The Resistible Rise of Xi Jinping

China's president radically changed his country, and the Communist Party, through skill, determination — and a series of lucky breaks.

BY SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT-OCTOBER 19, 2017

China’s 19th Party Congress began Wednesday with a three-and-a-half-hour speech by Xi Jinping, a telling sign of a man who knows he has to be listened to. The general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party — usually referred to in English by his far less important title of “president” — is the heart of a weeklong love fest in Beijing as officials gather to determine the makeup of the leadership for the next five years and more.

The Resistible Rise of Xi Jinping.docx by Thavam on Scribd

Exclusive: Returning Rohingya may lose land, crops under Myanmar plans

Simon Lewis, Thu Thu Aung, Kyaw Soe Oo-OCTOBER 22, 2017

SITTWE, Myanmar (Reuters) - Rohingya Muslims who return to Myanmar after fleeing to Bangladesh are unlikely to be able to reclaim their land, and may find their crops have been harvested and sold by the government, according to officials and plans seen by Reuters.

FILE PHOTO: Rohingya refugees who fled from Myanmar wait to be let through by Bangladeshi border guards after crossing the border in Palang Khali, Bangladesh October 16, 2017. REUTERS/ Zohra Bensemra/File Photo

Nearly 600,000 Rohingya have crossed the border since Aug. 25, when coordinated Rohingya insurgent attacks on security posts sparked a ferocious counteroffensive by the Myanmar army.

The United Nations says killings, arson and rape carried out by troops and ethnic Rakhine Buddhist mobs since late August amount to a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya.

Civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has no control over the military, has pledged that anyone sheltering in Bangladesh who can prove they were Myanmar residents can return.

Reuters has interviewed six Myanmar officials involved with repatriation and resettlement plans. While the plans are not yet finalised, their comments reflect the government’s thinking on how Suu Kyi’s repatriation pledge will be implemented.

 

Jamil Ahmed, who spoke to Reuters at a refugee camp in Bangladesh, is one of many Rohingya who hope to go back.

Describing how he fled his home in northern Rakhine state in late August, Ahmed said one of the few things he grabbed was a stack of papers - land contracts and receipts - that might prove ownership of the fields and crops he was leaving behind.

“I didn’t carry any ornaments or jewels,” said the 35-year-old. “I’ve only got these documents. In Myanmar, you need to present documents to prove everything.”

The stack of papers, browning and torn at the edges, may not be enough, however, to regain the land in Kyauk Pan Du village, where he grew potatoes, chilli plants, almonds and rice.

“It depends on them. There is no land ownership for those who don’t have citizenship,” said Kyaw Lwin, agriculture minister in Rakhine state, when asked in an interview whether refugees who returned to Myanmar could reclaim land and crops.

Despite his land holdings, Myanmar does not recognise Ahmed as a citizen. Nearly all the more than 1 million Rohingya who lived in Myanmar before the recent exodus are stateless, despite many tracing their families in the country for generations.

Officials have made plans to harvest, and possibly sell, thousands of acres of crops left behind by the fleeing Rohingya, according to state government documents reviewed by Reuters.

    Myanmar also intends to settle most refugees who return to Rakhine state in new “model villages”, rather than on the land they previously occupied, an approach criticised in the past by the United Nations as effectively creating permanent camps.

The government has not asked for help from any international agencies, who are calling for any repatriation to be voluntary and to the refugees’ place of origin.

“OWNERLESS” CROPS

The exodus of 589,000 Rohingya - and about 30,000 non-Muslims - from the conflict zone in northern Rakhine has left some 71,500 acres of planted rice paddy abandoned and in need of harvesting by January, according to plans drawn up by state officials.

Tables in the documents, reviewed by Reuters, divide the land into paddy sown by “national races” - meaning Myanmar citizens - or “Bengalis,” a term widely used in Myanmar to refer to the Rohingya, but which they reject as implying they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

Kyaw Lwin, the state minister, confirmed the plans, and said there was a total of 45,000 acres of “ownerless Bengali land”.

    Two dozen combine harvesters operated by officials from the agriculture ministry will begin cutting stalks this month in areas under military control.

    The machines will be able to harvest about 14,400 acres according to official calculations contained in the plans. It is unclear what will become of the remaining crop, but officials told Reuters they would try to harvest all the paddy, recruiting additional labour to harvest manually if necessary.

