SRI LANKA HUMAN RIGHTS COMMSSION, IS IT DROPPING THE PILOTS TO BOOST THE MORAL OF THE LTTE SUPPORTERS?

October 1st, 2018

RANJITH SOYSA

Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission has failed the Nation’s armed forces by not screening the applicants to serve on foreign peace missions. SLHC is either not willing to handle this subject effectively may be to support the UNHRC strictures or due to SLHRC’s own local agenda to punish the ‘human rights violators’ of the armed forces.

Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera , a respected individual who was a member of our heroic forces which defeated the terrorist LTTE in liberating 21 million Sri Lankans had spoken of this sorry state of affairs  at the recent UNHRC sessions .

Mr. President,

Regarding Sri Lanka , the UPR’s appear to be of a vengeful nature against the forces that defeated LTTE. Instead of punishing the terrorists as a deterrent, the very soldiers who fought them are targeted.,,,

The Human Right Commission in Sri Lanka abstain from giving clearance to Army and police officers selected for UN peace keeping mission. Col. Hewage , a recipient of 7 gallantry medals, 101 Army men and 11 police officers still awaiting clearance since 6th March. The only crime they committed was fighting the terror. Isn’t it hilarious or contemptuous that men who brought peace to the country are denied peace keeping by UN?

The head of Sri Lanka HR commission is biased and her conduct boost the moral of LTTE diaspora.

The UK and USA men fighting terrorism are not treated like us. Aren’t you violating the principal of impartiality? Aren’t you insulting our sovereignty witch your mandate require you to respect…”

When SLHRC is continuing  to draw a veil of this important issues, it is not strange that that the subject had to be brought before an international forum for their information.

We request SLHRC to issue a clarification on this important and vexed issue explaining why the screening process has come to stand still.

Is the SLHRC  incapable of handling the screening process or it is acting in line with the OISL resolution based on questionable sources?

The men of the armed forces who served the nation awaits an opportunity to work in the peace missions and earn extra money to look after the needs of their kith and kin. This is a human issue.

RANJITH SOYSA

Sri Lanka’s Ambassador A.L.A. Azeez Chairs the Social Forum 2018 of the UN Human Rights Council

October 1st, 2018

Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to UN in Geneva

The 2018 Social Forum of the United Nations Human Rights Council kicked off today at the United Nations in Geneva, with Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative Ambassador Azeez as the Chairperson-Rapporteur, alongside High Commissioner for Human Rights Madam Michelle Bachelet and Council President Vogislav Suc. This three day Forum will address  the possibilities of further promoting human rights for all and to strengthen universal respect for them, through a thematic focus.

Opening the 2018 Social Forum of UN Human Rights Council today Ambassador Azeez says ‘this Forum has served as an inclusive platform for multi-stakeholders & has enabled a deep reflection, among participants, on important themes that could bring out diverse aspects of intersectionality between Human Rights and the society’.

Addressing the Social Forum further, Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative stated that at a time when every recognized norm and value on which the UN, international order, and multilateralism stand, was being put to test in today’s globalized and yet volatile world, the importance of Social Forum, stands enhanced as a bridge-builder and as an enabler of an exchange of diverse perspectives aimed to strengthen and elaborate such norms and values.

Addressing the Forum, Ms. Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights emphasized the importance of sports as a tool for social and human empowerment. President of the Council Ambassador Vogislav Suc also addressed the opening session.

This year’s Social Forum consists of 9 thematic sessions followed by interactive dialogue in each session covering wider range of themes such as Sports, Human Solidarity and Universal Values for All Humanity; Sports and the Equal Rights of Men and Women”; Inclusivity, Equality and Non-Discrimination in Sport; Sports, Sustainable Cities and the Right to an Adequate Standard of Living; Sports for Sustainable Development and Sustained Peace; Youth, Children and Future Generations etc. and side events.

A documentary created by Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation on how sports and sports-persons help create an impact on society in our journey to peace and reconciliation was screened.

The Forum will end with a musical presentation by the UN Music Team titled a World Premiere Racing for Peace” which symbolises Sri Lankans’ desire and commitment for lasting peace and advancement of human rights.

(Video Link : http://webtv.un.org/watch/panel-on-sport-the-olympic-ideal-social-forum-2018-/5842795342001/  )

Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to UN in Geneva

01st October 2018

දුම්රිය ටැම්පිං යන්ත‍්‍රය චීන ජාතික සමාගමකට

October 1st, 2018

මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයයි All Ceylon Railway Employees’ General Union 

ලේකම්,
ජී.එස්.විතානගේ මැතිතුමා,
ප‍්‍රවාහාන හා සිවිල් ගුවන් සේවා අමාත්‍යාංශය,
සෙත්සිරිපාය,
බත්තරමුල්ල.

දුම්රිය ටැම්පිං යන්ත‍්‍රය චීන ජාතික සමාගමකට ලබාදීම අත්හිටුන ලෙස ඉල්ලීම

දුම්රිය මාර්ග නඩත්තු කටයුතු වලට යොදාගන්නා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව සතු සක‍්‍රීය මට්ටමේ පවතින එකම ටැමිපිං යන්ත‍්‍රය මාතර-බෙලිඅත්ත දුම්රිය මාර්ගයේ ඉදිකිරීම් කටයුතු සඳහා චීන ජාතික සමාගමකට ලබා දීම නිසා ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා රජයට ප‍්‍රමාද ගාස්තු ලෙස ලබාගත හැකිව තිබූ රුපියල් කෝටි ගණනක මුදලක් අහිමි වනු ඇත.

අමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 278.2 ක එනම් රුපියල් මිලියන 41730 කට අධික වියදමක් කරමින්, චීන ජාතික යන්ත්‍රෝපකරණ ආනයන හා අපනයන සමාගම කි.මී. 27 ක මාතර-බෙලිඅත්ත දුම්රිය මාර්ගයේ ඉදිිකිරීමේ කටයුතු ආරම්භ කරන ලැබුවේ 2013 අගෝස්තු මාසයේදීය. 2016 අගෝස්තු මාසය වන විට මෙම ව්‍යාපෘතියේ කටයුතු අවසන්කර දුම්රිය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට භාර දිය යුතු වුවත්, එසේ කිරීමට අදාල සමාගම අපොහොසත් විය. එම අවස්ථාවේදී ද ප‍්‍රවාහන හා සිවිල් ගුවන් සේවා අමාත්‍යාංශය මැදිහත්වී එම ව්‍යාපෘතියේ කාලය 2017 සැප්තැම්බර් මාසය දක්වා දීර්ඝ කිරීම නිසා එම සමාගමෙන් අයකර ගත යුතු ප‍්‍රමාදගාස්තු අයකර ගැනීමට නොහැකි විය. 2018 වසර අවසන් වන තුරුත් මෙම ව්‍යාපෘතියේ කටයුතු අවසන් කිරීමට නොහැකි වී ඇත්තේ දුම්රිය මාර්ග ඉදිකිරීමට මෙම සමාගමේ අති  අපොහොසත්කම නිසාය. ඒ අනුව මෙම සමාගම අසාධු ලේඛන ගත කළ යුතු සමාගමකි.

තත්වය එසේ තිබියදී, දුම්රිය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව සතු සක‍්‍රීය මට්ටමේ පවතින එකම ටැම්පිං යන්ත‍්‍රය මෙම සමාගමට ලබාදීමට ප‍්‍රවාහන අමාත්‍යාංශය කටයුතු කර ඇත. ඒ අනුව අදාල සමාගමෙන් අයකර ගතයුතු රුපියල් කෝටි ගණනක ප‍්‍රමාදගාස්තු (Demurrage) ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා රජයට අහිමිවී ඇත. එපමණක් නොව මෙම ටැම්පිං යන්ත‍්‍රය පැවරීමේදී නඩත්තුව පිළිබඳව ගිවිසුමකට හෝ එකඟතාවයකට පැමිණ නැත. එවැනි තත්වයක් මත මෙම යන්ත‍්‍රයට කවරහෝ හානියක් සිදුවුවද එය දුම්රිය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව විඳ දරාගත යුතුව ඇත.
 
මේ තත්වය මත මෙම චීන ජාතික සමාගම අසාධු ලේඛන ගත කරන ලෙසත්, මෙම ඉදිකිරීම් කටයුතු සඳහා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව සතු ටැම්පිං යන්ත‍්‍රය පැවරීම වහාම අවලංගු කරන ලෙසත් ගෞරවයෙන් යුතුව ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.

මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඔබ තුමා ගනු ලබන කි‍්‍රයාමාර්ගය පිළිබඳව අප සන්ධානය දැනුවත් කරන ලෙසද ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.

ස්තූතියි.

මෙයට,
එස්.පී.විතානගේ
සමකැඳවුම්කරු

‘Only 80%’ certainty over Suffolk businessman’s body

October 1st, 2018

Courtesy BBC

The family of a man who died while swimming in Sri Lanka have been told experts are only 80% certain his body was correctly identified.

John Sims, 60, died after he went into the sea in Tangalle at about 22:00 GMT on 12 January 2013.

The inquest into the businessman’s death heard his body was identified from a passport photo and no post-mortem examinations mentioned the presence of metal in his body.

An open verdict was recorded.

The inquest in Ipswich heard Mr Sims, who had businesses registered in Creeting St Peter, Suffolk, had been in Sri Lanka for almost a month before he died.

Suffolk coroner's court

It was heard he had gone for a swim after dinner and his companion raised the alarm when he had not returned after 20 or 30 minutes.

Sri Lankan authorities found his body in the early hours of the morning.

‘Cursory’ post mortem

It was heard tests revealed the father of five had previously suffered a heart attack, which his family disputed.

In a report, a dental specialist said the likelihood the body found was his was “at least 80%”.

The family, who were at the inquest, said Mr Sims’ body was “covered in scars” but there was no mention of them in the report from Sri Lanka nor after his body had been returned to Suffolk.

They said they informed specialists he had a titanium structure in his back and had undergone a hip replacement, but these were not mentioned in any report, it was heard.

Additionally, the height given for Mr Sims was incorrect, according to the family, who dispute the body was Mr Sims.

Assistant coroner Dan Sharpstone said there were “a lot of holes in this case” and described the Sri Lankan post-mortem examination as “cursory”.

Sri Lanka: Asia’s next big leisure destination

October 1st, 2018

TOM MURRAY  Courtesy stuff.co.nz

On a recent trip to Sri Lanka, I had the opportunity to take in the country’s stunning national parks.

While it doesn’t boast Africa’s famous Big Five, Sri Lanka’s Big Four (leopards, elephants, sloth bears, and blue whales) are becoming an increasing draw for nature tourists from around the world.

In the last year alone, travel search engine Kayak told Business Insider it has seen a 30 per cent increase in searches for Sri Lanka.

The country’s capital, Colombo, has also been pipped for a US$1.4 billion renovation, which would put it on the scale of Dubai or Hong Kong.

READ MORE:
Sri Lanka: The place you haven’t been to, that you should
Kiwis in flight: Glamping with elephants in Sri Lanka
Seductive Sri Lanka lures with rich cultural heritage

After going on a river safari in Gal Oya National Park and a jeep drive through Kumana National Park, I’m convinced that Sri Lanka is going to be Asia’s next big leisure destination.

Sri Lanka elephants - spot of the day.
123RF
Sri Lanka elephants – spot of the day.

While the experience I had was better than I could have hoped, there were a number of things I wish I’d known before going on safari for the first time.

Scroll down to see the mistakes I made – so you don’t have to.

1. You’ll need binoculars

My girlfriend and I were lucky enough to see a leopard from a few feet away, but you’re unlikely to see everything you want from this distance.

While your safari company will probably have binoculars you can borrow – ours, Jetwing Surf, luckily did – it’s worth checking with your tour operator beforehand so you’re not left squinting into the distance.

2. You have to watch out for elephants on the road

You don’t have to be on the safari trail to see elephants in Sri Lanka.

In fact, the closest you get to these grey giants might just be on the highways, where they’re often seen interrupting traffic.

Our guide told us that smaller vehicles wait for the animals to pass as they’re unpredictable and sometimes cause accidents on the country’s roads.

Tea is perhaps the country's most famous export.
123RF
Tea is perhaps the country’s most famous export.

3. It gets really, really hot

Sri Lanka is a land of microclimates.

You might be chilling in 60-degree heat in the country’s central highlands one day, then a three-hour drive to the east coast the next will take you into temperatures topping 100.

Make sure to pack plenty of sunscreen, especially if you’re considering a river safari like we did with Gal Oya Lodge, where there’s no escape from the oppressive sun.

4. You should pack a zoom lens

Unless you go to one of the more popular safari parks, animals are likely to keep their difference from your vehicle – and that’s the way it should be – but it also means that it’s hard to get a great shot of the wildlife.

We really wished we’d had a more powerful zoom lens as, while the iPhone was great at capturing landscapes, there was only so much resolution it could give to elephants and crocodiles 50-100 metres away.

Roller birds in Sri Lanka.
123RF
Roller birds in Sri Lanka.

5. You will see birds — lots of them

An underrated aspect of Sri Lanka’s national parks is the abundance of bird life.

Partly due to the diversity of ecosystems, the island is home to more than 400 species of birds, according to Lakpura Travels, and is extremely popular with bird watching enthusiasts.

The scenery in Sri Lanka is stunning.
123RF
The scenery in Sri Lanka is stunning.

6. The views will blow your mind

Sri Lanka is hands down the most beautiful country I have ever visited.

It’s actually hard to concentrate on the animals when the scenery around you is so breathtaking.

7. You can’t expect to see everything you want to see

Above all the crocodiles, elephants, and water buffalo, I had my heart set on seeing the elusive leopard.

Chances of seeing them are slim, however – even in the country’s smaller national parks like Kumana. Most recent estimates put Sri Lanka’s leopard population at just 700-950, making it “vulnerable” in the IUCN Red List.

Fortunately, my prayers were answered and we were lucky enough to see leopard from just a few feet away – our driver told us it was the closest he’d ever seen one before.

Unfortunately, not everyone gets this lucky.

You may have to accept that sometimes the animals are sleeping, eating, or just wandering around elsewhere.

8. You might have to get out and walk

Bring suitable footwear, as some safari expeditions allow you to leave the vehicle and explore on foot.

To our amazement, our guides managed to navigate rocky passes and fallen branches in flip flops – but we’d have been useless if we weren’t wearing our trainers at the time.

Check with your tour operator beforehand to see if any part of your journey will be carried out on foot.

Elephants cooling down in Sri Lanka.
123RF
Elephants cooling down in Sri Lanka.

9. Rocks look exactly like elephants from afar

Even with the power of binoculars, elephants are incredibly easy to misidentify as big grey rocks that pepper many of Sri Lanka’s national parks.

You’ll get a lot of false alarms, but it’s always worth shouting if you see something – it might just be the spot of the day.

10. You shouldn’t be scared of the crocodiles

It can be scary watching from your tiny safari boat as a 12-foot crocodile slinks off the bank and disappears into the water – but there’s nothing to be afraid of.

Sri Lanka’s freshwater mugger crocodiles are less aggressive than their saltwater counterparts and rarely attack humans. There were even locals swimming on the bank opposite.

11. Go early in the morning

The early bird really does catch the worm.

We made the mistake of booking the afternoon safari, and despite being a fantastic experience, the heat was almost unbearable.

In hindsight, we probably would have been better off on the morning safari, then cooling off in the pool during the sweltering afternoon.

12. Visit the smaller national parks

Fortunately, we received a last-minute tip from some friends to visit Gal Oya and Kumana over the much larger, more popular Yala national park, which claims to have the highest density of leopards in the world.

It meant that the animals in the parks we visited were much more shy, but it felt like that was how it was meant to be. Throughout our five-hour safari in Gal Oya, we didn’t see another soul – it really felt like we were on a proper adventure.

There are, undoubtedly, good and bad times to go, however – reviews on TripAdvisor bemoan overcrowding of jeeps in the park, which spoils the experience for some.

In 2016, the Yala welcomed 658,000 according to Sri Lankan press, and that figure is only increasing.

As Sri Lanka appears on more and more people’s itineraries, the smaller parks will be the ones to opt for – and there’s always the option of using a travel company, like I did with Angelfish Travel, to make sure you’re not missing out on some of the best spots.

Gammanpila claims counter plot to kill DIG Nalaka De Silva

October 1st, 2018

Sheain Fernandopulle Courtesy The Daily Mirror

There was a counter plot to kill DIG Nalaka De Silva, who was accused of a plot to assassinate President Maithripala Sirisena and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) leader and MP Udaya Gammanpila claimed today.

Addressing a news briefing, he said the best option available for the conspirators was assassination of DIG De Silva, so that he would then be silent forever with the secrets he possessed.

We have evidence in the past in relation to cases where prominent people were arrested and remanded irrespective of their offices or social standings when they were accused of such plots.

When the Government received a false information that Vasudeva Nanayakkara was involved in the insurrection in 1971, he was arrested and remanded despite of being a MP in the then Government,” Gammanpila said.

Soon after hearing the attempted coup of 1962, the Government arrested every suspect including several DIGs and Army Colonels,” he said.

An attempt to assassinate the President is not a mere homicide attempt. It is against the State. In such a background, it is questionable as to why the incumbent Government behaves in a strange manner with regard to DIG Silva,” he added.

DIG නාලක සිල්වා මරා දැමීමේ සැලසුමක්..?

October 1st, 2018

 lanka C news

පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුමය මාධ්‍ය හමුවේ දී එම පක්ෂ නායක නීතිඥ උදය ගම්මන්පිල මහතා මෙම අදහස් පල කලේය.

නියෝජ්‍ය පොලිස්පති නාලක  සිල්වා මරා දැමීමේ සැලසුමක් තිබේ ද?

ජනපති ඝාතන කුමන්ත්‍රණයක් කියන්නේ තවත් එක් මිනීමැරීමේ උත්සාහයක් නොවේ. රාජ්‍ය විරෝධි කුමන්ත්‍රණයක්.  රාජ්‍ය විරෝධි කුමන්ත්‍රණයක් පිළිබඳ ආරංචි වුණු වහාම සිද්ධ කරන පළමු දේ තමයි සැකකරුවන් අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීම.  1962 රාජ්‍ය විරෝධි කුමන්ත්‍රණය ආරංචි වුණු වහාම එහි සැකකරුවන් තරාතිරම නොබලා අත්අඩංගුවට ගත්තා.  නියෝජ්‍ය පොලිස්පතිවරු වගේම හමුදාවේ කර්නල්වරු ඒ අතරේ හිටියා.  රටේම ගෞරවයට පාත්‍ර වුණු පූජ්‍ය හේනපිටගෙදර ඥාණසීහ නායක හිමියන් තමයි රාමඤ්ඤ නිකායේ අධිකරණ සංඝ නායක හිමියන්.  1966 දී රාජ්‍ය විරෝධි කුමන්ත්‍රණයකට උන් වහන්සේ සම්බන්ධ බවට බොරු තොරතුරක් ලැබුණාම උන් වහන්සේගේ ගෞරවණීය තත්වය නොබලා අත්අඩංගුවට ගත්තා.

ඒ වගේම 1971 දී ආණ්ඩු පක්ෂයේ මන්ත්‍රිවරයෙකු වුණු වාසුදේව නානායක්කාර මන්ත්‍රිතුමා රාජ්‍ය විරෝධි කුමන්ත්‍රණයකට සම්බන්ධ බවට බොරු තොරතුරක් ලැබුණාම තමන්ගේ කෙනා කියලා බැලුවේ නෑ ආණ්ඩුව වහාම අත්අඩංගුවට අරන් සිර ගත කළා.  ලංකාවේ විතරක් නොවේ.  ලෝකය පුරාම තත්වය ඒකයි.  නමුත් මේ ලෝක දහම නියෝජ්‍ය පොලිස්පති නාලක සිල්වාට පමණක් ක්‍රියාත්මක නොවන්නේ ඇයි?

නාලක සිල්වා කට ඇරියොත් තව කී දෙනෙකු අත්අඩංගුවට ගන්න වේවි ද දන්නේ නෑ.  ඒ නිසා මෙම කුමන්ත්‍රණය ඇත්ත නම් නාලක සිල්වා පිටුපස සිටින අයට දැන් තිබෙන හොඳම විසඳුම වන්නේ නාලක සිල්වා ඝාතනය කිරීමයි.  නාලක සිල්වාගේ දේහය වල දාන කොට එයා දැන ගෙන සිටි රහස් සියල්ලත් සදහටම වැලලෙනවා.  නාලක සිල්වා අත්අඩංගුවට නොගන්නේ ඔහු මරා දැමීමට ද යන සාධාරණ සැකය අපට දැන් තිබෙනවා.

ඔය අතරේ නාමල් කුමාර මානසික රෝගියෙක් බවට ප්‍රචාරයක් යවනවා.  කිසිම මානසික රෝගයක් නැති අය තමන්ට තර්ජනයක් වන විට ඔහුට පිස්සු කියන ලේබලය අලවා අංගොඩ නතර කිරීම පිළිබඳ මනා පලපුරුද්දක් සහ විශේෂඥ දැනුමක් තිබෙන ඇමතිවරයෙකු ආණ්ඩුවේ ඉන්න නිසා නාමල් කුමාරටත් සුකී තිලකසිරිට අත් වුණු ඉරණම අත් වෙන්න ඉඩ තිබෙනවා.  අවසානයේ දී  නාලක ඝාතනය වෙලා පස්යට වැලලී යාවි.  නාමල් අංගොඩ යාවි.  ඝාතන කුමන්ත්‍රණය ඝාතනය වේවි.

