By Shivanthi Ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today

Whether we agree or not, Hybrid Courts may be a reality that we have to accept. Obviously, abusive or excessive force, or irregularities cannot be tolerated – even in war. However, the true intention of the proposed hybrid courts comes to question when the Human Rights Council is only interested in specific incidents alleged to have been committed by the Sri Lankan security forces. The terrorists’ role in the war crimes committed systematically and on a mass scale has not come into question. Thus, the military and legal opinion of many respective bodies is that the Hybrid Courts’ objective is to seek revenge while dismantling the national security of the country.

One person who advocates Hybrid Courts’ is Dr. Nihal Jayawickrema. “HRC had not said to investigate the conduct of the war,” he explains. “They have identified certain events and have asked these to be investigated. For example, they have identified the recruitment of child soldiers before and after Karuna Amman defected – that means, after he was made a minister.

“Then, they have identified certain deaths such as the killing of the people who had communicated to the government that they wanted to surrender and the killing of the TV announcer. Then certain deaths that were supposed to have occurred after the war. They also talk of disappearances, which have been reported since early 2000 and of summary executions

Evidence
“Who’s going to investigate these charges? And who’s going to present the evidence to whatever tribunal is established?
“Clearly, they have not been investigated all these years. Police were most probably instructed not to pursue these matters. Now, we ask them to go ahead. I don’t know whether they have the capacity to investigate these offenses that have taken place many years ago.

“Attorney-General’s Department officers regularly went before the HRC and refuted very strongly all claims that crimes against humanity or war crimes were taking place. On disappearances, Mohan Peiris said that to his knowledge Ekneligoda is in some foreign country.
“Now we are expecting the same people to take a completely different line and argue that there is credible evidence that these acts were committed.”

The list of crimes allegedly committed by the military is of isolated incidents. Conversely, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) committed crimes against humanity systematically and on a mass scale. For instance, during the final months, they forcibly held over 300,000 civilians as a human buffer against the advancing Army. Their purpose was to detract the military onslaught and to use the collateral damage as evidence of war crimes.
The military stands accused of shooting and killing two notable terrorists – Balasingham Nadesan and Pulidevan, while surrendering to the military with a white flag. Though the veracity is not established, the charge has earned the opprobrium of the West-led international community. However, the same community is not overtly concerned with the 600 plus Police personnel massacred in 1990 by the LTTE after the then government forced them to surrender.
“Of course, these may amount to war crimes,” agrees Dr. Jayawickrema. “But who are you going to investigate? Who are you going to bring to Court, who are you going to take to trial?”
Separatists organizations
As Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera states, only the separatists organizations’ terrorist arm was destroyed. Its brains and claws are intact and alive in the West. For instance, Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, has functioned as a legal advisor to the LTTE terrorists since 2002. Now as a New York based lawyer, he has represented thousands of LTTE bogus refugees. Since the annihilation of the terrorist arm, he has appointed himself as the PM of the so-called Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam.
“Was Rudrakumaran involved in combat?” asks Dr. Jayawickrema.” In criminal liability, you can’t find a person guilty of a crime unless that person committed an act with the intention of committing that act.”

Can the pro-LTTE sympathizes who raised funds, often forcibly, and provided other vital support to the terrorist and subversive activities back in Sri Lanka be excused on the basis that they were not in the battle grounds? After all, fundraisers knew monies were not raised to build schools or develop agriculture, but to kill civilian men, women and children of all ages, ethnic groups and creed and to wage war against a legitimate government.

Conflicts
“There was a conflict,” states Dr. Jayawickrema. “There are rules governing conflicts. The Geneva Convention applies to domestic conflicts as well. There would have been violations – maybe from both sides. The question is what happens now. Are we going to conduct a general inquiry into the whole conflict?

“The HRC says that certain serious violations of Human Rights and Humanitarian Laws were committed by both sides. So, there must be accountability. Now, as far as what the LTTE did, if you can produce people who were responsible for those acts, I think they must answer for them, but who’s there to do that?
“If those who gave orders to hold 300,000 hostages survived, then they can be held accountable. You have to identify the individuals. You can’t bring a man from Washington or some place and say he must be investigated.
“Normally, in post-conflict criminal proceedings, it is not the foot soldiers who are held accountable. It is the people up the chain of command who gave the orders. That’s the normal practice.
“Now somebody may have given an order that people instructed to carry a white cloth should be killed. Did someone from Colombo give such an order? If not, did some very senior officer on the spot take the decision to kill people who were seeking to surrender? Were the commanders on the ground informed that certain people wanted to surrender? Those are the questions that have arisen.

Accountability
“That’s where accountability comes in. I don’t think it extends to people who raised funds abroad or people who formed so-called governments and so on. Unfortunately, there’s no one surviving in the LTTE. If Prabhakaran was alive, he’ll have to account for thousands of deaths. But, none of those leaders are alive now. You can’t bring a dead person for trial. A person who is brought to trial has a right to defend himself.”

If the victims of terrorists cannot seek justice simply on the basis that the perpetrators did not survive, trying those who ushered in peace and unity to the country, merely because they survived is callous and partial to the terrorists.
After the World War II, it is alleged that over 160,000 German women were sexually assaulted by the Allied forces. Likewise, a catastrophic humanitarian crisis was created when atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, after firebombing hundreds of Japanese towns with absolutely no military significance. Hamburg is Germany’s second largest city. During July 1943, firebombing by the Allied Forces killed 42,600 civilians and wounded 37,000, virtually destroying most of the city.

Chemical warfare
The Vietnam War was a chemical warfare. Its effects, just as in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, remain gruesome to date with high rates of stillborn, deformed children and radiation induced diseases such as cancer.
War crimes committed in Iraq, Afghanistan and the washing-off-hands after the Libyan mess and their current role in Syria shows that the West not only have failed to accept responsibility for their actions, but also refuse to learn from their atrocities.
The ‘New York Times’ makes interesting observations on Barack Obama’s visit as the first American President to the Hiroshima memorial site. Obama notes, “Technological progress without an equivalent progress in human institutions can doom us, such technology requires a moral revolution as well.” Still, despite the victims’ pressure to apologize for the mass scale atrocity, ‘Obama did not apologize, he made clear that Japan, despite a highly advanced culture, was to blame for the war.’

Japan’s deepest wound
“Leaders in both China and South Korea worry that Obama’s visit to Japan’s deepest wound could be taken by the Japanese as an endpoint to their country’s efforts to come to grips with their own wartime atrocities.
“Many historians believe that the bombings on Hiroshima and then Nagasaki, which together took the lives of more than 200,000 people, saved lives since an invasion of the islands would have led to far greater bloodshed.

“A short inscription on the park’s memorial arch reads, in part, “We shall not repeat the evil.” Which evil – the bombing or the conflict itself – and who is to blame are left unsaid. Such failures by the Japanese to acknowledge their own role in the bombings have long bothered the Chinese, Koreans and others who suffered under the empire’s rule. “The Chinese Government suggested that the wartime atrocities committed by Japan on Chinese soil, notably in the city of Nanjing, deserved more attention than the bombing of Hiroshima.”
In Sri Lanka, the scale of atrocities is lower, but the parallelism cannot be denied. The LTTE lost the right to claim any legitimate grievances as reasons for terrorism when they spurned political solutions offered by India in the late 1980s as well as the lucrative ‘package’ offered by President Chandrika Kumaratunga in 2005.
The Japanese WW II record is terrible. So is the conduct of the LTTE during its entire existence. Thus, the war was brought on by the LTTE itself. The United Nations and the West-led international community failed to pressurize the fund raisers and supportive sympathizers in the West to curtail the terrorist activities of the LTTE.
While collateral damage remains a disputed topic, the benefits of ending the war are remarkable.

Specific allegations
Yet, HRC is highlighting only specific allegations, like the so-called white flag case, even after it was retracted by the very person who propagated it. The clear intention is to bring criminal charges against the accused. Hasn’t HRC thereby wittingly or unwittingly taken the LTTE atrocities out of the picture?
These allegations are currently being investigated. It should be, but with due consideration that is sorely lacking presently. Military personnel over the killing of politician and HR lawyer Nadarajah Raviraj, were the first to be detained, followed by the detention of nine military intelligence personnel for the disappearance of Prageeth Ekneligoda. A few months later, one-time hardcore LTTE terrorist Pillayan who ditched terrorism for mainstream politics was arrested over the killing of MP for the Batticaloa District Joseph Pararajasingham. Recently, another intelligence officer was taken in for the killing of Lasantha Wickrematunga.
Interestingly though, the suspect for Wickrematunga’s killing is the sole survivor of the Millennium City fiasco. Separatists have a score to settle with Pillayan for his defection and direct involvement in bringing the terrorist outfit down. Those taken for Ekneligoda’s case were involved in the highly sensitive Operation Double Edge, where terrorists who escaped capture were convinced to work with government forces to prevent a recurrence of terrorism, instead of regrouping. The government has failed to understand the damage caused to the Military Intelligence, which is a country’s first line of defence, by the clumsy investigations. Post-independent Sri Lankan history reveals that successive governments have failed to appreciate the importance of intelligence services, even as the LTTE did. The LTTE provided a vital clue in this regard in the infamous Ceasefire Agreement signed in 2002 when they demanded cessation of such operations. After the war, one-time high-ranking LTTE terrorist, ‘Col’ Thamilini, too mentions in her memoirs the lethal effect military intelligence had on their operations. Yet, even with the benefit of hindsight, the penny has not yet dropped.

ධර්මන් වික්‍රමරත්න

මේ වනවිට වර්තමානයේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා ජනමතය හැඩගැසී ඇත්තේ ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයට වාසිසහගත ලෙසය. ඉකුත්දා පැවති ලක්ෂ සංඛ්‍යාවක් සහභාගිවූ පාද යාත්‍රාවෙන් සිදුවූයේ ආණ්ඩු විරෝධී ව්‍යාපාරයකට අවශ්‍ය සංවිධාන ශක්තිය ගෙන ආ බලවේග කුල්මත් කරන ජනතා ව්‍යාපාරයක් මතුවීමය. මේ වූ කලී වසර 2020න් මෙපිට පවතින රජය පරාජයට පත්කිරීමේ තුරුම්පු සකසන ක්‍රියාවලියකි. පාර්ලිමේන්තුව තුළ වර්තමානයේ තුනෙන් දෙකෙන් වූවද සම්මත වන ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන පනත් කෙටුම්පත් ඉදිරියේදී බලයට පත්වන රජයකට වෙනස් කරන්නට හැකි බැවින් ඒවා එතරම් දුරදිග යන ඒවා නොවේ.

වර්තමාන ආණ්ඩුව එදා ප්‍රේමදාස ආණ්ඩුවටත් වඩා පිරිහීමට ලක්වෙමින් පවතින ආණ්ඩුවකි. ඉකුත්දා බ්‍රිතාන්‍යයේ පැවති ජනමත විචාරණයකදී යුරෝපා සංගමය සිටිය යුතුයැයි ආණ්ඩුව සහ විපක්ෂය එකම මතයක සිටියද මහජනයා යුරෝපා සංගමයෙන් වෙන්විය යුතු බවට තීරණය කෙරිණි. ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේද දැන් සිදුවන්නේ එජාප ආණ්ඩුව සහ ශ්‍රිලනිප නෛතික පාර්ශවය කුමන කරුණු කාරනා ක්‍රියාත්මක කලද සම්මත කලද ඒවා ඔවුන්ගේ පක්ෂවල මතයන් මිස පොදුජනතාවගේ සැබෑ ජන මතයන් නොවන බවය. වර්තමාන ආණ්ඩුවට අවශ්‍යනම් මේ සඳහා වසරකට අධික කාලයක් කල්දමා ඇති පළාත් පාලන පුංචි ඡන්දය පවත්වා ජනමතය උරගා බැලිය හැකිය. එසේ නොකර සීමානිර්ණ කමිටුවට මුවාවී පළාත් පාලන ඡන්දය පැවැත්වීම වර්තමානයේ තවදුරටත් කල්දැමීමෙන් මේ සිදුකරන්නේ වර්තමානයේ ඇති ජනතා විරෝධය හොදහැටි ආණ්ඩුවද අවබෝධ කරගෙන ඇති නිසාය.

ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂය අති සාර්ථක අන්දමින් ඉකුත් මාස කිහිපය තුළ වැඩ සටහන් ගණනාවක් සැලසුම් කළේය. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂගේ මෙහෙයවීමෙන් එම වැඩසටහන් වල අදිසි හස්තය බවට පත්ව සිටියේ බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ ඇතුළු කිහිප දෙනෙකි. ජනතාව දැනුවත් කිරීමේ තෙදින වැඩසටහනක් බදුල්ල දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ ආසන 9 ප්‍රථමයෙන් ආරම්භ කල අතර එය සාර්ථක විය. ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂය වැඩි බරක් යොදා ඇත්තේ තමනට වාසි සහගත තැන් නොව ඉකුත් ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදී සහ මහ මැතිවරණයේදී තමනට අවාසි සහගත තත්ත්වයක් පෙන්නුම් කල දිස්ත්‍රික්කයක් සඳහාය. පාද යාත්‍රාව පැවැත්වූයේ එවැනි දුර්වල දිස්ත්‍රික්කයන් වූ නුවර, කෑගල්ල, ගම්පහ සහ කොළඹ මායිම් කරගෙනය. පාද යාත්‍රාව අවසන් දින පැමිණි කොළඹ දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ මැද කොළඹ සහ උතුරු කොළඹ  වැනි ආසන එජාපයට වාසි සහගත තැන්ය.

ලබන වසර එනම් 2017 සැප්තැම්බර් මස සබරගමු, උතුරු මැද සහ නැගෙනහිර පළාත් සභා නිල කාලය අවසන් වේ. එවිට අනිවාර්යයෙන් ඒ සඳහා පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණ පැවැත්වීමට රජයට සිදුවනු ඇත. එය පළාත් පාලන ඡන්ද මෙන් කල්දැමිය හැකි නොවේ. එම පළාත්හි විශාලතම දිස්ත්‍රික්ක වන අනුරාධපුර සහ රත්නපුර ඇතුළු දිස්ත්‍රික්ක ගණනාවක්ම ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයට දේශපාලනික වශයෙන් අතිශයින් වාසි සහගත ස්ථානයන්ය. ලංකීය දේශපාල ඉතිහාසයේ එජාපයට ප්‍රතිවිරුද්ධව පැවති ශ්‍රිලනිප වර්තමානයේ එහි හුදු වල්ගයක් බවට පත්කරගෙන සිටී. වෙනත් අයුරකින් කියනවානම් ද්විපක්ෂ ක්‍රමය අහෝසි කර ප්‍රධාන පක්ෂයක් සමඟ ශ්‍රිලනිප නෛතික පාර්ශවය එකට ගැටගැසී තිබේ. මෙම විශාල හිඩැස හෙවත් රික්තය පිරවීම ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂය සිදුකරමින් පවතී.

දේශපාලන විරුද්ධවාදීන් දඩයම පාද යාත්‍රාවට පෙර සිට උග්‍රවෙමින් පැවතිනි. පාද යාත්‍රාවට පෙර අත්අඩංගුවට ගත් හිටපු ඇමති බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ සහ ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ මාධ්‍ය ප්‍රකාශක මුසම්මිල්ට දැන් ඇප ලැබී තිබේ. ඇමති බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂට මෙවර චෝදනාව වූයේ රජයේ මුදල්වලින් කෝටි තුනහමාරක වියදමින් නියමිත ටෙන්ඩර් පටිපාටියකට අනුව මිලදී ගත් ඇලුමිනියම් පයිප්ප බට ප්‍රාදේශීය සභා 58කට බෙදාදී ඇති බවකි. පාද යාත්‍රාවේ සංවිධායක කටයුතු අතරතුර රිමාන්ඩ් ගතකල බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ පාද යාත්‍රාව අවසන් වීමෙන් පසු පොලිසියේ විරෝධයකින් තොරව ඇපද ලිහිල් කරමින් ඇප පිට මුදවාහැරීම සිත්ගන්නා සුළුය.

සමෘද්ධි ඇමති එස්. බී දිසානායක ඊයේ පෙරේදා පැවති ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකදී කියා සිටියේ පයිප්ප බට බෙදා දීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඇමති බැසිල්ගෙන් කිසිදු වරදක් සිදු නොවී ඇති බවය. නියමිත ටෙන්ඩර් පටිපාටියෙන් ඒවා මිලදීගෙන අදාළ පළාත් පාලන ආයතන වලට භාරදී ඇති බවද එව් පළාත් පාලන ආයතනය එවා භාරගත් බවට සහතික කර ඇති බවද ඇමති එස්.බී එහිදී කියා සිටියේය. අපවත්වූ ගැටමාන්නේ හේමාලෝක නායක හිමිපාණන්ගේ අවමඟුල් උත්සවය සඳහා පිළියන්දල ප්‍රදේශය සහ ඒ අවට කොඩි සිටුවා තිබුණේ කැස්බෑව සහ හෝමාගම ප්‍රාදේශීය සභාවට අයත් එම කොඩිකනු යොදා ගනිමිනි. වර්තමානයේ සියළුම ප්‍රාදේශීය සභා වාගේ රාජ්‍ය උත්සව සහ ජනතාවගේ වැඩසටහන් සදහා උපයෝගි කර ගන්නේද එම කොඩිකණු බව ප්‍රසිද්ධ රහසකි.

ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ මීලඟ ක්‍රියාමාර්ගයට දැන් සියළු කටයුතු යොදා ඇත. ලබන සැප්තැම්බර් මස ත්‍රිකුණාමලය දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ සහ අම්පාර දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ ජනයා ගෙන් ගෙට ගොස් දැනුවත් කිරිමට ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ ක්‍රියාකාරිකයින් දහස් ගණනක් එම දිස්ත්‍රික්ක දෙකේ සිව් දිනක් ස්ථානගත වනු ඇත. එහි මූලික පියවරක් වශයෙන් අගෝස්තු අවසන් සතියේ ප්‍රාදේශීය දේශපාලන නායකයින් සහ ප්‍රජා නායකයින් හමුවීමට ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ නායකයින් යනු ඇත. එය පෙරලියක් නොව අලුත් ආරම්භයකි.

පර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඊයේ කඩිමුඩියේ ගෙන ආවේ අධිරාජ්‍යවාදීන්ට සහ බෙදුම්වාදීන්ට රට පාවාදෙන පනත් කෙටුම්පතකි. ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ විරෝධය නිසා දැන් එය පියවරක් පසුපසට ගෙන තිබේ. එහෙත් එහි බරපතල අවදානම කිසිසේත් බැහැර කල නොහැකි කරුණකි.

අතුරුදහන්වූ තැනැත්තන් පිළිබඳ කාර්යාලය සම්බන්ධයෙන්වූ පනත් කෙටුම්පත පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඊයේ ඉදිරිපත් කල අවස්ථාවේදී ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂය නියෝජනය කරන සියළු මන්ත්‍රීන් එයට එරෙහිව කළුපටි පැලඳ පැමිණ විරෝධය පළ කලහ. එමෙන්ම පාර්ලිමේන්තුව ආරම්භයේදීම ඇතිවූ උණුසුම් තත්ත්වය හේතුවෙන් එය කල්දමා පක්ෂ නායක රැස්වීමක් කැඳවීමට කථානායකවරයා කටයුතු කරන ලදී. අවසානයේ පනත පස්වරු 2.30ට පාර්ලමේන්තුවේදී සංශෝධන සහිතව සම්මත වූයේ ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ගේ සහභාගිත්වයෙන් තොරවය.

සංශෝධන සහිතව සම්මතවූ මෙම පනත් කෙටුම්පත අතුරුදහන්වූවන් පිළිබඳව සොයා බැලීම සඳහා හෝ අතුරුදහන්වූවන්ගේ පවුල්වලට සහන සැපයීමේ කාර්යයක් නොවේ. අතුරුදහන්වූවන්ට සහන සැපයීමට අවශ්‍යනම් ආණ්ඩුවට පරණගම කොමිසන් සභාවේ වාර්තාවේ තිබූ කරුණු අනුව අතුරුදහන්වූවන්ට සහන සැලසීම, වගකිව යුතු පුද්ගලයින් හදුනාගැනීම සහ නීති මාර්ගයෙන් කටයුතු කල හැකිය. එසේ කරනු වෙනුවට මේ කරන්නට යන්නේ එක්සත් ජාතින්ගේ මානව හිමිකම් කටයුතු ආයතනය නියම කර ඇති ආයතන 3න් එකක් පිහිටුවීමය. එහි සැබෑ පරමාර්ථය නම් පොලිස් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට හෝ නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට හෝ ලබාගත නොහැකි ජාතික ආරක්ෂාවට අදාළ බුද්ධි අංශ‍ තොරතුරු ලබාගෙන රණවිරුවන් රටින් බැහැරවදී අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන ඔවුන්ට විරුද්ධව විදේශීය අධිකරණ මගින් දඬුවම් කිරිමට අවශ්‍ය තොරතුරු ලබාදීමය.

ඉකුත් රජයන් අතුරුදහන්වූවන් සොයා බැලීම සඳහා කොමිසන් සභාවන් ගණනාවක් පත්කරන ලදී. ජනාධිපති චන්ද්‍රිකා කුමාරතුංග ගේ කාලයේ ඒ සඳහා සොයා බැලීමට කොමිසන් සභා 3ක් පිහිටුවනු ලැබූ අතර උතුරු නැගෙනහිර පළාත්වල අතුරුදහන්වූවන් සොයා බැලීමට හිටපු මහාධිකරණ විනිසුරු සුන්දරලිංගම් ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් කොමිසමක් පත්කර තිබිණි.

අතුරුදහන්වූවන්ගේ කාර්යාලය සාමාජිකයන් 7කින් සමන්විතය. සාමාජිකයන් පත්කරනුයේ ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සභාව මගිනි. දැනට සිටින ව්‍යවස්ථා සභාවේ 10දෙනාගෙන් 7 දෙනෙකු අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ සහ කථානායක විසින් පත්කල විපක්ෂ නායක ආර් සම්බන්ධන් නම්කර ඇති අය වේ. ඉන් තිදෙනෙක් මේ රජය බලයට පත්වීම සඳහා කටයුතු කල රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධාන සහ රජයට සම්බන්ධ අය වේ. ඒ අනුව සැබෑ විපක්ෂය නියෝජනය කරන කිසිවෙක් ව්‍යවස්ථා සභාවේ නැත.

මෙම කාර්යාලයේ සේවය සඳහා නිලධාරින් පත්කිරීමේ සහ ඉවත්කිරීමේ බලය ඇත්තේ එහි සාමාජිකයින්ටය. රජයට හෝ රාජ්‍ය සේවා කොමිසන් සභාවට එහි නෛතික බලයක් නැත. විදේශිකයන්ගෙන් අවශ්‍ය තාක්ෂණික සහාය ලබාගත හැකිය. ඒ සඳහා අත්දැකීම් ඇති නමගිය බෙදුම්වාදීන් පවා පත්වීම නොවැලැක්විය හැක්කකි. මෙයට පැමිණිලි අතුරුදහන්වූවන්ගේ පවුල්වල සාමාජිකයින්ට පමණක් නොව දේශීය විදේශීය ඕනෑම සංවිධානයකට වුවද ත්‍රිවිධ හමුදාවට, පොලිසියට සහ ඒවායේ නායකයින්ට සහ සාමාජිකයින්ට එරෙහිව පැමිණිලි කල හැක.

යෝජිත අතුරුදහන්වූවන්ගේ කාර්යාලය මගින් බලය පැවරූ නිශ්චිත නිලධාරියෙකුට අධිකරණය මගින් නිකුත්කල වරෙන්තුවක් නොමැතිව දවසේ ඕනෑම මොහොතකදි කිසිවෙකු රඳවා තබාගෙන ඇතැයි විශ්වාස කරන රටේ ඕනෑම පොලිස් ස්ථානයකට, බන්ධනාගාරයකට, හමුදා කඳවුරකට වැනි ඕනෑම තැනකට ඇතුළුවී විමර්ශනය කිරීමට සහ එහි භාණ්ඩ පරික්ෂා කිරීමට ලේඛනවල පිටපත් ලබාගැනීමටද තොරතුරු ඇතුළත් යැයි විශ්වාස කරන පරිගණක ආදිය රඳවා තබා ගැනීමටද බලයක් ඇත. මානව හිමිකම් සභාවට, අල්ලස් කොමිසමට හෝ කිසිම අධිකරණයකට මෙවැනි බලයක් පවා නැත.

විදේශ ආයතන වලින් කෙලින්ම අරමුදල් ලබාගැනීමේ සහ විදේශ ආයතන සමඟ ගිවිසුම් වලට එලැබීමේ බලයද එයට ඇත. මෙය කාර්යාලයක් වශයෙන් හදුන්වාඇති නමුදු එය ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම විනිශ්චය සභාවකි. පුද්ගලයින් කැඳවීමට, සිතාසි නිකුත් කිරීමට, එයට බලය ඇත. මෙම පනත් කෙටුම්පත රටේ බලපැවැත්වෙන සියළු නීති අභිබවා ක්‍රියාත්මක වීමේ අවධානමක් පවතී. රාජ්‍ය රහස් තොරතුරු හෙළිදරව් කිරීම දඬුවම් ලැබීමේ වරදක් වූවද මේ යටතේ ඒවා හෙළිදරව් කිරීමට සිදුවේ.

මෙවැනි බලතල පොලිසියට, ත්‍රිවිධ හමුදාවට, මානව හිමිකම් කොමිසමට හෝ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට පවා නැත. එසේ සහාය දැක්වීමට අපොහොසත් වීම හෝ ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කිරීම අධිකරණයට අපහස වීමේ චෝදනාවක් සේ සලකා අභියාචනාධිකරණය මගින් දඬුවම් පැවරිය හැකි වරදකි. මෙම කාර්යාලයේ කටයුතු වලට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සාක්ෂි ආඥා පනත බලපවත්වන්නේ නැත. ඒ නිසා ඕනෑම බොරු සාක්ෂියකට හෝ නෛතික වලංගු භාවයක් ලැබෙනු ඇත. ආරක්ෂක අංශවල දෙමළ බෙදුම්වාදය පැරදවීම සඳහා සටන් කල හමුදා නිලධාරින්ට විදේශීය අධිකරණ හමුවේ  යුධ අපරාධ පිළිබඳව මුහුණ දීමට සිදුවන්නේ මෙවැනි සාක්ෂි මතය. අතුරුදහන්වූ පුද්ගලයින් හමුවූ විට ඒ බව වසන් කිරීමට වුවද හැකිවන්නේ අතුරුදහන්ව සිටියයැයි කියන පුද්ගලයා හමුවුවහොත් ඒ පිළිබඳව පවුලේ අයට සහ අදාළ පාර්ශවවලට දැනුම්දෙන්නේ ඔහුගේ කැමැත්ත මත පමණක් වීම හේතුකොටගෙනය.

පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සිදුවන ජනතා විරෝධී ක්‍රියාමාර්ගවලට එරෙහිව විරෝධය පෑම් අවශ්‍යය. නෛතික සටන අවශ්‍ය තැනට එයද පංකාදුය. මහපාරේ සටන අවශ්‍ය තැනට එයද ඕනෑය. අලි මදිවට හරක් කීවා සේ එජාපය සහ ශ්‍රිලනිප නෛතික පාර්ශවය අතර එකගෙයි කෑමද වරදාන සඳහා වසර 5ක් දක්වා දික්කරගෙන ඇත. ආණ්ඩුව හිතන්නේ බලය ඇති නිසා ඕනෑම දෙයක් කල හැකි බවය. ජේ.ආර් ගේ පමණක් නොව ප්‍රේමදාසගේ ආණ්ඩුද සිතුවේ එසේය. රාජආණ්ඩු යුගයේ පවා සම්මත විපක්ෂයක් නොතිබූ බව සැබෑවකි. එහෙත් සැඟවුණු විපක්ෂයක් සැමදා සැමතැනකම විය. මේ සෑම ඓතිහාසික සිද්ධියකින්ම සනාථවූ එක් කරුණක් ඇත. එනම් ජනමතය විපක්ෂය සමඟ වූ කල්හි රජු පරාජය වූ බවය. (The writer is a senior journalist who could be reached at ejournalists@gmail.com OR 011-5234384)

ධර්මන් වික්‍රමරත්න

ejournalists@gmail.com

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග

2004 සුනාමි ව්‍යසනය සිදුවූ සතියේ වෛද්‍ය තිලක් ද සිල්වා මා අමතා දකුණු පළාතේ සුනාමියෙන් අවතැන් වූවන් සඳහා වෛද්‍ය සායනයක් පවත්වන බවත් එයට එක් වන ලෙසටත් මගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටියේය​.

වෛද්‍ය තිලක් ද සිල්වා මීගමුව රෝහලේ සේවය කල අතර පසුව රජයේ සේවයෙන් ඉවත්වී සීදූවේ පුද්ගලික සේවය ආරම්භ කලේය​. සිංහ සමාජයේද සාමාජිකයෙකු වූ වෛද්‍ය තිලක් සමාජ සේවයේද යෙදෙන්නෙකි. මේ නිසා ඔහුගේ ඉල්ලීමට මම එකඟ වූයෙමි.

මෙම සායනය සංවිධානය කර තිබුනේ එයා ලංකා ආයතනය විය​. එසේම සුනාමි අනාතයන්ට බෙදා දීම සඳහා ද්‍රව්‍ය තොගයක්ද විය​. අදාල දිනයේදී අපි එයා ලංකා බස් රථයකින් පිටත් වූයෙමු.

මෙම සායනය පැවැත්වූයේ බටපොල විහාරස්ථානයේය​. බටපොල නන්ද හිමියන් විසින් මෙම සායනය සඳහා උපරිම සහයෝගය ලබා දී තිබුණි.

මෙම සායනයේදී අප සුනාමිය නිසා මානසිකව පරි පීඩනයට පත්වූ පිරිස් වෙත   , වෛද්‍ය ප්‍රතිකාර  මෙන්ම උපදේශනය ලබා දුන්නෙමු. තදබල කාංසාමය ලක්‍ෂණ විශාදය පෙන්වූ පුද්ගලයන් අදාල ප්‍රදේශයේ මානසික රෝග සායනයන්ට යොමු කිරීමට අප පියවර ගත්තෙමු. මේ සායනයේදී තීව‍්‍ර පශ්චාත් වියසන ක්ලමථ අක්‍රමතාවය​ට ලක්වූ කිහිප දෙනෙකුද මම හඳුනා ගත්තෙමි.

දහවල් වන තෙක් ක්‍රමානුකූලව ගිය සායනය ඉන්පසු ජනයාගෙන් පිරී ගියේය​. මෙම සායනයේ ද්‍රව්‍ය ආධාර ලබා දෙන බව ඇසූ සුනාමියට ලක් නොවූ ප්‍රදේශ වල ගැමියන් පවා තොග පිටින් පැමින පෝලිමට එක් වූහ​. අවසානයේදී සත්‍ය සුනාමි අනාතයන් සහ හොර සුනාමි අනාතයන් තෝරා බේරා ගැනීමට බැරි වූයෙන් පෝලිමේ ආ සියල්ලන්ටම බඩු මළු ලබා දෙන ලදි. නමුත් සවසද එක්වූ විශාල ජනයාට බෙදීමට බඩු මළු ඉවර වූ හෙයින් පැන්සල් දෙකක් , ඉරේසරයක් වැනි සැනසිලි තෑගි දීමට සිදු විය​. සමහරෙක් පැය හතර පහ පෝලිමේ සිට පැන්සලක් ලබා ගෙන පිට වූහ​. යැපුම් මානසිකත්වය නිසා මිනිසුන් වෙනස් වන අන්දම මම එදා සහසුද්දයෙන් දුටුවෙමි.

සවස හය හත වන විට විශාල ජනකායක් වෙත සේවය ලබා දුන් වෛද්‍යවරු සිටියේ පාන් කියා ගන්නටවත් බැරුවය​. ඉන්පසු බටපොල නන්ද හිමියන් අපට තේ බීම සඳහා ආරාධනා කළහ​. තේ මේසයේ ඉස්තරම් කළුදොදොල් , කැවුම් , ආස්මි , අතිරස වැනි කැවිලි වූයෙන් අපගේ වෙහෙසද අමතකව ගියේය​. තේ පානයෙන් පසු ඉතිරිව සිටි පිරිසද බලා අප රාත්‍රී නවයට පමණ කොලඹ බලා පිටත් වූයෙමු.

මෙම සායනයෙන් පසුව සුනාමි ව්‍යසනය නිසා  පශ්චාත් වියසන ක්ලමථ අක්‍රමතාවයට  සහ  විශාදයට ලක්වූ පුද්ගලයන් වෙත EMDR  මනෝ ප්‍රතිකාර ලබා දීමට ඇමරිකා එක්සත් ජනපදයේ සිට මනෝ විද්‍යාඥ නැන්සි එරෙබෝ සහ මනෝ විද්‍යාඥ ජොනතන් බෘක්ස් පැමිනියහ​. මම ඔවුන් සමග එක්වී මෙකී වින් දිතයන්ට  EMDR මනෝ ප්‍රතිකාරයෙන් සහාය වූයෙමි. මෙම සායනයට එවකට   සෞඛ්‍යය අමාත්‍යාංශයේ   සිටි මානසික සෞඛ්‍යය අධ්‍යක්‍ෂකවරිය මෙන්ම ප්‍රදේශයේ සෞඛ්‍යය වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරීනියද සහයෝගය ලබා දීම විශාල පහසුවක් විය​.

පසු විපරම් වලදී පෙනී ගියේ EMDR මනෝ ප්‍රතිකාර ලැබූ මෙම රෝගීන් ගේ මානසික රෝගී ලක්‍ෂණ ඌනනය වූ බවය​. පසුව මෙම අත්දැකීම් අලලා මම උතුරු ඇමරිකානු මානසික සෞඛ්‍යය ජර්නලයකට පරියේෂණ පත්‍රිකාවක් ද ලිව්වෙමි.

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Just as much as the road discipline in in a disarray, I had an interesting episode at the Maganaguma Office where Road Development Authority is based along Denzil Kobbakaduwa Mawatha in Kotte .

I have problem of getting RDA to evict some unauthorised encroachers along Galle Matara Road at Magalle  near the harbour ,blocking access to our project land where we ae in the process of establishing a ship building and repair project  . I have been trying for the last two years to get RDA to take legal action to evict the encroachers .Occupants of the dilapidated wooden shacks and one with permanent brick   walls are not the actual claimants but some traders renting the premises .Government Survey department was going to charge exorbitant cots for resurvey and mark the boundaries of the reservation,I opted to pay for the cost and it was carried out and boundary stones were placed .

Then RDA chief engineer requested legal department based in Maganaguma  to initiate legal action and  nothing happened for the last two years .

I have written many letters and took the matter at EODB ( I call it Ease Of (not) Doing Business) and Hon Finance Minister requested RDA to take action .

The matter was taken up three four times at EODB and I noted that it was going nowhere along this Road  of action  ,I decided to meet Legal Officer in RDA and inquire ,

I went to the grandiose building at sharp 8.55 am and approached the reception manned ( actually womened!” by two lasses with heavy makeup sitting and chatting .I approached them and asked for help and inquired which floor a particular director is located .They did not bother to look for his location in the Telephone Directory  and call him on my request ,but told me that they have instructions from somewhere not to bother anyone until 9 am

I was little taken up with  the way they confronted me and I pretended that I am also a boss of a state organization ( though I am running a private sector organization and I was a chairman of  a state corporation one time) and asked them who gave the instructions .

They were little irked and did not respond well ,but by looking at me furious face they came out and said that they cannot do much as the bosses will not like if they call !

Well, I asked someone passing by and went to director concerned and found that fellow has retired just few days back!

So I went to Legal division on my own, fearing that I will be told off for interfering in  their moring errands ( may be brushing their teeth ,taking morning wash and having sumptuous breakfast in a super canteen provding Hoppers and other heavy meals on second floor) ) found that the lady is actually locked up in her  room having her breakfast .

I did not disturb, waited in the lobby and she was walking our to drop her food pack remains and I manged to catch her .

Luckily another Director whom I knew has contacted her and advised her to help me .She contacted the Chief Engineer in Galle RDA who was passing the buck back to RDA head office, claiming that all the papers were sent back  few months back for action by legal division

They had no clue and promised to take action asap .

I have few complaints and suggestions

• RDA Director General should advise all the Top people in the organization to come at 8 30 am and do their morning errands before 9 am
• Reception should be advised to be more helpful and polite to guide visitors
• Progress meetings should be held by heads of divisions to check progress of public complaints
• Finally ,Hon minister who appointed 60 consultants may be used to improve public relationship and efficiency of RDA
• Buddhist Monk, purportedly appointed to RDA as a Consultant can be asked to give sermons to officers not to generate bad karma by Not Discharging their duties diligently ,thus avoid any cheating of the Public

I wish that RDA is blessed with Triple Gems or God saves  RDA

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

N.A.de S.Amaratunga Courtesy The Island

August 12, 2016, 8:18 pm

Both heads of ‘yahapalanaya’ say that nothing can stop them from going on merrily for five years until 2020, although the two heads are pulling in two directions and the two tails try to wag each other and sometimes their heads. In 2014 we had a government with one powerful head and one powerless tail, but it was doing alright as it had managed to eliminate totally the terrorism that had plagued the country for three decades overcoming huge obstacles local and foreign, a feat no other government in the world, including world powers, had been able to do in their own countries or in somebody else’s country. And then that all powerful head had launched a massive development project that took the country into the fast track of growth with all economic parameters showing positive values. Roads, electricity and water visibly reached the four corners of the country. New harbours and redundant airports were built disregarding all opposition within and without. Unemployment, inflation, GDP, foreign exchange reserves, foreign debt/GDP ratio etc., improved. Corruption and nepotism, however, as always, were rampant but things were better than what we have now.

What do we have now? There is rampant corruption and nepotism but no development whatsoever. Corruption + Nepotism + Massive Development have to be better than Corruption + Nepotism + Zero Development. The present government bent backwards trying to please the West expecting them to solve all its problems, going to the extent of betraying the country by co-sponsoring a UNHRC resolution that is inimical to the sovereignty of the country, and worse than the betrayal of the country to the colonialists in 1815. The West has taken our country in its grip without giving us a cent except promises with strings attached, and IMF assistance with impossible conditions. Thus the economy is in the doldrums, development projects started by the previous head had been stopped by either or both present heads or tails. No foreign direct investments are coming in, unemployment is rising, people are being burdened with heavy taxes, cost of living is rising, the share market lethargic and what is worse is that this government of two heads and two tails cannot take a clear cut decision on any vital issue.

Take for example the VAT issue. They could not get it through as they had disregarded procedural requirements. Moreover, the government is uncertain about every aspect of taxation, though they are cash strapped. Minister Dilan Perera says people should be taxed the way bees extract nectar without hurting the flower and that is how the SLFP taxes the people, whereas the UNP bludgeons the people with taxes! Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe seems to have an opposition both inside and outside! Tax policy is vital for any government and more so for a government that is almost bankrupt. If this government is divided along party lines regarding this vital issue, how could the people have any confidence that they have put in place a reliable government which could look after them until the year 2020? What more monumental blunders would this divided government commit before its tenure ends? The waste is equally bad, the Ministry of Agriculture has rented a building unnecessarily for Rs.20 million a month. Gen. Sarath Fonseka’s ministry has asked for a vote beyond imagination. Luxury vehicles for MPs would cost the taxpayer dearly. Is VAT being increased to meet these wasteful expenditures?

All this goes to prove the inherent difference between the UNP and the SLFP. People of this country formed the SLFP in order to safeguard themselves against the policies of the UNP, which were subservient to the colonialists who had placed the UNP in power to serve their interests. These imperialist powers have again succeeded in helping the UNP to come back to power as the SLFP was protecting the people and their sovereignty, and not allowing the West to destabilize the country and take control of it to further their imperialist agenda. And the UNP obligingly follows the dictates of the imperialists to the detriment of the security, economy, constitution and sovereignty of the country. It has antagonised our friends who had stood by us through thick and thin without asking anything in return, except space for heavy investment which has helped the country to achieve rapid development. It has made friends, due to whom we don’t need enemies. This inherent contradiction of the coalition partners would make it virtually impossible to run the government. A set of policies agreeable to one partner would not be so to the other.

This is the main reason why the Government has not been able to attract foreign investment, why the share market is sluggish, and not even ever willing China is interested. Sri Lanka has been given a low rating by the international investment and credit worthiness monitors such as Fitch. All these negative outcomes reflect on the dichotomous nature of the governing body, which does not seem to know where it is going. Can the country afford five years of such confused, deranged, bungling “Yahapalanaya”?

N.A.de S.Amaratunga

By Neville Ladduwahetty Courtesy The Island

August 11, 2016, 9:26 pm

The first article under the above title published in The Island on July 26, 2016 referred to the failures of the United Nations and its systems to prevent, and when started, to stop the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. The report of the Independent Inquiry appointed by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, into the actions of the United Nations in Rwanda, states:

“The international community did not prevent the genocide, nor did it stop the killing once the genocide had begun. The failure has left wounds within Rwanda society and in the relationship between Rwanda and the international community, in particular the United Nations. The failure by the United Nations to prevent and subsequently, to stop the genocide in Rwanda was a failure by the United Nations system as a whole”.

The first article also quoted from the report of an internal panel appointed by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, to review the conduct of the UN in Sri Lanka. The panel headed by Charles Petrie states:

Some of the graves of the victims of Rwandan genocide

“…the Panel’s report concludes that events in Sri Lanka mark a great failure of the UN to adequately respond to early warnings and to the evolving situations during the final stages of the conflict and its aftermath, to the detriment of hundreds of thousands of civilians and in contradiction with the principles and responsibilities of the UN. The elements of what was a systemic failure can be distilled into the following: (i) a UN system that lacked an adequate and shared sense of responsibility for human rights violations; (ii) an incoherent internal UN crisis-management structure which failed to conceive and execute a coherent strategy in response to early warnings and subsequent international human rights and humanitarian law violations against civilians…(iv) a model for UN action in the field that was designed for development rather than conflict responses; (v) the most senior position in the field graded at D1seniority that was below the heavy responsibilities required for the position and a corps of senior staff that did not sufficiently include the armed conflict, political, human rights and international humanitarian law and related management experience to deal with the challenge Sri Lanka presented, who were given insufficient support (vi) inadequate political support from Member States as a whole, notwithstanding bilateral efforts from all regions, and inadequate effort by the Secretariat to build such support.”

The UN Systems that operated during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda was the Human Rights Commission. The UN system that operated in 2009 when the LTTE took nearly 350,000 civilians hostage during the final stages of Sri Lanka’s separatist armed conflict was the Human Rights Council that was setup in 2006. The findings cited above by the Independent Inquiry on Rwanda and internal panel on the conduct of the UN in Sri Lanka both conclude that the failure of the UN to fulfill its principles and responsibilities caused the death of over 800,000 in Rwanda and thousands of civilians in Sri Lanka.

FAILURE of the UN in SOUTH SUDAN

The most recent failure of the UN and its systems is in South Sudan. Cited below are extracts from an article by Kevin Sieffin The Washington Post of August 7, 2016, titled “WHERE WILL WE RUN THIS TIME”? The article describes the plight of the civilians as a result of the abject failure of the UN and its systems despite their mandate to “Contribute, through dialogue and cooperation, towards the prevention of human rights violations and respond promptly to human rights emergencies” (Article 5 (f). The Washington Post article states:

“The United Nations operates 16 peacekeeping missions around the world, many of which exist primarily to protect vulnerable civilians. That mandate was reinforced after the genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia in themid – 1990s occurred as outnumbered U.N. peacekeeping forces stood by”.

“But 20 years later, the United Nations is once again facing sharp criticism for failing to protect civilians, this time in South Sudan, where 160,000 people are living in camps….For civilians in the camp, it was like trying to escape from a prison set aflame, the barbed-wire fences penning in wailing mothers and children with swarms of gunmen”.

Mayik eventually managed to flee through a large metal barrier, known as Charlie Gate, into the U.N. staff compound next door, which was protected by additional layers of razor wire… “The camp isn’t safe” said an old woman. Finally Mayik approached Charlie Gate. And then she saw it: a backhoe piling green sand-filled blast barriers, one on top of another, in front of the gate. The United Nations was sealing off the entrance”.

“Where will we run this time?” Mayik asked, her voice cracking as the machine rumbled on”.

“The U.N. mission, known as UNMISS, said it would shelter anyone fleeing from the violence, and it created six makeshift tent cities in late 2013 and early 2014. It was the right thing to do, the U.N. peacekeeping chief, HerveLadsous, would later tell reporters… Over time, the camps became so neglected – its latrines overflowing, its food in near-perpetual shortage – that it failed to meet the minimum humanitarian standards governing the world’s refugee and displacement camps”.

“The women saw how peacekeepers ran from the fighting or refused to use their weapons. “What will the internationals do to protect us this time” asked one woman”.

“It’s the U.N. now who can protect us”, she said firmly. “Last time they said they weren’t ready. This time they have to be”.

“The United Nations, in an internal investigation, would eventually conclude that peacekeeping failed in Malakal through a “combination of inaction, abandonment of post and refusal to engage””.

CONCLUSION

The cry of the desperate and forgotten civilians in South Sudan is “WHERE WILL WE RUN THIS TIME?” The United Nations is deaf to this cry. This not the first time civilians trapped in internal armed conflicts had looked to the UN for protection. But the UN will plod along collecting a trophy of failures. It will never admit its incapabilityto meet these challenges, despite statements from past UN Secretary Generals such as Boutros Ghaliwho stated: “the tragedy that provoked UNPROFOR’s involvement (in Bosnia) remains an affront to the world’s conscience. Abstention is not an acceptable option for the international community at such a time”.

The present UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon “abstained” from going to Sri Lanka in January 2009 and using his international influence to prevail on the LTTE to release the nearly 350,000 civilians the group had taken hostage during the separatist armed conflict. Had he done so, many lives would have been saved. For this he has to be held accountable. Instead, he went one week after the fighting was over and wanted the Sri Lankan Government to initiate an accountability process. The UN is sure to follow the same procedure after it fails to prevent human rights violations in South Sudan.

The Washington Post article cited above covers the tragic situation in South Sudan. What must be realized is that South Sudan is only one of 16 peace keeping missions the U.N. operates around the world. No one knows the situation in the other 15 operations. It cannot be any different. The question is when will the UN admit that it does not have the capacity to fulfill the mandate granted by the General Assembly? Holding Member States such as Sri Lanka or South Sudan down the road accountable for human rights tragedies is not the answer. As Mayki in South Sudan said: “We need a way out”.

The “way out” should be for the UN to abandon its practice of passing resolutions to hold Member States accountable for human rights violations during and following conflicts, until the UN is in a position to set in place practices and demonstrate that it has the ability to protect and prevent violations from being committed. The fact that the UN failed in Rwanda and in Sri Lanka and keeps on failing in South Sudan means that there is an urgent need for a new way out.

That new way should be for the General Assembly to appoint an Independent Panel of Inquiry to inquire into the workings of the UN in the other 15 peace keeping operations the UN is engaged in, after which a fresh approach should be developed to protect and preventhuman rights violations to civilians in zones of conflict. Until then, all activities associated with ongoing accountability exercises such as in Sri Lanka should cease becauseof failure on the part of the UN to prevent the civilians from being taken hostage by the LTTE and their use as a human shield makes the UN a party directly associated with the accountability process.

The issue of accountability finally boils down to who is more responsible:

Is it the party that fails to prevent violations from happening, or those responsible for what follows? If the accountability process in Sri Lanka proceeds as intended, an objective evaluation by an inquiring bodywould no doubt acknowledge the culpability of the UN for its many failures both during and after the conflict was concluded.

By Saman Indrajith Courtesy The Island

State Minister Sujeewa Senasinghe’s conduct in the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) came under severe criticism from his fellow COPE members yesterday evening for his attempt to intimidate and threaten witnesses of the controversial Central Bank bond issue, a senior COPE member told The Island.

The state minister threatened and tried to extract information in a manner harmful to the ongoing COPE investigation on former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran’s involvement in bond scam when the senior most staff members of the Central Bank including its incumbent Governor and all Deputy Governors had been summoned before the parliament watchdog committee last evening.

Content of a report by the Auditor General on controversial bond issue was taken for the discussion at yesterday’s meeting.

The senior member said that there was clear evidence to prove that the UNP members in the COPE were trying to delay the process by making suggestions including resummoning some of the witnesses and re-examining the submissions they had already made before the COPE.

To counter the UNP plan, the COPE leadership suggested that they have a roadmap with regard to the investigation of Central Bank bond issue. As the majority of the committee agreed to the suggestion a date (Aug 23) had been fixed for the task, senior COPE member said.

Minister Senasinghe, who was included in the COPE recently (since July 08) had no ethical background to involve in the investigation against former Central Bank governor Mahendran for the minister had gone before courts and published a book to clear Mahendran’s name, the COPE members pointed out.

Minister Senasinghe was warned, reprimanded for his conduct and told not to repeat similar conduct again jeopardising the committee’s progress in investigations, the senior COPE member said.

Among those attended yesterday’s meeting chaired by JVP MP Sunil Handunnetti were COPE members Ajith P Perera, Wasantha Aluvihare, Chandrasiri Gajadheera, Dayasiri Jayasekera, Bimal Ratnayake, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Sujeewa Senasinghe, Hector Appuhamy, Ashok Abeysinghe, Harshana Rajakaruna, Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa and Weerakumara Dissanayake.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

– See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/114000/OMP-Bill-will-be-nullified-under-JO-Govt-Dinesh#sthash.jnq9eYFD.dpuf

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

August 9, 2016, 9:58 pm
Reiterating its strong opposition to controversial VAT Amendment Bill, the Joint Opposition (JO) yesterday urged those who had been elected on the UPFA ticket at the last parliamentary polls to quit the UNP-led government without further delay.

Gampaha District MP and JO convenor Prasanna Ranatunga told The Island that the grouping wouldn’t be demoralized by recent suspension of UPFA Puttalam District MP Sanath Nishantha for being publicly critical of President Maithripala Sirisena.

The MP emphasized that the JO campaign intended to oust what he called a treacherous coalition government was on track. Of the 95 member UPFA parliamentary group, the JO consisted of about 50.

Responding to another query, MP Ranatunga pointed out that the Supreme Court had provided immediate relief to consumers struggling to make ends meet consequent to petition filed by JO member and leader of National Freedom Front (NFF) Wimal Weerawansa.

Commenting on Special Assignment Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama’s recent declaration that the SLFP/UPFA group in the government would vote for the VAT Amendment Bill, MP Ranatunga alleged that those loyal to President Maithripala Sirisena, too, were sharply divided over the group’s stand.

MP Ranatunga pointed out that SLFP spokesperson and State Highways Minister Dilan Perera had publicly contradicted Dr. Amunugama’s claim.

MP Ranatunga said that the SLFP couldn’t be allowed to be used to prop up the UNP led administration.

Addressing a group of JO activists at his residence at Udugampola, Gampaha, yesterday morning, MP Ranatinga alleged that ‘blue elephants’ had made a desperate bid to deceive the public on the basis VAT Amendment Bill would be amended. The SLFPer alleged blue elephants had been greedy for perks and privileges and therefore clung to ministerial portfolios at the expense of both SLFP as well as public interests.

MR Ranatunga said that as people couldn’t bear the proposed sharp increase in VAT, the SLFP/UPFA group shouldn’t in anyway strengthen the government.

MP Ranatunga warned that as the main partner of the UNP-led coalition, the SLFP would eventually would have to take responsibility for ruining the country. MP Ranatunga regretted that the integrity of the party had been severely damaged due to the failure on the part of the SLFP leadership to comprehend ground realities.

The SLFP couldn’t move forward by propping up the UNP, MP Ranatunga said, drawing the attention of the current leadership to the fact that the party never received a mandate at the last parliamentary polls to go for a coalition.

Commenting on post-war ongoing national reconciliation efforts, MR Ranatunga accused the government of facilitating project to divide the country on ethnic lines. Western powers, pro-LTTE Diaspora and an influential section of the NGO community had been pursuing an agenda severely inimical to Sri Lanka. Alleging that the government had been indirectly backing the eelam project, the JO spokesperson said that the Constitution couldn’t be amended to appease the Northern and Eastern Provinces. The SLFPer stressed that Western powers, pro-LTTE Tamil Diaspora as well as the NGO community couldn’t be permitted to intervene in the constitutional making process.

