. But, for me, Prageeth still lives. I share everything with Prageeth. Prageeth is not here with me physically. But, I share everything with Prageeth. I tell Prageeth about every sadness that comes my way. So, I think even if I cannot see Prageeth with my eyes, Prageeth remains with me all of the time.

Basuru Jayawardena

I will take maximum effort to prevent cruelty to animals: Faiszer

Thursday, July 27, 2017 

Provincial Councils and Local Government Minister Faiszer Musthapha said he would take maximum effort to prevent cruelty to animals.

The minister made this observation when he met representatives of organisations campaigning for the prevention of cruelty to animals at the ministry.

The representatives arrived in a protest march against the killing of stray dogs in the Sri Jayawardenapura and Moratuwa campuses.

The minister said that there is an organised campaign to blame and discredit him with regard to stray dogs being killed in the country. He said, "I am used to brick brats as well as praise being showered on me.

This is a Sinhala Buddhist country. If animals are slaughtered, it is essential to complain to the authorities to conduct an investigation into the matter.

There are provisions in the law to investigate such matters." Minister Musthapha said holding placards and chanting slogans on the streets will not solve the problem.

"Anyone can make representations and have discussions on the issues with me," he said.