An acre of paddy in Myanmar typically makes more than $300 at market, meaning the state will gain millions of dollars worth of rice.

The harvested rice will be transported to government stores, where it would either be donated to those displaced by the conflict or sold, Rakhine state secretary Tin Maung Swe told Reuters by phone.

“The land was abandoned. There is no one to reap that, so the government ordered to harvest it,” he said.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) deputy Asia director Phil Robertson, said the government should at least guarantee that the rice would be used for humanitarian support and not for profit.

“You can’t call a rice crop ‘ownerless’ just because you used violence and arson to drive the owners out of the country,” he said.

‘MODEL VILLAGES’

Many refugees are fearful to return and are sceptical of Myanmar’s guarantees. Those who do decide to cross back into Myanmar will first be received at one of two centres, according to government plans reviewed by Reuters, before mostly being relocated to model villages.

International donors, who have fed and cared for more than 120,000 mostly Rohingya “internally displaced persons” (IDPs) in supposedly temporary camps in Rakhine since violence in 2012, have told Myanmar that they will not support more camps, according to aid workers and diplomats.

“The establishment of new temporary camps or camp-like settlements carries many risks, including that the returnees and IDPs could end up being confined to these camps for a long time,” said U.N. spokesman Stanislav Saling in an emailed response.

Satellite imagery shows 288 villages, mostly Rohingya settlements, have been fully or partially razed by fires since Aug. 25, according to HRW.

Refugees say the army and Buddhist mobs were responsible for most of the arson. The government says Rohingya militants and even residents themselves burned the homes for propaganda.

The hamlets where Rohingya farmers lived were “not systematic”, and so should be rebuilt in smaller settlements of 1,000 households set out in straight rows to enable development, said Soe Aung, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement.

“In some villages there are three houses here, four houses over there. For example, there’s no road for fire engines when fire burns the villages,” Soe Aung said.

IDENTITY CHECKS

    Those who decide to cross back into Myanmar will first be received at one of two centres, according to government plans reviewed by Reuters.

    At the centres, officials said, the returnees will fill out a 16-point form that will be cross-checked with local authorities’ records. Immigration officials have for years visited Rohingya households at least annually for checks, photographing family members.

For refugees who lost all their documents, the government would compare their photos to those that immigration authorities have on file, said Myint Kyaing, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population.

Officials will accept as evidence “national verification” cards handed out in an ongoing government effort to register Rohingya that falls short of offering them citizenship. The card has been widely rejected by Rohingya community leaders, who say they treat life-long residents like new immigrants.

“We are not going to go back like this,” said Mushtaq Ahmed, 57, a farmer from Myin Hlut village now living in the Tenkhali refugee camp in Bangladesh, where Jamil Ahmed is also staying.

“If I can go back to my house, and get my land back, only then I will go. We invested all our money into those paddy fields. They are killing so many of us with swords and bullets, and killing the rest of us like this.”

Myanmar: Rohingya Crisis — Denigrating Suu Kyi does not Help

Suu Kyi herself had said that the issue has to be handled more delicately, lately as it has received extra attention from the international community. It is more difficult to resolve any problem when all are watching it. This is true!

by Dr. S. Chandrasekahran- Oct 22, 2017

( October 22, 2017, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) It is rather sad that human rights activists, western media and many other leaders of repute have made a concerted effort to denigrate Suu Kyi without realising her constraints in dealing with a humanitarian problem ( Rohingya) that seems to get out of hand. The irony is that more she is criticised, more she is admired and supported by her people and more importantly the Army in Myanmar. Not that she is indifferent but she has many other correlated problems in dealing with the crisis. An Adviser to her had said that “she is appalled by what she has seen and she does care deeply” about the crisis.

What is more, increased western chorus against Suu Kyi would only encourage the Rohingyan leader Al Ullal, trained in Pakistan and flush with Saudi funds to order another strike to scuttle any chances of return of the Rohingyan refugees from Bangladesh!

One analyst of RSIS had rightly said that the international reaction to lambast Suu Kyi is unhelpful. It is only feeding the ultra nationalist rhetoric that a democratic Myanmar already faces!

It is not clear what the international community wants. Do they want to destroy the infant democracy that it still in the transition stage? Do they want to renew the sanctions against Myanmar which will only throw the country back into Chinese arms? This time India too may not abide by any coercive sanctions. Is it not correct not to raise the pitch but allow the Myanmar government to find its way to seek a solution of a problem that has been festering for over a few decades? The best approach would be to leave Suu Kyi alone.