– අරවින්ද අතුකෝරල

මංගල ආණ්ඩුවෙන් ඉවත් විය යුතුයි

October 1st, 2018

උපුටාගැණීම අද දෙරණ

අගරදගුරු අති උතුම් මැල්කම් කාදිනල් රංජිත් හිමිපාණන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් අමාත්‍ය මංගල සමරවීර මහතා සිදුකරන ඇතැම් ප්‍රකාශ ඉතා පිළිකුලෙන් යුතුව හෙළා දකින බව දේශවිමුක්ති ජනතා පක්ෂයේ උප සභාපති පූජ්‍ය ගලගම ධම්මරංසි හිමියන් පවසයි.

අද (01)පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමු කිහිපයකදීම මංගල සමරවීර අමාත්‍යවරයාට එරෙහිව අදහස් පළ කළේය.

අමාත්‍ය මංගල සමරවීර මහතා පවසන පරිදි අගරදගුරු අති උතුම් මැල්කම් කාදිනල් රංජිත් හිමිපාණන්ට ජනප්‍රිය වීමට කිසිදු උවමනාවක් නොමැති බවත් උන්වහන්නේ අති උතුම් පාප් වහන්සේට පසුව සිටින ප්‍රධාන පුජකවරයෙක් බවද පූජ්‍ය ගලගම ධම්මරංසි හිමියන් පවසයි.

මෙවැනි අමාත්‍යවරු ඉවත් කිරිම ආණ්ඩුවේ වගකීම බවද උන් වහන්සේ ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.

මාධ්‍ය හමුව ඇමතු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රි වාසු දෙව නානායක්කාර මහතාද අමාත්‍ය මංගල සමරවීර මහතාගේ මෙම ප්‍රකාශය දැඩි ලෙස විවිචෙනය කළේය.

පන්සලකට දානේ වේලක් දෙන්නවත් අද අපේ බෞද්ධයන්ට ශක්තියක් නෑ

October 1st, 2018

වැලිවිටිය දිවිතුර – උපුල් මහේෂ්, ඉමදුව – ටී. විතානවසම් උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම

රුපියල කඩා වැටීම නිසා දිනෙන් දිනම බඩු මිල ඉහළ යන බවත් ඒ නිසා මිනිස්සුන්ට ජීවත්වීමට නොහැකි තත්ත්වයක් උදාවීම නිසා අද වන විට පන්සලකට දානේ ටිකක් දෙන්නවත් ශක්තියක් නැති බව හිටපු ජනාධිපති කුරුණෑගල දිස්ත්‍රික් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රි මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ පැවැසීය.

හෙතෙම මේ බව පැවැසුවේ පසුගියදා මාජුවාන ශ්‍රී පුෂ්පාරාම විහාරස්ථානයේ අභිනවයෙන් ඉදිකරන ලද චෛත්‍ය රාජයාගේ කොත්වහන්සේ නිරාවරණය කිරීම වෙනුවෙන් පැවැති උත්සවයේදීය.
එහිදී තවදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා,
පසුගිය දවසක මම කැබිතිගොල්ලෑවට ගියා. ඒ මිනිස්සු විඳින දුක දැක්කම අපි බොහෝ කම්පාවට පත්වුණා. එදා යුද්ධය නිසා කම්පාවට පත්වුණා. අද ඔවුන්ගේ අසරණභාවය නිසා කම්පා වෙනවා.

එසෙ දරුවෝ පාසල් ගිහිල්ලා කලන්තේ හැදිලා වැටෙනව කන්න නැතිව. නියඟය නිසා ඒ ප්‍රදේශවල කන්න හයක් ගොවිතැන් පාළු වෙලා. මේ ආණ්ඩුව ආව දවසේ ඉඳලා රජටටම නියඟය. ගොවිතැන් කරන්න විදියක් නැතිව අසරණ වෙලා ඉන්නේ. ජනාධිපතිතුමා ඒ ගැන කනගාටුව ප්‍රකාශ කරලා තිබුණා. හරියට නියං ආධාරවත් ලැබෙන්නේ නැහැ. නියං ආධාර ලැයිස්තු හදන්නෙත් දේශපාලකයෝ. ඒ මුළු පළාතම නියඟයට ගොදුරු වෙලා. එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ අයට විතරයි බඩගිනි දැනෙන්නේ කියලයි ඒ අය හිතන්නේ.

අද අනෙක් පැත්තෙන් රුපියලේ අගය ශීඝ්‍රයෙන් පහළ වැටෙනවා. ආණ්ඩුවේ බදු ප්‍රතිපත්තිය නිසා කර්මාන්තශාලා වැහෙනවා. දේශීය කර්මාන්ත කඩා වැටිලා. සපත්තු කර්මාන්ත වැනි කර්මාන්ත වහන්න සිද්ධ වෙලා. ඒ කර්මාන්තශාලාවල වැඩ කරපු සේවකයෝ දහස් ගණනකට රැකියා අහිමි වෙලා. කිසි සැලැස්මක් නැති ආර්ථික වැඩපිළිවෙළ නිසා ස්ථාවර ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් නැති නිසා, රටේ ආර්ථිකය දිනෙන් දිනම කඩා වැටෙනවා. රැකියා දසලක්ෂයක් දෙනවා කිව්වත් ලක්ෂ ගණනින් රැකියා අහිමි වෙනවා. විරැකියාව වැඩිවෙලා. සංවර්ධනය ඇනහිටලා. මේ තත්ත්වයන් අපි අවබෝධ කරගත යුතුයි.

මම බඩුමිල ගැන කතා කරන්න යන්නේ නැහැ. මොකද ඒ ගැන මට වඩා හොඳට තමුන්නාන්සේලා දන්නවා. අනුරාධපුර පැත්තේ දුවකගෙන් මම ඇහුවා මොනවද කෑවේ කියලා. මඤ්‍ෙඤාක්කයි පොලුයි කෑවා කිව්වා. ඒක තමයි ඇත්ත තත්ත්වය. එක වේලක් කාලා නැත්නම් වේල් දෙකක් කාලා හූල්ලලා වතුර ටිකක් බීලා ජීවත්වෙන්න සිද්ධ වෙච්ච යුගයක් තමයි අද උදාවෙලා තියෙන්නේ.

අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ අලුතෙන් ඉදිකළ ශාලාව නිසා මට චෝදනා කළා. අද ඒකේ මඟුල් කනවා. මමත් මඟුල් කෑවාලු. මගේ මඟුලක් තිබුණේ නැහැ. අපි රටට ලබාදීපු සම්පත් අද අයාලේ යන්න ඇරලා. අධිවේගී මාර්ගයේ හම්බන්තොට ඉඳලා කතරගම දක්වා කොටස ඉදිකිරීම අවුරුදු එකහමාරක් දෙකක් නතර වෙලා තිබුණා. දැන් ඉදිකිරීම් පටන් ගත්තත් බොහොම මන්දගාමීව තමයි එහි කටයුතු කෙරෙන්නේ.

මම ගත්ත ණය නිසා රටට මේ තත්ත්වය උදා වුණා කියලා තමයි චෝදනා කරන්නේ. නෑ එහෙම වුණේ නෑ. මම වරාය හදන්න ගත්ත ණය පළමු වාරිකය ගෙව්වා වරාය අධිකාරියේ ආදායමෙන්. අපිට පුළුවන්කම තිබුණු නිසා තමයි එහෙම වරායක් හැදුවේ. අපට ණය ගෙවන්න පුළුවන්කම තිබුණු නිසා තමයි ගුවන්තොටුපොළක් හැදුවේ. අද ඒවා පෙන්න පෙන්න බොරු කිය කියා රටම ලෝකයාව රවට්ටන්න හදනවා. මේ ආණ්ඩුවත් අද ණය ගන්නවා. ඒත් හදපු බෝක්කුවක්වත් මම නම් දැකලා නැහැ. ඒ නිසා මෙවැනි අවාසනාවන්ත තත්ත්වයක් යටතේ තමයි අපිට ජීවත් වෙන්න වෙලා තියෙන්නේ.

මැතිවරණ කල් දාලා බොහොම අමාරුවෙන් තමයි ප්‍රාදේශීය සභා මැතිවරණය අරගත්තේ. දැන් පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණය දෙසැම්බර්වල තියෙනවා කිව්වා. දැන් ඒකත් තව මාස දෙකකින් කල් දාලා. මෙවැනි තත්ත්වයක් යටතේ තමයි රට පවතින්නේ. ඒ නිසා මම හිතනවා මේ ආණ්ඩුවේ අවසාන කාලේ ඇවිල්ල කියලා.

ජවිපෙට තවදුරටත් ජනතාව වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටින්න බෑ

October 1st, 2018

දෙනගම ධම්මික රණවීර උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම

ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 20 සංශෝධනය පිළිබඳ ජනමත විචාරණයකට යෑමට කැමැති බව මහ නායක හිමිවරුන්ට කියන ජවිපෙ ශේ‍ර්ෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට ගිහින් ජනමත විචාරණ එපා කියන දෙබිඩි ප්‍රතිපත්තියක නිරත වී සිටිනවා යැයි නීතිඥ නාගානන්ද කොඩිතුවක්කු පැවැසීය.

ඔහු එම අදහස් පළ කළේ පසුගියදා (24දා) නුගේගොඩදී මාධ්‍ය හමුවක් පවත්වමින්ය.
එහිදී ඔහු වැඩිදුරටත් මෙසේද පැවැසීය.

ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ මහ නායක හිමිවරුන් මුණගැසෙමින්, මාධ්‍ය හමු පවත්වමින්, ජනතාව ඉදිරියට යමින් ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යස්ථාවේ 20 වැනි සංශෝධනය පිළිබඳව සාවද්‍ය ප්‍රකාශ කරමින් සිටිනවා. ඒත් 20 සංශෝධනයේ අරමුණ ඡන්දයකින් දිනන්නත් බැරි රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිවරයාට විධායක බලය ප්‍රදානය කිරීමයි. මේ පනතෙහි පැහැදිලිවම සඳහන් වන්නේ මහජන ඡන්දයෙන් පත් කෙරුණු විධායක ජනාධිපති සතු බලතල අගමැති සතු කර දීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙළයි.
මේ පිටුපස පැහැදිලිවම ඉන්නේ එජාපය, දෙමළ සන්ධානය හා බටහිර බලවේග. ඒ අය විසින් ජවිපෙ බළල් අතක් ලෙස පාවිච්චි කරනවා.

20 වැනි සංශෝධනය වෙනුවෙන් ජනමත විචාරණයකට යන්න කැමැති බව ජවිපෙ රටට කියනවා. ඒත් එවැනි සඳහනක් නොකරයි මේ පනත ගැසට් කරලා තියන්නේ.

ඒ ආකාරයට රටට එකක් කියන ජවිපෙ ශේ‍ර්ෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට ගොස් වෙනත් එකක් කියන දෙබිඩි පිළිවෙතක් අනුගමනය කර තිබෙනවා. ජවිපෙ විජිත හේරත් මන්ත්‍රිවරයා ශේ‍ර්ෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට දිවුරුම් පෙත්සමක් ඉදිරිපත් කරමින් 20 වැනි සංශෝධනයට ජනමත විචාරණයක් අවශ්‍ය නැහැ කියලා. 4 වැනි ඡේදයේ ඒ බව සඳහන් වෙනවා.

ජවිපෙ දූෂණ වංචාවලට පටහැනිව පෙනී සිටින බව කිව්වත් ජනාධිපති පත් කිරීමට ජනතාවට ඇති පරමාධිකාරි බලය හොරෙන් පැහැර ගැනීමටයි උත්සාහ කර තිබෙන්නේ.

මේ රටේ ප්‍රධානියා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව, ශේ‍ර්ෂ්ඨාධිකරණය හෝ ජනාධිපතිවරයා නෙවෙයි. රටේ පරමාධිපත්‍ය හිමි ජනතාවයි. එම පරමාධිපත්‍යය වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී නොසිටින ජවිපෙට තවදුරටත් ජනතාව වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී ඉන්න බව කියන්න බැහැ.

20ට ජනමත විචාරණයක් අවශ්‍ය නැති බව දෙමළ සන්ධානය කියන ස්ථාවරයට ජවිපෙ සහ එජාපය තල්ලු වී සිටිනවා. මේ උත්සාහය පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට බලය දීම නෙවෙයි. රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහට බලය ලබාදීලා රට අස්ථාවර කිරීම පමණයි.

20 වැනි සංශෝධනය පාර්ලිමේන්තු කාරක සභා අවස්ථාවට යොමු කරන්නේ ශේ‍ර්ෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීන්දුව ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමෙන් පසුවයි. එවැනි අවස්ථාවක පාර්ලිමේන්තුව ගන්න තීරණ ගැන ජනතාව අසරණයි. අධිකරණයටත් කිසිම දෙයක් කරන්න බැහැ.

කෙසේ වෙතත් සිසිර ආබෘෘ ප්‍රමුඛ ශේ‍ර්ෂ්ඨාධිකරණ විනිසුරු මඬුල්ල 20 වැනි සංශෝධන පිළිබඳ නඩුවේදී රටේ නීතියේ ආධිපත්‍ය, මහජන පරමාධිපත්‍ය ආරක්ෂා කරන බවට මමට විශ්වාසයක් තිබෙනවා.

මේ අතර පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණය කල් දැමීමට සැප්තැම්බර් 20 වැනිදා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව තීරණයක් ගත්තා. ජනමත විචාරණයකට නොගිහින් පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණය කල් දැමීමට නොහැකි බවට
ශේ‍ර්ෂ්ඨාධිකරණය තීරණයක් දී තිබියදී තමයි පාර්ලිමේන්තුව එම තීරණය ගෙන තිබෙන්නේ.

ලබන මාසයේ අගවිනිසුරුවරයා විශ්‍රාම යෑමට නියමිතයි. දූෂණ චෝදනා නඩු තිබෙන වත්මන් නීතිපති ජයන්ත ජයසුරිය මීළඟ අගවිනිසුරු කිරීමේ උත්සාහයකුත් මේ අතර තිබෙනවා.

දෙනගම ධම්මික රණවීර

කාදිනල්තුමන්ගේ මතයට එරෙහි විය හැක්කේ බටහිර ගැති මංගල වැනි කළු සුද්දකුට පමණයි

October 1st, 2018

හර්ෂනී අර්සකුලරත්න උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම

බටහිර මානව හිමිකම් පිළිබඳව අගරදගුරු අති උතුම් මැල්කම් රංජිත් කාදිනල්තුමන් පැවැසූ මතය වැරැදි යැයි පැවැසිය හැක්කේ බටහිර ගැති බව සාඩම්බරයට කාරණයක් යැයි සිතන ඇමැති මංගල පින්සිරි සමරවීර වැනි කළු සුද්දකුට පමණක් යැයි ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ නායක පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රි විමල් වීරවංශ පවසයි.

අති උතුම් මැල්කම් රංජිත් කාදිනල්තුමන් බටහිර මානව හිමිකම් සංකල්පය පිළිබඳව කළ ප්‍රකාශය ගැන ඇමැති මංගල සමරවීර සිදුකළ ප්‍රකාශය සම්බන්ධයෙන් මන්ත්‍රිවරයා මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කරමින් මේ බව පවසා ඇත.

එහි මෙසේද සඳහන් වේ.
මැල්කම් රංජිත් කාදිනල්තුමන් බටහිර මානව හිමිකම් සංකල්පය බැහැර කරමින් සිදු කරන ලද ප්‍රසිද්ධ ප්‍රකාශය අමාත්‍ය මංගල පින්සිරි සමරවීර මහතාගේ උදහසට හේතු වී තිබේ. මැල්කම් රංජිත් කාදිනල්තුමන්ගේ ප්‍රකාශයට ප්‍රතිචාර දක්වමින් මංගල පින්සිරි අමාත්‍යවරයා පවසන්නේ, කතෝලිකයන් අන්‍යාගමිකයන්ට එරෙහිව දියත් කරන ලද වද හිංසා හේතුකොට ගෙන මිනිස් අයිතිවාසිකම් පිළිබඳ සංකල්පය බිහිව තිබෙන බවය. මෙමඟින් අමාත්‍යවරයා උත්සාහ කරන්නේ මිනිස් අයිතිවාසිකම් පිළිබඳ බටහිර සංකල්පය ඉහළට නැංවීමට බව පෙනේ.

මංගල පින්සිරි සමරවීර නොදන්නවා වූවාට ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ක්‍රිස්තු පූර්ව සියවස්හි සිට ‘මිනිස් අයිතිවාසිකම්’ පිළිබඳව සැලකිලිමත්ව කටයුතු කර තිබේ. මිනිසාගේ අයිතිවාසිකම්වලට ගරු කළ යුතු බවත් එහි ප්‍රතිඵල වශයෙන් යහපත් සමාජයක් ගොඩනැඟෙන බවත් බුදුන් වහන්සේ දෙසා වදාළේ ක්‍රි.පූ. 6 වැනි සියවස තරම් අෑත අතීතයේදීය. සිඟාලෝවාද සූත්‍රයේදී උන්වහන්සේ පුද්ගලයා සතු අයිතිවාසිකම්වල පැවැත්ම යුතුකම් මත සාපේක්ෂව ආරක්ෂා වන අන්දම පැහැදිලිව දේශනා කරලා තියෙනවා.

ඒ වගේම බුදුන් වහන්සේ වේළුද්වාර සූත්‍රයේදී පැහැදිලි කරලා තියෙන්නේ මිනිසාගේ ජීවත්වීමේ අයිතිය පිළිබඳවය. තමා ජීවත්වනු කැමැති සේම අන්‍යයන්ද ජීවත්වීමට කැමැති බව උන්වහන්සේ එහිදී මනාව පෙන්වා දී ඇත. ප්‍රාණ ඝාතයෙන් වැළකිය යුතු බව බුදුන් වහන්සේ පෙන්වා දුන්නේ ඒ අනුවයි. වාසෙට්ඨ සූත්‍රයේ නිරවුල්ව පෙන්වා දී තිබෙන්නේ අයිතිවාසිකම් අනුව මනුෂ්‍යයන් සෑම පුද්ගලයකුම සමාන විය යුතු බවයි. ලොව තණකොළ, ගස්, වැල් සහ සතුන් අතර විවිධ වෙනස්කම් පැවැතියද මිනිසුන් කෙරෙහි වන විවිධත්වය ඔවුන්ගේම ව්‍යවහාර මාත්‍රයක් බවද මෙමඟින් උන්වහන්සේ අවධාරණය කර ඇත.

ලෝකයේ විවිධ කායික ලක්ෂණ ඇති, විවිධ වර්ණ ඇති, බොහෝ ජාතීහු වාසය කළද ලොව සියලුම ජාතීන් එකම මානව වර්ගයකට අයත් බව නවීන විද්‍යාව පිළිගෙන තිබේ. එහෙත් ඒ බව බුදුන් වහන්සේ දෙසා වදාළේ බටහිර නවීන විද්‍යාවේ ‘අ’ යන්නවත් එළිදක්වා නැති ඉතා අෑත අතීතයේදීය. ශ්‍රී ලංකාව හා එහි වෙසෙන ජනතාව මූලික වශයෙන් පෝෂණය කෙරුණේ එබඳු බුදු දහම තුළිනි.

බදුලු ටැම් ලිපියේ සඳහන් ‘සම්වතා’ යන පදය මහාචාර්ය සෙනරත් පරණවිතානයන් විසින් හඳුන්වා දී තිබෙනුයේ ‘අයිතිවාසිකම් ප්‍රඥප්තිය’ යනුවෙනි.

වෝහාරික තිස්ස රජ සමය (ක්‍රි.ව. 214-236) සියලුම ශාරීරික දඬුවම් ඉවත් කර, හිංසාවෙන් තොර නීති ක්‍රමයක් ඇති කරන ලද්දේ මෙම බෞද්ධ සභ්‍යත්වයේ බලපෑම හේතුකොට ගෙනය.

නිශ්ශංකමල්ල රජ දවසට අයත් ගල්පොත ලිපියෙන් අනාවරණය වූයේ විවිධ රෝගාබාධවලට ලක් වූ අසරණ පුද්ගලයන් වෙත රැකවරණය සලසා ඔවුන්ගේ අයිතිවාසිකම් රැකීමට රාජ්‍යතන්ත්‍රය කටයුතු කළ අන්දමය.

මිනිස් අයිතිවාසිකම් පිළිබඳ ඉතිහාසය අපට උගන්වන බටහිර විද්වත්හු ‘මැග්නකාටා ප්‍රඥප්තිය’ ඒ අරබයා බිහි වූ මුල්ම ලේඛනය ලෙස හඳුන්වති. එහෙත් මෙරට ඉතිහාසය මිනිස් අයිතිවාසිකම් කෙරෙහි සැලකිලිමත්වීමට පටන්ගෙන ඇත්තේ ඊට බොහෝ අෑත අතීතයේ සිට බව පැහැදිලිය. ඉතිහාසය නිවැරැදිව අධ්‍යයනය කරන ලද විට, මෙබඳු උදාහරණ හා තොරතුරු රැසක් ඉදිරිපත් කළ හැකිය.

අපට මානව හිමිකම්, තවත් ජාතියක් පෑගීමට උපකරණයක් වූයේ නැත. එහෙත් බටහිර, මානව හිමිකම් අවිය යොදා ගන්නේ තමාට යටත්කරගත යුතු යැයි සිතන ජාතීන් යටත් කර ගැනීම පිණිසය. මංගල පින්සිරි සමරවීරලා වැනි උපන්ගෙයි බටහිර ගැත්තන්ට මේ බව තේරෙන්නේ නැති වීම පුදුමයක් නොවේ.

