JANUARY 10, 2018
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistani journalist, known for criticising his country’s military establishment, said on Wednesday he had narrowly escaped being kidnapped by armed men, in an incident that came months after he complained of being harassed by security services.
Taha Siddiqui, who reports for France 24 and is the Pakistan bureau chief of Indian television channel WION, said the attempted abduction took place while he was being driven by taxi to the airport serving the capital Islamabad and the neighbouring, larger garrison city of Rawalpindi.
“I was on my way to airport today at 8:20 am when 10-12 armed men stopped my cab & forcibly tried to abduct me. I managed to escape. Safe and with police now,” Siddiqui tweeted from a friend’s Twitter account early in the morning.
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“Looking for support in any way possible #StopEnforcedDisappearances,” he added in the same tweet.
Rights groups have denounced the kidnappings of several social media activists over the past year as attempts to intimidate and silence critics of the Pakistan’s security establishment.
Last year, five Pakistani bloggers went missing for several weeks before four of them were released. All four fled abroad and two afterwards told media that they were tortured by a state intelligence agency during their disappearance.
The military has staunchly denied playing a role in any enforced disappearances, as has the civilian government. In the past, militants have also targeted journalists.
Siddiqui spoke to Reuters from a police station where he was filing a report on the incident, and described how his taxi was stopped on the highway when another vehicle swerved, and braked suddenly in front of it.
Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui, who escaped a kidnapping attempt, waits to be taken to the hospital after he made a statement to police in Rawalpindi, Pakistan January 10, 2018. REUTERS/Caren Firouz
About a dozen men armed with rifles and revolvers pulled him out of the cab, beat him and “threatened to kill” him.
“They threw me in the back of the vehicle in which I had been travelling, but the door on the other side was open,” Siddiqui said.
“I jumped out and ran and was able to get into a taxi that was nearby, whose driver then floored it.”
Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui, who escaped a kidnapping attempt, waits to be taken to the hospital after he made a statement to police in Rawalpindi, Pakistan January 10, 2018. REUTERS/Caren Firouz
In a police statement, seen by Reuters, Siddiqui said during the kidnap attempt he appealed for help from a military vehicle that was passing by.
“I saw a military vehicle and shouted for help but one of the abductors gestured (the vehicle) to move on and they did,” Siddiqui said in the police statement, adding he had previously been “intimidated” by civilian and military security officials.
Siddiqui pleaded with police to help him recover his personal belongings - laptop computer, phone, hard drives, passport and suitcase - and provide him and his family with “police protection”.
“My life is under threat,” he said in the statement.
Last year, the Committee to Protect Journalists said “Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency should stop harassing Taha Siddiqui”, referring to the civilian agency that last year began a crackdown on online criticism of the powerful military.
Siddiqui last year filed a court petition to stop the agency from harassing him.
Additional reporting by Saad Sayeed; Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore
Myanmar's State Counsellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi looks on during the opening session of the ASEAN and European Union summit at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay, metro Manila, Philippines on November 14, 2017. Source: Reuters/Dondi Tawatao
WHILE there have been calls to revoke Aung San Suu Kyi’s Nobel Peace Prize and she has been stripped of accolades like the Freedom of Oxford, the Burmese leader has now been given another, albeit dubious, honour.
Responding to US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a so-called “Most Dishonest & Corrupt Media Awards of the Year” via Twitter on Jan 2, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released its own Press Oppressors awards.
I will be announcing THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR on Monday at 5:00 o’clock. Subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media. Stay tuned!
State Counsellor Suu Kyi was recognised alongside autocrats like Xi Jinping of China, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, in being awarded “winner” in the category of Biggest Backslider in Press Freedom by CPJ.
The press freedom non-profit wrote that “after Suu Kyi’s party took power in 2016, the last five journalists in jail were pardoned and hopes for media freedom were high.”
“However, most of the legal structure that has long restricted the press remains in place and journalists continue to be imprisoned,” it said.
“Security officials obstruct and harass journalists trying to cover what the UN has termed ‘a textbook example of ethnic cleansing’ by authorities in the country’s northern Rakhine State.”
(From left) Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who are based in Myanmar, pose for a picture at the Reuters office in Yangon, Myanmar, on Dec 11, 2017. Source: Reuters/Antoni Slodkowski
The CPJ pointed to the arrest of Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo in December as evidence of shrinking press freedom in the nascent democracy under Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.
The two potentially face up to 14 years’ imprisonment if convicted under the country’s Colonial-era Official Secrets Act.
Reuters’ Editor-in-Chief Stephen J. Adler wrote in a statement this week that: “Their arrest and continued incarceration represent an egregious attack on press freedom — preventing them, and deterring other journalists, from reporting independently in Myanmar.”
Donald Trump at a rugby match in Atlanta, Georgia, US, on Jan 8, 2018. Source: Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports/Reuters
“We again call for their immediate release.”
In October, journalists from Singapore and Malaysia were jailed for two months for flying a drone near the Burmese parliament building in the capital Naypyitaw.
The CPJ’s highest honour was reserved for President Trump: the Overall Achievement in Undermining Press Freedom. “The United States, with its First Amendment protection for a free press, has long stood as a beacon for independent media around the world,” it wrote.
While previous presidents had criticised the media, CPJ said Trump had actively empowered “repressive leaders” around the world by undermining American news outlets and refusing to raise issues of press freedom with figures like Xi, Erdoğan and Sisi.