The UNHCR had called the exodus of Rohingyas as a text book example of “ethnic cleansing.” Not that it matters, but the city of Oxford had decided to withdraw an honorary title it bestowed on Suu Kyi in 1997 on grounds of her inaction in the crisis. They perhaps are not aware that it is their country Britain that was the cause of the present day crisis!

While the two countries that are directly affected by the crisis Myanmar and Bangladesh seem to be talking to each other and finding ways and means to solve the crisis, it is surprising that other countries who are not directly involved seem to be raising the pitch on the crisis.

The Iranian Deputy Parliament Speaker Ali Motahar declared last month that the Muslim world should form an expeditionary force to go to the rescue of the Rohingya. He threatened that the crimes of Myanmar government will not be halted without using military force! The Saudis already have an NATO like standing army.

Towards the end of September, the National Security Adviser U Thaung Tun addressed the UN Security Council and made a very objective and sober analysis of the situation in Rakhine Province in Myanmar. He said

1. One needs to recognise that the recent violence in Rakhine State was triggered by the attacks carried out by the so-called ARSA (Arakan Salvation Army) terrorist group.

2. The attacks resulted in the death of 12 security officers, one immigration officer one soldier and a number of innocent civilians and the Security forces were obliged to defend themselves.

3. It is to be stressed that there is no ethnic cleansing and genocide in Myanmar. Myanmar is home to over 135 officially recognised ethnic groups each with its own culture and to a variety of religions who have been living in harmony throughout history.

4. The Muslims are not a minority in Rakhine and they constitute 95 percent of the total population.

5. The villagers in the affected areas are living in fear of retaliation by the ARSA following the revelation that a large number of Hindu villagers have been massacred and buried in mass graves.

6. In spite of assurance of assistance and security many are still crossing over to Bangladesh.

7. Myanmar is willing to start the verification process that was once tried in 1993.

8. The government has launched a number of initiatives that includes an implementation committee for dealing with the recommendations of Kofi Annan Commission. The Report of Kofi Annan represents a “viable” road map to forge forward.

In an indirect reference to international criticism, he appealed to the international community to join hands with them to ensure that democracy takes firm roots at a critical juncture in the life of their young democracy.

The reaction of the Bangladesh government has been very sober and that is one country that is most affected. It is said that over 522000 refugees have officially registered themselves as refugees after crossing over. The speech of Prime minister Sheikh Hasina was without rhetoric and her proposals to move forward in the UN General Assembly are practical and doable. She appealed for the return of all the refugees and full implementation of Kofi Annan Commission Report.

While efforts are being made to bring back normalcy, the man Ata Ullah who has brought untold misery to thousands of Rohingyas by ordering the attack a day prior to the release of Kofi Annan’s report is said to be determined to continue his activities to liberate the community. A Reuter’s report of 6 October indicates that some of those who participated in the attacks now in refugee ranks have declared their intention to go back and attack “again and again.” There will be serious repercussions if another attack takes place.

An article in the Atlantic has rightly identified that problem of the Rohingya’s crisis is one of identity. Whereas the humanitarian groups and the Western Nations see the “self-identifying Rohingyas as the world’s most persecuted minority, the government of Myanmar and majority of its people see “the handiwork of a foreign group with a separatist agenda, fueled by Islam and funded overseas. It is this difference in perception that will make the Rohingya issue all the more difficult to resolve in the near future.

Suu Kyi herself had said that the issue has to be handled more delicately, lately as it has received extra attention from the international community. It is more difficult to resolve any problem when all are watching it. This is true!

Given the recent violence in Rakhine State and undue international attention, the fragile peace process to which Suu Kyi has set her heart is likely to be impeded. The UNFC’s planned meeting had to be postponed. The next Panglong Conference due in November will also have to be postponed. The Army meanwhile is continuing its operations against the KIO and thereby throwing the latter more into the arms of the Chinese supported Wa Group. The Shan State/Army Group has already warned that the situation in the country will worsen if the peace process is stalled.

Suu Kyi has her priorities. In her address to the diplomats in September, she warned that Myanmar’s fragile democracy faces an uphill battle and huge challenges. She should be allowed to attend to these challenges. Denigrating her will not help.