Speaking in his capacity as former Chief Minister of the Western Province, Ranatunga said that police and land powers shouldn’t be given to Provincial Councils under any circumstances. MP Ranatunga said that since President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s defeat at January 2015 presidential polls, the separatist project had received a tremendous boost. Acknowledging that Provincial Councils should be allowed to exercise administrative powers at a certain level, MP Ranatunga emphasized Provincial Councils should work in harmony with the government.

MP Ranatunga alleged that the yahapalana administration had imposed restrictions on the armed forces deployed in the Northern Province, released LTTE terrorists, imprisoned members of the military, including those assigned to the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) and basically undermined national security.

The Gampaha District MP said that the government should take up responsibility for the rapid deterioration of national security. The MP warned of dire consequences if the eelam project succeeded. The JO heavyweight said that such a situation couldn’t never be reversed though various acts introduced in parliament could be abolished.

MP Ranatunga alleged that the SLFP knowingly or unknowingly contributing to war winning Sri Lanka’s downfall.

H. L. D. Mahindapala

I am neither surprised, nor overly worried about the Tamil students of the Jaffna University beating the Sinhala students. Intermittent inter-ethnic conflicts in various locations have occurred in the past and will continue to happen in the foreseeable future which is, hopefully, transiting from Nandikadal to a more rational and settled period of race relations. Of course, it all depends on whether the current indicators, which are seminal, would turn into a consolidated and  irreversible trend.

What is disconcerting, however, is the fact that the violence of the Jaffna students had taken place at a time when the usual litany of complaints, starting from  1956” to 1983”, have receded into the depths of healing time. The unwanted violence unleashed by the Tamil undergrads had exploded just when the political climate has begun to change, though tardily, to ease tensions and resolve issues within the framework established under the Yahapalanaya regime – a regime, mark you, enthroned by the Tamils, the Muslims and the NGOs and their masters in West. This makes any Tamil violence counter-productive. They will be putting their own security and future at risk if they revert to violence again. Besides, at a time when the international community is ganging up against terrorist violence as never before – and the violent Tamils are still on the  international list of terrorists – any violence raising its menacing  head in Jaffna will have a hard time in convincing the world that they are  the victims of a democratically elected state allied to the West.

In the latest outburst  of  violence there is some consolation in the fact that the Tamil student leader was caught by the cameras wielding only a solid piece of wood and not a kalashnikov. There were also heartening and  spontaneous efforts made from  both sides to douse the flames of wrath. In a calculated move the state has played down the import of violence which is commendable. However, in dismissing the campus  rumpus as another one of  those passing events, it should not be forgotten that the violence has its roots in the indigenous Tamil political culture to exclude non-Tamils from the Jaffna.  The campus violence cannot be dismissed as a sporadic outburst of some misguided students. What took place in Jaffna campus is a part of the political culture that has dominated Jaffna in the post-independent era.

In many ways this incident fits into the Jaffna-centric violence driven by their political obsession to preserve Jaffna as the exclusive domain of the Tamils. It is another episode in the recurring criminal  chain of ethnic cleansing to keep the Muslims and the Sinhalese out of Jaffna. It is the latest manifestation of the Tamil propensity for mono-ethnic politics. It is also a micro-mini replay of the Vadukoddai violence that was aimed at carving out a racist state for Tamils only. In fact, the  language used to excuse Tamil violence in the Jaffna campus echoes the Vadukoddian slogans of demographic colonisation”,  the primacy of Buddhism”, cultural invasions and even the vamsa chronicles”, etc. Recycling the Vadukoddai slogans is another way of reviving the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist racism that dragged Jaffna all the way to Nandikadal.

The overwhelming  post-Independent streak of Jaffna reveals that the  North has lived ONLY (emphasis is mine) by the sword of anti-Sinhala-Buddhist racism. There was no space either in the feudal fascist-casteist (Vellahla) phase, or in its morphed manifestation of fascist—Prabhakaranist tyranny – the only two dynamics that dominated Jaffna — for liberal, democratic, socialist or humanistic politics. The closed society of Jaffna resisted the liberal and pluralistic winds of change that swept the south. Behind the ubiquitous cadjan curtain there was space only for authoritarian cults of fascist casteism or fascist Prabhakaranism. Both cults ruled Jaffna with an iron fist, denying the hapless Jaffna Tamils even the right to walk in the sun. The arrogant leadership of Jaffna always assumed that they knew what was best for their people and led them by their noses to Nandikadal. In the end the leadership of both cults paid with their lives for their arrogance and folly.

There is no one else to blame except the narrow-minded, short-sighted but cocky leaders of Jaffna who overestimated their power and, consequently misled  themselves and the people, missing the  best opportunities of power sharing that came their way, with international guarantees. When the end came they had no one else to blame except their own arrogance and stupidity. With no one else to blame in the last days the Tamil leadership turned on the Tamils. They blamed the Tamils who were deserting  them in droves and running into the shelters provided by the vilified Armed forces. The immorality of Tamils killing Tamils, even when they were fleeing in the hope of finding safer alternatives, reflects the ruthless and obscene politics ingrained in the political culture of Jaffna.

Throughout its history Jaffna politics was driven by hate politics. The Vellahla leadership that steered peninsular politics justified their hate of low-castes with Hindu dogmas revised by Arumuka Navalar, the revisionist who elevated sudra farmers (Vellahlas) to the status  of Brahmins in Jaffna. Under the cover of Navalar’s Saivite sanctions, the Vellahla elite oppressed the imported Tamil slaves and the low-castes as if they were a breed of beasts not  fit for human society. In the post independent period they diverted their hate politics towards the Sinhala-Buddhist of the south. The Vellahlas maintained  their grip on power in the peninsula by stoking hate politics against these two sectors. The Tamil leadership waged wars against both.

Tamil spiritual and secular  leaders joined hands to keep the fires of hate politics burning. Arumuka Navalar, the greatest religious icon of the Vellahlas, led attacks on the low-caste schools to prevent them from coming  up. Even their  revered leader Sir. Ponnambalam Ramanathan did his utmost to retain the oppressive caste system. In the twenties he went  to London on a special mission to legitimise the casteist system. In the sixties, Prof. C. Sutheralingam, the caste fanatic, made a desperate bid at Maviddipuram Temple to keep the low-castes out  of the sacred premises.

According to Prof. Bryan Pfaffenberger the Tamils hated S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike not because of the Sinhala Only Act, though it was there in the background, but because of the Prevention of Social Disabilities Act which was aimed at dismantling the pernicious caste system. Language was to protect government jobs. But  the attack on the caste system was to threaten the entire way of life that was sacred to the Vellahlas.  When the Vellahla leadership switched their anti-low-caste politics to the Sinhala-Buddhists in the post-independent phase they were making  their last stand to save their feudalistic and  colonial powers and privileges. The hidden agenda in the Vadukoddai Resolution was to protect and maintain the Vellahla supremacy at any cost. And when they declared war against the Sinhala-Buddhists at Vadukoddai it was the last throw of their political dice. It was their biggest gamble.

It can also be argued that they were pushed into the Vadukoddai War by the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist mania generated by them in the post-independent era, with  promises of a Tamil Eelam. Over the years it gathered a momentum of its own, raising unattainable expectations. They had steered post-independent politics demonising the Sinhala-Buddhists which left no room for compromise. Besides, with S. J. V. Chelvanayakam’s   little now and more later” tactics he was dragging peninsular politics, step by step, to the bitter end of mono-ethnic extremism. Tamil expectations had reached the giddy limit by 1976. At this point the Northern leadership was in a dither unable to deliver their promises. They were hoisted by their own petard. The disillusioned Tamil youth, partly influenced by the JVP youth and partly by Southern missteps, were at their throats demanding solutions. The desperate Tamil leadership rushed to pass the Vadukoddai Resolution, declaring war, as a politically expedient move to get out  of their predicament. The Tamil leadership legitimised violence and opted for a military solution, abandoning the democratic  mainstream. The ageing leadership urged the Tamil youth to wage the Vadukoddai war against the demonised Sinhala bogeyman. The Vellahlas were hoping  to ride into power on the backs of the misguided Tamil youth drawn from the low-castes mainly. The Vellahlas youth went abroad with their parents to pursue careers in middle-class professions.

The Tamil leadership went as far as they could, living on anti-Sinhala-Buddhist hatred. Inside Jaffna, they defeated their Tamil rivals in electoral politics by pursuing hate politics that demonised the Sinhala-Buddhists. Any attempts  to co-exist in a multicultural, pluralistic society was anathema. Those who were inclined to co-exist were stigmatised as collaborators”. Competing Tamil parties scored electoral victories by  wielding the sword of Sinhala-Buddhist hatred. The  Biblical judgment that condemns those who live by the sword came down decisively to crush their arrogance and  bitterness at Nandikadal. For a while, before the fall at Nandikadal, there were ample opportunities for the Tamil leadership to negotiate a peace deal with honour. But the hatred of Sinhala-Buddhist blinded them to the new possibilities. The Tamil leadership chose to live by the sword of hate. In the end they died by the sword of hate.

What is ominous in the latest Jaffna outburst of violence is the re-birth of  the venomous hatred  that led to Nandikadal. Hate was written all over the faces of Tamil students wielding their  home-made weapons. Though the latest Jaffna incident can be dismissed as a manageable aberration, it nevertheless signals dangerously that Jaffna is ever ready to revert to Vadukoddian violence on the slightest pretext. And, as will be shown in due course, there are rabid elements waiting for an opportunity to exploit the ingrained strain of anti-Sinhala-Buddhist racism for their own profit and glory..

In a febrile attempt to explain the campus violence the NGO and other assorted pundits have rushed to recycle the hacked theories that led to the futile Vadukoddai war. The latest theoretical construction claims that too many Sinhalese students have been sponsored by the state to occupy academic places in the exclusive homeland of Tamils and, what is more, they are manipulated by the Army and the state to enforce”cultural colonisation”. Predictably, Jehan (Pacha) Perera is in the forefront  of this propaganda campaign to demonise the Sinhala-Buddhists and white-wash the Tamil violence.

His theoretical jiggery-pokery has been consistently to keep the fires of anti-Sinhala-Buddhist hatred smouldering. Throughout  the longest war in Asia he not  only sided with the Tamil Pol Pot but even went to the extraordinary extent of conferring the Pol Potist ideologue, Anton Balasingham, the Tamil translator at the British High Commission, with a doctorate which he knew was a lie. Now that Dr.” Balasingham and his master are no longer there he has thrown his weight  behind V. Wigneswaran, the Chief Minister of the northern province, who is making a strenuous bid to take the place of Velupillai Prabhakaran, dressed not in military fatigues but in symbolic and ritualistic Hindu garb, with an unmistakeable dash of holy ash splashed right across his forehead. This symbolism, unfortunately, is not a soothing display of spirituality. Rather, it represents militant Hindu fascism.

Falling in line more  with the extreme politics of the Tamil Surya Devan”, Wigneswaran’s political conduct indicates that he is bent on keeping peninsular politics tied intransigently (Surprise! Surprise!) to the extreme end of Hindu-Tamil racism. His egregious resolution branding all Sinhala leaders as genocidal” killers of Tamils, his prickly relations with the TNA which is, at least, making a show of wanting to find accommodation with the Sri Lanka state, his role as the Abominable Tamil Showman attempting  to fill the vacuum left by his Surya Devan, his demand for a disproportionate share of power bordering on a separate state, his latest resolution on Jaffna violence in which he raises the evil ghosts of the destructive Vadukoddai Resolution etc., reveal his ineradicable mono-ethnic extremism. Apart from adding Prabhakaran to his political pantheon, he is also known to be a devotee of Swamy Premananda who was convicted of raping 13 girls and also murder in India. Using his judicial credentials, he pleaded with the Indian Prime Minister to pardon Swamy Premananda which, of course, was rejected.the fall

It is also well known that Wigneswaran is allied to Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) of India – an extreme, right-wing, anti-Muslim political organisation that spits racial hatred, provoking inter-ethnic  violence. VHP programme is to cleanse India of Muslims. It  is not surprising, therefore, to find Wigneswaram participating in VHP platforms in Delhi and urging Indian Hindus to lead a pan-Hindu regional front to protect Hindus. He is noted among the Muslims of Jaffna for marginalising Muslims, almost treating them a non-persons. Despite Muslims of Jaffna raising issues of education, health and welfare with him, he has turned a deaf ear, refusing to give them even a hearing.

Painting a dismal picture of Jaffna under Wigneswaran’s rule, Prof. Rajan Hoole states: Hindu nationalism, already a festering phenomenon in Tamil run institutions, particularly in Jaffna University, attained a more open manifestation in the form of the northern province chief minister, C.V. Wigneswaran. His rise to power in 2013 signified a deep rot and was a sign of things to come.” As in the south, the rot in Jaffna  begins at the top.  Wigneswaran represents the worst elements of the  hate politics of Jaffna. He wriggles like the worm in the pus that oozes out of the incurable hate politics of Jaffna. But what is most  depressing  is the rot that is eating into the Jaffna University. Of the 17 universities it is the most scandal-ridden tertiary institution. Academics giving an A” for a lay has sullied its integrity. Jockeying for academic  positions, unqualified hacks getting promoted over the qualified, and funds flowing into private pockets are unacceptable in a community that reveres education on the  same  plane as Ganesh – the  God of knowledge. Dr. Noel Nadesan, the Tamil expatriate journalist and activist of Melbourne who was targeted by the LTTE, wrote after his latest visit to Jaffna : The most essential elements lacking in the North are moral, social and political leadership. The Jaffna university incident has been the clearest example of failed leadership.”

There is a growing awareness among the Tamil intellectuals now of the failure of the Tamil leadership. The absence of a genuine leadership that can think out  of the racist box and move forward to a more pragmatic phase of peaceful co-existence continues to plague peninsular  politics. The silver lining among the dark clouds over Jaffna, however, is the opening up of free space in the post-Prabhakaran period  for the Tamils to engage in reappraising their past. But no new thinking has emerged to re-evaluate the hate-filled politics of the past. Nor has a  new leadership emerged to take Jaffna out  of the pit into it has fallen.

Getting out of this plight is not easy. The atavistic pull of the racist past is ingrained in peninsular politics. If you remove Sinhala-Buddhism from  their agenda they have nothing to go on. Wigneswaram represents this menacing force. It is the racist extremism, currently spearheaded by Wigneswaran, that will be the biggest stumbling bloc to any future reconciliation. Reconciliation  demands moving  away from the Tamil intransigence of the past and advancing  closer to multi-ethnic co-existence within the natural boundaries of the nation. The Northern leadership threw all what they had, including children, to pursue their elusive goal of Eelam. And they failed. Unfortunately, there are no signs that their tragic history  has taught them any lesson as a guide for  their future.

Northern obsession with power politics at the expense of all other existential considerations dragged the Tamils to depths of a bloody hell. Prabhakaran personified this megalomania. The power he acquired did not save the Tamils. Under him the Tamils were subject to abject servility with no dignity or self-respect. The vast mass of Tamils of all ages – from school children to the aged – were forced to serve him obediently, on their  knees. Of course, the apparatchiks who were a part of the oppressive one-man regime were pleased. But  the  others were waiting for an opportunity to escape. When the end came they voted with their feet to escape the Prabhakaranist gulag.

It is the vilified Sinhala-Buddhists and their Forces that lifted the Jaffna Tamils from the misery of the war declared by their leaders. Their leaders financed the war. They directed  the war. They mobilized the forces for the war. And when the end came where were the Tamil heroes to serve the needs of the abandoned Tamils? The money that flowed from the Tamil Diaspora to kill the Tamils suddenly stopped. There was no money to build  peace for Tamils. There was money only to kill Tamils.

The award-winning French film Dheepan captures the plight  of the Tamils who were trapped in the Vadukoddai war. In one critical scene, Dheepan, who escapes the LTTE violence, is confronted in France by a war-mongering agent collecting  money to buy arms. Dheepan says he has given up fighting. He is thrown to the ground and kicked for refusing to contribute money that goes  to kill the Tamils. He survives. The film ends with Dheepan settling down in his new  home in France, surrounded by multi-ethnic families. He finds peace only in a home away from home, far, far way from his fellow-Tamils killing each other.

Dheepan is fed up of fighting. He wants to lead a normal life. Politics has not  taken him anywhere. Is there any point in chasing a mythical homeland that can’t give Tamils their peace? Dheepan settles for  peace and normal family life. He has stopped chasing illusions of homeland that bleeds everyone to death.

Dheepan  symbolises the life experienced by Tamils trapped in the violence and  hate engineered by their leaders. His life experiences confirm that Tamils have lost their capacity to find peace among  his own Tamil community, whether in Jaffna or France. Isn’t the violent outburst in the Jaffna campus another sign of the inability of Jaffna Tamils to find peace? Isn’t this innate and  chronic violent culture of Jaffna a threat to all communities – most of all to the Jaffna Tamils? Does this mean that they are  doomed to live in perpetual anger and hatred of their non-Tamil neighbours? Is Dheepan saying that there is peace and happiness in a non-violent home abroad than  in their violent  homeland?

The  Tamil leaders have shown  their capacity to lead the Tamils to Vadukoddai and Nandikadal. But can they lead the Tamils to live in peace without killing each other?

After dragging  the Tamil people into a futile 33-year-old war the Tamil leadership owes it to the Tamil people to lead them into a safe haven of peace. Blaming the Sinhala-Buddhists is no longer the solution. They tried that trick long enough and failed. It is time  they took responsibility for their  stupidity that led them to Nandikadal. It is time they opened their eyes and, for the sake of the war-weary people of Jaffna, committed themselves  genuinely for peace and reconciliation. The Tamil people deserve a future without Tamil Pol Pots and Boko Harams. They deserve a future that  will save them from their Tamil saviours who had led them only into death, destruction and  despair so far.

By Charles S.Perera

JVP does not know fundamentals of Marxist politics.  They started with a bloody revolution  with which it  achieved only the fear of the people for its criminal excesses and the peoples’ hatred. May be there is no single family in the south of Sri Lanka which did not have a relative of theirs murdered by the JVP, or a severed head of the head of a family stuck on a stick and planted in front of the house.

There were gruesome stories one of which  was that  the father was taken away by a JVP man  and  a message was sent to the family that he would come in the evening and gave a parcel of meat saying that he wanted it prepared for dinner. The mother prepared a meat curry and rice. She made the children eat and go to bed. The mother  waited for her husband, and as it was getting late she had her  dinner as well and went to sleep. The following morning when she opened the door her husband’s severed head stuck on a stick had been planted in front of the house.  The meat sent to the family through the  JVP messenger was her own husbands flesh.

The JVP has a cruel criminal history that the Sinhala people will not forget. It was worse for the Sinhala people, than it would have been for the Tamil people in the North under terrorism. People lived in fear. When the JVPers came in the night, people blew out the lamps.  They dare not open a door or a window, unless the JVP criminals surrounding the house asked them to pass their identity cards, money, gold or silver through the windows.

That is what the JVP had been and those are the indelible memories  left behind in the minds of the people. Now they have different rhetoric condemning Mahinda Rajapakse  and ever since the Yahapalanaya set their dirty paws in the political cake JVP did not stop their march to the office of the Commissioner for Bribery and Corruption with files accusing the Ministers  of the Mahinda Rajapakse government.   It is not the SLFP or the Mahinda Rajapakse Regime that was responsible for political crimes, but JVP and UNP as much as the JVP,for  UNP too has its criminal past. The killing and burning Sinhala youth on heaps of tyres, and torturing and killing youth in many torture camps such as in Batalanda, by Ranil Wickramasinghe under President R.Premadasa.

JVP knows that even though there are crowds at their meetings, the people  are reticent in giving them political power.  The tendency will never change as the people are distancing themselves from JVP politics. Marxists know that they cannot depend on Parliamentary elections to come to power therefore if a revolution of the proletariats is not possible they should make use of the popular political party to ride on it to gain political recognition. The JVP knows it by experience as it was when it contested as a partner of the UPFA coalition that it  won 39 parliamentary seats.  But since they left that coalition and contested on their own or with  other political parties they  failed to have a respectable number of seats. At the last General election with all the pretentious rhetoric they got only 6 parliamentary seats.

The present JVP political strategy was explained by Lalakantha  a  senior member of JVP at a television  programme in which he was interviewed.  He says JVP has no trust in any of the political parties. If the JVP is to support UNP it would indirectly benefit the former President Mahinda Rajapakse, and if the JVP were to support Mahinda Rajapakse it would be to the benefit of  the UNP. Therefore, the JVP is opposed to both  which would  enable them to prepare the ground for a third political force- which would of course be  the JVP.

We saw this strategy when JVP joined forces with the capitalist UNP, the ambitious JHU, racist TNA, and the outsider who remains on the fringe to take what they can without any effort- the SLMC. Here the effort of the JVP was to defeat the Presidential candidate Mahinda Rajapakse. Since  the defeat of Mahinda Rajapakse, there is  a UNP-SLFP government supported by the -TNA-JVP-JHU-SLMC lead by Maithripala Sirisena as the President.

After the Presidential elections JVP was taking all measures possible to bring Mahinda Rajapakse and his  family to courts accused of various malpractices to prove to the people  Mahinda Rajapakse was not a patriotic people friendly politician but a rogue  who was trying to accumulate wealth and allow his family members and friends to do so with various projects he initiated and carried out leaving behind a huge debt.

Wasantha Samarasinghe of the JVP is its voice against corruption, and we saw him in that role with many files accusing  Rajapakse’s and his collaborators in the previous government under his arm going to the  Office of the Commissioner for Bribery and Corruption making statements to media with great assurance that  JVP has enough material to lock up the Rajapakses in prison. They have still failed because Rajapakses did not make money and they did a job of work for the betterment of Sri Lanka. Their work is there to be seen, a witness to posterity.

Wasantha Samarasinghe and JVP accused Rajapakses as thieves and got others of the UNP,and JHU to do so, passed judgment, and hanged them before even the courts and judges found an iota of evidence to find them guilty of any thin that had been accused of,  and they are still looking for  ways and means to  prove the Rajapakses are thieves. All that is because the JVP and the whole of Yahapalanay know that Mahinda Rajapakse is popular and more they accuse him more he becomes popular.

JVP is spending sleepless nights thinking of ways to remove Rajapakses from the political scene so that the stage will be free for their pranks, and fool  the people to make them give their votes to form a JVP government. JVP knows that  UNP is in business because of the Tamils, the Muslims and the Catholics. But JVP is putting all their cards on Marxist theories to get a majority in Parliament.

In a Parliamentary democracy and in a country like Sri Lanka Marxist theories do not give desired results. The JVP’s only means to have a respectable number of  representatives in the parliament is to ride on a popular political party. That too should be that of Mahinda Rajapakse and the Joint Opposition. On its own or being in a  coalition with UNP, JVP will never get more than 6 seats, which is the maximum they could hope for, even if they manage to  lock up” all Rajapakses

In a recent Derana TV programme where the subject of discussion was on left wing politics” the participants were  Nimal Devasiri, Vasudeva Nanayakkara,Tissa Vitaharana, Lal Kantha of JVP and Pubudu Jagoda. There was lot of Marxist theories  discussed to define Imperialism in modern left wing politics,but unfortunately they were far away from the political context in which Sri Lanka finds itself today.

Vasudeva Nanayakkara and Tissa Vitharan pointed out to them that while they theorise left politics as it should apply to the  Sri Lankan situation, the sovereignty of  Sri Lanka is being usurped by the USA, even proposing its intervention in writing  a new Constitution to Sri Lanka, setting up a Naval base in Trincomalee, and acquiring six acres of prime land in Colombo to put up buildings by an American construction firm, probably to set up a military base to keep the Chinese built port city under constant survey.

The Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe is the most powerful man in Sri Lanka. The  President Maithripala Sirisena only makes speeches leading a quiet life in his President’s House in fear of Ranil Wickramasinghe to whom he is indebted for his position as thr President of Sri Lanka.

President Maithripala Sirisena wanted Arjun Mahendran removed from the Central Bank and appointed a Governor of his choice. Maithripala Sirisena would have been happy as after all he had his own way despite  his Prime Minister. But Ranil Wickramasinghe appointed Arjun Mahendran as his adviser taking him every where he goes.

The USA has still not given a cent to Sri Lanka for development work, but spends lot of money to make Sri Lanka a strategic American base from which to keep China and Russia in check.  The President Maithripala Sirisena has even agreed to buy fighter planes, despite Sri Lanka’s  dwindling finances and debt (which Yahapalanaya says is the main reason for the proposed Value Added Tax) , apparently to satisfy the demands of America through its Ambassador.

But JVP continues to call Rajapakses thieves, and that  UNP is mismanaging the country and demands that they be given the country to rule. The people are already suffering under Yahapalanaya Government and see no light at the end of  the darkest tunnel into which Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe have dragged the country.

The people of Sri Lanka in this predicament will never turn to JVP, but certainly to Mahinda Rajapakse and the Joint Opposition to find a safe way out.

Dilrook Kannangara

Local Trump has spoken; again. Yet another hilariously idiotic statement was made by the Prime Minister recently when he compared the advent of Buddhism to signing ETCA agreement. He argued that both are from India and we should not favour one and oppose the other. Obviously, his understanding of history and economics is flawed.

If ETCA is about a few Buddhist monks and an Indian princess making their way to Sri Lanka no one has a problem with it. However, ETCA is not about that. It is about economically ruining Sri Lanka by flooding the island with unemployed Indians and dumping Indian goods in the Lankan market destroying local producers.

Even before the arrival of Buddhism in the island (circa 265BC), locals had a favourable opinion about Buddha. The Enlightened One visited the island nation many times. The last Buddha visited Sri Lanka on three occasions (circa 580BC). Previous Buddhas also visited the island nation. They came to the island to preach Dharma and settle disputes, not to rob or burn down the island nation as Indians do. Having created a favourable impression among locals, Buddhism was immediately taken up by the people when it officially arrived.

Unlike India today, no coercion was used by the then Indian Emperor to spread Buddhism. India uses extortion and pressure tactics to impose ETCA as it imposed the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord and 13A in 1987. India has long lost the Asoka era and Buddhism. Today India is a Hindu majority country with only minute presence of Buddhism. Comparing 265BC landmass now called India and modern India is ridiculous.

