Annai Poopathy remembered across North-East

Image courtesy of @saygi

21 April 2019

Across the Tamil homeland, commemoration events were held to mark the anniversary of the death of Annai Poopathy, a Tamil woman who fasted to death 31 years ago n protest against the atrocities committed by Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF).

As member of the Navatkerny Mother's Front, Poopathy Kanapathipillai from Batticaloa, commenced a fast unto death on March 19 1988, calling for an immediate ceasefire and peace talks between the IPKF and the LTTE.

Her fast ended on April 19 with her death. 

Her 28 year old son had been shot dead by the Sri Lankan army and another son randomly shot dead by the Special Task Force. Another son, arrested during round up operations, was held in Boosa army camp and subjected to severe torture.

In commemoration of her fast, family members of the disappeared in Vavuniya held a Hindu ceremony and led a rally through the town. The rally also marked 790 days of their protest.

In Mullaitivu former Northern Provincial Council member T Ravikaran also led a commemoration event with local politicians and civil society officials.

Members of the TNPF also marked the occasion, with a commemorative event at their office in Jaffna.

And also in Jaffna students at Jaffna University laid flowers and lit candles before a garlanded portrait of Annai Poopathy.

Related Articles: 

30 March 2019 : Tamil political parties remember Annai Poopathy

28 March 2019 : Annai Poopathy remembered in Batticaloa 31 years on

The reconstruction can draw from the revitalisation of co-operatives but is dependent on leadership 

Given that the co-operatives lack political strength after the war, they are easily intimidated by the bureaucracies, who t hreaten them with blocking approvals for routine functions

 22 April 2019

The co-operatives (Known as Multi-Purpose Cooperative Societies-MPCS) in the North have gained significant funds through the Budgets for 2018 and 2019. These allocations totalling over Rs 2.5 billion for producer and credit co-operatives are a strategy to revitalise the war-torn rural economy and provide relief to the indebted population in the North. 
What are the challenges facing the Northern co-operatives today? And are co-operatives the appropriate vehicle for rural reconstruction?

Historical context

.The history of the co-operative movement in the North and Sri Lanka more broadly reaches back to the early twentieth century. The British colonial government initiated co-operatives to address farmer indebtedness and the agricultural crisis in the early twentieth century, and then expanded them for distribution of essential items during the Second World War. 
By Independence in 1948, co-operatives had become widespread and Left-leaning governments from the late 1950s and into the 1970s strengthened co-operatives to boost rural development. 

The history of co-operatives in the North, and particularly Jaffna, has some interesting characteristics. First, co-operative development was tied to advances in both formal and informal education in Jaffna. Second, in its nascent stage in the 1920s and 1930s, the co-operatives gained much from the remittance economy of those working in colonial Malaya and the energies of those who returned as Malayan pensioners. 
Third, the co-operatives have a caste character—the leadership comes from the Vellala upper caste communities. However, with the emergence of producer co-operatives, particularly those formed for caste-related occupations such as fisheries and toddy tapping, co-operatives also became institutions for advancing the interests of certain middle and oppressed castes. 

Post-war challenges

.One of the central challenges facing co-operatives in the post-war years was the lack of capital-both investment and credit to increase production. 
During war-time, co-operatives could not produce and invest, their savings were depleted and assets lost. In addition to the destruction of property, looting by various armed actors was rampant, where the LTTE in particular extracted co-operative finances and manipulated the boards of co-operatives to ensure its dictates. 
With the co-operatives’ books in trouble, the excessively risk-averse banks in the North are unwilling to lend or charge high-interest rates for loans. Such constraints on investment and working capital have undermined co-operative production and business.
These problems are compounded by the role of the political leadership and bureaucracy after the war. The co-operatives are over-regulated with laws drafted in the 1970s. While the co-operatives are a devolved subject, the Northern Provincial Council under the leadership of former Chief Minister Wigneswaran, from 2013 to 2018 was an utter failure; they did not even pass the statutes necessary to upgrade the legal workings of the co-operatives much less provide a vision for co-operative development. 
Furthermore, the co-operatives were weighed down by the Provincial Co-operative Ministers, whose political machinations denied the co-operatives of the autonomy necessary to consider revival.

Given that the co-operatives lack political strength after the war, they are easily intimidated by the bureaucracy, who threatens them with blocking approvals for routine functions. 
Furthermore, the market-oriented policies of successive governments in Colombo after the war also constrained much-needed state support and resources towards co-operative rebuilding. Indeed, until 2018 there were neither major projects nor compensation for war-time losses to revitalise the co-operatives with state funds. Without capital investment to upgrade co-operative production facilities, they were unable to compete with more technologically advanced production from the rest of the country and the global market.
Next, the co-operatives lost much of their educated middle-class leadership, as they overwhelmingly migrated with the war. 
Furthermore, the political culture of violence and overt intimidation during the war resulted in genuine local leaders avoiding public roles. In this way, the historically important role of educationists and progressives in co-operatives were severed. With the class character of the co-operative leadership changing, the social and informal linkages to work with the bureaucracy to strengthen co-operatives have also weakened. 