World Campaign to Clean Torrents of Plastic Dumped in the Oceans

"Oceans: our allies against climate change. How marine ecosystems help preserve our world." Credit: FAO

By Baher Kamal-Sunday, October 22, 2017

ROME, Oct 20 2017 (IPS) - With 30 countries from Kenya to Indonesia and from Canada to Brazil now involved in the world campaign to beat pollution by countering the torrents of plastic trash that are degrading oceans and endangering the life they sustain, the UN has strengthened its massive efforts to clean up the seas, which are the Earth’s main buffer against climate change.

The 30 countries – all members of UN Environment Programme (UNEP)’s #CleanSeas campaign – account for about 40 per cent of the world’s coastlines–they are drawing up laws, establishing marine reserves, banning plastic bags and gathering up the waste choking their beaches and reefs.

Five ways the oceans help fight climate change and its effects:


1. Trapping carbon: Mangroves, coral reefs, salt marshes and sea-grasses make up just 1 per cent of the ocean’s seabed, but they contain between 50-70 per cent of the carbon stored in the oceans.
- Like forests, marine ecosystems take greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere and trap them, some of it for thousands of years. As such, these ecosystems are known as “blue carbon sinks.”

2. Reducing coastal erosion: Overtime, waves carry away sediment from the shore. When this happens more quickly or forcefully, for example because of large storms, it has the potential of causing major damage to homes and coastal infrastructure.
- Sea grasses may look like our grass fields on land, but they are actually flowering plants that live in the salty environments of the sea floor and help hold sediment in place. Salt marshes, mangroves and coral reefs also help in slowing erosion and protecting shorelines.

3. Protecting marine life and biodiversity: Coral reefs occupy less than 0.1 per cent of the world's ocean surface, yet they provide a home for at least 25 per cent of all marine biodiversity. Often popular tourist attractions, coral reefs are the least secret of the ocean’s secret weapons. They draw people in to observe the wealth of marine life that they host.
- However, coral reefs are delicate ecosystems that are increasingly strained by human activity. Careless tourism, water pollution, overfishing, rising temperature and acidity are all damaging these ecosystems, sometimes beyond repair.

4. Forming barriers to storms: Mangroves, salt-tolerant shrubs or small trees that grow in saline water of coastal areas, create barriers to destructive waves and hold sediments in place with their underwater root systems. This protects coastal communities in times of cyclones or other tropical storms.
- In fact, scientists concluded that mangroves could have reduced the damages caused by the 2008 Nargis cyclone in Myanmar, where parts of the coastline had lost up to 50 per cent of its mangrove cover.

5. Slowing down destructive waves: Salt marshes are coastal wetlands that are flooded and drained by salt water brought in by the tides. Salt marshes are well-known for protecting the coast from soil erosion.
- However, they are also an effective defence against storm surges and devastating waves. Salt marshes can reduce wave sizes by up to 20 per cent.
- As the waves move through and around these marshes, the vegetation quells the force of the water and buffers the effects of these waves on coastal communities, FAO reports, adding that once viewed as wastelands, salt marshes can rival tropical rainforests in terms of biologically productive habitats, as they serve as nurseries and refuges for a wide variety of marine life.

SOURCE: FAO’s Guide to the Ocean

The populous nations of East and South-East Asia account for most of the plastic trash entering the global ocean, UNEP reports, adding that in order to address this menace at its source, Indonesia has pledged to reduce its generation of plastic trash by 70 per cent by 2030, while the Philippines plans new laws targeting single-use plastics.

Human Addiction To Plastic Bags

Humanity’s unhealthy addiction to throwaway plastics bags is a particular target, the UN environment agency warns, while informing that countries including Kenya, France, Jordan, Madagascar and the Maldives have committed to banning plastic bags or restricting consumers to re-usable versions for which they have to pay. See: Plastic No More… Also in Kenya

“Legislation to press companies and citizens to change their wasteful habits is often part of broader government strategies to foster responsible production and consumption – a key step in the global shift toward sustainable development.”

According to UNEP, Belgium and Brazil, for instance, are both working on national action plans to curb marine pollution. Costa Rica has embarked on a five-year strategy to improve waste management that includes a push to reduce the use of plastics.

Eight Billion Tonnes of Plastic… A Year

The flow of pollution means detritus such as drink bottles and flip-flops as well as tiny plastic fragments including micro-beads used in cosmetics are concentrating in the oceans and washing up on the most remote shorelines, from deserted Pacific islets to the Arctic Circle, the UN specialised body informs.

