Shakthika Sathkumara, a Sri Lankan poet and writer, has been arrested by the police yesterday for insulting Buddhism in one of his short stories.
The Polgaawela Magistrate has remanded the writer until April 09 when he was presented before the court last afternoon.
Sathkumara was arrested by the police following a complaint lodged by a group of Buddhist monks in the Polgahawela area.
By
Ranga Jayasuriya
The anti-Muslim campaign of the fringe Sinhala Buddhist ultra-nationalist bigotry is regenerative. It is adept at finding a new ruse every now and then. The list ranges from Halal, cow slaughter, Muslim clothing stores, wada pethi (sterilizing tablets) and the latest ‘Save Wilpattu.’
All the past campaigns culminated in a violent upheaval, after which it went through a period of hibernation only to resurface under a new set of affected grievances.
The latest is ostensibly to protect the forestry of Wilpattu, but it is the same old Islamophobic campaign that has resurfaced after a lull of several months following the violent clashes in Digana and Amparai.
If the quiet on the ultra-nationalist front was mainly due to the police action and arrest of several key functionaries of Mahason Balakaya, a bigoted Sinhalese Buddhist fringe group, their latest activism comes after the court released those suspects from the remand prison.
Like the previous episodes of anti- Muslim bigotry, the latest campaign is promoted through the social media, through a number of facebook pages, twitter accounts and other social media pages. Some of the pictures of purported Wilpattu deforestation are in fact photos of land cleared for palm oil cultivation in Indonesia and Brazil, as BBC Sinhala website revealed recently. However, these photos are shared and retweeted in hundreds, some times in thousands, effectively creating mass circulation of a racially motivated fake narrative.
By Radhika Coomaraswamy
I recently attended an event organised by the Walpola Rahula Institute. In just a few years Ven. Galkande Dhammananda Thero has created a safe space where Buddhists, women and minorities can have a discussion about the important ideas of our time and the best way forward for reconciliation.
Venerable Dhammananda Thero has no strong view that he imposes on others but he is a facilitator for frank exchange and dialogue, an enabler who makes you feel secure and cared for no matter who you are. When you are with him you have a strong sense of compassion and belonging.
The occasion for the get together by the Institute was the release of the English translation of Ven. Walpola Rahula’s book ‘Sathyodaya,’ translated initially by Padma Gunasekara. Niranjan Selvadurai translated the final version.
Ven. Walpola Rahula, a Buddhist legend, was, as we all know, a graduate of the University of Colombo, University of London and the Sorbonne and was a Professor of History and Religion at North Western University. He was the first Buddhist monk to enter university and first one to be a professor in a prestigious university outside Sri Lanka. He was also once the Vice-Chancellor of Vidyodaya and the Chancellor of Kelaniya University. ‘Sathyodaya’ was his first book but he went on to write many definitive works including ‘What the Buddha Taught,’ which is his most famous work.
By
Anjana Shekar
Veteran director J Mahendran, who has given Tamil cinema several important films including Aadu Puli Attam (story, dialogues) Mullum Malarum (debut as director), Uthiripookkal and Nenjathai Killadhe passed away at his residence in Chennai early on April 2.
Public homage for the director will be held from 10.00 am and his last rites will be performed at 5.00 pm on Tuesday.
The director had been critically ill for the past few days and was undergoing treatment at Apollo Hospital in Chennai but was taken home on Monday night. The director was 79.
The news of his demise was shared by his son John Mahendran, also a director.
Born in 1939, Mahendran began writing stories for filmmakers way back in 1966.
By Mangala Samaraweera
(Full Text of a media communique issued on behalf of Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera Outlining the former Foreign Affairs Minister’s response relating to the current UNHRC Resolution controversy under the heading “The truth about the Geneva Human Rights Council Resolution”)
During the past few weeks, I have been watching the many headlines, debates, misinformation, misrepresentation of facts as well as self-congratulatory statements by some members of the delegation that went to Geneva to participate in the 40th session of the Human Rights Council where the High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet presented the Report on Sri Lanka as requested by the Human Rights Council.
As the person who held the portfolio of Foreign Affairs when resolution 30/1 of 01 October 2015 was adopted, I feel that it is my duty to respond to some of the malicious arguments being made and misrepresentation of facts.
I saw some statements claim that the initial delegation to the Human Rights Council’s 40th session in March 2019 was changed. This, like most reports attempting to mislead the public, is false. There is also an abundance of gossip about the delegation and undignified attacks against devoted public servants. Contrary to what is being said, there were no plans to send anyone to Geneva originally for the 40th session as we have a competent, experienced, respected diplomat as our Ambassador to the UN in Geneva who is well-versed in procedure and substance and who has always managed things in a professional and dignified manner, based on instructions, with no attempts to blow his own trumpet like some do. And unlike some others who held this post earlier, the present Ambassador is completely apolitical with no hidden agenda to embarrass the Government of the day or our country.
Initially I thought that the diplomatic event at the 40th session of the Human Rights Council would be a show of Sri Lanka’s diplomatic maturity, skill, finesse and grace in handling matters rationally on the international stage. After all, Sri Lanka’s position in the world, its global recognition as a trusted partner and sovereign nation is an issue of critical importance to us all. And what could be more important today, ten years after the end of a brutal fratricidal conflict? What could be a better opportunity to showcase our democracy especially after a tilt towards autocracy was defeated by the people, by Parliament and by the Judiciary? Indeed, the 40th session was an opportunity to tell the world of our difficult yet committed journey towards strengthening democracy, reconciliation, sustainable peace and achieving equitable economic development and prosperity for all. What I had hoped to see therefore was a serious, compassionate, and well-informed discussion on true reconciliation.
By
Kishali Pinto Jayawardene
As Sri Lanka suffers from extraordinary heat, the Government’s decision to impose nation-wide power cuts excepting Colombo city and other ‘privileged’ locations where parliamentarians reside, speaks not only to its witless actions in respect of a major crisis but also imputes a ‘selectiveness’ that has deadly import in an election year.
A Government that cannot ‘govern?
Tellingly, a disgruntled householder in Chilaw exclaimed this week when asked for her reactions by a television, ‘power and water are two basic things that a government is supposed to supply to its people. If it cannot do even that, then what use is it?’ Hardships due to decreased water levels in the reservoirs and the absence of rain are natural and indeed annual occurrences that we ought to be prepared for during these months. But instead of a national sustainable energy policy comprising renewable power solutions as an important part thereof, the public has to suffer major corruption in state bodies responsible for energy generation that goes unchecked and bickering public servants who are as bad as politicians in foisting the blame on each other.
Meanwhile imbecilic political statements offering short term solutions are rife. This week, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe asserted that Temple Trees would be powered by generators, which example ought to be followed by others. So is the private supply of power the answer to a brazen political failure to initiate additional power production facilities or solar powered alternatives during the past few years and to tackle the well known ‘power mafia’ in the country? The lack of transparency and accountability on the part of officials in the energy sector is well established.
By
Jayadeva Uyangoda
In democracies, elections usually are significant political turning points. In democratic theory, an election marks two key opportunities to the people as well as the rulers. For the people, it marks the periodic occasion to elect their rulers and grant them authority to rule over them for a specific period of time, usually, five years.
For the rulers, incumbent or aspiring, an election provides legitimacy to rule. Legitimacy entails both legality and popular support. Legitimacy secured at a free and fair election is an essential precondition for democratic government. The absence of legitimacy secured through elections usually erodes the authority of the rulers and eventually the State.
Sri Lanka’s citizens are awaiting two crucial elections in the year 2019, Presidential and Parliamentary. Of the two, the presidential election is destined to be most crucial for the democratic future of Sri Lanka. It has the potential to determine the country’s future political directions, nature of the Sri Lankan State as well as the state-society relations.
Impending clash
This political significance to the forthcoming presidential election emanates from a single factor. It is the slow building up of a head-on clash between two political projects, parliamentary democracy and autocratic authoritarianism.
By
Maneshka Borham and Rajitha Jagoda Arachchi in Marichchukkaddi
Mohammad Thoufeek of Marichchukaddy the most Southern village of Musali, was 29-years-old when he entered the Wilpattu forest on October 28, 1990 accompanied by his family and other villagers, following the LTTE order to evict their village in 24 hours as it suspected that Muslims provided secret information on them to the government forces.
Musali was the only divisional secretariat in the Mannar district with a Muslim majority. It was a difficult journey through the thick forest to Puttlam where they set up a temporary shelter. Thoufeek and the other 70,000 odd Muslims in the Northern District started a life full of many hardships becoming internally displaced unfortunates.
By the time they returned, Wilpattu forest had snuffed the entire village that they couldn’t even see landmarks of the earlier civilisation. However, Musali Divisional Secretariat (DS) under the guidance of Minister Rishad Bathiudeen and former Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, cleared the area and began the resettlement process.
When we met Thoufeek last week, he was in a small shed in front of his house with his wife, perhaps to escape the hot air inside the house. It was a burning, hot sunny day and to live in the area was nothing short of unfortunate, one could say.
“Assalamualaikum! (Peace be with you),” he extended us a warm welcome.
By
Anurangi Singh
In the clearest sign that the CID investigations into the February 2015 treasury bond scandal are fast reaching a conclusion, sleuths last Monday (25) arrested five additional suspects, including four board directors of Perpetual Treasuries Limited (PTL) and a retired senior Central Bank official.
Last February, when PTL owner Arjun Aloysius and CEO Kasun Palisena were arrested by the CID, they were charged with aiding and abetting former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran to commit criminal breach of trust against treasury funds.
The suspects arrested last week were additionally charged with offences of ‘insider trading’ and ‘market manipulation’ criminalised by the Registered Stocks and Securities Ordinance. The four arrested directors are Chairman Geoff Aloysius, who is the father of Arjun Aloysius, Pushya Gunewardane, Ranjan Hulugalle and Mutturaja Surendran.
Of the four, Geoff Aloysius and Ranjan Hulugalle had been extensively questioned by the CID in 2018 in connection with investigations into suspected money laundering by affiliate company W.M. Mendis, of which both were board directors.
By
Maneshka Borham
On Thursday when the magisterial inquiry into the abduction of eleven youth by a Navy abduction gang for ransom concluded for the day, parents of the missing boys waited near courts hoping to attract the attention of investigators led by OIC of the Gang Robberies Unit of the CID, IP Nishantha Silva. A decade after their children disappeared, and in spite of mounting evidence that they were murdered, this small group of women want to keep begging Silva and his team of investigators to do more to find their boys.
Earlier during the proceedings OIC Silva submitted an explosive revelation in his latest B report to Court on the gruesome navy abduction for ransom racket the CID has painstakingly uncovered, in an investigation that has spanned nearly a decade. With suspects going right up the chain of the Sri Lanka Navy command,implicatingthe current Chief of Defence Staff and the war-time Commander of the Navy, the case has generated wide public interest.
OIC Silva’s B report last week, revealed the CID’s latest breakthroughs in the high profile case of abduction and murder by Navy sailors.
By
Sanjana Hattotuwa
It’s the birth-rates.
It’s the birth-rates.
It’s the birth-rates.
In June 2018, a senior politician publicly condemned the incarceration of Buddhist monks, noting that the clergy would do well to transform their saffron robes to saffron jumpers. The dog-whistling and coded message was clear to the intended recipients. The infamous Gnanasara Thero had just been incarcerated for criminally intimidating the plaintiff in court, two years prior. The politician went on to say that in the past, there were around nine or 10 in a family, but now there’s just one or two, or at most, three. He unequivocally noted that the Sinhala Buddhist race is also nearing extinction, and that what the current government is doing to reduce the population is quite heinous.
What I’ve done above is to juxtapose the first three lines of a document that the killer in Christchurch, just over a week ago, uploaded to the Internet before slaughtering 50 Muslims and the speech made by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa at a temple, to a large group of people. The Christchurch killer’s document, just over 70 pages, is disturbing and unhinged.
In an op-ed I wrote last week, I noted that the killer’s language is simple, precise and clear, even if and indeed, mainly because, the logic is so twisted.There is considered intentionality behind the document, written in the format of questions and answers, with a clear political agenda.
The author shows an acute awareness of the media landscape and how violent extremism can be seeded in ways that almost guarantee wide distribution in the short-term and over time. Prejudice is projected as fact. Hate is promoted as reason. Killing is normalised as an entirely justified and necessary response. Though the Christchurch killer’s document is anchored to right-wing extremism and its pantheon of conspiracy theories, reading it, what’s quite disturbing is how much of it resonates with the anti-Muslim rhetoric spewed by extreme Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist monks in Sri Lanka, and their powerful, populist political enablers.