By Rohana R. Wasala

Apropos ‘Perahera through the eyes of elephants’/Opinion/The Island/August 9, 2016, written by ‘Concerned Citizens of Sri Lanka’ on behalf of ‘Sentinels Against Wildlife Crime’ (SAWC). Their motto seems to be ‘Say No to Cruelty to Our Elephants of Sri Lanka’. A very laudable objective. The concern they show about cruelty to wildlife is praiseworthy, and could be genuine for all we know. If their motive is serious, the people whose historical cultural pageant the Kandy Esala Perahera is, will undoubtedly sympathize with them, but will also take care to convince them that, in this case, they are just barking up the wrong tree.  While thanking them for their civilized concern about human cruelty to wildlife in Sri Lanka, they will kindly request them, if possible, to draw the attention of other not so cultured animal rights agitators who obliquely attack this centuries old religious festival of the Sinhalese Buddhist majority of the country on the basis of an essential feature of the hallowed event, to the impropriety of such behavior.

Elephants used in peraheras are not wild animals. They are domesticated animals. Not any domesticated elephant can be used in a perahera either. Elephants must be trained for marching in peraheras. Tamed elephants are conditioned to distracting flashing lights, deafening sounds, and ‘madding’ crowds. Their suffering is considered to be minimal. Of these elephants, those trained for the ‘prerogative’ of carrying sacred objects in peraheras are special. The Maligawa elephant who carries the Tooth Relic casket (without the sacred relic) in the Kandy Perahera is honoured or almost revered as a national cultural icon. All elephants used in the peraheras are looked after very well by their owners and keepers. Naturally, the ‘perahera alis’ are even better cared for than the ‘kota alis’, work elephants, so called because they were commonly used for transporting logs (kota) in logging operations, and other similar work in the past, particularly in areas inaccessible to motor vehicles. Nowadays, domesticated elephants are kept more for prestige than for any useful work they can be made to do.

There is a lot of traditional elephant lore including veterinary treatment  among descendants of families who have been looking after and working with elephants for many generations.   The inconveniences caused to these animals before, during, and after perahera service are not ignored; those inconveniences are as minimized as humanly possible. They are washed and cleaned daily. Perahera elephants are fed with fruits and sweets (offered by spectators) even while they are marching. They are rewarded with special treats at the end the event.

During this time of the year (the month of Esala in the Sinhala calendar roughly equivalent to July-August), there are similar peraheras in many provincial towns, where elephants carrying relics, or just parading, are an indispensable feature. We who grew up with these traditions around us know that the animal abuse element is kept to a minimum. The writer of ‘Perahera through eyes of elephants’ doesn’t seem to have seen an actual perahera. His/Her bit about ‘hopeful devotees in fulfilment of vows with hooks piercing their skin’ as part of the Kandy perahera is misleading for want of a fuller description of the background. The rituals of pulling a cart by a devotee with cords hooked to the skin of his back, and of hanging horizontal from a scaffold in similar fashion are usually performed by Hindu Tamils in peraheras dedicated to God Skanda/ Kataragama. Actually, the grand Kandy Esala Perahera is a combination of five peraheras. The pride of place is given to the Dalada Maligawa perahera. The other four peraheras are each from a devale/temple dedicated to a Hindu deity. The said rituals are found in the perahera that honours God Skanda (the god of Kataragama) above mentioned. But in my time I never saw either of these ‘hooks piercing the skin’ rituals in Kandy. Whether it has been now added to it as a novelty, I don’t know.

Addressing an imaginary perahera elephant, the writer says: ‘As an elephant walking in procession you will be flanked by thronging crowds on either side of you, a sea of human beings who as your cellular DNA memory will remind you, have only caused you and your species much pain and suffering.’

This is not correct. The writer is not looking at the perahera through an elephant’s eyes; he is doing so through a foreign tourist’s eyes. If s/he is a local, s/he appears to be remarkably alienated from his/her country’s traditions. The rapport between domesticated elephants and humans in Sri Lanka is very close. This has been so for thousands of years. Even wild elephants  (who have been officially renamed ‘wana ali’ ‘forest elephants’ instead of ‘wal ali’, the word ‘wal’, though semantically similar, is pejorative) sometimes show the benign influence of occasional contact with humans. Tourists have the opportunity to meet Gemunu the wild elephant who sets up a one-elephant checkpoint in the jungle to demand gifts of food from passersby. Travellers are not allowed to go without giving him something. I read recently that another elephant has taken to begging for food by the roadside. A couple of days ago, there was a news story on TV about a wild she-elephant who lost her footing and fell into an irrigation well with her calf. The villagers, after a great struggle, helped her out of the well using a backhoe loader. But the calf was dead by that time. The grateful mother elephant, just out of the water, turned towards the people who saved her curled her trunk and put it on her forehead in a gesture of salutation as ordinary people believe. (The bereaved mother was seen lingering on around the place for more than two hours for her little one to return to her alive, and then slowly disappeared into the jungle.) Domesticated elephants are taught to perform the same gesture before a shrine, as these few days elephants taking part in the perahera are being made to do at the Maligawa. Isn’t the she-elephant’s signaling of her gratitude an incredible sign that even wild elephants experience humanlike moral feelings? Couldn’t it be due to the influence of their human neighbours?

Of course, there is a huge elephant man conflict, which has proved deadly for both sides. This is something Sri Lankans must work to resolve. That is a tragic elephantine problem that the government must fix somehow. But wild animals are free from the depravity of some humans. Recently, we heard about hunters setting traps to kill thirsty animals from drought stricken areas that come close to human habitations to drink  water. Sri Lankan media immediately started denouncing them as ‘masveddas’ (meat eating savages). It is wildlife like this we should do whatever possible to protect.

The elephant goad (ankus) that the mahout wields is for gesturing the animal, causing little or no actual pain. Causing severe pain with the ankus can be lethal for the mahout. Elephant minders know this, and they rarely treat their charges unkindly. Elephants are huge pachyderms. It is said that in some places their skin is about 4 centimeters thick. A mild ankus jab from a tiny human they hardly feel. An elephant can march with two, three or more riders on his back very easily. The much smaller horse is sometimes made to run with a human rider three quarters its weight in other countries. Incidentally, consider how other domesticated animals such as horses are used in countries which discovered human rights and animal rights only very recently. Are those animals allowed to open their mouths to eat a snack while doing whatever work they are made to do? Aren’t horses used in cultural pageants which those nations are not likely to consent to hold without them, in the interest of animal rights? What about bullfighting in countries like Spain, Portugal, and Mexico, where it is regarded as an important part of their culture? What about bear-baiting, cockfighting, foxhunting, and dog-fighting in some very civilized countries? Are the animals used in such sports events (sports are considered cultural events, despite these being blood sports) so well treated as our elephants? The paradox is that modern animal rights campaigns have had their origin in those countries. This is not a surprise. The search for answers begins where the problems are.

When  our people begin to understand that there is a problem with this matter of using elephants in their processions, they will find ways to remedy it. Right now they don’t think so. People of our culture have treated elephants and other animals with kindness. Raising awareness about how others look at the way we use elephants in processions is good. But other equally important things that affect human life must also be considered. After all, prevention of cruelty to animals is also a human concern, a matter of human culture.

ධර්මන් වික්‍රමරත්න

තිස්පස් වසරක් පුරා පුවත්පත් ඡායාරූප ශිල්පියෙකු වශයෙන් කටයුතු කල ශ්‍රී ලාල් ගෝමස්(62) අගෝස්තු 11වැනිදා අලුයම සිය දිවිගමන නිමා කළේය. මහනුවර අරුප්පොලදී 1954 දෙසැම්බර් 15වැනිදා උපන් තිදරු පියෙකු ශ්‍රී ලාල්ට මියයන විට මිනිබිරියන් දෙදෙනෙකි. ශ්‍රී ලාල්ගේ අවසන් කටයුතු 2016 අගෝස්තු 13වන සෙනසුරාදා පස්වරු 3ට සපුගස්කන්ද රෝමානු කතෝලික සුසාන භූමියේදී සිදුකෙරේ. එතෙක් ඔහුගේ දේහය මාකොල, ආසිරි පාරේ 639/2ඒ නිවසේ තැන්පත්කර ඇත.

ජනමාධ්‍ය ඡායාරූපකරණයේ ප්‍රවීණ අත්දැකීම් රැසකට හිමිකම් කියන ශ්‍රී ලාල් ගෝමස් ඒ පිළිබඳව වසර 35ක වෘත්තීය අත්දැකීම් ඇත්තෙකි. යුද්ධය, සාමය, දේශපාලනය, පරිසරය, ක්‍රීඩා, ජන ජීවිතය, මානව හිමිකම්, වන සතුන් වැනි  කේෂේත්‍රයන්හි පමණක් නොව විලාසිතා සහ මංගල ඡායාරූපකරණයේ පැතිකඩ රැසක් ඔහු රට හමුවේ තැබීය. මහනුවර ශාන්ත සිල්වෙස්ටර් විදුහලේ අධ්‍යාපනය ලැබූ ඔහු ලියුම්කරු සමඟ දශක 3කට ආසන්නව එක්ව කටයුතු කල වෘත්තීය සගයෙකි.

ශ්‍රී ලාල් ගෝමස් නුවරඑළියේදී රාජකාරියක් අතරතුරදී.

මාධ්‍ය කේෂේත්‍රයට ශ්‍රී ලාල් ආධුනිකයෙකු වශයෙන් එක්වූයේ මහවැලි අමාත්‍යාංශය මගින් 1979 ඇරඹි ඉසුර මාසික සඟරාවෙනි. එහි සිව බණ්ඩාරගෙන් පසු ප්‍රධාන සංස්කාරක වූයේ සුදත් වටගෙදරය. එකල ඉසුර සඟරාවේ සේවයකල අය අතර ඇරැව්වල නන්දිමිත්‍ර, ජයලත් මනෝරත්න, ප්‍රසන්න විතානගේද විය. මහවැලි අමාත්‍යාංශයේ මාධ්‍ය නිලධාරි වූයේ පසුකාලීනව එහි සහකාර ලේකම්(ප්‍රවෘත්ති) වූ ආනන්ද ධර්මප්‍රියය. ප්‍රවෘත්ති නිලධාරි වූයේ ප්‍රවීණ ලේඛක නිහාල් ජයතුංගය. සනත් ගුණතිලකද 1983 සිට එහි උපදේශකවරයෙකු විය. පැරණි ලංකාදීප වසා දැමීමෙන් පසු 1985 සිට මාධ්‍ය සම්බන්ධීකරණ නිලධාරි ලෙස පත්වූයේ ඇල්බට් පුංචිහේවා බව එකල දිවයින කර්තෘ මාණ්ඩලිකයෙකුවූ ලියුම්කරුට මතකය. පසු කලෙක වෘක්ෂයක් සේ දළුලා සරුවට වැඩෙන යෝධ ඡායාරූප ශිල්පියෙකුවූ ශ්‍රීලාල් ගෝමස් ගේ තිඹිරිගෙය එය විය.

2016 අගෝස්තු 25වැනිදා පස්වරු 3ට කොළඹ මහවැලි කේන්ද්‍රයේදී තිත්ත රස නැමති සිය ස්වයං ලිඛිත චරිතාපදානය ශ්‍රී ලාල් විසින් එළිදැක්වීමට නියමිතව තිබිණි. මේ එම ග්‍රන්ථයේ කවරයයි.

පසුකාලීනව එම අමාත්‍යාංශය භාර ඇමති ගාමිණී දිසානායකගේ නිල ඡායාරූප ශිල්පියා වූයේ ශ්‍රී ලාල්ය. සිය දේශපාලන නායකයා සැපතේදී මෙන්ම ආණ්ඩුවෙන් ඇමතිධූරයෙන් ඉවත්කිරීමෙන් පසුවද අනතුරුව දෝෂාභියෝගයෙන් පසු ගාමිණී දිසානායකගේ මන්ත්‍රී තනතුර අහිමිවූවද  ගාමිණී දිසානායක එජාප ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකයා වශයෙන් ඉදිරිපත්ව තොටලඟ බෝම්බයෙන් 1994 ඔක්තෝබර් 24වැනිදා මියයන තෙක්ම ඔහු අත් නොහැරි කෙලෙහිගුණ දත් දුර්ලභ ගනයේ මිනිසෙක් ලෙස ශ්‍රී ලාල් හැදින්විය හැක. අනතුරුව උපාලි පුවත්පත් ආයතනයේ 2000 දක්වා පුවත්පත් ඡායාරූප ශිල්පියෙකු වශයෙන් සේවය කල ශ්‍රී ලාල් ලක්බිම පුවත්පත්වල ඡායාරූප කතුවරයා වූයේ 2000දීය. පසුව 2007දී හෙතෙම දිවයින සහ දි අයිලන්ඩ් පුවත්පත් සමූහයේ කතුවරයා විය. ඇමති නවීන් දිසානායකගේ මාධ්‍ය ලේකම්වරයා වශයෙන් වසර 2010 සිට කටයුතු කල ශ්‍රී ලාල් මියයන විටද එම ධූරය දැරීය.

කොත්මලේ වේල්ල 1985 අගෝස්තු 24වැනිදා ජනාධිපති ජේ.ආර් ජයවර්ධන විසින් විවෘත කරන ලද අවස්ථාවේදී එහි මාධ්‍ය ආවරණයේ නිරතවන ශ්‍රී ලාල් ගෝමස් මෙහි රවුම්කර ඇත. ඇමති ගාමිණී දිසානායකද මෙහි වේ.

ඡායාරූපකරණය සහ ජනමාධ්‍ය ඡායාරූපකරණයේ ප්‍රවීණයෙකු වශයෙන් ඔහු නව පරපුරේ තරුණ තරුණියන්ට ඡායාරූපකරණය පිිළිබඳව ත්‍රෛමාසික පාඨමාලාවක් හඳුන්වා දෙමින් එය කිහිපවරක් පැවැත්විය. ජනමාධ්‍ය ඡායාරූපකරනයට අත්පොත් තැබීමට බොහෝ දෙනෙකුට එය ඉවහල්වූ බව නොරහසකි. සිය සහෝදර ඡායාරූප ශිල්පීන් සමඟද සමවිටම ඔහු කටයුතු කරන ලද්දේ කණ්ඩායම් හැගීමකි. පුවත්පත් ඡායාරූප ශිල්පීන්ගේ සංගමයේ සභාපතිවරයා ලෙස වසර කිහිපයක්ම කටයුතු කළේ එහි ප්‍රතිඵලයක් වශයෙනි.

ජනතාව දැනුවත් කිරීමේ පත්‍රිකා බෙදිමේ වැඩසටහනක් කොළඹ කොටුව දුම්රියපොල අසළ මාධ්‍ය ආවරණයකල පුවත්පත් ඡායාරූප ශිල්පීන් කිහිපදෙනෙකුට මැරයින් විසින් පහරදී කැමරා විනාශ කල අතර ශ්‍රී ලාල් ඇතුළු කිහිපදෙනෙකුගේ නායකත්වයෙන් පුවත්පත් කැමරා ශිල්පීන්ගේ සංගමය ඔවුනට අලුතින් කැමරා ලබාදුණි. මේ එම උත්සවය ගෝල්ෆේස් හෝටලයේ 2003 පැවති අවස්ථාවේදී මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ අදාළ කැමරාවක් ජායාරූප මාධ්‍යවේදියෙකුට ලබාදුන් අවස්ථාවකි. මැද සිටිනේනේ සංගමයේ සභාපති ශ්‍රී ලාල් ගෝමස්ය.

සිය ඡායාරූප ඇතුළත් ප්‍රදර්ශන 3ක් ඔහු විසින් පවත්වන ලදී. දෙවන ප්‍රදර්ශනය 2010 අගෝස්තු මස ජාතික කලා භවනේදීද, තෙවන සහ අවසාන ප්‍රදර්ශනය 2013 නොවැම්බර් මස කොළඹ හෝර්ටන් පෙදෙසේ සෞන්දර්ය සරසවි කලාගාරයේ පැවැත්විණි. එම ප්‍රදර්ශනය සඳහා රුපියල් ලක්ෂයක සම අනුග්‍රහයෙකු සොයාදීමටද  ලියුම්කරු මැදිහත් විය. අවසාන ප්‍රදර්ශනයෙන් පසු ශ්‍රී ලාල් කියා සිටියේ ඡායාරූප ප්‍රදර්ශන මින් නිමාවන බවත් තමාගේ මාධ්‍ය ජීවිතයේ ස්වයං ලිඛිත චරිතාපදානයක් එළිදක්වන බවත්ය. ඔහු ලියූ එම චරිතාපදානය තිත්ත රස මැයින් 2016 අගෝස්තු මස 25වැනිදා කොළඹ මහවැලි කේන්ද්‍රයේ පස්වරු 3ට දොරට වැඩීමට කටයුතු යොදා තිබිණි. ඒ පිළිබඳව හිතවතුන්ට දුරකථනයෙන්ද ශ්‍රී ලාල් දැනුම් දුන්නේය. නමුත් එයට පෙර ඔහු සමුගත්තේය.

ශ්‍රී ලාල්ගේ තෙවන ඡායාරූප දැක්ම 2013 නොවැම්බර් 29 සහ 30 කොළඹ හෝටන් පෙදෙසේ සෞන්දර්ය සරසවියේ ජේ.ඩී.ඒ පෙරේරා කලාගාරයේ පැවති අවස්ථාවේදී ධර්මන් වික්‍රමරත්න පොල්තෙල් පහන දැල්වූ අවස්ථාව. මෙහි ශ්‍රී ලාල්ගේ බිරිඳ මියුරිල්ද, ප්‍රධාන ආරාධිත ඇමතිවරුන් වූ නවීන් දිසානායක, නන්දිමිත්‍ර ඒකනායක, සබරගමු මහඇමති මහීපාල හේරත්, සිනමා නළු සනත් ගුණතිලක ඇතුළු පිරිසක් වේ. මෙම ඡායාරූපය ගනු ලැබුවේද ශ්‍රී ලාල් ගෝමස්ය.

ශ්‍රී ලාල් සාර්ථක සහ ආදර්ශමත් පවුල් ජීවිතයක් ගත කල අයෙකි. ඔහුගේ සෙවනැල්ල මෙන් සිටියේ බිරිඳ මියුරිල්ය. ශ්‍රී ලාල්ගේ දියණිය කාංචනා නිරෝෂාද, පුතුන්වූ ශ්‍රීකාන්ත සහ ශ්‍රීනාත් ගෙන් පමණක් නොව බෑනණුවන් වන දර්ශනද ඔහුට සවියක්ම විය.

ධර්මන් වික්‍රමරත්න

ejournalists@gmail.com

Ranjith Soysa

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has taken action to remove the non -existent country called the Tamil Eelam from their  date on standard classification of countries due mainly to the joint efforts of the concerned Australians of Sri Lankan origin and the High Commission of Sri Lanka in Australia.

We highly appreciate the timely action taken by the authorities in spite of the mischief makers peddling disinformation to mislead Australia

Ranjith Soysa

Thank you for your enquiry

Please note the ABS has never recognised Tamil Eelam as a country.  The reference to this group on the ABS website related to the country coding index which is a list created with the purpose of training computers to recognise responses people may provide and categorise them to the standard classification.  The coding index has been updated to remove all references to Tamil Eelam. No offence was intended and we regret any that may have been caused.

Regards

Andrew Howie
Standards and Classifications Section  |  Statistical Infrastructure & International Branch  |  Australian Bureau of Statistics

ALI SUKHANVER

The recent terrorist attack in Quetta Hospital took lives of more than hundred innocent citizens and left so many seriously injured. The terrorists might be taking this attack as a successful episode but in the long run this brutality is going to get the people of Balochistan more united against every type of terrorism.

The political leadership of Balochistan has openly said that this was an activity supervised and directed by the R&AW and the security forces have started a combing operation against the terrorists and their facilitators.

Things would be soon in lime-light and the characters involved in this brutality shall be soon in grip of law but the actual thing is to search for the reasons behind such activities. Most of the analysts are of the opinion that since the beginning of 2016 or in other words, after seeing the CPEC project proceeding rapidly to its completion, the hostile intelligence agencies have become more active in Pakistan regarding terrorist activities.

During the last seven months, the law-enforcement agencies of Pakistan arrested many agents of hostile intelligence agencies including an Indian spy Kul Bashan Yadav in Balochistan. He was arrested on 3^rd March 2016.

In May 2016, Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti disclosed in a news conference at the Sikandar Jamali Auditorium in the Civil Secretariat Quetta, the arrest of as many as six Afghan ‘agents’ who were allegedly involved in acts of sabotage, terrorism and targeted killings that left at least 40 people dead in the country.

Mir Sarfaraz Bugti pointed out that RAW and the Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) were jointly involved in perpetrating acts of terror in the Balochistan province. He said, RAW and NDS jointly infiltrate their agents into Pakistan and these men carry out targeted killings.” Mr. Bugti’s claim shocked everyone that three officers of the Afghan intelligence agency of General ranks were personally supervising these terrorists and target killers during sabotage and subversion operations in Pakistan specifically aimed at destabilizing the country.

The officers were identified as General Rahim, General Malik and General Momin, said Bugti. On 7^th May 2016, Karachi Police and law enforcement agencies during a search operation near Jamshed Quarter area arrested an Indian agent belonging to the Indian Research and Analysis Wing.

The Indian spy was identified as Arshad. According to the sources, this man came to Pakistan in 2011 and visited foreign countries approximately six times during this period. Police recovered three mobile phones, 10 SIM cards, an internet device, a laptop and classified documents from his possession. Investigators told media that Arshad had close contacts in India, whom he used to contact over the internet.

Recently on 6^th August 2016, the Federal Investigation Agency of Pakistan arrested a blacklisted American national Mathew Barrett upon his arrival at Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Rawalpindi. Mathew was blacklisted by Pakistani authorities and deported from the country in 2011 on grounds of alleged spying of the nuclear installations. Mathew Barrett, according to a local TV channel, was then captured from a sensitive location in Fateh Jang tehsil of Punjab’s Attock district.

According to the details, the investigation authorities are trying to excavate how a banned and deported American spy succeeded in getting visa for Pakistan. FIA has also arrested the duty officer Ehtisham, who allegedly facilitated Mathew Barrett in this illegal process of entering into Pakistan.

It is being hoped that the government of Pakistan is going to show no softness in this case as it is a very serious matter particularly at the time when Pakistan is facing a lot of security threats.  In short from March 2016 to August 2016, in the period of about six months, the intelligence and security agencies of Pakistan succeeded in arresting more than ten agents of hostile intelligence agencies who could have created a lot of trouble and disturbance for the people of Pakistan if Pakistani law-enforcement agencies had not traced and arrested them.

The responsibility of the intelligence and security agencies of Pakistan was to trace and arrest these culprits; now ball is in the court of the law-authorities who would certainly show these criminals the direct path to their destination.

People are very much confident that on the basis of his American nationality, Mathew Barrett would not receive the same protocol and privilege which Raymond Davis had enjoyed in March 2011.

One of the most grievous problems of Pakistan is that unfortunately here criminals have hundred ways of getting acquitted and this acquittal becomes easier if the criminal is a foreigner particularly an American but now this ‘courtesy culture’ is going to die soon in Pakistan.

ධර්මන් වික්‍රමරත්න

කලක් අතිශයින් ජනප්‍රියවූ පිලිපීනයේ වෙරිටාස් සහ බ්‍රිතාන්‍යයේ බී.බී.සී සන්දේශයේ කොළඹ වාර්තාකරු වශයෙන් කටයුුතු කල දෙටු ප්‍රවීණ ගුවන්විදුලි මාධ්‍යවේදි එල්මෝ ප්‍රනාන්දු 2016 අගෝස්තු 11වැනිදා අළුයම අභාවප්‍රාප්ත වූ අතර ඔහුගේ අවසන් කටයුතු අගෝස්තු 11වැනිදා පස්වරු 4ට පැලවත්ත රෝමානු කතෝලික දේවස්ථානයේ සුසාන භූමියේදී සිදුකෙරේ. හලාවතදී 1941 නොවැම්බර් 9වැනිදා උපන් තිදරු පියෙකුවූ එල්මෝට මිය යනවිට මුණුබුරු මිනිබිරියන් 6 දෙනෙකි. වසර 2014 ඔහු රෝගාතුර වනවිට වසර 48ක් වෘත්තීය ක්‍රියාකාරි ජනමාධ්‍යවේදියෙකු වශයෙන් කටයුතුකර තිබිණි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ගුවන්විදුලි සංස්ථාවේ වෙළෙඳ සේවයට 1968දී එක්වූ එල්මෝ ප්‍රනාන්දු පසුව එහි වාර්තාකරුවෙකු, වැඩසටහන් නිෂ්පාදකයෙකු මෙන්ම ජනප්‍රිය නිවේදකයෙකුද විය. ගුවන් විදුලියේ ස්වර්ණමය යුගයවූ 1973 සිට 1977 දක්වා සභාපති තනතුර දැරූ කීර්තිමත් සිවිල් සේවකයෙකුවූ රිජ්වේ තිලකරත්න පාලන සමයේදී ස්වදේශීය සහ වෙළෙඳ සේවයන් සිංහල සේවය වශයෙන් ඒකාබද්ධ කිරීමෙන් පසු එල්මෝට ගුවන් විදුලියෙන් නව මංපෙත් විවර විය. එවකට සිංහල සේවයේ අධ්‍යක්ෂකවරයා වශයෙන් එච්. එම්. ගුණසේකර කටයුතු කල අතර මුල්පෙලේ සිටි මාධ්‍යවේදීන් වූයේ අමරබන්දු රූපසිංහ, බර්ටි ගලහිටියාව, නිව්ටන් ගුණරත්න, ඩී.එස් දයාරත්න, ප්‍රේමකීර්ති ද අල්විස් සහ දයා අල්විස් ඇතුළු කිහිප දෙනෙකි. භක්තිමත් කතෝලිකයෙකුවූ එල්මෝ හොද එජාප පාක්ෂිකයෙකු වූවද ඒ දෙක සිය වෘත්තීය සමඟ කිසිදා පටලවා නොගත්තේය.

