Kenya's 'Erin Brockovich' defies harassment to bring anti-pollution case to courts

Phyllis Omido was awarded the Goldman Environmental prize in 2015 for organising protests against a lead-smelting plant in Owino Uhuru. Photograph: Jonathan Watts for the Guardian

Jonathan Watts Wed 14 Feb 2018 06.00 GMT

Phyllis Omido is leading a landmark class action demanding a clean-up and compensation from a lead-smelting factory accused of poisoning local residents - including her own son
Eight years after her baby was lead-poisoned through breast milk, Kenya’s most prominent anti-pollution campaigner is set to finally get her day in court in a case that the UN hopes will prove a landmark for environmental defenders across Africa.

Phyllis Omido has been threatened by thugs, arrested by police and forced into hiding for organising opposition to a lead-smelting factory in Mombasa, which allegedly poisoned residents in the neighbouring shantytown of Owino Uhuru.

But the NGO she founded, the Centre for Justice, Governance, and Environmental Action, has already forced the closure of the plant and is now pushing the courts to secure compensation for the victims and a clean-up of the community.

They have gathered thousands of local residents in a class action against the government and two companies – Metal Refinery EPZ Ltd and Penguin Paper and Book Company (no connection with the global publishing company) for 1.6bn Kenyan shillings (£11.5m) compensation and a clean-up of contaminated land.
Two years after the suit was launched, the plaintiffs will be called as witness for the first time on 19 March in the environment and land court.

“This is the biggest step since we started,” Omido told the Guardian. “The victims will finally get to tell their story in court. That’s crucial in making people realise what happened. We hope our case will be something that every environmental defender in the world can refer to when they raise issues of accountability.”

Progress has been perilous. Following assaults and intimidation, the United Nations has called on the Kenyan government to protect Omido and her fellow activists. A special rapporteur, John Knox, said in a statement last year that two homes had been burned, death sentences had been issued and a 12-year-old son of one activist was kidnapped for three days.

The plant has been closed. Former director Hezron Awiti Bollo declined to respond to the allegations. “I cannot comment. This is a matter that is in the courts,” he told the Guardian by phone.

Sometimes referred to as the “east African Erin Brockovich”, Omido was a co-winner of the Goldman environmental prize in 2015 along with Berta Cáceres, the Honduran activist who was murdered a year later. Omido also lives under constant threat. She has had to go into hiding several times and carries a panic button that can alert international supporters and trace her whereabouts if she is abducted.

“I face threats to my life because of this case,” she told the Guardian.

 Phyllis Omido is often referred to as the ‘east African Erin Brockovich’, and lives in constant threat. Photograph: Goldman Environmental Prize/2015 Goldman Environmental Prize



Before its closure, the EPZ refinery recycled car batteries, using chemicals to extract the lead. Former workers said they were given only a flimsy face mask as protection. Neighbours said noxious smoke billowed out from the factory chimney, blackening and corroding the tin roofs of the shanty town; toxic waste leaked into a stream that ran through the village.

“People used it for cooking and washing,” said the local pastor, Anastasia Nambo. “We sometimes drank it even though it smelt rotten because we don’t have any alternative. We had no idea it was dangerous.

“Nobody told us for several years. We want compensation for those we know are affected and tests for those who do not yet know their status.”

Omido – who worked in the company office – was the first to make a connection between the factory and health problems. She started to grow concerned in 2010 when her baby son fell ill. Blood tests showed the amount of lead in his blood was 35 times above the the World Health Organisation’s level of concern, she said. Assuming this had been passed on when she nursed him, she then arranged for three more children to be tested, all of whom proved to have been contaminated. Locals also complained of unusually high numbers of miscarriages and respiratory disease.

After the factory refused to relocate and the environment ministry ignored her warnings, Omido organised demonstrations by thousands of residents, who blocked the main road between Mombasa and Nairobi with burning tyres. Many were arrested by police or beaten by factory security guards.
Since then the group’s tactics have grown increasingly sophisticated as they built networks of support across the continent and the globe. The East Africa Society provided pro bono legal advice. Foreign NGOs including Frontline Defenders and Human Rights Watch provided advice and media support.
When the Kenyan authorities refused to close the plant, Omido went over their heads by appealing to the East Africa Community. This regional body banned lead from Kenya, forcing the closure of more than a dozen smelters, including the one at Owino Uhuru.

In 2013, the Kenyan authorities approved tests for 50 residents. All came back positive, with the highest reading 420 micrograms per deciliter of blood - more than 80 times the point considered a health concern.

The community is still dealing with the aftermath. One mother, Janeth Jardine says she used the stream that runs through the village to wash her children and clean food. Now she blames it for the flaking rash that covers the hands and legs of her two-year-old daughter, Josephine. “They never heal.

 I’ve taken her to hospital six times. They give cream, but it makes no difference,” she says. “This is common in this village.”