Many anti-democratic leaders had adopted the “fake news” epithet, said CPJ, noting that as “Trump and other Western powers fail to pressure the world’s most repressive leaders into improving the climate for press freedom, the number of journalists in prison globally is at a record high.”
Journalists and protesters hold placards outside an Istanbul court on October 31, 2017, calling for the release of jailed colleagues, including Turkish reporter Ahmet Şık. Turkey is the worst jailer of journalists in 2017. (AP/Lefteris Pitarakis)
For the second year in a row, the number of journalists imprisoned for their work hit a historical high, as the U.S. and other Western powers failed to pressure the world’s worst jailers--Turkey, China, and Egypt--into improving the bleak climate for press freedom. A CPJ special report by Elana Beiser Published December 13, 2017
The number of journalists imprisoned worldwide hit another new record in 2017, and for the second consecutive year more than half of those jailed for their work are behind bars in Turkey, China, and Egypt. The pattern reflects a dismal failure by the international community to address a global crisis in freedom of the press.
Far from isolating repressive countries for their authoritarian behavior, the United States, in particular, has cozied up to strongmen such as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Chinese President Xi Jinping. At the same time, President Donald Trump’s nationalistic rhetoric, fixation on Islamic extremism, and insistence on labeling critical media “fake news” serves to reinforce the framework of accusations and legal charges that allow such leaders to preside over the jailing of journalists. Globally, nearly three-quarters of journalists are jailed on anti-state charges, many under broad and vague terror laws, while the number imprisoned on a charge of “false news,” though modest, rose to a record 21.
In its annual prison census, CPJ found 262 journalists behind bars around the world in relation to their work, a new record after a historical high of 259 last year. The worst three jailers are responsible for jailing 134--or 51 percent--of the total. CPJ has been conducting an annual survey of journalists in jail since the early 1990s.
Despite releasing some journalists in 2017, Turkey remains the world’s worst jailer for the second consecutive year, with 73 journalists behind bars, compared with 81 last year. Dozens more still face trial, and fresh arrests take place regularly. In several other cases in Turkey, CPJ was unable to establish a link to journalism. Other press freedom groups using a different methodology have higher numbers. Every journalist CPJ found jailed for their work in Turkey is under investigation for, or charged with, anti-state crimes, as was true of last year’s census.
The crackdown on the Turkish press that began in early 2016 and accelerated after a failed coup attempt that July--which the government blamed on an alleged terrorist organization led by exiled cleric Fethullah Gülen--continued apace in 2017. Authorities accused some journalists of terrorist activity based solely on their alleged use of a messaging app, Bylock, or bank accounts at allegedly Gülenist institutions.
Because Erdoğan’s ruling AKP party was until recent years aligned with Gülen’s movement, the crackdown sometimes led to patently absurd circumstances. For example, prominent journalist Ahmet Şık was acquitted of terrorism charges in April after a six-year trial in which the defendants said they were victims of police and judicial officials linked to Gülen. Şık remained in jail, however, on fresh terror charges for allegedly being linked to Gülen, and many of the police officers, prosecutors, and judges who brought the original case found themselves accused of terror activity. Şık pointed out the contradiction in a lengthy statement to the court in July, saying, “In Turkey, some members of the judiciary have become the gravediggers of justice.”
Other cases blatantly demonstrated Turkish authorities’ brutal censorship tactics. On March 31, an Istanbul court ordered the release pending trial of at least 19 journalists jailed in the aftermath of the coup attempt, but the prosecutorappealed and the journalists were re-arrested before they left the jail. The judges who ordered their release were suspended.
Erdoğan’s government appeared to pay little price for its repressive tactics. In April, he narrowly won a referendum--amid procedural objections by the opposition that went unheeded--that will abolish the country’s parliamentary system and grant him sweeping powers. On the international stage, German officials including Chancellor Angela Merkel have repeatedly called for the release of Turkish-German journalist Deniz Yücel, who works for the German newspaper Die Welt and who has been held without charge since February 14. But the NATO allies arebound by Turkey’s role in harboring Syrian refugees and other cooperation agreements. Trump, meanwhile, hosted Erdoğan at the White House in May and more recentlypraised him as a friend.
Also enjoying global standing is President Xi. In China, the number of journalists behind bars rose to 41 from 38 a year earlier. On a visit to Beijing in November, Trump made no public reference to human rights, despite an ongoing crackdown that has led to the arrests of Chinese journalists, activists, and lawyers. With tensions high between the U.S. and China’s neighbor North Korea, and Trump keen to renegotiate the trade balance with Beijing, “Trump seemed to signal areversal of roles: the United States may now need China’s help more than the other way around,” The New York Times wrote.
The visit came shortly after Xitightened his grip on power at the Communist Party Congress, where his name was written into the Constitution and no successor was identified. According to news reports, analysts don’t expect improvement in human rights.
Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump take part in a welcoming ceremony during a visit to Beijing in November 2017. China is jailing 41 journalists. (Reuters/Damir Sagolj)
Meanwhile, Nobel laureateLiu Xiaobo died of liver cancer in July in a Chinese hospital, after receiving medical parole from prison a month earlier, casting doubt on whether he received proper care in custody. China refused Liu’s request to go overseas for treatment once he was released. The writer Yang Tongyan died in November under similar circumstances, shortly after release on medical parole with a serious brain tumor. Jailed in precarious health is Huang Qi, who has kidney disease and his lawyer told CPJ that authorities had halted his special diet and medical treatment.