මැල්කම් රංජිත් කාදිනල්තුමන් පැවැසුවේ ඒ අන්දමට බෞද්ධ ධර්මයෙන් පෝෂණය වූ සභ්‍යත්වයකට හිමිකම් කියන අපට බටහිර මානව හිමිකම් සංකල්ප පැටවීමේ අවශ්‍යතාවක් නැති බවය. එම මතය වැරැදි යැයි පැවැසිය හැක්කේ බටහිර දැනුම හා බලය හිස්මුදුනින් පිළිගෙන ඊට ගැතිව ක්‍රියා කිරීම සාඩම්බරයට හේතුවක් ලෙස දකින මංගල පින්සිරි සමරවීරලා වැනි කළු සුද්දන්ට පමණි.

එබැවින් මැල්කම් රංජිත් කාදිනල්තුමන්ගේ නිවැරැදි ප්‍රකාශය වටහා ගැනීමේ ඥානයක් නොමැති වීම හේතුකොට ගෙන මංගල පින්සිරි සමරවීර අමාත්‍යවරයා ඒ කෙරෙහි දක්වන ලද පිළිකුල් කටයුතු ප්‍රතිචාරය කෙරෙහි අපි අපේ අනුකම්පාව පළකර සිටින්නෙමු.

හර්ෂනී අර්සකුලරත්න

China invests in new center in Sri Lanka to strengthen collaboration on marine sciences

September 30th, 2018

Source: Xinhua

COLOMBO, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) — Sri Lanka and China inaugurated a new building for the China-Sri Lanka Joint Centre for Education and Research (CSL-CER) at the University of Ruhuna (UOR), in southern Sri Lanka with the aim of strengthening marine science and research in the island country, the UOR said in a statement on Saturday.

The CSL-CER is handled by the UOR and the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), an outcome of a national level cooperation agreement signed in 2014. It is also the CAS’s first overseas research center on marine sciences.

According to the statement, the CAS has granted more than 20 Sri Lankan students to pursue their Phd/Master’s degree on marine sciences in CAS’s research institutes during the last three years.

SRI LANKA-MATARA-CHINA-MARINE SCIENCES-COLLABORATION

Photo taken on Sept. 27, 2018 shows the China-Sri Lanka Joint Centre for Education and Research (CSL-CER) at the University of Ruhuna (UOR) in Matara, Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka and China inaugurated a new building for the China-Sri Lanka Joint Centre for Education and Research (CSL-CER) at the University of Ruhuna (UOR), in southern Sri Lanka with the aim of strengthening marine science and research in the island country, the UOR said in a statement on Saturday. (Xinhua/Tang Lu)

The CAS along with the UOR and other Sri Lankan agencies will push this center to play a bigger role in the international cooperation on marine sciences and education in the Indian Ocean region.

Hou Jianguo, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the CAS will continue to promote comprehensive science and education cooperation with Sri Lanka using the newly launched ocean observation platform.

Acting Vice Chancellor of the UOR Nayana Alagiyawanna said the joint observation system of the tropical marine environment set up by the CAS and the UOR a few years ago had laid UOR on an important position in the field of marine research in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s police chief pulls out of controversial visit to Scotland

September 30th, 2018

PHIL MILLER Courtesy Edinburgh Evening News

A controversial visit to Scotland this week by Sri Lanka’s police chief has been cancelled at the last minute after organisers appeared to bow to external pressure.

Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority has long accused police there of using torture to crush its independence movement.

Inspector General Pujith Jayasundara was due to arrive in the UK today and spend the week at the Scottish Police College in Fife.

His five-strong delegation was expected at Tulliallan Castle for talks on the way that community policing is structured and delivered in Scotland”, a police spokesperson had said.

However, on Friday night the Foreign Office said plans for the delegation have changed and the visit is now no longer going ahead next week”.

The visit was set to be contentious. Green Party MSP and ex-policeman John Finnie said he was concerned by the reputational damage that can flow from repressive regimes having any form of relationship with our much- respected police service”.

Sri Lanka police chief Pujith Jayasundara, right, at police headquarters in Colombo. Photograph: Ishara S Kodikara/Getty
Sri Lanka police chief Pujith Jayasundara, right, at police headquarters in Colombo. Photograph: Ishara S Kodikara/Getty

Scotland on Sunday understands socialist group Tamil Solidarity was planning a demonstration during Jayasundara’s visit. Influential British Tamil rapper M.I.A. was also about to call for protests.

Sri Lanka’s police continues to be dogged by allegations of torture. This year a UN expert highlighted distressing testimonies of very brutal and cruel methods of torture”, noting the Tamil community was stigmatised and feels disenfranchised”.

Last weekend a film about M.I.A.’s life launched in cinemas across Scotland, showing how the singer fled Sri Lanka’s civil war as a child before claiming asylum in the UK and building a career as an international superstar.

She described the situation for Tamils in her homeland as genocidal” and said: I hope Scottish independence activists and leaders will protest the police chief’s visit because allowing the relationship between the Sri Lankan state and the Scottish government is not the will of the Scottish people.”

She added: In the wake of the Scottish independence referendum movement, it’s terrible to see such relationships against Tamil self-determination are allowed to flourish on Scottish grounds.”

Environmental activist Tilly Gifford expected many Scots would have supported Tamil protests during Jayasundara’s visit. She said: Scotland is not a shining example of community policing.”

Police Scotland said that: All of the UK’s police assistance work in Sri Lanka is subject to robust risk assessment through the Overseas Security and Justice Assistance process.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: Any visit by foreign delegates to the Police Scotland training college is a matter for the Chief Constable.”

මුතුරාජවෙල තෙත් කලාපයෙන් අක්කර 100ක් විනාශ කරමින් ස්භාවික වායු බලාගරයක් ඉදිකිරීමට කැබිනට් යෝජනාවක්

September 30th, 2018

වැසිවනාන්තර සුරකින්නන්ගේ සංවිධානය

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සුවිශේෂම පරිසර පද්ධතියක් වන මුතුරාජවෙල තෙත්බිම ඉතා ඉහල ජෛව විවිධත්වයකට උරුමකම් කියන්නා වූ පරිසර පද්දතියක් වන අතර එම තෙත්බිම හෙක්ටෙයාර 6300 ක පමණ ප‍්‍රදේශයක් පුරා ව්‍යාප්තව ඇත. ස්වභාවික සම්පත් සංරක්ෂණය පිලිබඳ ජාත්‍යන්තර සංගමය (IUCN)  ආයතනය මගින්  සිදු කල අධ්‍යනයකින් සත්ත්ව විශේෂ 209ක්, ශාක විශේෂ 194 ක්, මත්ස්‍ය වර්ග 40 ක්, උභයජීවී විශේෂ 14 ක්, උරග විශේෂ  31 ක්, කුරුළු විශේෂ 102 ක් හා සමනල් විශේෂ 48 ක් මෙහිදී හඳුනාගෙන තිබේ. එමෙන්ම ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවේ වාර්ථා වන කඩොලාන විශේෂ 22න් 18ක්ම මෙහිදී හඳුනාගෙන ඇත. එවැනි වටිනාකමක් සහිත මෙම තෙත් බිමෙහි වර්තමාන ප‍්‍රමාණය හෙක්ටෙයාර 3068ක් දක්වා අඩුවීමට මූලික හේතුව අවිධිමත් සංවර්ධන කටයුතු සඳහා රජයේ දෙපාර්තමේන්තු මගින් තෙත් බිම ගොඩකිරීමත් විවිධ පුද්ගලයින් විසින් අනවසරයෙන් මෙම තෙත් බිම අත්පත් කරගැනීමත් නිසාය. එබැවින් දැනට අභයභූමියක් ලෙස ගැසට් කර ඇති හෙක්ටෙයාර 1777 වහා පුළුල් කර සමස්ත මුතුරාජවෙල තෙත් බිමම නීත්‍යානුකූලව ආරක්ෂා කිරීමට වහා පියවර ගත යුතු ඇතත් මේ වන විට විහාල වශයෙන් හානිකර ව්‍යාපෘති මෙම භූමිය තුළ ඉදිකිරීමට පිඹුරුපත් සකස්වෙමින් පවතී.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සුවිශේෂම පරිසර පද්ධතියක් වන මුතුරාජවෙල තෙත්බිමට එල්ල වන විවිධ තර්ජන හමුවේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා විදුලි බල මණ්ඩලය ඉන්දියාවේ එන්.ටී.පී.සී. සමාගම සමඟ එක්ව ඉදිකිරීමට සූදානම් වන  ස්වාභාවික ද්‍රව වායු බලාගාරයකට (LNG) අක්කර 100 ක භූමියක් මුතුරාජවෙලින් වෙන් කරන ලෙස අමාත්‍ය රංජිත් සියඹලාපිටිය ඇමතිතුමා පසුගිය 18 වෙනිදා කැබිනට් හමුවේදි යෝජනාවක් ඉදිරිපත් කර තිබේ. මෙම LNG ව්‍යාපෘතිය මෙරට විදුලි අවශ්‍යතාවය සපුරා ගැනීම සඳහා අත්‍යවශ්‍ය වුවද, ඒ සඳහා මුතුරාජවෙල වැනි වටිනා පාරිසර පද්ධතික අක්කර 100ක් වැනි විශාල භූමියක් විනාශ කිරීම අමන තීන්දුවක් වන අතර එමගින් සෘජුවම මුතුරාජවෙල මත යැපෙන දහස් ගණනක් ධීවර ප්‍රජාව අසරණ තත්වයකට පත් කිරීම, මේ ආශ්‍රිතව බැඳුනු සංචාරක කර්මාන්තය අඩාල කරමින් දස දහස් ජනයාගේ ජීවනාලිය බිඳ දැමීම ,  කොළඹ හා අවට ප‍්‍රදේශ තුල ගංවතුර පාලනයට හා නගරයේ උෂ්ණත්වය පාලනය කිරීමද අවහිර කරමින් සිදු කරන්නා වූ විශාල විනාශයකි.

වටිනා සම්පතක් වන මුතුරාජවෙල තෙත් බිම තුල රාජ්‍ය හෝ පෞද්ගලික කිසිදු ව්‍යාපෘතියක් කිරීමට අවසර නොදිය යුතු අතර, එය අධිරක්ෂිත ප‍්‍රදේශයක් ලෙස නම් කල යුතුය. එබැවින් මෙම ව්‍යාපෘතිය සඳහා මුතුරාජවෙල තෙත් බිමෙන් ඉඩම් ලබා නොදෙන ලෙසත්, ඒ සඳහා පරිසර පද්ධතියට අවම බලපෑමක් එල්ල වන විකල්ප භූමි ප‍්‍රදේශයක් භාවිතා කිරීමට කටයුතු කරන ලෙසත් මේ පිළිබඳව දැනුවත් කරමින් වැසිවනාන්තර සුරකින්නන්ගේ සංවිධානය මගින් ජනපති ඇතුළුව වගකිව යුතු ආයතනද ලිපි මගින් දැනුවත් කර ඇත.

මුතුරාජවෙල තෙත් බිමේ විශාල ප‍්‍රදේශයක් ගොඩකිරීමට තැත් කිරීම පිලිබඳව පසුගිය මාර්තු මස නොයෙකුත් මාධ්‍ය ආයතන මගින් වාර්තා වූ පසු ඒ පිළිබඳව සොයා බැලීමට  2018 මාර්තු මස 22 දින ජනාධිපතිතුමන් සිදුකල මුතුරාජවෙල නීරීක්ෂණ චාරිකාවෙන් අනතුරුව එය ගොඩකිරීම නැවැත්වීමට අදාල රාජ්‍ය බලධාරීන්ට නියෝග කල අතර මුතුරාජවෙල තෙත් බිමේ වටිනාකම පෙන්වා දෙමින් ඉදිරියේදී එය කිසිම හේතුවක් මත ගොඩ නොකරන ලෙස නියෝග කරන ලදි. එසේ තිබියදි මේ පරිසර පද්ධතිය තුළ ව්‍යාපෘති සිදු කිරීමට යෝජනා කරන්නේ රාජ්‍ය නායාකයා වන ජනපතිතුමන්ගේ තීරණයද හෑල්ලුවට ලක්කරමිනි. එබැවින් මෙම යෝජනාව වහාම හකුලා ගැනීමට කටයුතු කරන මෙන් අදාළ බලධාරීන්ගෙන් වැසිවනාන්තර සුරකින්නන්ගේ සංවිධානය ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.

පේශල පසන් කරුණාරත්න

මාධ්‍ය සම්බන්ධීකාරක

Duty-free permits to MPs stopped for theatric effect

September 30th, 2018

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

The Finance Ministry, yesterday, admitted that almost all lawmakers had imported vehicles on duty free permits issued to them following last parliamentary election in Aug 2015 therefore suspension of issuing of permits for a period of one year wouldn’t have an impact on parliamentarians.

The parliament comprises 107 (UNP and its allies), 69 (Joint Opposition), 26 (SLFP), 16 (TNA), 6 (JVP) 1 (EPDP).

The Island raised the issue with M. Ali Hassen, Director of Information, Finance and Mass Media Ministry, who issued a statement on Saturday as regards severe restrictions imposed on imports, including the importation of vehicles by lawmakers for a period of one year in a last ditch attempt to ease pressure on the rupee. Hassen said that permits wouldn’t be issued in case new members entered parliament in the event of death or due to resignation of National List MPs.

In addition to those who had been originally elected and appointed to parliament, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka (National List), Piyasena Gamage (Galle District, in place of Geetha Kumarasinghe who lost

her seat as a result of a Supreme Court ruling) and SLMC and ACMC, too, appointed a member each through the UNP National List. All newcomers had received vehicle permits.

The Finance Ministry announced curbs on imports close on the heels of Finance and Mass Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera declaring at the Royal College he would stop importing of super luxury vehicles by members of parliament.

The Finance Ministry announcement dominated electronic media on Saturday.

The Joint Opposition yesterday declared that nothing short of immediate change of government could save the national economy. Addressing the media at Vajirasharma temple, Borella, top JO spokesman on economic matters, Colombo District MP Bandula Gunawardena insisted that the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe coalition couldn’t overcome the current crisis by restricting imports.

Gunawardena said that restrictions on imports under any circumstances were contrary to the UNP-led government’s dossier on new trade policy submitted to parliament.

Asked by The Island whether he had seen the Finance Ministry statement issued on Saturday in respect of restrictions, MP Gunawardena claimed he didn’t.

Asked whether he felt the Finance and Media Ministry had deliberately deceived the public by declaring restrictions on lawmakers after the majority of them, including members of the JO sold super luxury vehicles imported on permits issued by the parliament, MP Gunawardena asserted that financial crisis couldn’t be resolved by denying duty free vehicles to MPs.

The Island said that lawmakers owed an explanation on whether they should be allowed to sell vehicles that had been imported with tax exemption amounting to Rs 30-33 mn each, Gunwardena said that he didn’t sell his vehicle.

The Island reminded the MP that the entire list of those lawmakers who had sold their vehicles and persons who bought them was available with The Island thanks to Right to Information query posed by attorney-at-law and public litigation activist Nagananda Kodituwakku.

Asked whether, he believed those elected at the next parliamentary election in 2020 should be deprived of such an exclusive privilege, MP Gunawardena said the decision on perks and privileges should be taken by political parties represented in parliament. The JO spokesman refrained from commenting on The Island observation that in spite of them objecting to the government, both parties take a common stand as far as the perks and privileges of elected representatives are concerned.

The current government over a year ago approved an additional Rs 100,000 each for members of parliament in addition to the monthly salaries and other perks. On top of all that a group of selected green eyed lawmakers numbering about 50 receive a monthly transport allowance amounting to Rs 200,000.

MP Gunawardena admitted that the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) had authorized the transfer of vehicles imported by lawmakers using duty free permits.

Nagananda Kodituwakku said that a section of members of parliament had legally transferred vehicles imported by them; some refrained from transferring the vehicles to new owners.

Kodituwakku has moved the Supreme Court against the failure on the part of the CIABOC to prosecute lawmakers on the charge of defrauding the state of revenue amounting to Rs 7 bn.

The following is the latest list of those lawmakers who had transferred vehicles. The list was obtained under the RTI Law:

 

ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයේ මූලික අංගයක් වූ ඡන්දය කල් දමමින් මේ ආණ්ඩුවේ තරු පහේ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයක්දයක් ගැන කතා කරනවා. ගෝඨාභයගෙන් ආණ්ඩුවට කනේ පහරක්.

September 30th, 2018

 Lanka Lead News

මේ ආණ්ඩුවට කිසිම දෙයක් සාර්ථකව කරගත නොහැකි වී ඇත්තේ රාජ්‍ය සේවකයන්ට කිසිඳු තීරණය ගෙන නිදහසේ ක්‍රියා කිරීමට තිබූ ඉඩකඩ ඉඩකඩ පොලිස් විමර්ශනය මගින් අහිමි කිරීම නිසයි. හිටපු ආරක්ෂක ලේකම් ඝෝඨාබය රාජපක්ෂ මහකා ප්‍රකාශ කළ සිටියේ එළිය සංවිධානයේ අද දින කඩුවෙලදි පැවති සම්මන්ත්‍රණයේදී.

ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයේ මුලික අංගයක් වූඡන්ද කියක් මේ ආණ්ඩ්ව කල් දැම්මද? එහෙම කරන මේ අය තරුපහේ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය ගැන කතා කරනවා

මෙවැනි අදූරදර්ශී නායකත්වයක් යටතේතේ සිදු වූ දෙය දෙස බලන්න. අගමැතිවරයාගේ indrustrial hub ආදිය ගැන කතා කරා. නමුත් කළ කිසිවක් නැහැ.

එදා හමුදාවේ පිරිස් බලය වැඩි කළ යුතු යැයි කියා මා ආරක්ෂක මණ්ඩලයට යෝජනා කලාට පසු දින ජනාධිපතිතුමන් විමසුවේ කීයකින්ද කියලයි. කොටස් වශයෙන් වැඩි කිරීමට එතුමන් මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම්වරයාට උපදෙස් දුන්නා. ඒ ආකාරයේ නිර්භීත තීරණ ගත්නත් එවැනි දේ ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ යුතු අති දක්ෂ නිලධාරීන් තෝරා ගෙන සිටියා.

අද විශේෂ උසාවි පිහිටිවල තිබෙනවා. ආර්ථිකය කඩා වැටීමට හේතු වූ අය අද ඉන්නේ මේ ආණ්ඩුව ඇතුලේ. මත්තල හම්බන්තොට දියුණු කිරීමට අපට අපට සැලසුමක් තිබුණා.

ඇවන්ගාර්ඞඞ් ව්‍යාපෘතිය නාවික හමුදාවේ රත්නා ලංකා සමාගම යටතේ ඇවන්ගාඩ් සමාගම යන තුන් කොට්ඨාසය යොදාගෙන අපි විශාල විදේශ විනිමය ප්‍රමාණයක් ගෙනත් දුන්නා. විශාල පිරිසක්ට අපිත් රැකියා දුන්නා. මේ සියල්ල මේ ආණ්ඩුව නැතිකර දැම්මා. මෙවැනි අැතිකරපු ව්‍යාපෘති මේ ආණ්ඩුව නැති කළා. යුද්ධයෙන් පසුව මෙරටට ගෙන ආ ව්‍යාපෘති සැන්ග්‍රිල්ලා හෝටලය, ඉන්දියානු දුම්කොල සමාගමේ සේවක ව්‍යාපෘතිය ටාටා ව්‍යාපෘතිය ආදී ව්‍යාපෘති දෙස අපි මේ රට ගෙනාවා. ඒවා මේ අය නවතා දැම්මා. මෙවැනි තත්වයක් ඇතිවුනේ මේ ආණ්ඩුවේ දූරදර්ශී ක්‍රියා පිළිවෙත හා දූෂිත ක්‍රියාදාමයක් නිසා. මේ සියල්ල දේශපාලන පළිගැනීම් පමණයි.

යුද්ධයේ අවසන් දින කිහිපය මෙහෙයවූයේ ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්‍ෂයි.. ජනපතිගේ නිවුයෝක් ප‍්‍රකාශය ෆොන්සේකා යළි පතුරු ගහයි

September 30th, 2018

Lanka Lead News

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ පැවති යුද්ධය ගැන කවුරුන් වුවද වැරදි තොරතුරක් කියන්නේනම් එය නිවැරදි කිරීමට තමන් පසුබට නොවන බව වනජීවී ඇමති සරත් ෆොන්සේකා මහතා පවසයි.

යුද්ධය පැවති අවසන් දින කිහිපයේදී හිටපු ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම් ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතා ලංකවේ සිටි බවත් ඔහු සිටියදී වෙනත් කිසිදු ඇමතිවරයෙකුට ඊට අතගැසීමේ අවශ්‍යතාවයක් නොවූ බවත් ෆොන්සේකා මහතා අවධාරණය කර සිටියි.

යුද්ධය පැවති කාලසීමාව තුළ ඉන්දියාවෙන් ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවට කිසිම තර්ජනාත්මක දෙයක් නොතිබූ බවත් ඉන්දියවෙන් ආශිර්වාදය තිබූ බවත් එවකට හිටපු හමුදාපතිවරයා වූ සරත් ෆොන්සේක මහතා සදහන් කරයි.

දෙරණ රූපවාහිනියේ ‘මොකද වුනේ’ වැඩසටහන හා එක්වෙමින් ඔහු මෙම අදහස් පළ කළේය.