Phyllis Omido talking with a woman whose grandson is suffering from lead poisoning, in Owino Uhuru, Kenya. Photograph: 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize

Many of those who developed rashes later died or suffered repeated bouts of illness. One man blames the death of two of his children on the contaminated soil they used to play in. Others remember Linet Baraza, who died with lead levels of 238 micrograms per deciliter of blood. They are also warned that their children may suffer lower IQs unless they can get the expensive treatment needed to purge the lead from their blood.

The UN Commission on Human Rights is helping to fund the legal claim for compensation. And UN Environment has raised their appeal for treatment, remediation and justice at international forums.

“Phyllis has shown what can be achieved when victims of pollution get access to even basic information,” said Erik Solheim, the executive director of UN Environment. “Now it is up to the courts to show that the law is on the side of environmental defenders.”

Omido hopes it will just be the start. “There are 17 other communities fighting for compensation for lead poisoning. We want to set a precedent for them,” she says. ‘We want to show environmental defenders can use litigation as a tool and we want the UN to build up the capacity to enforce environmental law in courts around the world. Defenders are often treated as criminals or people who are hostile to development. That is not the case.”

This article is part of a series on possible solutions to the world’s biggest problems. What else should we cover?

Politics of international law:FARC-Colombia Conflict

By Liliana Muscarella-2018-02-13

Fourteen months since the signing of the historic Colombian peace agreement, aspects of the conflict remain shrouded in a blind overture to bilateral diplomacy. Despite measures to ease the violence between Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejércitodel Pueblo (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army, FARC-EP) and the Colombian Government, much of the conflict's evolution and key players continue to be overlooked.

Media reports and political pundits hail President Juan Manuel Santos, aided by US support, as the hero of the decades-old conflict, but this reductionist analysis fails to give sufficient weight to international law and its role in facilitating the conflict's détente. In fact, international humanitarian law (IHL) was in many ways the key instrument in advancing Santos' political mission, while the framework provided by IHL also sheds light on the manipulations of the Colombian and US governments.

This context is crucial so that the militaristic alliance of the United States and former Colombian Governments is not accepted as a legitimate contributor to peace; and secondarily, so that FARC fighters are not written off as nothing more than senseless killers.

In this way, a deeper analysis of international law and its politicization better respects the struggle of the Colombian nation and reveals misguided historical intervention, exposing a common thread: at different moments and under different administrations, the political manipulation of international law was crucial in both prolonging the conflict and agreeing to its suspension.

The FARC-Colombia conflict has inflicted unmatched damage on the Colombian people. It is second only to the Syrian Civil War in terms of internally displaced persons and, at its membership peak in 2009, the FARC-EP (FARC, for simplicity) numbered 20,000 fighters with an annual turnover of US$ 600 million, third in line behind Hamas and ISIL. The violence began more than 60 years ago during the infamous period called la violencia (violence).

At this time, triggered by the assassination of liberal leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, the game became simply killing, especially as far as the quest for land was concerned; peasants were forced out of their villages and had to regroup as guerrilla factions to protect themselves from Colombian renegades and right-wing vigilantes. Despite sporadic attempts to achieve political representation at higher government levels, over time, Marxist voices were silenced as the violence and alliances further evolved, leading to the FARC's solidification as a militant group.

Class-divided discontent

While this class-divided cycle of discontent brewed for decades, the escalation of the conflict and the FARC's transition into an organized entity were only fully realized after 1960, when the United States became increasingly interested in retaining Colombia as an anti-communist regional stronghold.
Colombia was seen as a strategic geopolitical ally, and the groundwork for intervention was laid under US Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.

Following a US mission to Colombia, a plan was devised "to pressure toward reforms known to be needed and execute paramilitary, sabotage and/or terrorist activities against known communist proponents." The resultant Plan Lazo, initiated by US officials and adopted by the Colombian authorities in January 1962, kicked off decades of militant activities against FARC groups, who retaliated in turn. Beginning in the 1970's, paramilitary groups known as 'death squads,' funded by Colombian social, political, and religious elites, in partnership with the Colombian Armed Forces, killed thousands of Partido Union Patriótica (Patriotic Union Party, a non-violent socialist party) and communist individuals, sabotaging any hope of reconciliation between the government and its socialist constituents.

Since that epoch, the FARC has been heavily implicated in the area's coca drug trade to finance its activities via peasant farmers with little choice for profitable crops, leading the United States to justify its intervention as part of the failed "war on drugs" under US President Richard Nixon. After decades of violence from all sides (a trend catalyzed by elite money and social dominance), the FARC would also turn to kidnapping for ransom, holding hostages, and killing Policemen and political opponents.