More than half of the journalists imprisoned in Egypt, where the number in jail fell to 20 from 25 last year, are also in poor health. Among them is photographer Mahmoud Abou Zeid, known as Shawkan, who was arrested covering a violent dispersal of protesters by Egyptian security forces and has been in pretrial detention for more than four years. He and his 738 co-accused are charged with possessing weapons, illegal assembly, attempted murder, and murder, according to CPJ research. Shawkan is anemic and needs blood transfusions, but has been denied hospital care, according to his family. Of the 20 journalists in Egyptian jails, 12 have not been convicted or sentenced for any crime.
The prolonged imprisonment of Egyptian journalists comes as President Abdel Fattah el-Sisibattles deadly extremism and high unemployment in the country, and as Cairo and Washington cooperate closely on security. Soon after el-Sisi met Trump at the White House in April, his government passed a draconian anti-terrorism law that furthered its crackdown on the press by, among other things, enabling authorities to put journalists acquitted of terrorism-related charges on a terror watch list that restricts their financial and other rights, according to news reports.
A protester holds a sign calling for the release of Mahmoud Abou Zeid, also known as Shawkan. Egypt is still detaining the photojournalist, who was arrested in 2013. (AP/Amr Nabil)
In Egypt and China, like Turkey, by far the most common type of charge against journalists is anti-state. Globally, 194 journalists, or 74 percent, are imprisoned on anti-state charges. Worldwide, CPJ has found that governments use broad and vaguely worded terror laws to intimidate critical journalists into silence. Legal provisions often conflate coverage of terrorist activity with condoning it.
Thirty-five journalists worldwide were jailed without any publicly disclosed charge. Lack of due process in some countries results in such a dearth of information that it’s nearly impossible for CPJ to determine what landed a journalist in jail, whether they have any health problems, and sometimes even whether they are alive. In places such as Eritrea and Syria, journalists who were last known to be in government custody have not been seen or heard from in years. All seven journalists in Syrian government jails have been there for at least four years, amid unconfirmed rumors of torture or execution. CPJ continues to list the journalists on the census to hold the government accountable for their whereabouts and well-being.
A change of government, however, may lead CPJ to reclassify a journalist’s status. In Gambia, where long-serving leader Yahya Jammeh was ousted in December 2016, the government of President Adama Barrow has expressed interest in determining what happened to reporter Chief Ebrima Manneh, who was arrested in 2006 but had not been seen since at least 2008. Jammeh and officials in his government made vague and contradictory statements about the journalist’s status over the years. In keeping with the family’s expectations, CPJ this year moved Manneh off the imprisoned census and on to its list of journalists killed in relation to their work.
Other findings from CPJ’s prison census include:
Ninety-seven percent of jailed journalists are local.
Of the total imprisoned worldwide, 22—or 8 percent—are female journalists.
Freelancers account for 75 cases--or 29 percent.
Politics is by far the most dangerous beat, covered by 87 percent of those jailed. Many journalists cover more than one beat.
Countries appearing on the census for the first time in at least 12 months are Algeria, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Iraq, Morocco, Niger, Pakistan, Republic of Congo, Somalia, Uganda, and Ukraine.
The prison census accounts only for journalists in government custody and does not include those who have disappeared or are held captive by non-state groups, such as several Yemeni journalists CPJ believes to be held by the Ansar Allah movement, known as the Houthis. These cases are classified as “missing” or “abducted.”
CPJ defines journalists as people who cover the news or comment on public affairs in media, including print, photographs, radio, television, and online. In its annual prison census, CPJ includes only those journalists who it has confirmed have been imprisoned in relation to their work.
CPJ believes that journalists should not be imprisoned for doing their jobs. In the past year, CPJ advocacy contributed to the early release of at least 67 imprisoned journalists worldwide.
CPJ’s list is a snapshot of those incarcerated at 12:01 a.m. on December 1, 2017. It does not include the many journalists imprisoned and released throughout the year; accounts of those cases can be found at https://cpj.org. Journalists remain on CPJ’s list until the organization determines with reasonable certainty that they have been released or have died in custody.
Elana Beiser is editorial director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. She previously worked as an editor for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal in New York, London, Brussels, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
Image: Children stricken with dengue fever jam-pack a ward in Quirino Memorial Medical Hospital in Manila, Philippines, during an outbreak in 2010. Credit: JAY DIRECTO/AFP/Getty Images. Heidi Larson, with Will Schulz and Clarissa Simas.
08/01/2018
Dengvaxia, the first promising vaccine to protect against dengue fever, was a step forward in fighting a disease that afflicts millions of people. But it faced a step backwards following the November 2017 report issued by Sanofi, the vaccine producer. Although the announcement did not call for a withdrawal of the vaccine, but recommended a more targeted use of it, countries which had previously approved the vaccine reacted vastly differently.
“Based on up to six years of clinical data, the new analysis confirmed that Dengvaxia provides persistent protective benefit against dengue fever in those who had prior infection. For those not previously infected by dengue virus, however, the analysis found that in the longer term, more cases of severe disease could occur following vaccination upon a subsequent dengue infection.”[1]
The Philippines made headlines with public outrage and a suspension of the vaccine programme, as well as threats to sue the manufacturer. Brazil has stood by scientific evidence and, recognising that the vaccine still has benefits although it carries some risk, it is facing this risk with resolve. The new recommendation is that, until more conclusive results are made available, the vaccine should no longer be administered to people who have never had dengue before. By taking this route, Brazil is allowing individuals who have had the disease to take advantage of the vaccine’s protection against suffering from dengue a second time – which is typically more deadly than the first infection.