• Co-operatives are capable of pooling community resources
• Are co-operatives appropriate vehicle for rural reconstruction?

Research to develop new products with local resources and economic models for a fast-changing global market are major challenges for co-operatives. The Palmyrah Research Institute (PRI) in Jaffna is the only technological research institute in the North. 
Palmyrah is one of the most important natural resources in the North, research and extension from PRI needs to contribute towards upgrading the products of the Palm Development Co-operatives. However, given the capacity problems of PRI, support from institutions such as the Colombo-based Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) is going to be necessary to produce marketable goods. Co-operatives are essentially social institutions and their development requires engagement by social scientists, but the contribution of the Jaffna University has been nil. Therefore, co-operative revival requires considerable external support in the future. 

Rural alternative

.Despite the tremendous devastation with the war and the problematic post-war reconstruction policies, the legacy and institutional memory of co-operation in the North is a powerful social asset to organise and reintegrate a war-torn society. Farmers, fisherfolk and Palmyrah-based workers require social and institutional supports to strengthen their productive activities. 
The co-operatives are effective institutions to provide meaningful credit without pushing rural folk into the debt trap as with the now prevalent predatory finance companies and money lenders. The low-interest co-operative credit scheme with the Government grant in the North over the last six months is now circulating among tens of thousands of rural households.
Next, co-operatives are capable of pooling community resources and facilitating enhanced rural production. One of the central challenges of reconstruction in the war-torn North is to rejuvenate production and employment and create a virtuous cycle with the re-investment of an accumulation from such products in the local economy. The fifty small co-operative industries initiated with investment in Budget 2018, and now to be augmented with an additional fifty industries in the budget this year have considerable potential.
The strength of co-operatives is their inherently democratic structure and the principle of equality with one vote for one member. And any profits accruing to the co-operatives are either shared by their broad membership or re-invested in the co-operative contributing to the local economy. 
This is not the case with the Colombo-based companies and multi-national corporations, whose profits belong to their wealthy shareholders and are syphoned out to Colombo and other capitals. 

While the reconstruction of the war-torn economy can draw from the revitalisation of co-operatives, the realisation of such a vision is ultimately dependent on leadership, including from the political class capable of mobilising society. And here the Tamil political leadership has been more a liability than an asset. 
Co-operatives have some political and social limitations. All over the world, co-operatives lean towards the status quo and are comfortable to be under the patronage of the state as opposed to pushing for radical change. 

Furthermore, while co-operatives in Third World countries have done much to uplift a lot of the lower middle-class communities and the working classes, they have rarely addressed the social and economic problems of the subaltern classes; the marginalised including slum dwellers and pauperised rural folk.
Amidst these challenges, an important Northern co-operative initiative for rural development is in the works. The Government has put funds where they need to go. 
The co-operatives and their membership are again beginning to expand. The success of this reconstruction alternative is dependent on social mobilisation and the co-operative movement’s determination to better the economic lives of its members, to strengthen rural society, to ensure its independence from the state and to struggle against its 
social limitations. 

Vigil at Jaffna University for victims of Easter Sunday attacks

190422 Jaffna Uni vigil Easter attacks ND 1.jpeg

Staff and students at the University of Jaffna held a vigil in tribute to the victims of the bomb blasts in Batticaloa and Colombo.

22 April 2019

Attended by lecturers, students and campus staff, the vigil took place at the campus on Monday morning.

On the day of the attacks, Jaffna University students had organised an emergency blood donation drive as reports of shortages of blood emerged, especially in Batticaloa.

The death toll was last confirmed at 290 although many remained missing or unaccounted for.

Related Articles: 

21 April 2019 : Almost 300 killed as Easter Sunday bomb blasts rock Sri Lanka

Will power cuts solve electricity crisis?

For four long years the Government slept over power generation, it was the power cuts that awakened them from their slumber and if properly handled could pave the way to a solution - Pic by Ruwan Walpola

Tuesday, 23 April 2019

The country faced electricity power cuts, reminding citizens of early 1990s, which resulted in private power producers supplying electrical power with long-term power supply agreements. Today, most have completed their agreement period, but some were extended; yet others were forced out.

The country-wide power-cuts except for Colombo city started in mid-March without warning, three hours in the morning and one hour in the evening, on a staggered basis. First the problem was failure of Norochcholai second power plant, expected to be corrected within a week. But power cuts continued with CEB claiming water deficiency in reservoirs due to drought. Power cuts stopped for Sinhala New Year, but could come back after the two-week grace and any time over the next five years.


Drought and power generation

The country had bountiful rains last year; by November most reservoirs were overflowing, hydropower plants were running full capacity. But rains ceased by end-November; everyone hoped for customary heavy rains during December end. Prior to construction of large reservoirs, heaviest floods in history took place in 1947 and 1957 late December.

But history failed to repeat, scanty rains fell in December while power-plants worked full capacity. If CEB accessed balance water in reservoirs in early January, the result of high power generation and poor rains in December would been visible. January to March are dry months with mild rains in April, heavy rains expected only in May. If CEB curtailed hydropower generation saving precious water and relied more on fuel, power-cuts could have been averted.