එල්මෝ ප්‍රනාන්දු බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය ගුවන්විදුලියේ සිංහල සංදේශය අංශයේදී

පිලිපීනයේ වෙරිටාස් කතෝලික ගුවන්විදුලි සේවයේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා වාර්තාකරු වශයෙන් 1984දී එක්වූ එල්මෝ ප්‍රනාන්දු පිලිපීනයේ මැනිලා නුවර සිට දිනපතා ප්‍රවෘත්ති සංග්‍රහයක් ගුවන්විදුලියෙන් ඉදිරිපත් කළේය. ජවිපෙ 2වැනි කැරළි සමය වූ 1986 සිට 1990 දක්වා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සත්‍ය තොරතුරු දැනගැනීමේ එකම මාර්ගය පිලිපීනියේ වෙරිටාස් ගුවන්විදුලිය වූ අතර එය එවකට ලංකාවේ අතිශයින්ම ජනප්‍රිය ප්‍රවෘත්ති සේවය බවට පත්වූයේ එල්මෝ ප්‍රනාන්දුගේ කැපවීමෙනි. රෝහණ විජේවිර 1989 නොවැම්බර් 13වැනිදා ඝාතනයකර පැය 24ක් ඇතුළත  එදිනම රාත්‍රී ජවිපෙ නව නායකයා ලෙස සමන් පියසිරි ප්‍රනාන්දු පත්කර බවද ලොවට ප්‍රථම වරට වෙරිටාස් ගුවන්විදුලියෙන් කියාසිටියේ එල්මෝය. එකල වෙරිටාස් වැනි විදේශයන්හි සිට විකාශය වූ ගුවන්විදුලි සේවාවන් ජනප්‍රිය වූයේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ පෞද්ගලික ගුවන්විදුලි නාලිකා නොතිබූ බැවිනි. රජයේ ගුවන්විදුලි මගින් සිදුකලේද අද මෙන් රජයේ ප්‍රවෘත්ති විකාශනය කිරීම පමණි. පෞද්ගලික දේශීය ගුවන් විදුලි සේවාවලට ප්‍රවෘත්ති විකාශනය කිරීමේ හිමිකම ලැබුණේද පොදුජන එක්සත් පෙරමුණ රජයේ ජනමාධ්‍ය ඇමති ධර්මසිරි සේනානයකගේ මැතිහත්වීම මත 1994දීය.

ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේනගේ අතින් ශ්‍රී ලංකා පත්‍රකලාවේදී සංගමය පිරිනැමූ සම්මානය එල්මෝ ප්‍රනාන්දු 2015 ඔක්තෝබර් 9වැනිදා BMICH ලබාගනිමින්.

පසුව 1993දී බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය බී.බී.සී ගුවන්විදුලියේ සංදේශය වැඩසටහනේ කොළඹ වාර්තාකරු වශයෙන් විශ්‍රාමයන තෙක් වසර 20ක් හෙතෙම ක්‍රියා කළේය. බී.බී.සී සංදේශයේ ඔහුගේ දීර්ඝ ප්‍රවෘත්තිය අවසානයේ ඔහුකල ‘බී.බී.සී. ලෝක සේවයේ සංදේශයට එල්මෝ ප්‍රනාන්දු කොළඹ සිට’ යනුවෙන් කල සඳහන ගුවන් තරංග අතර සදාකාලිකව ඔහු සනිටුහන් කල සන්නාමය විය. එල්මෝටම ආවේනිකවූ භාෂා ශෛලය, ප්‍රපාතවත් හඬ,  ප්‍රවෘත්තිය පෙළගස්සවා ඇති ආකාරය ඔහුගේ සඟරාමය ප්‍රවෘත්ති වැඩසටහන් වල විශේෂත්වය විය.  මාධ්‍ය කේෂේත්‍රයට පැමිණි නවක මාධ්‍යවේදීන්ට පමණක් නොව තරුණ මාධ්‍යවේදින්ටද සිය අත්දැකීම් බෙදාහදා ගනිමින් ඔවුනට නිරන්තරයෙන් මඟපෙන්වීම් කල එල්මෝ ප්‍රනාන්දු ගුරු මුෂ්ඨියකින් තොරව අතහිත දුන් සැබෑ නිහතමානි මිනිසෙකු විය. ලියුම්කරු ප්‍රථමවරට ඔහු 1984දී දැන හඳුනාගත් අතර අවසානවරට රෝගීව සිටි ඔහු බැලීම සඳහා බත්තරමුල්ල පැලවත්ත අරුප්පිටියේ නිවසට ගියේ 2015 නොවැම්බර් 9 වැනිදා දයා ලංකාපුරයන් සමඟිනි. එදින වරුවක්ම ඔහු සමඟ අතීත ආවර්ජනයේ නියැලෙමින් අපිි ගතකළෙමු.

දඹානේ වැදි නායක වන්නිල ඇත්තෝ සමගින් එල්මෝ ප්‍රනාන්දු ගුවන්විදුලි සාකච්ඡාවක යෙදෙමින් සිටියදී

ශ්‍රී ලංකා පත්‍රකලා සංගමයට වසර 60ක් පිරීම නිමිත්තෙන් එහි සභාපති මුදිත කාරියකරවනගේ මෙහෙයවීමෙන් 2015 ඔක්තෝබර් 9වැනිදා බණ්ඩාරනායක සම්මන්ත්‍රණ ශාලාවේදී ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන අතින් ඇගයුමට ලක්වූ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ජේෂ්ඨතම මාධ්‍යවේදීන් 10දෙනා අතර එල්මෝ ප්‍රනාන්දුද විය. එම සංගමයේ කලින් වසරේ ප්‍රධාන ලේකම්වූයේ ලියුම්කරුය. එල්මෝ ප්‍රනාන්දුගේ 50 වසරකට ආසන්න ජීවිත අත්දැකීම් අළලා මාධ්‍යවේදියෙකු විසින් රචිත ග්‍රන්ථයේ අත්පිටපත මෙයට සති කිහිපයකට පෙර ජේෂ්ඨ මාධ්‍යවේදී නාමල් පෙරේරා ඇතුළු පිරිසක් සමඟ ඔහු සාකච්ඡා කළෝය.

එල්මෝ ප්‍රනාන්දු සිය කලා ජීවිතය ඇරඹුවේ ඔහු උපන් හලාවත අවට ප්‍රදේශවල වේදිකාගතවූ පාස්කු නාට්‍යයන්හි රඟපෑමෙන් සහ නිවේදන කටයුතු කිරීමෙනි. එල්මෝගේ බිරිඳ මෞලි මැලේ ජාතික කාන්තාවක්වූ අතර දරුවන් වූ එකම පුතු රංග, දියණියන් දෙදෙනා වූ දිල්හානි සහ එරංගි ගෙන් සෙනෙහස සහ සත්කාරය අවසාන කාලයේ ඔහුට නොඅඩුවම ලැබුණි. එල්මෝ ඉතා සාර්ථක සහ ආදර්ශමත් පවුල් ජීවිතයක් ගතකල අයෙකි. ජීවත්ව සිටියදී එල්මෝ කල ඉල්ලීමක් මත පැය 24ක් ඇතුළත ඔහුගේ අවසන් කටයුතු සිදුකෙරිණි.

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චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම

ජාතික පිරිවෙන් දිනයේදී ගැටඹේදී 2016 ජුලි 27 දා ජනාධිපති සිරිසේන මහතා කියා සිටියේ බුදු දහමට අනුව රට පාලනය කරනවා කියාය.  අගෝස්තු 6 දා පොළොන්නරුව කිරි වෙහෙරේ පැවති ආගමික උත්සවයකදී (දිවයින අගෝස්තු 8, 2016) සිරිසේන මහතා නැවතත් කියා සිටියේ, ථෙරවාදී බුදු දහම මේ රටේ චිරාත් කාලයක් පවතීවා! යහපත් සමාජයක් ගොඩනැගීමේ එකම මග බෞද්ධ දර්‍ශනයයි  යනුවෙනි. පිටරටවලද ආධාරය ලබාගෙන වෙනම දෙමළ රටක් සඳහා වන ඊලම්වාදය තුරන්කරනවා කියාද මීට පෙර සිරිසේන මහතා කියා සිටියේය. මේ දෙවන ප්‍රකාශය ඔහුට කල නොහැකි දෙයක් වුවත්, පලවෙනි ප්‍රකාශය අනුව ක්‍රියාකිරීම දුෂ්කර නමුත් ඒ සඳහා ඉඩකඩ නැත්තේම නොවේ. මෙම කෙටි රචනා වැල ලිවීමට මා සිතුවේ ඔහුට හෝ ඔහුගේ දරුවන්ට මේවා කියවීමට ඉඩක් ලැබේ යයි සිතාය.

ඔහුගේ පිහිටෙන්, ඇමෙරිකාවේ ප්ලෑනට අනුව අගමැතිවූ, ක්‍රිස්තියානි-මාක්ස්වාදියෙකුගේ පුතෙක් වූ රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා කියන්නේ ඔහු හොඳින්ම ලිච්චවි රජදරුවන්වද හඳුනන බවය. කියුම් හා කෙරුම් අතර පරතරය කුමක්ද? එහෙත් ඔහු ක්‍රිස්තියානි ලෝක දේශපාලන සංගමයක උපසභාපති කෙනෙකි. ලෝකයේ උසම වෙහෙර ලංකාවේ හදනවා වගේ කතා කියන ඔහු ඉක්ටා ගිවිසුමට විරුද්ධවන අයට උත්තර දෙමින් ඊයේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී කිව්වේ මහින්ද හාමුදුරුවන් එනවිට ඒ අය සිටියා නම් මේ ඉන්දියන්කාරයා පන්නා දමනු කියා කෑගසණු ඇත කියාය. ඔහුගේ ක්‍රිස්තියානි පසුබිම නිසා නොවේ නම් හුදෙක් වාදයෙන් දිනීමට පුළුවන්වේය සිතාවත් මෙවැනි බාල කතා ඔහුගේ කටින් නොපණිනු ඇත (මනෝ පුබ්බංගමා දම්මා).  ඉක්ටා සමාන කලහැකි සුද්දන් ඒ කාලයේ තේවතුවල වැඩට ගෙනා ඉන්දියානූන්ට නොවේද? ඔහුගේ කට ඩොනල්ඩ් ට්‍රම්ප්ගේ කට වගේය කියා සිතේ.

මේ විකාර කතා අසන විට මට මතක් ‌වෙන්නේ බටලන්ද ගැනවත් නොව රනිල්ගේ මාමාගේ ධර්මිෂ්ට සමාජය ගැනය. ගැටඹේ පන්සල වටේ ගැසූ කටුකම්බිය. සරච්චන්ද්‍ර-මාදුළුවාවේ සෝභිත හාමුදුරුවන්ට බයිකල් චේන් වලින් ගැසීමය. මිසිස් බී ගෙන් පලිගත් අන්දමය. බහුබූත ව්‍යවස්ථාව 16 වරක්ම සංශොධනය කර ගැනීමය. ප්‍රේමදාස කාලයේ දිගට හරහට සීමාව පනිමින් සිංහල කොල්ලන් මැරූ අන්දමය. උස්සාගෙන යාම හෙවත් මරණ තර්‍ජනය නිසා වෙන් ප්‍රේමදාස පිංකමකට බලෙන් යාමට සිදුවූ හාමුදුරුනමක් මම දනිමි. වෙන කාරණා කෙසේ වෙතත් මෙවැනි පරිමානයේ ක්‍රියා රාජපක්‍ෂ සමයේ සිදු නොවූ බව අප පිළිගත යුතුය.

ලෝකයේ ප්‍රශ්ණ වලට විසඳුම් බුද්ධාගම අනුසාරයෙන් සොයාගත හැකියයි ඉන්දියාවේ ජනාධිපතීන් දෙන්නෙක්ම කිව්වේය. ඒ දෙන්නාම බෞද්ධයින් නොවීය. අබ්දුල් කලාම් හා ප්‍රතිභා පටිල් මේ දෙන්නාය. අබ්දුල් කලාම් මියයනවිට ඔහු සතුව ඉතිරිව තිබුණේ ගාන්ධි ලඟ තිබුණු දේ වගේ ඉතා ස්වල්ප දෙයක් පමණය. මේ වගේම බුද්ධාගම අනුව ඇමෙරිකාව ගොඩ ගත හැකි අන්දම ගැන, මුලින් හිපියෙකු වගේ සිට පසුව දළයි ළාමාගේ ආශ්‍රයට වැටීමෙන් පසු බෞද්ධ දර්‍ශනය පිළිඹද මහාචාර්යවරයෙක් වූ, රොබර්ට් තර්‍මන් විසින් පෙන්වාදී තිබේ (ඉනර් රෙවොලූෂන්: ලයිෆ්, ලිබර්ටි ඇන්ඩ් ද පර්සුයිට් ඔෆ් රියල් හැපිනස්, 1999).  ඇමෙරිකන් සෙනෙටර් විලියම් ෆුල්බ්‍රයිට් විසින් 1966 දී ලියන ලද ද ඇරගන්ස් ඔෆ් පවර් නම් පොතද බෞද්ධයෙකු විසින් ලියනලද කෘතියක් වැනිය.

බෞද්ධ දර්‍ශනය පිළිඹද මහාචාර්ය ඩබ්ලිව් එස් කරුණාරත්න කියා සිටියේ සන්තානගත හා බාහිර යනුවෙන් විප්ලව (ඉනර්-අවුටර් රෙවොලූෂන්ස්) දෙකක් සිදු නොවී ලෝකයට සාමය සතුට ලඟා නොවන බවය. 1977 දී ජේ ආර් ජයවර්‍ධන වෙනුවෙන් රට පුරාම චන්ද රැස්වීම් වලට ගිය ඔහු 1978 දී පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීන්ට ඉංග්‍රීසියෙන් පැයක කතාවක් දුන්නේය. ඔහු ජේ ආර් ගේ ධර්මිෂ්ට සමාජයේ නිර්‍මාතෘවරයා විය.  එහෙත් ඉන්පසු කලෙක ඇමෙරිකන් තානාපතිකමද අවසානවූ පසුව මහ බැංකුවට සාර ධර්‍ම යන මාතෘකාවෙන් කතාවක් දෙන විට ඔහු කලකිරීමෙන් හා කේන්තියෙන් සිටින කෙනෙක් බව පෙනීගියේය (යූ ටියුබ් එක බලන්න). බලාගෙන යනවිට ඩබ්ලිව් එස් හා ඒ ජයරත්නම් විල්සන් යන උගතුන් දෙන්නාම ජේ ආර් ගෙන් රැවටුන මහාචාර්යවරුය.

ෂකීර් නායික් නම් ඉස්ලාම් (පීස් ටීවී) ප්‍රීචර්, බයිබලය, කුරානය, භගවත් ගීතා, ධම්මපදය යනාදී ඕනෑම පොතක් කඩපාඩමෙන් දනී. ඔහු ඔහුගෙන් ප්‍රශ්න අසන අයව දමනය කරන්නේ ඉතාමත් ශූක්‍ෂම අන්දමටය. බුද්ධාගමේ චතුරාර්ය සත්‍යය ගැන ඔහු කියා සිටියේ: 1 දුක  (2) දුකට හේතුව (තෘෂ්ණාව) (3)  දුක නැතිකිරීම (4) දුක නැතිකිරීමේ මග ඔහු පිළිගන්නා බවය.  එහෙත් මෙහි 3 හා 4 අතර ගැටුමක් ඇතැයි ඔහු සිතයි.  තෘෂ්ණාව නැති කිරීමෙන් දුක නැතිකල හැකිනම්, ඒ සඳහා මගක් යොදා ගැනීමෙන් කරන්නේ තෘෂ්ණාව යලි පිළිගැනීමකැයි ඔහු කියයි. මෙය පිස්සු තර්‍කයක් වුවත් මා ඔහු ගැන සඳහන් කලේ ඉස්ලාම් ධර්‍මය හැර අන් හැම දේම ප්‍රතික්‍ෂේප කරන ඔහු බුද්ධාගමේ හරය පිළිගත් නිසාය.  ඔහු බැමියන් බුදු පිළිම විනාශ කිරීම අනුමත කරන්නේ බුදුහාමුදුරුවන් පිළිම වන්දනාව අනුමත නොකල නිසාලු!

අසෝක රජතුමා ගෙන් පසු ඉන්දියාවේ බුද්ධාගම පිරිහීයාම නිසා දශරාජ ධර්‍මය අනුව රටක් පාලනය කිරීමේදී ඇතිවන දුෂ්කරතා සිහියට නැගේ. වෙස්සන්තර රජෙක් හෝ සිරි සංඝබෝ රජෙක්, දියසේන කුමාරයෙක් සඳහා ඉඩක් නූතන ලෝකයේ තිබේද? උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන්, 1931 සිට ලංකාවේ දේශපාලනයේ යෙදුණ මන්ත්‍රීන්ලාගෙන් කී දෙනෙක් අවංක පුද්ගලයින් වශයෙන් හඳුනාගත හැකිද?

දැන් ලංකාවේ තිබෙන්නේ කොසොල් රජතුමාගේ සීන දාසැය සැබෑ වුන කාලයක්, සමාජයක් නිසා ඒ කාලයේ ධර්මිෂ්ට සමාජය විහිළුවක්, පුස්සක් වුනා වගේ දැන් කාලයේ යහපාලන කතාව මිරිඟුවක් විය නොහැකිද? යම් ප්‍රකාශ කිරීම ඉතාමත් හොඳ චේතනාවෙන්ම කලත්, ඒවා ක්‍රියාවට නගන්නට හැකියාවක් තිබේද? එසේ  නම් ප්‍රායෝගිකව ගතහැකි පියවර කවරේද?

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම
අගෝස්තු 10, 2016

Editorial Courtesy The Island

August 11, 2016, 12:00 pm

The Joint Opposition (JO) MPs yesterday staged a protest in Parliament against the Office on Missing Persons Bill (OMPB), which was originally scheduled to be put to the vote today. But, since no JO MPs spoke during the debate thereon, the government made the most of the situation and rushed it through Parliament with some amendments. There has been a serious lapse on the part of the JO.

The Rajapaksa loyalists should have moved the judiciary and sought a judicial review of the Bill at issue weeks ago. But, they were busy with other things to gain political mileage to the neglect of their legislative duties. The government took steps to place it on the Order Paper of Parliament and secure its passage with ease.

Instead of plunging Parliament into turmoil, the protesting MPs should have knelt down on either side of the road leading to Parliament, apologising to the public for having shirked their legislative responsibilities. Of what use is an Opposition which cannot figure out a constitutional amendment disguised as an ordinary Bill and invoke the jurisdiction of the apex court to thwart its presentation to Parliament?

It was obvious that the OMPB, in its original form, inter alia, sought to whittle down the powers of the executive president further. It made the Constitutional Council (CC) recommendations mandatory in respect of the appointment of personnel to the Office on Missing Persons; this kind of additional responsibility given to the CC amounted to further curtailment of the powers of the executive president elected directly by the people and, therefore, the OMPB, according to the original draft, was a constitutional amendment in all but name. It violated the Constitution. Article 82 (1) states: “No Bill for the amendment of any provision of the Constitution shall be placed on the Order Paper of Parliament, unless the provision to be repealed, altered or added, and consequential amendments, if any, are expressly specified in the Bill and is described in the long title thereof as being an Act for the amendment of the Constitution.” The OMPB, on the Order Paper, had not been presented as a constitutional amendment. Unfortunately, the protesting MPs hadn’t stressed this aspect of the issue in their appeals to the President.

It is too early to say whether the amendments which are said to have been introduced in a hurry yesterday, have rid the OMPB of the sections inconsistent with the Constitution.

The JO MPs belatedly sought a presidential intervention to have the OMPB referred to the Supreme Court for an opinion. Unfortunately, they made a political issue out of a legal one and landed President Maithripala Sirisena in an embarrassing position. If they had explained the legal position to him clearly, perhaps he would have been able to act without antagonising his allies in the ruling coalition. Mere rhetoric and threats won’t do. Shame on the JO!

However, the manner in which the government secured the passage of the OMPB yesterday has left a bad taste in many a mouth. The entire process of passing the crucial Bill, described as being inimical to the national interest, took less than two hours, we are told. The government’s modus operandi was antithetical to good governance the ruling coalition claims to promote. A Bill of this nature should have been subjected to a wider public discussion and all stakeholders consulted before its presentation to Parliament for ratification. The irresponsible conduct of the JO members cannot be cited in extenuation of the deplorable manner in which the OMPB was passed. The self-appointed champions of good governance have demonstrated once again that, though they are critical of the last regime’s unspeakable practice of steamrollering Bills through Parliament, they, too, do not hesitate to do so to further their political interests. Shame on them as well!

By Saman Indrajith Courtesy The Island

The Joint Opposition’s protest enabled the government to rush the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) Bill through parliament yesterday.

The Bill was passed with amendments amidst shouting and chanting of slogans by Joint Opposition against the government.

When the time came for Notice of Motions and Orders of the Day, Leader of the House Highways and Higher Education Minister Lakshman Kiriella moved the Office on Missing Persons (Establishment, Administration and Discharge of Functions) Bill for the second reading.

MEP Leader Dinesh Gunawardena said that the Joint Opposition would not agree with the government’s to change the session plan to hold the debate on the OMP for two days – Thursday and Friday) and to have the vote in Friday evening to advance the voting at 11 am on Friday.  He said that shortening the time of debate would deprive the Opposition MPs of their time to speak in Parliament leading to the deprivation of their privileges.

Following this, the members Joint Opposition invaded the Well of Parliament wearing black armbands as a sign of protest against the Bill. Some MPs were wearing black sataka and shouting against the government accusing the latter of betraying the nation.

As the protest was continuing not permitting the proceedings to continue, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya suspended sittings around 12.19 pm and called for a meeting of party leaders.

When the House resumed sittings, Leader of the House Minister Kiriella said that party leaders had agreed to extend Thursday’s debate time by three more hours till 9.30 pm and to have the vote at 11 am on Friday. The MPs of Joint Opposition protested, saying that they could not debate the issue till 9.30 pm and demanded the government to reverse its decision and to adhere to the original plan.

MEP Leader Gunawardena said that the change of plan amounted to a breach of privileges of MPs.

JVP MP Vijitha Herath explaining his party’s position said that the JVP had agreed to hold the debate for full two days and to have the vote taken at 6.00 pm on Friday. He, too, said that there was no point continuing the debate till 9.30 pm on Thursday but to finish sittings at usual time at 6.30 pm on Thursday, resume it at 9.30 am on Friday and to continue till 6 pm to put the Bill to the vote. The JVP had been permitted to present an adjournment motion for Friday, but the party was willing to postpone it if the government took the vote at 6 pm Friday, he said. “The original plan was to debate the VAT bill for two days, but following the Supreme Court decision that need did not arise. Had there been different pronouncement from the Supreme Court, we would have been debating the VAT Bill. Then, none of these problems of adjusting or changing the session plan would not have arisen,” he said, adding that the OMP Bill was originally scheduled for the next sitting week so that a two-day debate could be held and the vote be taken during the next sitting week.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya: “Except the Joint Opposition all other parties at the party leaders’ meeting agreed to have the vote at 11 am on Friday.”

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe: “The VAT Bill was presented to Parliament but following the Supreme Court opinion we did not take it for debate. The next most important Bill in the Order Book was the OMP. That was why we needed to bring it forward. There are no legal impediments to advancing the OMP Bill as it has not been challenged before courts. Then we with the consent of all allocated Thursday and Friday for the debate and agreed to have the vote at 11.00 am. There is Law Asia international conference on Friday evening. The President, the Minister of Justice and I have been invited to be present there. That was why we needed to have the vote at 11.00 am so that the MPs who go to the mosque on Friday noon prayers could do so. Otherwise, we could debate this till midnight tonight if the Opposition needs more time.”

Opposition Leader R Sampanthan said that his party had agreed to continue the debate till 9.30 pm on Thursday because the OMP Bill was very important.

Joint Opposition MPs Vasudeva Nanayakkara and Wimal Weerawansa opposed Opposition Leader Sampanthan’s suggestion; they pointed out that the Opposition MPs needed more time. MP Nanayakkara said the government had proposed 17 amendments to the bill and those amendments should be presented to the oversight committee before being taken up in the House.

Leader of the House Minister Kiriella said the government was willing to give time by stretching the session till 9.30 pm yesterday and till 2.00 pm today and invited Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera to commence the debate.

Joint Opposition MPs invaded the Well again for the second time and Sergeant-at-Arms Anil Parakrama Samarasekera aided by his deputies protected the Mace from the invaders.

Minister Samaraweera’s introduction to the bill was seconded by TNA MP MA Sumanthiran. JVP MP Bimal Ratnayake, too, spoke while Joint Opposition MPs remained in the Well shouting slogans.

At the end of MP Ratnayake’s speech, Speaker Jayasuriya asked whether the Joint Opposition MPs would participate in the debate or not and if they intended to do so to take their seats. However, since none of the JO MPs taking the opportunity to participate in the debate, Speaker Jayasuriya called on the Leader of the House to move the for the next item. So Minister Kiriella said that second reading of the bill was over and moved the House for committee stage for the third reading of the bill. As the government read out its amendments, the JO MPs shouted slogans. The bill was passed with amendments and the entire process took place within less than two hours.

House was adjourned till 9.30 am today.

Shenali D. Waduge

 Reciprocity is the hallmark of any relationship. However, we have hardly any evidence to prove Islamic reciprocity towards non-Islamic faiths. It has been announced that an international conference is to be held in Sri Lanka in August 2016 sponsored by Islamic nations and Islamic Religious organisations to foster peaceful co-existence between Muslims and Buddhists. No peaceful co-existence can come about if incursions are taking place affecting the sensitivities of the majority populace of a country. The magnanimity of wanting peaceful coexistence comes in removing that which are stumbling blocks to peace.

We welcome peace and peaceful co-existence between adherents of different religions. However, we must state that co-existence cannot be one-sided. While preaching peaceful co-existence Muslims and Islamic nations cannot expect to transplant their religions in sacred citadels of Buddhists and expect the Buddhists to keep silent. The oath of peaceful coexistence is and cannot be one-sided and is certainly no one way street for one party only.