The top 25 words used in the Christchurch killer’s writing are revealing insights into man and mentality, as well as right-wing terrorist ideology. There is an overwhelming emphasis on ‘people’ – his people, or his race. There’s also repeated reference to ‘invaders’, referring exclusively to Muslims. ‘Culture’ is also used a lot, capturing what is perceived as cultural violence brought about by foreigners who are visibly Muslim. The emphasis on ‘land’and a love of the natural environment flows from this, where native lands are portrayed as being invaded by hordes of Muslims, contributing to everything from overpopulation to environmental degradation. This logic frames the more disturbing prevalence of words like ‘death’ and‘attack’in the imperative, with‘victory’ as the ultimate outcome. The document makes specific reference to the killing of children as well, as necessary.
By
Aanya Wipulasena
The family of murdered Sri Lankan Rugby Captain Wasim Thajudeen broke its silence last week, after former President Mahinda Rajapaksa quipped callously at a SLPP event in Kegalle that it was speed that had killed the young sporting icon, even after a court ruled his death a murder three years ago.
Ayesha Thajudeen, the sister of the murdered rugby player has refused press interviews for many months. Her family, she says, has been faced with one bitter disappointment after the other for seven long years, on the road to getting justice for her brother Wasim.
But the remarks by former President, whose family is at the centre of the scandal surrounding the star sportsman’s suspicious death, goaded Ayesha into speaking to the Sunday Observer last week.
“It is ridiculous to still say my brother’s death was an accident when it is scientifically and judicially proven – with a clear court ruling – that it was murder,” Ayesha said in an interview, breaking her long silence on the subject.
By
Sudarshan Varadhan and Shihar Aneez
Reuters: An agreement to build a proposed $3.85 billion oil refinery in Sri Lanka will take at least a year to be finalized as its main investor, India’s Accord Group, says it is yet to recruit partners and conduct an assessment of the plan’s viability.
The comments add to confusion about the project, which was announced last week by the Sri Lankan government as the nation’s largest single foreign direct investment ever, but has since been the subject of conflicting statements by various parties.
Accord’s Chairman S Jagatrakshakan, a former Indian government minister, said he has submitted a preliminary proposal to the Sri Lankan government to invest in the project but has not finalized any terms of the deal.
“The project assessment and financial viability assessment will take at least a year. We have not sorted out any of the equity partners for the projects, but are in talks with investors from many countries,” he told Reuters over the phone from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
By
Janane Venkatraman
Actor Nayanthara on Monday released a statement registering her “condemnation and protest against the derogatory speeches made by Mr. Radha Ravi against women and children in general and me in specific” (sic).
In a strongly worded statement, she demanded that the South Indian Artistes’ Association, also known as the Nadigar Sangam, set up an Internal Complaints Committee as per the Supreme Court guidelines and carry out an internal inquiry on the incident.
She also thanked Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M.K. Stalin for taking action against Radha Ravi — the party had suspended him for his comments on Monday.
She was responding to comments made by the actor at the trailer launch of her film Kolaiyudhir Kaalam on Saturday.
By Shamindra Ferdinando
Mano Tittawella, in his capacity as the Secretary General of the Secretariat for Coordinating Reconciliation Mechanisms (SCRM) instructed Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative in Geneva A. L. A. Azeez to accept the latest resolution 40/1 on behalf of the government of Sri Lanka.
Tittawella was appointed, on March 29, 2016. In Aug 2017, as senior advisor to the Finance and Media Ministry.
The UNP-UPFA coalition established the SCRM under Prime Minister’s Office in keeping with a Cabinet decision dated Dec 18, 2015.
The Secretary General reports directly to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Authoritative sources told The Island, yesterday, that the SCRM had instructed Ambassador Azeez as regards government decision in respect of the resolution 40/1 led by the UK in the absence of the US.
By
Bhavani Fonseka and Luwie Ganeshathasan
In a few weeks, Sri Lanka marks a decade since the end of its brutal war, but its long legacy of abuses remains unaddressed. Decades of inaction, denial and silencing have contributed to and exacerbated a culture of impunity that protected perpetrators and at times, even promoted them. In 2015 the Government of Sri Lanka signalled a change from the past when it officially recognised the need for a comprehensive strategy of addressing past wrongs, finding answers, providing reparations and, most importantly, fighting impunity. With the adoption of Resolution 30/1 at the 30th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the Government of Sri Lanka formally acknowledged key areas for reform including in the accountability realm.
The Resolution notes the need to uphold the rule of law and build confidence in the justice system with the establishment of a “judicial mechanism with a special counsel to investigate allegations of violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law, as applicable; affirms that a credible justice process should include independent judicial and prosecutorial institutions led by individuals known for their integrity and impartiality; and also affirms in this regard the importance of participation in a Sri Lankan judicial mechanism, including the special counsel’s office, of Commonwealth and other foreign judges, defence lawyers and authorised prosecutors and investigators”
This commitment was further reinforced in Resolution 34/1 in March 2017 when the UNHRC provided further time for the full implementation of commitments made in 2015. Despite the passage of time, delays and setbacks were evident and a further two years was granted to Sri Lanka with Resolution 40/1 at the UNHRC Session that concluded last week.
This may have not generated much interest nationally and internationally if not for the statements and actions by key actors in Sri Lanka in the lead up to 20th March when Sri Lanka was discussed at the UNHRC. The curiously assembled delegation of Sri Lanka spared no punches when the head of delegation, Foreign Affairs Minister Thilak Marapana, in a written statement critiqued the report presented by the High Commissioner for Human Rights which incidentally contained data shared by the Government of Sri Lanka.
Notable in this statement was the revisiting of an argument used without success by some in 2015 to prevent the inclusion of the participation of foreign judges, lawyers and others called for in Resolution 30/1.
This article specifically addresses the falsehood that there is an apparent constitutional bar preventing foreign judges from sitting in a judicial mechanism in Sri Lanka. It also presents past examples involving international involvement in investigations and justifies why internationals must be fully integrated in a future judicial mechanism if it is to move beyond past exercises of mere ‘advice’ and ‘monitoring’. Finally, the article also reiterates the call made by many across Sri Lanka on the need for truth and justice and why it is critical to heed this call if the Government and other stakeholders are genuinely interested in tackling the culture of impunity in Sri Lanka.
Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) believes the controversy surrounding the proposed USD 3.85 billion oil refinery in Mirijjawila, Hambantota, could have a negative impact on Sri Lanka’s efforts to remove itself from the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) ‘Grey List’ of countries vulnerable to money laundering and terrorism financing.
The main investor in the project, the Singapore based ‘investment vehicle’ Silver Park International PTE Ltd, is a company controlled by the family of Tamil Nadu politician and former Indian Union Minister Dr. S. Jagathrakshakan, whose business interests have previously been implicated by Indian authorities and the media in several alleged corruption scandals.
A top official handpicked by Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena to represent the country came in for harsh criticism by the UN for “putting a spin” on a high level bilateral meeting in Geneva.
In a strongly worded statement the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said on Wednesday, that a newspaper article quoting a senior Sri Lankan official “seriously misrepresents” her discussion of the recent UN Human Rights Office report on Sri Lanka with a Sri Lanka Government delegation attending the Human Rights Council, (UNHRC) in Geneva on March 20.
A member of the Government delegation, Northern Province Governor Dr. Suren Raghaven, claimed in Colombo that the High Commissioner “admitted that certain facts incorporated in the UNHRC report against Sri Lanka could not be condoned whatsoever.” He also claimed Bachelet had advised two of her senior officials who attended the meeting “to be more responsible and cautious hereafter.”
Plantations in Sri Lanka that supply “slavery-free” tea to top global companies are under investigation by ethical label groups after an expose found illegal wage deductions that have left some workers ill and unable to afford health care.
An investigation by the Thomson Reuters Foundation found that some workers at tea estates certified by Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade were taking home as little as 26 Sri Lankan rupees (14 cents) a day after fees and deductions levied without consent.
Wage slips from 17 workers at nine Rainforest-certified tea estates — six of which were also backed by Fairtrade — showed daily earnings widely being cut by more than three-quarters for debt repayments, salary advances and a laundry list of fees.
Laborers in Nuwara Eliya — a district in Sri Lanka’s central highlands — said their wages were also halved if they failed to meet a daily picking quota or arrived to work late.
By A.J.A.Abeynayake
Colombo Fort Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne refused bail to Chairman of Perpetual Treasuries Jeffrey Joseph Aloysius, former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank Pattinige Samarasiri and three directors of Perpetual Treasuries (PTL) when they were produced before her yesterday in connection with the bond scams.
The suspects were remanded till April 5.
The defence counsel argued that the suspects had been charged under the provisions of article 56 of Stock and Securities Ordinance and requested the court to grant them bail under any condition.
By Hemantha Randunu
A former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank and the Chairman and three Directors of the Perpetual Treasuries (Pvt.) Ltd. (PTL) were arrested by the CID, yesterday, in connection with the Central Bank bond scams.
They are former Deputy of the Central Bank Pattinige Samarasiri, PTL Chairman Jeffrey Joseph Aloysius and PTL Directors Mutturaj Surendran, Chithraranjan Hulugalle and Pushpamithra Gunawardena.
Four CID teams were deployed to arrest the suspects.
A deputy governor of Sri Lanka’s central bank and directors of a dealer in government securities linked to the biggest securities scam in the island have been arrested, police said.
Retired Deputy Governor Pathinige Samarasiri, directors of Perpetual Treasuries Chithra Ranjan Hulugalle, P Gunewardene and Muthuraja Surendran was arrested by the criminal investigation department, police spokesman Ruwan Gunaskera said.
By
D.B.S.Jeyaraj
Is former President Mahinda Rajapaksa Playing fair by his younger brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksa as far as the Presidential Election candidate issue is concerned? This question has popped up in the minds of many observers of Sri Lanka’s political scene in recent times. Although the Rajapaksa brothers present an outward image of monolithic unity, the political grapevine has hummed many times about strong political differences existing within the “Kurakkan Sataka” clan. This has been particularly so in the case of a family decision on publicly announcing the candidate for the Presidential election this year.
at Nainativu Nagapoosani Amman-Feb 2013
While it is “unofficially” presumed that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is the chosen candidate, the fact remains that the former defence secretary is yet to receive the green light from sibling Mahinda “officially”. This is all the more striking because Gotabhaya has been going ahead resolutely with the spadework necessary for being a presidential contender in 2019. This gives rise to the belief that Mahinda has already sanctioned Gota’s candidacy and will announce it at the right time. What jars however are some acts of commission and omission by Mahinda that seem to run contrary to the ‘Gota as presidential candidate’ project. This makes many feel – though few have dared to express it openly – that the “Medamulana Machiavelli” may be having other ideas and is not playing fair by Gota in a political sense.
Of course it must be said that a powerful segment of Pro-Rajapaksa loyalists would “pooh -Pooh” these doubts. They would say – and are saying- that there are no chinks in the Rajapaksa armour and that the family is “marching to a single drum”. There may be minor points of disagreement among family members but they are all firmly united on the presidential candidacy issue. Mahinda being politically astute is only biding his time to make the announcement at the right time. He may be wanting to protect Gotabhaya from being “politically persecuted” by delaying the announcement. Furthermore there are some who opine that the Rajapaksas are projecting an image of dissension and division as a political tactic to put opponents off their guard. At the right time the Rajapaksas would announce Gota’s candidacy and close ranks behind him.
One obvious factor that cannot be ignored in the current scenario is the political desperation of the Rajapaksa dynasty particularly Mahinda Rajapaksa. With the ex-president being debarred from contesting the presidency again, it is of the utmost importance that the candidate endorsed by him should romp home the winner. A defeat would result in the eventual decline and fall of the Ruhunu Rajapaksas. Right now the Rajapaksa camp candidate with the best possible chance of winning the poll seems to be Gotabhaya Nandasena Rajapaksa. A Gotabhaya victory would ensure the consolidation and preservation of the Rajapaksa family’s political fortunes. Hence the family has no option but to rally around Gotabhaya in the final analysis. Those rooting for Gotabhaya would subscribe to the above stated view. Indeed Gota himself has been operating on that premise.
Continue reading ‘Is Mahinda Playing Fair By Gotabhaya In The Presidential Candidacy Issue?’ »
Twelve suspects were arrested in connection with a plot to assassinate an active Tamil politician, the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) told court last week.
Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne allowed the CCD to detain the 12 suspects for questioning about the alleged assassination plot.
