Stormy Daniels friend describes listening in on her phone calls with Trump

It's been nearly two months since allegations surfaced of a past affair between President Trump and adult-film actress Stormy Daniels. Now Daniels is suing. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

By Beth Reinhard and Rob Kuznia March 13 at 11:27 AM

A close friend of Stormy Daniels is confirming her affair with Donald Trump more than a decade ago — saying he listened in on their phone conversations — and defending her efforts to get out of the $130,000 hush agreement she made shortly before the 2016 election.

The account given by Keith Munyan, a 56-year-old photographer who is among four people listed in the nondisclosure agreement as knowing about the alleged relationship, is the latest development in what has become a daily public relations skirmish between the porn star and the president of the United States. The agreement does not bar Munyan from speaking publicly about the matter.

In a telephone interview late Monday with The Washington Post, Munyan mostly corroborated details Daniels already revealed in a recently published interview she gave to In Touch magazine in 2011: that she and Trump met at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in 2006; that he offered to get her on“The Apprentice” reality TV show; and that he also offered her a condominium in a proposed Trump Tower in Tampa.

Munyan said Trump would call Daniels while he was working in a photo studio in a house he owned in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Valley Village, a house she rented between 2006 and 2008. He said the first call came in 2006, after Daniels had told him she met Trump in Lake Tahoe.

“She checked her phone and goes, ‘Look who’s calling,’ ” he said. “She thought it was so fun. She wanted to be on ‘The Apprentice.’ Wouldn’t you?”

(AP Photos)

Munyan said Daniels placed the phone between her ear and his. He said he listened in like this on Trump’s calls six or seven times over the course of the relationship with Daniels.

“The only thing I ever heard him do is just babble like he always does,” Munyan said. “The conversation I remember the most is about the condominium. . . . I heard her say, ‘I don’t want that. That’s not what I want.’ ”

The three other people listed in the nondisclosure agreement as knowing about the relationship — Daniels’s manager Gina Rodriguez, ex-husband Mike Mosney and porn actress Jessica Drake — have not spoken publicly about the affair.

The Daily Beast first published a story based on an interview with Munyan Monday night.
Though she gave lengthy interviews to at least two news outlets before the deal for her silence was struck, Daniels has been circumspect in her public appearances since the Wall Street Journal broke the news of the agreement in January.

Munyan said he did not recall Trump ever mentioning his wife or children. He said he did not know of Daniels having any texts, photos or other evidence of the relationship with Trump.

He did recall a moment Daniels also shared with In Touch: that when she arrived at Trump’s hotel room in Lake Tahoe, he was wearing pajamas.

“He was not dressed appropriately to have dinner with a young lady,” Munyan said, adding that she asked him to put on a suit and he obliged.

Munyan said did not know the answers to some of the more perplexing questions still looming over the saga: Did Trump personally know about the $130,000 payment arranged by his longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, as Daniels claims in a new lawsuit that seeks to invalidate the deal? Was Cohen ever reimbursed by Trump or anyone else? (Cohen has said he “facilitated” the payment with his own money and was not paid back by the campaign or Trump Organization.)

Munyan said he hopes that an upcoming broadcast of “60 Minutes,” which taped a conversation with Daniels last week, will change what he believes are misperceptions about Daniels because of what she does for living.

“I want it to come out,” he said of the program. “I think people will see her in a different light. It’s time that people understand her side of the story.”

Munyan spoke to The Post on a conference call with his fiance, 57-year-old J.D. Barrale, who has been with Munyan for five years.

The couple said that they are close with Daniels and that she refers to them as “my dads.”
“She’s a very strong, very intelligent woman,” Barrale said. “With a damn good sense of humor. That has served her well because it has been a rough road.”

Munyan also said Daniels had told him that she once spanked Trump at his request with a copy of Forbes magazine, an anecdote first reported by Mother Jones in January.

Although Munyan said he didn’t pry into the private details, he said it was clear that Trump and Daniels had a sexual relationship.

“This was not a craft class,” he said. “This was definitely about sex.”

#CollateralFreedom: RSF unblocks three more censored sites

 

 March 12, 2018

 To mark this year’s World Day Against Cyber-Censorship, celebrated on 12 March, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is unveiling another round in its Operation #Collateral Freedom, in which it restores access to online media outlets that have been blocked in their own countries.

 

Blocking access to the websites of independent media outlets is one of the most widely used strategies by information predators. RSF has been combatting this practice since 2015 by creating “mirror” sites, that is to say, exact copies of the original sites.

After unblocking 10 sites in 2015, six in 2016 and five in 2017, RSF is restoring access to three more sites to mark 2018’s World Day Against Cyber-Censorship. So, in all, RSF has restored access to 24 news websites.