Normally, when power situation becomes critical, government explains the populace and request reducing consumption, also sets an example by cutting down street lights. But nothing happened.


Poor power generation capacity

The country failed to learn from power shortages in the 1990s and except for Norochcholai during 2011/2014 no power-plants were constructed, under construction or even contracts awarded, but the electricity demand is increasing. Non-implementation of anticipated power plants was due to tug-of-war between CEB and Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) and political interference.


Sampur power plant – President’s policy

The MOU for 500MW coal power plant at Sampur, Trincomalee was signed in 2006, between National Power Corporation of India and the Government and in 2013 number of related agreements were signed.

The power plant construction dragged on for 10 years over various issues and in September 2016 final agreement was to be signed, when Environmental Foundation filed a Fundamental Rights case. At the Supreme Court, Additional Solicitor General informed the Court that he got written instructions from the Secretary to the Ministry of Power and Energy that the Ministry is not going ahead with the Sampur Coal Power Project. Thus the end of the coal power project.

President Sirisena made several public statements that he is against coal power. Thus the Secretary’s letter to Solicitor General would have been on the President’s instructions. The question is why was the President’s policy not informed to CEB and PUCSL to adjust the power plan accordingly? Also when Sampur Plant is discontinued, how will the power demand be met?


Long-Term Generation Expansion Plans

CEB was expected to prepare Long Term Generation Expansion Plans (LTGEP) and produced three proposals, 2013-2032, 2015-2034 and 2018-2037, for the acceptance of PUCSL. The 2013-2032 plan was accepted by PUCSL, envisaged 500MW coal power plant in Trincomalee and a series of coal power plants thereafter.

CEB’s subsequent plans included 100MW of solar-power in 2019 and 150MW in following years, 100MW wind-power plant in Mannar by 2018 and further 150MW in subsequent years. Thermal power included two 300MW natural gas plants in 2019 and 2021 and balance future power based mainly on coal.


PUCSL response

CEB claims the power plan was based on least cost power generation, which according to CEB is coal. But the CEB proposal featuring a series of coal plants was rejected by the PUCSL, due to:

1. The cost claimed for coal is unduly low, whereas costs of LNG, diesel and furnace oil are deliberately made higher, thereby indicating coal being cheaper.

2. Externality costs – The health and environmental costs of power generation using different fuels, CEB had failed to include externality costs in their proposal, these costs are heavy on coal, thus CEB proposals did not reflect the true economic costs of power generation.

PUCSL claims coal costs become higher when adjustments for externalities were made. PUCSL modified the plan submitted by CEB, included LNG and renewable generation plants for a balanced plan. However, the proposals were rejected by CEB and threatened trade union action.

CEB claims energy cost for Norochcholai is Rs. 8.87 per kWH, but refers only to basic energy cost, without fixed and variable overheads. According to CEB’s bulk supply tariff submission made to PUCSL for October-December 2017, coal-based generation of Lakvijaya cost became Rs. 14.53 to 14.74 per kWH.


Cost of power

In September 2017, thermal power of 386.7GWH was used at a cost Rs. 9,902.5 million. If the same power was obtained from LNG at Rs. 15 per unit (rate claimed for Kerawalapitiya LNG plant) would cost only Rs. 5,800.5 m, saving Rs. 4,100 m for the month.



Executive Summary contradicts the plan

Although CEB’s LTGEP 2018-2037 proposals neglected LNG usage, the Executive Summary in the report says:

“Incorporating LNG power plants to Sri Lankan power system was studied. The present trend of LNG fuel prices were considered with the possibility of recovering the capital cost of LNG infrastructure. The option of adopting a land-based LNG terminal or Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) is to be further evaluated. However LNG infrastructure must be established by 2020 in order to gain the maximum benefit of environmental impact mitigation.

“The combined cycle plants operating using oil in Western region shall be converted to LNG immediately when the facility is made available in 2020. The main load centre of Sri Lanka is the western region. In order to minimise the transmission losses, development of power plants closer to the load centre is identified complying with the environmental requirements.

“Due consideration was given to the availability of natural gas in the Mannar Basin and utilisation of the natural gas as a fuel for the power sector. Possibility of introducing indigenous natural gas in Mannar Basin by year 2020.”


Power generation plan in a mess

CEB’s Power Plan assumes implementation of various power generation projects. Unfortunately, implementation failed due to tug-of-war between CEB and PUCSL, also Ministry officials and politicians had own agendas. Sri Lanka’s power costs are the highest in South Asia, raising manufacturing costs. CEB runs at a massive loss and would be higher in 2019 and will continue to rise over the coming years.

CEB engineers prefer coal-based power for their own reasons, but further coal plants are unlikely to get environmental acceptance. With experience of Norochcholai and Sampur, approvals will face long delays, resulting in power shortages and back to expensive thermal power.