The matter was further complicated by the paramilitary death squads, funded by the US and Colombian Governments, leading the FARC to increase its military breadth and further implicate the rural and indigenous populations where coca was grown.Consequently, the majority of internally displaced persons are indigenous and poor farmers, many of whom have also been killed, caught in the crossfire between the US-funded Fuerza Pública (the Colombian Army plus the National Police), allied paramilitaries, and the FARC.

With the government's failure to stall the increasing devastation in the country, the United States has steadily upped its involvement in the region since the 1960's, allying itself with decades of right-wing and centre-right Colombian presidents. The most striking example of this intrusion is the United States' 1999 systematized "Plan Colombia," which to date has dedicated more than US$ 10 billion to countering the production of narcotics and defeating the FARC militarily. Despite constant US aid, Plan Colombia is increasingly recognized as a failure or even a farce. It failed to curb violence and the narcotics trade as per its mandate, but it succeeded in strengthening the Colombian Army and the United States' grasp on its southern stronghold.

New line of thought

It was former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who eventually introduced a new line of thought regarding the resolution of the FARC-Colombia conflict, one which would prove instrumental, recognize the FARC as a belligerent force in a legitimate armed conflict, thereby triggering the application of IHL and obligating both parties to follow the law or risk international condemnation.

Interestingly, due in part to the fact that Chavez was an open sympathizer of the FARC's political plight, and in part because the FARC shared his opinion regarding IHL, his 2008 suggestion was initially met with scepticism or even outrage. The FARC, then and now, are recognized as a terrorist organization by the United States, Colombia, Chile, Canada, New Zealand, and the European Union.

Amid some debate, many international institutions began accepting the FARC as a belligerent actor subject to IHL, giving them a stronger foundation for dialogue and affording the FARC the stronger political stance it had sought for the better part of a century.

At the same time, the Colombian Government was finally forced to comply or at least be aware that its militaristic actions carry consequences. In 2010, President Santos recognized that (a) military defeat was impossible despite Plan Colombia and US wishes, and (b) political dialogue from a sound legal foundation was the only way to achieve peace. Since 2012, peace talks have been held in Havana, Cuba and in November 2016, the peace agreement was approved, leading thousands of FARC members to lay down their weapons and allowing for greater political involvement by the former fighters. A month later, Santos was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, despite some restlessness as to the integrity of his achievements.

The application of IHL had been a possibility for some time, even if it was never fully recognized until Santos' presidency. International humanitarian law is a branch of law outlined by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the Geneva Conventions, internationally ratified since the 19th century. IHL's original purpose was to protect human life during armed conflict, not an insurgency, uprising, or terrorist situation. Despite IHL's potential, it has gone largely unaddressed in media reports on Colombia; even so, as early as 2001, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for IHL to be put in place and the norms of the foundational Geneva Conventions to "be embraced fully and without conditions."

Astutely, HRW also recognized the political nature and ambiguities of IHL, saying "the distance between words and deeds is vast.

All parties actively manipulate the concept of international humanitarian law for perceived political and tactical gain." This has been true throughout the history of the conflict, both on the part of the FARC and of the Colombian Government. Few would deny that the FARC had consistently violated the would-be laws of war and humanitarian law, had they been applied. The Colombian Government, likewise, has engaged in questionable tactics of warfare and impunity. But without IHL, these breaches have primarily gone unaddressed, especially for the latter party.

Banned weapons

Under IHL, various means (weapons) of warfare are outright banned. The FARC is known to have planted anti-personnel mines and gas-cylinder handmade explosives, which, since 1990, have "killed or wounded more than 11,000 Colombians," nearly half of them civilians. At the time, these mines were a cheap and desperate measure to preserve FARC numbers during a period of increased governmental and paramilitary crackdowns by elite military forces. According to IHL norms, anti-personnel mines are illegal due to their nature of indiscriminate murder, duration of harm (even after the conflict is over), and long-lasting impact on the land in which they are buried. They are also implicated in general principles of the Geneva Convention protocols regarding indiscriminate harm and unnecessary suffering. Mines and makeshift bombs have caused thousands of cases of such injury, and unlike other means of warfare, their death toll is never justifiable as a "military necessity."

Besides illegal means of warfare, the FARC also engaged in illegal methods that unequivocally affected non-combatant civilians, causing greater harm than even the mines. The group has employed child soldiers, held hostages for ransom, and murdered civilians. As outlined explicitly in the 1949 Geneva Convention and emphasized in other protocols, civilians and non-combatants make up the primary population that is to be protected under the terms of the IHL.

This norm in theory protects child soldiers under the age of 17, but the FARC is estimated to have employed nearly one in five at the age of 15, up to 1,000 total, including many whom were forcibly taken from their families, violating another IHL regulation regarding hostage-taking. The FARC's signature method of warfare is kidnapping or hostage-taking, including of children and politicians. This is, importantly, distinct from 'prisoners' who are taken, in theory, for military necessity, and therefore allowed by IHL.