In Burundi, Oman and Iran, Collateral Freedom rescues media

The Burundian weekly news website Iwacu is one of the three beneficiaries of this year’s operation. It has been one of Burundi’s few remaining independent media outlets since 2015, when radio stations were closed on President Pierre Nkurunziza’s orders. But, like other news sites, it is now inaccessible in Burundi. Since 10 October 2017, anyone trying to access it arrives at a blank page. They think there is a problem with the web address or even that the site has been shut down.

The second of this year’s unblocked sites is Mowatin (“Citizen”), an independent online magazine that Mohamed al Fazari, a journalist, blogger and human rights defender, founded in Oman in June 2013 shortly after being released from prison. He had been arrested along with other activists in June 2012 and charged with “gathering with the intent of rioting” and “insulting the Sultan.” After the original site was blocked in Saudi Arabia and Oman in 2017, a new one was created that is currently accessible in Oman but not in Saudi Arabia.

The third site is Majzooban Nor, the only source of independent news and information about Iran’s Sufi community. Journalists who work with this media outlet are often targeted by the Iranian regime.

In February 2018, the site published reports and video of police violence at some of the protests taking place in Iran. Several of its reporters were badly beaten by police, to the point that two of them spent several days in a coma. The site has been the target of several cyber-attacks and has not been accessible within Iran since 2011. The Iranian authorities have been targeting Sufis for the past decade.

Mirroring – how RSF unblocks sites

To unblock access to a censored site, RSF uses a technique known as “mirroring” in which it creates a “mirror” or duplicate site that is constantly synchronized in real time with the original and is hosted by a major Internet service company such as Fastly, Amazon or OVH. It would be very hard for governments that are information predators to block access to the mirrors without cutting themselves off from all the services provided by these Internet giants, thereby sustaining major collateral damage. Hence the operation’s name – #Collateral Freedom.

This year, in order to be able to continue Operation #Collateral Freedom, RSF is launching a crowdfunding operation on the KissKissBankBank platform.

'Freedom!': the mysterious movement that brought Ethiopia to a standstill

 Supporters of Bekele Gerba, secretary general of the Oromo Federalist Congress, celebrate his release from prison, in Adama, February 2018. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters

 Tom Gardner in Adama-Tue 13 Mar 2018 11.52 GMT

Today, Desalegn is a banker. But once he was a Qeerroo: a young, energetic and unmarried man from Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo, bound by what he calls a “responsibility to defend the people”.

Twelve years ago he helped organise mass protests against an election result he and many others believed the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) had rigged. This landed him in prison, along with thousands of others, on terrorism charges.

Since then he has married and, like many of his generation in Ethiopia, mostly avoided politics. That was until 12 February, when he joined almost everyone in the town of Adama, and in many others cities across the region of Oromia, in a strike calling for the release of opposition leaders and an end to authoritarianism.

The boycott, which lasted three days and brought much of central Ethiopia to a standstill, culminated on 13 February with the release of Bekele Gerba, a prominent Oromo politician who lives in Adama, and, within 48 hours, the sudden resignation of Ethiopia’s beleaguered prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn. The shaken federal government then declared a nationwide state-of-emergency on 15 February, the second in as many years.

“It was a total shutdown,” says Desalegn, of the strike in Adama. “Almost everybody took part – including government offices. You wouldn’t have even been able to find a shoeshine boy here.”
For him and many other residents of Adama, about 90km south-east of the capital, Addis Ababa, there is only one explanation for how a normally quiescent town finally joined the uprising that has billowed across much of Oromia and other parts of Ethiopia since late 2014: the Qeerroo.

 Police fire teargas to disperse protesters during the Oromo festival of Irreecha, in Bishoftu, October 2016. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters

Who the Qeerroo are, and how they have helped bring one of Africa’s strongest and most autocratic governments to its knees, is only dimly understood.

In traditional Oromo culture the term denotes a young bachelor. But today it has broader connotations, symbolising both the Oromo movement – a struggle for more political freedom and for greater ethnic representation in federal structures – and an entire generation of newly assertive Ethiopian youth.

“They are the voice of the people,” explains Debela, a 32-year-old taxi driver in Adama who says he is too old to be one but that he supports their cause. “They are the vanguard of the Oromo revolution.”

The term’s resurgence also reflects the nature of Oromo identity today, which has grown much stronger since Ethiopia’s distinct model of ethnically based federalism was established by the EPRDF in 1994.

“In the past even to be seen as Oromo was a crime,” says Desalegn, of the ethnic assimilation policies pursued by the two preceding Ethiopian regimes, imperial and communist. “But now people are proud to be Oromo … So the Qeerroos are emboldened.”

As the Oromo movement has grown in confidence in recent years, so the role of the Qeerroo in orchestrating unrest has increasingly drawn the attention of officials.

At the start of the year police announced plans to investigate and crack down on the Qeerroo, arguing that it was a clandestine group bent on destabilising the country and seizing control of local government offices. Party sympathisers accused members of being terrorists.