“Humans have already dumped billions of tonnes of plastic, and we are adding it to the ocean at a rate of 8 million tonnes a year,” UNEP warns, adding that as well as endangering fish, birds and other creatures who mistake it for food or become entangled in it, plastic waste has also entered the human food chain with health consequences that are not yet fully understood.

It also harms tourist destinations and provides breeding grounds for mosquitoes carrying diseases including dengue and Zika.

The #CleanSeas campaign aims to “turn the tide on plastic” by inspiring action from governments, businesses and individuals on ocean pollution. See also: UN Declares War on Ocean Plastic

Pollution is the theme of the 2017 United Nations Environment Assembly, which is meeting in Nairobi, Kenya from 4 to 6 December.

Forming barriers to storms. Credit: FAO

The Main Buffer against Climate Change

Another UN agency reminds that while it is well known that forests, especially rainforests, are key allies in the fight against climate change as they absorb greenhouse gas emissions, oceans are the earth’s main buffer against it.

In fact, about 25 per cent of the greenhouse gases that we emit actually gets absorbed by the oceans, as does over 90 per cent of the extra heat produced by human-induced climate change, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports.

“However, oceans are also one of the most affected by it.”

According to the Rome-based UN agency, human activities are resulting in acidification and increasing water temperatures that are changing our oceans and the plant and animal life within them.

More Plastic than Fish?

The UN estimates that there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050 – with over 5 trillion pieces of plastic weighing more than 260,000 tonnes currently floating in the world’s oceans. Meanwhile, harmful fishing subsidies that contribute to overfishing are estimated to be as high as 35 billion dollars.

Coral reefs and coastal environments in tropical regions, including mangroves and salt marshes, are in particular danger, warns the UN food and agriculture agency.

“These ecosystems store much of the carbon, which then remains in the oceans for hundreds of years, and are thus one of our “allies” against climate change.”

However, since the 1940s, over 30 per cent of mangroves, close to 25 per cent of salt marshes and over 30 per cent of sea-grass meadows have been lost.

“Right when we need them the most, we are losing these crucial ecosystems.”

UN #CleanSeas campaign aims to combat marine plastic litter

Did You Know That…

FAO tells some key facts about the oceans:

— The ocean has it all: from microscopic life to the largest animal that has ever lived on earth, from the colourless to the iridescent, from the frozen to the boiling and from the sunlit to the mysterious dark of the deepest parts of the planet.

— The ocean is the largest ecosystem on earth and provides 99 per cent of the living space for life. It is a fascinating, but often little explored place.

— The ocean affects us in many different ways. It provides us with an important source of food and other natural resources. It influences our climate and weather, provides us with space for recreation and gives us inspiration for stories, artwork and music.

— The list of benefits we get from the ocean is almost endless! But we are also affecting the ocean.

— Overfishing is reducing fish populations, threatening the supply of nutritious food and changing marine food webs.

— Our waste is found in massive floating garbage patches and plastics have been found from the arctic to the bottom of the deepest places in the ocean.

— Climate change and its related impacts, such as ocean acidification, are affecting the survival of some marine species.

— Coastal development is destroying and degrading important marine habitats. Even recreation is known to impact marine habitats and species.

— We need a clean and healthy ocean to support our own health and survival, even if we don’t live anywhere near it.

Now you know! It would good to also remember that humankind managed to survive over millions and millions of years… without plastic!

'Handful of changes' make cancer

19 October 2017

 British scientists have worked out how many changes it takes to transform a healthy cell into a cancer.

The team, at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, showed the answer was a tiny handful, between one and 10 mutations depending on the type of tumour.

It has been one of the most hotly debated issues in cancer science for decades.

The findings, published in the journal Cell, could improve treatment for patients.

If you played spot the difference between a cancer and healthy tissue, you could find tens of thousands of differences - or mutations - in the DNA.

Some are driving the cancer's growth, while others are just along for the ride. So which ones are important?

Root cause

The researchers analysed the DNA from 7,664 tumours to find "driver mutations" that allow a cell to be more selfish, aggressive and cancerous.

They showed it could take:

• just one mutation to drive thyroid and testicular cancers
• four mutations to make a breast or liver cancer
• 10 mutations to create a colorectal cancer.