Brazil’s most important news channels are also stressing the high effectiveness and safety of the vaccine for those who already had Dengue. International news channels, nonetheless, appear to be focusing primarily[2],[3],[4],[5] on the panic reaction in the Philippines.
The Philippines reaction, aside from the politics behind it, was not helped by the somewhat unclear meaning of “severe” in the Sanofi communication, which they clarified in a following update, on the 4th December:[6]
“It is estimated that only 1 in 800 of all dengue infections (including symptomless infections) could lead to a severe infection, and the increased risk identified from the new analysis translated to 2 additional cases of “severe dengue” out of 1000 previously dengue-uninfected people vaccinated over 5 years of follow-up. Please note that the definition of “severe dengue” used in the clinical trials was a wider definition than the definition in countries that follow the WHO’s 2009 criteria, and out of the very few cases of severe Dengue in a group of around 18.000 people vaccinated in the clinical trials, all fully recovered.”
They also clarified that,
“For those who did not have previous dengue infection before vaccination, the vaccine does not cause dengue.”
Filipino leaders have reacted sharply against the vaccine, its manufacturer, and the previous government under which stocks of it were procured. Secretary of Health Francisco T. Duque III has announced that the Philippine government will seek a full refund from Sanofi for the approximately $69 million spent on procuring Dengvaxia.[3] As the story unfolds, the opinions go through different waves, with the latest news being a more reasoned – let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater – approach of using the vaccine, albeit cautiously in light of the now known risks.
Here is the timeline:
2016
Apr. The Philippines is the first in the world to launch a mass immunization program using the new dengue vaccine.
Aug. Brazil is the first in the Americas to roll out the dengue vaccine campaign. The vaccine is also approved in Mexico, the Philippines, El Salvador and Costa Rica.
2017
29 Nov. Sanofi Pasteur makes the global announcement on new risk data.
30 Nov. Dr. Antonio Dans, a medical epidemiologist at the Philippine General Hospital who had previously called for screening of dengue status before vaccination, posted in his Facebook “Our heart bleeds for the over 600, 000 children who received dengue vaccine without assessment of prior infection”. His post spread like wildfire, contributing to the public panic and increasing political interest in investigating the seemingly fast procurement of the vaccine and launch of the immunization campaign under the previous administration.
The Facebook post was followed by a video by Dans and his wife that also went viral.
Radio, TV and social media all rally around the news, vilifying past officials.
1 Dec. Ministry of Health suspends school-based dengue vaccination programme.
4 Dec. Sanofi updates and clarifies announcements.[6]
5 Dec. The Philippine FDA withdraws the approval of the vaccine.
20 Dec. President Duterte announces in the media that he would have done the same as the previous Secretary of Health (Garin) given that there is a product and that dengue is very serious.
21 Dec. Past President B. Aquino speaks to Senate inquiry and says that decision to go ahead was based on the recommendations of two past health secretaries and the context of heavy burden of disease at that time 2010-2015 and to save lives.
22 Dec WHO updates guidance on use of the dengue vaccine
References
Belgium is only about half the size of Sri Lanka. Her population too is about half of Sri Lanka. Belgium has many deeply rooted linguistic groups, unlike Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has only two linguistic groups, Sinhalese and Tamils. Muslims in Sri Lanka speak either Sinhalese or Tamil.
Brussel, the capital city of Belgium is bilingual though the majority are speaking French.
In Belgium, two major language groups exist, Dutch and Flemish about 55% and the French about 44%. There is also a tiny German-speaking community, concentrated in the region, bordering Luxembourg to 1%.
Belgium Constitution is flexible and provides effective representation to each ethnic group.
In 1970, Belgium was unitary. A successful change from unitary decentralized State to a successful federal structure was made constitutionally and nonviolently. The majority never jumped to crush the demands of the minority by violence, bloodshed or communal riots. No one ever argued that federal structure would lead to separation. Five decades had passed since the change to federalism but no part of Belgium had attempted to go for separation.
Belgium Constitution is designed in such a way to provide economic and cultural regional autonomy.
Belgium was asymmetrical but not providing asymmetry between the powers of different Regions or Communities. It applies to the asymmetry of Belgium Federation System. However, Regional and Community Jurisdictions have evolved asymmetrically.
Belgium has now provided a high degree of devolution and decentralization. Federal and Regional Laws are par with each other but only subordinate to the Constitution.
Plea of Federalism
It is a well-known fact that in or about 1926 the Kandyan Sinhalese wanted federalism. In the same year, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, the most productive politician of the then Ceylon, has proclaimed “a thousand and one objections could be raised against the system but, when the objections are dissipated, I am convinced that some form of Federal Formula be the only solution”. These prophetic words still ring in the ears of the 21st Century.
For several years many of the elites have advanced a solution based on federal formula stating that it would end the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. Even the Agreement signed between the Government of Sri Lanka and LTTE in 2002, known as Oslo Declaration was to address the ethnic conflict on the line of federalism and internal self-determination. It was a significant development but abandoned by the government after the hour of victory.