Bekele Gerba waves to his supporters after his release from prison in Adama, on 13 February. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters

Though many dispute this characterisation, few doubt the underground strength of the Qeerroo today.
Since the previous state of emergency was lifted last August, Qeerroo networks have been behind multiple strikes and protests in different parts of Oromia, despite obstacles like the total shutdown of mobile internet in all areas beyond the capital since the end of last year.

Bekele Gerba, the opposition leader, credits the Qeerroo with securing his release from prison, and for sending hundreds of well-wishers to his home in Adama in the aftermath. But like many older activists, he confesses to limited knowledge of how they organise themselves.

“I only became aware of them relatively recently,” he says. “We don’t know who the leadership is and we don’t know if they have a central command.”

But in a recent interview with the Guardian, two local leaders in Adama, Haile and Abiy (not their real names), shed light on their methods.

According to the two men, who are both in their late 20s, each district of the city has one Qeerroo leader, with at least 20 subordinates, all of whom are responsible for disseminating messages and information about upcoming strikes.

They say their networks have become better organised in recent months, explaining that there is now a hierarchical command chain and even a single leader for the whole of Oromia. “This gives us discipline and allows us to speak with one voice,” says Abiy.

Their job has become more difficult in the absence of the internet.

“With social media you can disseminate the message in seconds,” says Abiy. “Now it can take two weeks, going from door to door.” Instead of using WhatsApp and Facebook, they now distribute paper flyers, especially on university campuses.

The role of Oromo activists among the diaspora, especially those in the US, also remains crucial, despite the shutdown.

Zecharias Zelalem, an Ethiopian journalist based in Canada, argues that it is thanks to prominent social media activists that the Qeerroo have acquired the political heft that youth movements in other parts of the country still lack. He highlights in particular the work of Jawar Mohammed, the controversial founder of the Minnesota-based Oromia Media Network (which is banned in Ethiopia), in amplifying the voice of the Qeerroo even when internet is down.

“[Jawar] gives us political analyses and advice,” Haile explains. “He can get access to information even from inside the government, which he shares with the Qeerroos. We evaluate it and then decide whether to act on it.”

He and Abiy both dismiss the assumption, widespread in Ethiopia, that Jawar remote-controls the protests. “The Qeerroos are like a football team,” counters Haile. “Jawar may be the goalkeeper – helping and advising – but we are the strikers.”

 Supporters of Bekele Gerba chant slogans to celebrate Gerba’s release from prison. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters

 

The reimposition of the state-of-emergency has angered many Qeerroos in Adama and elsewhere in Oromia, where the move was widely seen as heavy-handed bid to reverse the protesters’ momentum.

 

Some analysts fear further repression will push members of a still mostly peaceful political movement towards violence and extremism.

Many in the government, as well as in other parts of the country, worry about a rise in ethnically motivated attacks, on people and property, and especially on ethnic Tigrayans, who make up about 6% of the population but are generally considered to dominate politics and business.

Late last year federal troops were dispatched to university campuses, in large part due to escalating ethnic violence, which included several deaths. There were reports of similar incidents during protests throughout the past month.

Jibril Ummar, a local businessman and activist, says that he and others tried to ensure the protests in Adama were peaceful, calming down overexcited young men who wanted to damage property and attack non-Oromos.

“It worries me,” he admits. “There’s a lack of maturity. When you are emotional you put the struggle in jeopardy.”

Gerba says he worries about violence, too, including of the ethnic kind. “We know for sure that Tigrayans are targeted most, across the country. This concerns me very much and it is something that has to be worked on.”

In the coming days the EPRDF will decide on a new prime minister, and many hope it will be someone from the Oromo People’s Democratic Organisation (OPDO), the Oromo wing of the ruling coalition.

This might placate some of the Qeerroo, at least in the short term. But it is unlikely to be enough on its own to dampen the anger.

“When we are married we will retire from the Qeerroo,” says Haile. “But we will never do that until we get our freedom.”

U.N. official says violence and torture continues on Rohingya

Women walk across a bamboo bridge in the Kutupalong camp for Rohingya refugees in southern Bangladesh, February 11, 2018. REUTERS/Andrew RC Marshall/Files

Serajul Quadir-MARCH 13, 2018

DHAKA (Reuters) - Crimes verging on genocide were being committed against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar, and those crimes bore “the fingerprints of the Myanmar government and of the international community”, the United Nations special adviser on the prevention of genocide said on Tuesday.

Adama Dieng spent a week in Bangladesh to assess the condition of the almost 700,000 Rohingyas who had fled across the border from Myanmar, and he said during his trip he heard “terrifying stories.”

 

“Rohingya Muslims have been killed, tortured, raped, burnt alive and humiliated, solely because of who they are,” Dieng said in a prepared statement.

“All the information I have received indicates that the intent of the perpetrators was to cleanse northern Rakhine state of their existence, possibly even to destroy the Rohingya as such, which, if proven, would constitute the crime of genocide,” he said.