The FARC has undeniably wreaked havoc and misery on the Colombian people for the past 60 years, this is visible with or without the lens of IHL. But the same could be said about its adversaries, although transgressions by the government and its death squads have often gone unnoticed or unaddressed. In fact, since the 1960s, the close relationship between the Colombian Fuerza Pública and paramilitaries, all aided by massive US aid, has led to over 11,000 'targeted murders' compared to the FARC's 3,900, and over 100 reports of impunity, which were mostly ignored in the legal system.

 Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights Watch, as well as Latin American regional and supranational bodies, have called out the government for human rights abuses such as targeted murder, but even if brought to Court, the cases and defendants are more often than not let off with minimal charges.

The majority of such violations, had they been subject to in bello (IHL) laws prior to the 2000s, would have been prohibited by various statutes, including the most basic fundamental guarantee of protecting "all persons who do not take a direct part or who have ceased to take part in hostilities violence" against "violence to the life, health and physical or mental wellbeing, in particular murder as well as cruel treatment." Most dramatically, according to a report sponsored by Colombian non-profit Centro de Memoria Histórica, the Fuerza Pública also engaged in 371 cases of terror, the very same label thrown at the FARC in an attempt to dismiss its legitimacy as a belligerent. But the government's atrocities were often overlooked in the debate over whether the appropriate international law could even be applied. Any legal matters were also perhaps deliberately swept aside by right-wing governments like those of Álvaro Uribe and Andrés Pastrana Arango, who in some cases were themselves implicated in paramilitary land grabs, and who also sought US approval and a military win over actual steps toward reconciliation.
About the author:

Liliana Muscarella is a Master's student at Sciences Po, Paris School of International Affairs, where she studies Human Rights, Diplomacy, and International Law in Armed Conflict. Her geographical focus is Latin America, especially Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela. Having started with COHA as a Research Associate, since January 2017, she has worked remotely with Aline Piva as Managing Editor of COHA's Brazil Unit.

Myanmar policeman who detained Reuters pair "did not know arrest procedures"

Guests at a panel discussion by Reuters and Committee to Protect Journalists executives watch a video about the detention of detained Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo in Myanmar, during a panel discussion in Toronto, Ontario, Canada February 12, 2018. REUTERS/Chris Helgren

FEBRUARY 14, 2018

YANGON (Reuters) - A police officer who said he was part of the team that detained two Reuters reporters in Myanmar in December told a court on Wednesday that he was not familiar with police procedures for recording arrests.

Second Lieutenant Myo Ko Ko was the latest prosecution witness to give evidence in proceedings to decide whether reporters Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, should be charged under Myanmar’s colonial-era Official Secrets Act.

Defence lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told reporters after the hearing that Myo Ko Ko had conceded during cross-examination that he was not familiar with procedural rules in Myanmar’s police manual.

 “So he cannot be a reliable witness for the prosecution,” Khin Maung Zaw said.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested on Dec. 12 for allegedly obtaining confidential documents, after they had been invited to meet police officers over dinner in Yangon.

The pair have told relatives they were arrested almost immediately after being handed some papers at a restaurant by two officers they had not met before.

Asked about the location where the arrests took place, Myo Ko Ko said it was on a street lined by factories. That contradicted a map previously produced by police and entered in the court file, which showed stores and tea shops, but no factories.

Myo Ko Ko told the court he was part of the arresting team, but did not see the documents police have said the two reporters were holding in their hands.

At a previous hearing, police Major Min Thant had agreed during cross-examination that the information in the documents that Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were holding had already been published in newspaper reports.

Earlier in Wednesday’s proceedings the prosecution had opposed a defence request that the police station logbook in which the arrests had been recorded should be shown to the court as evidence, arguing that it was still in daily use and could not leave the police station.

Guests at a panel discussion by Reuters and Committee to Protect Journalists executives watch a video about the detention of detained Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo in Myanmar, during a panel discussion in Toronto, Ontario, Canada February 12, 2018. REUTERS/Chris Helgren

Judge Ye Lwin refused the defence’s request, saying the defence did not have the right to see the record at this stage of the proceedings.

MASS GRAVE REPORT

The two reporters had been working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men who were buried in a mass grave in northern Rakhine state after being hacked to death or shot by ethnic Rakhine Buddhist neighbours and soldiers.

Reuters' President and Editor-in-Chief Stephen Adler, Executive Editor of Editorial operations Reg Chua (C) and Committee to Protect Journalists' chair Kathleen Carroll watch a video about the detention of detained Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo in Myanmar, during a panel discussion in Toronto, Ontario, Canada February 12, 2018. REUTERS/Chris Helgren

After Reuters published its report on the killings on Feb. 8, calls have mounted for the release of the two reporters.

The United States said at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that Myanmar had “the gall to blame the media” for the situation in Rakhine and demanded that the reporters be freed.