New Constitution
The structure of the proposed new Constitution should be a Federal Form of Government like in Belgium or any other federal model with suitable modifications and adaptations, satisfactory to the needs of Sri Lanka, or for a combination of Unitary and Quasi-Federal form of government, like the Indian model with powers equal to the Tamil Nadu Government or implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution without exception and dilution in any manner whatsoever, or for a Unitary System of Government, we can have the Scotland model – A Parliament should be established for the Northern and the Eastern Provinces as one political unit with extensive powers as enjoyed by Scotland Parliament.
The Tamils want power-sharing process and the economic development to take place simultaneously, side by side without effecting a change of demographic situation of the Tamil population, living in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
What Tamils want
In fact, the Sri Lankan Tamils are yearning for a political solution, aspiring for recognition that they are a distinct nationality. They were so recognized by;
(i) Colonial powers, more so, the British recognized them as a Nation. From 1911 to 1920, the Tamils were treated in the Legislative Council on an equal footing with the Sinhalese despite their numerical inferiority. Professor K.M. de Silva states ‘in the political jargon of the day, there were two majority communities, the Sinhalese and Tamils, and the minorities were the other smaller groups. The situation changed fundamentally after 1922 instead of two majority communities and the minorities, there was one majority community, the Sinhalese. The Tamils now regarding themselves increasingly a minority community’.
(ii) The Kandyan Memorandum to the Donoughmore Commission recognized them so,
(iii) When the Sinhala Leaders breached the Written Agreement entered into with Sir Pon.
Arunachalam on 07.12.1918, they proclaimed so loudly that the Tamils were a Nation though less in numerical strength unlike the Sinhalese, and they required no safeguards or privileges,
(iv) The Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement of July 29, 1987, recognized that the Northern and the Eastern Provinces have been areas of historical habitation of Sri Lankan Tamil speaking peoples.
The Tamils want Recognition that the Northern and the Eastern Provinces should form as one political unit. It was so recognized by;
i) The Kandyan Memorandum to the Donoughmore Commission recognized the Northern and the Eastern Provinces as one Tamil linguistic federal unit,
ii) Bandaranaike – Chelvanayagam (BC) Pact was signed in 1956. BC Pact provided one Autonomous Regional Council for the Northern Province and two or more for the Eastern Province. In the Eastern Province, the Tamils and the Muslims were by necessary implication, elevated with the Sinhalese as nationals. Thus, BC Pact had created three Nationals within one State, and
iii) The Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement of July 29, 1987.
The power-sharing process had to be implemented from the Centre to the periphery. Once powers are identified, defined and devolved, they should not be abridged, reduced, taken away or diluted in any manner whatsoever, and the concept of a fully fledged internal self-determination should be provided without hindrance to develop their areas on all grounds.
The structure of the proposed new Constitution should be a Federal Form of Government like in Belgium or any other federal model with suitable modifications and adaptations, satisfactory to the needs of Sri Lanka, or for a combination of Unitary and Quasi-Federal form of government, like the Indian model with powers equal to the Tamil Nadu Government or implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution without exception and dilution in any manner whatsoever, or for a Unitary System of Government, we can have the Scotland model – A Parliament should be established for the Northern and the Eastern Provinces as one political unit with extensive powers as enjoyed by Scotland Parliament. Constitutional Amendment
Upon a new Constitution being promulgated, and if it is to alter, amend or repeal any of its provisions, there should be a 2/3rd majority of the whole members of Parliament. However, where the rights of the Tamils or the Muslims were to be affected, there should be a 2/3rd majority of the Tamil members and/or of the Muslim Members of Parliament together with the two-third members of the Tamils and/or the Muslims of the Provincial Councils of the Northern and Eastern Provinces and it should have been strictly adhered. This provision should be incorporated in the Constitution itself.
If the proposed new Constitution is intended to resolve a permanent settlement of all political issues and make Sri Lanka a truly democratic country of the people, by the people and for the people, then all the rights of all the communities, who have decided to live with the dominant group, should be carefully protected and nurtured in all political units without exception. All citizens living therein should be afforded with unfettered opportunities to live in equality, safety and harmony, prosper and exercise their sovereignty and to enjoy internal self-determination in all their rights, Muslims should be recognized as a distinct nationality. They were already recognized so under the BC Pact, Hill Country Tamils should be recognized as a distinct community and they should be afforded with unfettered opportunities to live in equality, safety and harmony, prosper and exercise their sovereignty and to enjoy internal self-determination in the areas of their habitation.
Aboriginal roots
The new Constitution had to address not only the Belgium model or any other model but also it had to address the political rights of the aborigin's of the country.
Parker who was attached to Irrigation Department of then Ceylon from 1873 to 1904 had written a book, titled “Ancient Ceylon”, in which he had vividly described the ancient civilization of the country, tracing with the Aborigin's of the country, namely Veddhas. He has done a deep analytical study of the Veddhas, having visited the deep interior thick forests many times and met them and had collected their names, males and females, the skulls of the deceased Veddhas, and scientifically identified their groups. He had classed the Veddhas into three groups, to wit: Deep Forest Veddhas, Village Veddhas and Tamil Speaking Veddhas.
I am quoting verbatim from his book for the readers to appreciate and understand the Veddhas language as Parker described in his book.
He says “the Vaedi dialect is to a great extent the colloquial Sinhalese tongue, but is slightly changed in form and accent. Yet closely resembles the latter, these differences and the manner in which it is pronounced render it quite an unknown language when it is spoken to one who has not a special acquaintance with it.