He called on the U.N.’s Security Council to “consider different accountability options.”

Myanmar’s national security adviser, Thaung Tun, last week said his government did not support such atrocities. “It is not the policy of the government, and this we can assure you,” he said. “Although there are accusations, we would like to have clear evidence.”

Myanmar has not allowed U.N. investigators into the country to investigate.

Another U.N. investigator said on Monday that Myanmar had launched new military operations against the Rohingya. Heavy artillery was being used in the offensives, U.N. Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Dieng also blamed an international community that “has buried its head in the sand” for the campaign against the Rohingya. During a press conference in Dhaka on Tuesday, he called on neighbouring powers China and India to “show not only political or economic leadership” but also “moral leadership.”

“The world,” he said in Tuesday’s statement, “needs to show that it is not ready to tolerate such barbaric acts.”

Thailand to ditch Fukushima sushi fish over contamination fears

Source: Nguyễn Linh / Unsplash

 13th March 2018

FISH caught off the coast of Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture will no longer be sold at restaurants in Bangkok, Thailand, after consumer groups protested over possible nuclear contamination.

Thailand was the first country to purchase fish from Fukushima Prefecture on March 1, almost exactly seven years after an earthquake and tsunami which caused a nuclear reactor meltdown at the Tokyo Electric Power Co Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in 2011.

Importers in Thailand had ordered some 100kg of flounder and 10kg of littlemouth to serve at 12 Japanese restaurants in Bangkok. Eleven of the restaurants this week decided to stop serving the fish, however, over fears that it would hurt their business, reported The Mainchi.

SEE ALSO: Fukushima residents win $4.5m payout over 2011 nuclear disaster

Thailand’s Department of Fisheries intercepted around 30kg of the fish and ordered the importer not to distribute it, according to the Bangkok Post. Thai authorities have nevertheless confirmed that Fukushima fish products tested thus far were safe from contamination.

Around 50kg of fish was already consumed at an event on March 2 jointly hosted by the Bangkok based restaurants.

A man faces the sea to pray while mourning the victims of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster, in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, March 11, 2018, to mark the seventh anniversary of the disaster that killed thousands and set off a nuclear crisis. Source: Kyodo/via Reuters

Their subsequent decision to ditch the fish will surely disappoint Japanese fisheries and exporters.

“The export is encouraging news to us local fishermen as we are hoping to resume full-fledged fishing operations soon,” a Fukushima fisherman recently told The Asahi Shimbun. Fish caught off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture throughout 2017 was only 13 percent of pre-disaster levels.

SEE ALSO: Japan: New images likely show melted nuclear fuel under Fukushima waters

Some 34,000 people were forced to flee their homes because of the March 11 disaster and have lived outside of the region since 2011. According to the World Nuclear Association, more than 1000 people died throughout the evacuation.

“When I think of the despair of those who lost beloved members of their families and friends in the disaster, I am overwhelmed even now with deep sorrow,” said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a memorial ceremony on Sunday, as quoted by The Japan Times.

“In areas that were affected by the earthquake and tsunami, the restoration of infrastructure closely related to everyday life is nearly complete, while 90 percent of the new homes required after the disaster are expected to be completed by this spring,” he said.

Renowned Harvard Psychologist Says ADHD Is Largely A Fraud

By Cynthia Evans

Jerome Kagan is the most influential psychologists of the 20^th century, who has the expertise and moral authority to compare psychology to a rotten piece of furniture.

A group of US. Academics ranked the 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century in 2002 and they put Kagan in 22nd place, even above Carl Jung (the founder of analytical psychology-23rd)and above Ivan Pavlov (who discovered the Pavlovian reflex-24).


It may be very surprising to learn that he believes that the most modern diagnosis ofADHD is a mere invention rather than a serious condition.

So it may be surprising for you to learn that Kagan believes the diagnosis of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) is an invention which mainly benefits the pharmaceutical industry and psychiatrists.

Kagan is well-known for his pioneering work in developmental psychology atHarvard University where he has spent decades observing and  documenting how babies and small children grow, measuring them, testing their reactions and once they’ve learned to speak, questioning them over and over again. He is an exceptional and highly-regarded researcher.


Mislabeling Mental Illness

In an interview with Spiegel, Kagan addressed the skyrocketing rates of ADHD in America. He attributes to “fuzzy diagnostic practices” and illustrated his point with the following example:

“Let’s go back 50 years. We have a 7-year-old child who is bored in school and disrupts classes. Back then, he was called lazy. Today, he is said to suffer from ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). That’s why the numbers have soared,” says Kegan in the interview.

When asked about his opinion on the disorder, Kegan told the Spiegel that he believes ADHD  is an invention. He thinks that if a child is not doing well in school, the pediatrician gives that child Ritalin, since the cure is available to the doctors and they give the diagnosis.