Power Plan expected LNG infrastructure by 2020, but no was action taken. Meanwhile the Government has signed MOUs with India, China and Japan to set up LNG power plants of around 500MW capacity each. These proposals are outside the Power Plan; and locations, price of electricity produced, criteria for unloading and storing LNG have not been discussed. Also how will they connect with Mannar gas when available?


Kerawalapitiya 300MW power-plant

Tenders were called in November 2016 for the Kerawalapitiya 300MW LNG generation plant. Nearly three years later, the tender is yet to be finalised. The award swayed between Lakdhanavi, a subsidiary of CEB offering power at Rs. 14.98 per unit, while China’s GCL offered at Rs. 15.97. One rupee difference amounts to Rs. 2 billion a year. When Cabinet was proposed to award the contract to the Chinese, Minister Patali Champika opposed and it got postponed. But the same proposal presented by the President on following week got approval, showing the President’s interest in awarding the contract to the Chinese.

Gas-based power generation is new to Sri Lanka and the country lacks knowhow. Thus the contract should have been awarded to the local company, even at a higher price. But our politicians think otherwise.


Unsolicited FSRU proposal

The Korean Ambassador submitted an unsolicited proposal for a free FSRU supplying one million tons of LNG a year, under take-or-pay basis for 20 years. For President Sirisena the proposal was sufficiently important to remove Ranil and appoint Mahinda as PM. The move was turned down by the courts, but the Swiss Challenge is still pending, being postponed a number of times. 


Alternate power sources

The country has exhausted major hydropower potential, but solar and wind-power are alternatives, with their limitations. When rains fail, hydro-production reduces. Solar is available only under good sunshine, from around 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., reducing with cloud cover. During change of wind direction from south-east to north-west and vice-versa results a low wind period reducing wind-power generation.


Battle for solar energy

The Government commenced the ‘Battle for Solar Energy’ (‘Soorya Bala Sangramaya’) with the target of establishing rooftop solar systems on one million households and adding 1,000MW to the main grid. But solar producers claim 590 proposals to produce 1,400MW, which were submitted to CEB after spending over Rs. 100 million on application fees alone, are pending acceptance. CEB accepts solar power form small to medium suppliers only at Rs. 16 a kWH, a rate deliberately kept low to discourage solar investors, while offering as much as Rs. 40 to some private power producers.


Power cuts to country’s rescue

Power cuts resulted from unrestricted hydropower generation in January and February after poor rains in December, a manipulation by CEB engineers to create an emergency situation to bring unused private power producers on line. They succeeded in their endeavour, also power cuts made the Government wake up after a four-year sleep.

In March 2017, the Government announced the construction of a floating solar power plant 100MW capacity utilising 4% of the Maduru Oya Reservoir (roughly 500 acres). Finally, thanks to power cuts the solar plant agreement was signed on 9 April.


Minister promises to end power cuts

Power and Energy Minister Ravi Karunanayake pledged to end power cuts from 11 April, made possible due to garments and other factories closing down for the New Year. Meanwhile on 9 April Cabinet gave the green light to the P&E Ministry to purchase 100MW of supplementary power from three suppliers at rates between Rs. 28.70 to Rs. 30.63.

A Ministerial Committee proposed a 200MW barge mounted power plant from the supplier currently operating a similar plant. On 9 April the Minister submitted the new power generation plan, but Cabinet refused to discuss and postponed to the next Cabinet meeting.


Cost of delay

According to PUCSL’s document ‘Financial Impact of Delay in Implementation of Power Plants – Generation Plan 2018-2037’ Kerawalapitiya 300MW Natural Gas Power Plant was expected to be commissioned in January 2019. Due to delay additional cost of thermal generation is Rs. 8.95 per kWH. Thus for one month delay, at 80% plant factor, additional cost becomes Rs. 1.55 billion.

The country’s thermal power capacity (excluding coal) stands around 2,230MW. The Minister expects further 1,000MW thermal plants to overcome shortage. If LNG replaces 50% of 3,230MW, saving on thermal cost would be Rs. 100 billion a year. The five year delay waiting for LNG will cost the country Rs. 500 billion. Can the country afford this loss?


LNG infrastructure

Powering LNG plants requires LNG, local or imported. The Government has called invitations to recover gas from Mannar and other regions, but recovered gas needs storage facilities and users. When Caine discovered gas in Mannar and proposed to supply gas from the Dorado well to the mainland, the CEB, Ministry of Power and the Cabinet were caught unprepared. Now the country needs to establish an LNG storage, import/export facility and establish LNG power plants to replace 50% or 1,500MW of expensive thermal plants.


 Planning

Thus urgent planning is needed over LNG power plants as capacity, gas storage, unloading/loading facility, FSRU or a dedicated LNG harbour, gas jetties, location, transport of gas from discovery to storage, also internal transport to users (power plants and industrial users). When Mannar gas is recovered, a usage mechanism needs to be in operation.

As the country lacks experience in gas technology, normal procedure would be to hire an international consultant to prepare an implementation report. Selecting the consultant and the report could take a year.