The arrested persons included members of the underworld and persons with connections to the LTTE.
The CCD told court that their investigations had revealed plans to kill a Tamil politician on the instructions of LTTE cadres living overseas.
Police declined to name the Tamil politician in its report to court, but sources said the target was likely TNA Jaffna District MP and TNA spokesman M.A. Sumanthiran. The suspects will be produced in court again on April 26.
By
Maneshka Borham
The now famous CID investigation into the abduction and murder of 11 youth by a Navy extortion gang, helped sleuths to break open a secondary racket involving a separate group of naval personnel, including high ranking officers, to abduct businessmen for ransom
In June 2010 the gang robbery unit of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) led by its OIC Inspector Nishantha Silva commenced an investigation into a suspected abduction for ransom racket run by Naval intelligence teams at the time. As investigations into the case of 11 missing youth believed to have been abducted by the group intensified over the years, explosive revelations in court recently implicated Naval top brass including several celebrated former Commanders of the Navy.
But perhaps now in a remarkable plot twist, through evidence unearthed by the CID during investigations into the disappearances, the Police sleuths have been led to yet another group of Navy intelligence officers embroiled in possible abductions including its former Chief of Intelligence Rear Admiral Ananda Guruge.
The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) Member of Parliament M.A. Sumanthiran’s constitutional justification for seeking foreign judges to serve in the proposed Judicial Mechanism to try alleged war crime cases, has put the government in a spot, and his Tamil rivals in the shade.
In a statement in parliament on Friday, Sumanthiran said that there is no constitutional bar to the appointment foreign judges to Lankan counts.
He was responding to the statement of the Sri Lankan government in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on March 21 that the Lankan constitution does not allow foreign judges and lawyers to function in Lankan courts, and if they were to be allowed, the constitution has to be amended with a two third majority and a referendum to boot.
By
Maneshka Borham
The Police commenced an investigation this week into the defacing of the newly installed signboard at the bottom of the steps leading to Sri Pada on the Hatton-Nallathanniya trail. The tri lingual signboard displaying the name of the revered mountain, and its Tamil translation in particular appeared to have irked certain Sinhalese nationalist elements.
A gathering attended by a handful of people, led by the notorious Dan Priyasad of the Mahason Balakaya and Namal Kumara of the VIP assassination plot fame thought it fit to protest against the new board and its perceived threat in Colombo last week. Some others handed in complaints to Police Headquarters as well.
Threats
After two weeks of threats to destroy or deface the board by the groups and individuals connected to the duo on social media, it appears that finally someone among them or an individual influenced by the sentiments had followed through. As a result on Tuesday the Tamil and English translations of the Peak’s name chiseled on the signage as Sivanoli pada malai and Sri Pada had been painted over by an unidentified person with what appeared to be black tar leaving the text illegible.
As the act of vandalism left residents in the area disgruntled and the Police had to be called in to difuse the situation. Visiting the site, Hatton Superintendent of Police, Ravindra Ambepitiya, had taken steps to discuss with the residents and restore calm by promising to apprehend the suspects. Calling a meeting with the villagers, SP Ambepitiya had prevented the matter from escalating and causing discord among the residents in the area based on this minor incident on the day someone had painted over the names in black. “We have made the people understand and resolved the issue but this is not a major incident” he said when contacted by the Sunday Observer. According to SP Ambepitiya steps have also been taken to clean and restore the sign board.
Meanwhile, the Police has commenced an inquiry into the incident, and are hoping to nab the suspects through CCTV footage of the site. The Governor of the Central Province, Maithri Gunaratne too has put his foot down. Claiming he will not tolerate acts that may incite racism, the Governor has directed the Police to nab the suspects whose intention was to cause racial discord among the people through this dastardly act.
By
Anurangi Singh
Just a day after the grand tamasha that took place at the luxurious Shangri-La Hotel, to launch the ‘National Action Plan for combating bribery and corruption’, the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), promptly went before the Colombo Magistrate, and, based on technical grounds, withdrew cases filed against MP Johnston Fernando. The cases pertained to his failure to disclose his assets and liabilities for four years, commencing 2011.
The main banquet hall at Shangri-La, was jam-packed with over a thousand invitee guests- ranging from the first citizen of the country himself, the Speaker, Opposition leader, politicians, clergy, representatives of the legal sector, law enforcement authorities, representatives of diplomatic missions, school children and various others. CIABOC, prior to the occasion, told media that they expect a crowd of ‘about 1,200’, however, the turnout seemed to exceed that modest number. The organizers had prepared a separate area for the VIPs to have lunch as it was impractical for the main ballroom to handle such a vast gathering.
The photo booth certainly seemed to be a crowd pleaser, if the long queue in front of it was anything to go by.
The press kit contained booklets explaining the five-year National Action Plan and a badge that the participants wore after taking the pledge, which proclaims that they will ‘continue to work with integrity’. A song, specially composed for the occasion, was played.
By
Dr.Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu
Recently at a workshop that focused on the events of October 26 and thereafter, a participant remarked that the one thing that stood out with respect to the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was his ability to maintain grace under pressure for the duration of the coup against the Constitution.
There are many who have alluded to his gentlemanly qualities in politics and his famous departure from Temple Trees without fuss when the election result was unfavourable. His behaviour throughout the coup, when he stood as the constitutional and legally elected Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, must be added to his profile as a leader with a keen sense of constitutional propriety and most importantly, with a sense of the conventions of parliamentary democracy.
Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt in their work, ‘How Democracies Die’ have written about the importance of mutual tolerance and institutional forbearance for a fully functioning democracy. These values are not translated into constitutional articles per se but underpin the political culture as deeply embedded values that have also become conventions in the parliamentary sense and make the constitution work as it is intended to. Wickremesinghe is perhaps the only politician who now embodies this, after decades in politics and government.
By
Kishali Pinto Jayawardene
Accountability in Sri Lanka was always about the working of the criminal law. And Justice was always about the clash of the ‘non-equals’ with the ‘more than equals.’ In that clash, seldom have the ‘non-equals’ triumphed in this country, as bitter lessons of our legal history so persistently teach us.
Refresher in institutional memory
Those who are appalled at the recent ruling of the Supreme Court preventing the arrest of ex-Navy Chief Wasantha Karannagoda in connection with an ongoing investigation into the abductions of children for ransom while the parents of the children stood helpless in Court, may therefore be gently nudged towards a refresher course in institutional memory.
As frequently reminded in these column spaces, meeting a constitutional challenge on separation of powers in asserting the Rule of Law and the primacy of the Constitution is one thing. Standing firm against cacophonous screeching in Court and outside, that national security trumps all, that military men are heroes who stand above the law, that those who ‘saved’ the country must be protected at whatever cost and that anyone who dissents from this view is a traitor, is an entirely different matter altogether. That is a crucial distinction by and of itself.
By Namini Wijedasa
The son of a controversial Indian politician from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) is a director in, not just one, but two companies recently incorporated in Sri Lanka. The second was set up ostensibly to implement a US$ 3.85 billion (Rs 685.5 billion) oil refinery project in Hambantota.
But the initiative is mired in confusion. The Sri Lankan Government first announced the involvement of the Omani Ministry of Oil and Gas. However, Oman swiftly denied it had any part in the multibillion dollar investment.
This contradicted multiple documents –including Cabinet and Board of Investment (BOI) papers the Sunday Times has seen–that conclusively say the Omani Ministry will hold a 30 percent stake in the relevant joint venture with the remaining 70 percent going to Silver Park International (Pte) Ltd of Singapore.
The BOI then issued a statement admitting that “there is no agreement that has been signed between Oman’s Ministry of Oil and Gas and Silver Park International Pte Ltd with regard to equity arrangements of the project.”
But the Oman Oil Company “has registered their firm intention to participate in equity up to 30 percent, subject to reaching agreement between the parties”, it said, indicating that the Omani participation had been heavily overplayed well before a deal was made.
Yesterday, the Development Strategies and International trade Ministry circulated an “urgent” media statement, announcing that Oman’s Oil and Gas Minister Mohammed Hamad Al Rumhi had arrived in Colombo with the Chief Executive Officer of Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Co (ORPIC) for the groundbreaking ceremony of the oil refinery in Hambantota. This, too, said ORPIC “has expressed its firm interest” in partnering with Silver Park International in the project.
By
Manoj Colambage
Additional Solicitor General and President’s Counsel Yasantha Kodagoda is set to take oaths as President of the Court of Appeal, ending months of sparring and deadlock over the judicial appointment, the Sunday Observer learns.
Kodagoda was nominated to head the Court by President Maithripala Sirisena. The Constitutional Council yesterday unanimously approved the nomination by the President.
The nomination was believed to be in jeopardy when the Council sought the views of Chief Justice Nalin Perera on Kodagoda’s suitability to serve as the President of the Court. The Chief Justice declined to support Kodagoda’s nomination, instead proposing to the Council that Court of Appeal Judge Shiran Gooneratne be appointed as President of that Court.
By
Disna Mudalige and Camelia Nathaniel
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP M.A. Sumanthiran made a stern appeal to the government to adhere to the time bound implementation of the UNHRC resolution which the country co-sponsored for the third time last Thursday.
Joining the Committee Stage debate in Parliament yesterday, Sumanthiran warned, “I want to make one thing very clear. The government of Sri Lanka has made these commitments thrice in writing. But if they do not adhere to this commitment of including independent foreign judges in the judicial mechanism, then we, the Tamil people will be left with no alternative but to move towards an entirely international judicial mechanism. That is possible and our people have been asking for this, asking that Sri Lanka be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC)”.
By P.K.Balachandran
The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC)’s resolution on the rights situation in Sri Lanka, which was passed in Geneva on Thursday through consensus, meets Colombo’s requirements.
Resolution 40/L.1 not only gives two years’ extension for the implementation of resolution 30/1 of 2015, but also says that the recommendations will be implemented “with the concurrence of the Sri Lankan government.”
This gives Colombo the right to decide what will be implemented and to what extent a recommendation will be implemented. It gives room to the Lankan government to fulfill its wish not to implement the recommendation for a Judicial Mechanism with foreign judges and lawyers to try alleged cases of war crimes.
The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Thursday through consensus passed a resolution giving the government of Sri Lanka two more years to implement the resolution 30/1 of 2015, ie: until March 2021.
After the resolution was adopted the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana, said that the passing of the resolution 40/L.1 is a mark of recognition of Sri Lanka’s political commitment and the progressive steps already taken by the Government since 2015 towards ethnic reconciliation, assurance of human rights and accountability.
By
Lucien Rajakarunanayake
The UNCHR has adopted the resolution on Sri Lanka, without a vote. We have two more years to give further proof of peace building and reconciliation.
Don’t we feel great about using the Lord Naseby facts to strengthen our case?
Shouldn’t we feel even greater that the number of Tamil civilians allegedly killed at the final stages of the war has been reduced to about 6,000 (as Lord Naseby says) and not that hugely bloody 40,000 as claimed by the Tamil Diaspora?
Should we also not be proud it was a white Lord of the United Kingdom, our former colonial master, who helped put this record straight, and not any Brown Sahib, with whatever punditry, from our part of the world?
Isn’t it also great that we were able to use the Lord Naseby facts in response to a resolution proposed by his home country – the United Kingdom, together with other western powers? We have shown how Whites can be used to fight the Whites! Are we learning from New Zealand?
A cause for greater joy is that for two more years, and even after, we can well ignore those nearly 6,000 or more Tamil civilians who may have allegedly been the victims of War Crimes. Just remember one thing…our War Heroes never killed innocent Tamil civilians; their victims were all terrorists.
By
D.B.S.Jeyaraj
Former Defence and Urban Development Ministry Secretary and Retired Colonel of the Sri Lankan Army Gotabaya Nandasena Rajapaksa generally Known as Gota is likely to be nominated as the official candidate of the Sri Lanka Podujana Party(SLPP) at the forthcoming 2019 Presidential elections.
Former President Manhinda Rajapaksa and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa
After a prolonged period of indecision and speculation, the decision to nominate Gotabaya as candidate was taken by former President and current leader of the opposition Mahinda Rajapaksa with the concurrence and approval of other politically engaged members of the extended Rajapaksa family.
The key decision was taken on Thursday March 14th at the Wijerama road residence of Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo after a meeting in which six members of the Rajapaksa family involved in active politics were present.
Sri Lanka today rejected UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet’s proposals to establish an Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Sri Lanka and calling to implement a detailed and comprehensive strategy for the transitional process with a ‘fixed timeline’.