According to Kagan, the fact that millions of American children who are inaccurately diagnosed as mentally ill because they think there is something fundamentally wrong with them is devastating.

Besides being a psychologist is determined to raise the alarm about this trend,  Kagan and others feel they’re up against “an enormously powerful alliance: pharmaceutical companies that are making billions, and a profession that is self-interested.”

Kagan himself suffered from inner restlessness and stuttering as a child, but his mother told him that there was nothing wrong with him, only that his mind was working faster than his tongue.

He thought at the time: “Gee, that’s great, I’m only stuttering because I’m so smart.” If he had been born in the present era, he most likely would have been classified as mentally ill.

However, ADHD isn’t the only mental illness epidemic among children that worries Kagan. Depression is another mental illness that almost started in 1987, when about one in 400 American teenagers was using an antidepressant and the numbers leaped to one in 40 by 2002.

Kegan believes that depression is also another overused diagnosis, simply because the pills are available. Instead of immediately resorting to pharmaceutical drugs, he thinks doctors should take more time with the child to find out why they aren’t as cheerful.

 Since studies have shown that people who have heightened activity in the right frontal lobe respond poorly to antidepressants a few tests should be carried out (an EEG for certain).

It’s very important for distinction to be made: when a life event overwhelms us, it’s common to fall into a depression for a while, but there are those who have a genetic vulnerability and experience chronic depression.

It’s crucial to look not only at the symptoms, but the causes :the former are experiencing a certain depression caused by an event and the latter are mentally ill.


Psychiatry it’s the only medical profession that establishes illness on symptoms alone and such a blind spot opens the door for new maladies — like bipolar disorder, which we never used to see in children. Acording to statistics,nearly a million Americans under the age of 19 are diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

“A group of doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital just started calling kids who had temper tantrums bipolar. They shouldn’t have done that. But the drug companies loved it because drugs against bipolar disorders are expensive.

That’s how the trend was started. It’s a little like in the 15th century, when people started thinking someone could be possessed by the devil or hexed by a witch,” said Kagan.

About the alternatives to pharmaceutical drugs for behavioral abnormalities Kagan said that we could look at tutoring, as an example. It’s a good start since children who are diagnosed with ADHD are mainly the children who are struggling at school.

---

Source CURIOUSMINDMAGAZINE

Written by Simon Segal

A professional writer with years of continual practice. His experience in writing varies from science to psychology and spirituality. He also teaches academic and creative writing.

Unity govt. must unite for national unity

By Jehan Perera-March 12, 2018, 12:00 pm 

The quelling of anti-Muslim violence in Kandy took longer than anticipated. The curfew in the Kandy district continued for about a week. A state of emergency, which gives the government special powers and enables the military to take on police functions, has been in effect since Tuesday. The protracted anti-Muslim violence is a wake-up call about the tensions that lie beneath the surface in society, which make them susceptible to abuse by powerful forces with larger political motivations. In a manner reminiscent of the prelude to the three-decade long war against the Tamil rebel movement, the sentiment is being promoted amongst sections of the Sinhalese ethnic majority is that the Muslim minority is a source of threat to their own security.

That war, which ended in 2009, devastated the north and east of the country and set back the national economy by decades even as countries that had once been far behind Sri Lanka forged ahead in the race for economic development. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has spoken about the economic and social setback to the country. A few days before he was in Singapore promoting Sri Lanka as a paradise and canvassing for foreign investments. Those hopes will have gone up along with the smoke of burning Muslim shops and other properties. Hopefully the eyes of the general public will be opened as to what national priorities are and the interconnection between communal harmony and economic development.

The targeting of Muslims for hate speech has become especially marked after the end of the war in 2009. There was a serious anti-Muslim riot in the town of Aluthgama in 2014 that claimed four lives and resulted in the destruction of many Muslims businesses and houses. This was accompanied by a vicious campaign on social media that portrayed the Muslims as plotting to take control over the country with the help of global Islam. A tragic feature of Sri Lankan history has been the exploitation of Sinhalese fears by politicians eager to win the votes of the ethnic majority as the easier way to political power. The newly formed Sri Lanka People’s Front (SLPP) that trounced the government parties led by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe last month made fear of division of the country and the danger of foreign forces a main plank of their election campaign.

BIGGER COSTS

But even more than the economic cost would be the human and psychological cost of a further fraying of the bonds that ought to unite the Sri Lankan family, who in the words of the national anthem are children of one mother. Without trust in one another no family, or country, can succeed. Wherever they live as a minority, which is most of the country, the Muslims will feel a greater sense of insecurity and vulnerability. It would be not unreasonable for them to feel that if they are attacked in Kandy, which is the second most important urban centre in Sri Lanka, they could be attacked anywhere in the country. Both the government and civil society need to prioritise restoring the confidence of the Muslim community that Sri Lanka is their home as much as it is the home of the other communities.