A more logical and faster approach would be to invite local engineers who left the country in the 1970s and ’80s and were engaged in the oil and gas industry. They are now retired and are willing to give their knowledge to the country. Most urgent is the preparation of ‘LNG Import and Infrastructure Plan’ with their assistance. Meanwhile Nalin Gunasekara, a retired international consultant on oil and gas, currently resident in Australia, who conducted a number of seminars locally and others too, would support planning Sri Lanka’s future.


CEB’s role as power planner

Over the decades CEB held the responsibility of preparation LTGEP. But CEB engineers manoeuvred the plan for their own financial gain, dragging the country into the current mess. By offering only Rs. 16 for solar power, CEB deliberately suppressed development of the solar industry, clearly indicating their neglect of responsibilities bestowed on them. CEB has proved beyond doubt that they cannot be trusted to prepare the LTGEP. Thus the preparation of LTGEP needs be handed over to a new organisation established for the purpose. CEB could continue as the contractor, producer and distributor of electricity and implementer of the plan. The new organisation would prepare the plan, supervise implementation and monitor progress made by CEB of LTGEP.


Way forward 

Solar-power would be the fastest way of getting additional power at low cost, only if a fair price is offered. With proper incentives factories would cover their roofs with solar-panels, reducing their air-conditioning/cooling costs. Highway solarisation (fixing solar panels over expressways) has not even been attempted. It would be possible to get over 1,000MW from solar power, early and cheaper, replacing thermal power.

The country needs LNG power plants and gas infrastructure to accommodate local gas. Faced with high cost thermal power, the country cannot afford to waste time in calling tenders and evaluations as done for Kerawalapitiya. The way would be identify critical items and award contracts on negotiated basis. Tenders could be called for non-critical items.

The fastest way to get power plants would be to utilise the November 2016 Kerawalapitiya tender, where Lakdhanavi was lowest at Rs. 14.98 per unit, next China’s GCL offered Rs. 15.97. Currently awards are awaiting court order. The country needs 1,500MW of LNG power early and lowest Lakdhanavi needs to be offered the tender, in addition GCL too be offered a power-plant at Rs. 15.97. As the country needs additional power urgently, both parties could be requested for offers for a third 300MW plant and the lowest offer be accepted. Three plants and conversion of existing 300MW Kerawalapitiya plant would result in 1,200MW plants running on LNG. In addition a 500MW power plant from India, China or Japan could be negotiated, but may take time.

In three years the above power plants would be sufficient to accommodate a FSRU, also gas produced in Mannar. The Swiss Challenge need to be modified and negotiated to accommodate the country’s requirement to be proposed by Sri Lankan professionals engaged in gas and energy. For four long years the Government slept over power generation, it was the power cuts that awakened them from their slumber and if properly handled could pave the way to a solution.

Easter Sunday Bombing: Questions To Minister Of Defence, Law & Order Of Sri Lanka

By Arun Kumaresan –APRIL 22, 2019

Arun Kumaresan – Air Vice Marshal (Ret’d)

Cost of manipulating Higher Defense Management – National Security Council

It was a sad and horrific day for all humans not only Sri Lankans nor Christians. Tentacles of religious fundamentalism and extremism have consumed many innocent lives on the day they were celebrating the resurrection of Christ. But as the reports indicate there had been a pre warning; not general but specific to violent acts targeting the Christians. 

Mr. President: You have been pre occupied in your attempt to seek a second term; in such course you have increasingly taken all aspects of higher management defense & security into your hands. Before coming into this specific incident; there are questions that are related to your conduct as the Minister of Defense relating to higher defense management.

Mr. President: You are aware that the higher defense management of the Nation is tasked with the National Security Council. It comprises, in addition to you, the Prime Minister, Ministers of the subject of Finance, Law & Order and Foreign Affairs, Secretaries to the subject of Defense, Finance, Law & Order & Foreign affairs, Service Chiefs and the IGP. When required, Heads of Intelligence Services are called in for specific briefings to take stock of threats to National Security. This is the way matters relating to higher defense management are conducted and courses of action formulated in any Democratic Nation. However, in contrast on your specific instructions, many a times such meetings have been conducted in the absence of the PM & other UNP Ministers from 2015. In addition, instructions have also been given to the participants who have been cleared by you to attend such meetings, to keep the time and venue secret, to shield it from the PM & other UNP Ministers.

Mr. President: Question 1 – In your pre-occupation of your secret agenda to consolidate power, did you violate the ‘Norm & Form’ of the conduct of the higher defense management by intentionally omitting legitimate members in such high value discussions?

Mr. President: I wish to remind you, that after you intentionally violated the Constitution and appointed Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister, you took over the subject of Law & Order under Ministry of Defense. Even after the defeat of the political coup initiated by you, you continued to hold this portfolio under your purview. Hence, the entire security apparatus of the Nation was under your total command and control. It is now a public knowledge that there was a pre-warning by the Intelligent Services that attacks were being planned by a religious fundamentalist group targeting Christians especially during Easter.