කොටි සංවිධානය ඉන්දියාවේ හෝ වෙන කොහේ හෝ සිට කොලඹට ගුවනින් දැවැන්ත ප‍්‍රහාරයක් එල්ල කරනු ඇති බවට ලද තොරතුරු මත යුද්ධයේ අවසන් සති දෙකේදී හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා, හිටපු අගමැතිවරයා, හිටපු හමුදාපතිවරයා, හිටපු ආරක්ෂක ලේකම්වරයා එම කාලයේදී ලංකාවේ නොසිටි බවත් තමන් වැඩ බලන ආරක්‍ෂක ඇමතිවරයා ලෙස එම යුද්දයේ කටයුතු මෙහෙයවූ බවත් ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතා පසුගියදා නිවුයොක් හිදී කරන ලද ප‍්‍රකාශයකට පිළිතුරු ලෙස ෆොන්සේකා මහතා මෙම අදහස් පළ කළේය.

Sirisena identifies new requirement for reconciliation: freedom from foreign interference

September 30th, 2018

By P.K.Balachandran/DailyFT

It is generally stated by liberals and the human rights community that for Sri Lanka to achieve ethnic reconciliation, the Government will have to implement Resolution 30 (1) and 34 (1) passed by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in 2015 and 2017 respectively.

But given the political difficulties faced by the Government in implementing them, President Maithripala Sirisena has added a further requirement, and a critical one at that, to bring about reconciliation. He has pleaded for non-interference by outside powers, including the United Nations, in the reconciliation process.

Sirisena identifies new requirement for reconciliation: freedom from foreign interferencePresident Maithripala Sirisena with Sri lankan army to brass

But the plea, made in his speech at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday, is likely to be rejected by the Tamils, liberals, the human rights lobby in the island and overseas, and also the UN in Geneva and New York.

For the Tamils, it will be a return to a bitter past in which they had tried to solve the ethnic issue within Sri Lanka, with Lankan governments and Sinhalese parties, and failed miserably. As Suresh Premachandran of the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) once said: Sri Lanka has proved beyond doubt that the Tamil issue cannot be settled without outside intervention.”

The President’s plea has also come at a time when the Northern Provincial Council (NPC), an elected body, has unanimously asked the UN to refer cases of alleged war crimes against members of the Lankan armed forces to the International Criminal Court (ICC); to impose targeted sanctions against Lankan army personnel; and to conduct a referendum among North-Eastern Tamils on the kind of political structure they wish to live under.

Tamil radicalism has gained traction lately due to Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran’s utterances and former Minister Vijayakala Maheswaran’s publicly voiced yearning for the return of the LTTE. This trend is likely to get a further boost due to the President’s UN speech. The coming elections to the NPC, the Presidency and parliament, will only strengthen radicalism.

Tamil nationalism offers fertile soil for the growth of Sinhalese majoritarian nationalism, which is a bigger challenge to the Government than Tamil nationalism. Sinhalese nationalism has to be appeased for political survival.

Hemmed in on all sides, the President sought a way out. To him, the way out was to seek the removal of a major irritant in the reconciliation process, namely, foreign participation or intervention. In the 1980s, Indian intervention had worsened the situation in the island. Norwegian and Japanese efforts in the 2000s had only sharpened the ethnic divide. UN intervention since 2009 had not borne fruit. It had only widened the ethnic gulf.

President Sirisena, like other Sinhalese nationalists, feels that foreign intervention has only added new dimensions to the conflict and undermined indigenous efforts to bring about reconciliation.

This is what made him make a fervent plea at UNGA on Tuesday. Sirisena asked member-nations to respect national sovereignty when it intervenes in other countries to settle disputes, enforce human rights or bring about reconciliation.

With respect, I request to let us solve our problems. Independence of a country is very important,” Sirisena said.

As a sovereign state, we need no foreign influence or threats. As such, I reiterate my request to all, as a strong nation, that allow us to sort out our problems as a sovereign nation, that moves forward while protecting our rights.”

I respectfully request the support of everybody as we will solve the problems that need to be solved as Sri Lankans. We also need your cooperation in my Government’s mission to erase doubt, fear and mistrust among communities living in my beloved motherland, while nurturing lasting peace among all communities,” he added.

Seeking international recognition and appreciation for the role of the much maligned Sri Lankan armed forces in defeating terrorism and separatism, Sirisena said: It was one of the world’s strongest terrorism groups that the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka eradicated. It is thanks to that achievement that Sri Lanka remains an unbroken, non-divided country with permanent peace.”

Our armed forces have contributed immensely to building lasting peace in Sri Lanka by defeating a strong terrorism organisation. I mention this achievement with respect and thank Sri Lanka’s armed forces for their dedication to bring lasting peace and protect the unitary state of Sri Lanka.”

Radical departure

What the Lankan President said at UNGA is a radical departure from the policy his Government announced when it came to power in 2015. Till the President’s statement in New York on Tuesday, the Government had pledged to implement UNHRC resolutions 30 (1) and 34 (1) of 2015 and 2017, though on the ground, the pledges were not translated into actions on account of political difficulties.

For fear of losing popular support, it has been unwilling to drag its armed forces personnel before special judicial mechanisms in which there will be foreign judges, prosecutors and forensic experts.

The Government, the Sinhalese opposition parties, and the Sinhalese majority at large, could not for a moment entertain the thought that their soldiers might have committed crimes in the process of eliminating the LTTE.

Excesses were deemed to be natural in the fog of war and acceptable in a fight against an exceptionally brutal militant group which was brazenly using human shields, human bombs and child soldiers, and with no compunction about planting deadly bombs in public places like railway stations, buses and banks aimed at killing innocent civilians.

The Government was finding it difficult to keep its pledge to find out the fate of the thousands of Tamils who had disappeared. It had only recently set up an Office of Missing Persons.

The police have been unable to pursue cases against armed forces personnel in abduction and elimination cases because the President had expressed opposition to detaining them for long without being charged as this could affect the forces’ morale.

Persistent fear of the resurgence of Tamil militancy has stalled reform of the anti-terror law. The whitewashing of the brutality of the LTTE by the UN has made the transitional justice mechanisms suggested by the UNHRC seem iniquitous and potentially dangerous.

The under-performance of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe regime in the last three-and-a-half years has buttressed Rajapaksa’s case that a weak Government has been giving in to the demands of the Western powers which allegedly want Sri Lanka to be divided on ethnic lines and weakened militarily.

Sirisena’s pleas at the UNGA should be seen in this context. In his view, an end to, or mitigation of, foreign involvement will remove a major irritant and divider in Sri Lanka and allow Sri Lankans to devise their own means to facilitate reconciliation through mutual discussions and adjustments.

Past failures of such efforts cannot be an excuse for not taking this route as conditions have changed. Sirisena believes that domestic issues are best solved within the country if a lasting solution is to be arrived at.

The President has however clarified that he is not totally against UN or outside involvement. His plea is that the involvement should only be to facilitate the implementation of schemes and agreements worked out by Sri Lankans themselves. For example, Sirisena would like foreign donors to help rehabilitate families whose kith and kin had gone missing.

 

යුද අපරාධ චෝදනාවට එරෙහිව එල්ල කළ අභියෝගයට ජිනීවා තීන්දුව නොවැම්බරයේ

September 30th, 2018

කීර්ති වර්ණකුලසූරිය ජිනීවා සිට 

ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා හමුදාවට යුද අපරාධ චෝදනා එල්ල කරන ජිනීවා යෝජනාව නීති විරෝධී බවට මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලයට ඉදිරිපත් කළ පැමිණිල්ලේ තීන්දුව ලබන නොවැම්බර් මස ප‍්‍රකාශයට පත් කරන බව එම කවුන්සිලයේ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ නිලධාරියෙක් පැවසීය.

රියර් අද්මිරාල් සරත් වීරසේකර සහ ආචාර්ය ගුණදාස අමරසේකර යන මහත්වරු මෙම පැමිණිල්ල ඉදිරිපත් කර තිබිණි. 

කිසිදු විවාදයකින් තොරව සහ ඡුන්ද විමසීමකින් තොරව මෙම ජිනීවා යෝජනාව අනුමත වීම නීති විරෝධී බව බි‍්‍රතාන්‍ය රාජ නීතීඥ සේවර නයින්ද එම පැමිණිල්ලේ පාද සටහන් තබා තිබිණි. 

ජිනීවා යෝජනාවට ශී‍්‍ර ලංකාවේ හිටපු විදේශ ඇමැති මංගල සමරවීර මහතා සම අනුග‍්‍රහකත්වය ලබා දුන්නේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ අනුමතයකින් තොරව බව ද පැමිණිල්ලේ දක්වා ඇත.

මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලය සම්මත කළ යෝජනාවකට අභියෝග එල්ල වූ මුල් අවස්ථාව මෙයයි. 

මෙම යෝජනාව නීති විරෝධී බව මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලයේ විමර්ශන ඒකකය තීන්දු කළහොත් ලොව අනිකුත් රටවල් ද තමන්ට එරෙහි යෝජනාවලට එරෙහිව පැමිණිලි කරනු ඇත. 

ගෝලීය ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා සංසදය යොමු කළ මේ පැමිණිල්ල නිසා කොටි ඩයස්පෝරාව දැඩි කලබලයට පත්ව ඇත.

Sri Lanka’s Conflict: Response to proponents of the ‘Both sides must take blame’ theory

September 29th, 2018

A few days back I wrote an article titled Shouldn’t the UN & World give priority to the Victims of LTTE killings first” to which the following comment has been circulated to me & a host of others. In case there are others peddling the notion that both sides must take equal blame, I would like to pose some questions for which I hope the proponents of this theory can answer validating their logic for putting a national army & a terrorist organization on par & treating them both equally and present the rationale in not highlighting all of the crimes the LTTE has committed which are in far excess than that which are being attributed to the army, on the premise that it is ‘blind loyalty’.

This is the link to my article https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2018/09/27/shouldnt-the-un-world-give-priority-to-the-victims-of-ltte-killings-first/

& this is the comment received.

Who is this ‘knowledgeable’ audience? Can we ignore LTTE carnage since 1980s upon innocent villages initially & then entering towns & cities to carry out bombs & suicide missions. Shouldn’t our empathy go to these dead victims & their families? Are we not lucky not to be in their place? Then what about the living injured how many of these are still suffering? Many of them cannot even earn their own living because of LTTE. This past cannot be swept aside by anybody. Only the victim’s families & the living victims know what they suffered from LTTE.

How can we ask them to forget over 300 murderous attacks by LTTE – virtually every day, every month, every year for 3 decades? When LTTE were involved in these murderous acts, were the soldiers doing the same to us, the citizens? Therefore, can we put this part of the past aside because it does not belong to the ‘both sides to blame theory”? Who are we to tell the victims, to let bygones be bygones simple because we want to strike a deal of compromise.

As for the fair outcome for the people involved” after May 2009, the lives of innocent civilians are now saved from LTTE bombs & suicide missions, poor & low caste Tamil children are saved from being kidnapped & turned into child soldiers & the soldiers too are not at risk of getting blown to pieces from landmines & other LTTE bombs. It is only those who benefitted by LTTE Inc who are angry & upset & wish to seek revenge.

Is this ‘knowledgeable’ audience also aware & able to link the LTTE demands being connected to the original self-determination started in Tamil Nadu, borrowed by Sri Lankan Tamil leaders as they needed a slogan to hold the Tamil people together & hijacked by the LTTE to legitimize their armed struggle which initially had the backing of the Tamil political leaders. Has it not occurred to this ‘knowledgeable’ audience that this entire homeland & separatist propaganda is simply a cover to masquerade their illegal international network that brings in millions to their kitty from human smuggling, illegal drug smuggling, credit card scams, money laundering etc. The issue has also a ruse for geopolitical agendas of West & India. If none of these factors are taken to consideration in any discussion or negotiation, no wonder they think us fools & easily gullible.

It is agreed that the LTTE when it took up the armed struggle were like the JVP hyped up youth that could easily be brainwashed by an ideology fed into their system. Many of these young cadres would have been put on drugs given that LTTE were versatile drug/narcotic smugglers. We are also aware that many of these young children kidnapped from poor & low caste Tamil homes were traumatized in many ways through gruesome training to kill & hate Sinhalese whom they had not even met or seen. Our hearts do melt when hearing these individual stories related by the 594 child soldiers who were given a presidential pardon & turned into ordinary children by the previous government – the story of Gokulan the cadre turned singer is one that will melt any heart. But, the fact remains many of these cadres were willing killers while others were forced to kill. These willing killers were among the surrendered LTTE cadres who refused to be rehabilitated some of whom the TNA are now asking to be released claiming them to be political prisoners. Are the ‘knowledgeable’ audience aware of this? We cannot sympathize with willing killers.

Then we have the members of the armed forces the bulk of whom come from rural, poor Sinhala Buddhist homes. Every home, every workplace, everywhere you find a black sheep & there is no denying that some soldiers would not have functioned to the military code of conduct but the military has enough of records of removing such soldiers that have been found guilty and there is a system that the military follows in removing such soldiers/officers.

However, the tactics adopted by a national army in defense of the country cannot be compared to the tactics carried out by an illegitimate terrorist group. The tactics the armed forces carry out should remain confidential & no one can demand these to be shared with any party (the disclosure of this we know led to the Millennium City debacle & the killing of 44 armed forces personnel). In the case of the LTTE – anyone going against the LTTE leader was simply shot dead, any child not willing to undergo training & crying to return home also got shot dead. We all know what happened to Mahaththaya who turned out to be a spy for India. So where do we place this in the ‘both sides to blame’ theory?

When anyone accuses that I am highlighting only the fault of the other party”, can this person show me cases where the armed forces have entered Tamil villages cut up pregnant mothers, sleeping babies & men farming? Can these accusers show me examples of our armed forces entering mosques & murdering Muslims in prayer? Can these accusers show me examples where our armed forces have entered Buddhist temples or Kovils & shot dead people meditating & praying? Can these accusers show me examples of our armed forces carrying out suicide attacks & bombs on passenger buses, trains & in public places? Can these accusers show me how many children our soldiers have kidnapped & turned into child soldiers? So whoever comes up with this ‘highlighting only the fault of the other party’ needs to be more sensible than making barren statements which they cannot substantiate with facts.

In claiming that I am highlighting only the fault of the other party the next allegation is that my loyalty often seems quite blind & insensitive”are we to be loyal to an internationally banned terrorist movement? Are we clap at all of the murders committed by the LTTE over the decades and credit these murders to ‘oh they were simply going against the bad policies of the State & armed forces”, how can we be so heartless to these innocent victims, majority are from rural & poor homes and these victims are not just Sinhalese, Muslims but foreigners & Tamils too? Where are we blind or insensitive?

Can those proponents wishing to increase ‘credibility in the eyes of a discerning & knowledgeable reading audience’ give explanations for some examples given below which have increased since the new government took over in January 2015

  • Jaffna mayor attending LTTE commemoration
  • Jaffna University holding LTTE commemorations including unveiling a plaque for LTTE homeland quest
  • Northern Chief Minister Wigneswaran claiming no Sinhalese to be allowed in the North & East to live or Tamils to marry Sinhalese
  • Members of the TNA supervising the bulldozing of ancient archaeological sites
  • Pro-LTTE groups demolishing ancient Buddhist sites in the North & East
  • Weapons suddenly emerging from hideouts across the North & East
  • Armed groups also roaming the North some even attacking members of the armed forces.
  • Tamil diaspora & TNA claiming LTTE cadres to be political prisoners & demanding their release
  • Tamil diaspora & TNA demanding demilitarization & removal of military camps & soldiers from the North
  • Tamil diaspora groups lobbying foreign governments, foreign MPs & even UN to continue their claim for a separate Tamil homeland & continuing bogus propaganda campaign
  • Foreign Intelligence confirming that despite the LTTE leader & ground leadership being eliminated the LTTE ideology & international support network remains alive & functioning
  • Foreign Arrests & judgements against LTTE in foreign courts for LTTE killing
  • The President of Sri Lanka at the UN claiming that the LTTE financiers must be dealt with

Those that want to present the scenario of taking the supposed middle path & simply claiming both sides committed wrongs must next explain what should happen thereafter. What are they proposing beyond the acceptance that both sides committed crimes? Have they forgotten that even the legally questionable Ban Ki Moon’s 3 member panel report also faulted both sides but the War Crimes Tribunal is only against the Armed Forces that too without evidence of having killed 40,000 people – 9 years on we still do not have 40,000 dead names, there are no skeletons even!

While on the subject of treating both parties equally – can we have examples of LTTE saving close to 300,000 as the Sri Lanka Armed Forces did in May 2009?

Win for whoever is mightier” – every game has a winner & a loser. Both world wars ended up victor’s justice. We continue to seek accountability for over 500 years of colonial crimes perpetrated by the very countries that are self-appointed world’s policemen but continuing to commit every crime they accuse others of. Can anyone show where UN or these Western nations have been unbiased & impartial? Where has the West’s war on terror landed – every nation the West wants to conquer & take over their resources has some terrorist trouble! It is those peddling these new notions that are now even asking not to honor the fallen heroes with a minutes silence probably because LTTE cadres are not included in the honor! And the West is still going after the Nazi’s – men who are in their 90s are still being arrested!

We are living in times when the self-appointed custodians of peace & human rights are bombing countries, illegally invading & occupying them & even manufacturing conflicts & creating terrorists to justify their presence & enabling the sale of arms & ammunition to both the State army & the terrorists they have trained. We have a UN that has silently approved these supposedly ‘humanitarian R2P interventions” & even nodding their heads to sanctions knowing the victims are the common public. Anyone seeing the suffering of the people in Yemen will demand to close down the UN, the international NGOs & charities that are supposed to save people – can this ‘both sides must take blame’ be applicable to Yemen too?

It is unacceptable to put a legitimate national army on par with & equate it with an internationally banned terrorist movement (even if they are called insurgents or freedom fighters)

In an internal conflict as in Sri Lanka the rules of war apply to both sides & if such is the case we do not see the application of IHL & their violations by LTTE being used to demand criminal action against LTTE.

Let us also not forget & hope the ‘knowledgeable’ audience has also not forgotten that there would have been no requirement to call for a military defeat of the LTTE had India not threatened Sri Lanka not to capture a cornered Prabakaran in 1987 & instead whisked him off to India in an Indian helicopter, thousands of people would have been alive if the foreign governments aware of LTTE offices in their countries stopped these fronts from operating & materially supporting the LTTE over the years, thousands of property would not have been damaged if foreign governments did not knowingly sell their sophisticated equipment & communication and post-LTTE defeat when the UNSC Resolution 1373 was incorporated to ban 15 LTTE fronts operating from US, Canada, Norway, UK, Australia & other EU countries & India, if these governments had taken the interest to at least investigate these fronts operating from their countries there would not be any need to say LTTE international networks are alive but expect Sri Lanka to remove the Prevention of Terrorism Act & other terrorist counter measures that deal with likely terror scenarios repeating in Sri Lanka.

LTTE did not give us peace – LTTE gave us blood & tears. However, 27,000 soldiers sacrificed their lives to give us peace and an equal number lie injured some unable to even move a limb & they are not even 30 years old & they will continue to suffer like this for life. We cannot forget these sacrifices.

Moreover the co-sponsorship of the UNHRC resolution lays blame on the Sri Lankan Armed Forces & the demands for a new constitution, a war crimes tribunal by en bloc Western nations in the UN with their satellite states clearly reveal a bias. The both sides to blame theory can be applicable only to the last stages of the conflict in the application of IHL rules of war. However, the international terrorist experts tasked to look into the various allegations that had been made have clearly established that the Sri Lankan Armed Forces have not committed war crimes.

The comment ends by claiming Sri Lankans should become more mature in their attitude & approach” – the simple answer to this is so long as there is no level playing field, we see no reason why there should be crocodile tears for a terrorist movement with restorative justice for LTTE & retributive justice for the national army. In such a scenario, we must defend the under dogs which in this case is the National Army while the power of money has enabled the LTTE to purchase the mouths of foreign parliamentarians, foreign NGOs, foreign human rights groups, foreign lawyers on retainer payroll & even members of the UN.

https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2018/09/28/unacceptable-placing-sri-lanka-army-ltte-on-par-but-holding-war-crimes-tribunals-for-only-sl-army/

Anyone promoting the theory of ‘both sides must take equal blame’ are welcome to counter any of the arguments made above with facts & evidence.

Loyalty for the country & national army cannot be termed bias simply because I do not share the same feelings for an internationally banned terrorist movement. I see no reason to change this simply to strike a deal because deals cannot compromise the truth that LTTE killed people in cold blood under orders.

Prabakaran, LTTE cadres, LTTE linked TNA, separatist elements, LTTE fronts & anyone that has benefitted by the LTTE Inc must all take blame for prematurely ending the lives of thousands of people & there is no ‘both parties must take equal blame’ theory here.

Shenali D Waduge

“FOR A SOVEREIGN STATE’

September 29th, 2018

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Malinga H Gunaratne’s book ‘For a sovereign state’ was first published in October 1988. It went into a 2nd imprint only ten years later in 1998. This shows that the public were initially slow to appreciate the information given in the book. But after 1998 interest in the book has increased and the book went quickly into   several reprints, dated 2000, 2005 and 2009.

The book, written in the first person, in informal style, is about Gunaratne’s own experiences when tangling with Eelam, but the text provides valuable information on several matters relating to Eelam.

The book tells of an  elaborate plan, prepared in the Mahaweli ministry by, T.H.Karunatillake, Director, Planning and B.H.Hemapriya, media consultant, Mahaweli ministry,  with Gunaratne joining in, to  stop the forward march of Eelam. The plan was prepared in the beginning of 1983, a few months before the July riots, in strict secrecy so that the Tamil officers working in the Ministry would not hear of it.