Besides this, the Vaeddhas use their own terms for the wild animals and some other things about which they often find it necessary to converse. Such words are usually a form of Sinhalese or admit of Sinhalese or Tamil derivations: but a very few may possibly belong to, or be modifications of words in, their original language, forming, with perhaps a few forms of grammatical expression, the only remains of it that have been preserved, with the exception of some doubtful terms found in Sinhalese”.
Veddhas are ancient people, living in Sri Lanka with the dawn of human habitation. Still, they preserve their distinct culture and distinct area of habitation.
The voice, culture, custom and language of the Aboriginal people of Sri Lanka, Veddhas should be recognized, promoted, nursed and protected. Their culture, customs and usages should be propagated and nurtured and enshrined in the Constitution.
The Bintana area had to be assigned to them. All their rights should be carefully protected and nurtured. An electorate should be carved out to make their representation in Parliament. Local bodies, such as Town Council, Pradesha Sabha should be created to enshrine their rights.
In the event of the new Constitution rejecting, ignoring or failing to address the political grounds of the Tamils, this island would certainly leap once again into a deep mire. Past events had to be the future lessons.
The relatives of the disappeared live surrounded by treasured possessions, each a reminder of their loved one’s absence. Image via Maatram. Used with permission.
7 January 2018 This post by Selvaraja Rajasegar originally appeared on Groundviews, an award-winning citizen journalism website in Sri Lanka. A translated and edited version is published below as part of a content-sharing agreement with Global Voices. (Read the first part here.)
More than 300 days ago, a group of Sri Lankan people began protesting across the north (in places like Vavuniya, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu) demanding the release of lists of secret detention camps, lists of the detained, or simply information on what had happened to their loved ones. Though the Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena promised to release this information in June 2017, he has not done so to date.
Sri Lanka emerged from a 30-year-long civil war in May 2009 when the Sri Lankan military defeated the LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers. They fought for almost three decades to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the north and the east of Sri Lanka. In the midst of the conflict, many people have disappeared, not just in the north and east where much of the last stages of the war were fought, but in the Sinhala-majority south as well, during insurrections from as far back as the 1980s.
However, disturbingly, many also disappeared after the end of the war, when people handed over family members to the military (in some cases, these people were suspected members of the LTTE).
The relatives of those who have been forcibly disappeared live on. They live surrounded by treasured possessions, each a reminder of their loved one’s absence. They pass by the places they once walked, and meet people their missing ones loved.
Recently, Maatram, a Sri Lankan citizen journalism site publishing content in the Tamil language, visited these families to ask them a difficult question: whether they would allow their loved ones’ possessions to be photographed. Upon hearing this question, they wept bitterly; their pain is difficult to describe in words.
Still, they came forward with these treasured belongings, wet with tears. They believe their loved ones will return. Their sadness is immeasurable.
The second part of their story follows. As with the first part, all names have been withheld to maintain the privacy of the people that were interviewed.
‘When I look at his clothes, I feel that he is alive.’
On April 28, 2009, we were in a bunker. The army came and took us away. One of our sons passed away, and it was our other son who made all the funeral arrangements. After the funeral, he put his brother’s wife and children onto the last ship, but he stayed behind. At that time, he was 23 years old. I still don’t know where he is. On April 12, 2009, he came and left his sarong and shirt at home. To this day, I keep them to remember him. When I look at his clothes, I feel that he is alive. No one can tell me he is not alive. I know that he is.
‘We have lodged complaints everywhere…I want to know if he is alive or dead.’
My son disappeared during the last stage of the war in 2009. So far, we have not heard any information about his whereabouts. He was just 17 years old and was sitting for his Advanced Level examinations. We have lodged complaints everywhere — with the ICRC, numerous commissions, the police and CID. I want to know if he is alive or dead. We have all his possessions, his clothes in a box. When we look at them, we remember him.
‘Only God knows whether the government would give any information.’
During the last stage of the war, I was injured when we were crossing to the army side. They took the injured people separately, so I got separated from my son. I begged them to let me travel to the hospital with my son. Since that day, I don’t know where he is. Someone said he was in the detention camps. I went to eight camps and looked for him, but he wasn’t at any of them. He was sitting for his Advanced Level examinations at that time. My son isn’t a member of the LTTE, so he has to be alive, I believe that. Only God knows whether the government would give any information.
‘He went with a friend to the beach. He never came home.’
My son sat for his Advanced Level examinations in 2006. In 2008, he was forcibly recruited by the LTTE. That same year, in Manalaru, the LTTE sent him to dig for an underground bunker. That area was shelled and he lost a leg. After that, the LTTE released him, and he was with us. Our son went missing during the battle of Mullivaikkal. On that day, he went with a friend to the beach. He never came home after that.
Two of my granddaughters were in the Sencholai Children’s Home, which is in Puthukudiyiruppu. When the army surrounded the area, they were displaced. One of them went missing in the chaos. We have yet to find her as well.
‘My husband is a member of the LTTE. I handed him over to the army.’
My husband is a member of the LTTE. I handed him over to the army. My husband said, ‘If I go, I won’t return.’ I told him, ‘If everyone is surrendering to the army, why do you think only you won’t come back?’ I have guilt because I am the one who convinced him to surrender although he didn’t want to. Virakesari published a photo, and I recognized my husband, who was fourth in a row of people. I took the photo and lodged complaints everywhere, including the ICRC. I too am an LTTE member but was released from the camp because I have two young children. After being released, the CID continuously harassed me. I told them, ‘I have registered everywhere as a member of the LTTE. If you want to arrest me, then please find my husband and bring him so that he can look after the children. Then you can arrest me.’