In this context, the statement by the Hon. Prime Minister has great relevance – Quote “Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had noted that although intelligence units had provided information on a possible attack, adequate precautions were not taken to prevent it. He has further added that he and the ministers were not informed of this as well.” This substantiates that such serious matters affecting national security have again been kept away from the Prime Minister who is a legitimate member of the National Security Council and reinforces the earlier assertion of the conduct of illegitimate National Security Council meetings under your stewardship.

Mr. President, the above sounds very serious; you may have no sense and fear to trespass Constitutional boundaries; but now your acts disturbing higher defense management structures has resulted in Loss of lives, bloodshed and mayhem. It only reflects your foolish arrogance, self centered decision making and utter incompetency of governing the Nation.

Mr. President: Question 2 – Aren’t you culpable of the offence of ‘Manslaughter’ due to your intentional actions to marginalize the National Security Council and not acting on the credible intelligence that was in hand to prevent this catastrophe?

Mr. President, you have the right to visit Thirupathi in India. For a person “doing the right” to his fellow countrymen, the God will visit him or her. A person not doing the right to his people, will not and should not be tolerated by anyone leave alone the God. You by your in-actions mis and selfish actions coupled with petty thinking have aided and abetted this “manslaughter”.

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Sri Lanka Terror Attacks: Who and Why, Remains the Mystery that Needs Resolution

Sri Lanka has a history of international involvement in its internal affairs

JEHAN PERERA | 22 APRIL, 2019

The series of bombings that took place in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday in the morning hours as the Christians prepared to celebrate this day came as a terrible shock. When the first reports came in of churches being attacked and then the hotels it came seemed like a bad dream.

Although the country had experienced some significant anti-Muslim rioting in 2014 and 2018, the previous ten years since the end of the war had been free of terror attacks. Besides the death toll in those incidents had been small, no more than four or five.

The scale of the attacks in this case was unprecedented. Not even during the country’s three decade long war had coordinated and deadly attacks taken place simultaneously in so many different locations with such a high level of casualties. So far about 300 people have been reported to have died and 500 injured.

The question of the motivation for the attacks remains a mystery that needs resolution.

The Prime Minister has already publicly said the government had ordered investigations to be launched to ascertain why a prior warning about the attack had been ignored. The police have made a number of arrests, presently amounting to 24, but their identity is not known.

The general impression based on media reports is that at least some of the attackers were Muslims and most of the attacks were carried out by suicide bombers.

Sri Lanka has had its grisly toll of suicide bombers during the period of the war, but these were all members of Tamil ethnicity who belonged to the LTTE. One of the targets for a suicide bombing on this occasion was a Christian church in Tamil -majority Batticaloa in the former war zone of the east.

The coordinated and ruthless nature of the attacks, and the high casualty toll, have given rise to speculation of an international hand. The main suspicion falls on Islamic groups but other groups have also been mentioned.

Sri Lanka has a history of international involvement in its internal affairs, starting with the alleged North Korean interference in the first JVP insurrection of 1971. Whether Sri Lanka is high enough on the global map to make such an investment is a question that needs an answer. There is a question also as to why no international Islamic group has claimed responsibility if they were prepared to invest so heavily on their terror strike in Sri Lanka.

So far the only certainty is that those who carried out the attack had a plan which they have executed with precision and with ruthlessness. The attack on the three churches outside of Colombo and three hotels in the heart of Colombo took place within a few minutes of each other at just about 8.45 am.

Two other smaller events took place a few hours later. The combination of religious and economic targets makes it difficult to come to a conclusion about the motivations of the attackers and what they sought to accomplish by their terrible deeds. The problem of motivation looms large because those who employ suicide bombers, such as the Islamic militants does and LTTE once did, do so for goals that they feel strongly about.

The question to ask in this case is why did suicide bombers want to give up their lives to attack Christians in a country in which the Christians are themselves a small minority of about six percent of the population? Even if the Islamic militants feel that Sri Lanka has done badly by the Muslims there would be no point in attacking the Christians who are themselves a minority and subject to anti-Christian actions especially at a local level, where new Christian churches are subjected to frequent harassment.

Christian-Muslim relations are generally good as they join hands in common causes that affect them as minorities. The generally localized level of inter-religious conflict is too low to translate into the type of effort to launch the ferocious assault that took place on Easter Sunday.

Apart from caring for the victims and their families, the most urgent task at this time is to preserve the social peace and inter religious coexistence that prevails in the country. It is important that other political and religious leaders should come out on this issue as already done by the President, Prime Minister, Opposition leader and leading prelates of all religions. They need to do this not once but repeatedly.

The speculation that Muslims may have played a leading role in the attacks have generated tensions at the community level and even anti-Muslim acts that could grow. Some of the social media postings have been provocative and are clear attempts to increase the level of inter-religious tensions. There could also be attempts by political actors to utilize the disaffection of the general population with the government for their own ends.

There is an argument being made publicly to fully blame the government for the catastrophe. It is argued that the government’s actions over the past four years have demoralized the security forces. One is by having a lax attitude towards national security unlike the previous government which was giving priority to national security.