The plan had two stages. The first stage was to establish Sinhala settlements in the river basins of Maduru Oya, Yan Oya and Malwatu Oya, with each settlement extending right to the sea. The Maduru Oya settlement would break the contiguity between Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts.  The Yan Oya settlement would sever the link between Trincomalee and Mullaitivu districts.  The Malwatu Oya settlement would fracture the connection between Mannar and Puttalam districts.

The second phase of the plan was to make use of the demographic change brought about by the Sinhala settlements and redraw the provincial map of Sri Lanka.  The boundaries of four provinces, Northern Province, North Central Province, North Western Province and Eastern Provinces would be redrawn, to create five provinces out of them.  The new province that would be created would be named North Eastern Province.

The planned new provinces and the districts that fall under them were:

  • Northern Province: districts of Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu.
  • North Central Province: districts of Vavuniya, Anuradhapura and Weli Oya

Weli Oya would be made a new district thus reducing the area of the Mullaitivu district.

  • North Western Province: districts of Mannar, Puttalam and Kurunegala.
  • North Eastern Province: districts of Polonnaruwa and Trincomalee. (This is the new province).
  • Eastern Province: districts of Batticaloa and Ampara.

This redrawing of districts would leave only the Northern Province as the Tamil majority province.  The rest of the north and east would be converted to Sinhala majority provinces.  The southern point of the Tamil majority Northern Province would be Mankulam, observed T. Sabaratnam.  (www.sangam.org/articles/view2/?uid=626).

When Gunaratne was working in the Mahaweli Ministry, in the 1980s Ven. Kitalagama Sri Seelalankara, chief Incumbent of the Dimbulagala Temple (Dimbulagala Hamuduruvo,”) had come to Gunaratne‘s office in Colombo and said ‘while you people are seated in these big offices, separatist Tamils are mounting massive encroachment on the Mahaweli at the Maduru Oya,  on the right bank, from the Batticaloa area. They are altering district boundaries, giving Tamil names to Sinhala villages and also changing the names of Sinhala people.

Gunaratne paid close attention. He had himself observed how Tamil public servants in the Mahaweli Ministry and elsewhere, were manipulating the Mahaweli scheme to push Tamil separatism forwards. Elephant corridors, forest reserves and national parks were created to make sure that areas of the future Eelam were not inhabited by the Sinhala people, said Gunaratne.  Survey department has a large number of Tamils in it.  Many new towns are given Indian names, observed Gunaratne.

At Yan Oya illegal Tamil settlements had taken place (probably in 1982 or early 1983, date not given).  The waters from Kotmale were getting diverted to Eelam lands. Direct dialing facilities were installed in all Tamil outposts. Sinhala settlements were neglected; Padaviya had no telephone, electricity or commercial activity. They lived below poverty line. They were the first to face the guns of the LTTE, observed Gunaratne.

Mahaweli officials sent to check on settlements on Maduru Oya right bank, said in a report dated 12.10.1983   that a   new village had been created at the Alankulam and Navalangkulam tanks. It was set up by the Ghandian movement with the support of the Ceylon Workers Congress.  The settlers were estate Tamils. While they were there, the investigating team saw about 20-30 new families arrive.

There were 60-80 houses of semi permanent nature. There are a permanent stores building and a small meeting hall with a young Christian priest. The priest had links with both Madhu and Kilinochchi. The settlers are paid a substantial living allowance by an unknown and well organized movement. The settlers were kept under rigid supervision, The  Sinhala settlers in Padaviya  said  that a group of  young Tamils in  the  north regularly come down to this village through Nedunkerni and direct  the  cultivation and the  training of the youth.

The new settlement was in the last piece of chena land available to Padaviya settlers. Land to the west and east of Padaviya were already occupied by Tamil villages and Tamil encroachments.  Clearly, the encroachment would spread to the very boundary of Padaviya. Sinhala setters were living in fear.

Gunaratne then turned to a massive encroachment of land that had started on the right bank of the Maduru Oya. Tamil settlements were stealthily encroaching onto the Maduru Oya delta, starting from Batticaloa .When the right bank was complete, there would be no land to settle on,  observed Gunaratne.  Two officers from Mahaweli ministry were sent in August   1983, to find out what was happening. They reported that more and more settlers were flocking in and the Maduru Oya delta was a hive of activity, houses were coming up overnight .Food supplies were coming from an organized body.

The settlement was taking place with the active assistance of the Tamil administration in Batticaloa observed Gunaratne. The Tamil public officers in Batticaloa   out maneuvered and outflanked their complacent Sinhala counterpart said Gunaratne. Tamil separatists carried out their activities carefully, noted Gunaratne. ‘Their machinations were not spontaneous but well calculated, well planned out and executed with clinical precision’.

It was decided to create a Sinhala settlement on Maduru Oya right bank. Gamini Dissanayake, Minster of Mahaweli development gave permission. Nawaloka Mudalali and Dasa Mudalali gave the money. Dissanayake naturally expected it to be done very quietly and efficiently under Ministry supervision. But Gunaratne after mooting the project was not prepared to exert himself to carry it out. He instead handed it over to the over eager Dimbulagala monk. Then at a party at his home, after a few drinks, Gunaratne had announced ‘We are settling Sinhala people in the north and east.’

Ven. Seelalankara did not know how to do things quietly either.   He publicly advertised in the newspaper that land was available in Maduru Oya scheme. There was a good response. He consulted astrologers and obtained an auspicious time, September 1st 1983 for starting the project.   On  31.8. 1983 about 3000 had gathered at Dimbulagala temple. They had brought along food stuffs for three months also cadjans and mammoties.  Women were not present, only men. Ven. Seelalankara was moving about giving advice and encouragement.

Ven. Seelalankara then made a speech.  ‘We are being threatened on all sides by separatists. What the separatists want is land.  A continuous block of land which they propose to call Eelam. You are going to break that. Remember Dutugemunu,’ Ven. Seelalankara concluded.  ‘Sadhu sadhu’ said the future settlers. The monk had mobilized vans, lorries, cars and motorcycles from rich mudalalies in Polonnaruwa.  The convoy left for its destination, using a loudspeaker and flying the Buddhist flag.

The Tamil officials responded immediately.  IGP Rudra Rajasingham reported to Mahaweli Chairman NGP Panditaratne that a massive convoy was moving towards Batticaloa, headed by Dimbulagala monk. K.W. Devanayagam, MP for Batticaloa   also protested. Government agent Batticaloa, M.Anthonimuttu, informed Secretary, Mahaweli, that there is large scale encroachment in System B in Meeradavillu .About 700 persons led by Ven. Seelalankara have come in a large number of vehicles and started clearing the land.  Wadiyas have been put up.

AGA of Koralai pattu complained that a Buddhist monk had led about 15 lorry loads and 10 tractor loads of people into Meerandavillu from Polonnaruwa distinct, with the intention of settling them on state land there. They were mostly from Aralaganwila, Hindurakgoda, Jayathnipura and adjoining areas. These new settlers had threatened the earlier settlers with bodily harm and chased them away.  These had been long standing settlers.     Pillaiyar temple was damaged.

When the AGA went there, the monk was holding a meeting of a society he had formed. The monk and the settlers flatly refused to leave. If necessary they were going to occupy the land by force and will not withdraw under any circumstances. They were very emphatic about it and their utterances were marked by loud cries of ‘sadhu, sadhu’ reported the AGA. Ven. Seelalankara had flatly refused to leave. In 1972 when he had come with settlers he had been chased away by the MP, the GA and others. This time he was staying.

The Tamil lobby protested. Gamini Dissanayake phoned Gunaratne and asked, ‘what is happening at Maduru Oya. I told you settle on the land not to make a song and dance of it’. Gamini Dissanayake backed out. That is not  surprising. It was first  suggested to Leave about 500 behind and transfer the rest elsewhere in the north east.  However, President Jayewardene wanted the    Maduru settlement completely  dismantled.  Government   wanted a mass scale evacuation, said Gunaratne.

President Jayewardene sent Paul Perera, a Catholic,   to attend to the matter. The loquacious Gunaratne, whose book is full of irrelevant observations, went silent at this point, saying he did not like to besmirch his narrative with the way they did it. But he does say atrocities were committed. The evicted settlers however, confirmed that their houses at Maduru Oya had been burnt.

This aborted Sinhala settlement at Maduru Oya is a superb example of how and why Sinhala maneuvers fail. As usual it was conveniently handed over to an outside agency,   to Dimbulagala who was the last person to handle the matter.  He had failed once before. Instead of quietly installing about 500 families at Maduru Oya right bank, as he was told,  he made the whole show public and it collapsed.

this project caused much distress to the Sinhala  would-be settlers who had been encouraged to come. They got into  great difficulty. Some were sent to Kent and Dollar farms. They  wrote to Ven. Seelalankara in 1984, saying  they were now scared. ‘We are shivering in fear. Please try to get us some land in Polonnaruwa or Badulla.’ .  I do not know whether they got the land, but Tamil settlements in  Koralai pattu continue to be strengthened. Recently, In September 2018 Yahapalana  opened a new village named ‘Suwami Vipulananda kottam’  in Muravodai thamil koralai pattu.  Dimbulagala monk was assassinated by the LTTE on May 26, 1995.

Gunaratne got into hot water over this settlement project. He was openly resentful about this. when armed terrorists slay and slaughter innocent civilians on Dollar and Kent farm they are called freedom fighters and liberators. when a priest leads a weaponless people he is called a rabble rouser said Gunaratne indignantly.

When Amirthalingam and Sampanthan claimed to have illegally settled 90,000 Tamils north of Vavuniya they were given police escort and protection, they stayed as honored guests in Colombo,  complained Gunaratne. In 1971 KW Devanayagam brought Indian Tamils to Kalkudah and settled them in the area. Then they started to encroach into Polonnaruwa  area. Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike wanted them removed. Instead the estate Tamils hid  in the forest and later assisted by  Sarvodaya,  World Food Programme, and Gandhian Movement got land in Vadumunai area.

When the story of the Eelam war is written by our military historians, said Gunaratne, the world will know how bravely the war was fought in the initial stage with very poor weapons and little training. What the Sri Lanka did not have in firepower and training, he compensated for with raw courage and loyalty t his country.  He was speaking of a battle at Kokilai.

The army had in 1985 established a small outpost at Kokilai inside an abandoned school, with a young second lieutenant, Sarath Wijesinha officer commanding two platoons of solders. It was complete cut off from the base camp.  Wijesinghe, cut  trenches around the school, and placed his best snipers as sentries at strategic points outside the camp. At about 2 am,  on 15 February 1985, around 120 LTTE attacked with rocked propelled grenades. They  shot down the search lights first. The army held its fire and thinking all were dead the LTTE came in. The army  then fired, killing 25 LTTE and the LTTE leader ordered a retreat. Army had lost just  two men. (p 275)

Ravi Jayewardene, Malinga Gunaratne, and others had visited Kokilai after it has been attacked by LTTE They were shown the arms recovered from the LTTE. there were three rocket propelled guns.  the rocket launcher had been taken away by the retreating LTTE.  LTTE came with the very best assault rifles including the German Heckler and Koch gun. The   dead LTTE soldiers were all in battle fatigues (combat uniforms). even the underwear was of camouflage material. They each had night vision glasses, AK 47 and M16 assault rifles, food, flask of water and a cyanide capsule, they carried their own stock of medicine which included expensive Dextrose pep pill use mainly  by long distance runners.

Elsewhere in the book, Gunaratne observed that the LTTE were broadcasting regularly to listeners in Sri Lanka, in English, Sinhala and Tamil. They also had a pirate TV station which beamed to Jaffna,.  These powerful transmitting stations could not have been set up without a large amount of money said Gunaratne. Where did the money come from? Was a powerful foreign force manipulating the Sri Lanka terrorists? What is the game of this outside agency? asked Gunaratne.

This book carries an eye witness account of the massacre at Dollar farm. D.H.Somapala 28 yrs is one of the survivors of the attack on Dollar farm. He said ‘ at about 5.30 am on the morning off 30 November 1984 about 100 terrorists, some dressed in army uniforms circled out entire farm form  various sides and began firing at us and throwing bombs at some of the huts in which   they  were living. A few of us were able to escape by running into the jungle and it w as one of those who survived, when inside the jungle I hid and tired to see what was happening.”

Within a few minutes the terrorists rounded up all the civilians who were unable to escape and herded them into one circle. They wielded their sub machine guns and order them all to lie down.  While some of the terrorists held guns at the heads of the civilians and ordered them to lie down. others quickly began to tie their hands and legs of the civilians. Then they started jumping on the bodies and kicking them. Some even urinated on these live bodies. They were thereafter turned face down, and placed next to each other. At a given signal they kept guns at the head of each and shot them through their heads and necks. When I saw them commence firing I fled. (p 212- 213.)   later some other survivors told the Gunaratne group ‘, the terrorist urinated on the dead bodies’  The hatred the  LTTE hardboard against the Sinhalese could not have been more apparent, commented Gunaratne.

After the attack on Dollar farm, continued Gunaratne, a group residing in Colombo, including S.L.Gunasekera   decided to go to see the refugees.  They asked for donations. cloths food stuff, drugs, mats and pillow started arriving at his house in Colombo Expatriates had sent sophisticated ladies wear, expensive shoes.

‘When Tamils were attacked and in refugee compass we all went to their aid,’ observed S.L.Gunasekera. ‘It is sad to see that not a single Tamil was making any move to help the Sinhala refugees.’ This was true, added Gunaratne.” I spoke to a number of Tamil friends but they did not react either.  Gunaratne ended his book saying ‘the cry for a separate state will not end as long as there remains a homogenous continuous land mass inhabited by an exclusive ethnic group.’

“Budunge Rasthiyaduwa”: Has the Author Bitten off More than He Can Chew? – I

September 29th, 2018

By Rohana R. Wasala

Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.Jack Kerouac

Most Buddhists are likely to bristle at the very mention of the title of K.K. Srinath’s novel because of its apparent characterization of the Buddha as a tramp, a vagabond, a vagrant or a dawdler. That’s because they are normal mature human beings; their reaction is justified. To associate Buddha with ‘rasthiyaduwa’ (vagabondage) even for a literary purpose is incredibly disrespectful of him. That is foolhardy on Srinath’s part. He could have avoided it. The language in the rest of the book appears to be no better as can be guessed from what we hear about it. But I will not condemn Srinath as a novelist offhand; probably, he has a great future in his literary career. That is, I am ready to give him the benefit of the doubt for the time being.

However, if Srinath is a serious writer of fiction, a literary artist, he should be able to justify the title he has chosen for his novel in terms of its content. That is, he should convince the serious readers that the intended meaning of the title is not its straightforward literal sense, and that he didn’t mean to insult the Buddha or disgrace Buddhism. He should do so because as (presumably) a Sri Lankan and a writer in Sinhala, he is dependent on the local Sinhala readership to which he is bound by unbreakable cultural ties; he is obliged to respect the cultural and religious sensitivities, and the corresponding literary sensibilities, that he shares with them. Using such a title as a mere marketing ploy, if such is the case, cannot be approved at all. In Christianity, using God’s name wrongfully is considered blasphemy: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain”, says the Bible. Though there is no offence known as blasphemy in Buddhism, disrespect towards the Buddha or other religious founder is not acceptable behaviour in any civilized society. Paradoxically, though, while the quality of the book cannot be determined by merely looking at the title, the discussion generated by its profanity has the potential of leading us along different paths of discovery in our understanding of the emerging cultural, social, political, and economic anti-establishmentarianism of the millennial generation, which I view as a positive development that must be managed by responsible adults (unspoiled by power politics), both young and old.

K.K. Srinath strikes me, from what little I can guess from Vidu’s quotes from his text, as an educated but callow young man. But such first impressions can prove false; he could be a smart crook as well. However, the insult he has potentially caused to Buddhism is nothing compared to the criminally disrespectful attitude that some of our power-hungry political leaders adopt towards all religions in the name of reconciliation, and secularism, which they deliberately misunderstand and misinterpret or just obfuscate in order to use as a weapon against opponents. Readers, please reflect on the crimes (of commission and omission) that both supporters and opponents of secularism among our politicians (some members of the clergy engaging in partisan politics not excluded) commit against religions in our country, where, nevertheless, the masses are among the  most religiously disciplined people in the world.

While browsing through the You Tube, I came across two videos uploaded on separate occasions by two (obviously unrelated) young men who made some perceptive critical comments about Budunge Rasthiyaduwa”. The first one, through which I came to know about Srinath’s novel for the first time, was by a young expatriate worker in some foreign country. He castigated the author  for choosing the particular outrageous title. He said that the book could have literary value, whether it was of the highbrow or lowbrow kind, and that probably the book as a whole was not at all insulting to Buddhism. He confessed that he was making these censorious comments only by looking at the title, and not after reading it. However, he implied that he didn’t expect much from a person who was so callous as to adopt such a title. His view was that  readers first look at the title of a book before reading it, and form some idea about its content.

The book is addressed to a Sinhala readership, most of whom are Buddhists. They can naturally get offended, even if they later realize that what the author wanted to do was something like highlighting the hypocrisy of most average Buddhists who have not understood the message of the Buddha properly (Of course, this is a criticism that could be leveled against the average adherents of any religion). The young man’s view was that in a context where in Sri Lanka the Sinhalese Buddhist cultural heritage has been under sustained attack for a long time and where this has intensified in recent years, the people affected must be aware of deliberate offences and aggressive acts committed against Buddhism and Buddhists, and that they have a duty to take immediate steps to put an end to the dangerous trend. All that the peaceful Buddhists could possibly do was to pressure the authorities to enforce the law. That’s what the monks and Buddhist organizations are currently doing and, in fact, have been doing for many years already.

The second You Tube video dealing with the book that I watched was by a young man who calls himself Vidu”.  He offers a more informative and more elaborate review of the novel ‘Budunge Rasthiyaduwa’. He thinks that the title Budunge Rasthiyaduwa” is most probably not meant to be an insult to Buddhism; the title may be a reference to the alleged experience of a deranged individual (probably the narrator himself) who fantasizes about attaining Buddhahood. (We know that in fiction or poetry, the first person narrator or the speaker is usually an imagined character, not the writer himself or herself.) Vidu reads out one or two sections from the text which (as far as I understand) do not reveal any remarkable creative talent in the writer (Srinath) as a novelist or any profundity in his thematic engagement or his worldview. But that could be a deceptive impression. What the reviewer argues is that Srinath, following in the footsteps of his former teacher Upul Nishantha Sannasgala who is also his publisher, could be deliberately adopting an unscrupulous ‘negative marketing’  strategy (exploiting the paranoia-prone, multilaterally besieged state of the majority Sinhalese Buddhist community, in order to sell the book – This description and the adjective ‘unscrupulous’ before that are my elaborations). Vidu’s helpful suggestion to the viewers of his video is that they need not waste their precious time reading Srinath’s novel because he has already wasted two hours of his own time reading the book in preparation for making his review. So, the young reviewer’s negative verdict on the quality of Srinath’s novel Budunge Rasthiyaduwa” is clear.

Vidu selects some sections from the pages of the book to illustrate his points. Following is my free rendering into English of a paragraph from p. 5 of the book that he reads out:

After having lain on the floor clasping my hand on my chest, I stepped out onto the road. It was not because I have a wife. It was because I realized  the truth about life in the clearest manner. Siduhath became Buddha. In this Bhadra Kalpa, he is the fourth one. I don’t know which one comes next. There must have appeared countless Buddhas on this earth. They must have died in silence. At the same time, it is not a big deal by now for every man to feel as if he has attained Buddhahood. The time must have been 1 (am) in the night. I switched off the phone, never to pick it up again….”

There is much in the original Sinhala language text (quoted in translation above) that cannot be put across in a translation. The language and ideas used are offensive to Buddhist sentiments. I will explain a few below. The meaning of a literary text is a complex affair. Creative literature is verbal art. Among the many elements that contribute to its meaning or expressiveness is, of course, the most basic verbal part or words. The words of a language derive their multifarious meanings from the socio-cultural background of the speakers, particularly the native speakers of that language. Even in this very short specimen of Srinath’s writing, many words and idioms derive their expressive power from their connection to Buddhist literature: e.g., lokayama (lit. the whole world, actually it means all existence, more precisely, the illusion of being); athaembula (lit. ‘a nelli fruit on the palm’ meaning something known to one very clearly; it is a simile usually and exclusively used in Buddhist texts (Incidentally, Sinhala ‘nelli’ is from Tamil nellikai. The English term is Indian gooseberry, Phyllanthus emblica; the classical Sinhala word ‘aembula’ comes from Sanskrit ‘amla’); Bhadra Kalpa (lit. Auspicious Aeon); Siduhath (Sinhala form of Siddhartha, the birth name of the Buddha. The name Siddhartha is usually not adopted by Sinhala Buddhists out of respect for the Buddha, although it is a common name for boys in India); the verb ‘pasak wenawa’ (realize) is usually limited to Buddhist doctrinal contexts. The sentences in the original which correspond to I stepped out onto the road. It was not because I have a wife..” constitute an allusion to prince Siddhartha’s act of secretly leaving his young wife and newborn son in the middle of the night, embarking on his long journey of spiritual discovery. This (appropriately embellished) biographical detail relating to the difficult first step of prince Siddhartha’s launch into his search for absolute spiritual truth  is a recurrent motif in Buddhist literature, to which Sinhalese readers are  highly sensitive. It is a powerful concrete symbol of his Mahabhinishkramanaya (or the Great Renunciation) that inspires ‘shraddha’ (trust or faith resulting from the provisional acceptance of the Buddha’s teachings) in the Buddhist’s mind. These words and images are charged with deep religious evocativeness for Sinhala Buddhist readers. By applying such language to a rather sexually explicit, erotic context, Srinath, displays nothing but uncultured insouciance towards the Buddhist religion. It is not known whether Srinath did this out of abject ignorance or conscious design. These are my thoughts.