Muslim children tell their friends they do not feel safe. My daughter came home and said this after returning from school in Colombo. A Muslim colleague for many decades in the field of inter-ethnic relationship building phoned me to say he was in a hut in his garden as he did not feel safe to stay in his house in Kandy as the mob came nearer. He also appealed that something be done to keep the mob away. It is tragic that an entire community of people should feel insecure and have nowhere to go where they might be secure. With the exception of pockets in the north and east of the country, the Muslims live as a minority community everywhere.

The eruption of anti-Muslim violence at this time, first in Ampara and then in Kandy, has dealt a big blow to the post-war reconciliation hopes of the country which is essential if the economy is to take off and there is to be foreign investment. The instigated violence threatens to pit community against community. This can only mean a downward spiral in which mob attacks by one community will see mob attacks by the other. Having only just got out of a 30-year civil war, it looks like Sri Lankans are now being pushed into a new one unless the Sri Lankan polity as a whole and civil society makes the promotion of inter-community interaction and understanding a central pillar of all that they do.

LIMITED EMERGENCY

In this context the declaration of a state of emergency for a limited time period is best seen as a signal that the government was serious about putting an end to the mob action that threatens the lives and property of a substantial section of the people. If it had been a spontaneous eruption of anger by Sinhalese against Muslims, it would have spread elsewhere also like a wildfire. It is to be noted that the violence did not spread out of Kandy. The fact that it was instigated and organized is also to be seen in the scant respect that the mobs showed to the police even in the face of the declaration of curfew. They were not afraid because they felt they had political protection.

One of the most ugly and fearsome features of the last government was its practice of impunity. The fear of the "White Vans" that would abduct those that the government did not favour and make them disappear was pervasive. While it was primarily directed against those who were deemed to the LTTE supporters, its excesses included political opponents of the government including journalists. Its radius of intimidation included businessmen at Rotary Club events who privately admitted that they did not wish to speak up as they feared to be noted by the government. Those who were the perpetrators of impunity did so in the confidence that they were engaging in actions that upheld national interests as dictated by the government leaders.

During the period of the war, and even after the war, the White Vans death squads abducted people and made them disappear because they had been told by their superiors that this was necessary to ensure national security. This is where a Truth Commission will be needed to look at the human rights violations that took place in the past and the justifications given for them. The violence in Kandy persisted even during the curfew hours because the actors on the streets felt they would be protected by those who were giving them leadership. In their minds they were attacking others with justification because they were doing it for the sake of the nation.

LONGER TERM

Over the past few years, there has been a deliberate and purposeful build up of tension that is being done for political reasons. This has to be undone by enlightened leaders of government. In the longer term there is a need for trust building and community awareness programmes to be undertaken. The government has a duty to reassure the Muslim people that they are equally deserving of the protection of the state and will receive it. The leaders of the government must come out and talk to the people and reassure them. The government leaders must act and speak publicly and take the people with them.

Civil society has its own role to play by educating people. Sri Lanka is still in a post-war phase in which the wounds and traumas of the past three decades of violence and war have still not been healed. Until the national political leadership takes firm and determined action at this time there is an increasing likelihood of Sri Lanka having to face a new cycle of communal violence that will become uncontrollable. This is the message from Ampara and Kandy which the government needs to take more powerfully to the people.

It is to be hoped that this crisis will also convince the leaders of the government that they need to work together rather than against each other. The past several months have seen the two main parties that form the government alliance at loggerheads with each other. This was partly the reason why they fared so poorly at the local government elections. But, now they can see that everything they fought together to come to power in 2015 being threatened, and the peace of the country being threatened too. They need to ask themselves why the vote went the way it did. It is still not too late to obtain a second chance.

PROGRAM SEEM STALLED, DESPITE THEIR IMPORTANCE TO SUSTAINABLE PEACE, SECURITY AND PROSPERITY IN SRI LANKA – UN

Image: United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman meeting with TNA. ( Asian tribune)

12/03/2018

On March 11, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman concluded a three-day visit to Sri Lanka. His trip was planned as part of the ongoing strong engagement between the Government and people of Sri Lanka and the United Nations.

Under-Secretary-General Feltman met with President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, Speaker of Parliament Karu Jayasuriya, Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana, as well as other political leaders and cabinet and government officials. He also appreciated the opportunity to compare notes with members of Sri Lanka’s diverse civil society, human rights representatives, and the diplomatic corps.

Noting the recent appointment of Commissioners, Under-Secretary-General Feltman expressed hope that the Office of Missing Persons will soon be fully operational to help answer questions that haunt too many families from all across Sri Lanka about their missing loved ones. He also commended the Parliament’s recent adoption of the Bill for the Protection Against Enforced Disappearances as an important element of the Sri Lankan government’s commitment to its citizens.


PM Ranil Wickremesinghe meeting United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman.