“For the crime of reporting the truth, the Burmese (Myanmar) government arrested and imprisoned the reporters,” said Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. “Unhindered media access is vitally important. Journalists like the two imprisoned Reuters reporters are an indispensable source of information.”

Britain, France, the Netherlands and Kazakhstan also called at the meeting for the release of the reporters.

Myanmar U.N. Ambassador Hau Do Suan said Myanmar recognises freedom of the press and the journalists were not arrested for reporting a story, but were accused of “illegally possessing confidential government documents”.

Nearly 690,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine and taken refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh since the Myanmar military launched a crackdown on insurgents at the end of August, according to the United Nations.

The United Nations has said the military campaign against the Rohingya may amount to genocide. Myanmar says its security forces mounted legitimate counter-insurgency clearance operations.

The next hearing at the Insein District Court in Yangon was set for Feb. 21.

Rohingya refugees face ‘humanitarian crisis within the crisis’

 14th February 2018

Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees, including children, live in squalid camps prone to flooding and landslide in Bangladesh. Source: Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

MORE than 100,000 Rohingya refugees living in the makeshift camps of Bangladesh face an impending hazard come March.

The monsoon season is expected to hit next month, a situation United Nations Security Council diplomats warn could flood camps and cause diseases to spread, The New York Times reported.

Rohingya refugees, now living in squalid conditions there, face “a humanitarian crisis within the crisis”.

“Their lives are greatly at risk,” United Nations high commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi said.

Grandi said they are now in a “race against time” to relocate tens of thousands of particularly vulnerable Rohingyas living in areas prone to flooding and landslides.

Rohingya refugees walk along the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Source: Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Carl Skau, Sweden’s representative to the Council, said the camps are in dire state and warned of the impending “crisis within the crisis”.

In January, aid groups released data showing one-third of the land in the cramped Kutupalong-Balukhali mega-camp could be submerged by floods.

More than 86,000 people live in high-danger flood areas. More than 23,000 more live along steep, unstable hillsides at risk of crumbling with heavy and continuous rainfall.

Bangladesh has remarkably absorbed nearly one million Rohingya refugees since Burma’s violent campaign of ethnic cleansing, the Washington Post reported. Most move to the Kutupalong refugee settlement near the port city Cox’s Bazaar, the world’s largest and most densely populated refugee settlement.

The Rohingyas are a long-persecuted Muslim minority in Burma, denied citizenship and access to rights by the Burmese government.

Last August, an attack by Rohingya insurgents in Rakhine State was met with a brutal crackdown by Burmese security forces.

SEE ALSO: Rohingya crisis a ‘textbook example’ of ethnic cleansing

Survivors recall unspeakable terror inflicted on their community, including opening fire on civilians, rape and sexual assault against its women and destruction of villages.

Doctors Without Borders estimate nearly 7,000 Rohingyas, including 730 children under age of 5, were killed in what has been dubbed a textbook case of “ethnic cleansing” by a top United Nations human rights official. The Burmese government denies these allegations.

Masud Bin Momen, Bangladesh’s ambassador to the United Nations said his country is still receiving Rohingya refugees this month, as many as 1,500. They report continued violence back home.

Grandi said “conditions in Myanmar are not yet conducive” for the 668,000 Rohingya to return home, according to Al Jazeera.

A Myanmar policeman stands outside of a camp set up by Myanmar’s Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Minister outside Maungdaw in the state of Rakhine, Myanmar Jan 24, 2018. Source: Reuters/Stringer

“The causes of their flight have not been addressed, and we have yet to see substantive progress on addressing the exclusion and denial of rights that has deepened over the last decades, rooted in their lack of citizenship,” he said.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s government continues to curtail humanitarian access to the affected areas at Rakhine state, where hundreds of villages have been burned down by Burma’s military.

“UNHCR presence and access throughout the state are essential to monitor protection conditions, provide independent information to refugees, and accompany returns as and when they take place,” Grandi said.

SEE ALSO: As Tillerson visits Burma, Holocaust Museum points to ‘mounting evidence of genocide’

The US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, called on the Council to hold Burma’s military responsible for their actions.

U.S. envoy Nikki Haley says the world is watching as she calls for unhindered media access in Myanmar after arrests of two Reuters journalists https://t.co/vbxdBW9i3v pic.twitter.com/fCQcKbwIsc

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) 14 February 2018

it's kimberly‏ @bkimberlyb Feb 13

Replying to @Reuters @Minervasbard

Only worried about the journalists but not about the Muslim Rohingas who are being slaughtered. That's called diplomacy.

She criticised Burma’s leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi for her failure to stop the violence against the Rohingyas.\

“This council must hold the military responsible for its actions and pressure Aung San Suu Kyi to acknowledge the horrific acts taking place in her country,” Haley said.

“No more excuses.”