Dr Peter Campbell, one of the researchers, told the BBC News website: "We've known about the genetic basis of cancer for many decades now, but how many mutations are responsible has been incredibly hotly debated.

"What we've been able to do in this study is really provide the first unbiased numbers.

"And it seems that of the thousands of mutations in a cancer genome, only a small handful are responsible for dictating the way the cell behaves, what makes it cancerous."

Half the mutations identified were in sets of genetic instructions - or genes - that had never been implicated in cancer before.

Therapy

The long-term goal is to advance precision cancer treatment.

If doctors know which few mutations, out of thousands, were driving a patient's cancer, it could allow drugs that specifically targeted that mutation to be used.

Drugs such as herceptin and Braf inhibitors are already used to attack specific mutations in tumours.

The researchers were able to pick out the mutations that were driving the growth of cancer by turning to Charles Darwin and evolutionary theory.

In essence, driver mutations should appear more often in tumours than "neutral" mutations that do not make the cell cancerous.

This is because the forces of natural selection give an evolutionary advantage to mutations that help a cell grow and divide more readily.

Dr Nicholas McGranahan, from the Cancer Research UK and the UCL Cancer Institute, said the approach was "elegant".

He said: "Cancer is a disease that evolves and changes over time, and it makes sense to use ideas like this from species evolution to work out the genetic faults that cause cancer to grow.

"But as this study focuses on one part of cancer evolution, it can only give us insight into part of the puzzle.

"Other components such as how DNA is packaged into chromosomes are also key in how a tumour progresses and will need to be looked at to give us a clearer picture of how cancer evolves."

Follow James on Twitter.

PURSUING JUSTICE

President Maithripala Sirisena

 

Saturday, October 21, 2017

One Tamil intellectual said “Later, when the President and the Prime Minister formed Common Governance despite their political differences – my respect for Mr. Sirisena went up. It is not easy to maintain such a partnership in the current disorder in Sri Lanka.

When I read the following passages in the news paper articles, my respect for Mr. Sirisena went up many notches: it said - President Maithripala Sirisena took his security detail by surprise after he threw caution to the wind and abruptly alighted from his official vehicle to confront a group of protesters in Jaffna yesterday. The President was in Jaffna to inaugurate the National Tamil Language Day celebrations at the Jaffna Hindu College when the incident took place. “If you stage protests against me and I am weakened, the devil will get an opportunity,” President Maithripala Sirisena told a gathering in Jaffna yesterday. President Sirisena was heard as saying: “Come let us discuss and see how the matter can be solved. The Tamils voted for me, you must remember.”
Sivajilingam replied: “So how do you pay back your gratitude to the people who supported you.” Sivajilingam told the President that 160 Tamil prisoners held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) are languishing in prisons without trial.” - Mr. Sivajilingam was defeated by Mr. Sirisena who has endured and continues to endure pain to remain in that marriage with a party that has been for a long time, the Political Opposition in his mind. My Energies are with Mr. Sirisena in this issue.”

It was impressive from both sides as Tamils weeping and angry but not even word of abuse thrown to Sirisena. However, Defence State Minister Ruwan Wijewardene insisted recently that prisoners kept under PTA cannot be released.

Hartal campaign in North

He reiterated that the remanded LTTE suspects, who had allegedly committed serious crimes, will not be freed without a judicial process despite the Hartal campaigns in the North and elsewhere. However it is not clear whether he meant the few who are charged with some evidence or the entire 158 Tamil prisoners who are kept under PTA; because many of them have only their confessions ‘against’ them. The State Minister observed that the Hartal campaign in the North is politically motivated and a group seeking political mileage is behind it. Obviously keeping prisoners, years and years without formal charges, will automatically become serious political issue in a situation of nationality discrimination is involved.

Wijewardene made these observations speaking to the media after an event at a school in Biyagama. The State Minister pointed out that several TNA members are trying to disrupt the day-to-day life of the people in the North by organising a Hartal campaign. It is true that these prisoners have become political problem not only in the north but also in the south. They are prisoners accused of fighting for liberation of Tamil home land using violence and terror.