He underscored the importance of accelerating momentum on other initiatives, including regarding the constitution, truth and reconciliation, reparations, and counter-terrorism, in line with the Government’s promise to strengthen the country’s democratic principles and practices. He expressed concern that many elements of the Government’s visionary 2015 program seem stalled, despite their importance to sustainable peace, security and prosperity in Sri Lanka, and he appreciated the reassurances from Government leaders of their intention to move forward. He encouraged the Government to communicate their actions and timelines for reforms to the Sri Lankan people.

Regarding the recent communal violence, the Under-Secretary-General condemned the breakdown in law and order and the attacks against Muslims and their property. On behalf of the United Nations, he offered condolences to those affected. In that context, he met with Muslim political and civil society leaders to express concern and show solidarity. He urged swift and full implementation of the Government’s commitment to bring the perpetrators of the violence and hate speech to justice, to take measures to prevent recurrence, and to enforce non-discriminatory rule of law.

(Note to Correspondents: Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Concludes Visit to Sri Lanka)

Sri Lanka: Mass graves everywhere, but where are the killers? — Final Part

Many investigations into mass killings had commenced in the past, but almost all of them have stalled. Killings and disappearances in the name of national security and patriotism have become the norm and part of the non-disclosed statistics. The common thread one could find among all this is the belief of the State that if it can deflect and ignore the obvious, the secrets of criminality will be buried and everything will be forgotten with time.

by Lionel Bopage- Mar 12, 2018
Mar 12, 2018

Read Previous parts of this series: Part One,  Part Two, Part Three, Part Four                                                       

Matale mass grave – 2012

( March 12, 2018, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) In the 1988-89 period, the JVP led an armed uprising mainly in the south of Sri Lanka, against the Indian Peace Keeping Forces and the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord. This uprising was put down with tens of thousands of Sinhala youth killed. In Matale, Central Sri Lanka, more than 450 people had disappeared. In November 2012, workers installing a biogas plant at a construction site in the Matale General Hospital found human remains that had been buried. In November 2012, the Matale Magistrate’s Court ordered the remains to be exhumed. By February 2013, 155 human skeletons were unearthed. This is the largest mass grave discovered in the South so far.[1] The police claimed that these skeletons were of victims of a smallpox epidemic in the 1950s.[2] Yet, the site had all the hall marks of a mass grave, with all its skeletons stacked on top of each other and laid out in rows. The JVP called for a criminal investigation and a full disclosure of its results.[3]

Sri Lanka Mass graves everywhere, but where are the killers — Final Part.docx by Thavam on Scribd

Setting up Kangaroo courts to try political opponents 

By C. A. Chandraprema-March 12, 2018, 12:00 pm 

The government has presented a Bill in Parliament to amend the Judicature Act No. 2 of 1978 so as to make provision for the setting up of a permanent High Court at Bar to hear cases in relation to a wide range of financial and property related offences. The offences which come under this proposed permanent High Court at Bar are specified in the Schedule of the Bill and include virtually all offences in relation to financial and property matters in the existing law. This permanent High Court at Bar is to consist of three Judges sitting together, nominated by the Judicial Services Commission from among the Judges of the High Court and one Judge will be nominated by the JSC as the Chairman of the Court. The Minister in charge of the subject may specify by gazette notification, the location and the number of these permanent High Courts at Bar after consulting the Judicial Service Commission.

The Attorney General and the Director General of the Commission for the Prevention of Bribery and Corruption, will be authorized to institute criminal proceedings in these permanent High Courts at Bar taking into consideration the nature and circumstances; the gravity; the complexity; the impact on the victim; or the impact on the State, of the offence, and in the interests of justice and the public and national interest. Trials before these permanent High Courts at Bar are to be held and concluded expeditiously; and unless exceptional circumstances require, be heard from day to day. The inability of a particular Attorney-at-Law to appear before the Permanent High Court at Bar on a particular date for any reason including engagement to appear on that date in any other court will not be a ground for postponing a hearing. Appeals against the judgments of these permanent High Courts at Bar are to be made within 28 days to the Supreme Court and are to be heard by a Bench of not less than five Judges nominated by the Chief Justice.

Professor G. L. Peiris has petitioned the Supreme Court arguing that the proposed amendment to the Judicature Act is among other things, inconsistent with Articles 12 and 13 Constitution which guarantees all persons equality before the law and to the equal protection of the law and every person’s right to a fair trial by a competent court and to be heard in person or by an attorney-at-law, at such a trial. Prof. Peiris has also argued that this Bill goes against the doctrine of the separation of powers between the executive, legislature and judiciary enshrined in Articles 3 and 4 of the Constitution and therefore cannot become law unless passed with a two thirds majority in Parliament and approved by the People at a Referendum. The petition further points out that:

(a) While the proposed law seeks to designate several categories of offences to be tried by the proposed permanent High Courts at Bar, all such offences are not mandatorily triable by the permanent High Courts at Bar. Instead, the Attorney-General and the Director General of the Commission for the Prevention of Bribery and Corruption, will have the discretion to selectively refer cases to the proposed permanent High Courts at Bar. Prosecuting officers will thus have the power to arbitrarily select cases to be referred to the permanent Trial at Bar, while other cases of a very similar nature will be sent through the normal courts system.