Vidu says that the first person narrative that follows this introductory section of the book strikes him as the delirious prattle of a fever-stricken patient or that of an overdosed drug addict. He suggests that the novelist might have chosen the title Budunge Rasthiyaduwa” because it is the befuddling story of a mentally deranged person who imagines that he is a Buddha that misleads the reader. (To be continued, still using Vidu’s hints, and my own insights)

Sri Lankan Rupee Depreciation Due to Corruptions

September 29th, 2018

Nawagamu Deshabandu 

Many of us know that there are many factors for the Sri- Lankan rupee deprecation. But, it is a concern that rate of the depreciation of Sri-Lankan rupee has accelerated. It is true that many other countries have their currency depreciation due to the impact of American politics, but their rate of depreciation is not as bad as ours.

The government is trying to face this problem by restricting imports into the country and increasing exports. The government has also released some of its US dollar reserves in to the market as a temporary measure. This is a good thing.

Another area that government does not look at is the narcotics market. There is more money going out of the country for narcotic drugs than importing of vehicles.  The government should do all it can to put a complete stop for importing of narcotics into Sri Lanka. What happened to the decision taken by the cabinet and the president on implementing the capital punishment? Are Some ministers involved with the drug trade ruining lives of innocent people of Sri Lanka?

Another area why our country cannot move forward in our economy is the scale of corruptions in the government controlled provincial and regional councils. It is very difficult for investors to get relevant approvals without giving them bribes. Usually approvals get delayed for months or years pressuring investors give bribes to them.

For example, about three months ago, I have purchased a land, through a land sale by a company,  hoping to start a guesthouse for foreigners. The company has clearly satisfied the conditions for the land approval for construction of buildings. But, three months have passed, I am still waiting for the approval from the regional council. I suspect they are waiting for the bribe!

There are many stories like this on every day news papers in Sri Lanka. But, the government keep blind eye on these matters.

Ease of doing business is worst in Sri Lanka compared to many South Asian countries where taking and giving bribes is part of a normal business activity.  We can earn more dollars through tourism. Therefore, the government must put a system of checks and balances in place which will prevent corrupt politicians asking bribes and blocking dollar earning projects such as tourism related projects.

The Treacherous New Constitution Which Is A Federal Constitution Or Eelam Should Be Stopped Immediately Before It Is Too Late And This Island Gets Divided Into Pieces. We Do Not Want  A New Constitution At All. The One We Have Is More Than Sufficient

September 29th, 2018

Sri Lankan Solidarity Movement

It is with great pain that we say that we completely disagree with this treacherous government regarding their stance with regard to extremely important, grave and critical issues facing Sri Lanka, mostly this treacherous government trying to bring on a treacherous new constitution which is nothing but a federal constitution or an Eelam, which the vast majority of Sri Lankan people, and almost all Sinhala people, especially almost all Sinhala Buddhists, do not want.

Perhaps these NGO types, neo-colonialists, this treacherous government etc. do not understand or even feel, but we Sinhala Buddhists know that our ancestors had to safeguard Theravada Buddhism for thousands of years with their lives. Today Buddhism is but a minority religion when taken on a worldwide basis and Theravada Buddhism is even more of a minority religion. So NGO types, neo-colonialists, this treacherous government should please not keep endlessly insulting this minority religion i.e. Theravada Buddhism endlessly which is not only painful but an insult to the ancient

Sinhala Buddhist civilization which our ancestors built on this island with great care. As a Buddhist I have no problem with other religions whatsoever and have great respect for all other religions but NGO types, neo-colonialists, this treacherous government seem to have some kind of hatred towards the indigenous religion of this country i.e. Theravada Buddhism. Even the bishops, the maulavis or the right thinking kurukals, all have said they have no problem with Buddhism being the state religion or Buddhism being given the foremost place in the constitution. However the NGOs, the neo-colonialists and this treacherous government do not like it.

Some may not know it and care but Sri Lanka in ancient times, was a foremost place of Buddhist learning and dissemination. Buddhist scholars from all over the world came to Sri Lanka to study the thripitakaya and copied it to take back to their home countries. The services rendered to Buddhism

by ancient Si Lanka is outstanding and incomparable in the ancient world. Some may not know it but the two Burmese merchants, Thapassu and Bhalluka, just after the Buddha’s passing away, came to India to study the thripitakaya and bring back relics and on their way home to Burma landed in Thiriyaya, Trincomalee, where the Girihandu Seya the most ancient stupa in Sri Lanka still surviving was built by the Sinhala king at the time with the patronisation of Thapassu and Bhalluka, who went back to Burma and built the Shweddagon Chaitya, the foremost Chaitya in Burma.

Ideally, the 13th amendment which was forced upon Sri Lanka by force should be abolished. Please consider that the Sinhala people are the indigenous people of this country. Consider the many archaeological finds which attest to this fact and reproduced below…..

……..Looking at the ancient history of Anuradhapura, a large settlement appears to have been founded before 900 BC at the site of Anuradhapura where signs of an iron age culture have been found. The size of the settlement was about 15 hectares at that date, but it expanded to 50 ha, to ‘town’ size within a couple of centuries. Three major sites at Anuradhapura have been excavated by the Archaeology Department. From 900BC (early iron age), large quantities of artifacts, which were characterised by the use of iron, high grade pottery and possibly cultivation of rice have been found. This culture developed progressively and expanded into city life by 700 BC.

The Sinhala civilization which emerged in Sri Lanka with the mixing of the indigenous tribes, Yaksha, Naga, Raksha and Deva with an influx of Indo Aryans who migrated around 543 B.C., took root in the dry zone, the rolling plains of the North, North Western and North Central (Rajarata) and the East and the South Eastern (Ruhuna) of ancient Sri Lanka………

In fact, Sri Lanka has a pre-history dating back at least 34,400 years since the earliest skeleton found on the island is over 37,000 years old.

Therefore the Sinhala people are the indigenous people of this island as attested by many pre-historic and historic archaeological finds. The Sinhala people built the hydraulic civilization of the island comprising at least 17,000 (which are in existence today) small, medium and large scale reservoirs in the dry zone of the country. Therefore this island is our homeland. As the indigenous people of the island, we have first rights as the first peoples as other first peoples around the world i.e. the Aborigines in Australia, the Maori in New Zealand, the American Indians in Bolivia have. In fact, the Sinhala people being the majority in the island, there is no doubt that we have the first and foremost rights to this island, our homeland.

If NGOs can shout from the rooftops about ‘rights’ of the indigenous Aborigines of Australia, the Maori of New Zealand, the American Indians of Bolivia etc., why are they so hostile towards the indigenous people of Sri Lanka ‘the Sinhala’?

As the indigenous people of this island we have land rights which no one can take away from us to this island which is our homeland. As they say land is freedom and freedom is precisely that, being able to live in your own land, your homeland, in freedom.

The Tamils, Muslims etc. (no disrespect to them and in fact those Tamils and Muslims who care about this country will agree with me) are descendants of immigrants to the country and cannot demand homelands and besides they are minorities in the country, not the majority. Where in the world does descendants of immigrants get homelands, unless the Sinhala are the stupidest people on planet earth, which we are. The present day provincial boundaries were created by the British without any consultations with the Sinhala people in order to divide the Sinhala people’s homeland and for divide and rule purposes and nothing else. Prior to that we had the Kandyan Kingdom comprising almost all of the island except the Jaffna Peninsula (which was invaded by Aryachakravarthi the invader and so still a part of the island) and prior to that the Rajarata, Ruhuna and the Malayarata which was the entire island.

Therefore even the 13th amendment should be scrapped since minorities as per the UN charter are entitled to language, cultural and religious rights which Sri Lanka has provided and continue to provide a long time ago and provided political rights too ( which we need not give at all) in the form of provincial councils. In a small country such as Sri Lanka of 65,000 km2, there is simply no space for nine provincial councils and nine provincial governments.It is absurd to partition this small country in this way and in particular the North and the East comprise over 28% of our land area, over 66% of our coastline and over 66% of our exclusive economic zone which we are giving away as ‘homelands’ to descendants of immigrants to the country i.e. Tamils etc. while we stupid Sinhala, the real indigenous people (whose actual homeland  this island is) gets less and less of everything and will soon loose a huge part of our homeland once the treacherous new constitution is brought forward, which would be the biggest betrayal our unfortunate island has ever seen in its over 37,000 years of pre-history and ancient history. Why on earth did over 35,000 of our brave soldiers and over 7,000 of our brave villagers get massacred at the hands of the LTTE for over 26 years, why on earth did over 23,000 of our soldiers get disabled if we are going to hand over Eelam now in the guise of this new treacherous constitution?

Some people say we have no international support for a centralised government which is a unitary state. I say to those people, make your case, show those internationals evidence (which we have plenty of) that the Sinhala are indeed the indigenous people of the island from a pre-history of over 37,000 years ago, to those who built a great hydraulic civilization, of over 30,000 small, medium and large scale reservoirs and a Sinhala Buddhist civilization in this island and most especially based in the dry zone of the island. Show the internationals our great irrigation reservoirs built thousands of years ago, the great stupas built thousands of years ago, the Buddhist statues, the architecture, the development of our own script, our most ancient inscriptions, our earliest landscaped gardens such as at Sigiriya, our ancient sculpture, our ancient steel making, our ancient ports and they will not only be convinced but extremely impressed.

The 13th amendment forced upon us should be scrapped forthwith since it serves no purpose but to segregate our homeland which is this entire island and create separate states to be handed over to the Tamils etc. who are but descendants of immigrations to the island which is not only crazy but is a gross violation of the indigenous Sinhala people’s rights to this island, our homeland. Besides, those Tamil people and Muslim people who care about this country will agree with me and they too support one central government, based in Colombo the capital, which will set one set of laws applicable to the entire island for all subjects such as education, higher education, finance, transport, agriculture, irrigation, healthcare, religion, culture, environment, water resources, energy, defense, trade, land,  housing, industry etc. which is the only sensible thing to do, i.e. have one set of laws, debated in parliament by representatives from all over the island and come up with one set of laws applicable to the entire island. We are a small island and if we do not come together as a unitary state with a strong central government, we will surely get alienated from each other compartmentalized into provinces (created by the British without any consultations with the Sinhala people in order to divide the Sinhala people’s homeland and for divide and rule purposes only and nothing else) or separate countries, with each ethnic group not being able to interact with one another and being suspicious of one another and never, ever coming together to move forward. The 13th amendment was designed to precisely achieve that unfortunate end and with the treacherous new federal or Eelam constitution, this island, our homeland, will surely fall apart in to two, three or even four countries and this will then be the end of our ancient Sinhala Buddhist civilization, our ancient hydraulic civilization in this island and surely the end of the Sinhala people. Why on earth did over 35,000 of our brave soldiers and over 7,000 of our brave villagers get massacred at the hands of the LTTE for over 26 years, why on earth did over 23,000 of our soldiers get disabled if we are going to hand over Eelam now in the guise of this new treacherous constitution?

How absurd it is that in an area of 65,000 km2, which is small, with now a modern transportation network, a modern communication system of the internet, phones etc., where you can get from one end of the island to the other in a few hours, do you have nine provincial governments? Surely this is a system designed to divide this small island? On the contrary one strong central government with representatives from all over the island, at one place, making one set of laws applicable all over the entire island is the way forward to unity and most especially towards a developed Sri Lanka. Why are we stupid enough to still listen to the colonialists etc. and try to divide our own homeland in this way, our only homeland in this entire world. What right do we have to deprive future generations of their own homeland which is this entire island as attested by pre-historic finds, and ancient historic finds? Surely future generations will curse us if we do not safeguard our own homeland and bequeath it to future generations intact and in one piece.

A description of the  Development of the ancient Hydraulic Civilization of Sri Lanka is provided below:

Sri Lanka is a classic example of a “hydraulic civilization” which developed during the ancient period. Looking at the ancient history of Anuradhapura, a large settlement appears to have been founded before 900 BC at the site of Anuradhapura where signs of an iron age culture has been found. The size of the settlement was about 15 hectares at that date, but it expanded to 50 ha, to ‘town’ size within a couple of centuries. Three major sites at Anuradhapura have been excavated by the Archaeology Department. From 900BC (early iron age), large quantities of artifacts, which were characterised by the use of iron, high grade pottery and possibly cultivation of rice have been found. This culture developed progressively and expanded into city life by 700 BC.

In 377 BC, King Pandukabhaya (437–367 BC) made Anuradhapura his capital and developed it into a prosperous city. King Pandukabhaya was the founder and first ruler of the Anuradhapura Kingdom.

The earliest chronicles or ancient texts, the Dipavamsa and the Mahavamsa say that the island was inhabited by tribes worshipping Yakkas (demons), Nagas (cobras), Rakshas (demons) and Devas (deities) from pre-historic times, as attested by many archaeological findings. These may refer to totemist iron age autochthones. King Pandukabhaya was therefore tribal and only partly Indo Aryan, there being an Indo Aryan influx around 543 BC into the island.

Anuradhapura was the royal seat of more than 250 Buddhist kings recorded in the royal genealogies, and the pre-eminent city on the island for some 1,400 years. One of the most notable events during the Anuradhapura period was the introduction of Buddhism into the country. A strong alliance existed between King Devanampiya Tissa (250–210 BC) and the Emperor Ashoka of India, who sent Arahat Mahinda thero, son of the Emperor Asoka, to Sri Lanka. King Devanampiya Tissa, guided by the Arahat Mahinda thero, took steps to firmly establish Buddhism in the country.

The Sinhala civilization which emerged in Sri Lanka with the mixing of the indigenous tribes, Yaksha, Naga, Raksha and Deva with an influx of Indo Aryans who migrated around 543 B.C., took root in the dry zone, the rolling plains of the North, North Western and North Central (Rajarata) and the East and the South Eastern (Ruhuna) of ancient Sri Lanka. As the essentially agricultural Sinhala civilization flourished, increasingly ambitious projects of irrigation were launched at a pace with a view to harnessing the monsoonal rains. The irrigation works in ancient Sri Lanka, the earliest dating from about 300 B.C., during the reign of King Pandukabhaya and under continuous development for the next thousand years, were some of the most complex irrigation systems of the ancient world. In addition to constructing underground canals, the Sinhala were among the first to build completely artificial reservoirs to store water. The well-known historical concept of Wewai-Dagabai” (‘the tank’ and ‘the stupa’) i.e. the four essential elements of the Sinhala civilization, a Buddhist stupa, an irrigation reservoir, a village and a Buddhist temple, highlights the historical importance of water and irrigation to the Sinhala civilisation.

The culture in the dry zone villages was based on the concept of Wewai, Dagabai, Gamai, Pansalai” which means the culture is based on the relationship between the components, namely: The Tank, the Stupa, the Hamlet and the Temple” which are common to any village.

Village tanks gained reference in inscriptions, especially during the reigns of King Walagambahu (104 – 77 BC), King Bhathikabhaya (21 – 7 BC) and King Wasabha (67-105 AD), There are reported studies that have been carried out on the historical aspects of small tanks in the country. Some references indicate that these small tank systems have been in existence since the era of BC.

The tanks and related water conveying structures were particularly developed in the dry and intermediate climate zones of Sri Lanka where average annual rainfall varies from 900 to 1800 mm. More than 12,000 operational tanks and reservoirs have been identified within these zones, and a similar number still remains abandoned as stated in Jayasena H.A.H., Chandrajith Rohana, Gangadhara K.R., 2011, Water Management in Ancient Tank Cascade Systems (TCS) in Sri Lanka: Evidence for Systematic Tank Distribution, Journal of the Geological Society of Sri Lanka Vol. 14 Prof. C.B. Dissanayake Felicitation Volume, 27-33.

According to history, in early Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa periods in the dry zone of Sri Lanka, irrigation played a vital role in the nurturing of the Sinhala civilization. The greater part of this region receives a mean annual rainfall of 1,250 to 1,750 mm. In this whole region, which covers about seventy percent of the total land area of the island, only the Northern most peninsula and a stretch of land in the North-Western coastal belt with water-retentive limestone rock-strata afford scope for extensive irrigation by means of wells. Without artificial storage of water, human existence in the North Central Province would have been impossible. In the beginning, there were small-scale village reservoirs with a simple channel system. The North Central Province, although apparently flat, is in reality undulating, and the ancient tank builders took advantage of the nature of the terrain to create strings of tanks in the valleys called the small tank cascade system. The first most irrigation reservoir ever built in the world, the Abhaya Wewa” (Basawakkulama Wewa), built by King Pandukabhaya in the 3rd century B.C, is situated in Anuradhapura. Thereafter, construction of large reservoirs had been started in the 1st century B.C. during the reign of King Wasabha (67 – 111 B.C.). Historical records narrate that King Wasabha built 11 large reservoirs and two irrigation canals.

The finest example of the ingenuity of Sinhalese irrigation engineering is the invention of the “Besi-Kotuwa” (meaning ‘where the water flows down’ in Sinhala) in the 3rd century B.C. The Besi-Kotuwa is the equivalent of the modern day valve-pit or the Sluice Structure, which operates in the regulation of the outward flow of water. This invention allowed the Sinhala to proceed boldly with the construction of vast reservoirs that still rank among the finest and greatest works of its kind in the world. Therefore, from that day onwards, Sri Lankan tank builders developed a remarkable expertise in the controlling of large bodies of water which allowed them to build massive reservoirs. All the reservoirs and canals in an area were inter-connected by an intricate network, so that excess water from one will flow into another. The locations of these constructions indicate that the ancient engineers were aware of geological formations of the sites as well and made effective use of them. Underground conduits have also been constructed to supply water to and from artificial ponds, such as in the Kuttam Pokuna (twin ponds), and the King’s Garden in Anuradhapura.

The dry zone minor irrigation clusters of Sri Lanka were widely considered as one of the unique water conveying and management systems among the ancient civilizations of the world. This is now known as the ‘Tank Cascade System’ (TCS) and has been known to impact irrigation systems in Sri Lanka since the 3rd century BC. The ancient irrigation systems of ancient Sri Lanka consist of an intricate network of small to gigantic reservoirs called tanks connected through a series of feeder canals that brought water for year long rice cultivation to the dry zone. Some have been in operation continuously for more than 2000 years. There were about 30,000 reservoirs in Sri Lanka of which the majority was built from 3rdcentury B.C. to the 12th century AD. This compared to the Sri Lankan dry zone land area of about 40,000 sq. kilometres (where almost all the tanks are located), is almost equivalent to one reservoir for each sq. kilometre.

President Sirisena’s UN pantomime

September 29th, 2018

by  C.A.Chandraprema Courtesy The Island

Before President Maithripala Sirisena went to the UN this time, there was some hype about a pronouncement he was going to make which would get our war heroes ‘off the hook’. What President Sirisena finally ended up saying in Sinhala in NewYork addressing the UN General Assembly was that as an independent country we do not want any foreign power to exert influence on us and that we want to appeal to the international community to give us the room to resolve the problems that we are facing so that the right of the Sri Lankan people to find solutions to their problems is respected. There are many people in this country including this writer who feel that if the foreign powers did that, Sirisena would not be the President today. The US Ambassador in Colombo Michelle Sison was up to her ears in the regime change project in Sri Lanka.

Be that as it may, one has to question whether President Sirisena’s apparent attempt to have Sri Lanka liberated from the very forces that brought him into power was an honest exercise. Firstly, Sri Lanka is not facing any issue in the UN General Assembly or even in the UN Security Council and talking to those bodies is a useless exercise. The UNGA has not passed any resolution against Sri Lanka nor is it expecting Sri Lanka to fulfill any commitments. Even though the UNGA is the body that brings all the UN member states together at the highest level, other bodies like the Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council function independently and a statement made in one body does not influence the other bodies.

Sri Lanka’s issue is with the 48 member UN Human Rights Council which has passed resolutions against Sri Lanka and is expecting us to fulfill certain undertakings and is breathing down our necks. When President Sirisena addresses his appeal to the wrong body we should assume that he does not want anything to come of his appeal but was simply trying to hoodwink the people back in Sri Lanka the way some politicians make dummy phone calls to various people in authority in the presence of gullible constituents which they never expect to be implemented. Very often there would not be anyone listening at the other end either. But the duped constituent would go away with the feeling that his MP had personally spoken to the relevant authorities on his behalf.

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The UNHRC resolutions

The Obama administration in the USA sponsored three resolutions against Sri Lanka in the UN Human Rights Council in 2012, 2013 and 2014. In March 2014, during the last year of the Rajapaksa government, the US sponsored resolution failed to muster a clear majority in the 48 Member UNHRC. The US sponsored resolution received only 23 votes in favour while 12 abstained and 12 voted against it. The entire delegation of one member state had simply disappeared before the vote was taken and so only 47 delegations were present to vote or abstain. On all three occasions when the Obama administration presented resolutions against Sri Lanka, in 2012, 2013 and 2014, the countries that abstained spoke openly in the Council in favour of Sri Lanka and abstained from voting only due to US pressure. The US failed to obtain a clear majority in the Council in 2014 despite having a delegation of about 100 officials from the State Department working on rallying the vote against Sri Lanka.