We can give as examples with sadness of the incursions taking place with mosques being built close to hallowed Buddhist shrines in specifically Buddhist citadels – Anuradhapura, Dambulla, Kandy, Mihintale, Mahiyangana, Polonnaruwa (former Royal capital), Kelaniya and even in Buddhagaya, Lumbini and Kusinara. There is a new mosque built 60 metres away from the Maha Bodhi Temple premises in Buddhagaya where the Bodhisatwa (Prince Siddhartha) attained enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree to become the Buddha,  2600 years ago. To decide to build a mosque so close to the most important site of the Buddhists and then use Loudspeakers for the daily Azaan knowing very well that these high pitched loud screeching sounds would disturb the tranquility and peaceful environment conducive to meditation of the Buddhist monks and worshippers, must be considered as a direct affront to peace.  The failure of the Govt. of India to take steps to remove or re – locate this Mosque or take steps to withdraw the permit given to use loudspeakers is tantamount to a dereliction of duty. It undermines the loud boast of the Indian Govt. to protect Buddhism in its birthplace i.e. Buddha Gaya. The silence of the International Buddhist organizations such as the World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB) on this critical issue is deafening.

http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=24.695685&lon=84.991495&z=18&m=b

The other contenders for leadership of the Buddhist world such as China or even Nepal (where the birthplace of Prince Siddhartha is located i.e. Lumbini, now being increasingly projected as the Fountainhead of Buddhism) would never allow a Mosque to interfere with the proceedings of a hallowed Buddhist shrine. It is also a lesson for Buddhist countries like Sri Lanka to ensure that Mosques are not allowed to be constructed anywhere near an important Buddhist Temple because once permission is given it would be near impossible to prevent the Trustees of the Mosque from using loudspeakers out of spite and lack of sensitivity to disrupt the peaceful atmosphere of a Buddhist Temple. If it can happen in Buddha Gaya it can happen anywhere else including disturbing the proceedings of the Dalada Maligava in Kandy.

The situation boils down to a simple axiom. You can demand only up to what you can and are prepared to concede to the other party. Nothing more. Each and every Muslim in Sri Lanka and the rest of the Islamic world must ask this basic straight forward question.

Islam is recognised officially as a religion in Sri Lanka. Three days in the Calendar year have been declared as public holidays for the benefit of Muslims. Mosques are being allowed to be built at any place in this country purely on the basis of a simple request irrespective of whether there is a sizeable Muslim population to justify the construction of a Mosque. In Kattankudy there are 48 Mosques over and above the needs of a small Muslim community in that small town. Muslim-Muslim rifts have resulted in varying types of mosques emerging. Muslim religious and public figures are regularly honoured via commemorative postage stamps. Can the Muslim world name a single Muslim majority country that has given Buddhists the same accord of reciprocity? Our people cannot even take a Buddha statue, a portrait or postcard of the Buddha or pray in public or even build a temple and in the Holiest place for Muslims i.e. Mecca, non-Muslims cannot even put a foot inside. When was the last time a new Buddhist Temple was allowed to be constructed in a Muslim majority country? Where is the reciprocity?

Sri Lanka is historically a Buddhist country. A land whose identity was closely tied to Buddhism. The cultural landscape was essentially Buddhist. This is fast changing with a planned effort by Abrahamic religions and their followers backed by foreign NGOs and Christian and Muslim countries to remove the Buddhist identity of Sri Lanka.

Ideas that have no cultural roots in Sri Lanka such as Secularism, Pluralism, Multi – culturalism and the like are bandied about with only one sinister aim – to remove Buddhism from public life. All types of efforts are being funded from all corners to realize this evil political objective.

The Theravada Buddhist countries are all facing similar threats. Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, Laos and even a predominantly Hindu country such as Nepal which has Lumbini (birthplace of Prince Siddhartha – the Buddha to be).

An email thread asking What if Thailand turns into a Christian majority nation” has some interesting responses http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?t=19628&start=40 and there are success stories. South Korea once a majority Buddhist nation is today under evangelical influence. Maldives expunged its early Buddhist history and is now an Islamic Sharia following country. There are lakhs of Maldivians living, studying and working in Sri Lanka though a Sinhala Buddhist cannot even carry a photo of the Buddha as it gets confiscated and destroyed at the airport check-in counter in the Maldives.

Instead of protesting at the contempt shown to Buddhism and our countrymen, the Govt. of Sri Lanka rests content looking the other side.

We place these demands as a solution to the crisis facing the remaining Buddhist communities and the Buddhist world

1. All Muslim majority nations must endorse and publicly acknowledge and legally accept Buddhism as a global religion. In Europe only two countries Russia and Austria have officially recognised Buddhism as a religion. The rest of Europe and the vast majority of the Islamic world deny as a matter of public policy basic recognition to Buddhism while availing themselves of all the best facilities that Buddhist countries afford to both Christianity and Islam. The contrast in public policy and reciprocity between countries following Abhramic religions and the Eastern Dharmic religions in this respect, is indeed striking.
2. All Muslim majority nations must grant equal status legally and constitutionally to Buddhist places of worship and allow migrant Buddhist communities in the West Asian countries (Middle East) to freely practice Buddhism and construct Buddhist places of worship.
3. All Muslim nations must be sensitive to Buddhist concerns. If the whole of Arabia is regarded as the sacred territory of Islam, Buddhist sacred sites must be equally accepted as no-go areas for mosque construction in any form. All such constructions that have occurred of late must be removed forthwith or re- located including the mosque placed in close proximity (within 60 metres) of the Maha Bodhi Temple in Buddhagaya, India (where Prince Siddhartha attained enlightenment and became the Buddha). The Buddhist Commission Report of 1956 emphatically stressed that no place of worship of a non – Buddhist religion be allowed to be constructed in Sri Lanka. This recommendation is now being honoured in the breach.
4. Muslims must respect the judgment of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka i.e. an interim order delivered in November, 2007 which upheld the grievance of a petitioner that Azan makes ‘Captive listeners of people of other religious faiths and violates the fundamental rights of the general public, such as the right to silence and the right to quiet enjoyment of property’. The Supreme Court adopted the position that a public nuisance cannot be excused on the ground that it causes some convenience or advantage to a few, and directed ‘ that all permits issued by the Police under Section 80(1) of the Police Ordinance (for use of loudspeakers) shall cease to be effective forthwith’. For more details of this highly acclaimed judgment of the Supreme Court to restrict noise pollution in Sri Lanka, see http://www.island.lk/2007/11/10/news9.html Everyone has watches to know the timings to call for prayer. Using loudspeakers to call for prayer in highly congested urban areas is a totally out of date practice that is causing tension and generating huge amount of anger and hatred towards Muslim communities also in India. Azaan is increasing the communal gap http://www.vijayvaani.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?aid=4018
5. Muslims should not be allowed to use and exploit all the laws and freedoms in nations adopting multiculturalism while denying these same basic freedoms of religious worship to non-Islamic people in Muslim majority nations.
6. Muslim minorities cannot demand eating and drinking habits to be in accordance with their faith when in Muslim majority nations there are no such rights whatsoever afforded to non-Muslims.
7. In Buddhist countries Buddhist values such as non – violence towards all living beings including animals, must be allowed to prevail over the values that cause destruction to innocent lives of harmless animals e.g. Animal sacrifice, which the Buddha has condemned without qualification and considered as an hideous and foul practice by Buddhists and other right thinking people all over the world.

A point of view advanced by some Muslims that what is ours is ours and what is not ours is a battleground, is untenable and a recipe for conflict now and in the future between Muslims and non-Muslims.

At another level the minorities in Sri Lanka seem to think that by holding ‘multicultural’ ‘pluralistic’ ‘secular’ ‘peaceful co-existence’ placards they can silence the Sinhala Buddhist majority who they expect to silently watch as every area of Sinhala Buddhist ethos, sacred areas, sacred sites, history, artifacts, rituals are all dislodged and replaced with either Christian or Islamic beliefs and monuments and thereafter expect the Sinhalese to accept defeat and give up Sinhala cultures/traditions and Buddhism and embrace either Islam or Christianity/Catholicism or Evangelicalism. How morally correct is such conduct on the part of extremists in Minority communities?

Even the Muslim Congress leader and current Minister for Water Supply and Drainage is seeking a separate Muslim province in an area that was assigned to the Muslim Community by a benevolent Buddhist King i.e. King Senerath in 1626, for the safety of the Muslims who were desperate to escape from a Portuguese Inquisition and Genocide under the command of a Portuguese captain–general named Constantino de Sá de Noronha. 

King Senerath never intended the Eastern Province or part of it to be administered as a separate District by the Muslims. That would be the height of ingratitude. 

http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=2016/03/17/local/76777

Therefore it is essential that Muslims must be conscious of the existential fears of the Buddhist world given that one thousand years ago a good number of countries that are pre-dominantly Muslim now were Buddhist such as Maldives, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Malaysia. 

Only a genuine and sincere effort to understand the Buddhist fears and reservations, and in adjusting Muslim conduct to allay such fears can the process of peaceful co-existence between Buddhists and Muslims be taken forward.

Shenali D. Waduge

Refer also

Buddhist Fundamentalism? By Dr.Asoka Bandarage 

https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2016/08/09/buddhist-fundamentalism/

The Crisis facing the Buddhist World

http://www.sriexpress.com/articles/item/770-the-crisis-facing-the-buddhist-world.html

Ruwan M Jayatunge   

Abstract: This article discusses the psychosocial problems experienced by the POWs of the Eelam War. The Eelam War in Sri Lanka continued for nearly three decades. The rebel group that is known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam fought against the Sri Lankan armed forces. The LTTE captured a significant number of servicemen during the armed conflict and most of them were executed disregarding the Geneva Convention. The remaining POWs were handed over to the Sri Lankan Government by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Although the survived POWs are free men today a large numbers are experiencing numerous psychological and physical ailments as a result of the war captivity. The descriptions of clinical cases are provided. These POWs need culturally congruent psychological /psychiatric treatment including holistic psychosocial rehabilitation.

Key Words :  Eelam War , POWs , PTSD , DESNOS ,

The Eelam War in Sri Lanka has caused numerous physical and mental health ailments among the survivors. The POWs suffered extreme conditions. During the armed conflict the LTTE (the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) captured a considerable number of servicemen from the Sri Lanka Army, Sri Lanka Navy and the Sri Lanka Police Service. Most of the captees were executed by the LTTE. Nonetheless a very small number of POWs managed to escape from captivity. The remaining prisoners of war (POWs) were freed after the interventions by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and returned them to the Sri Lankan Government. Although the POWs found their freedom most of them live with psychological scars. They have rigorous impairments in emotional social and physical functioning.

To become a POW in a war is a horrendous experience.  Prisoner of war (POW) captivity can involve the most extreme trauma perpetrated by humans ( Neria  et al., 1998; Hourani &  Hilton, 2002).Throughout human history, those captured in war have presented their captors with the basic choice between immediate execution, immediate release, or continuing custody – holding them in custody pending their release or other disposition (Hickman, 2008). Starvation and the diseases and stresses of imprisonment could impact the POWs immensely. Debilitating events could leave either more frail or more robust survivors, depending on the extent of scarring and mortality selection. The majority of empirical analyses find more frail survivors (Costa, 2012).

The article 4 of the Third Geneva Convention protects captured military personnel from cruel treatment. One of the main provisions of the convention makes it illegal to torture prisoners and states that a prisoner can only be required to give their name date of birth, rank and service number (Third Geneva Convention of 1949). However the POWs of the Eelam War experienced mental and physical torture under their captivity. The harsh treatment of former prisoners of the Eelam War resulted in severe mental and physical health problems.

Though medical consequences of war attract attention, the health consequences of the prisoner-of-war (POW) experience are poorly researched and appreciated (Robson et al., 2009). In this context psychosocial health of the former prisoners of the Eelam War widely misunderstood and under researched.  The long-term psychological and psychiatric sequelae of the POWs of the Eelam War are unknown. Having suffered catastrophic war trauma these victims experience a wide range of psychosocial problems. Psychopathology and psychiatric diagnoses have found among them. Although they need long term care, symptoms of suspiciousness, isolation and detachment prevent them seeking mental health support services.

According to Ursano and colleagues (1981) POWs experience a profound degree of stress during their captivity. The POWs are at risk for developing PTSD (Friedman et al., 1994). After repatriation POWs can develop physical and psychological disorders due to sickness, nutritional deficit, past physical and mental trauma and readjustment problems. The severity of captivity and the presence or absence of social supports during and after the POW experience play major roles in the recovery or illness that may occur after repatriation (Ursano & Rundell, 1990).

The POWs Under the LTTE Custody

The LTTE had a number of prison camps in Devipuram,  Thunnukai Mullaivaikkal , Vallipunam Udyarkattu (Victor Base 1) in Northern Sri Lanka. These prisons were heavily-fortified prison complexes. According to the University Teachers for Human Rights Jaffna (UTHR) in early 1990s between 3000 to 4000 Tamil prisoners were held in Thunnukai detention camp by the LTTE (UTHR Chapter 3 :The Tortured community).

The LTTE did not provide accurate information about the captured servicemen and often they were killed after brief interrogations and these victims later fell into the MIA (missing in action) category. In 1990 the LTTE killed nearly 600 police officers in the Vinayagapuram and Trincomalee jungles after their surrender to the rebels.

The LTTE held a number of POWs for many years in secret locations without giving any information to the International Committee of the Red Cross or to the Sri Lankan authorities. During the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement the LTTE Northern leader Theepan (Velayuthapillai Bhagheerathakumar ) informed the Sri Lankan authorities that they had no more prisoners of war. However some of the ex-POWs affirmed that the LTTE held prisoners of war in secret locations in 2002 and after.

According to Silva (2000) in the latter stages of the Eelam War as many as 1,400 men were detained in the LTTE-controlled Vanni area of northern Sri Lanka. In 2009 The Sri Lanka Army 59 Division troops were able to rescue 7 servicemen held captive by the LTTE at Vellamullaivaikkal detention center. By the end of the War in 2009 the LTTE killed a large number of Tamil prisoners including the POWs who were held at the Devipuram prison.

In 2010 the Sri Lanka Police recovered bodies of 26 Sri Lankan soldiers executed by the LTTE in Kilinochchi District. They were taken as prisoners of war by the vanquished rebel group and kept for years before they were executed.  These soldiers had been imprisoned at the Victor Base Prison at Vallipuram in Mullaitivu for more than three years (Ministry of Defence Sri Lanka).

The LTTE kept some POWs to bargain with the Sri Lankan Government and their information had been sent to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Nonetheless the POWs were not treated according to the third Geneva Convention and they were kept in deplorable conditions.

The POWs of the Eelam War experienced severe form of stresses under the captivity and they suffered physical torture, humiliation, confinement, boredom and mock executions. Most of the surviving POWs show positive symptomatology of depression and anxiety related disorders. Their psychosocial wellbeing is relentlessly compromised by the effects of past traumas and guilt. In addition these victims are affected by the DDD Syndrome (that consists of debility, dependency and dread) that had been described by Faber, Harlow and West in 1957.

Commander Ajith Kumara Boyagoda

The senior-most officer in LTTE custody was Commander Ajith Kumara Boyagoda. Commander Boyagoda joined the Navy on September 1974. He was commissioned as a Captain on March 8, 1997. He was the commanding officer of the SLNS “Sagarawardena”-330-tonne large gun boat of the Sri Lanka Navy. The ship had a crew of 42 officers and men. On the 20th September 1994 the ship was attacked by a large group of LTTE boats with suicide crafts in the high seas of Thalpadu in Mannar. Following the attack the ship began to sink. Only 18 people survived including its captain Commander Boyagoda. He became a POW on the 20th September 1994 and was detained for eight years. According to Commander Boyagoda he was well treated by the LTTE except at the beginning when he was kept in solitary confinement. In 2000 he launched a hunger strike demanding family members to visit him. Commander Boyagoda was released in 2002. He is now serving as a Managing Director in a private company.

Private U.S.R.Jayakumara

U.S.R.Jayakumara was a soldier attached to the 3rd Gajaba Regiment of the Sri Lanka Army. He became a POW when the LTTE attacked the Sri Lankan Army and naval base at Pooneryn in 1993. He was held in several locations in the jungle along with other prisoners of war. They were all chained together using a welding machine. It was a painful procedure and all prisoners sustained burn injuries. The wounds were not treated and it became infected. The anguish was unbearable. The captors shifted the POWs around from place to place in the North. They were kept in areas such as Nallur, Kodikamam, Mirisuvil, Periyamadu   Manthikai and Puthukudiyiruppu with no facilities. The POWs were transported in a cruel manner. They were packed tightly kept chained and handcuffed during the journey. Sometimes they were forced to march in the jungle. According to Jayakumara it was a tormenting period and they suffered from mental anguish and bad quality of food. Most of the time they were given pittu and brinjal curry to eat and finally they went on a hunger strike demanding favourable prison conditions. Private Jayakumara had to spend nearly nine years in the LTTE prisons and it became a prolonged interpersonal trauma for him. Finally he was released in 2002 after the interventions by the ICRC.

Private S.H. Gunawardena  

Soldier Gunawardena served in the third Battalion, Gajaba Regiment of the Sri Lanka Army. He was captured in 1993 in the Pooneryn attack. He was first pronounced MIA (missing in action) and then reported KIA (killed in action). His family was informed about his death and they held a funeral ceremony. Eventually the family came to know that Gunawardena was alive and detained by the LTTE. The family made frantic efforts to see him. Each time the requests were declined by the LTTE leaders. Private Gunawardene spent more than eight agonizing years as a POW in conditions of extreme privation.

Private D. K. Hemapala

Private D. K. Hemapala of the third Battalion Gajaba Regiment of the Sri Lanka Army became a POW in 1993 during the Pooneryn attack. His physical health deteriorated rapidly due to maltreatment and callous prison conditions. He died during the captivity in 1998. Private Hemapala was 45 years old.

Lance Corporal P

Lance Corporal P was captured by the LTTE in 1993 and endured the next five and half years in prisoner of war camps. He was deeply traumatized and his psychological wounds were a direct result of his being in the LTTE prison camp. He is a casualty of war, strained by the emotions that had haunted since 1993. When he came home guilt and anger and helplessness built up. He struggled with depression and malignant anxiety.

Lance Corporal P joined the Sri Lanka Army in 1991 as a signalman. After his basic training he was sent to the operational area. In 1993 he was posted to Welioya Senapura Camp. In the same year the LTTE attacked the camp and overran it killing a large number of soldiers. Lance Corporal P was captured alive by the enemy. During the attack he witnessed the killing of his   superior officer. The officer was killed with a mammoty.  After killing the officer his eyes were taken out. Lance Corporal P witnessed this shocking incident with fear and horror.

He was then taken to one of the LTTE camps and stripped naked. A group of LTTE child soldiers severely assaulted him with cables and batons.  The beating went for nearly a half hour. He was in pain and bleeding from the ear. One of the leaders came and stopped the beating and gave him water. He was handcuffed and put in a cell. He slept on the damp floor.

The following day Lance Corporal P was taken for questioning. It went for several days. During the interrogations he was savagely beaten, electrocuted and constantly questioned to get classified radio signal codes used by the Sri Lanka Army Signal Corps (SLASC). The interrogators mistakenly identified Corporal P as an officer of the SLASC. When the interrogators could not obtain any vital information from Corporal P, he was subjected to solitary confinement.

For nearly seven months he was kept in solitary confinement with sensory deprivation. After spending a few weeks in the dark small prison cell Corporal P lost his sense of time and orientation. His biological clock became disrupted. After seven months he had disorientation, hallucinations and affective disturbances.

After the solitary confinement he was subjected to systematic physical and mental torture.  Several times he was taken to slaughter grounds for mock executions. On one occasion a Tamil prisoner who belonged to a different rebel group (EPRLF) was shot in front of his eyes.

According to Lance Corporal P the guards were extremely brutal in their handling of prisoners of war. Interrogators as well as the prison guards administered beatings and torture frequently. He was handcuffed for interminable periods and kept in painful positions. He was not able to resist torture without cooperating with his captors. He was subjected to psychological manipulation and blackmail. Following the long term repressive conditions, the torture and degradation under which Corporal P suffered resulted PTSD.  Lance Corporal P had to spend nearly five agonizing years as a POW under the LTTE custody.

He was released in 1998 with the intervention of the International Red Cross. When he came home he could not feel happiness. His emotions were numbed and he had immense fear that the LTTE would capture him again. He had deep suspicion, intrusions, flashbacks, nightmares and suicidal ideation.

In 2000 he was diagnosed as having full blown symptoms of PTSD. Over the years his anxiety disorder has been developed in to a malignant level.  He has numerous DESNOS (Disorders of Extreme Stress Not Otherwise Specified) related symptoms including affect dysregulation, suicidal preoccupation, amnesia, severe guilt and shame, inability to trust people, somatization, hopelessness and despair. In 2005 Lance Corporal P was medically discharged from the Sri Lanka Army following his psychological disability.

Private SXJ

Private SXJ served in the Sri Lanka Sinha Regiment and unexpectedly became a POW during the Operation Riviresa (Operation Sun-rays) in 1995. His captors kept him in a temporary camp along with other prisoners.  This transitory camp was controlled by a LTTE regional leader and it was used as a supply camp. From this camp food, ammunition and medical supplies were sent to the front line.  

According to Private SXJ there were nearly twenty POWs and they were used as conscript labourers to build bunkers. In this prison camp Private SXJ noticed that some POWs were subjected to forced blood draw by the LTTE. The blood was then transfused to the wounded LTTE cadres. After the blood was forcefully drawn the POWs were not given any nourishing supplements. The victims looked extremely weak and exhausted. They had no energy even to stand up. The victims were lying on the floor helplessly.

The POWs were constantly guarded by armed members of the LTTE. There were a number of female cadres and sometimes they did the guard duty. The day time the POWs laboured to build bunkers using heavy Palmyra logs. The prisoners were under fed and constantly beaten. They were tired and exhausted. At night the POWs were kept in a large bunker that was converted in to a prison cell.

The LTTE temporary camp persistently came under fire by the Sri Lankan forces. During an air attack the guards ran for cover. Hence Private SXJ had a chance to escape. He ran deep in to the thick jungle. Some guards fired at him but he escaped without any injury.

Several days he crawled in the jungle. He ate tree leaves and grass to survive. On the third day of his escape Private SXJ met several wood cutters in the jungle and they helped him to come to a remote village. The home guards who defended the village from the LTTE attacks took him to the nearest Army camp.  There he was given food and water then he was hospitalised. Although Private SXJ spent a few weeks under the LTTE captivity he was intensely terrified and suffered an acute stress reaction.

Constable HXC

Constable HXC was one of the captees of the Sri Lanka Police who had spent excruciating period as a POW. He was kept in an awful prison condition along with other POWs. They were subjected to physical and mental torture. Their food rations were irregular and sometimes they were intentionally given rotten food. Many prison inmates suffered from dysentery and skin infections.

According to Constable HXC one of the LTTE prison guards who spoke Sinhala fluently tortured them relentlessly. Sometimes he used to sing Sinhala songs and tortured the POWs. The POWs became extremely frighten when they heard his singing voice. He was released in 2002 during the ceasefire agreement between the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE. Although Constable HXC is a free man today he has numerous psychological and physical symptoms. He left the Police department and now working as a security guard in a private firm.

Lance Corporal U

Lance Corporal U became a POW in July 1991 during the operation Balawegaya (Operation Power force) one of the largest amphibious operations conducted by the Sri Lankan armed forces. He was wounded during the battle and captured by the enemy. Until his release in March 1995 he was subjected to inhuman treatment. He struggled with depression and anger. He had always been angry at his captors. He was beaten a number of times and threatened to be killed

Lance Corporal U was deprived of sanitation, light and proper medical treatment. He was kept in a small cell with 40 other prisoners. They had no enough space and practically every prisoner suffered skin infections. The sick and wounded were left in their own excrement for many days. Some days they were given rotten food and while they were having meals the guards used to disturb them with loud noises etc. They were not allowed to take showers for months. Finally they decided to go on a hunger strike. After continuous interventions by the ICRC the LTTE agreed to release him with a group of other prisoners.

After coming home Lance Corporal U reported back to his unit. Gradually his sleeping pattern and the appetite started to change. He felt more alienated. He had loss of interest and pleasure in daily activities, multiple somatic complaints, loss of libido and had repeated thoughts to commit suicide. He was diagnosed with Depressive Disorder. Although he was treated with medication (anti depressants) his condition was aggravating. He was troubled by intrusive memories, emotional numbing, nightmares, startling reactions and avoidance of reminders. In 2003 he was diagnosed with PTSD. Lance Corporal U was treated with EMDR and his symptoms had been reduced to a significant level. Today he is almost symptoms free and leading a productive life.

Mr. N

Mr. N – a civilian worked as a cook in the Poonareen Camp. When the LTTE attacked the Poonareen camp in 1993, 241 soldiers, including 8 officers, were killed in the fighting. Nearly 200 combatants were captured alive. (The plight of these captives is still unknown. The Military Authorities believe that these POWs had been murdered by the LTTE)

When the LTTE cadres advanced towards his sector Mr N hid inside the building complex and later found by them. He was beaten vigorously and threatened to be killed on the spot. They put a gun to his head and threatened to pull the trigger. Mr. N was in extreme fear.

He was mistakenly identified as an officer of the Sri Lanka Army and he was transported to one of the LTTE base camps. For a long period the LTTE believed that Mr. N was an officer in disguise.  Therefore he was subjected to numerous physical and mental torture to extract crucial information. Finally the Red Cross intervened and established his correct identity.

For nearly nine and half years, he lived his life a prisoner under the LTTE. He was homesick and practically every day prayed for his freedom.  For a long time he lived with uncertainty without knowing what his future would be.  When the Sri Lanka Air Force attacked the LTTE camps, their guards used to ill-treat them severely.

Mr N’s condition significantly improved when he met another POW – Capt Boyagoda from the Sri Lanka Navy. Capt Boyagoda gave him courage and strength to face the callous conditions. Along with the other POWs, he spent the time discussing their release and writing letters to home via the ICRC.

He was released on the 30^th of September 2002. After his release, he gradually developed stress related physical symptoms such as headaches, backaches which did not subside to painkillers. He was unable to sleep. At nights, he was awake and thinking of the past. He often had melancholic feelings, and troubled by emotional anaesthesia.  He could not feel the happiness of becoming a free man. His emotions were dead. Mr. N was losing the will to live. Several times, he planned to commit suicide.  Finally he was able to receive counselling, medication and psycho social support that improved his condition.

Sailor P.K.I. Pitiyakumbura

Sailor P.K.I. Pitiyakumbura of the Sri Lanka Navy became a POW in November 2006 when his Navy Dvora attacked by the Sea Tigers in the Point Pedro seas. He was kept in different LTTE Sea Tiger bases under brutal conditions. He spent almost two and a half years as a prisoner of war. He was rescued by the Sri Lanka Army 59 Division troops in Vellamullaivaikkal area in 2009

The LTTE Interrogators and the Prison Guards

Most of the ex POWs concur that the LTTE Interrogators and prison guards were unsympathetic towards them and treated inhumanly. They often acted on impulses- hate and prejudice. Most of them derived sadistic satisfaction torturing prisoners. According to the statements given by the ex POWs when a prisoner screamed in pain the torturers intensified the torturous method that they inflicted on him.