Pakistan gang 'stole spinal fluid from women'

Spinal fluid is obtained by inserting a needle into the spinal canal

13 February 2018

Pakistani police have arrested four people accused of stealing spinal fluid from women.

The suspects told women they had to provide blood samples to qualify for financial assistance from the Punjab government, police told BBC Urdu.

However, they extracted spinal fluid instead, and attempted to sell it on the black market, police added.

The gang is thought to have stolen spinal fluid from over 12 women, including a teenager.

The authorities became aware of the scheme after a man noticed that his 17-year-old daughter felt weak after the procedure.

"It appears the gang has been active in the Hafizabad area for some time," regional police officer Ashfaq Ahmed Khan told BBC Urdu's Shahzad Malik.

One member "went around posing as an employee of the District Headquarters Hospital, telling his victims they would need to provide blood samples in order to qualify for the Punjab government's dowry fund".

"But instead of taking them to the hospital to obtain their 'blood samples', he would take them to the house of a female member of the gang to perform the procedure," Mr Khan added.

Spinal fluid is a transparent liquid found around the brain and spinal cord that protects them from shock and injury. It can be extracted by inserting a needle into the spinal canal, and is normally only taken to help diagnose disease in an individual.

It is not clear how the spinal fluid would have been used on the black market. The health ministry has set up a committee to investigate the case, while the four gang members are currently in police custody.

It is not the first time a health-related scam has made headlines in Pakistan.

In late 2016, police rescued 24 people held hostage by an organ trafficking gang in Rawalpindi.

Pakistan made the sale of human organs illegal in 2010, but experts say the country is still a hot spot for organ trafficking.

3 Hindu shrines vandalised in Mannar

Three Hindu shrines across Mannar were vandalised last night, just one day before Hindus celebrate Maha Sivaraththri. 

13Feb 2018

The Vigneswaran temple in Thalaimannar, built in 1988 by the Indian Peace Keeping Forces, was broken into. Three statues have been stolen. 

A Pillaiyar Shrine in Thalvupodi, which was built 18 years ago was broken and parts of the shrine damaged. 

A Pillaiyar statue in Thallaatti, which was only recently installed after the previous statue was vandalised on a number occasions, has been stolen. 

Complaints have been filed at Mannar Police Station. 
 

Related Articles: 

21 November 2017 : Hindu shrines attacked in Mannar

02 November 2017 : Hindu temple in Vavuniya attacked overnight

18 October 2017 : Hindu shrine next to army camp attacked in Mannar

70 Years of Independence | Muthalagu Pradeepan

What does it mean to be Sri Lankan?

GROUNDVIEWS-02/13/2018

70 years after independence, our identity is defined mostly along majoritarian lines, which can be traced back to the divisions created under British rule. These divisions have contributed to violence and war, in the years since 1948.

To this day, there are communities who feel that what is commonly projected and defined as the Sri Lankan identity does not reflect their reality, or themselves.

Looking at this, Groundviews produced a series of videos exploring identity and belonging in a country emerging from war, but not yet out of conflict.

M Pradeepan is a Field Researcher and activist with the Capacity Building and Outreach Arm of the Centre for Policy Alternatives. He addresses the historic discrimination against the Upcountry Tamils, which remain one of the most marginalised communities in the country.

Editor’s Note: To view earlier videos in the series, click here, here and here. Click here for more content around Sri Lanka’s 70th Independence Day. 

Had Mahinda Rajapaksa run for president on 10 Feb, he would have lost

By Gehan Gunatilleke- Tuesday, 13 February 2018 

Few would have predicted the results of Sri Lanka’s local government elections in 2018. With the benefit of hindsight, we must now try to understand what happened and why. There are three lessons to be learnt from the results – one lesson for voters, one for the coalition Government, and one for Mahinda Rajapaksa himself.


A lesson for the voter

In the US, spiteful supporters of Bernie Sanders have themselves to blame for Donald Trump. Sri Lanka is no different. Sri Lankan voters must learn that perfect is often the enemy of good. Many were jaded by the current Government’s inefficiencies and failures. Many among them may have chosen to cast a protest vote or not to participate in the local government elections.

A comparatively low turnout at local government elections is to be expected. Some early reports indicate a 65% voter turnout – almost a 10% drop from the August, 2015 general elections. Regardless, voters should have known that the recent elections meant so much more. These elections were not just a litmus test for Government popularity; they were a test of the voter’s resolve to oppose tyranny. Any drop in voter turnout reflects the unforgivable inertia of many who failed to see this significance.

Genuinely opposing the current Government was no justification for a protest vote or boycott either. When faced with a Hobson’s choice, it is always better to grudgingly pick the less harmful opponent. For cynicism is better than absenteeism. Those who chose not to cast their lot with imperfect beasts have now to contend with monsters.