The 2014 resolution passed only due to a technicality where in the UNHRC, abstentions are not counted and only votes for or against are counted. In Sri Lanka we are used to the requirement that something has to be passed with a majority of the number of representatives including those not present, which means that you have to get more than one half of the total number of representatives in that body. In our country, only the lowest order of legislation can be passed with just a majority of the MPs who may happen to be present in Parliament at the time the vote is taken. In the case of such laws, the only thing that imbues them with legitimacy is the fact that even though they may not have got a clear majority in Parliament, they have been brought by a government that does have a clear majority in Parliament.

In the UNHRC however, there is no government and resoutions should in fact have the requirement that they should be passed with a clear majority to be considered a proper resolution of that body. It was only after the yahapalana government came into power in 2015 that the Obama administration was able to salvage their self respect because their client government in Sri Lanka decided to co-sponsor along with the USA, a resolution against itself. This resolution like the resolution of 2014 which passed only due to a technicality was called “Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka” and was adopted without a vote on October 1, 2015.

The 2015 UNHRC resolution against Sri Lanka which is popularly known as Resolution 30/1 contains the following undertakings which Sri Lanka has accepted by co-sponsoring it. The first thing resolution 30/1 does is to accept the report prepared by the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights on Sri Lanka which accused our armed forces of war crimes and the government undertook to implement the recommendations contained in the OHCHR report. The specific undertakings given were as follows:

1.      To establish a commission for truth, justice, reconciliation and non-recurrence, an office of missing persons and an office for reparations. Each such mechanism was to have the freedom to obtain financial, material and technical assistance from international partners, including the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights.

2.      To establish a judicial mechanism with a special counsel to investigate allegations of violations of human rights with the participation in a Sri Lankan judicial mechanism, including the special counsel’s office, of Commonwealth and other foreign judges, defence lawyers and authorized prosecutors and investigators.

3.      To reform Sri Lanka’s domestic law to ensure that it can implement effectively its own commitments including the trial and punishment of those most responsible for the full range of crimes under the general principles of law recognized by the community of nations relevant to violations of human rights.

4.      To introduce effective security sector reforms to ensure that no scope exists for retention in or recruitment into the security forces of anyone credibly implicated through a fair administrative process in serious crimes involving human rights violations, including members of the security and intelligence units.

5.      To review the Public Security Ordinance Act and to review and repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and to replace it with anti-terrorism legislation in accordance with contemporary international best practices.

6.      To bring about a political settlement by taking the necessary constitutional measures to fulfill its commitments on the devolution of political authority, which is integral to reconciliation and the full enjoyment of human rights by all members of its population; and to ensure that all Provincial Councils are able to operate effectively, in accordance with the Thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka

Absence of a Battaramulla style proclamation

Even though Resolution 30/1 has given undertakings of such a serious nature, President Sirisena has never condemned it in public. One may ask how he can condemn something that was done by his own government. However as he has done exactly that on many occasions and he can always claim that he was not kept informed about what the foreign minister at the time was doing. It was this newspaper that exclusively reported that the Sinhala translation of Resolution 30/1 which was posted on the foreign ministry website at the time had been deliberately doctored to keep out the most harmful parts.

In 1987, it was Prime Minister Premadasa who presented the Provincial Councils Bill in Parliament even though he opposed the Indo Lanka Peace Accord of which the PCs Bill was an integral part. Yet as soon as he became President, he demanded that the Indian troops leave Sri Lanka in what became known as his Battaramulla proclamation. He did not do it diplomatically via the usual channels but at a public meeting.

We have not heard a Battaramulla style proclamation from President Sirisena with regard to UNHRC Resolution 30/1. He has not even sent a diplomatically worded letter to the UN Human Rights Commissioner about it. Indeed he has not even taken the matter up with the UNP even though he has gone on record stating that the UNP destroyed the economy. Why can’t he say publicly that the UNP messed up the UNHRC matter as well? It is a manifest fact that his faction of the SLFP had little or nothing to do with that UNHRC resolution so he can make such a pronouncement with minimal political harm to himself. If he genuinely wants Sri Lanka to be left alone to manage her own affairs, the first thing he should do is to see how Resolution 30/1 can be defanged and removed from the UNHRC agenda.

The main sponsor of this resolution, the USA, is no longer in the UNHRC and they have even cut off funding to that body. When they left the UNHRC, the USA condemned it as a “cesspool of political bias”. The very thing Sri Lanka has been saying for years when the USA was sponsoring resolutions against us in that body and twisting the arms of vulnerable countries to vote against Sri Lanka. The UNHRC was a cesspool that was well liked by the Obama administration.

Since he is still the President, Sirisena should force the UNP to put forward a counter proposal to defang Resolution 30/1 and since there is a question whether the UNP can be trusted to do it properly, he could perhaps replace the UNP foreign minister with one of his own Ministers to see that the job is done properly. We all recall that when UNP minister Arjuna Ranatunga was stalling the privatization of the Hambantota Port, President Sirisena moved him out him and appointed Mahinda Samarasinghe in his place who carried out the privatization of the port.

It may occur to some that Mahinda Samarasinghe may be the ideal candidate to do Sirisen’s bidding as the foreign minister. But there is the suspicion in many quarters that Mahinda Samarasinghe may join the UNP at the next elections, once Sirisena’s time runs out because President Sirisena’s political career will come to an end after the next presidential election. So Samarasinghe may not be the ideal candidate. Be that as it may, President Sirisena should not try to hoodwink the masses by making patriotic noises in the UN General Assembly which does not result in any concrete steps being taken to solve the problems that his government created for Sri Lanka in the UNHRC.

The fact that President Sirisena was engaging in dissimulation was clearly to be seen in the pronouncements he made before members of the Sri Lankan community in New York. While saying that he will not allow any war heroes to be hunted down he said that ‘some’ members of the armed forces have been arrested because they have been implicated in various crimes that had nothing to do with the war. However it is exactly this arrest and incarceration of armed forces personnel for long periods of time that everybody in Sri Lanka refers to as the persecution (dadayama) of the armed forces. Sirisena told the Sri Lankan community in the USA that nobody has been arrested and jailed for having fought against the LTTE.

Persecution of the armed services

It takes only commonsense to realize that if some interested parties want to arrest and jail members of the armed forces, nobody will say that they are going to be arrested because they fought the war. The allegations will always be about murders and abductions and the like. Members of the armed forces will be arrested on suspicion and kept in jail for long periods of time whether there is evidence or not. Later they are released on bail. When sessions of the UNHRC come around there are always a spate of arrests and soldiers are arrested and kept in jail for months on end on the flimsiest of pretexts. This is a matter that Sirirsena himself spoke out against when Admiral Ravi Wijegunaratne the senior most soldier in the country and the serving Chief of Defence Staff was to be arrested.

So when President Sirisena says that nobody has been arrested for fighting the war but people have been arrested on suspicion of other crimes, he is in fact justifying the arrest of those armed forces personnel. When it came to the arrest of the Chief of Defence Staff, the position taken by the President was that if there is evidence against the CDS a case should be filed against him but that he should not be arrested and kept behind bars. One would think that the very least that the President could have done was to make that the general policy when it comes to all armed forces when it comes to any matter dating from the time of the war. The ‘evidence’ that the CID has been presenting to court to have armed forces personnel arrested and jailed has been called into question in many quarters.

One does get the feeling that President Sirisena did not extend the leeway he gave Chief of Defence Staff Ravi Wijegunaratne to all armed forces personnel because this government needs to make exhibition arrests when UNHRC sessions come up in order to keep the foreign masters happy. So what does President Sirisena hope to gain by this dishonest posturing in the UN? At the commencement of his speech in the UN General Assembly, President Sirisena said that formerly, the position of executive President in Sri Lanka had the powers not of a king but an emperor and that he had reduced these powers and given them to Parliament. And that therefore the Sri Lanka of today is not the Sri Lanka of three and a half years ago.

Mercifully, he did not mention the Rajapaksas. When one heard his first few sentences, one expected to hear the name of the Rajapaksas being mentioned. In any event, whether Sri Lanka has a powerful executive or a powerful Parliament is an internal matter in Sri Lanka and not something to be discussed in any forum whether multilateral or bi-lateral. In the UN General Assembly which has been formed as a forum for all the nation states, these internal matters are specifically superfluous. By mentioning such matters in the UN General Assembly, President Sirisena has announced to the whole world that Sri Lanka is a slave state and that the government of Sri Lanka which he heads is a quisling of the West.

Another thing that President Sirisena told the Sri Lankan community in New York is that small countries like Sri Lanka cannot afford to antagonize organizations like the UN. However the UN by itself is powerless and its officials are for the most part paid servants of the West. If any sucking up has to be done it has to be to the paymasters, not to the servants. The most important paymaster is the USA. Up to now, President Sirisena has got two photo opportunities with the present paymaster Donald Trump but little else. If President Sirisena wishes to be the person who got the UNHRC matter swept under the carpet, he should have initiated a dialogue with the present powers that be in the USA. But it does not appear that any move has been made in that direction.

Sri Lanka restricts car imports as currency crashes

September 29th, 2018

Courtesy The Mail on line (UK)

The Sri Lankan rupee has lost more than 10 percent of its value against the US dollar

Sri Lanka announced a raft of restrictions Saturday in a bid to slow down imports of cars and luxury goods as the country faces a foreign exchange shortage.

The finance ministry banned the import of vehicles for all state institutions for one year and said public servants will not be allowed to import cars at concessionary duty rates for six months.

Banks were also ordered to restrict credit to finance the purchase of vehicles, air conditioners, perfumes, mobile phones and TV sets, among other luxury consumer goods.

The Sri Lankan rupee has lost more than 10 percent of its value against the US dollar

The local currency has lost more than 10 percent of its value against the US dollar this year. The dollar, which bought 155 rupees at the start of the year, has appreciated and was buying 170 rupees by Friday.

In August, the government substantially increased taxes on small cars to discourage imports, but officials said there was still pressure on foreign exchange reserves to finance big-ticket imports.

The central bank had warned that car imports had inflated the trade deficit by $700 million year-on-year to $4.9 billion for the first five months of 2018.

Sirisena’s claims on LTTE seen as totally baseless

September 29th, 2018

By Nirmala Joseph Courtesy The Gulf Today

CHENNAI: Informed people have rejected an allegation raised by Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena that the now-defunct Tamil Tiger outfit had planned to attack Colombo with an aircraft flying from Chennai in 2009.

Speaking to the Sri Lankan community in New York where he spoke at the UN General Assembly, Sirisena said, No one knew it better than me.”

Retired Indian military intelligence officer Colonel R. Hariharan was quoted in the local media on Saturday as dubbing the Sirisena claim as fiction. The Chennai airport was fully secured and the Q branch of the Tamil Nadu police was on high alert,” he said.

They would have known had the LTTE hatched such a plan.”

Hariharan now works with the Chennai centre for China studies and the international law and strategic analysis institute.

TR Baalu, prominent leader of the opposition DMK, who was a Union minister during the days Sirisena refers to, said: What he says is totally baseless. How can he say either the Centre or the State government would have allowed our territory to be used to attack any other country?”

There was no such plan of the LTTE, a banned organisation. It is totally false.”

The DMK was in power in 2009.

Sri Lanka expert Prof PS Suryanarayana said, It is wild imagination that the LTTE had plans to attack Colombo from Chennai.”

Sirisena was the acting defence minister during the last two weeks of the civil war with the LTTE in May, 2009, when the Tigers were eliminated.

The former president (Mahinda Rajapaksa) was away, the former prime minister was away. There was no defence ministry Secretary and Army Commander in the country at the time,” Sirisena said, adding that all senior leaders were out of the country fearing an LTTE air raid.

The Tamil Tigers were going to operate an aircraft from Chennai or some other jungle area to bomb and destroy targets in Colombo,” the President said.

Sirisena said it was a well-guarded secret that all senior leaders were out of the country fearing an LTTE air raid. Even I did not stay in Colombo. I was at several locations outside Colombo in case the Tigers attacked the capital city,” he said.

Issuing vehicle permits to MPs and state sector employees suspended

September 29th, 2018

Courtesy Adaderana

The Government announced several temporary measures to be implemented with effect from midnight today (29) to ease the pressure on the Sri Lankan rupee.

Accordingly, the issuing of vehicle permits to Members of Parliament will be suspended for a period of one year while the importation of vehicles for Government Ministries, Departments, Statutory Boards, State own Enterprises will be suspended until further notice.

The importation of vehicle using the concessionary permits issued to entitled State Sector employees will also be suspended for six months. No Letters of Credits will be permitted to be opened based on these permits during this period, the Ministry of Finance said.

Meanwhile the Loan to Value Ratio (LTV) for Hybrid vehicles will be revised from 70:30 to 50:50 basis.

Importers of all vehicles other than buses, lorries and ambulances will have to keep a 200 percent cash margin at the time of opening of the LCs, the statement said.

Further, the requirement of 100 percent cash margin has been imposed for the import of Refrigerators, Air Conditioners, Televisions, Perfumes, Telephones including Mobile phones, washing machines, footwear and tyres.

However, the ministry noted that though these measures will be effective temporarily from Saturday (29), the government will continuously monitor the exchange rate fluctuations and will take appropriate action accordingly”.

පිස්සෙක් කියන මාර්සියෙල් වැඩකාරයෙක්ද මරිසිකාරයෙක්්ද ?

September 29th, 2018

දනුජය අමරකෝන් උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම

අලව්වේ නාමල් කුමාර මහතාගේ නිවෙසේදී අත්අඩංගුවට ගත් ඉන්දියානු ජාතික මාර්සියෙල් තෝමස් කොළඹ අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තු මූලස්ථානයට ගෙන එනු ලබයි. රහස් පොලිසිය ඉන් අනතුරුව සිදු කරනුයේ මෙම පුද්ගලයා රඳවා තබාගනිමින් ප්‍රශ්න කිරීම සඳහා කොළඹ කොටුව මහෙස්ත්‍රාත් ලංකා ජයරත්න මෙනෙවිය වෙතින් රැඳවුම් නියෝගයක් ලබා ගැනීමය. ඒ අනුව ත්‍රස්තවාදය වැළැක්වීමේ පනත යටතේ මාස තුනක කාලයක් ඉන්දියානු ජාතිකයා රඳවා තබා ගනිමින් ප්‍රශ්න කෙරෙනු ඇත.

රහස් පොලිසිය විසින් ප්‍රශ්න කිරීමේ පදනම සකසා ගනු ලැබුවේ තෝමස් නාමල් කුමාර හමුවී ප්‍රථමයෙන් ප්‍රකාශ කළ ‘මට දැනෙනවා ඔබට විවෘත තර්ජනයක් තිබෙනවා’ යන කාරණය මතය.

දැනෙන්නේ කෙසේදැයි අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ නිලධාරීන් ඔහුගෙන් ප්‍රශ්න කර සිටියේය. කුමන හෝ තොරතුරකට අදාළව ඔත්තුවක් නොඑසේ නම් ‘දැනගැනීමක්’ නොමැත්තේ නම් මොහු මේ අය සොයා යන්නේ ඇයි? එවැනි ප්‍රශ්න රාශියකට මැදි වූ අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තු නිලධාරීහු මොහුගෙන් ප්‍රශ්න කිරීම පටන් ගත්හ. ඇතැම් විට පරස්පර විරෝධී ප්‍රකාශයන් සිදුකරන මොහු මෙම පරීක්ෂණය වෙනතක හරවා පරීක්ෂණ කණ්ඩායම නොමඟ හැරීමේ කුමන්ත්‍රණයක නියැළෙන්නේ දැයි යන්න එම නිලධාරීන්ට ඇති වූ තවත් ගැටලුවකි. ඔහුගෙන් කරන ලද කරුණු විමසීමෙන් පසු මේ පුද්ගලයා සම්බන්ධයෙන් රහස් පොලිසිය ඉන්දීය මහ කොමසාරිස් කාර්යාලයෙන් මේ මාර්සියෙල් තෝමස්’ යනු කවරෙක් දැයි විමසා තිබිණි.

‘මාර්සියෙල් තෝමස්’ ඉන්දියාවේ කේරළ ප්‍රාන්තයේ සිට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට පැමිණෙන්නේ සංචාරක වීසා පත්‍රයක් උපයෝගි කර ගනිමින් ඉකුත් 2017 වර්ෂයේ පෙබරවාරි 19 වැනිදා දිනෙකය.

මසක වීසා පත්‍රයකට අනුව මොහු මෙරටට පැමිණෙන්නේ ඉන්දීය ආර්.එස්.එස්. සංවිධානයෙන් (අචඵඩබපඪරච ඉඹචරචථඵඥමචඬ ඉචදඨඩ) තමාට දැඩි ජීවිත තර්ජනයක් ඇතිවීම හේතුවෙන් බව ඔහු රහස් පොලිසියට පවසයි. මෙම ආර්.එස්.එස්. සංවිධානය භාරතීය ජනතා පක්ෂයට සහාය දක්වන සංවිධානයකි.

එම සංවිධානයෙන් තමාට එල්ල වූ ජීවිත තර්ජනය හේතුකොටගෙන ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට පැමිණෙන මොහු මාසයක සංචාරක වීසා කාලය අවසන්වීමෙන් පසු පොලිසියට කට්ටි පනිමින් මෙරට විවිධ ප්‍රදේශවල ජීවත් වන්නේ බෝඩිංකාරයකු පරිද්දෙනි. මොහු අත්අඩංගුවට පත්වන අවස්ථාවේදී රාගම තේවත්ත ප්‍රදේශයේ නිවෙසක කාමරයක් කුලියට ගෙන රුපියල් 2,500ක කුලී දීමනාවක්ද ගෙවමින් සිට ඇත.

කිසිදු රැකියාවක් නොකර මෙරට විවිධ ප්‍රදේශවල ජීවත්වීමට හා කාමර කුලියට ගැනීමට මොහු වෙත මුදල් හදල් ලැබුණේ කෙසේද?

එම පැනයට මොහු පිළිතුරු දෙන්නේ තමා පල්ලිවලට ගොස් මුදල් ඉල්ලා ගන්නා බවයි. හොඳින් දෙමළ භාෂාව මෙන්ම ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවද, යන්තමින් සිංහල භාෂාවද හසුරුවන මොහු බැලූ බැල්මටම පිටරැටියකු බව නොපෙනෙයි.

තම රූපයෙන්ද ප්‍රයෝජනයක් ගැනීමට මොහු සමත්ව ඇත්තේ මේ අයුරිනි. එනම් මෙම තැනැත්තා ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවෙන් ගිණුම්කරණය පන්ති පවත්වා ඇති බවටද මේ වන විට රහස් පොලිසිය තොරතුරු අනාවරණය කරගෙන තිබේ. එක් ශිෂ්‍යයකුගෙන් රුපියල් 4,000ක මාසික දීමනාවක් ලබා ගනිමින් මොහු එම දරුවන්ට ටියුෂන් දී ඇත. දැන් ඒ බව දරුවන්ගේ මවුපියන් රහස් පොලිසියට ප්‍රකාශ පවා ලබාදී තිබේ. දිවයිනේ තැන් තැන්වල ජීවත් වූ මොහු මාස එකහමාරක පමණ කාලයක් බස් නැවතුමකද ජීවත්ව ඇත.

රහස් පොලිසිය මොහු අත්අඩංගුවට ගන්නා අවස්ථාවේදී නවීන පන්නයේ ස්මාර්ට් ජංගම දුරකථනයක් මෙන්ම විශාල මෙමරි පත් සහ පෙන්ඩ්‍රයිව් දෙකක්ද පොලිසිය සිය භාරයට ගෙන ඒවා නඩු භාණ්ඩ වශයෙන් නම් කොට අධිකරණයට ඉදිරිපත් කර තිබිණි. පසුව මෙහි අන්තර්ගත කරුණු සම්බන්ධයෙන් තොරතුරු අනාවරණය කර ගැනීම සඳහා මෙම උපකරණ රජයේ රස පරීක්ෂකවරයා වෙත යවා වාර්තා කැඳවීමට අධිකරණ නියෝග නිකුත් වී ඇත.

ඒ අනුව එළිවන යාමයේ හොඳ හොඳ සෙල්ලම් ඒ උපකරණ තුළින් එළියට එනු ඇත. පරීක්ෂණ කණ්ඩායම් තවදුරටත් මේ තැනැත්තා රඳවා තබාගෙන ප්‍රශ්න කිරීම් සිදුකරන්නේ තවත් සුවිශේෂී සිද්ධියක් අතරතුරදීම වීම විශේෂ කරුණකි. එනම් අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව විසින් මෙම තැනැත්තා සම්බන්ධයෙන් කරුණු විමසමින් ඉන්දීය මහ කොමසාරිස් කාර්යාලයට කළ දැනුම් දීමට අනුව එම කාර්යාලය නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කරමින් මාධ්‍යයට දන්වා තිබුණේ මෙම තැනැත්තා 2000 වර්ෂයේ සිට මානසික රෝගයක් වෙනුවෙන් ප්‍රතිකාර ලබාගන්නා ලද තැනැත්තකු බවයි.

කෙසේ වෙතත් මෙම ඉන්දීය ජාතිකයා ඉකුත් වසරේ මෙරටට පැමිණීමෙන් පසු තමාට සරණාගතභාවය ලබාදෙන ලෙසට ඉල්ලීමක් කර තිබූ බවත් එය තමාට නොලැබුණු රහස් පොලිසියට දන්වා තිබිණි.