“We all are eager to see results. However, pressing for time bound benchmarks to show quick results on decades old, sensitive and complex issues, is bound for failure,” Foreign minister Tilak Marapana in a statement to the 40th Session of the Human Rights Council said.
Sri Lanka also rejected calls for setting up an international judicial mechanism to probe alleged human rights violations during the final phase of the the war, claiming that non-citizen judges are not allowed according to country’s constitution.
He also said that as a sovereign state, Sri Lanka must set its priorities in addressing the well-being and sustainable peace for her people. Various historical, cultural, and religious sensitivities therefore need to be managed while pursuing the ultimate objective of upholding and protecting human rights.
“In developing these transitional justice mechanisms, Sri Lanka does not believe there is justification for the setting up of an Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Sri Lanka,” the minister said.
Singapore rejected Wednesday Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena’s allegation it was sheltering a former central bank chief wanted for fraud, saying Colombo failed to provide documents to support its extradition request.
Sirisena on Monday accused Singapore of sheltering Arjuna Mahendran, one of his country’s former central bank chiefs wanted in connection with a high-profile $74 million insider trading scam.
Sirisena said he appealed to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in January to return Mahendran, who is believed to be in Singapore, but claimed nothing had been done.
Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera has criticized former President Mahinda Rajapaksa for challenging the Geneva Resolution on the basis of disclosure made by Lord Naseby in the House of Lords. Samaraweera issued the following statement in response to Opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa’s statement dated17 March 2019 instructing the government on what its position should be when the UN Human Rights Council that is at present meeting in Geneva discusses Sri Lanka’s progress on national reconciliation:
“In his statement, as usual aimed at hoodwinking the masses, he assumes a commanding and almost martial tone. Packing it with misinformation to mislead the public, he seems to forget the small detail that he is no longer the President or even the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka – fake or otherwise. As the citizens of our country – Asia’s oldest democracy – remember very well, Mahinda Rajapaksa’s attempts to usurp the position of Prime Minister a few months ago failed miserably in the face of the determined resistance of our citizens and our independent institutions including our judiciary. My recommendation to Mahinda would be, in true friendship: lets put aside the airs. It really is impossible to engage in constructive dialogue if you give instructions and orders on policy to a government that is trying very hard to fix the several troubles that you yourself, your close advisors and those you appointed to high positions during your time as President created, especially since the conclusion of the conflict in May 2009.
“And let us be serious. Any advice on policy must be placed on facts, not on fake or exaggerated assertions, which a quick scan of Mahinda’s statement reveals:
Sri Lanka’s has failed to fully implement its commitments to ensure accountability for war-time atrocities because of a lack of vision at the highest level of leadership in the county, the UN human rights chief said today.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet told the council in Geneva that Colombo cooperated with the UN, but there was very slow progress in delivering the 2015 commitments on accountability.
Sri Lanka’s new government in 2015 promised to ensure an internationally- acceptable judicial mechanism to try war criminals and pay reparations to victims. However, Colombo is yet to set up systems to ensure justice for tens of thousands of civilians killed by both sides of the conflict.
“Implementation of resolution 30/1 (of 2015) needs to be more consistent, comprehensive and accelerated,” Bachelet said in her statement to the council while discussing Sri Lanka.
The UN human rights chief yesterday warned Sri Lanka it could slip back to conflict unless it addressed the “worst crimes” during the final stages of its ethnic war.
Michelle Bachelet told the Human Rights Council that Sri Lanka was yet to set up the special judicial mechanism as promised four years ago to try war criminals.
Sri Lankan Government troops have been accused of killing at least 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians in the final months of the island’s 37-year guerrilla war that ended in May 2009.
Presenting the report on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka to the 40th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva yesterday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called on Sri Lanka to implement a detailed, comprehensive strategy for the transitional process with a fixed timeline.
Acknowledging the Sri Lankan Government’s open dialogue and sustained cooperation with the OHCHR, Bachelet welcomed the operationalisation of the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) and the establishment of the Office for Reparations and encouraged the Government to enable the two institutions to “function effectively and independently”, and to link them to a broader approach aimed at justice, real accountability and truth-seeking.
By
Ranga Jayasuriya
For years, foreign policy mandarins and their political bosses in this country lived and re-lived a lie that Sri Lanka’s destiny would be decided in Geneva. They were joined by the acolytes of the Tamil Tiger terrorists, their financers and paid and otherwise propagandists, who made the gullible in the diaspora part ways with their hard currencies, thinking that they were winning the war that the Tigers lost in May 2009.
That debate had lost its intensity since then, but, still there are those both in the South, and Toronto who prefer to live the old lie. In the meantime, UNHRC sessions have become a mere formality, though an unwanted and uneasy one for Sri Lanka.
As another session of the UN Human Rights Council on Sri Lanka is underway this week, the debate has shifted too. Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa who had demanded that the government withdraw its co-sponsorship of the resolution.
The Supreme Court, yesterday, issued a restraining order preventing Nagananda Kodituwakku from practising as a lawyer for three years.
A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Nalin Perera, Justices Sisira de Abrew and Prasanna Jayawardena issued the order over a 2015 defamation case.
The case was filed by Justice Vijith Malalgoda, while he was the President of the Court of Appeal.
The Supreme Court initiated a disciplinary inquiry in respect of attorney-at-law Nagananda Kodituwakku’s conduct in the Court of Appeal on May 21, 2015 before the then President of the Court of Appeal justice Vijith Malalgoda, PC and justice H. C.J. Madawala, based on the complaint.
By
Kishali Pinto Jayawardena
In contrast to Colombo’s largely polarized sound and fury on the Counter-Terror Bill, it is refreshing to look at the manner in which South Africa has dealt with uncannily similar dilemmas of balancing national security imperatives and constitutional rights in bringing its counter-terror law into effect more than a decade ago.
Shared legacies of horrific state violence
There are indeed, much in common between South Africa and Sri Lanka in shared histories of horrific state violence. We have similar legacies of over-broad national security/emergency regimes that replaced the criminal procedure law and gave state agents the literal power of life and death over citizens across racial and ethnic lines. In more recent times, there are great similarities in dysfunctional state processes of both countries when the law is translated from theory to practice. This is important to recognise as this is why good legal provisions falter in the practically subversive context of state impunity unchecked by the Constitution. Indeed, this is the signal difference in contrast to functional Rule of Law countries, even if we are to recognise the retreat of the liberal rights culture in those countries as they face the brutality of global terrorism.
That said, there are notable differences between the two nations. As a senior legal practitioner and a celebrated South African rights advocate elaborated for my benefit in a measured discussion in Johannesburg a few days ago, South Africa’s Constitutional Court has proved itself to be a formidable bulwark against state repression. Even in tense economic times and uncertain political turbulence similar to what Sri Lankans face, it is a matter for pride that the South African Court has stood firm above the frantic winds of popular and political pressure.
Most importantly, it has unflinchingly refused to accept the dictate of the State in pleading national security to shield state action contrary to the Rule of Law. That is not something that we see frequently here. Our Supreme Court, even in the best of times and with the best of judges a decade or two ago, was not quite able to emulate that judicial fortitude. Now, that has got significantly worse.
The UNF government must officially communicate to the UN Human Rights Commissioner and members of the UNHRC that Sri Lanka will no longer co-sponsor resolutions against itself in the UNHRC; Sri Lanka does not accept the allegations made in OHCHR Report No: 30/61 of 28 September 2015 and will not set up a hybrid war crimes courts with foreign judges and prosecutors, Opposition Leader, Mahinda Rajapaksa says.
Issuing a media statement, Rajapaksa, yesterday, said the government must also repeal Acts No: 14 of 2016, No: 5 of 2018 and No: 24 of 2018, which were highly detrimental to Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and the fundamental rights of its citizens and replace them with legislation more in keeping with Sri Lanka’s national interest.
“All members of the delegation representing the government, in Geneva, should clearly understand that anything short of the above will effectively, be a betrayal of the people of Sri Lanka.”
Full text of the Opposition Leader’s statement, titled The stand Sri Lanka should take in Geneva:
” The government has announced that they will co-sponsor yet another resolution against Sri Lanka in the UN Human Rights Council. Resolution 30/1, the first such co-sponsored resolution in October 2015 committed the government to among other things, setting up a hybrid war crimes court with the participation of foreign judges, prosecutors and investigators and to removing by administrative means, individuals in the armed forces suspected of human rights violations even if there is insufficient evidence to charge them in courts. By co-sponsoring Resolution 30/1, the Sri Lankan government officially accepted Report No: 30/61 dated 28 September 2015 prepared by the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR), which directly accused the Sri Lankan armed forces of many crimes including torture, enforced disappearances, deliberate targeting of civilians and the denial of humanitarian assistance to civilians.
By
Aanya Wipulasena
Exorbitant debts from loans provided by Microfinance institutions to failing businesses have pushed at least 170 people into suicide, islandwide,in the past year alone, with the highest suicide rates being reported among women, and area-wise in the Vavuniya, Jaffna and Batticaloa districts, Progressive Peasants’ Congress (PPC) shows. The suicide rates are just the tip of the iceberg of a much larger issue as unregulated microfinance companies continue to juggle with money and lives of the deprived.
The most recent suicide case related to Micro-financing is reported from Ela- Kimbulawala in the Polonnaruwa district where a 38-year-old father of one was driven to take his life despite his many futile attempts to pay off his debt.
The man had taken an initial loan of Rs. 80,000 and then a second amounting to Rs.30, 000, to pay off the former. In order to collect money to pay off the arrears, he has migrated to Colombo for masonry work. Failing in his endeavours, he returned to his village wherehe was confronted by debt collectors who has bombarded him in foul language, evidence given by his wife revealed. Later on February 28th, this year, he left his house, only for his body to be found hanging from a tree in a nearby forest, the next day.
By
Jayadeva Uyangoda
The controversy over whether the former Navy Commander Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda would be arrested captured public attention last week.
The saga has left the citizen concerned about the independence of the judiciary, and its responsibility to protect powerless and helpless citizens when their rights are repeatedly violated. It also highlighted the need to emphasize the court’s obligation to safeguard the principle of equality before the law.
The issue of Karannagoda’s arrest is centred on the abduction of 11 Tamil – speaking youth and their alleged subsequent murder, suspected to be carried out by a group of Sri Lanka Navy personnel during the war.
Investigations carried out by the CID have revealed that the alleged abduction and murder of these Tamil youth was part of an organised ransom racket.
It is to this investigation that the former Navy Commander’s name is now linked.
The media has revealed that according to the CID reports submitted to the court, the former Navy Commander had been aware of this abduction – for – ransom racket, but had done nothing to prevent it. There were also suggestions that if he had intervened, the lives of these eleven young boys could have been saved.
The Attorney General was preparing to file indictments against him in the High Court as a suspect in this case.
Abduction, enforced disappearance and murder are indeed grave crimes. Police arrest of suspects involved in such crimes is a routine course of action.
By
Aanya Wipulasena
Over the past decade, the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) has been exclusively probing graft cases involving ‘small people’, while cases of corruption of over Rs.10 million are left largely uninvestigated, a Right to Information application has revealed.
Good governance activist Chandra Jayaratne, wrote to President Maithripala Sirisena last week about the findings, citing information he obtained from the Bribery Commission by making an RTI filing.
The revelation comes ahead of the launch of the institute’s National Action Plan tomorrow.
“Warrant of Integrity: The Launch of the National Action Plan for Combatting Bribery and Corruption” will be held under the patronage of President Sirisena at the Shangri-La Hotel, Colombo. CIABOC officials told the Sunday Observer that the venue, which will house over 1,200 guests during the occasion, was offered at “concessionary” rates. The Commission hopes to celebrate its ‘historic outcomes’ achieved over the past 10 years.
Jayaratne has learnt through the RTI application, that during the 10 years CIABOC has only filed one case (HCB/32/2017) where the alleged bribe was over Rs. 10 million, and no action was taken against a single case in which graft amounted to over Rs. 25 million.
By
Yasmine Gooneratne
Sri Lanka recently received high praise from the writers of The Lonely Planet as a country they rate as Number One in a list of places which well reward visitors’ interest. Their views have been echoed by Hidden Travellers, a group of travel writers who aim to disclose the good as well as the bad features of the lands they visit.
Their findings, which are available on line, are admirably frank and balanced. They should be read by everyone involved in the hospitality industry and most especially by Government-controlled bodies such as the Tourist Board, Sri Lanka Railways, and the Ministry of Transport, whose activities bring them into close contact with visitors from abroad in ways, and at levels, often unknown to the managers of five star hotels and the visitors who have the means and good fortune to enjoy the luxuries provided by such hostelries.