A lesson for the coalition

The local government election results are not materially different to the results of the January 2015 presidential election. The ballots cast in favour of the UNP, SLFP, ITAK, and JVP, comfortably eclipsed the votes the SLPP received. Mahinda Rajapaksa received 47% of the national vote in January, 2015 – the last election his undiluted brand was tested. His personality cult received less than that percentage on 10 February, 2018. Despite all this government’s monumental failings, had a common candidate run against Rajapaksa on 10 February in a hypothetical presidential race, that candidate would probably have won. The result affirms the necessity of a continued coalition. Rajapaksa’s opponents must surely learn that they cannot defeat Rajapaksa unless they unite, and motivate their supporters. This local government election is a bitter reminder of that reality.

Yet the ground this coalition gained at the August, 2015 general election has been lost. Why then did the coalition lose ground? Is it because it failed to advance the people’s mandate for reform? In reality, the coalition simply failed to create a sustained appetite for one. This coalition must remember that that the only thing that (barely) unites most Sri Lankan voters is their distaste for Rajapaksa tyranny. The people’s mandate in January 2015 was to oust the incumbent. Perhaps they were impressionable beyond that simple mandate. If that were the case, it was up to the coalition to transform this collective distaste into a clear post-election reform agenda and deliver results. For example, voters did not necessarily vote for the abolition of the executive presidency; they voted for the removal of a repressive president. But they indicated support for such abolition, which the coalition should have decisively acted upon. The vital characteristic that this coalition singularly lacks is fortitude. Now, it must pick up the pieces, and interpret the results (wards and all) in its most optimistic light. As at 10 February – a slim majority in Sri Lanka still rejected Rajapaksa. That sentiment may not sustain this coalition for much longer unless it abandons divisive politics, and inspires its supporters to believe once again that they made the right choice in January 2015.


A lesson for Rajapaksa

Mahinda Rajapaksa’s achievement at the local government elections was exceptional. He may believe that it was his Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist message that won him his victory. But there is another perspective he ought to consider. He lacked the state machinery he had in 2010 and 2015. He even lacked the usual party machinery. Yet he succeeded. This result demonstrates the strength of his charisma and the power of his personality.

Mahinda Rajapaksa is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most popular politician in Sri Lanka today. But if he is capable of doing so well without the aid of a repressive state apparatus – the kind he relied on in 2015, and still lost – then he might ask himself, ‘do I need to rely on such methods in the future?’

When he permitted minorities to be abused, they came out in droves to vote against him. They still may. He could ignore them and hope to recapture the SLFP voter base to complete his return to the helm. Yet a large part of that one-dimensional strategy relies on the continued inertia of coalition supporters. This is why Rajapaksa cannot be certain about winning a national election in the future. If there is one lesson Rajapaksa may need to learn from January 2015 (and strangely, even the local government elections of 2018), it is that he still fails to command the confidence of a majority of Sri Lankans. One might therefore hope that his unlikely victory this February prompts him to consider the value of a more moderate course.

His followers will surely not abandon him. For he alone can afford to be moderate without fearing backlash. If he, or his proxy, desires to win a national election in the future, it will surely have to be on a platform that has appeal beyond nationalist politics.

The local government elections of 2018 will have implications for voters, the coalition, and Rajapaksa in the coming months. These implications – like the elections – may be difficult to predict. Yet lessons from the last three years ought to inform the thinking of each of these actors. The voter must surely be more pragmatic. The coalition must surely be more courageous. Rajapaksa must surely be more moderate.

The Blooming Of The Pohottuwa; Post-Mortem & Lessons

By Mohamed Harees –




“All the gang of those who rule us
Hope our quarrels never stop
Helping them to split and fool us
So they can remain on top” ~ Bertolt Brecht – ‘Solidarity song’

A flower bud is a swelling or the formation of a premature flower bloom. A bud will eventually produce a flower. Sri Lanka too saw the flower bud (Pohottuwa) nurtured by MR blooming into a ‘larger than life sized flower’ at the grass-root levels in the recently concluded LG Elections. This type of political drama with a latter entrant party based on the strength of ‘one man’ giving a hiding in style to two major dominant players in the arena is a political first in Sri Lanka, belying the forecasts of many local political and even international observers too. Whether this emerging ‘political flowering situation’ will emit a sweet fragrance like a Rose (as the majority thought) or a terrible pungent odour like a corpse flower (as others opined) for the country will be left to be seen in the foreseeable future.

The bottom line is this is democracy in the working. Of course, representative democracy remains a better form of governance than mob rule, with its’ track record much stronger than the sort of authoritarian populist movements. But the downsides among many are that there is a tendency towards short-termism, and that the tyranny of the majority becomes a constant threat to minority groups. Further it can also result in unwieldy coalitions, or endless squabbling and political deadlock like we have been witnessing in Post-Independence Sri Lanka whereas other political systems can find it easier to proceed in a unified direction. Further, democracy panders too much to the needs of the individual and encourages people to vote selfishly, thinking purely in their own interests, rather than for what is best for the country as a whole. The democratic process also encourages politicians to make promises that they know they can’t keep, in order to be elected. This creates public cynicism and disillusionment in the long run. More interestingly a fully functioning democracy relies upon an educated and informed public.