Interrogators used numerous physical and psychological torture methods to extract information. They questioned the prisoner for long hours depriving him of sleep. During the interrogations if they found any discrepancies in the POW’s statement he was severely beaten, electrocuted or subjected to extreme mental torture.

The POWs were often beaten with rods. Beatings sometimes continued for several hours. When a prisoner is tied with a rope by hands and feet behind the back helplessly lying on the ground, he was beaten by a group of guards. They used to beat him with wooden poles or PVC pipes. They continued beating until the prisoner loses consciousness Some POWs succumbed to death.

Cutting the body with sharp razors was another punishment that had been used by the tormentors. Multiple superficial cuts were made on the prisoner’s body and then he is thrown in to a cell. The victim bleeds for a long time and suffers dehydration. He is not given water for several days.  Mostly the victims lose consciousness inside the prison cell. After a few days the body becomes swollen due to infection. Only a very few survived after this mode of torture.

According to some of the POW s the interrogators used Chili powder that is made from the plant   Capsicum annuum to torture prisoners. Chili powder was applied on prisoner’s sensitive bodily areas such as eyes, anal cavity and in foreskin.  It gave the victim an unbearable burning sensation. The pain lasted for several days. Sometimes the prisoners were forced to inhale Chili smoke.

Torturing the POWs with electric shocks had been reported. Electrodes were placed in the oral cavity or other sensitive parts of the body and then non lethal electrical shock had been released by using a portable generator.  The victims often suffered convulsions and lost consciousness.  In addition heated iron wires were used to burn the prisoners. These torturous methods caused severe disfigurements.

POWs with severe bodily scars and disfigurements were never released and later killed by the prison guards. Their bodies were burnt with sugar in order to incinerate the skeletal parts.

In spite of all these negative reports some of the POWs agree that there were kind LTTE cadres who treated the POWs in a humane way. When Lance Corporal P was severely beaten and left in handcuffs in his prison cell out of compassion one guard brought him water.  Lance Corporal U revealed that when he was given rotten food by hardcore members some guards secretly gave food to him from their rations. When there were no senior cadres some taught him Tamil and spoke with him ordinary things in life.  Mr N states that some of the LTTE cadres spoke with him nicely sometimes revealing their love affairs etc.

Psycho Social Problems Experienced by the POWs

Psychosocial problems, such as behavioural, emotional, and occupational problems, are highly prevalent among the POWs. For many ex POWs being a prisoner of war often means that one’s life has changed sometimes beyond repair. Some of them suffered permanent psychological damages as a result of torture and degradation. Many are still hounded by their past memories of the LTTE torture chambers. They are at special risk for reduced physical and emotional well-being.

POWs are torture victims. Torture profoundly disrupts the senses and personality (Reyes, 2007). It can cause severe form of psycho-trauma. The symptomatology associated with torture trauma will vary with respect to learned patterns of coping and the particular ethnic, political, and spiritual perspectives through which an individual views the experience. It must be interpreted accordingly, in terms of both the culture of origin and the relocation setting, when formulating therapeutic interventions (Gorman, 2001).

The tortured POWs are impacted by traumatic reminiscences. They relive their past traumas. The repeated recollection of traumatic memories is a central component of the phenomenological response to traumatic events (McFarlane, 2010).

When traumatic events occur, by definition they are frequently beyond the victim’s control. In addition, certain inadequate coping responses are frequently present as victims attempt to take charge of their lives in the aftermath (Flannery, 1999). Antonovsky (1979) indicate that sustaining an important commitment in life is enhanced by a sense of coherence of the world. The POWs with their past traumatic experiences perceive that the world is unsafe and unpredictable. They lose the sense of coherence of the world. They have profound sense of alienation and loneliness.  It   erodes the ability to make and maintain healthy attachments.

It has been noticed that a significant number of POWs have disconnected from the social support networks. Their social environment is rigorously fragmented. The internalized disorders that they suffer have caused lack of strong bonds to societal institutions and weaken the community and social ties. It impairs their ability to function as member of the society.

The POWs diagnosed with PTSD found with trauma-related anger and hostility. Anger directed against the self or others is always a central problem in the lives of people who have been violated and this is itself a repetitive re-enactment of real events from the past. (van der Kolk, 1989). They have intense perception of their perpetrators. Some have preoccupation with hurting perpetrator and planed revenge. Often they displace their anger and frustration on family members. Many have the feeling of being permanently damaged and wasted.

Averse life experiences and maladjusted cognitive and behavioural processes have caused wide-ranging psycho social problems among the ex POWs.  Although human spirit is resilient many POWs of the Eelam war found it difficult to re adjust to the post war Sri Lankan society.   Returned prisoners of war were not treated as war heroes. Majority of them left the military or the police service. Their long term torture and degradation have never been examined appropriately and majority of them did not receive proper rehabilitation and health benefits.

Shame and Guilt

War captivity situation become deleterious even for the core self of the person ( Urlić et al., 2009).  It can cause severe Psychological distress making the POW more dysfunctional.

The POWs have higher level of shame and guilt. Shame is the most personal and private of all feelings (Rustomjee , 2009) and  according to Gilbert (2003) Shame experiences can cause significant threat to the (social) self. Often the POWs maintain persistent traumatic silences.  It has become a disconnecting experience for them. Shameful feelings are at the very basis of the psycho traumatised -persons’ withdrawal, depression, suicidal attempts, and even psychotic answer (Urlić et al., 2009).

A POW evidently becomes an instrument of his tormentors. For the perpetrators torture becomes an expression of hate and prejudice. The violence inflicted on prisoners of war by its personnel as the product of indoctrination in brutality which is decomposed as blind obedience to authority, abuse of subordinates by superiors, and  extreme differences in social status (Brown,1998). As reported by the former POWs of the Eelam War the members of the Tiger Organization Security Intelligence Service (TOSIS) used vicious physical and psychological methods to extract information from them.

The LTTE used proficient psychological methods to break the morale of the combatants. Sometimes psychological manipulation was used as a key method.  Following isolation and psychological anguish often the captees established traumatic bonding with their captors. Some of the POWs had to collaborate with the enemy due to high pressure but many resisted.

The POWs were held in contempt by their captors. They underwent humiliation. Some guards frequently used derogatory remarks. Sometimes the guards used to urinate on the detainees. When the LTTE lost their cadres in a battle the guards became exceptionally brutal.

The POWs were disconnected from the outside world and they felt that they were abandoned by the military. They lived in an extreme world of darkness. Frequently they were displayed as proof of victory and subjected to ideological indoctrination. The POWs were allowed to take showers once or twice a month. Hence sanitation became a huge problem. Many of them suffered from skin rashes like scabies. There was no privacy in their prison cells. They had no toilets except poorly covered toilet buckets infested with flies. POWs had to use the toilets in front of all the others. Sometimes they were stripped naked and searched by the guards.

Water supply was limited and they were only given a small amount of water per day. The food was unpalatable and also given in very small quantities.  There was no scope for their biological needs. Most of the POWs were in their young age and the desire for sexual contact was suppressed under these traumatic circumstances. However some of the ex-POWs later revealed that sometimes at nights they used to engage in masturbation. According to the ex-POWs the erotic feelings gave some self soothing effect and it temporarily helped them to forget their suffering.

The POWs had little choices when they lived under their captors. They were monitored round the clock and had no time to rest, relax or recuperate. Anxiety, boredom, confusion impacted them daily basis. Shame and guilt repeatedly became excruciating. Sometimes the interrogators deliberately used very young child soldiers (as young as 12 – 15 years old) to beat the POWs. They were beaten with clubs. For senior non-commissioned officers it became a shameful episode.

Many trauma survivors believe that their choices during the traumatic event were unjustified, even though their actions during the event might have been the best choice at the time. Also some trauma survivors may believe that their actions violated their own standards of right and wrong, due to negative outcomes, even if their actions at the time were consistent with their moral standards (Bratton, 2010).

Shame and guilt affected the POWs in greater degrees. When an individual experiences both distress and a feeling of responsibility for causing the traumatic event he is significantly troubled by guilt (Kubany & Manke ,1995).Guilt may intensify or complicate trauma (Nader et al., 1990).

According to Alexander McFarlane Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Adelaide (Personal communication, 2014) traumatic stress fundamentally disrupts psychobiology that has long lasting effects, particularly for individuals such as POWS. This impact is also very much about the idea of being captured, defeated and compromised. These impacts are not about biology but about shame. This then has a biological consequence through the constant reminders it brings.

After coming home some of the former prisoners of the Eelam War still fight back shame and guilt. They have negative self-appraisals following the failure to fulfill their military obligation and ended up as a POW. Some have guilt that they had to collaborate with the enemy under the extreme conditions. Most of the traumatic memories are associated with the experience of trauma-related guilt. Some are confronted with ethical and moral challenges.

The Compulsion to Repeat the Trauma

Clinical research indicates a tendency to compulsive repetitions of traumatic experiences (Horowitz, 1975). Many individuals re-create and repetitively relive the trauma in their present lives (Horowitz, 1976; Levy, 1998).  As indicated by Levy (1998) trauma survivors may also be drawn to establish relationships that are similar to past significant relationships because there is comfort in familiarity.

Trauma can be repeated on behavioural, emotional, physiologic, and neuroendocrinologic levels. Repetition on these different levels causes a large variety of individual and social suffering.    (van der Kolk, 1989). Compulsive repetition of trauma affects the survivor’s psychosocial wellbeing. As indicated by Cowls & Galloway (2009) people who have had traumatic life experiences may connect with work in an unhealthy way.  It corrodes their functionality further.

According to Miller (1994) the process of trauma reenactment is cyclical and includes thoughts, feelings, and behaviour that can be interpreted at any point in the cycle. At one point the cycle could be interpreted as feelings of rage, shame, or fear causing an individual to inflict self-harm. At another juncture, it could be interpreted that self-harming causes disgust that results in further punishment, or finally, it could be interpreted that when an interpersonal relationship becomes too intimate the individual feels compelled to detach through self-harming behaviours. The self-abuse cycle serves to protect the trauma survivor as it keeps others at a distance (Trippany et al , 2006). In behavioural re-enactment of the trauma, the self may play the role of either victim or victimizer.  (van der Kolk, 1989).

The occurrence of reenactments of past trauma has been found among a number of former POWs of the Eelam War. Often they play the role of victim and face daily activities with a learned helplessness. Many survivors have compulsion to repeat elements of the traumatic events. Some of the former POWs of the Eelam War have joined the security firms or work as personal bodyguards handling weapons and exposing themselves to a vulnerable atmosphere.

Suicidal Ideation

According to numerous studies suicidal behaviour has been found to relate to trauma exposure. War captivity is one of the most severe human-inflicted traumatic experiences with wide and substantial long-term negative effects with suicidal tendencies (Zerach, Levi-Belz & Solomon, 2013). Researchers believe that suicidal ideation among the ex-POWs connected with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that they suffer. According to Calabrese and colleagues (2011) soldiers with PTSD were at increased risk for suicidality.

Past traumatic memories could impact the victim’s present condition negatively. Memories of abuse and trauma also may be encoded at the explicit, autobiographical level.  Autobiographical memories and negative cognitions can be triggered by similar stimuli in the environment which in turn, then activate negative emotional responses associated with the memory (Myers, 2002).

Traumatic over-arousal has been identified as one of the triggering factors. Traumatic over-arousal may arise from inner affective deluge with minimal external stimulation and it could trigger suicidal ideation. Suicidal crises are often marked by repetitions (flashbacks) of these affects as they were originally endured in past traumatic experiences. Further, recurrent overwhelming suicidal states may retraumatize the victims (Maltsberger et al., 2011).

In addition to memories of abuse and trauma many former prisoners of war hugely impacted by self-blame and guilt. Combat guilt could be one of the significant predictors of both suicide attempts and preoccupation with suicide suggesting that guilt may be an important mediator (Hendin & Haas, 1991; Maguen & Litz, 2012). Miller, Martin, & Spiro (1989) indicate of a   study among former WW I1 prisoners of war and it was found that 57% of POWs imprisoned by the Japanese harboured suicidal thoughts and that 7% of POWs under the Germans had attempted suicide.

PTSD is frequently comorbid with major depressive disorder, and when the two disorders co-occur, the risk for suicidal behavior is enhanced (Oquendo et al., 2013).  Combat veterans diagnosed with major depressive disorder and comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder have a risk for suicidality. Researching the risk for suicidal behaviors associated with PTSD, depression, and their comorbidity in the U.S. Army,  Ramsawh and colleagues (2014) found that suicidality has independent associations with both PTSD and depression.

Suicidal behaviour can be considered within the spectrum of risk-taking behaviours (Ortin et al., 2012). A number of risk-taking behaviours have been found among the ex POWs of the Eelam War. Some of them used to take unnecessary risks while crossing the busy streets.  Some were found with working in life threatening jobs.

Addictive disorders are important risk factors for suicide. Indirect self-destructive behaviours such as severe alcohol or drug abuse with long term suicidal intentions were detected among some of the POWs.

POWs and Physical Health

There is longstanding interest in the effects of stress on health, due to the strain that it places on the adaptive capacity of individuals, which thereby leads to an increased risk of disease. (McFarlane, 2010). POWs were found with significant health problems.  Different physical illnesses are prevalent among the Sri Lankan ex-POWs. These physical ailments were resulted by physical beatings and detrimental prison conditions. They often complain of headaches, joint pains, muscle pains, fatigability, dyspepsia and lack of energy.

Defrin and colleagues (2013) highlight that torture survivors suffer from high rates of chronic pain and hypersensitivity in the previously injured regions. In addition they indicate that torture appears to induce generalized dysfunctional pain modulation that may underlie the intense chronic pain experienced by torture survivors’ decades after torture.

Among former WWII POWs, risk of cardiovascular disease is related to having PTSD (Kang, 2006). A number of studies have suggested that PTSD has a direct relationship with the risk of developing hypertension (McFarlane, 2010). Systemic diseases such as Hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus were found in ex POWs in Sri Lanka. Persistent health problems have affected their day today activities.

Hunt et al., (2008) of the view that conditions of captivity and health concerns or emotional distress during captivity may contribute to long-term adverse health outcomes as measured by later life disabilities in individuals incarcerated as POWs. Creasey and colleagues (1999) found that Prisoner of War during World War II was associated with a higher prevalence of chronic disease and diminished functional performance in later life. They hypothesized that POW experience played a part in premature, abnormal, or unsuccessful aging in some individuals.

Researches indicate that ex – POWs have high mortality rates. Dent and colleagues (1989) found that mortality rates of the former Australian POWs due to disease or accidents are higher than in general population.

The long-term health consequences of the POWs have been researched in numerous armed conflicts around the world. Hunt and colleagues (2008) found that significant associations between later life disability and POW experiences. Conditions of captivity and health concerns or emotional distress during captivity may contribute to long-term adverse health outcomes.

Meziab et al (2014) indicate that POW status and PTSD increase risk of dementia in an independent, additive manner in older veterans.

Although physical health of the POWs of the Eelam war remains under-researched area physical health decline among the POWs of the Eelam War has been observed in a number of cases.   Longitudinal studies would be needed to investigate the health effects of the ex POWs in Sri Lanka.

Impact on Mental Health

Physical and psychological torture inflicted to the POWs has an atrocious impact on their mental health. Most empirical research indicates that the psychological impact of trauma suffered by war captives is severe and persistent (Hourani, 2002).  Many psychiatric signs, symptoms, and defense mechanisms have been reported by POWs retrospectively during debriefings (Ursano & Rundell, 1990). Captives suffer from some mental or behavioural disorders even after freedom that can limit conformity of them to society and their social roles ( Najafi et al., 2007).

The ex POWs often have the feelings of being trapped and un-empowered. van der Kolk et  al,  (1996) indicate that traumatized persons with posttraumatic conditions have become “stuck” on the trauma and its sequelae. Following psychological entrapment they show signs of confused thought processes with disorientation. The ex-POWs continue to feel entrapped by their PTSD symptoms that tie them to their captivity memories while still experiencing foreshorten future, even years after the war ( Zerach,  et al, 2013).

As reported by Eberly and Engdahl (1991) American former prisoners of war had moderately elevated lifetime prevalence rates of depressive disorders and greatly elevated rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The degree of stress caused by these experiences depends on the physical conditions, the psychological experience, degree of maltreatment, interpersonal issues, and the individual and cultural appraisal of events (Biderman, 1967;  Ursano & Rundell,  1990).

Solomon and collagues (1994) assessed the long-term impact of war captivity and combat stress reaction on rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Israeli veterans of the 1973 Yom Kippur war and found that small but significant proportions of the POWs and veterans with combat stress reaction were still suffering from PTSD almost two decades after the war. Kluznik , Speed,  VanValkenburg &  McGraw (1986) found a lifetime PTSD rate of 67%   In a group of American POWs. These disorders have the same prevalence in captives of all countries (Boehnlein et al., 2007).

The POW s of the Eelam War underwent torture in extreme proportions. The LTTE regularly used solitary confinement to psychologically break down the captured servicemen. Hence they could extract vital information about the internal configuration of the military camps, artillery gun positions, troop movements etc from the captives. Although the solitary confinement was a popular method of the perpetrators it caused huge mental health consequences among the POWs. As indicated by Grassian (2006) solitary confinement that is the confinement of a prisoner alone in a cell for all, or nearly all, of the day with minimal environmental stimulation and minimal opportunity for social interaction can cause severe psychiatric harm.  As a result of the physical and psychological torture the POWs of the Eelam War suffer from symptoms, disability, and maladjustments.

War captivity is a recognized pathogenic agent for both posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and disorder of extreme stress not otherwise specified (DESNOS) symptoms, also known as Complex PTSD (Zerach et al., 2013). Complex traumas are implicated in attachment orientations and PTSD symptoms even many years after captivity (Solomon, 2008). Some of the Sri Lankan POWs show positive symptomatology of DESNOS or Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) that was described by Dr. Judith Herman in 1992.  According to Herman (1992) Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) is a psychological injury that results from protracted exposure to prolonged social and/or interpersonal trauma in the context of either captivity or entrapment that result in the lack or loss of control, helplessness, and deformations of identity and sense of self.

The Eelam war ended in 2009 and most of the ex POWs are now reaching their middle age.  Research data indicate that aging veterans experience mental health concerns. Rintamaki and colleagues (2009)   found Traumatic memories and clinical levels of PTSD persist for WWII POWs as long as 65 years after their captivity in World War II prisoners of war.

Aging ex-POWs who develop psychiatric symptomatology should be considered a high-risk group entering a high-risk period in the life cycle. It is important to monitor ex-POWs and provide them with appropriate medical and psychological treatment as they age (Solomon et al., 2013).

Alcohol and Substance Abuse among the POWs

Making the transition from prison cell to home had been a severely overwhelming experience for most of the POWs. The POWs returning home have high rates of alcohol and substance abuse.  The ex-POWs consume alcohol and other substances to suppress traumatic war-related memories, escape flashbacks and to achieve a combat nightmare-free sleep. However Alcohol and Substance Abuse have become a risk factor for morbidity and mortality. In their 30-year follow-up of American prisoners of war (POWs) of World War II and the Korean conflict Page et al (2000) found evidence of increased cirrhosis mortality.

Alcohol and drug addiction denotes individual risk factors in war trauma.  About 84% of those suffering from PTSD may have comorbid conditions including alcohol or drug abuse (Javidi & Yadollahie , 2012).

A study done with a group of Vietnam veterans McFall and colleagues (1992) found that reexperiencing and avoidance/numbing components of PTSD were more strongly associated with drug abuse and    physiological arousal symptoms of PTSD were more highly correlated with alcohol abuse.

Alcohol and Substance Abuse have been reported among some of the Sri Lankan ex POWs. Binge and hazardous drinking and cannabis abuse have become a significant health related problem. Alcohol and Substance abuse frequently co-morbid with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that is experienced by the POWs. Nevertheless associations between alcohol and other substance abuse problems and post-traumatic stress disorder among the Sri Lankan POWs remain understudied.

Marital Problems

War has deleterious effects on both ex-POWs and their wives (Solomon et al., 2009). POWs experience higher levels of marital problems. Previous exposure to combat trauma could impact family dynamics negatively.  The effect of imprisonment and release on family members and the family system itself can be profound and enduring or minor and transient (Ursano & Rundell, 1990).

According to Dekel (2007) the wives of POWs reported significantly higher levels of distress and growth than did the wives of the controls. Dekel & Solomon (2006) state that PTSD is related to decrease marital satisfaction, increased verbal aggression, and heightened sexual dissatisfaction among former POWs. They emphasize that marital problems of former POWs are more related to PTSD than to their captivity.

Zerach and colleagues (2010) investigated the marital problems of ex-POWs of the Yom Kippur War and found an association between the traumatized ex-POW’s capacity for intimacy and both their sexual satisfaction and dyadic adjustment. O’Donnell and colleagues (2006) examined the relationship among posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and intimate partner relationship aggression in a community sample of World War II male military former prisoners of war. According to the researchers sixty percent of these POWs reported verbal aggression in their marriages, and 12% endorsed physical aggression.

War captivity on parenting has been discussed among numerous ex – POW groups. Zerach and colleagues (2012) found lower levels of positive parenting in ex-POWs.

A significant numbers of the ex POWs of the Eelam War experience intra-familial conflicts. They experience numbing of emotions, loss of libido, erectile dysfunctions and difficulty in modulating sexual behaviour. The social and emotional deficits associated with their past trauma often contribute to marital problems. Relationship difficulties, domestic violence, problems with emotional intimacy, distressed relationships in the community have been observed. When family violence intensifies children often become victims. Often they witness inter-parental violence which has a strong detrimental impact on them. Catani et al (2008) found a relationship between war violence and violent behaviour inflicted on children in their families in Sri Lanka.

Treatment Measures

The Sri Lankan armed conflict lasted for thirty years. On average Sri Lankan POWs spent five to nine years under captivity. According to Andersen (1975) typical Vietnam POW being in captivity about six or seven years and their period of confinement was considerably longer than that of the prisoners of World War II and the Korean War. This highlights the magnitude of psycho trauma experienced by the Sri Lankan ex POWs.

The ex POWs remain as a highly vulnerable group. They suffer from a large array of physical and psychological symptoms that has links with the POW experience. According to Ursano & Rundell,(1990) the prisoner of war experience is greatly influenced by the environmental and socio-cultural factors of the particular captivity setting. Therefore their trauma has to be understood by psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual levels.

War captivity has pronounced independent effects on current depression and PTSD among the ex POWs of the Eelam War. Psychiatric and psychosomatic morbidity play an important part in their treatment schedule.

Turnbull (1992) states that debriefing after initial release from captivity is considered as a standard treatment. After the preliminary stage complete assessment has to be done and appropriate treatment should be provided.

Medication treatments can be effective in PTSD acting to reduce its core symptoms, and should be considered as major part of the treatment (Stein et al., 2000). The treatment of PTSD focuses on cognitive behavioural therapy and the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (McFarlane, 2010). According to Baldwin (2006) the serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (SNRI), venlafaxine, milnacipran and duloxetine are efficacious in relieving anxiety symptoms within depression, and some have proven efficacy in certain anxiety disorders. Emilien and colleagues (2000) state that Tricyclic antidepressants are generally thought to be effective in alleviating symptoms, including nightmares, depression, sleep disorders and startle reactions.

Psychotherapy is an essential part in the treatment plan.  According to Mendes et al (2008) CBT, exposure therapy and cognitive therapy are effective in the treatment of PTSD. Foa and colleagues (2009) highlight the efficacy of EMDR in treating PTSD. EMDR has been successfully used to treat a number of Sri Lankan ex POWs diagnosed with PTSD and Depression. (Jayatunge, 2008).

Treating the ex POWs with complex PTSD or DESNOS (disorder of extreme stress not otherwise specified) could be challenging. Exposure to recurring and extreme stressors and extensive toll of war captivity has made these victims a psychologically fragile group. Their symptoms such as emotional dysregulation, altered self-perception, modulation of anger pathological dissociation, inability to trust, deep suspicion, avoidance and sense of betrayal could deter the therapeutic outcome.

As indicated by Luxenberg , Spinazzola and van der Kolk  (2001) DESNOS has persistent biological, emotional, interpersonal, and social components that all must be assessed and addressed in treatment. Recognizing DESNOS in traumatized groups is important for conducting therapeutic interventions (Nemcic-Moro et al., 2011).  Ford and colleagues (2005) describe a three-phase sequential integrative model for the psychotherapy of complex posttraumatic self-dysregulation: Phase 1 (alliance formation and stabilization), Phase 2 (trauma processing), and Phase 3 (functional reintegration). As they indicate technical precautions designed to maximize safety, trauma processing, and reintegration.

Maxfield (2014) denotes that EMDR can be used to treat complex PTSD. According to Korn & Leeds (2002) Forgash & Copeley (2008) and   Korn (2009) EMDR can be clinically applied in cases of complex PTSD.

Rehabilitation and providing social support help in long term recovery of the POWs. Several studies suggest that the older, more educated, married, less-combat-experienced New Zealand Vietnam War POWs who received post-release social support faired better than their counterparts (Vincent et al., 1994; Page et al., 1991; Hourani et al., 2002). Dent et al (1987) and Venn and colleagues (1991) point out that factors such as employment and higher socioeconomic status may be protective against depression among former POWs.

The Psychosocial rehabilitation of the war affected Sri Lankan combat veterans is significantly crucial (Jayatunge, 2014). The ex-POWs need appropriate psychosocial rehabilitation and support. Psychosocial Rehabilitation practices help them re-establish normal roles in the community, independence and their reintegration into community life.

Restoring Posttraumatic Growth

Although traumatic events jeopardize physical and psychological equilibrium giving rise to a wide range of physical and mental health complications an alternative perspective proposes that trauma has a salutogenic effect (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 2004; Dekel et al, 2012). Sometimes aftermath of trauma opens a new line of thinking about trauma’s effects (Keidar , 2013).  It could    pose significant challenges to individuals’ way of understanding the world and their place in it (Tedeshi et al., 2004). This insight could be used as a potential Posttraumatic growth.

Restoring Posttraumatic growth in ex POWs is tremendously important and it is therapeutic for them.  Individuals can develop a positive outlook and further experience positive psychological changes in the wake of traumatic events (Tedeschi et al., 2004; Dekel et al, 2012).