The Minister pointed out that there are no ‘political prisoners’ as claimed by the TNA, explained that the investigations have revealed that those prisoners were involved in serious crimes during the time of war. That is not true; several of them are already accused of crimes against the state while others have not been charged so far. He noted that those prisoners could not be released without a judicial inquiry. “If there are delays in the judicial process, those must be rectified. However the prisoners must go through the judicial process and either be convicted or released at the end of it,” he said.
However Minister Rajitha did not agree with Wijewardene. Rajitha said “Apart from those who face legal issues for their criminal activities, the government should take legal steps either to charge them or release them. The issue of political prisoners should be resolved once and for all.” Health Minister Senaratne’s remarks have come as the families of these prisoners stepped up their protest campaigns in the north and in the south demanding for the early release of their loved ones. Rajitha indicated “The delay in releasing the Tamil political prisoners will seriously hamper the efforts for national reconciliation.”

As a top Cabinet Minister he insisted that the government should act fast on releasing the Tamil political prisoners who are being held for several years without proper charges. “The government has to take an urgent decision in this regard. They cannot keep these political prisoners forever,” Cabinet Spokesman Minister Rajitha Senaratne told the media. Pointing out that similar political prisoners of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) were released under general amnesty after its 1971 and 1988 insurrections in the South, he said “therefore, it is incumbent on the government to take a faster decision on the release of Tamil political prisoners.”

Tamil political prisoners

Meanwhile, the Leader of the Opposition R. Sambanthan raised the issue of Tamil political prisoners in Parliament recently and demanded the government to take a flexible approach to this issue. He said although the Foreign Minister has given a pledge to the UN Human Rights High Commissioner to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), “the Tamil political prisoners are still being held under this draconian law.”

“Only 19 people have been released in the past. Many others are still being held under the PTA despite many protests. How can the government detain them under the PTA when Foreign Minister himself is highly critical of it? The PTA is against the law and we cannot accept any legal action under it,” Sambanthan said. An unnecessary complication has been created by the transfer of some cases from Vavuniya to Anuradhapura. If witnesses needed protection, such protection could have been provided without the cases being transferred.

He very strongly urges that these Prisoners be released without any further delay.

At the same time Sambanthan the Leader of the Opposition wrote to President Sirisena on behalf of the above category of prisoners who have been agitating for their release for a long period of time. It said

“I wish to state the following: –

l These persons are held in custody under the Prevention of Terrorism Law irrespective of whether they have been convicted, have been charged, or have not yet been charged. They have been arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Law and all action taken against them has been in terms of that Law.

l It has been accepted by the Sri Lankan State both domestically and internationally that the said Prevention of Terrorism Law is draconian, obnoxious, and should therefore be regarded as obsolete.

The Sri Lankan State has made several commitments

l It has been accepted by the Sri Lankan State both domestically and internationally that the said Prevention of Terrorism Law is draconian, obnoxious, and should therefore be regarded as obsolete.

The Sri Lankan State has made several commitments both domestically and internationally that the said Law will be repealed, and that a new Law will be enacted in keeping with acceptable domestic and international norms.

l The Sri Lankan State is yet to fulfill this commitment, but that does not derogate from the Sri Lanka State’s commitment that the said Law should not remain on the Statute Book.

l The only evidence available against most of these persons are confessions extracted from them against their will under the Prevention of Terrorism Law which would be inadmissible against them in normal Court of Law. Many of the cases have been postponed because the Prosecution is not ready to proceed with the Cases.

l Almost all of them have been in custody for very long periods of time, for as long as, they would have been sentenced, if sentence was passed on them shortly after being taken into custody.

l The families of these persons in custody have suffered for very long periods of time, without the support of their bread winners. This vitally important factor has not been given due consideration.
l Quite apart from the pernicious nature of the Prevention of Terrorism Law, persons in similar situations such as persons taken into custody during the insurrections of the J.V.P have been granted an Amnesty and released. It is not understood why the same principle cannot be applied in regard to these prisoners.

l These cases cannot be considered as coming purely under the purview of the Attorney General’s Department. With due respect to the Hon. Attorney General as the Chief Legal Adviser of the state, these cases have a certain political dimension and cannot be addressed as a purely legal issue. It can be justifiably stated that if the Sri Lanka’s national question had been reasonably addressed in time, many of the persons in custody, would not have been in their present position and would have been useful citizens. This circumstance makes it obligatory that you address this issue politically too. The issue not being addressed politically is a strong impediment to reconciliation and the restoration of goodwill and harmony.

l An unnecessary complication has been created by the transfer of some cases from Vavuniya to Anuradhapura. If witnesses needed protection, such protection could have been provided without the cases being transferred.