Many Sri Lankans assume that Westerners who have money to spend on leisure travel, are wealthy. This, of course, is not the case. Not every visitor is well-heeled. Many are students travelling on strictly controlled budgets, so that they have to watch and account for every cent they spend. The more thoughtful and well-informed are not simply ‘out for a good time’ on our beaches and in our malls and restaurants, and they are perfectly aware that Sri Lanka is dependent on the ‘tourist dollar’ for her economic survival.
For tourism in this country to prosper, a balance has to be found that will provide visitors with comfortable, safe, and memorable experiences while at the same time allowing the locals they meet to earn a living and and make friends of these strangers, so that they will come again, and recommend our country to others. The latter is not easy for our people, who are (or used to be) traditionally reluctant to ‘push themselves forward’, and who indeed once considered such behaviour as contemptible and evidence of a lowly upbringing.
It’s hard for us, therefore, to sell ourselves and our assets to visitors without seeming ‘pushy’. But that, unfortunately, is what we are called upon to do by the tourism industry. It is obvious that we are not always very good at finding the balance, since ‘pushiness’, significantly, is at the top of the list of unpleasant characteristics that Hidden Travellers, a well-intentioned and perceptive set of observers, have recorded online as characteristic of the Sri Lankans they encountered in the course of their visit to our country.
By
Sanjana Hattotuwa
Our wait for a telephone was just a few years. At the time, in the early 90s, we knew of families who were on a waiting list for close upon a decade. I was at school when Sri Lanka Telecom had installed the rotary device. Like the first mobile phones from Motorola to hit Sri Lanka, the unit weighed about the same as and was more akin to gym equipment than anything remotely akin to what is today considered a phone.
I was enthralled, and dialled, for no reason than to just use the telephone, a friend I had seen not more than an hour ago. He lived in Mount Lavinia. We both had five-digit phone numbers. We were both excited to talk at length about nothing of consequence before my father subtley reminded me that the call was expensive. It was the first time I learnt of peak and off-peak charges. It wasn’t yet possible to just dial an international number. That required prior approval and an up-front payment, in addition to hundreds of rupees a minute, depending on the country dialled.
There was no Internet. There was no web. Smartphones hadn’t been invented. Social media hadn’t been invented. I didn’t own or even have access to a computer. It was a purely analogue world, with the only sign of digital made by Casio and strapped to my wrist. The few conversations I had, at the time, were always prefaced by a few minutes of sheer wonder that the call connected, followed by amazement we were talking over a telephone.
TNA MP M.A Sumanthiran queried how Parliament can approve the President’s expenditure head when the President is trying to send a separate Opposition delegation to Geneva to represent himself when a government delegation is also attending the UNHRC sessions.
He noted that this is an important head of expenditure that has been proposed in this budget. “If one scans the figures that have been proposed one can see that the president’s office has the lion’s share only second to the elections secretariat. It’s almost Rs. 2,933 million more than the allocation for parliament itself which is Rs. 2,779 million.”
“I want to raise a few issues that has already been raised by the speaker who opened the debate today with regard to the disputes that exist between several personalities whom these expenditures have been proposed. All of these important offices seem to be at loggerheads and the smooth functioning has been disrupted thanks to the plot on October 26 last year.We are still reeling after that onslaught and all of these institutions are at each others throats. One important issue is the present sessions that are going on at the UNHRC and the announcement by the president that he intends sending three members to represent him and move away from the commitment Sri Lanka has given twice before with his blessings and then counter to that the Prime Minister’s and foreign ministers offices that they would co-sponsor the new resolution at the UNHRC sessions this year,” he said.
By
Lakmal Sooriyagoda
Former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa whose passport was impounded in connection with the D.A. Rajapaksa Museum case was yesterday temporally permitted to travel abroad by the Permanent High Court-at-Bar.
The Trial-at-Bar bench comprising High Court Judges Sampath Abeykoon (President), Sampath Wijeratne and Champa Janaki Rajaratne allowed Gotabaya Rajapaksa to travel abroad between March 26 and April 12.
By Manekshaw
A memorandum was handed over by the representatives of the aggrieved families of the disappeared persons two days ago to Northern Governor Dr. Suren Raghavan who is one of the five members of the delegation sent by President TMaithripala Sirisena to attend the UNHRC session in Geneva.
It was on the request made by Governor Dr. Raghavan, soon after he was handpicked by President Sirisena to be present at the 40th UNHRC session, a delegation of eight persons including mothers of the involuntarily disappeared persons had handed over a memorandum to the Governor highlighting their plight with regard to the disappearances of their beloved ones.
In the meantime former Provincial Councillors M. K. Sivajilingam and Ananthi Sasitharan had handed over a memorandum, last week, to the Northern Governor elaborating on the humanitarian problems in the North and the East to be tabled at the ongoing UNHRC session in Geneva.
Multiple fatalities were inflicted at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch on Friday when at least one gunman opened fire on worshippers, police said.
Witnesses told media that a man dressed in a military-style, camouflage outfit, and carrying an automatic rifle had started randomly shooting people in the Al Noor mosque.
The Bangladesh cricket team was arriving for prayers at the mosque when the shooting occurred but all members were safe, a team coach told Reuters.
Police said they had one person in custody but they were not sure if others were involved. Police advised people to stay away from mosques.
“As far as we know, the fatalities occurred at two mosques,” New Zealand’s Police Commissioner Mike Bush said.
The New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Arden has given a short speech responding to the shooting at mosques in Christchurch that has left several people dead.
Jacinda Ardern said the incident was “one of New Zealand’s darkest days” and that the victims had chosen to make New Zealand their home. “They are us,” she said. “The person who has perpetuated this violence against us is not.”
Here are her comments:
“Whilst I cannot give any confirmation at this stage around fatalities and casualties, what I can say is that it is clear that this is one of New Zealand’s darkest days.
Clearly, what has happened here is an extraordinary and unprecedented act of violence.
By
Michael Mcgowan
Before the shooting starting, the Al Noor mosque in the New Zealand city of Christchurch was “peaceful, calm and quiet”.
“As it is when the sermon starts, you could hear a pin drop,” a man identified as Ramzan told reporters on Friday.
Then about 1.40pm during afternoon prayers, gunfire broke out.
“It started in the main room … I was in the side room, so I didn’t see who was shooting but I saw that some people were running out to my room where I was in, I saw some people had blood on their body and some people were limping,” Ramzan told reporters.
“It was at the moment I realised things were really serious.”
by
Lisa Martin
Forty -nine people have been shot dead and 20 injured in attacks at two mosques during Friday afternoon prayers in Christchurch in what is the worst mass shooting in New Zealand’s history.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said it was “one of New Zealand’s darkest days” as police uncovered multiple explosive devices attached to cars and commissioner Mike Bush urged all mosques across the country to close their doors for the time being.
Four people were taken into custody – three men and one woman – for what Ardern described as a terrorist attack. One person was later released. Ardern condemned the ideology of the people behind the shootings, saying: “You may have chosen us but we utterly reject and condemn you.
New Zealand’s threat level has been raised from low to high and none of the suspects were on terrorism watchlists, Ardern said.
By Saman Indrajith
Women and children in the Northern Province were being exposed to a sinister racket of producing rape films sponsored by members of the same community who were resident abroad, JVP MP Bimal Rathnayake, yesterday, told parliament.
Participating in the Committee Stage Debate of the Appropriation Bill 2019 on the Ministry of National Policies, Economic Affairs, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, Northern Province Development, Vocational Training and Skills Development and Youth Affairs, MP Ratnayake said that there was now a ‘rape film industry’ in the area.
“This is a tragedy. I think you all can remember the rape and murder of a school girl in Punguduthivu. That was not just a rape. The rapists filmed the brutal incident and they got paid for that similar to what is happening in the Northern Province and it is an open secret now. The real tragedy is that the racket is sponsored by the members of their own community who live abroad and return to the country, occasionally. They pay maniacs to rape women and children and to film those savage incidents. Then they sell those video tapes for large amounts of money.”
By
Shivani de Zylva
The commitments made by the Government of Sri Lanka four years ago at the UNHRC session in Geneva have had lasting impressions on its citizens. While some perceive the commitments of Resolution 30/1 (Res 30/1) as an international obligation that threatens our sovereignty or a political tool and a box ticking process, others even view the resolution as an unpatriotic mechanism that will result in the prosecution of our war heroes due to international intervention in our domestic affairs.
While such strong perceptions against its implementation even four years into Res 30/1 continue to come from within the country- it is important to look at this resolution from a different angle. In retrospect- Could Sri Lanka have ignored Resolution 30/1?
To answer this, it is important to look at how important the UNHRC (where the resolution was passed) is in its global standing, what effects its implementation will have on victims, and the message Sri Lanka would send out by ignoring the resolution completely.
By
Prof N. Shanmugaratnam
´Economic Development Framework for a Northern Province Master Plan´, is a study commissioned by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and carried out by a team of seven members with competence in relevant fields and knowledge of post-war conditions in the province. The study provides an opportunity for an open discussion on post-war development in the Northern Province.
Apparently, the first post-war Provincial Council (October 2013 – September 2018) did not find it worth creating a development plan as a means of collective action to address the challenges of socio-economic advancement of the war-torn community that had elected it to office with great enthusiasm and expectations.
Now, ten years after the end of the war and shortly after the end of the five-year term of the provincial council, we have a study, commissioned by a central government institution, that provides an opening for discussion and debate on the development of the province.
The study begins with an overview of the pre- and post- war economic and social conditions in the NP, and proceeds to present a framework for a provincial development plan. It highlights the destruction, displacement and depopulation caused by the protracted war and their consequences, and identifies some of the social and economic challenges of post-war development of the province. It makes the point that the official policy of post-war development had failed to yield satisfactory results because of the government´s failure to take these challenges into account. In the absence of a macroeconomic vision, the approach was reactive, piecemeal and project based.
´Soon after the war´, says the study, ´local production was subjected to a market shock as road connectivity resumed to the wider market with far more advanced production.´ This ´sudden reintegration with the market in the rest of the country´ along with credit expansion without due consideration to the vulnerabilities of war-affected households had contributed to ´widespread indebtedness and a rural economic crisis.´ There has been a growing financialisation of households. Indeed, for the poor in a neoliberal world, debt is a dangerous substitute for safety net – dangerous as it leads the poor deeper into a debilitating debt trap, and even to suicide under extreme conditions! Investments expected from the diaspora did not arrive in spite of the tax incentives offered. Apparently, tax incentives alone were not sufficient to attract investments into a war-ravaged region. There was a lack of understanding of the institutional and capacity deficiencies – and, one may add, of the post-war political environment in the NP.
The Core Group on Sri Lanka, led by the United Kingdom on Monday tabled the Resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva.
The Core Group on Sri Lanka, comprising Canada, Germany, Montenegro, North Macedonia and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland presented the resolution A/HRC/40/L.1 titled ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka’.
Reaffirming Human Rights Council resolutions 30/1 of 1 October 2015 and 34/1 of 23 March 2017 on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka, the draft resolution 40/1 welcomed the positive engagement of the Government of Sri Lanka with the High Commissioner and the Office of the High Commissioner since October 2015.
By S.S. Selvanayagam
The Court of Appeal yesterday directed Petitioner Gotabaya Rajapaksa to re-issue notices pertaining to his Writ Petition contesting the Order of the Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar, which is hearing the D.A. Rajapaksa Museum Case, on the Respondents.
The Bench comprising Justices Achala Wengappuli and Arjuna Obeysekere fixed the matter for 26 March.
By Dinasena Ratugamage
A special note would be sent to the UNHRC via the Governor of the Northern Province, Suren Raghavan, former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP, M. K. Sivajilingam said.
Sivajilingam said that after learning that Raghavan would attend the UNHRC sessions, as a representative of the President, he had handed over the letter to the Secretary to the Governor a few days back.
“I went there with former Northern Provincial Council minister, Ananthi Sasitharan and a few others. This letter contains a resolution passed by the Northern Provincial council.”
According to Sivajilingam one of the proposals in the letter was made by the former Northern Provincial Council, Chief Minister, C.V. Wigneswaran. It stated that there should be an independent international investigation into alleged war crimes and human rights violations that took place in Sri Lanka during the war.