During the past four years there was a significant relaxation in overall security measures to the point that they did not seem to exist at all. Access to government ministries and to hotels was possible without visible security checks. Road blocks by the security forces became a thing of the past. The freedom of movement and access to buildings became taken for granted.

This sense of freedom would have also contributed to make Sri Lanka a popular tourist destination, but it contained within it the seeds of abuse.

There is also a second argument being made that the failure of the security forces and intelligence agencies to engage in pro-active security measures was due to the government’s over-deference to working within the international human rights framework set for it by the international community.

For the past four years, Sri Lanka has been committing and recommitting itself to follow international norms in regard to dealing with human rights issues. It is argued that this has demoralized the security forces t the point that they have lost all initiative for fear of getting into trouble. The government’s task is to find security forces personnel who can operate within the law and yet take initiatives that yield results.

Sri Lanka is not the only country to face multiple terrorist bombings. Even more powerful and wealthy countries across the globe have suffered from this fate. The challenge of governance, and to the security forces, is to act within the framework of the laws and human rights norms and also prevent acts of terrorism. It is necessary for the government to take all steps to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

In the longer term there will also remain the long unfulfilled task of identifying and implementing the necessary political reforms that makes every individual and community have faith that the Sri Lankan state will be equitable and just to them. This is the message that the government needs to take to the people.

Dr Jehan Perera is the Executive Director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, which is an educational and advocacy organisation that focuses on peacebuilding and transitional justice.

 

Who is behind the Sri Lanka bombings?

Although the government has already blamed Islamist extremists for the wave of deadly bombings, something does not add up, writes PHIL MILLER

Relatives of a blast victim grieve outside a morgue in Colombo, Sri Lanka, yesterday

PHIL MILLER-MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2019

THE horrific wave of bombings that rocked Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday is a watershed moment in the island’s troubled history.

Hundreds have died and many of the victims are still unidentified.

There is also a race to understand who was behind the slaughter — and how they were able to carry it out.

The choice of targets — simultaneous suicide bombs at churches and luxury hotels — is reminiscent of an al-Qaida or Isis attack.

The idea that Islamist extremists are responsible is certainly a narrative that some Sri Lankan officials are pushing.

Today a local Muslim group, National Thowheed Jama’ath, was being blamed — allegedly in cahoots with shadowy foreign backers.

There are certainly some Muslims in Sri Lanka who may exhibit extremist tendencies. Not far from the bombing at Batticaloa on the island’s east coast lies the town of Kattankudy, where many of the local Muslim community are influenced by Saudi-style Islam.

Much has been written about the “Wahhabi invasion” on the island’s once moderate Sufi Muslims, and it would be easy to blame conservative Islam as the incubator for these atrocities.

But there is also plenty of evidence that points in other directions, and at the time of writing some 24 hours after the explosions, no group has claimed responsibility.

The confusion is evident just by watching the rolling news channels, which yesterday were struggling to put out a neat linear narrative.

Many British media platforms pulled their correspondents out of Sri Lanka when the civil war between the Tamil Tigers and government forces ended a decade ago, leaving news anchors struggling to understand the complex patchwork of Sri Lanka’s ethnic and religious make-up.

The well-trodden “war on terror” grand narrative, a clash of civilisations between Muslims and Christians in a 21st-century crusade, makes little sense in Sri Lanka where both these religious groups are minorities — and have often been persecuted by the majority Sinhala Buddhist community.

In one case, the Sri Lankan air force bombed a Catholic church in Jaffna, St James, killing scores of civilians in 1993.

A British Tamil journalist, Thusiyan Nandakumar, bravely tried to make this point in a BBC interview yesterday — that historically Tamil Christians are more likely to have been massacred by the Sri Lankan military than Islamist extremists.

Such is the nature of Sri Lankan politics that Nandakumar, a Tamil, was then trolled by patriotic Sinhala keyboard warriors for making this historically accurate point.

He received thousands of hate-filled messages that left him fearing for his safety.

The backlash rather underlines the point that Sinhalese Buddhist groups in Sri Lanka do have a history of religious intolerance, which can either be exercised through their presence in state structures or in street movements.

Last March saw some of the worst anti-Muslim rioting in Sri Lanka, which was led by Sinhala Buddhist mobs, fuelled by Islamophobic rumours circulating on social media — and crucially given support by riot police who seemed to evaporate in several locations, allowing mobs to move in.
If the Muslim community in Sri Lanka was feeling vengeful, then an attack on Buddhists would have been more predictable than this assault on Christians at Easter.

When Muslims have resorted to political violence in Sri Lanka before, it has not taken on an anti-Christian dimension.

Indeed, a “Christian identity” holds little political traction in Sri Lanka, where the larger communities tend to identify along ethnic lines.

The Tamil Tigers, a secular movement, were composed mainly of Tamil speakers who were Hindu or Christian. In their early years, their ranks also included Tamil-speaking Muslims.

The Sri Lankan military recognised the threat posed by a pan-Tamil alliance, and from 1985 took deliberate steps to drive a wedge between Tamil Muslims and non-Muslim Tamils in the Eastern province.