Once you hand over someone to the army, they should give details about what happened to them. Though I am a member of the LTTE, I didn’t hide anywhere. I stayed in my house because my husband would know to find me there. If I leave, he wouldn’t be able to find me. So until the government releases him, I will stay here. When my daughter thinks of him, she uses his bedsheet to cover herself.
‘I searched for her in many camps after the war.’
I have one son. The LTTE continually asked us to give him to them. The last time, instead of taking my son, they took my daughter. She was in Grade 9. During the final stages of the war, I saw her but once the fighting intensified, I lost track of her. I searched for her in many camps after the war, including the Ambepussa camp. I went to Colombo as well but did not find her there. I don’t know what happened to her.
‘I still believe she is alive and in a detention camp somewhere.’
I have four daughters. It was the eldest who disappeared. She used to support the family with her income. She went missing during one of the more intense battles near the end of the war when shellfire was heavy. Many people said that they saw her near Vattuvaagal. Since it was a border area between the LTTE and the army, I still believe she is alive and in a detention camp somewhere. My husband is now paralyzed, suffering from depression because of the loss of our daughter.
‘We handed our son over to the army.’
My son worked as a tailor for 15 years. This is a shirt he made himself. He used to make clothes for me and even my daughter’s children. May 17, 2009, we crossed to the army-controlled area and handed our son over to the army. We did so, believing that they would release my son. After that, we never saw him.
The fear of their stories being forgotten is what has driven the families to continue their protest. For many of the families, the pain is still as raw as the day they discovered their loved ones would not be returning home. They are willing to go to drastic lengths.
Human rights activist Ruki Fernandocommented:
The Sirisena government promised to create Sri Lanka’s Office of Missing Persons (OMP), which was supposed to start its operations in September 2017 and probe into disappearances of thousands of people during the civil war — but the launch has been postponed to 2018 while the families of those who have been forcibly disappeared still await answers.
This video, uploaded by Center For Policy Alternatives (CPA), where Maatram is institutionally housed, showcases some of the above mentioned testimonies in the Tamil language:
Sri Lanka Army Commando K9 Unit. Photo by Chamal Pathirana, Wikipedia Commons.
By S. Binodkumar Singh*-
In keeping with the Government’s policy to release more security forces-held lands to the civilians, the Sri Lanka Army released another 133.34 acres on December 28, 2017, in the Keppapilavu area of Mullaitivu District to the civilian Tamil owners. As of December 1, 2017, the Army had released a total of 55,510.58 acres of land in Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Vavuniya Districts in the Northern Province, in addition to the 133.34 acres released on December 28 in Keppapilavu. As on March 1, 2016, the Army was occupying 67,427 acres of land belonging to Tamil civilians in the Northern Province. The Army commenced the gradual release of private property used by the armed forces after the conclusion of the Eelam War on May 17, 2009.
Earlier, Sri Lanka had transformed the Menik Farm Displacement Camp in Mullaitivu District into Menik Farm village, an apparel village with garment factories, as part of a new US$ 1.8 million national apparel initiative at village levels. The Displacement Camp was at one time considered the world’s largest refugee camp, sheltering close to 300,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). It was closed at the end of 2012, as all IDPs had been resettled. The national apparel village project aims at setting up 150 Mini Apparel Factories across the country. 73 of the 150 factories are dedicated to conflict affected areas, including 38 in the Northern Province and 35 in the Eastern Province. On November 14, 2017, Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen addressing the opening ceremony of the first factory in the Menik Farm village, declaring, “We want these 150 factories to form their own apparel companies or cooperatives one day and share their profits among them. Reconciliation would be a distant dream without provision of livelihood to war affected families.”
Meanwhile, furthering the constitution-making process, the Constitutional Assembly (CA), which was formed on March 9, 2016, to draft a new Constitution for the island nation, replacing the current Constitution adopted in 1978, had 10 meetings, so far. At the 6th to 10th meetings of the CA held on October 30, October 31, November 1, November 2 and November 8, 2017, an Interim Report of the Steering Committee set up under the CA was debated. The Interim Report was submitted to the CA by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as Chairman of the Steering Committee on September 21, 2017, and stressed that Sri Lanka should remain one undivided and indivisible country, where maximum devolution should be granted. It argued explicitly for the inclusion of specific provisions in the Constitution to prevent secession (division of the country). The report proposed that provincial councils would be the primary unit of devolution, while local bodies had been named as the implementing agency of both the central Government and the provincial councils.
Issuing a statement following the submission of the Interim Report, R. Sampanthan, Leader of the Opposition and of the main Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), stated, on September 21, 2017, “The successful conclusion of this Constitution-making process on the basis of an acceptable, reasonable and substantial national consensus would bring about a firm finality to this issue. Sri Lanka would perpetually be a united undivided and indivisible country in keeping with the basic and Supreme Law of the country, and on the basis of the free will and consent of its entire people.” Further, on January 3, 2018, Sampanthan added, “I have not the slightest doubt that we made the correct decision in backing Mr. Sirisena. We were sick of the Rajapaksa government which had been particularly unjust and unfair to the Tamil civilians. I have no regrets about the decision we made, though the Tamil people, and consequently those of us who represent them, expected greater performance from the government.” In the keenly contested Presidential Election held on January 8, 2015, TNA supported common opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena, leader of the New Democratic Front (NDF), which emerged victorious, securing 6,217,162 votes (51.28 per cent) against 5,768,090 votes (47.58 per cent) polled by Mahinda Rajapaksa, the incumbent President and candidate of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA).