Yes! democratic systems today are miles away from the ideals it claims to offer, with national interests and public interest not anywhere in sight in the radar of winning political parties when deciding on how to govern. Patriotism, nationalism and public interest will only be fads and slogans and tools in their armoury to gain their own selfish ends. It will be down to the personal and parochial interests when forming alliances. We can now see UNP looking at various coalition options to stay in power while the SLFP And UPFA members are waiting to switch alliances caring nought for the conditions of the original mandate received by them. We have seen these types of political circuses even during earlier elections. How even so-called parties with communal interests like JHU and Muslim parties (claiming to work for their communities. My foot!) jump from one side to the other and the yarns they relate justifying their actions are amusing to say the least!

In the ultimate analysis of the LG elections, it will be easy, like what this so-called Yahapalana government is now doing, to bring in ‘sour- grapes’ arguments that the strength of the mandate given in 2015 is still intact and that MR vote base has declined in real terms. However whatever differences we may have with the ‘Big-man’, we must accept the fact that he has single-handedly changed the future destiny of this government led by a SLFP President and a UNP PM for years to come, in many ways diluting the relevance of the 2015 mandate and its’ credibility to perform as a government representing people’s will. Making amends to regain people’ confidence and credibility before 2020 will therefore a long shot for this beleaguered outfit with President and PM on loggerheads on many policy issues despite signs of optimistic cohabitation seen at the initial phase. The mandate does not lie in numbers or percentages, but whether they have set out or at least shown political determination seriously to do what they promised at the hustings. Thus, this government should perform an honest post mortem about not only regarding their shameful defeat at the LG elections, but also about what has been going on during the last 3 years.

Sadly, the political will was lacking with President sheepishly blaming PM/ ministers for not allowing him to do his duty (forgetting the fact that he was in fact the Executive President of this country). In that way, MR was a strong leader who could demand action from his ministers and officials whether those decisions were in the best interests of the country or not. Precise the reason that many political analysts in TV Panel discussions say that this government was the worst performing government in the Post-Independence era in terms of political will and also in terms of running the day to day affairs of this country. The recent petrol strike was an ideal example. The latter aspect includes the sheer inability of this government to keep the people informed of the actual situation prevailing, allowing the social media gossip and loose talk to take over the national discourse. Besides, their marketing/ PR strategy has been a disaster. While even the good aspects this government did such as more freedom of expression, RTI, improving the international image of Sri Lanka, and even reducing the prices pf some essential goods, were not properly marketed to the grass-root levels, even the actual impact of the massive ill-doings and frauds of the previous government and the heavy loan bills burdened upon Citizen Silva were not properly and effectively highlighted. To add salt to the injury, the inept and inefficient advisors like Shiral Lankatileke and top civil officials were seen calling the shots, which aspect has been a bane for implementing many decisions taken (it was sheer shame that the government continued to blame that the officials were still MR’s men in spirit without doing anything soon to rectify them despite being having the power to do so!)

Further it was just 3 years ago that this collation government came to power with clear promise of cleaning the stables and bringing the bigwigs accused of massive scale corruption of the former regime including the ‘Big-man’ and his family to book. Despite however many tamashas at the start with the reconstitution of the Bribery commission and many other gimmicks, the whole exercise just got petered out. It was a joke that the many of those who were arrested and jailed were kept in comfort in hospitals and later released for ‘lack of evidence’. Then again the Hora Police game took another comical turn even before the government could start off as it should, when the Bond Scam and corruption drama set in their own ranks and the rest is history. Corruption was thus rife during this regime too perhaps in different ways while the high expenditure spent on a top heavy political and executive (Bigger cabinet with ridiculous portfolios) was eating into the public purse, denying much needed resources to meet essential areas like health and welfare. Even the CAT Scan machine for the Cancer Hospital had to be purchased out of public donations when the government was importing ultra-luxury vehicles for their Ministers.

In this context, due to the prevalence of the social media platform to disseminate information, people are being treated to continuing drama and humour of the inefficiency and apathy of this government with President Sirisena and PM RW cutting sorry figures in the public perception like ‘a tiger without tooth’. To be fair, it was MR’s and Co.s voice which sank into the minds and conscience of the people at the grass-root levels with their hypocritical talk of ‘saving the country’ from traitors selling national assets, Sinhala Nationalism and sheer inefficiency, fishing in troubled waters. The Pohottuwa elections posters displaying huge pictures of MR thus in fact played on the inner psyche and mental files of the grass-root level voters , projecting MR as the only saviour in the Post War period as well like his pivotal leadership assertive role during the War.

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