The security forces aided and abetted Muslim attacks on village of Karaitivu, which soured Tamil-Muslim relations for decades to come.

There is now a real risk that after yesterday’s bombing at the Zion Church in Batticaloa, those old tensions in the Eastern province could reignite into anti-Muslim riots.

Such a scenario would benefit Sri Lanka’s deep state Sinhala Buddhist structures, as it would see further division among the Tamil-speaking people in the east.

It would also allow the security forces to intervene, unusually, on the side of the non-Muslim Tamils — at a time when military leaders are facing international sanction for war crimes they committed against this same group a decade ago.

Political figures like the country’s former defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who was recently served with a war crimes suit while travelling abroad, is running for president — and will cast himself as the anti-terror candidate.

He could also absolve himself internationally if the terror threat was now from Islamist extremists, rather than the Tamil Tigers, who never neatly fitted the “war on terror” mould as much as he tried.

This “who benefits” question has even led some to speculate that Gotabhaya himself may have had a hand in Sunday’s bombings.

Sections of the military apparatus are still loyal to his family, and would have the capability to pull off such an attack — or at least ensure a blind eye was turned.

There are already reports that warnings on the attacks were ignored, raising questions about why these attacks weren’t stopped.

Sri Lanka is such a heavily militarised society, it is hard to imagine how a plot like this went undetected.

The attackers’ ability to strike simultaneously at three of the country’s most luxurious hotels, where security is tightest, is almost incomprehensible.

As is the news that a pipe bomb was found, unexploded, outside the international airport, which is also a high-security military base.

But even this elaborate deep-state scenario ultimately does not add up. The bombing of hotels will have almost destroyed Sri Lanka’s tourism industry for the foreseeable future, an industry in which the military has a large stake — its personnel run numerous resorts.

And so we may never know who was really responsible. Sri Lankan police say dozens of suspects have been taken into custody, but this is a police force with a proclivity to torture — a tactic which will irrevocably tarnish the testimony of those they interrogate.

What will matter is the perception of who was responsible, and how those with power will be able to play this to their advantage. The careful inter-faith work that the clergy in Batticaloa have done over the years will now be more vital than ever to prevent a spiral of violence.

Phil Miller is an investigative journalist and reporter for the Morning Star.

Sri Lanka: Prosecute Easter Sunday Attackers

Nearly 300 Killed in Eight Bombings of Churches, Hotels

Relatives light candles after burial of three victims of the same family, who died at Easter Sunday bomb blast at St. Sebastian Church in Negombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, April 22, 2019.

 © 2019 AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe

April 22, 2019

The attacks in Sri Lanka on April 21, 2019, Easter Sunday, are contemptible acts of violence for which those responsible should be brought to justice, Human Rights Watch said today. Nearly 300 people were killed and more than 500 injured in coordinated suicide bombing attacks on churches and hotels in three cities. Many of the injured remain in critical condition.

“Our hearts go out to all those harmed by these horrific attacks, which only adds to the suffering long endured by so many in Sri Lanka,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Striking packed Easter services and hotels could only have been aimed to maximize killing and maiming people, including children.”

Sri Lankan authorities announced that they had arrested 24 people and said National Thowheeth Jama’ath, a little-known Islamist organization, was responsible for the attacks. It had previously been implicated in vandalizing Buddhist statues. No domestic or foreign group has claimed responsibility thus far.

The government reported that on the morning of April 21, seven suicide bombers entered three crowded churches and three luxury hotels in Colombo, the capital, and nearby Negombo, and the eastern city of Batticaloa. There were two other bombings, one in a guesthouse in Dehiwala and the other in a suspected militant safehouse in Dematagoda.

After the attacks, the government imposed a dawn-to-dusk curfew. It announced that a nationwide state of emergency would be in force from midnight on April 23, permitting security forces to be deployed in restive areas and to conduct searches and arrests without a warrant. Those arrested should be treated according to international due process standards, and not held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, Human Rights Watch said. The Prevention of Terrorism Act permits the authorities to detain suspects for months, and often years, without charge or trial, facilitating torture and other abuse.

The government also blocked several social media platforms that were used in 2018 to spread false rumors that stoked communal violence. Sri Lankan authorities should ensure that any interference with the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas, is for a legitimate reason and is proportionate, Human Rights Watch said.

The bombings were the worst violence since Sri Lanka’s three-decade long civil war ended in May 2009. Several hundred thousand people died during fighting and attacks on civilians by both sides. In recent years, there have been incidents of communal tension and violence targeting religious minorities, including attacks against Christian churches and against Muslims.

Sri Lanka is a majority Buddhist country, with Hindus making up 12 percent of the population, Muslims 10 percent, and Christians 7 percent.

The government has announced compensation and medical assistance for the victims, while overwhelming numbers of volunteers lined up to donate blood. As officials respond to this crisis, they should use their authority to ensure access to essential and long-term medical services for the victims, Human Rights Watch said.

“These horrific attacks make it vital for the Sri Lankan authorities to ensure victims get the help they need, act to prevent further violence, and bring those responsible to justice according to human right standards,” Ganguly said.