Significantly, in another step forward in Sri Lanka’s path to sustained peace, and paving the way to set up the Office for Missing Persons (OMP) to trace around 20,000 people still missing eight years after the end of the nearly three-decade-long civil war, the Constitutional Council (CC) submitted the names of seven nominees for the OMP to President Maithripala Sirisena, on December 8, 2017. There were more than 100 applicants seeking to be members of the OMP, among whom the seven were selected, and their names had been sent to the President for approval. The Bill to establish the OMP was introduced on May 22, 2016, and on June 21, 2017, was passed unanimously in Parliament. On July 20, 2017, President Sirisena signed the OMP Act.
Notably, to launch a television channel to promote reconciliation, on December 20, 2017, the Cabinet approved the establishing of a “Channel of Reconciliation”, a television studio complex in the Northern Province. It was decided to obtain a land plot of 100 perches (3,025 square yards) for this purpose from the Meesalei Weerasingham Central College premises in Jaffna. Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation has been entrusted with this project according to a Cabinet paper submitted by Finance and Mass Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera. Further, underlining the Government’s commitment to resolve the ethnic issue, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, while addressing a ceremony to distribute title deeds under the theme ‘Our house in our land,’ at Hatton Dunbar Grounds in Nuwara Eliya District noted, “The war is over, and the people elected Maithripala Sirisena as the President in January 2015 with a mandate to rebuild the country. But there is no development without peace. We as Sri Lankans have to unite as one. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has come forward for peace building for the first time. They wanted a political solution for their demands.”
Similarly, President Sirisena, addressing the Religious Coexistence Convention held at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) in Colombo on December 12, 2017, observed, “Today, we are gathered here because deep down we know that we have a problem in this country. The ethnic and religious conflicts in this country resulted in a 30-year war. The war was ended through a military solution. Our Forces were able to defeat a separatist terrorist organization but we have not managed to defeat the beliefs that led to it. We all know that ideas and beliefs cannot be defeated with arms. It can only be replaced with a better, more positive belief. I strongly believe that our local temples and religious institutions do not preach conflict. The religious leaders always try to direct the people in the right direction. All philosophies, be it Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and Christianity, strive try to correct society.”
Nevertheless, the assault of international organizations against the Sri Lanka Government continues. Human Rights Watch (HRW) Geneva Director John Fisher on November 15, 2017, urged the United Nations (UN) members to insist that Sri Lanka adopt an action plan and timeline to implement Geneva proposals as promised to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Resolution adopted in October 2015, and argued, “The Sirisena government made key pledges at the United Nations Human Rights Council in October 2015 to ensure justice, accountability, and security sector reform. The failure of the government to fulfill most of these promises has brought its commitment to reform into question and dashed hopes of victims and affected communities. Sri Lanka is in danger of not just standing still on rights, but backtracking on essential reforms. UN members need to look beyond the increasingly hollow promises of reform, and insist that the government present an action plan and timeline for honoring its commitments.” Similarly, the three-member United Nations (UN) Working Group on Arbitrary Detention comprising José Antonio Guevara Bermúdez, Leigh Toomey and Elina Steinerte who visited Sri Lanka from December 4-15, 2017, to assess the country’ situation regarding the deprivation of liberty, on December 15, 2017, urged the Government to introduce urgent reforms to the ‘outdated’ legal framework to end arbitrary detention in the country. The delegation identified significant challenges to the enjoyment of the right to personal liberty in Sri Lanka, resulting in arbitrary detention across the country.
Meanwhile, on June 20, 2017, the Cabinet of Ministers approved Prime Minister Wickremesinghe’s proposal to appoint a Committee of Ministers chaired by him and a Committee of Officials to assist and to coordinate the UNHRC recommendations made in the consensus resolution adopted in October 2015. Further, on November 1, 2017, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe launched the five-year National Action Plan for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights at a ceremony held at the Parliament Complex. Speaking at the event, the Prime Minister declared the time had come to reaffirm human rights in the country. The National Action Plan for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights 2017-2021 documents goal-oriented activities in the Human Rights arena, aimed to strengthen national processes and mechanisms for the protection and promotion of human rights through substantial constitutional, legislative, policy and administrative frameworks.
Through 2017, the National Unity Government (NUG) has made remarkable efforts to press forward the reconciliation process by reaching out to the Tamils and initiating constitutional and legal reforms. It has furthered the much-awaited Constitution-making process by debating the Interim Report of the CA Steering Committee in Parliament. It has also passed enabling legislation to establish the OMP to help find the missing persons of the war era. Colombo’s record on these parameters compares favorably with almost any other post-conflict society in the world, and certainly improves on the conduct of Western expeditionary forces in various theatres of strife across the world. But unrealistic expectations and criteria that are not applied to a multiplicity of conflicts – both current and past – are being imposed on Sri Lanka by elements within the international community. These are contaminating the discourse within the country, deepening polarization between the communities, and obstructing the process of reconciliation, rather than contributing in any constructive measure to a peaceful resolution.
* S. Binodkumar Singh
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management
JANUARY 10, 2018 