(b) The discretion to appoint High Courts of Bar which was hitherto vested exclusively (in respect of a lesser number of offences) with the Chief Justice, is thus to be conferred on officers who constitute a part of the Executive, thereby undermining the doctrine of the separation of powers. Furthermore, this power is to be conferred on the prosecutors, thereby depriving the Accused of the right to a fair trial.

(c) Moreover the criteria on which such discretion is to be exercised such as the ‘gravity’ of the offence, its ‘complexity’, its ‘impact on the victim’ and its ‘impact on the State’, its ‘nature and circumstances’ brings in an element of subjectivity and arbitrariness because the same offence committed by two different individuals is to be distinguished using such criteria which will make the whole process discriminatory and capricious. Decisions by the prosecutors will be based on extraneous and subjective considerations.

(d) The proposed law confers upon executive officers of the State, the power to transfer any case currently before a Magistrate or a Judge of the High Court to be tried in the permanent High Court at Bar. This amounts to an interference with the Judiciary.

(e) The power hitherto granted to the Commission to Investigate into Allegations of Bribery or Corruption by Act No 19 of 1994, to direct its officer, the Director General, to institute proceedings is now to be directly conferred on the Director General – thereby transferring a power of the Commission to a public officer.

(f) The offences to be tried by the proposed High Courts at Bar, as specified in the Schedule of the Bill is arbitrary and motivated by extraneous, political considerations, as offences which surpass all others in gravity such as the Capital offences of Treason, Murder, Rape and Gang Rape are not included in the proposed new sixth Schedule. There are a large number of pending cases before the High Courts, in respect of capital offences, without any special procedure being implemented for their expeditious disposal.

(g) In the recent past, several politicians and members of the Present Government have stated that new laws will be created and introduced to convict identified persons, and the Petitioner reserves the right to seek and obtain media accounts of same and produce them before the Supreme Court.

(h) The Bill seeks to confer on the Minister the sole authority to specify the location of the permanent High Courts at Bar and to increase the number of such Courts, thus conferring on a Member of the Executive arm of the Government, powers of the Judicial arm of Government. Although the said Bill purports to provide that the Minister shall, in doing so, consult the Judicial Service Commission - it does not provide that the concurrence of the Judicial Service Commission is required.

(i) The Bill takes away the right of an Accused to be represented by a Counsel of his choice, by providing that the inability of an Attorney-at-Law to appear before the High Court at Bar shall not be a ground for postponing the trial. It thus also seeks to take away the right of Attorneys-at-Law to engage in their professional practice.

In his Petition, Prof. Peiris has further stated that this proposed amendment to the Judicature Act is a contrivance designed to defeat the franchise of the People by the incarceration and/or conviction of the political opponents of the Government.

The President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka U.R. de Silva has in his official capacity as the President of the BASL also petitioned the Supreme Court against this proposed amendment to the Judicature Act of 1978. In his Petition he has specifically stated that "the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (‘BASL’), is the sole representative body of the entire fraternity of legal professionals comprising of the Private as well as the Official Bar, and consists of more than 18,000 members who have enrolled as Attorneys-at-Law of the Supreme Court and that the Executive Committee of the BASL and the Bar Council, by a circular resolution dated 6th March 2018 unanimously adopted a resolution expressing grave concern of the Bar regarding this Bill and had unanimously resolved to apply to the SC challenging its constitutional validity.

Thus the entire legal profession in the country is now opposed to this proposed amendment. The BASL had in fact attached to their petition a copy of the BASL constitution pointing out that the objectives of their Association included making representations to the government and any other relevant authority matters of national importance relating to the rule of law and administration of justice and that they were making this application in the interest of the members of the legal profession representing both the private and official Bar, the judiciary and the public of the country. Furthermore the BASL Petition states that this application to the SC is being made to safeguard the interests of Attorneys–at-law including those serving in the private and the official Bar, to ensure that the rule of law is adhered to, to preserve and promote the independence of the judiciary and to protect the institutions essential to the administration of justice.

Among the arguments put forward by the BASL was that, in law, there is no Court known as permanent High Court at Bar, and thus this Bill cannot be passed. The other arguments in the BASL petition ran more or less parallel to those raised in the Petition mentioned earlier. Petitions have been filed by several other parties as well and as is the usual practice in such cases, will most probably be heard together by the SC. The opposition to this piece of proposed legislation designed to ‘kangaroofy’ the existing courts system is unlike anything we have seen in recent times.