I have to very strongly urge that these Prisoners be released without any further delay.”

The transfer of cases from Vavuniya to Anuradhapura raises the hilarious question whether Lanka got district wise divided judiciary, at Anuradhapura Dutu Gemunu judiciary while Vavuniya is still under Elara judiciary! 

Death of Jacintha Peiris

By Manekshaw-2017-10-21

A few days ago 58 years old Jacintha Peiris of Mannar died of heart attack following her futile attempt in search for her husband Amalan Leon and son Roshan Leon. Jacintha was in Colombo to attend a Court case hearing last week over the disappearances of her husband and son.

The case hearing was on some identity cards found at an alleged secret camp believed to have been operated by the Navy and the identity card of Jacintha's son Roshan Leon was also seized by the investigators who are currently investigating the issue with the arrest of former Navy Spokesman D. K. P. Dassanayake who is a prime suspect believed to be involved in the abductions carried out in the suburbs of Colombo.

Jacintha was one of the hundreds of persons from the Northern and the Eastern Provinces who have been in search of their beloved ones who were involuntarily disappeared when the separatist war was in progress.

Even now for the past several months agitations have been carried out in the form of hunger strikes and marches in various parts of the Northern and the Eastern Provinces by the family members of the involuntarily disappeared persons seeking justice from the Government over the disappearances.
Jacintha who died of a heart attack had come to Colombo last week and after attending her case hearing had come out of the Court House and shouted that it was going to be her last appearance and she won't be coming to the Court in the future.

According to the Association of Family Members of Involuntarily Disappeared Persons, Jacintha was the seventh person to die, disheartened over the disappearance of their loved ones.

Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga was the first to appoint the Presidential Commissions covering every province in the country to look into the complaints received on involuntarily disappeared persons soon after she came into power in 2004.

However, the final reports of those Presidential Commissions presented to former President Kumaratunga were considered as another political 'gimmickry' with no constructive outcome from the sittings chaired by eminent persons of the legal fraternity and the academic field.

The previous regime, of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, appointed a Commission headed by retired High Court Judge Maxwell Paranagama in August 2013, on the complaints of abductions and disappearances.

The Maxwell Paranagama Commission lasted for two years and the Commissioner in his final report released in October 2015 mentioned categorically that the Commissioners listening to the complaints and the grievances of the family members of the involuntarily disappeared persons were very conscious of the fact that those giving evidence were traumatized and in some cases were giving evidence for the third or fourth time.

So it is clear how far the 58 years old Jacintha from Mannar would have been traumatized and the manner she shouted finally at the Court saying that she won't be coming hereafter in search of her husband and son to Colombo, had proved that the Maxwell Paranagama Commission had very rightly pointed out the traumatic mind frame of those who appeared before the Presidential Commission and how they were tired of appearing before the Commissions and other legal institutions for more than two to three times.

The involuntary disappearances were the order of the day from the time the separatist war started in the North and the East.

At the early stages of the war when law and order collapsed in the North and the East the rivalry among the Tamil militant outfits also led to enormous amount of abductions and disappearances.

However, it is sad to understand from the evidence recorded in a mega scale at the Presidential Commissions given by the family members of the disappeared persons that most of the people including young women disappeared after they were arrested or taken into custody when they surrendered to the Security Forces.

The disappearances of a large number of persons who surrendered to the Armed Forces at the final phase of the separatist war in May 2009 still remain a mystery.

Even the relatives of those who surrendered to the Armed Forces claim that they had seen them, having been taken in buses and trucks to undisclosed locations.

Jacintha Peiris's death occurred at a time when three Tamil LTTE suspects in remand custody staged a fast unto death at the Anuradhapura Prison demanding that their cases should be taken up at the Vavuniya High Court and they should also be released as early as possible.

In the meantime, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was in tears when he saw his eldest son Namal in remand custody at the Tangalle Prison before he was released on bail last week.

Namal who is a lawyer by profession and a parliamentarian commenting on his remand custody said that it was terrifying with rain water coming into the cell and there were even bugs inside his cell.

So while a few days of detention of Namal Rajapaksa, highlighting the plight of the Tamil political prisoners put behind bars for years without any legal action, the death of Jacintha Peiris of Mannar clearly indicate how far the cry of the traumatized families of the involuntarily disappeared persons remains unheard.