By
D.B.S.Jeyaraj
The year was 1985. Junius Richard Jayawardene was the Sri Lankan President while Rajiv Gandhi was Prime minister of India. The New Delhi facilitated talks between an official Sri Lankan Govt delegation and six entities representing the Sri Lankan Tamils were going on in the Bhutanese capital of Thimphu during the months of July and August. The Sri Lankan delegation was led by President Jayewardene’s brother H.W.Jayawardene. The Tamil side comprised the then premier Tamil political party the TULF and five Tamil armed organizations namely the PLOTE,LTTE, TELO, EPRLF and EROS.
There was much excitement in the country and the Thimphu talks was the talk of the town. There were many discussions about a viable alternative being formulated to replace the separatist Tamil Eelam demand. Much of the debate centered around a power sharing settlement on federal lines. I was then working on “The Island” and wrote a weekly column on Tamil affairs titled “Behind the Cadjan Curtain”. I had also returned from India after meeting with many Tamil political and militant leaders based in Tamil Nadu. The well-known media personality Richard de Zoysa was then trying to work out a special feature for “Rupavahini” on reactions of the “common man”to the Thimphu talks in Sri Lanka. If I remember correctly the Rupavahini chairman then was M.J.Perera while the Director-General was Anura Gunasekera. Richard wanted me to help out with the feature and I readily agreed. One day Richard asked me to drop in at the TV studio to view some footage relating to the project. These were random, man in the street type of interviews. The interviewees from different walks of life were asked questions about the ethnic conflict, separate state,division of the country, political solution, devolution and a federal arrangement etc. Most of the answers were in the affirmative. There was also a visible authenticity about the opinions expressed.
Continue reading ‘The Politics of Demonizing Federalism and Depicting It as Separatism’ »
By
Manoj Colambage
For 10 long years, Sarojini Naganathan has gone from court house to court house, in a seemingly endless search for her only child, Rajiv.
On Thursday, when former Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda’s fundamental rights petition seeking to block his arrest by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was taken up by a three judge bench of the country’s apex court, there she was again, a sad-eyed woman of about 50 years, wearing a simple black sari, sitting erect and attentive through a marathon five hour hearing.
Already, the difference between how the justice system treated her and the former Navy Commander was striking. For years, various police stations and courts refused to even entertain a complaint from her about her son’s abduction and disappearance, even long after her family’s emissaries had negotiated with senior navy officers, including Karannagoda, to secure her son’s release. A Habeus Corpus Application filed by Naganathan in 2011 has yet to see a judgment.
But after a lengthy and meticulous CID investigation has finally led to the arrest of over a dozen Navy Officers, and the former Navy Commander himself was named the 14th Suspect by the CID, Naganathan had a glimmer of hope that justice would be done. In its B report of February 22, the CID named Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda as the 14th suspect in the murder of 11 young men abducted in Colombo in 2008. A decade long investigation has found that the kidnappings were part of an elaborate racket by Sri Lanka Navy men, to abduct the children of wealthy families and extort money from their parents.
Yet on the same day that the CID was to name Karannagoda as a suspect and seek his arrest, February 22, the former Navy Commander filed a Fundamental Rights petition in the Supreme Court seeking to block his arrest.
On February 28, when the Admiral’s fundamental rights petition was initially taken up, the Attorney General’s Department told court that indictments against the former Navy Chief were “framed and ready to go”. On that day, despite repeated entreaties from Counsel for Karannagoda, the AG told Court that the Department was unable to provide an undertaking that the CID would not arrest the suspect, who was at the time, a fugitive from justice.
By
Kishali Pinto Jayawardene
Sri Lanka’s draft Counter Terrorism Act (CTA) is not a curate’s egg of mostly good with a little bit of bad thrown in. Rather, it is the reverse. The draft Act is a whole lot of bad with some good thrown into the unappealing mixture.
Ingenious traps by ‘deep state’ security agents
Certainly it is not the same perverse creature inhabiting the initial CTA drafts. But to cheer that seeming advance is to fall into the precise trap that those who are well-schooled in the sly tricks played by Sri Lanka’s artful state agents will avoid with a jaundiced eye.
These are ingenious traps set by ‘deep state’ security agents who have learnt to survive Governments and political regimes with consummate ease. Flippant assessments of the gazetted draft CTA are a deadly mistake. Unquestionably this is an aggravation of the existing counter-terror regime, not a reduction, as blissfully believed by some.
Those first drafts of a supposed Counter Terror framework staggered the nation as their contents were preposterous. In analysing the drafts ‘leaked’ to this newspaper at the time, it was pointed out in these spaces that, if this was the cure for the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA, 1979), then ‘the cure was worse than the disease.’ Granted, the gazetted Bill is absent the most outrageous clauses.
Some may even suspect that the perversity of those drafts may have been on the calculated assumption that the outrage would subside once the clearly perverse clauses were taken out.
By P.K.Balachandran
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, former Sri Lankan Defense and Urban Development Secretary and younger brother of the country’ fifth President Mahinda Rajapaksa, is confident of getting elected as President of Sri Lanka at the end this year.
He said in an interview here on Wednesday, that his confidence rests on his belief that Sri Lankans are yearning for a “non-mainstream, ethnically unbiased and an economic and social development-oriented leader” to wrench the country from the morass it has been stuck for three decades.
Known to be a hardliner on the ethnic issue dividing the majority Sinhalese from the minority Tamils and Muslims, Gotabaya however believes that he can get the votes of the minorities on the basis of his ethnically non-partisan and economic development agenda.
“People are tired of mainstream politicians who only think of votes and care little for the genuine development and progress of the people. I am not a mainstream politician and that is the advantage I have,” he said recounting his achievements in the developmental field as a top administrator in the Mahinda Rajapaksa government from 2005 to 2014.
Even if the minorities, especially the Tamils, are swayed by ethnic considerations, he could win with enhanced support from the Sinhalese majority, Gotabaya believes.
Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Thursday prevented the imminent arrest of retired admiral Wasantha Karannagoda in connection with murder, but he was ordered to make a statement to the CID which he has been avoiding.
A three-judge bench allowed the former navy chief’s application to block the police Criminal Investigations Department from arresting him in connection with the abduction and murder of 11 young men between 2008 and 2009.
Sri Lanka’s president went back Wednesday on pledges to the UN Human Rights Council to investigate war-time atrocities, saying he did not want to “re-open old wounds”.
Sri Lankan government troops were accused of killing at least 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians in the final months of the island’s 37-year guerrilla war that ended in May 2009.
President Maithripala Sirisena said he will formally ask the United Nations rights body to reconsider a 2015 resolution which called for credible investigations into alleged atrocities.
“It is a decade since we have established peace in this country,” Sirisena told reporters at his official residence in Colombo. “I want to tell them (the UN) not to pressure us.”
By
Lucien Rajakarunanayake
What exactly will the special Presidential Trio sent to the United Nations Human Rights Council – UNHCR – in Geneva do?
Will Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Mr. Mahinda Samarasinghe and Northern Governor Dr. Suren Raghavan, be a rival team to the official Sri Lankan diplomatic team led by our Ambassador in Geneva?
There are contradictory and rival attitudes here about the UNHCR’s Resolution on Sri Lanka, adopted in 2015. Many, who are from the Sinhala majority and are supportive of pro-Sinhala Buddhist policies in governance strongly oppose it. It is their democratic right. There are also many, especially those from the Tamil minority, and also from the Sinhala majority who are supportive of it, again a democratic right.
What is the third line that President Sirisena and his Chosen Trio will present to the UNHCR, this country and to the world community? It certainly is more than a mere diplomatic puzzle, and will fall in line with the baffled political thinking of President Sirisena, who has been showing for some time that he does not agree with the Resolution.
By
Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana
The law should apply to former navy commander Wasantha Karannangoda if he had done anything wrong, Field Marshal and MP Sarath Fonseka said today during the debate on the second reading of the Budget.
He said the former navy commander should be penalized if he was found guilty on the charges which he was facing.
Romesh De Silva PC launched a blistering attack on CID Gang Robberies Branch OIC Nishantha Silva, the lead investigator in the controversial Navy abductions case that has garnered wide public interest.
De Silva PC said that in February 2015, IP Silva had been handed over the investigation into the alleged abduction racket by the Navy, on the basis that a proper job had not been done on the probe that far.
De Silva PC referred to the CID sleuth as a ‘hangman’ and ‘villain’ in his submissions before the Supreme Court yesterday, as he tried to make the case that the police investigation that had allegedly found Karannagoda to be a suspect set for indictment by the Attorney General in the grisly abduction racket, for aiding and abetting the murders of the 11 boys, was filled with bad intentions and conducted in a partisan manner.
By S. S. Selvanayagam
Justice Kumudini Wickramasinghe yesterday recused herself from being a member of the Court of Appeal Bench, which is taking up the Writ petition filed by former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
Petitioner Gotabhaya filed his Writ petition contesting the order of the Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar which is hearing the D. A. Rajapaksa Museum Case.
The Bench comprising Justices Kumudini Wickramasinghe and Mahinda Samayawardhana deferred the Writ Petition for 5 July.
By
Sithum Chathuranga and Romesh Madusanka
The Carbon dating report from the Beta Analytic Institute of Florida, USA has revealed that the skeletal remains found in the Mannar mass grave dates back to a period between 1499 and 1719 AD (Anno Domini).
However, the analysts are of the opinion that it was impossible to determine the specific time period.
Skeletal remains of 325 bodies were recovered during the investigation carried out for 155 days. Skeletal remains of 318 bodies have so far been unearthed including those of 29 children
Six samples of skeletal remains were sent to the laboratory in Florida for carbon testing on January 23, 2019.
By Chitra Weerarathne
The Supreme Court yesterday ordered the former Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda to be present at the CID next Monday to record a statement.
Karannagoda would submit an affidavit to the Supreme Court to the effect that he would neither interfere with witnesses at the High Court trial nor leave the country. In respect of that undertaking the petitioner Karannagoda should not be taken into custody, the court said.
The proceedings of the hearings were terminated on the basis of the undertaking to give sworn affidavits to the court.
A love triangle may have helped trigger investigations into what has become Sri Lanka’s worst abduction and murder case by a rouge unit under former navy chief Wasantha Karannagoda, the Supreme Court was told.
Documents filed in the highest court suggest that the horrendous kidnappings and killings took place right under the nose of Admiral Karannagoda who was initially the complainant, but later turned out to be one of its main suspects.
The alarm was raised in May 2009 when Karannagoda complained to the police against his own Aide de Camp, Lieutenant Commander Sampath Munasinghe with whom he had a personal issue.
Karannagoda accused Lt. Commander Munasinghe of collaborating with terrorists, but in the initial police complaint there was no mention about the abductions and killings carried out by navy personnel. However, the navy’s intelligence unit had weeks earlier informed Karannagoda about the gruesome goings on.
The love triangle came out into the public domain when the mother of a victim filed a petition with the Supreme Court on Tuesday. She wants to be a party against Karannagoda’s application seeking an order to prevent his imminent arrest.
By
Vidya Ram
Britain’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled in favour of a Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seeker’s claim that the Home Office was wrong to reject his contention that he was tortured back in Sri Lanka, and asked the Upper Tribunal to look at the case afresh, in what is considered a landmark judgment.
The Supreme Court, in its judgment, also pointed to “well established evidence” of “extensive torture” by Sri Lankan state forces in 2009.
The individual — named as KV — arrived in the U.K. in 2011 and claimed asylum, alleging that he was tortured by Sri Lankan forces on suspicion of association with the LTTE. He had “five long scars on his back and two shorter scars on his right arm,” which were the clear “product of branding with a hot metal rod.”
N. Ram, Chairman of The Hindu publishing group, responded strongly to Attorney General K.K. Venugopal’s argument in the Supreme Court that the Rafale deal documents were “stolen” and those publishing them were guilty under the Official Secrets Act.
“We did not steal the documents from the Ministry of Defence, we got them from confidential sources and no force on earth can make me or us reveal the source of the documents, because we have given our word,” said Mr. Ram.
“Secondly, we have published this information obtained through investigative journalism in the public interest, significant information that was withheld or suppressed despite repeated demands made in Parliament and outside.
Thirdly, an unintended consequence of alleging that we have published ‘stolen documents’ has been authentication of the documents by the government itself; you need no further evidence that this is the real thing, the real deal.”
By
Shavini Madhara
The Attorney General will file indictments before the Colombo High Court against former Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda and 13 other suspects.
They are accused of being involved in the abduction and forced disappearance of 11 youth in 2009.
Senior State Counsel Janaka Bandara made this remark when the magisterial inquiry into the abduction and disappearance of 11 youth was taken up before court yesterday.