Dekel and colleagues (2012) of the view that individuals experiencing PTSD, particularly when it is enduring, have the potential for positive psychological change. Tedeschi and Calhoun (1995) hypothesized that positive psychological changes can occur following a potentially traumatic event as post traumatic growth and it can be allied with increased character strengths. They further state that post traumatic growth could be directed towards improved relationships with others, openness to new possibilities, and greater appreciation of life, enhanced personal strength, and spiritual development. Posttraumatic growth is not simply a return to baseline from a period of suffering; instead it is an experience of improvement that for some persons is deeply meaningful (Tedeshi & Calhoun, 2004).

Conclusion

The POWs of the Eelam War have become an under-studied population. Although they experience severe psychological and psychiatric problems a very few studies to date have examined psychological sequelae of the ex POWs.

The POWs of the Eelam War were exposed to prolonged and repetitive traumas. It has caused serious psychological consequences among them. Torture and imprisonment have left these victims permanently scarred. They remain as a chronically traumatized population. They experience a wide variety of physical and psychological symptoms which impact their functionality and psychosocial wellbeing. In addition these survivors encounter   adjustment difficulties to civilian life. Many of the ex POWs have a lower health-related quality of life.

A large number of ex POWs continue to show the positive symptomatology of   PTSD and Depression. Some POWs have symptoms characteristic of DESNOS (disorder of extreme stress not otherwise specified). They need trauma-focused psychological treatment.

Some of the Sri Lankan POWs treated with medication (anti depressants), CBT and EMDR showed significant symptom release. Regrettably mistrust sense of betrayal, trauma reminders and triggers, alienation and a sense of foreshortened future have distanced many victims from the support services. Their mental health needs are often not being met. Therefore an effective treatment programs should be provided to these victims. They need culturally congruent psychological /psychiatric treatment including holistic psychosocial rehabilitation. Special health care is recommended to address the problems of ex POWs. The health care system should actively seek the survivors and provide support. In addition it is important to assess current and long-term psychological and psychiatric sequelae of war trauma of the POWs of the Eelam War.

Personal Communications

• Professor Sharon Dekel Tel-Aviv University. Instructor in Psychology Harvard Medical School · Department of Psychiatry

• Louise Maxfield, Psychologist, EMDRIA Approved Consultant, London Health Sciences Centre London, ON, Canada

• Professor Alexander McFarlane -Director of the Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies, Professor of Psychiatry The University of Adelaide

Acknowledgements

• Neil J Fernando – Former Consultant Psychiatrist of the Sri Lanka Army
• Andrew P. Levin- Adult and Forensic Psychiatry 141 North Central Avenue Hartsdale, NY
• Michael Odenwald -The University of Konstanz Germany

Funding: None.

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Foreword – Between Literature and Psychology

Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge, a Sri Lankan clinician, has written an extraordinary book linking the Western literary canon (Shakespeare, Dante, Goethe, and Tolstoy among others) with psychiatry, showing how great writers are able to portray psychopathology with unique depths of understanding. More importantly, Dr. Jayatunge introduces Western readers to five Sri Lankan writers, Cumaratunga, Wicramasinghe, Jayathilaka, Navagattegama, and Wediwardena whose grasp of the psychology of human nature is unparalleled. This book should become standard reading in clinical psychology and related mental health disciplines.

Professor Mary V. Seeman OC MDCM FRCPC DSc. 

Professor Emerita   

Department of Psychiatry University of Toronto 

By Noor Nizam.  Peace and Political Activist, Political Communication Researcher, SLFP Stalwart and Convener – The Muslim Voice.

News http://www.adaderana.lk/news/36449/

As bribery, corruption and smuggling is dominant in Sri Lanka and prostitution and drug trade is rampant under the pretext of Tourism industry development, big time MAFIA operators and money laundering big timers will enter the country to set-up their regional operations under this scheme. The government immigration and banking sectors are NOT efficient to world standards to tract down and ascertain whether these applicants are genuine honourable persons interested to seek such visas for a comfortable and leisure life in Sri Lanka or are they International crooks. President Maithripala Sirisena has to be cautious NOT to allow such schemes without fully understanding the situation, just because the Finance Minister says that there will be lots of deposits coming in to the country. All his (The President’s) endeavours to control the drug, smuggling, prostitution and money laundering activities will be of NO use, if this is type of opening out the country to International crooks will be allowed.Moreover, International Terrorist operatives who want to create trouble for us, could also use this ruse to creep into our country. During President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government, strict administrative regulations concerning the issue of these visas were in place and they were NOT bent whoever may have suggested them as above. The Buddhist clergy should take up this matter with HE. The President before it is too late in the interest of the future generation of our children.

Dr. Tilak S Fernando Courtesy Ceylon Today

Constructive criticism can easily be taken for granted as being intolerable and odious. In reality, of course, independent voice of the people needs to be heard whether it is bared through the media or by an independent journalist’s scoop or even coming out from the odd person in society, which boils down to the fact that impartial views need to be heeded. Comment on the other hand can also be subjected to self- imposed limitation, yet it is always better to be frank rather than be fair. In western complex societies constructive criticism is appreciated as sound advice; which even the heads of governments respect, the majority, decide and act in a gentlemanly manner, whereas, in Sri Lanka, which has a civilization spanning over centuries (long before westerners became civilized), many seem to harbour petty and narrow-minded ideologies, suffering either from acute persecution or delusions.

In Sri Lanka, since achieving independence from the British, and whatever the government was in power, politicians and administrators were very sensitive to constructive criticism and interpreted such as ‘ personal attacks’! After all, very basic logic tells us that any criticism or compliment arises out of an individual or a government’s activities. Politicians in this scenario will be more prone to public scrutiny as to how they perform, once they come into power, from public vote, promising the voter to serve faithfully prior to an election! However, once they come to power, and if they begin to exhibit bouts of Alzheimer’s disease (most common form of dementia), it would be natural for the public who voted them to office to get disappointed and frustrated and start criticising their failures and flops, objectively. Depending on the level of democracy that prevails in the country, people have a natural tendency to react to failed promises and performances of the authorities. This is how this country has had to face a number of problems in the bygone era, which undoubtedly have hampered its progress.

Media Exposure

When a newspaper comes up with a scoop, which may embarrass a government, should nationalization of that establishment or sealing off the offices of the newspaper, be the answer to the problem? Or, if a particular TV station comes out with an exclusive exposé supported and cemented with factual evidence, does burning down of the whole television studio be the treatment for such exposed ills, rather than trying to put the house in order? What people in this country faced in the past were demoralizing and ‘demonizing’ activities undertaken by former administrations and responsible government ministers and their henchmen. This is evident from those who are now being summoned to various fraud investigation committees for alleged heinous crimes, used their might on personal vendetta, pilfering millions of tax payers money as a means of exposing the amount of skullduggery during their heyday.

When there is a climate of frustration, disappointment and fear, the voters who elected parliamentarians and helped them to be upgraded to Cabinet Ministers, Prime Minister or even as the President, has a right towards the truth and towards their country with a conscience to throw light on injustices or broken promises by those elected rulers. Voluntary silence in the face of oppression or when society gets the feeling that their appointed rulers are beginning to go haywire and off the rails, a process to undermine the foundation of the brotherhood they seek seemingly and definitely begins. In the absence of objective criticism, how are the rulers to be helped if this is not done? How do the ruled find hope if no one does it? Therefore, it works towards a mutual advantage!

Passing the Buck

When the entire society is pushed towards hardship by the policies and actions of a government by introducing excessive taxes, for example, which naturally becomes a burden on the public, and when the government machinery turns a Nelsonian eye to bring immoral traders who violate marketing ethics due to improper planning to tackle such calamities, the public and the media institutions have a bounden duty to make a hue and cry, openly, by challenging the authorities for their failures. In such dilemmas should protest marches be subjected to Police force and water cannons, the answer to solve problems of that nature in a democracy or a yahapalanaya, which Sri Lanka is boasting about today?

On the other hand, even to suggest and demand tax free luxury vehicles to politicians costing millions to the tax payer while these ‘ super breeds’ are provided with free housing costing over a million a month (Rs 80,000 per month in the most sought after residential areas in Colombo) with Ministers’ other allowances such as fuel subsidies, free electricity, water and telephone bills, secretary’s and office staff salaries including chauffeurs wages; foreign trips, medical expenses for treatment in Singapore and others, which the yahapalanaya promised to do away with, prior to their coming to office, is bound to dismay and offend the public at large. Should such things highlighted as constructive criticism, be termed as criminal propaganda, except they are only meant as eye openers for the demented administrators to get their priorities right, rather than starting to criticise the public and blame the media for such exposures.

Humanity

Today, some of the TV stations such as Derana and Sirasa are engaged in yeoman service, to help the suffering folk in neglected rural areas. TV teams visit, film and expose their tragic plight, campaigning for help by way of public donations in improving such areas and peoples’ lives and health. These are the areas that have been neglected for years by the so called elected members of Parliament. Derana TV’s charitable service to help those who are affected by Kidney disease as much as Sirasa TV’s many programmes including the latest operation Gam Medda programme; in operation for hundred days, needs to be admired and appreciated for taking over the responsibilities of the elected members of the Parliament and the government; by exposing the amount of suffering of those doomed and helpless villagers, who have been going through a rough time for a long time. Should such meritorious deeds be considered as criticising the rulers? Certainly not, but it has helped to bring the miseries of unsophisticated, poor and helpless citizens of this country to the attention of President Maithripala Sirisena who has taken immediate steps to resolve such tragedies.

Some MPs have been making a big hue and cry in safeguarding their claims recently to have duty free Mercedes Benz cars to travel quickly to long distances in order to serve the people! The amount of misery and suffering by those who are doomed are seen only when the TV teams visit these areas on those rugged pathways, where no vehicle could travel, school children having to take off their shoes to wade through muddy patches on these tracks and having to wear shoes back once they get to the other side of muddy pools, poor mothers having to carry children on piggy back for want of motorable roads. In such a scenario demands to have luxury top of the range Mercedes Benz cars can only be treated as jokers’ selfish dreams! Thank heavens, at least temporarily; such notions had to be postponed by the government, due to natural disasters that took place at the heat of such arguments by parliamentarians, as a means of nature’s punishment!

How can such heartbreaking and tear- jerking information be categorised as negative criticism aimed at toppling a government? On the contrary, such information will only help those abandoned human beings and neglected areas, by opening the eyes of the rulers, before Sri Lanka could be transformed into the ‘Miracle of Asia’!

It is indeed a tragedy when Sri Lankans are regarded as quite intelligent folk compared with other Asian or countries of the world, majority of our voters still appoint representatives to the august assembly to expose themselves to be a obtuse and dim-witted lot, who qualifies to be seen as, in British Pub-Language, “we are only here for the beer”!

“Man is not, by nature, deserving of all that he wants. When we think that we are automatically entitled to something, that is when we start walking all over others to get it” – Criss Jami,

tilakfernando@gmail.com

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

2016 මැයි මස 27 දින ගැසටයේ සඳහන් වන්නේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලද අතුරුදහන් තැනැත්තන් පිළිබඳ පණත පිළිබඳ සම්පූර්ණ විස්තරයයි. මෙම ගැසටයේ සඳහන් පරිදි සාක්ෂි ආඥාපණතේ සීමාවන් ඉක්මවා යන බලතල අතුරුදහන්තැනැත්තන් පිළිබඳ කාර්යාලයට හිමි බව පැහැදිලිය. ඊට අමතරව වරෙන්තුවක් නොමැතිව පොලිස් ස්ථානයකට හෝ හමුදා කඳවුරකට ඇතුළු වීමට බලතල ද හිමි වන්නේය. මීනීවලවල් හෑරීමටද අවශ්‍ය බලතල ද හිමි බව සටහන්ව ඇත. මේ ගැසට් පත්‍රය පළ කරනු ලබන්නේ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය වරයාගේ ආඥාව පරිදිය.

2015 වසරේ විදේශ ඇමති මංගල සමරවීර මහතා ජිනීවා ගියේ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ රජය සහ හමුදාව කල නොපණත්කම් ගැන මානව හිමිකම් කොමිසම ඉදිරියේ සිය කණගාටුව පළකරන්නට බව පැහැදිලි කර ඇත. මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලය මගින් නිකුත් කළ ප්‍රකාශයට මංගල සමරවීර මහතා එකඟතාවය පළ කර ඇත.එA අනුව ලක්රජය වෙනුවෙන් පොරොන්දු කීපයක් දී තිඛෙන බවද පැහැදිලිය. මේ එකඟතාවය හෝ පොරොන්දුව අනුව 2015 දෙසම්බර් 18 දින සංහිඳියා යාන්ත්‍රණය පිළිබඳ ජනාධිපති කාර්ය සාධක බලකාලයක් පිහිටුවනු ලැබ ඇත.එයද අග්‍රාමාත්‍යයවරයාගේ ආඥාව පරිදි සිදුව තිබේ. මේ කාර්යාවලියේදී රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධාන වලින් සෘජුවම සහයෝගය ගැනීමටත් විශේෂ නියෝජනයක් ඔවුන් හට ලබා දීමටත් රජය එකඟ වී තිබේ. පාක්‍ය සෝති සරවන්මුත්තු මහතා මෙම බලකායේ ලේකම් බවට පත්වන්නේ එලෙසයි. ඔහුගේ විකල්ප ප්‍රතිපත්ති කේන්ද්‍රයනම් රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධානය නියෝජනය කරන පිරිස ට පැවරී තිඛෙන කාරිය නම් රට පුරා ගොස් මහජන අදහස් ගැනීමයි. ඉන්පසුව පෙර කී පොරොන්දුව අනුව අතුරුදහන් තැනැත්තන් පිළිබඳ කාර්යාලය සත්‍ය සෙවීමේ කොමිසම සහන සම්පාදක කාර්යාලය මෙන්ම විශේෂ අධිකරණයත් පිහිටුවීම කළ යුතු වේ. මෙය ජනධිපති කාර්ය සාධක බලකායට පැවරී තිඛෙන ප්‍රධාන වගකීමයි. දැන් මාස හයකට වඩා ඉක්ම ගොසින් ඇත. උතුරු සහ නැගෙනහිර ප්‍රදේශ වල මේ ප්‍රවිචාරණ ක්‍රියාවලිය යස රෙඟ්ට කෙරෙන බවත් ව්‍යාජ සාක්ෂි එකතු කරන බවත් මීට පෙර මා දිවයින පුවත් පත මගින් හෙළි කල බව කිව යුතුයි.

මේ හෙළිකිරිමෙන් කලබලයට පත් වූ ආණ්ඩුව වහාම දිසාපතිවරුන් කැඳවා මේ ප්‍රවිචාරණ ක්‍රියාවලිය රට පුරා ම පැවැත්වීමට උපදෙස් දී තිබේ. එහි ප්‍රතිඵලයක් වශයෙන් මේ දිනවල බස්නාහිර පළාතේ කොළඹ ගම්පහ සහ කළුතර යන ස්ථාන වල ප්‍රවිචාරණ ක්‍රියාවලිය සිදු කරමින් ඇත. එහිදී එහි සභාපති වරයා වශයෙන් කටයුතු කරන නීතීඥ සුර්ශන ගුණවර්ධන මහතා මෙම මස තෙවනි දින කළුතර දිස්ත්‍රික් ලේකම් කාර්යාලයට පැමි‚ ඇතර ඔහුගේ කණ්ඩායමට දෙමළ මුස්ලිම් බහුතරයක් අඩංගුව සිටි බව අප නිරීක්ෂණය කළෙමු. මෙම ප්‍රවිචාරණ ක්‍රියාවලිය සම්බන්ධව පැහැදිලි කිරීමක් කළ ගුණවර්ධන මහාතා මහජන අදහස් විමසීමෙන් පසු සත්‍ය හා යුක්තිය ඉටු කිරීමට රජය බැඳී ඇති බවයි.මේ ප්‍රවිචාරණ ක්‍රියාවලිය වැදගත් වන්නේ සිවිල් සංවිධාන වල අදහස් නියෝජනයෙන් එය සකස් කිරීම සිදු කරන බැවිනි යැයි ඔහු වැඩිදුරටත් ප්‍රකාශ කල බව මෙහිදී සඳහන් කළ යුතුයි.මේ අවස්ථාවට බස්නාහිර පළාත් සභා මන්ත්‍රී පූජ්‍ය තෙබුවන පියනන්ද හිමි යන් ඇතුළු ප්‍රදේශ වාසී භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලා කීපනමක් සාභාගි විය.
සුදර්ශන ගුණවර්ධන මහාතා කෙසේ සඳහන් කළද මේ වන විටත් මෙම ක්‍රියාවලියේ රජය එකඟ වී ඇති අතුරුදහන් තැනැත්තන් පිළිබඳ කාර්යාලය දැනටමත් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට පණතක් ලෙසට ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇත.මේ අවස්ථාවේ දී එA පිලිබඳ ප්‍රශ්ණ කිරිමක් කරන ලදී. නමුත් කමිටුවේ පිළිතුර වූයේ දැනටමත් සංහිඳියා කටයුතු ප්‍රමාද බැවින් මෙවැනි පියවරක් රජය විසින් ගන්නට ඇතැයි කියාය. එහෙත් 2015 දෙසැම්බර් මාසයේ සිට මේ කමිටු එකක්වත් පොල් ගෑවේ නැත. උතුර සහ නැගනෙහිර පළාත්වල සැරිසරමින් ඔවුහු දෙමළ ජනතාවගෙන් ප්‍රශ්ණ විචාරීම කළහ.ව්‍යාජ සාක්ෂි එකතු කළහ. නමුත් දකුණේ සිංහල සමාජය මේ ගැන දැනුවත්ව නොසිටියහ.එය මාධ්‍ය මගින් හෙළිදරව් වීම සමගම කලබලයට පත්ව ලහිලිහියේ අනෙකුත් පළාත් වලද මේ ප්‍රවිචාරණ ක්‍රියාවලිය ආරම්භ කර ඇති බව අපගේ වැටහීමයි. අගොස්තු 03 දින රැස්වීම පිළිබඳ කළුතර දිස්ත්‍රික් ලේකම් වරයාට වාර්තා කොට තිබුණේ ජූලි මස 27 දිනය. නිවාඩු දින දෙකක් ඉදිරියේ තබා දැනුම් දීමෙන් දිස්ත්‍රික් ලේකම් වරයාට අවශ්‍ය පරිදි ජනතාව දැනුම්වත් කිරීමට අවස්ථාව නොලැබී ඇත. සැබවින්ම කමිටුව බලාපොරොකත්තු වන්නේ ද එයයි. උඩින් පල්ලෙන් අදහස් ටිකක් මෙම පළාත් වලින් ගොනුකර රජය විසින් කලින් සකස් කරන පණත් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සම්මත කිරීමට උත්සාහ දැරීමයි. අතුරුදහන් තැනැත්තන් පිළිබඳ කාර්යාල පණත මෙයට ප්‍රබල උදාහරණයකි. මේ සම්බන්ධව නිසි පරිදි මන්ත්‍රී වරුන් පවා දැනුම් වත්ව නොසිටි බව පෙනේ.

ඛෙදුම්වාදය හිස් මුදුනේ තබාගෙන දෙපයින් නැගී සිටීමටත් කොන්ද නොනවා සිටීමටත් වෑයම් කිරීම සැබවින්ම විහිලූවකි. තිස්වසරක් පැවති කොටි ත්‍රස්තවාදය මේ රටේ ජීවත් වූ සිංහල දෙමළ මුස්ලිම් සැමට මහත් වූ පීඩාවක් ගෙනදුන්නකි. එය මැඩලීම මෙන්ම සාමය උදාකරදීමද රජය සතු යුතුකමක්ව පැවතු‚. 2009 ට පෙර රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ රජය යටතේ කොටි ත්‍රස්ත ක්‍රියාකාරකම් උත්සන්න විය. එම රජයට සාමය උදා කළ නොහැකි වු‚. එම නිසා මහින්ද රාජ පක්ෂ මහතාට එම වරම ජනතාව විසින් ලබා දුන්නේය. වසර කීපයක් යුද්ධයකින් පසුව කොටි ත්‍රස්තවාදය රටින් අතුගා දැමීමට ඔහුගේ නායකත්වය යටතේ ක්‍රියාකල හමුදාවට ශක්තිය ලැබු‚. එම සටන යුක්ති යුක්තය. සාමය පුල පුලා බලාසිටි ජනතාවට එය මගින් සාධාරණයක් ඉටු කළේය. එසේ නම් තව දුරටත් සත්‍ය හෝ යුක්තිය සෙවීම සඳහා කොමිසන් පිහිටුවීම හෝ අධිකරණ පිහිටුවීම කල යුතු දැයි පැනයක් නගී. සිංහල දෙමල සහ මුස්ලිම් තුන් පාර්ශවයෙන්ම ජනතාව යුද්ධයේදී මරණයට පත් විය. ඇතැම් විට අතුරුදහන් වූයේ දෙමාපියන්ට මළ මිනියවත් දැක ගන්නට නොහැකි වන පරිදිය. අලිමංකඩ අසල නාවික කඳවුරට පහර දුන් කල්හි. එහි සිටි නාවික සොල්දාදුවන් පානයට ජලය නොමැති කමින් මිය ගියහ. මළ සිරුරු එම ස්ථානයේම වළ දැමූහ.මේ සටනේදී ඇතැම් හමුදා භටයන් ආබාධිත වූහ.ඉතින් අප කළ යුත්තේ තව දුරටත් ඛෙදුම්වාදය ඇති නොවීමට වග බලා ගැනීම නොවේද.නව යහපාලන රජයේ කුහක ක්‍රියාකාරකම් නිසා දිවිපරදුවට තබා ක්‍රියාකළ හමුදා භටයන්ට පමණක් නොව සාමය අපේක්ෂාවෙන් සිටි සමස්ත ජනතාවම අපේක්ෂා භංගත්වයට පත්ව තිබේ. තවදුරටත් ස්වාධීන රටක ජීවත් වීමේ අයිතිය හිමි නොවන්නේ යයි සැවොම කල කිරීමකට පත්ව ඇත.
මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

චන්ද්‍රසේන පණ්ඩිතගේ විසිනි

මහා අකුණු සැරයක් වැදී, අපේ කලා කෙතේ මහා බල පවුරක් බිමට සමතලාව ඇත. ඔහුගේ මරණය, සමාජයට සිදුකල විනාශය යලි කිසිදාක පිලිසකර කල නොහැක. ඔහු කලා කරුවෙකු ලෙස පෙනී සිටි මහා යුග පුරුෂයකු බව පල කරන්නට හැක්කේ, සැබෑ ලෙසම ඔහු ජන හද බැඳගත් මහා පුරුෂයෙකු බැවිණි. විජය නන්දසිරි නම් වූ මේ මහා බලවතා, මේ රටේ සිටින සෑම සියලු ජන මනසක්ම ආක්‍රමණය කිරීමට යොදාගත් කලා ශිල්පයටද නව ජීවනයක් ලබාදුන්හ. ඔහු එම ශිල්පයට කොතරම් ජීවයක් කවා ඇත්ද යත්, ඔහු මියගොස් ඇති මේ මොහොතේ, ඔහුට උත්තමාචාරයක් දැක්වීමක් වශයෙන් ඔහුගේ දේහය ඉදිරිපිට ඔහු රඟපාන චිත්‍රපටියක කොටසක් ප්‍රදර්ශනය කලහොත්, සිදුවන්නේ, සොවින් බරිත මුලු අවමංගල සභාවම, ඉන් මුදවා, හාස්‍ය රසින් සපිරි ලොවකට ඔබව ගෙන යාමට ඔහුගේ රංගනයන්ට හැකියාවක් තිබීමයි

අප හදුනාගත් ලොවේ බලවත්ම දෙය මිනිස් මනසයි. ජය ගැනීමට අපහසුම දෙයද මෙය වන අතර, ජය ගත්තද එය පවත්වාගෙන යාමට අපහසුම දෙයද වුවද, මහා රංගධරයකුවූ විජය නන්දසිරි නම් වූ මේ මහා බලවතාට, එය එසේ පවත්වා ගනිමින්, තව තවත් වර්ධනය කරගැනීමේ මහා බලයක්ද උරුමව තිබුණි.

විජය නන්දසිරි තම නමට අනුකූලවම කලා ලොව දික් විජය කල පුද්ගලයකු සේම, දේශපාලන ලොව සලිත කල ප්‍රබල දේශපාලඥයකුද විය. කලාව ප්‍රබල දේශපාලන ක්‍රියාවලියකි. ඔහු ඒ බව මනාව වටහා ගත්තෙකු විය. කලාව බලවත් ආයුධයක් ලෙස ඉතා සුමටව හැසුරවීම ප්‍රගුණ කල මෙතුමා, සිය කලා කුසලතා තුලින් මහා සමාජ පරිශෝධනයක් සිදුකරමින් සිටි යුගයකදී, සිදුවූ මේ සිදුවීම පියවීමට කිසිදු ජගෙතුකට නොහැක.
“සබඳ, විනාශයන් පිට විනාශයන් ගලා එන යුගයක, ඔබගේ වියෝව මුලු මහත් ජාතියටම දරාගත නොහැක. ඔබ පෝෂණය කල සමාජය, ඔබගේ ඉගැන්වීම් තුලින් පෝෂිතව ඇත. ඒ පුණ්‍යකර්මයම ඔබට නිවන් දැකීමට ප්‍රමාණවත් යයි සිතේ, ඔබට අජරාමර නිවන් සුව අත්වේවා!යි පතමු.

හොරෙන් බදු ගන්න ගිහින් තිබ්බ ටිකත් නැතිවුණා

Courtesy Adaderana

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) would not extend its support for the vote on the Value Added Tax (VAT) if amendments requested by the party are not considered, a source said.

This was discussed during a meeting held at the Presidential Secretariat Office with the participation of the committee of legal experts that appointed to look into the matter, Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said.

A crucial discussion with the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister is scheduled to be held today (09) in this regard as well.

The proposals with respect of the tax will also be submitted to the Cabinet today. Meanwhile, the Speaker is to announce the Supreme Court’s decision on the VAT during today’s Parliament session.

– See more at: http://www.adaderana.lk/news/36427/slfp-not-to-support-vat-if-amendments-are-not-considered#sthash.rCzHKGUc.dpuf

Courtesy Adaderana

August 9, 2016  05:28 pm

– See more at: http://www.adaderana.lk/news/36437/us-eyeing-to-build-navy-base-in-trincomalee-prof-tissa#sthash.ZgdytGFN.dpuf