කරුණු කාරණා එසේ පෙළගැසෙද්දී මෙම ඉන්දීය ජාතිකයා වරෙක හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා මුණ ගැසීමේ බලාපොරොත්තුවෙන් ගොස් ඇති බවත් එහිදී එතැන සිටි ආරක්ෂක නිලධාරීන් ඔහු හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා ආසන්නයට යෑම වළක්වා ආපසු පිටත් කර ඇති බවත් මොහු ප්‍රකාශ කර තිබූ බව රහස් පොලිසියේ නිලධාරියකු සඳහන් කෙළේය.

එසේම තමන් එහි ගොස් ඇත්තේ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ජීවිත තර්ජන ඇති බවට පැවැසීමට යැයිද මොහු සඳහන් කර ඇත. එහෙත් ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් තෝමස් කිසිදු අවස්ථාවක වගකිවයුතු ආයතනයක් වෙත ගොස් ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ප්‍රකාශයක් ලබා දී නොතිබිණි. එසේම තවත් ප්‍රබල මැති ඇමැතිවරු කිහිප දෙනකුද මුණ ගැසීමට ගොස් ඇති බවට තොරතුරු හෙළි වී ඇතැයිද රහස් පොලිසිය වරෙක සඳහන් කෙළේය. එහෙත් මේ තැනැත්තා එසේ ක්‍රියා කර ඇත්තේ මන්දැයි යන්න සම්බන්ධයෙන් තවමත් ඇත්තේ විස¼දාගත නොහැකි ගැටලුවකි.

අදාළ දේශපාලනඥයන් මෙන්ම නාමල් කුමාර සම්බන්ධයෙන් වුවද වුවමනාවක්, කැක්කුමක් ඇති අය මේ රටේ නොමැතිද? ඒ සඳහා ඉන්දියානුවෙක්ම පෙනී සිටිය යුතුද?

එසේ වී නම් ඔහුට ඇති කැක්කුම කුමක්ද?

රැකියාවක් හෝ වෙනයම් කුමන ප්‍රතිලාභයක් හෝ නොමැතිව මෙරට රැඳී සිටින මෙවැනි ඉන්දීය ජාතිකයකුට අපේ රටේ ප්‍රශ්න හමුවේ උණුවීමක් ඇති වීම ප්‍රශ්නගත කරුණක් නොවන්නේද? එම ගැටලු එසේ තිබියදී ඉන්දියාව කියන්නේ ඔහුට පිස්සු කියාය.

උභතෝකෝටික ප්‍රශ්න ගැටලු මැදින් අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව මොහු රඳවා තබා ගැනීම සිදු කරයි. කෙසේ වුවද අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව මේ තැනැත්තාව රජයේ අධිකරණ වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරිවරයා වෙත යොමු කිරීමෙන් අනතුරුව ඔහුගේ උපදෙස් පරිදි කොළඹ ජාතික රෝහලේ සායන තුනකට යොමු කිරීමට අධිකරණයෙන් නියෝග නිකුත්විණි. ඒ අනුව මොහුට කිසියම් හෝ මානසික ගැටලුවක් හෝ රෝගයක් ඇත්දැයි යන්න පරීක්ෂා කිරීම සඳහා මානසික රෝග විශේෂඥවරයකු හමුවට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට සායනයක් වෙත යොමු කිරීම ඉදිරියේදී සිදුවනු ඇති. පළමුව සිදු කළ යුත්තේද එයයි. එසේම මේ වන විට ඔහුගේ දකුණු අතේ අස්ථි බිඳීමක් සිදුව ඇති බැවින් විකලාංග සායනයක් වෙතද අධික රුධිර පීඩනය සඳහා කායික රෝග සායනය වෙතද ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට පොලිසිය අධිකරණයෙන් අවසර ඉල්ලා සිටියේය. දැන් මොහුට අධික රුධිර පීඩනයද වැලඳී ඇත.

අපේ රටේ ප්‍රශ්න හමුවේ මෙවන් අයට හිත උණුවෙන්නේ නම් ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් වහාම පරීක්ෂා නොකළහොත් අධික රුධිර පීඩනය ඇති වන්නේ අපේ රටේ ජනතාවටය. මෙම පුද්ගලයා අධිකරණයේ නිරීක්ෂණයට ඉදිරිපත් කළ අවස්ථාවේදී මහෙස්ත්‍රාත්වරිය විත්ති කූඩුවේ සිටි ඔහු සමඟ ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවෙශ්‍රී කතා කළාය. ‘තමාට වෙනයම් ප්‍රතිකාරයක් අවශ්‍ය දැයි අධිකරණය විමසූ අවස්ථාවේදී ඔහු සඳහන් කළේ වෙන කිසිවක් අවශ්‍ය නොවන බවයි. එසේම තමා පොලිසිය තුළ රඳවා ප්‍රශ්න කිරීම් සිදු කරනු ලබන බව මහෙස්ත්‍රාත්වරිය ඔහුට පැවැසූ අතර ඔහු විසින් දෑත් එක්කර වැඳ වැටෙමින් එය පිළිගැනීමක් දක්නට ලැබිණි.

අධිකරණයට රැගෙන එන මොහොතේදීත් ඉන් පිටව යන කාලය අතරතුරේදීත් රහස් පොලිස් භාරයේ සිටි මොහු පිස්සකු නොඑසේ නම් කිසියම් මානසික රෝගයකින් පෙළෙන්නකු ලෙසින් දිස්නොවීම විමතියට කරුණකි. බැලූ බැල්මටම එසේ නොවන්නටද පුළුවන. එය තීරණය කළ යුතු වන්නේ විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍යවරයකුමය. එහෙත් එවැන්නකුට ටියුෂන් පන්ති ගුරුවරයකු ලෙස ජීවත් විය හැකිද?

එසේම මොහුට ඉන්දීය ආර්.එස්.එස්.
සංවිධානයෙන් ජීවිත තර්ජන එල්ල වනවා යැයි මොහු පවසන්නේ ඇයි?

කිසිදු කාරණාවක් නොමැතිව කුමන හෝ සංවිධානයකින් ජීවිත තර්ජන වැනි දේවල්’ එල්ල විය හැකිද? ආගමන විගමන පනත උල්ලංඝනය කරමින් මෙරට රැඳී වැරැදි සිදු කරමින් සිටි මොහු සැබැවින්ම කවුරු විය හැකිද? ඒ සියල්ල විස¼දාගත හැකි වන්නේ ඔහු භාවිත කළ ජංගම දුරකථනය සහ අනෙක් උපාංගවල දත්ත සහ තොරතුරු රජයේ රස පරීක්ෂකවරයාගෙන් ලැබුණු පසුවය. එසේම මොහු මානසික රෝගියකුද නොඑසේ නම් කුමන රෝගයකින් පෙළෙන්නේද යන්න සම්බන්ධයෙන් වාර්තා ලද පසු මොහු සැබෑවටම කවරෙක්දැයි හඳුනා ගත හැකි වෙයි.

එතෙක් ‘පිස්සකු’ නොවූ ‘පිස්සෙක්’ යැයි කියන ත්‍රස්තවාදය වැළැක්වීමේ පනත ප්‍රකාරව අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ රඳවා ප්‍රශ්න කිරීම් සිදු කරනු ලබන ‘මාර්සියෙල් තෝමස්’ ගැන අවදියෙන් ඉන්නට අපට සිදුවෙයි.

දනුජය අමරකෝන්

ඉන්දීය ජාතිකයා නාමල් හොයාගෙන කැලේ මැදින් හොර පාරෙන් ආපු හැටි…!

September 29th, 2018

උදේනි සමන් කුමාර උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම

ජනපති ඝාතන කුමන්ත්‍රණයක් සම්බන්ධව දූෂණ විරෝධී බළකායේ නාමල් කුමාර මහතා විසින් සිදු කරන ලද හෙළිදරව්ව පිළිබඳ මේ වන විට අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව පරීක්ෂණ පවත්වමින් සිටී. ඒ අතර නාමල් කුමාර සොයා ඔහුගේ නිවෙසට පැමිණි නන්නාඳුනන ඉන්දීය ජාතිකයකු නිසා සිදු කෙරෙන විමර්ශන නව මුහුණුවරක් ගෙන තිබේ. හදිසියේ පහත් වූ මේ ඉන්දීය ජාතිකයා කවුද? ඔහු නීතියේ රැහැනට හසු වූයේ කෙසේද? මේ පිළිබඳ තොරතුරු සොයා අපි ප්‍රථමයෙන්ම නාමල් කුමාර මහතා හමු වුණෙමු.

නාමල් මේ අද්භූත පුද්ගලයා කවුද? කොහොමද ඔහුගේ පැමිණීම සිදු වෙන්නේ?

මේ පුද්ගලයාගේ නම තෝමස්. ඔහු ඉන්දියාවේ කේරළයේ පදිංචි අයෙක්. පළමුවෙන්ම ආවේ 17 වැනි බදාදා හවස 4.00ට විතර මගෙ ලිපිනය කරඳ, තුල්හිරිය කියලනෙ පත්තරවල ගියේ. ඒ අනුව මෙයා තුල්හිරියෙන් බැහැල ගම් අස්සෙන් තමයි පාර සොයාගෙන ඇවිත් තියෙන්නෙ. එහෙම එද්දී ඔය කැලේ මැදින් තමයි එන්න වෙන්නෙ. එහෙම එද්දි මට ඒ පැත්තෙ අය කෝල් දුන්නා, නාමල් මෙන්න මෙහෙම කෙනෙක් ඔයාව හොයාගෙන එනවා. එයාට හරියට සිංහල කතා කරන්නත් බෑ කියලා.

නාමල් ගෙදරින් අයින් වුණාද?

නැහැ. මම කිව්වා බාධාවක් කරන්න එපා එන්න අරින්න කියලා. පස්සෙ මනුස්සය මෙහාට ආවා. එක පාරටම ගෙට ගත්තෙ නැහැ. මම කාමරේ ඉඳන් බලාගෙන හිටිය. වයිෆ් ගිහින් කතා කළා. ඔහු කිව්වා,
\’මට නාමල්ට කතා කරන්න ඕන නාමල්ගෙ ආරක්ෂාවට තර්ජනයක් තියෙනවා. මම ආවේ ඒ ගැන දැනුවත් කරන්නයි\’ කියලා.

නාමල් මොකද කෙළේ?

මම අර පුද්ගලයා මිදුලෙ ඉද්දි වයිෆ්ට කාමරේට කතා කළා. මම එයාට කිව්වා දැන් උදේ වරකාපොළ පොලිසියේ ඕ.අයි.සී. මහත්තය ඇවිත් ගියානෙ. ඒ මහත්තය කිව්වේ ආරක්ෂාවට මොනව හරි ප්‍රශ්නයක් තියෙනවා නම් ඉක්මනින් දැනුම් දෙන්න කියලනෙ. දැන් ඔයා ඕ.අයි.සී. මහත්තයට කෝල් එකක් අරන් මෙන්න මෙහෙම පුද්ගලයෙක් ගෙදරට ඇවිත් ඉන්නවා මොකද කරන්නෙ කියලා අහන්න කියලා. ඊට පස්සෙ වයිෆ් මේ ගැන කියල මොකද කරන්නෙ කියලා මහත්තයාගෙන් ඇහුවා.

මහත්තයා කියල තිබුණේ ඒ තැනැත්තාට ෆෝන් එක දෙන්න කියලා. ඉතින් මම කාමරේ බලා ඉද්දි වයිෆ් අර කෙනාට ෆෝන් එක දුන්නා.
ඕ.අයි.සී. මහත්තය කතා කරල කියල තියෙන්නෙ, මචං මම නාමල් මගෙ ආරක්ෂාවට පොඩි ප්‍රශ්නයක් තියෙනවා. ඒ නිසා මම මේ වෙලාවෙ ඉන්නෙ වරකපොළ පොලිසියේ. මාව හම්බුවෙන්න ඕන නම් පොලිසියට ඇවිත් මාව හමු වෙයන්. ඕන තරම් වෙලා කතා කරන්න පුළුවන් කියලා.

හරි ඊළඟට මොකද වුණේ?

ඒ පුද්ගලයා පොලිසියට යන විදිය පාර අහගෙන මාව හමුවෙන්න යනවා කියලා වයිෆ්ටත් කියල යන්න ගියා.

මිනිහ වරකා පොළට ගිහිල්ලා අර මට කතා කරපු නොම්මරේට කෝල් එකක් අරන් තියෙනවා. එතකොට ඕ.අයි.සී. මහත්තය කියල තියෙනව හරි පොලිසියට එන්න කියලා.

ඒකටත් උත්තර දීල තියෙනවා. ඔව් මම එනවා කියලා.

ඒත් සෑහෙන වෙලාවක් ගියත් ආවෙ නැති නිසා ඕ.අයි.සී. මහත්තය එයාට කෝල් එකක් අරන් තියෙනවා. එතකොට \’මම බස් එකේ ඉන්නෙ. මම උඹව නිදහස් වෙලාවක ඇවිත් හමුවෙන්නම්\’ කියල ගිහින් තියෙනවා.
ඒ වෙලාවෙම ඕ.අයි.සී. මට කතා කළා.

\’නාමල් මෙතැන ප්‍රශ්නයක් තියෙනවා. ඔයා මේක සී.අයි.ඩී. එකට දන්වන්න\’ කිව්වා. ඊට පස්සේ මම සී.අයි.ඩී. එකට මේ සිදුවීම දැනුම් දුන්නා.

දැන් ඒ වෙනකොටත් මේ නාඳුනන පුද්ගලයා අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමක් සිදු වී නැහැ.

ඔව්. නමුත් මගෙන් විස්තර දුරකථන අංක ලබා ගත්තනෙ. ඒ අනුව පරීක්ෂණ සිදු කරන්න ඇති. ඊට පස්සෙ මට ඒ තැනැත්තා එවපු මැසේජ් එකකුත් මම සී.අයි.ඩීයට යැව්වා. ඊට පස්සෙ මට උපදෙස් දුන්න කොහොම හරි මෙයාට කතා කරල හමුවෙන්න යොදාගන්න කියලා.

නාමල් ඔහුට කතා කළාද?

ඔව්. මම කිව්වා මට උඹව හමුවෙන්න ඕන කියල ඒකට හා කිව්වා. තව ගොඩක් දේ ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවෙන් කිව්වා. මට ඒවා තේරුණේ නැහැ. මම 20 වැනිදා උදේ 10.00ට විතර තමා ඔහුට කතා කළේ. මම හවස වරකපොළ හිටියෙ මෙන්න 3.00ට විතර මට ගෙදරින් කතා කරල කිව්වා මෙන්න අර පුද්ගලයා ගමට ඇවිත් ඉන්නවා කියලා.

මම වරකපොළ පොලිසියෙ ඕ.අයි.සී. මහත්තයටත් කියල ඒ ගමන්ම සී.අයි.ඩී. එකටත් දැනුම් දුන්නා. මෙන්න පුද්ගලයා ඇවිත් ඉන්නවා කියලා. ඒ වෙලාවෙම සී.අයි.ඩී.ය ක්‍රියාත්මක වුණා. ඒ මහත්තුරු එනකන් මෙයාව රඳවාගන්න කියලා මට උපදෙස් දුන්නා. මම 4.00ට විතර වෙද්දී ගෙදරට ආවා.

වරකාපොළ පොලිසියේ නිලධාරීන් ආවද?

ඔව්. දෙදෙනෙක් සිටියා. ඒ අය මෙයා රඳවා ගන්න ඇවිත් ඉන්න බව ඔහු දන්නේ නැහැ. මගේ ආරක්ෂාවට ඇවිත් ඉන්නවා කියලා තමයි ඔහු හිතුවේ.

ඒ පුද්ගලයා නාමල් එනකොට ගෙදරට ඇවිත් සිටියාද?

ඔව්. මේ පුටුවෙ ඉඳගෙන හිටියේ. මම අතන වාඩිවෙලා කතා කරමින් සිටියා.

මොනවද ඔහු කතා කළේ?

ලෝකයේ තිබෙන සූක්ෂ්ම මිනිස් ඝාතන පිළිබඳව ඔහු දීර්ඝ ලෙස විස්තර කළා. රසායනික අවිවලින් මිනිසුන් මරන හැටි. කෙමිකල්ස් යොදා ඝාතන සිදු කරන හැටි. මේ ආකාරයට මෙහෙම සිදුවෙන්න පුළුවන්. මුහුණට කෙමිකල් ස්ප්‍රේ කරන්න පුළුවන්. පාරෙ යද්දී කුඩුකාරයෙක් වගේ ඇවිදින් ඔයාගෙ පර්ස් එක අදින්න හදල ඔයා ගහන්න පනිද්දි බෙල්ලට දැලි පිහියක් අදින්න පුළුවන්. එතකොට පරීක්ෂණ යන්නෙ කුඩු කේස් එකක් විදියට. මේ වගේ ප්‍රශ්න විස්තර කළා. ඔහු කීවේ මේ ඝාතන කුමන්ත්‍රණ හෙළි කිරීම නිසා මගේ ජීවිතයට මෙන්න මේ විදියේ අනතුරු එල්ල වෙන්න පුළුවන් බවයි.

ඔහු සිංහල භාෂාව කතා කළාද?

නැහැ. කැඩිච්ච සිංහල කතා කළේ. ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවෙන් තමයි විස්තර කළේ. අපිට තේරෙන විදියට අපි වටහාගත්තා. මට ඉංග්‍රීසි කතා කරන්න බැහැ. නමුත් මෙයා කියන්නෙ මේකයි කියලා වැටහුණා.

නාමල් එයාගෙන් ඇහුවේ නැද්ද ඇයි ඔයා මට උදවු කරන්න අදහස් කළේ කියලා?

මම ඔහුට ප්‍රශ්න ගොඩක් දැම්මා. ඔහු කිව්වේ, \’මගෙ ඥාතීන් බොහෝ දෙනා ඉන්දියාවේ ප්‍රශ්නවලදී මැරුණා. මම දැන් ලංකාවෙ ඉන්නෙ. ආයෙ ඉන්දියාවට නම් යන්නෙ නෑ. මගෙ අතත් කැඩිල තියෙන්නේ.\’ (කැඩුණු අතත් පෙන්නුවා)

ලංකාවෙ කොහෙද ඉන්නේ කියලා ඇසුවාද?

ඔව්. රාගම ඇනෙක්ස් එකක නැවතී සිටින බවත් ඊට රුපියල් 2,500ක් මාසිකව ගෙවන බවත් කිව්වා. මට එතැනත් සැකයක් ඇති වුණා. රුපියල් 2,500ට රාගම ඉන්න පුළුවන්ද කියලා. අනෙක ඔහු මෙහේ ඉඳන් යාළුවකුට කෝල් එකක් ගත්තා. මම ඒ නොම්බරේ බලාගෙන ඒකට කතා කරලා ඇහුවා.

“මට ඔයාගෙ යාළුවෙක් හමුවුණා. ඔයා කොහොමද මෙයාව හඳුනන්නේ” කියලා. එතකොට ඔහු කීවා මමත් එච්චර හඳුනන්නේ නැහැ. අයි එයාට ප්‍රශ්නයක් ද කියලා තුන් හතර පාරක්ම ඇසුවා. ඇයි, ඇයි, එයාට ප්‍රශ්නයක්ද කියලා නැහැ. කිසිම ප්‍රශ්නයක් නැහැ කියලා මම උත්තර දුන්නා.

\’ඔබතුමා අඳුනනවා කීව නිසා කෝල් එක ගත්තෙ එයා ලංකාවෙ නොවේ ඉන්දියාවේ කෙනෙක් කියනවනෙ ඒක සනාථ කරගන්න කතා කළේ\’ කීවා.

කොළඹින් සී.අයි.ඩී. එක එද්දී රෑ වුණාද?

රෑ 7.30ට විතර වෙනකොට ආවා. මෙයා කියන කරුණු පරස්පර නිසා එක්ක යනවා කියලා ඒ පදනමින් ගෙන ගියා.

ඔහු ඇසුවේ නැද්ද ඇයි ඔහුව ගෙනියන්නේ කියා?

යන්න බෑ කිව්වා. ඒත් වරකපොළ පොලිසියේ යුනිෆෝම් ඇඳපු නිලධාරීන් දෙදෙනෙක් හිටියනෙ. එයාලගෙ සහායෙන් ගෙන ගියා. මගෙන් නිලධාරීන් ඇහුවා මොකද කරන්නේ කියලා. මම කීවා මගෙ ගෙදර මෙයා තියාගන්නත් බෑ. මට තීරණ ගන්නත් බෑ. ඒ වගේම මට එයාව ගෙනියන්න කියල ඔයාලට කියන්නත් බැහැ. නමුත් මොනව හරි ප්‍රශ්නයක් වුණොත් ඔයාල වගකියන්න ඕන. ආරක්ෂාව සම්බන්ධ සම්පූර්ණ වගකීම තියෙන්නෙ ඔයගොල්ලන්ගෙ අතේනෙ. තීරණයක් ගන්න කියලා.

පස්සෙ ඒ පැමිණ සිටි නිලධාරීන් කොළඹට කතා කරලා ශානි අබේසේකර මහත්තයාගෙන් නියෝගයක් ලබා ගෙන තමයි මෙයාව අරගෙන ගියේ. ඉන් එහාට සී.අයි.ඩී. එකේ විමර්ශන ගැන මම වචනයක්වත් අහන්න යන්නෙ නැහැ. ඒක අහන්න සුදුසුත් නැහැ. ඒක ඒගොල්ලන්ගෙ රාජකාරියනෙ. මම හිතනවා ඔහු මා සොයා පැමිණියේ කුමකටද යන්න පිළිබඳවත් සත්‍ය හෙළිවේ යැයි කියලා.

උදේනි සමන් කුමාර


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