SSC Bandara further informed court that the CID had begun investigations into the abduction and disappearance of 11 youth based on a written complaint by the then Navy Commander Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda to the CID DIG on May 28, 2009, against his personal security officer, then Lt. Commander Nilantha Sampath Munasinghe, following which the CID was able to unravel the Navy’s involvement in the abductions.
COUNTER-TERRORISM police arrested a Tamil musician at Heathrow airport hours before he was due to perform at a UN summit in Switzerland.
Vakeesan Thangavel, 36, was surrounded by armed police on Monday morning after he boarded a flight bound for Geneva.
Officers allegedly shouted: “You are attempting terrorism! You have got a flag!”
MAKING slit-throat gestures at Tamil protesters was part of the job description for Sri Lanka’s military attache in London, Westminster Magistrates Court heard today (Mar 1).
Barrister Nicholas Wayne made the extraordinary argument in defence of his client, Brigadier Priyanka Fernando.
The soldier was caught on camera running his fingers across his throat while standing guard outside the Sri Lankan High Commission last year. The Brigadier left the country days later.
A British judge has since found him guilty of causing “harassment, alarm and distress” to Tamil complainants who brought a private prosecution, but the Brigadier claims he has diplomatic immunity.
(Text of a Press Release Issued on March 6th 2019 on behalf of the Peoples Commission on Land initiated by the Peoples Alliance for Right to Land(PARL)
The People’s Commission on Land is initiated by the People’s Alliance for Right to Land (PARL), a network of displaced communities, civil society organizations and activists working on land related issues across Sri Lanka.
The purpose of this Commission will be to develop a framework for a national land policy based on the views and opinions of communities whose right to land and natural resources have been violated or threatened.
Issues relating to lands and their use have led to many social, economic, financial and political issues for people in Sri Lanka. Conflicting claims on lands based on vested interests have led to numerous conflicts in the recent past.
By
Col R Hariharan
President Maithripala Sirisena is reported to be seriously examining the implications of withdrawing from the US-backed UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution Sri Lanka had co-sponsored in September 2015. By co-sponsoring the resolution, Sri Lanka was committed to set up a tribunal with international participation to investigate allegations of war crimes committed by the army as part of its accountability for human rights aberrations during the Eelam War.
The President’s rethink on the resolution comes on the eve of the 40th annual session of the UNHRC being held in Geneva from February 22 to March 25. It will be taking up the review on Sri Lanka on March 20 when the core group consisting of the UK, Canada, Germany, Macedonia and Montenegro is expected to urge the Council’s support for the resolution once again. Though the US is not part of the Core Group as it had quit the Council, it has continued to work with Sri Lanka government on the implementation of the UN resolution.
By
Disna MudaligeCamelia Nathaniel and Menaka Indrakumar
The Government yesterday rolled out sweeping incentives for all social segments of the country presenting an all-inclusive Budget for the year 2019.
The Budget also included a series of new proposals to meet revenue targets and successfully confront the fiscal challenges.
Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera, delivering the 2019 Budget speech themed ‘Focusing on Empowering the People and Nurturing the Poor’, announced that all public servants would receive an additional allowance of Rs.2,500 from July 1, and that a pension adjustment would be made on the same day to remove all pension anomalies who retired before 2016. Despite the economic woes, the Government has made an additional allocation of Rs 40 billion for the increase of public servants’ allowance and Rs.12 billion to rectify the pension anomalies.
In his two hour and fifteen minutes long Budget Speech, the minister also reminded the House that the salaries of public servants have been increased by 107 percent during the period of the current government.
True to expectations, Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera yesterday presented a people-friendly Budget for 2019, balanced with maintaining policy consistency and reforms for the private sector, though the Opposition and some analysts were wary.
A segment of Samaraweera’s proposals were targeted at increasing economic competitiveness, while others were focused on providing voter incentives for an election year, and revenue-generating measures. The Budget for 2019 was titled “Enterprise Sri Lanka -Empowering the People and Nurturing the Poor.”
Predictably, the Government increased the salaries of public sector workers, by giving an interim allowance of Rs. 2,500 per month from 1 July. Payments to a range of social segments, including the elderly, armed forces, differently-abled, and Samurdi beneficiaries, were also listed out. A significant segment of the Budget was also dedicated to policies aimed at increasing women’s participation in the formal workforce, and encouraging entrepreneurship.
Budget 2019 also raised production tax on cigarettes by Rs.5 per stick, production tax on hard liquor 750 ml by Rs.63, and a beer can by Rs.9. Given the high debt repayments in 2019, and moderate reserve levels, the Government opted on the side of caution and increased costs on small vehicles, deviating from the usual practice of reducing prices during election years. Accordingly, production tax on vehicles less than 1000cc has been increased by Rs.175,000, and for less than 1300cc by Rs.500,000.
Production taxes on electric vehicles less than 70KW will be reduced by Rs.175,000. Three-wheelers of 200cc will see their production tax increased by Rs.60,000.
The core of the Budget was focused on measures to increase exports, attract investment, promote key industries such as tourism, and improve skill levels of the workforce. However, Samaraweera had tough words for the private sector at the start of his speech, insisting that the Government was on the side of companies that were willing to be competitive.
(Text of a Lecture delivered by Dr.Radhika Coomaraswamy on 2nd March 2019 at an event held at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute in Colombo, commemorating the life of former Attorney – General Shibly Aziz PC, who served as a member of the Constitutional Council)
I want to thank the organizers for having invited us here today to pay tribute to this great man. I want to particularly thank Shibly Aziz’s wife Fathima. In life she was Shibly’s rock of Gibraltar and today she is the main driving force behind this event and other activities being done in his name. Shibly has talented sons and Afdhel Aziz’s book Strange Fruit once kept me company on a long flight across the Atlantic with its sensitive portrayal of people and the diversity endemic to our culture. Its story of love and loss is really a larger story of Sri Lanka; its beauty as well as its portrayal of areas that were once the heart of darkness.
For a long time I knew Shibly as an acquaintance with whom I shared similar interests. We rarely met except at social events and what we discussed was not much more than the weather. So when we were put on the Constitutional Council together, I must confess we were both slightly wary of each other. After all he had been a former Attorney General whose briefs included the protection of state interest in courts of law. I came from a human rights background. Our calling, on the other hand, required us to be watchdogs of the state and its activities, contesting areas where state activities were wrong or downright criminal.
In the beginning Shibly and I had a few bumps on the road in shortlisting names for the larger council. We also had differences about issues outside the law such as the personal laws of our respective communities. At one point Shibly looked exasperated and just put his head in his hands
Nevertheless within weeks we struck common cause. We were both strong believers in independent judiciaries and commissions. We desperately wanted institutions that would exist without bias, without political interference; judiciaries and commissions that receive the confidence of the public who saw that the decisions were fair and just. We wanted justice to be done as well as seen to be done. We felt it was our national duty.
A lot of discussion these days about the Constitutional Council saddens me. I would like to say something about the Constitutional Council and Independent Commissions today because I feel that will be the best way to honour Shibly who was a fervent defender of these ideas in the sessions of the Constitutional Council.
By
Dr.Upul Wijayawardhana
The remarkable win of 12-year-old Nishi Uggalla, from Manchester, on Saturday night’s (2nd March) final of the Channel Four’s Child Genius competition was, no doubt, a proud moment for all Sri Lankans domiciled in UK. But it was much more because she made it ultra-special and won the hearts of everyone who watched the programme by an inspiring acceptance speech. Further, she was different from all the other contestants; whereas all the others were driven by their parents or relations, Nishi was the driving force herself.
Child Genius is an annual competition open to children from the age of eight to twelve years where they are challenged on spelling, maths, memory, vocabulary, geography and science. Of the hundreds auditioned, 19 came for the final cut and numbers were reduced daily through the week of the competition, to 6 on the final day. After the first round, the two getting the highest marks went head-to-head on a buzzer round, the first to get ten points being the Child Genius 2019.
By Sharmini Serasinghe
The 40th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva is currently underway. The report on Sri Lanka will be formally submitted on the 20th of March.
Less than a week before the Geneva Sessions commenced on the 25th of February, former Navy Commander Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda’s impending arrest hit the headlines as the 14th accused in connection with the investigations into the abduction and killing of 11 youths in 2008-2009.
Lest it be forgotten, it was he, the then Navy Commander, Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda who in May 2009, made the initial explosive revelations of a gruesome abduction for ransom racket by some officers serving in the Sri Lanka Navy. Investigations into the racket began immediately, but fell by the wayside soon after.
Save a few amongst the disgruntled Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora and the incumbent government, no one really gives a damn for these ‘Geneva sessions’ anymore.
by Shamindra Ferdinando
Vidyajothi Prof. M.S. Rizvi Sheriff on Saturday (March 02) declared that wartime Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa was not just another Rajapaksa but a man with immense talent, skill and vision.
The academic said that Gotabaya Rajapaksa in his opinion a man well worthy of securing the political leadership in Sri Lanka.
Prof. Rizvi said so at a public meeting organized by prominent businessman A L M Farris, at Elamaldeniya, Gelioya in support of ‘Eliya’, a civil society organization, promoting Gotabaya’s candidature at 2019 presidential election.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Mahanuwa District UPFA MPs Keheliya Rambukwella, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Dilum Amunugama and Anuradha Jayaratne, former Provincial Council members and Local Government were present.
Referring to how Rajapaksa had dealt with what he called the Development Plan for the City of Colombo, Prof. Sheriff asserted that Rajapaksa was suited for the leadership position.
By
Manoj Colambage
Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda inched closer to arrest last Thursday, with the Supreme Court delaying the consideration of a petition filed by the former Navy Commander seeking to prevent his arrest by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in connection with the murder of 11 young men alleged to have been abducted for ransom by the Navy in late 2008.
Just one day after he failed to present himself at the CID having been summoned to appear on Thursday February 21, Karannagoda, on Friday February 22, filed a Fundamental Rights Petition before the Supreme Court alleging that he was at risk of an imminent arrest by the CID. The petition was filed on the same day the CID investigating officer, Inspector Nishantha Silva filed a report in the Colombo Fort Magistrates Court naming the former navy commander as a suspect, on charges including conspiracy to commit murder, aiding and abetting murder, concealing information about a crime and making false statements to the police about a crime.
The CID has not presented material in any court that implicates Karannagoda in the suspected 2008 abductions of any of the 11 murder victims or in the extortion of money from their families. The evidence presented against the former Navy Commander by the CID is centered around his alleged role in the murder of the illegally detained youth in May 2009 after he was said to have been notified that their families were aware of the location at which they were being detained.
Karannagoda, in his affidavit and petition in the Supreme Court, written representations through his lawyers to the Attorney General, and in letters to the Inspector General of Police, has denied any role or involvement in the abduction and murder of the 11 youth. Thirteen naval officers under his command have been arrested and charged by the CID in connection with abduction, confining and murdering the 11 victims and extracting extortion money from their families.
Dispelling allegations that the victims were taken into custody by the navy as a part of a covert military or intelligence operation connected to the war against the LTTE, the CID has reported to the Colombo Fort Magistrates Court that all three armed forces, the Army, Navy and Air Force, had certified that no intelligence existed to justify suspecting any of the victims of complicity in terrorist activities.
According to reports filed in the Magistrates Court, several senior naval officers hand-picked by Karannagoda who were questioned by the CID have indicated that the former Navy Commander was consciously complicit in allowing the 11 youth to be killed. They include current Navy Chief of Staff, Rear Admiral J.J. Ranasinghe, Karannagoda’s Military Secretary Rear Admiral Shemal Fernando, former Navy Commander Admiral Travis Sinnaiah and former Director Naval Intelligence Admiral Ananda Guruge.
By Col R Hariharan
With IAF pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman back home from Pakistan and receiving a hero’s welcome, tempers have cooled down somewhat between India and its neighbour which were on the brink of a confrontation. These relations entered a potential conflict zone after 12 IAF Mirage 2000s carried out a carefully crafted mission to destroy the largest Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) training centre in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. Apart from this, camps were destroyed in Muzaffarabad and Chakothi in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on February 26. India’s muscular response was to avenge JeM’s suicide bomb attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama in J&K, killing 40 jawans.
Though India’s response came 12 days after the Pulwama attack, it was well-planned to cover political, diplomatic and military aspects. This was evident in the way the Air Force had meticulously planned to ensure total surprise. The IAF strike was supported by airborne early warning and control radar systems designed to detect and track aircraft, missiles and ships, and air defence cover by Sukhoi 30MKI aircraft, while Heron drones conducted surveillance of the LoC. In order to achieve total surprise, the Mirages were inducted directly into operation from Gwalior with Ilyushin (Il-78) aircraft providing mid-air fuelling facility. It was a demonstration of the IAF’s capability to carry out a complex air operation. Both Pakistan and China would have taken note of this to factor it in their strategic matrix.
India has made it clear that the operation was not against the Pakistan military or its people. Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale, in an official statement, called the operation “an intelligence-led operation” carried out in the early hours of the day. He said: “India struck the biggest training camp of JeM in Balakot. In this operation, a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen action were eliminated.”
Former navy chief, Wasantha Karannagoda, who is wanted in connection with the abduction and killing of 11 young men has for the first time involved former defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in the case, court records showed.
Filing a petition in the Supreme Court seeking the prevention of his imminent arrest by the Criminal Investigations Department, Karannagoda has said that Rajapaksa was also aware of the case.
One of the key allegations against the war-time navy chief is that he did nothing to prevent the killing of the 11 men when their illegal incarcerations by the navy was brought to his attention in 2009.
The most chilling evidence against Karannagoda is that he knew about the abductions and the killings, but took no action to prevent them or secure justice for the victims. Involving Gotabhaya Rajapaksa adds a new dimension to the case.
By Sujeeva Nivunhella in London
The Westminster Magistrate’s Court ruled that Brigadier Priyanka Fernando was not covered by diplomatic immunity when he made a throat-cutting gesture.
When the case came up for hearing again in London on Friday, the judge said that his diplomatic immunity covered only what was in his job description, which was read out in open court during the hearing.
By Namini Wijedasa
Sri Lanka, along with the Britain-led ‘core group’, will co-sponsor a fresh resolution at the UN Human Rights Council on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in the country, authoritative sources said.
The ‘Zero Draft Resolution on Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka’ is already in circulation. Among other things, it envisages continued involvement of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and special procedure mandate holders in advising and providing technical assistance “on the promotion and protection of human rights and truth, justice, reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka”.
Only last week, President Maithripala Sirisena told the Sunday Times Political Editor that Sri Lanka was considering withdrawing co-sponsorship of the resolution. He maintained that Sri Lanka’s armed forces have not committed ‘war crimes’ and that the worst crimes were carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The resolution also requests the OHCHR to continue to assess progress on the implementation of its recommendations and “other relevant processes related to reconciliation, accountability and human rights”. It bears upon the OHCHR to present a further written update on Sri Lanka’s progress to the HRC at its 43rd session and a comprehensive report at its 46th session.
By
Kishali Pinto Jayawardene
Verbal gymnastics indulged in by Sri Lankan politicians in respect of the draft Counter Terrorism Act (CTA), now before Parliament awaiting amendments from the sectoral oversight committee, are vastly entertaining in truth.
The ‘political hot potato’
Unlikely champions of constitutional rights are emerging from the Rajapaksa-led opposition. This week, the de jure head of the ‘Pohottuwa’ party GL Peiris held forth in full flood on the danger that the Bill poses to the rights of students, trade unionists and journalists (‘SLPP tears into Government over new Counter Terrorism Bill’, The Island, 26.02.2019). He was holding a difficult brief in terms of simultaneously arguing two distinctly paradoxical positions; both that the Bill would ‘facilitate’ terrorists and that it would hurt the rights regime.
From the Government side, head of the sectoral oversight committee, Mayantha Dissanayake, son of assassinated United National Party (UNP) heavyweight Gamini Dissanayake presented an equally difficult though more consistent defence of the Bill (‘The case for the Counter Terrorism Bill’, Sunday Observer, 24.02.2019). Peppered with references to what his family had undergone as a result of terrorism, this ‘political hot potato’ under his watch will be amended, he declared, ‘to ensure that we get it right.’
Both these views are not greatly reassuring.
The defence of residual diplomatic immunity did not apply to the throat-slitting gesture made by Brig Priyanka Fernando, former Defence Attache at the Sri Lanka High Commission in London, as it was not a part of his official duties, a judge at the Westminster Magistrate’s Court decided this week.
However, the withdrawal of the arrest warrant issued against him still stands and court was adjourned till March 15 to consider further arguments.
By Ranjith Padmasiri
Former Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda and other navy officers are to face a High Court trial-at-bar over the alleged abduction and disappearance of 11 youths, the Attorney General’s Department has decided.
The case is to be taken up without a jury in view of the public controversy it has created. In terms of the Criminal Procedure Code clause 450, the High Court trial-at-bar could sit without a jury.
The AG’s Department is to convey its decision shortly to the Chief Justice, who, in turn, will select the judges for the trial-at-bar.
By
Ajith Siriwardana
A group of five members of parliament from across party lines came together today to publish their declarations of assets and liabilities in the public domain, Transparency International Sri Lanka said.
It said in a statement that the five MP’s who came forward to do this included State Minister Eran Wickramaratne, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, M.A. Sumanthiran, Vidura Wickramanayake and Tharaka Balasuriya.
By Uditha Jayasinghe
With democracy under threat around the world, former US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power yesterday called on Sri Lanka to protect its democratic ideals and institutions, so that fostering unity, promoting equality, and improving development remain key priorities.
Delivering a well-researched and eloquent speech at the ceremony to mark three decades since Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera entered politics at the BMICH, Power dwelt extensively on the achievements of Samaraweera, and the importance of adopting and maintaining liberal ideals in an increasingly divisive world. She hailed Samaraweera for his consistent backing of reconciliation, inclusivity, and universal rights, as well as always standing by his principles.
The event was attended by President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa, and former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. Parliamentarians, diplomats, and public officials were also in attendance.
Power drew examples from around the world on how democracy has come under threat, partly from social media platforms, which have become a tool for spreading misinformation and influencing people in other countries. Alluding to concerns of collusion during the US presidential elections, and other instances, she called for gigantic social media companies to be held accountable, pointing out Facebook alone had more members “than Christianity.”
“For all of the good we know technology can do, rapid advances in fields from social media to AI to automation are also posing profound risks to our democracies. These tools are going to be decisive in global development going forward, but governments must confront their dark uses as well as their boundless possibilities,” she told a packed audience.
“I believe we need to dramatically increase our scrutiny of the effects of new technologies. That will require fresh thinking, critical perspectives, and bold steps by policymakers, to find a better balance than we currently have—a balance that takes into account the impact that tech is already having on politics and human rights.”
By Saman Gunadasa
When over 100,000 estate workers went on strike last December to demand a 1,000-rupee ($US5.50) daily basic wage, the Planters Association of Ceylon, the representative body of the Sri Lankan plantation companies dismissed the demand, declaring it unaffordable.
The plantation companies made this claim amidst soaring profits for the majority of them, according to their latest annual reports. Moreover, the profits of the national tea broking companies, as well as those of the giant global tea companies—which ultimately manipulate the world market—are on the rise.
The tea companies have offered a paltry 20-rupee increase, raising the workers’ daily gross wage to just 750 rupees, while scrapping productivity and attendance based allowances.
By Shamindra Ferdinando
Close on the heels of retired Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda filing a fundamental rights application in the Supreme Court to prevent him being arrested in connection with the alleged wartime disappearance of 11 youth, the police have arrested ex-Lt. Commander Sampath Munasinghe alias ‘Navy Sampath,’ in connection with the inquiry.
Karannagoda’s case is to be supported on March 01.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) produced Munasinghe before Fort Acting Magistrate Jeevani Baddewela, who remanded him till March 01 pending inquiries in the absence of Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake.
A man accused by Sri Lanka’s president of orchestrating a plot to assassinate him was cleared of any wrongdoing by a court in Colombo on Wednesday.
Investigators said there was no credible evidence the man was plotting to kill Maithripala Sirisena, who justified sacking his prime minister in October in part because cabinet was not taking the alleged threat against his life seriously enough.
But Magistrate Jayantha Nanayakkara discharged the accused Indian national Merceli Thomas without charge, concluding he was not a foreign spy and there was no evidence against him.
By W.D.
A few moons ago, we learnt of former Lion King Mufasa’s seven-year plan. The gambit was simple: safeguard his son Simba’s path to the throne by forging an unlikely alliance with King Rafiki, the baboon that had dethroned the lions.
No one in the animal kingdom predicted that Mufasa would act so hastily to implement his plans. He should have waited for the scheduled animal races, and supported Rafiki’s claim for re-anointment. However, Zazu, his horn-billed legal advisor, assured him that he could launch prematurely. But the plan was foiled, and his impatience cost him dearly.
We might recall that Rafiki had struck a deal with the elephants to defeat Mufasa and his pride. But this pact had reached its breaking point. By the time Mufasa and Rafiki announced their axis, the elephant world had become a hopeless and desolate place. Yet the premature launch of their plot breathed flesh onto the bones of these dying tuskers. They sprang to life and trumpeted a rallying call against the treachery of the king.
Sri Lanka’s government Tuesday terminated the services of Financial Crimes Investigations Division (FCID) chief Ravi Waidyalankara amid serious allegations of graft, official sources said.
The cabinet of ministers at their meeting Tuesday discussed the future of Senior Deputy Inspector-General who is also suspected of passing sensitive information to two Singapore nationals implicated in the highly controversial MiG deal.
President maithripala Sirisena as minister of Law and Order presented the cabinet paper terminating Waidyalankara with effect from February 22, a proposal that was unanimously approved, a ministerial source said.
By Nuwan Senarathna
The Counter Terrorism Bill presented to Parliament will hinder the rights of workers, trade unions and journalist, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Chairman Prof. G.L Peiris said yesterday pointing out that it would reduce their capacity of demonstrating and going on strikes
“This Act will be used to suppress people who speak and stand against the ill treatments of the Government under any circumstance and this will be a death blow for social movements,” Prof. Peiris told reporters at Sri Vajirashramaya in Punchi Borella.
Sanath Jayasuriya has been banned from all cricket for two years after admitting breaching two counts of the ICC Anti-Corruption Code, the ICC said in a press release yesterday.
The former Sri Lanka Cricket Chair of Selectors admitted to being in breach of Article 2.4.6 and 2.4.7 of the the ICC Anti-Corruption Code, the release said.
Article 2.4.6 – Failure or refusal, without compelling justification, to cooperate with any investigation carried out by the ACU, including failure to provide accurately and completely any information and/or documentation requested by the ACU as part of such investigation.
Article 2.4.7 – Obstructing or delaying any investigation that may be carried out by the ACU, including concealing, tampering with or destroying any documentation or other information that may be relevant to that investigation and/or that may be evidence or may lead to the discovery of evidence of corrupt conduct under the Anti-Corruption Code.
By
Meera Srinivasan
Families of forcefully disappeared persons in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province observed a hartal on Monday, demanding justice for war-time human rights abuses.
According to sources in the northern districts, most schools, shops and business establishments were shut, in an act of solidarity with the relatives of missing persons, some of whom have been agitating continuously for two years now in Kilinochchi district.
Missing relatives
The University of Jaffna was also closed, and public transport services came to a halt. Thousands took to the streets, holding placards with messages such as “Where is my son?”, “UN, do not give additional time for Sri Lanka for war crime investigations”, and photographs of their missing relatives. Almost all political parties representing northern Tamils and Muslims extended their support to the rally, local media reports said.
Former navy chief, Wasantha Karannagoda, has been accused of conspiracy to murder and made a suspect in the internationally-condemned killing of 11 young men a decade ago.
Colombo Fort Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake impounded the retired admiral’s passport on Friday after police named him the 14th suspect in the botched abductions for ransom carried out between 2008 and 2009.
The police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) told the magistrate that Karannagoda, 66, had also aided and abetted the illegal confinement of the 11 young men by navy personnel directly under him. He was also accused of concealing information as well as trying to mislead investigators.
The former admiral is accused of conspiring to commit offences under sections 296 and 338 of the Penal Code which carries death penalty on conviction. He is also accused under sections 199 and 200 relating to failure to inform about a crime and providing misleading information.
The magistrate was also told that the attorney general will indict Karannagoda and the 13 other co-accused in the high court.
By
S.S.Selvanayagam
Former Navy Commander Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda today filed a fundamental rights (FR) petition in the Supreme Court (SC) seeking an interim order preventing him from being arrested in connection with the investigations into the abduction and killing of 11 youths in 2008-2009.
He cited OIC Nishantha Silva and Director Shani Abeysekera of the Organised Crimes Investigation Unit as well as DIG CID Ravi Seneviratne, IGP Pujith Jayasundara and the Attorney-General as respondents.
The petition is to be supported for leave to proceed by Romesh de Silva PC with Sugath Caldera instructed by Sanath Wijeyawardane on March 1.
Petitioner states as follows: