Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge 

Psychoanalysis was introduced by Sigmund Freud in which free association, dream interpretation, and analysis of resistance and transference are used to explore repressed or unconscious impulses, anxieties, and internal conflicts. To Freud, psychoanalysis was clearly a social theory as well as a psychological theory (Stea, ‎2012).

Some experts view that the Freudian Psychoanalysis as a subject which is incomplete. According to Wax (1983) the scientific status of psychoanalysis has been the subject of continual debate. Influential philosophers of science have challenged the form of its theories and the nature of the evidence offered on their behalf. Some have concluded that the theories are beyond testing. Bogousslavsky and  Dieguez (2014) state that Freud did not follow a scientific process of verified experiments, but rather adapted his theories to the evolution of his own beliefs on psychological conditions, selectively emphasizing the aspects of his ‘therapies’ with patients which supported his emerging ideas, with often abrupt changes in theoretical interpretations.

The renowned Sri Lankan Literary genius Martin Wicramasinghe D.Lit. argues that the Psychoanalysis was initiated not by Freud but by the Jātaka Storyteller. Martin Wicramasinghe gives solid examples to qualify his opinion. Wicramasinghe intensely wrote on Buddhist Jātaka stories. In his books The Buddhist Jataka Stories and the Russian Novel (published in 1952) and Jataka Katha Vimasuma (The Literary Aspects of Buddhist Jātaka Stories) published in 1968 Martin Wicramasinghe explained the mind analysis that shown in the Jātaka stories. The Jātaka storyteller revealed and analyzed the noble to ignoble characteristics of the human psyche. The Jātaka storyteller knew the complexity of the human mind. He described the human behavior in vivid situations. He knew the internal mental conflicts, repressions and hysteria type of behavior that people exhibited. A vast amount of abnormal behaviors were recorded in form of stories by the Jātaka storyteller. The Jātaka stories represent a broad structure of mental phenomena.

The Late Professor K. N. Jayatilleke stated that Buddhist psychology does not share with Freud his psychic determinism and his consequent pessimism about the possibility of transforming human nature, but the Buddhist’ theory of motivation outlined above shows a marked similarity with that of Freud’s.

The similarity, as we may observe, even extends to the classification of desires and the use of terminology.. In a later phase of Freud’s thought there was a division of drives into eros (lust) or the life instinct and thanatos or the death instinct. At this stage eros comprehended both libido, the sex instinct, as well as the egoistic instincts. In Buddhism we find rāga (eros) subdivided into sex (kāma-rāga) and ego-instincts (bhava-rāga). Vibhavataṇhā is the desire for destruction or annihilation since vibhava and vināsa are synonyms, in the Pali texts (cp. … ucchedavādā sattassa ucchedaṃ vināsaṃ vibhavaṃ paññapenti, i.e. annihilationists posit the annihilation, destruction and extermination of a being). This is what Freud calls the death instinct, sometimes (mistakenly) referring to it as the Nirvana principle. In view of the close similarity of concepts the question as to whether Freud was influenced by Buddhism should be carefully examined especially since Freud had made a thorough study of Schopenhauer, who claimed to be a Buddhist deeply influenced by Buddhist and Upaniṣadic literature (Jayatilleke, 1978).

According to Dr. D V J Harischandra (1996) in Ummagga Jatakaya and Mahasupina Jatakaya there exist almost all the unconscious mechanisms that Freud described over six centuries later – including symbolisation, condensation, displacement and secondary elaboration.

Buddhist psychology espouses several competing topological theories of mind all of which include some form of an unconscious. The Abhidharmic model conceptualizes the unconscious as bhavanga-citta, a ground consciousness that is conditioned by karma and acts as a conditioning factor for current life habitual tendencies. Later revisions of that model view the unconscious as ālaya-vijñāna, a store consciousness containing the individual’s karmic seeds of suffering. Like Freud’s unconscious, bhavanga-citta and ālaya-vijñāna are thought to motivate the mind to produce destructive habitual mind states (Waldron, 2003)

Nichol (2006) sees some parallels between the Buddhistic Psychoanalysis and Freudian Psychoanalysis. He further states that around 600 BC Siddhartha Gotama practiced intensive meditation for several years and found a way for people to cultivate a sense of equanimity, wisdom, and compassion in their lives. Around 1900 AD Sigmund Freud undertook several years of intensive self-analysis and developed theories and therapeutic techniques for understanding how the unconscious operates in our lives to perpetuate neurotic suffering, and how we might gain insight and relief from that suffering and be more free to move toward our potential in this life.

Mid-twentieth century saw the collaborations between many psychoanalysts and Buddhist scholars as a meeting between two of the most powerful forces” operating in the Western mind (Tapas Kumar Aich, 2013). Schopenhauer is a link between Freud and Buddhism. The Buddhist axiom: “sabbe sattd ummattakd” (all worldlings are deranged) shows that both systems looked upon the neurosis of mankind as a problem with which to deal, but Freud saw the solution as a rational insight into one’s own condition; whereas Buddha was concerned with a man’s emotions and whole being. Both systems had a dynamic quality and not a static one; however, in de Silva’s view Buddhism goes further than does Freud. Freud claims that man must live with the best adaptation to the human condition that one can have and Buddhism’s araliat professes to transcend this condition entirely (de Silva, 1978).

The Psychoanalysts such as Erich Fromm and Karen Horney studied the Psychoanalytic component in the Buddhist philosophy. According to Erich Fromm psychoanalysis is not a therapy of commitment but rather an approach that liberates people from the type of commitment required by traditional religion and other social institutions. Fromm once stated: Psychoanalysis is a characteristic expression of the Western man’s spiritual crisis, and an attempt to find a solution. The common suffering is the alienation from oneself, from one’s fellow men, and from nature; the awareness that life runs out of one’s hand like sand, and that one will die without having lived; that one lives in the midst of plenty and yet is joyless”  (Fromm , Suzuki & Martino, 1960).

The Buddha helped to liberate people from emotional bondages and oppressed social conditions two millennia ago. Unlike the Freudian psychoanalysis the Buddhist psychoanalysis has a profound spiritual dimension and it extensively focuses on the deeper existential questions. Buddhist psychoanalysis brings unconscious and consciousness to a dialectical relation.

According to Mark Epstein- psychiatrist and the author, both the Buddha and Freud came to appreciate that the source of self-generated misery is an exaggerated sense of self’s absolute reality. Nonetheless Freud believed that the inner layers of the human personality consist of irrational and savagery wishes. In contrast the Buddha believed in the positive aspects of the human personality and its capabilities. The Buddha preached that the human have the capacity for self growth and achieve higher spiritual level (Jayatunge, 2014).

Hysteria Types of Reactions Described in the Jātaka Stories

The history of hysteria stretches over several millennia and contains a plethora of different understandings and interpretations.(Møllerhøj , 2009). Hippocrates (5th century BC) is the first to use the term hysteria. He believed that the cause of this disease lies in the movement of the uterus (Sigerist, 1951).

Paul Briquet’s Traité de l’Hystérie was published in 1859 and is a comprehensive clinical and epidemiological study of 430 patients with hysteria (Mai & Merskey, 1981). Up till 1870 hysteria had been regarded as a gynaecological illness that affected almost exclusively women; as a result of Charcot’s work the illness was transformed into a neurological disorder. However, shortly before his death Charcot had to acknowledge that he had been mistaken and that hysteria was in fact a psychiatric disorder (Gilson, 2010).

The Webster’s dictionary defines Hysteria as a psychiatric condition variously characterized by emotional excitability, excessive anxiety, sensory and motor disturbances, or the unconscious simulation of organic disorders. Jean Martin Charcot, Pierre Janet, Freud, and Joseph Breuer comprehensively wrote on hysteria.

Sigmund Freud provided a contribution that leads to the psychological theory of hysteria and the assertion of a male hysteria (Tasca, 2012). Sigmund Freud saw a traumatic experience in childhood that is uniformly of a sexual nature as general aetiology of hysteria. Freud’s famous case study of Anna O (Bertha Pappenheim) suffered from a rigid paralysis, accompanied by loss of sensation, of both extremities on the right side of her body over two years. Anna O was the classic study of Hysteria.

Hysteria’ (conversion disorder) remains in modern humanity and across cultures, as it has for millennia (LaFrance, 2014). Hysteria was largely considered to be a neurological problem in the 19th century, but without a neuropathological explanation it was commonly assimilated with malingering (Kanaan et al., 2009).

The DSM- IV -TR distinguishes hysteria under Somatoform Disorders and the Dissociative Disorders. Somatoform disorders are psychological ailments that cause bodily symptoms, including pain and numbness. The symptoms can’t be traced back to any physical cause. And they are not the result of substance abuse or another mental illness. Dissociative disorders (DD) are conditions that involve disruptions or breakdowns of memory, awareness, identity or perception. There are numerous Somatoform and Dissociative Disorders are discussed in the Jātaka stories.

The Vibhanga Atuwawa – a Buddhist scripture part of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism describes vibrant neurotic features that are perceptible in laymen. The Abhidhamma model implies that neuroses, psychoses and an armored personality are natural phenomena, but also that there is a systematic training to go beyond these modes of living (Barendregt , 2006).

The Jātaka stories give numerous case examples of neurotic behavior in people. The story of Prince Asanaga is one of the special case studies of phobias.

The Prince Asanaga – a character that is described in Chula Phalobhana Jātaka Story suffers from Gynophobia or an abnormal, irrational and persistent fear of women. According to Karen Horney the male dread of woman to the boy’s fear that his genital is inadequate in relation to the mother.

The Prince Asanaga fears and avoids women from childhood. From birth to the adulthood, he was in the company of males and never had a chance to associate women. He consciously avoided women following unexplainable fear. Accidentally he got acquainted with a woman and experiences an erotic relationship with her. His fear turns in to a severe craving. His suppressed sexual desires emerge like a volcano and the Prince Asanaga goes in to an acute stress reaction. The Prince was deprived of sexual pleasure from his birth due to his fear and once he experienced it he could not control himself. He becomes violent and attacks the men on the street with his sword. The Jathaka storyteller colorfully describes the inner mental conflict of the Prince Asanaga and his fears, anxiety, sudden desire and the acute emotional reaction.

Psychogenic diseases

Psychogenic disease is a broader category than psychosomatic disease, in that it can include the hysterical form, where there is no physiologic change in peripheral tissues, as well as the psychosomatic form, where there is some physiologic alteration (Sarno, 2006). The Jātaka Storyteller narrates numerous stories of psycho- physiological manifestations (psychogenic skin rashes, psychogenic sexual dysfunctions, and psychogenic paralyses) found in men and women. According to these Jātaka stories the Akusal or the guilty based mind is responsible for such manifestations.  In one of the stories a guilty ridden Count experiences sexual impotence and subsequently a sex change. 

Psychogenic Nonepileptic Seizures

Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures have long been known by many names. A short list includes hysteroepilepsy, hysterical seizures, pseudoseizures, nonepileptic events, nonepileptic spells, nonepileptic seizures, and psychogenic nonepileptic attacks (Gedzelman & LaRoche, 2014). Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures are episodes of movement, sensation, or behaviors that are similar to epileptic seizures but do not have a neurologic origin; rather, they are somatic manifestations of psychologic distress (Alsaadi & Marquez, 2005). These seizures are triggered by psychological problems.

In Illisa Jātakaya the miserly count Illisa goes in to a psychogenic fits when he found his wealth had been distributed among the poor people. He lost his consciousness and then his body shakes violently. After a while he gains consciousness and then demands his property. According to the storyline after he gained consciousness there was no postictal period described in the count Illisa’s story. He was not under sedated state and he walks up and energetically cries for his possessions.

Psychogenic Itch

Itch (or pruritus) is defined as an unpleasant sensation inducing the desire of scratch. Psychogenic itch is related to psychologic abnormalities e.g., itch in obsessive compulsive disorders, depression, and delusions of parasitosis (Yosipovitch & Samuel, 2008).  As indicated by Gupta & Gupta (1996) it has been estimated that in at least one third of dermatology patients, effective management of the skin disorder involves consideration of associated emotional factors.

The Ghata Jātakaya is one of the best case studies of Psychogenic Itch. In Ghata Jātaka (also called Ghatakumara). The king Ghata was a righteous monarch who ruled his kingdom according to humane laws. Once he found his chief minister committed adultery with a noblewoman of his royal harem. Instead of condemning him to death the King Ghata expelled him from the position that he held.

The expelled minister went to the neighboring kingdom and met the monarch Vanka who was greedy for power and who had a desire to extend the borders of his kingdom. The ex minister persuaded king Vanka to attack his native land.  The king Vanka invaded king Ghata’s kingdom.

Being a virtuous person the king Ghata did not want to see any bloodshed or to send his men to a slaughtering noxious battle. He renounced the throne. Hence the king Vanka became the new ruler and sent king Ghata to the prison. At the prison the king Ghata practiced the meditation of loving-kindness. He had no anger or ill feelings towards the king Vanka who seized his kingdom.

Knowing the extraordinary and compassionate qualities of the king Ghata and his innocence Vanka had severe guilty feelings. Within a several days he had a skin rash and an excruciating itch which made him extremely uncomfortable.  The royal physicians gave him profuse medicine, but his condition became worst. Finally the king Vanka freed king Ghata from the prison and restored his kingdom. After these reconciliations the king Vanka had a spontaneous recovery.

The Oedipal Conflict and Jātaka Stories 

Sigmund Freud introduced the term ‘Oedipus complex’ in his ‘Interpretation of Dreams that was published in 1899 (Ahmed, 2012).  In formulating his psychology of the unconscious, Freud makes constant reference to Sophocles’ version of the Oedipus myth (Bollack, 1993). In the Oedipus myth we find a dramatic representation of the child’s passionate ties to its parents (Zachrisson, 2013).

According to Freud the concept is a desire for sexual involvement with the parent of the opposite sex, which produces a sense of competition with the parent of the same sex and a crucial stage in the normal developmental process (Ahmed, 2012).  As Freud described in the Oedipus complex, largely unconscious ideas and feelings, which concentrate, on the desire to possess the parent of the opposite sex and eliminate the parent of the same sex. Freud analyzed the story of Oedipus Rex, and describes the unconscious motives of patricide He postulated that patricide was the great crime at the base of all social evolution.

In Freud’s theory the Oedipus complex is the core of human sexual development (Žerjav, 2010). Freud believed that by birth man is sexy; a child must possess sexual desire even when he is in his Mother’s womb and this inborn sexual predisposition lays the foundation for all other propensity (Ahmed, 2012).

The universality of the Oedipus complex indicates that the oedipal situation is at the heart of the mental life of man (Lebovici, 1982). Borove~ki-Jakovljev and colleagues (2005) state that  nevertheless, the conflicts of phallic phases of the psychosexual development are universal to all human being, no matter how we call them – Oedipus, Electra or Persephone Complex.

The Oedipus complex wanes as a crucial pathogenic focus to the extent to which its resolution—never achieved once and for all—is more than a repression,” something other than a retreat from and exclusion by what Freud called the coherent ego. Seen from the perspective of parricide, guilt, and responsibility, repression of the complex is an unconscious evasion of the emancipatory murder of the parents, and a way of preserving infantile libidinal-dependent ties with them (Loewald, 2000).

According Freud’s Oedipus complex theory in the unconscious level every male subject has a desire to murder his father and commit an incestuous act towards his mother. Various cultures have folktales that are similar to Oedipus story. The Thayo Darma Jātakaya is a metaphorical story which draws attention to many psychologists and it can be interpreted as an Oedipus complex narrated in the Jātaka storybook.

Thayo Darma Jātakaya is a story about the conflict between a father and a son. The father (King of the monkeys) destroys the genitals of male baby monkeys in order to liquidate any impending future threat by a male monkey. In addition the father monkey keeps all the female monkeys for himself making other male monkeys impotent. One of the male baby monkeys was able to escape physically unharmed and grows up in a hidden area of the jungle. The male baby monkey’s mother secretly feeds him. Hence the male monkey becomes emotionally attached to its mother and hating the father. Once the monkey becomes a fully grown adult he comes out and challenges his father. In this conflict, the son kills the father and becomes the new King.

In Totem and Taboo (1913) Freud writes that the myth of the murder of the primal father.   The primal father is a father who has in his possession and who enjoys all women and this is why the sons decide one day to murder the father. The active words destruction, demolition, which Freud has used in referring to the dissolution of the Oedipus complex, may be heard as reverberations of that dominant feature of the oedipal conflict, parricide, the destruction of the parent by the child (Loewald, 2000).

The murder of the primal father or parricide discussed in the Thayo Darma Jātakaya has a symbolic meaning and it is outstanding. This story was written thousands of years ago. Nonetheless the Jātaka storyteller had an insight about repressed childhood conflicts.

by Satharathilaka Banda Atugoda Former Sri Lanka Ambassador to Germany

It is reported that President Maithripala Sirisena will be making an Official/State Visit to Germany from February 13th, which is considered as a high watermark of the relations between our two countries. Visits by Heads of State/Governments as State Visits, are viewed as a crescendo of bi-lateral diplomacy between two friendly Nations. The British Scholar-Diplomat Sir. Ernest Satow’s ‘Guide to Diplomatic Practice’, mentions of the visits of Heads of State to other Sovereign States, from historical times, and the facilities, and ceremonials accorded during such visits. Depending, on the diplomatic level of these visits, and the level of friendship they are categorized as State Visits, Official Visits and Working Visits or Private Visits. Each country has its own practice and norms, in relation to the ceremonies and honours accorded to the Foreign Dignitary, based on the level of the Visit.

Some media reports said that his visit is made after an interregnum of 43 years. I beg them to correct these reports, as I was privy to the State Visit of President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, in 2001, as Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Germany. President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s visit to Germany in 2001, was from March 12- 16, and it was a State Visit, which had all the ingredients to make it such, as our relations were excellent. Some of these salient aspects of honour were, the Invitation extended by the Head of State of Germany Johannes Rau, Military honours on arrival and departure, Playing of the National Anthems, Residence at Adlon Hotel, the historic State Guest Palace, Meetings with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Bi-lateral meetings of delegations, Visit to Bavaria, which is a hallmark of State visits, and Ceremonial welcome by Minister President Edmund Stoiber, Presidential Dinners, and witnessing German Opera and of course, Reception by Sri Lanka Ambassador. It was a very successful visit spearheaded by late, Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar. The same pattern, probably. will be followed for President Maithripala Sirisena too, and all our blessings to the visit.

Sri Lanka and German Relations were at that time, at its zenith, and two notable political achievements were the pledge given by the German Government that they will persuade the European Union to proscribe the terrorist outfit LTTE, and make the fund-raising activities of the LTTE dispora illegal, which were factors which ultimately, paved the way to the defeat of the LTTE in 2009 and eliminate terrorism from Sri Lanka. One person who sacrificed his life in this endeavour was Late Lakshman Kadirgamar, who should be remembered in an essay of this nature.

There were other economic and commercial discussions between the two business delegations, some of which perhaps did not materialize due to the terrorist menace which dragged on for some more time, in the name of Peace Talks from 2003, and the LTTE getting breathing space to consolidate their power base in the so-called LTTE-held territories, a nomenclature used in the peace agreement. However, one such major commercial proposal was to set-up a BMW assembling plant in Sri Lanka, and establish an export-hub to export the product to South Asia, which did not see the light of day. All our sincere blessings, therefore, to the new proposal to locate a VW plant in Sri Lanka, which is a major step towards, strengthening the heavy industries in Sri Lanka. A few more BOI projects were established as an outcome of the previous visit and talks.

On the educational sphere, Germany agreed to provide University facilities for students seeking higher studies, and these openings are being utilized by Sri Lankan students, although the momentum is slow. The German Stiftungs (foundations) were to be strengthened to assist Sri Lanka in the varied development segments. However, due to short-sighted policies, in foreign policy, some of these were temporarily closed, but they are being re established, now, reflecting an enhancement of the relations. The GTZ, now GIZ has been commencing new livelihood projects to help low income groups in Society. Small and Medium Enterprises, and Industrial projects were to be helped, and they continue unabated, with the German Embassy in Colombo taking a special interest, as at present. It is a welcome move by the German Government to look afresh at the links forged already over the years in order to enhance bi-lateral links extending to more than 64 years.

Antiquity and Early Links

If one goes back to antiquity, the inhabitants of Sri Lanka and Germany, had the same beginnings, as taught in the ‘migration of humans from the ancient Aral-Caspian Depression.’ Some moved north while others moved south. Sri Lanka in written history became a Buddhist Religion-Cultural centre, while Germany became a part of the Holy Roman Empire. Until, the age of Great explorations in 16th and 17th centuries, the regions had less contacts, except for some sea-farer or a traveller who moved along the old Silk Route. The Island was known in antiquity as Taprobane. It was a land mentioned in German Literature as far back as 8th century, as a ‘land of legends, elephants, and precious stones’, as written in Rhabanus Maurus, the Abbot of Fulda. Even at present, Sri Lanka is a land of dreams in the mind of Germans. The Germans were not invaders or colonizers, but they were intellectuals, financiers, and whose support was sought by other European colonizers like Portuguese and the Dutch. German financiers like Fuggers were the supporters of Portuguese explorers of the 15th century. The sailors who joined in these travels wrote books on their travels in the German language, and one such was the ‘Collection of Travels to Eastern and Western India (Sammlung von Reisen in das Oestliche und Westlich Indien),’ published by De Bray. Another landmark was the Map of the World (1569), of famous Cartographer Mercator, which included Ceylon, introduced to us by our teacher Late Professor George Thambyapillay in the 1960s.

The Germans served in the Dutch fleets in the 17th and the 18th centuries, and notably, the Dutch Governor Baron Gustav Wilhelm Von Imhoff, who later became the Governor General in Batavia, present Indonesia, was of German origin. The eminent names like Wolf, Spittel, Schneider, Lorenz, and Drieberg who have contributed to the Sri Lankan Literature and Science, have links to German families. There were writers like Major Raven Hart who wrote ‘Germans in Dutch Ceylon’, give a glimpse of Sri Lanka in the 17th century. The other German Chroniclers like Von der Beer, (1636-1642), Christof Schweitzer (1676-1682), and Langhanz (1705), provide interesting accounts about then Ceylon. A notable contributor was Prince Waldemar of Prussia who produced illustrated accounts.

These historical antecedents are important to understand German ethos vis-a-vis Sri Lanka as Germany like Sri Lanka had vicissitudes of fortune, as a country. In 1871 Germany was unified and became an Empire, under Emperor Wilhelm I; Otto-Von Bismarck was the Chancellor. During this period Germany started commercial ties with the outside world and they started plantations in the Hills of Ceylon. John Hagenbach and Christian Boehringer, Saloman, Gabriel, and Maurice Wolmster were pioneers and Sogama Estate in Udapussellawa is one such plantation. Phillip Freudenberg was one entrepreneur, who started coffee trade in 1876. He was also appointed as the Consul and official representative of the German Empire in Ceylon. By 1903 the Germans established a German Club opened by the son of Emperor William II, Prince Albert of Prussia; it was located in front of the Colombo Museum. With the First World War, German property was confiscated. The second World War too had a negative impact on business and trade-relations.

On cultural links the famous Indologist, Wilhelm Geiger (1856-1953), laid the foundation for the systematic study of Sinhala Grammar. He also translated the Pali Text of Mahawamsa into English, with Mrs Bode. It is said that he received inspiration from Paul Goldschmidt, who was a German and also Archaeological Commissioner. Another German Protestant Missionary Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg (1682-1719), laid the foundation for Tamil Grammar, and translated religious books to Tamil, living in Tamil Nadu

The Present Period

Emerging from the ashes of 1st and 2nd World Wars, in the 1950s and 60s, Federal Republic of Germany under Konrad Adenauer became a World Power like Japan, although there was East Germany created under the Cold War regimes. Germans never gave up until they unified the two parts of Germany in October 3, 1990, under Hemut Kohl, as one Germany, with the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Sri Lanka too after 450 years under colonialists, became Independent in 1948, became a Republic in 1972 and defeated a group of terrorists after a bitterly fought conflict, from 1983-2009. Sri Lanka became a member of the United Nations in 1953 while Germany became a full member of the U.N. in 1973, delayed due to cold war bickering. Nations go through such turmoil but they should have the will and capacity to come out of them. Both Sri Lanka and Germany have that courage to face adversity, and win the day.

Sri Lanka after Independence became one of the leaders, among the emerging countries from colonialism and they established the Afro Asian Association; they were the pioneers of the Non-Aligned Movement, started as Neutralism, commencing from the Colombo Powers Meeting and Bandung Conference in 1953 and 1954. Friendly relations with countries with International prestige and standing was crucial for Germany, as she also was on the path, to recover her own lost glory, and was keen to establish diplomatic relations with Sri Lanka.

Bilateral Diplomatic Representation

In fact since 1872, the Germans had their consuls responsible for Ceylon under the British, starting with Mr. H.H. Kramer; Mr. Philip Freudenberg based in Sri Lanka, who was a great entrepreneur succeeded Kramer. During the World Wars the Consulates were closed by the British, and business ventures were confiscated. When Sri Lanka gained Independence there were talks for commencing diplomatic relations, with Sri Lanka’s first High Commissioner to London, Sir. Oliver Goonetillike, and after negotiations, diplomatic relations were established in 1953. Dr. Georg Ahrens, was the first German Envoy and he took up post on December 3, 1953. Sri Lanka too established diplomatic relations in the same year with a top Civil Servant, Mr. Glannie Pieris, Professor G.L. Pieris’s father.

The Sri Lanka Embassy was located on a picturesque hillock in Bad Godesberg, in Bonn, (which was the Administrative Capital) and the Chancery in the City. When Germany was unified in 1990, Berlin became the Capital, leaving a few Ministries and Departments, in Bonn. By the end of 1990s, most Foreign Missions and Government Offices shifted to Berlin. Sri Lanka was one country which relocated to Berlin after a gap of a few years. Some of the countries in the East Bloc had their properties in Berlin and it was easier for them to move, whereas Sri Lanka had to start from scratch. With the policy of re orientation of Foreign Policy under late Lakshman Kadirgamar Sri Lanka Mission in Bonn too could shift to Berlin to Niklasse Strasse, in Berlin; after establishing a Sri Lankan Consulate in Bonn, to assist the Sri Lankan community and those Germans in North Rhine Westphalia. The year was 1999, and I as Ambassador of Sri Lanka in Germany was fortunate to be instrumental in the ,re-location, and organizing the State Visit of President Chandrika Bandaranaike to Germany, visiting the Capital Berlin as a State Guest, in the year 2001. Our Consulate in Bonn has been shifted Frankfurt subsequently.

Except for a brief period when Sri Lanka was to recognize German Democratic Republic, in the 1970s the relations were expanding in substance, and meaning. Even in the admission of Germany to the United Nations, Sri Lanka helped sort out differences with GDR, for both countries to be admitted. Germany, re-asserted her position her position in the comity of Nations,and became a World Power.

Germany is more relevant today, politically, for Sri Lanka as Chancellor Angela Merkel heads a Grand Coalition Government of Christian Democratic Party, (CDU), sister party, Christian Social Union (CSU), and Social Democratic Party (SPD), similar to Sri Lanka-Government. The Electoral System is worth studying as it combines personalized and proportional representation as in Sri Lanka. Head of State, is President Joachim Gauck, elected in 2012, could remain in office for five years and could be re-elected only once by the Federal Convention consisting, of the German Parliament and an equal number of members selected from Parliaments of 16 Federal States. Chancellor Angela Merkel can be called the Real Executive. The German Constitution has features, which could be used in Sri -Lanka’s constitution-making. The relations strengthened in all facets since 1950s.

Culture

Goethe Institute was established in 1956, and it promotes German Culture and Educational Policy. These have antecedents; Herman Hesse, who was a Nobel Prize winner in Literature produced his work, “Siddhartha”, in the first decade 20th century and he visited Sri Lanka in 1906; Marie Musaeus Higgins founded the Musaeus Collage in 1892; Dr Paul Dhalke founded the Buddhist Haus in Berlin in 1923.

Economic Partnership

Sri Lanka’s partnership with Germany was brought closer with the above mechanisms. German Tech, was established in 1959. Development of the Port of Colombo was given initial financial assistance in 1961. Cement Factory, Kankasanturai, Paper Factories at Valaichanai and Embilipitiya, Iron Foundry at Enderamulla were the industrial plants, started by Germany, but some of these are not functioning, due to varied reasons.

German Federal Ministry of Economic Co-operation (BMZ) has been giving aid through German Technical Cooperation (GIZ),their projects are more than 50. They give assistance to reconstruction and reconciliation projects in the north. The Chamber Construction Industry was granted financial support to train craftsmen in the North and East after 2009, during difficult times, and now there are directly done by GIZ. German Development Bank (KFW) grants soft loans on behalf of the Government, especially for small and medium enterprises. They have also given supply of electrical power rehabilitation in the Jaffna Peninsula.

Foundations

The political organizations of Germany, have Foundations (Stiftungs). They are in the name of German leaders; Konrad Adenauer Foundation, of the Christian Democrats, Friedrich Ebert Foundation, of the Social Democrats, Friedrich Naumann Foundation of the Free Democrats, and Helmut Kohl Foundation in the name former Chancellor Helmut Kohl. They all support Sri Lankan Society to upgrade the democratic value systems, through higher education, establishing institutions, providing facilities for education abroad, and educating the civil society for democratic leadership. It was a very moving decision of Chancellor Kohl to grant aid to finance a hospital in Galle where he was personally stranded for sometime during the unfortunate Tsunami while holidaying, in Sri Lanka in 2004 December. That speaks volumes for their humane qualities. However, through, unsophisticated handling some closed, temporarily, and they have to be requested to return. Basically, their ethos and attitudes should be understood, in dealing with projects.

Irrigation Schemes

For example, Germany built, the Randenigala, Rantambe and Kirindi Oya Irrigation Dams, during the 1980s under the Accelerated Mahaveli Programme. Sri Lanka should grateful for the financial, outlay of 1.2 Billion German Marks (then currency), and also 380 million German Marks, as direct technical assistance, which brightened the lives of millions. In the 1980s Germany was the second biggest development partner. They became a leading investor in BOI projects numbering more than 50, which were adversely affected by the terrorism raising its ugly head in the country.

Trade and Investments

Germany is the fourth largest trading partner, and this could be further developed. Sri Lanka exports, textiles, garments, rubber, tea, plastics, transport accessories, vegetable products, machinery and allied goods and imports fabrics, iron and steel products, motor vehicles, paper products and beverages.The trade turnover is more than 8,000 million.

The investments of Germany in Sri Lanka are Foreign Direct Investments, under Board of Investments, and Germany has signed an Investment Protection Agreement with Sri Lanka. There are more than 170 such approved projects, valued at Rs. 12 billion.

Tourism

Tourism developed between the two countries in spite of terrorism with more than 50,000 arrivals a year. Some Germans own tourist inns in the south, thus promoting Sri Lanka. Tour companies like, Rewe Touristik, formerly LTU, Acanthus Tours, and been in operation and this is an area that should be developed in our bi-lateral relations.

There is lot of potential in the allied segments of Tourism, like persons arriving for Ayurvedic Treatment, Meditation, and study of Buddhist Doctrine. They should be encouraged at all levels.

Sri Lankans in Germany

Many Sri Lankans have made Germany their home. There are around 60,000 Sri Lankans in Germany, majority had been settled after 1983, Ethnic problems. They have integrated into the German Society. Some of them contribute to the life of the host country; There are restaurant owners, and social workers among them. There are professionals among those who migrated as Students. There are Medical Doctors, Hoteliers, Translators, and Government Servants. Some among the Tamil Diaspora have become persons working against reconciliation among ethnic groups in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s Gift

The greatest gift that Sri Lanka could give to the West was the Message of the Compassionate One, and His Loving Kindness in form of the Buddhist Doctrine. This was so especially to a country like Germany, which suffered ignominiously, due to two World Wars. These links began in 1903 with a German National Anton W.F. Gueth being ordained as a Buddhist Monk under the name of Ven Nyanatiloka Thero. He did immense service to humanity as the Maha Thera of the Island Hermitage in Ratgama Lake in Dodanduwa. He was considered a Bodhisatva; He passed away in 1957; Sri Lanka paid the highest honour to Him by having a State Funeral at Independence Square. He had many erudite pupils, Nyanaponika, Nyanatassa, Nyanamoli, Anagarika Sugathananda, and Vappo. Ven Nyanaponika, (lay name Siegmund Feniger), was a great writer on Buddhism who lived in Kandy Hermitage. There are pupils of these monks serving the cause of the Dhamma. The pupil of Ven. Nyanaponika, Bhikku Bodhi, even was the Principal Speaker at the United Nations in 2000, on the occasion of the Declaration of Vesak Day as a Day of International Recognition.

A branch of the Maha Bodhi Society of India and Sri Lanka was established in 1921 in Germany by Dr. Karl Siedenstueker, and a small Buddhist Community exist today in Utting near Ammersee. The Buddhist Haus of Dr. Paul Dhalke, established in his own property was later converted to a Buddhist Vihara by Most Ven Mitirigala Dhammanishanthi (lay name Asoka Weeraratne). He did yeoman service to the Doctrine and its teachings through his German Dharmadutha Society established in 1954. Helped at that time by three Prime Ministers, Late Dudley Senanayake, Late S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike and Late Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, and other philanthropists, Berlin Buddhist Vihara in Fraunau was established in 1957. As at present similar Buddhist Viharas are in existence, in Bonn, and small towns, where Buddhists live.

Sri Lanka has become a partner in progress of German Sri Lanka Relations for the benefit not only of the two countries but the whole world. President Maithripala Sirisena will take this message to Germany and thus revive our age-old links, never again for the pahana (lamp) so lit to be blown off by stray winds.

Bodhi Dhanapala Quebec, Canada. [The author is a popular science writer and a science teacher in a Technical College in Quebec.] ( Courtesy Island)

February 12, 2016, 6:51 pm

Most of us have no idea of Einstein’s theory of relativity. Sri Lankans have heard the claim of Nalin de Silva, an ex-Dean of Science at Kelaniya, that Einstein’s theory is just an unmitigated lie (“Patta-Pal-Boruvak”) — a “just so story” dependent on the Judeo-Christian cultural mindset.  Truth be told, science had to battle that very Judeo-Christian hegemony at every step, with celebrated scientists burnt at the stake or put under house arrest.

Scientists in Washington announced the observation of waves of the gravitational field, the analogue of electromagnetic waves (radio waves) that are produced when you move a magnet to and fro. Similarly, when massive objects move at high speed, they produce gravitational waves whose strength depends on how massive, and how rapid is the movement. In this case, two giant black holes moving at half the speed of light produced waves strong enough to be detected.  Such waves must exist if Einstein’s theory of gravity is correct, but their detection had required a half century of effort because the waves are very weak. This discovery now confirms a major aspect of Einstein’s theory. It opens a new field of astronomy that uses gravitational waves instead of light or radio waves. Such waves can tell us about the beginnings of our own universe, and other possible events in our multiverse which has many other big bangs inaccessible to ordinary telescopes.

The essence of the theory of relativity is that the laws of physics hold true universally, irrespective of how you are moving. That is, your microwave, radio or wristwatch will work perfectly, at home, on a ship, in an airplane, on a rocket or on another planet in exactly the same way as at home. This seems a very innocent statement. It was the main content of Einstein’s celebrated paper of 1905.  This is called the principle of relativity.  It should cause no surprises, except that one law of physics requires that light to have a speed of nearly 300,000,000 meters per second. So this has to be the same for everyone, at whatever speed he or she is going. If I were on earth, and you were on a space ship going at 1/4 of the speed of light, normally you would see light going away from you at 3/4 of its speed. But no! Relativity says we both see light running away from us at the very same speed!

This can only happen if your clock runs slow relative to mine, although the clocks work perfectly. From your point of view, my clock runs fast compared to yours! Your meter stick shortens compared to mine, while my meter stick lengthens compared to yours. So, all these happen so that the speed of light is always 300,000,000 meters/s, for both of us, as measured by our individual meter sticks and clocks!

Distances and time intervals are quantities relative to your personal “frame of reference”, being different in another frame. There really are only “events”. There are no space-locations or “time” that everyone can agree on!  The sum total of all events is   “spacetime”, and the only thing everyone can agree on is the space-time separation between events. Space has three dimensions (length, width, and height, labelled x, y, z) and time has just one dimension (t). Hence spacetime has four dimensions (x, y, z, t) entangled together.  Your GPS needs four satellite signals to locate you since it uses Einstein’s equations!

In 1915 Einstein launched another big idea.   If you put some iron filings near a magnet, you see the “magnetic field” around it. In the same way, every object, be it the earth, or a coconut, or a person, has a “gravitational field around it”, just like the magnetic field around a magnet. Isaac Newton had the genius to realize that objects attracted each other, but could not explain how. Newton formulated astonishingly accurate equations describing the motion of planets in space, tides on earth, and all motions and mechanics used successfully by engineers today. Einstein added what was missing in Newton’s theory by clarifying the nature of the “gravitational field”.

Einstein suggested that the mass of an object is simply a curvature in spacetime. The more massive the object, the more curved the spacetime near it, making a “mound” in the spacetime. So, “gravitational attraction” is simply that of objects responding to the local curvature felt by them. Planets move along the “locally flat” path in the curved spacetime, just as water flows in the valley between the mounds of hills.

This does not mean that”Einstein has done away with gravity”. Such simplistic statements are found in the popular literature to “shock” the reader. Dr. Nalin de Silva criticizes Sri Lankan, as well as, Western academics for “thinking that there is a gravitational attraction, even a century after Einstein showed that gravity is a fiction” (e.g. see Vidusara 18-11-2015 and other such articles). Einstein himself warned against such simplistic errors by saying (see Relativity, The special and General Theory, by Albert Einstein, 1959, p 176): “Now we might easily suppose that the existence of a gravitational field is only an apparent one. … This is by no means true … It is… impossible to choose a body of reference such that … the gravitational field of the earth (in its entirety) vanishes”.

Dr. Silva went to Sussex University to study theoretical physics. He likes to claim (Vidusara, 30-12-2015, and 13-1-2016) that he came back after 1.5 years with a degree certificate, thanks to his supervisor who bent rules to send him back!  Gravitation, Quantum Theory, and the mathematics behind them demand a lifetime to “understand” them. The team of scientists who successfully measured gravitational waves had worked on it for many decades. This is more than a great intellectual achievement where a physics theory, the prediction of a black-hole event, and being ready to observe it, all came together.  This heralds new precision tools for studying and adapting our environment to fit our needs. It is a great engineering achievement well beyond putting a man on the moon, demanding an accuracy and sensitivity similar to those for seeing a human hair some zillions of miles way.  The black holes collided 1.3 billion years ago, and it took that long for the light and gravity waves to come to earth!

Bodhi Dhanapala

Quebec, Canada.

[The author is a popular science writer and a science teacher in a Technical College in Quebec.]

by Bodhi Dhanapala, Quebec  Canada.

Most of us have no idea of Einstein’s theory of relativity. Sri Lankans have heard the claim of Nalin de Silva, an ex-Dean of Science at Kelaniya  that Einstein’s theory is just an unmitigated lie (“Patta-Pal-Boruvak”) —  a “just so story” dependent on the  Judeo-Christian cultural mindset.  Truth be told, science had to battle that very Judeo-Christian hegemony at every step, with celebrated scientists burnt at the stake or put under house arrest.

Scientists in Washington announced the observation of waves of the gravitational field, the analogue of electromagnetic waves (radio waves) that are produced when you move a magnet too and fro. Similarly, when massive objects move at high speed, they produce gravitational waves whose strength depends on how massive, and how rapid is the movement. In this case two giant black holes moving at half the speed of light produced waves strong enough to be detected.  Such waves must exist if Einstein’s theory of  gravity is correct, but their detection had required a half century of effort because the waves are very weak. This discovery now confirms a major aspect of Einstein’s theory. It opens a new field of astronomy that uses gravitational waves instead of light or radio waves. Such waves can tell us about the beginnings of our own universe, and other possible events in our multiverse which has many other big bangs inaccessible to ordinary telescopes.

The essence of the theory of relativity is that the laws of physics hold true universally, irrespective of how you are moving. That is, your microwave, radio or wristwatch will work perfectly, at home, on a ship, in an airplane, on a rocket or on another planet in exactly the same way as at home. This seems a very innocent statement. It was the main content of Einstein’s celebrated  paper of 1905.  This is called the principle of relativity.  It should cause no surprises except  that one law of physics requires that light to have a speed of  nearly 300,000,000 meters per second. So  this  has to be the same for every one, at what ever speed he or she is going. If I were on earth, and  you were on a space ship going at 1/4 of the speed of light, normally  you would see light  going away from you at 3/4 of its speed. But no! Relativity says we both see light running away from us at the very same speed!

This can only happen if  your clock runs slow relative to mine, although the clocks work perfectly. From your point of view, my clock runs fast compared to yours! Your meter stick shortens compared to mine, while my meter stick lengthens compared to yours. So, all these happen so that the speed of light is always 300,000,000 meters/s, for both of us, as measured by our individual meter sticks and clocks!

Distances and time intervals are quantities relative to your personal “frame of reference”, being different in another frame. There really are only “events”. There are no space-locations or “time” that every one can agree on!  The sum total of all events is   “spacetime”, and the only thing everyone can agree on is the space-time separation between events. Space has three dimensions (length, width, and height, labelled x,y,z) and time has just one dimension (t). Hence spacetime has four dimensions (x,y,z,t) entangled together.  Your GPS needs four satellite signals to locate you since it uses Einstein’s equations!

In 1915 Einstein  launched another big idea.   If you put some iron filings near a magnet, you see the “magnetic field” around it. In the same way, every object, be it the earth, or a coconut, or a person, has a “gravitational field around it”, just like the  magnetic field around a magnet. Isaac Newton had the genius to realize that objects attracted each other, but could not explain how. Newton formulated astonishingly accurate equations describing the motion of planets in space, tides on earth, and all motions and mechanics used successfully by engineers today . Einstein added what was missing in Newton’s theory by clarifying the nature of the “gravitational field”.

Einstein  suggested that the mass of an object is simply a curvature in spacetime. The more massive the object, the more curved the spacetime near it, making a “mound” in the spacetime. So, “gravitational attraction”  is  simply objects responding to the local curvature felt by them. Planets move along the “locally flat” path in the curved spacetime, just as water flows in the valley between the mounds of  hills.

This does not mean that  “Einstein has done away with gravity”. Such simplistic statements are found in the popular literature to “shock” the reader. Dr. Nalin de Silva criticizes Sri Lankan  as well as Western academics for “thinking that there is a gravitational attraction, even a century after Einstein showed that gravity is a fiction” (e.g, see Vidusara 18-11-2015, and other such articles). Einstein himself warned against such simplistic errors by saying ( see Relativity, The special and General Theory,  by Albert Einstein, 1959, p 176):

“Now we might easily suppose that the existence of a gravitational field is only an apparent one. … This is by no means true … It is, … impossible to choose a body of reference such that … the gravitational field of the earth (in its entirety) vanishes” .

Dr. Silva went to Sussex  University  to study theoretical physics. He likes to claim (Vidusara, 30-12-2015, and 13-1-2016 ) that he came back after 1.5 years with a degree certificate, thanks to his supervisor who bent rules to send him back!  Gravitation, Quantum Theory, and the mathematics behind them demand a lifetime to “understand” them. The team of scientists who successfully measured gravitational waves had worked on it for many decades. This is more than a great intellectual achievement where a physics theory, the prediction of a black-hole event, and being ready to observe it, all came together.  This heralds new  precision tools  for studying and adapting our environment to fit  our needs. It is a great engineering achievement well beyond  putting a man on the moon, demanding an accuracy and sensitivity similar  to those for  seeing a human hair  some zillions of miles way.  The black holes collided  1.3 billion years ago, and it took that long for the light and gravity waves to come to earth!

There are people who think that only what is directly seen by the eye has to be accepted, and everything else is not. So, such people say, show me gravity, I cannot see it! Science deals mostly with signals which are too small to be felt by us or seen by us. So we have invented tools like telescopes, microscopes, lasers etc., that can convert all sense data” into pointer readings. A pointer reading is a definite thing on which every one can agree on, because either the pointer is pointing to a given number that we can all agree upon, or it is not. Thus scientific knowledge is public knowledge, for all to see irrespective of whether we are in a Western Culture or an Eastern culture. It is not based on some hearsay that some woman with the power to talk to Gods” has told such and such” and you must believe her even if you cannot verify it!  But how can everybody verify this experiment without special training? Of course, you need some education even to verify an obituary by reading a newspaper.  Indeed,  according to Dr. Silva, once you are over 25, you should be able to do physics, if you had at least followed a few years of study of Physics.  This is unlike in the case of revealed knowledge, where the woman who has special powers” has so only by God’s grace – Devapassiko!

 නලින් ද සිල්වා

By NJ Thakuria

Guwahati: With an aim to protect the lands against excessive resource extractions in Cambodia, an influential rights body urged the authority to maintain indigenous land rights for the natives. The Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), while releasing a report recently at Phnom Penh, fervently called  the Cambodian royal government  to accelerate the collective land registration process.

The report titled ‘Access to Collective Land Titles for Indigenous Communities in Cambodia’, which is available at CCHR website

(www.cchrcambodia.org) both in English and Khmer, has been the outcome of research conducted by the rights body’s land reform project on the experiences of indigenous communities and their engagement with the process to obtain collective land titles (CLT) in the Burma bordering southeast Asian country.

While collective land ownership is recognized in theory in Cambodia, the indigenous population is losing their land at an alarming rate due to outside interests, including large-scale logging of forests and resource extraction, infrastructure projects, land concessions and encroachment by newcomers,” said a statement issued by the CCHR, which is a non-aligned, independent, non-governmental organization working to promote & protect democracy and respect for human rights across Cambodia.

It also stated that the report seeks to examine the obstacles to registration of collective land for indigenous communities in Cambodia and highlight the shortcomings in the implementation of the CLT process.  It reveals the astounding complexity of the process that makes it near impossible for communities to complete without sustained external assistance.

While revealing numerous pressures faced by indigenous communities throughout the CLT process, such as intimidation, judicial harassment and pressure to accept private land titles, the report also offers concrete recommendations for those with an ‘interest in the process, to promote better implementation of collective land registration and thereby ensure greater land tenure security for Cambodia’s indigenous communities’.

CCHR strongly urges the Royal Government of Cambodia to accelerate the allocation of CLTs by strengthening the capacity of relevant institutions and allocating an adequate budget for each stage of the process, to amend interim protective measures so they guarantee tenure security throughout the process and to disseminate information on how to obtain CLTs to communities and local authorities,” added the statement.

In addition, the rights body reminds companies operating on or near to indigenous lands to comply with domestic & international law and to avoid causing human rights violations, urges fellow non-governmental organizations & development partners to increase cooperation and provide technical & practical support to government & communities and finally it encourages indigenous communities to strengthen community cohesion.

Shenali D Waduge

 A weekend newspaper brought the news of an 11 member Consultation Task Force to enforce provisions of the US-backed resolution which Sri Lanka co-sponsored in 2015. UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparations and Guarantees of Non-recurrence, Pablo de Greiff is to arrive in Colombo next week. The names selected for the 11 member committee & subsequent committees raises conflict of interest and questions exactly which victim’s grievances will be addressed. The names and their links raises doubt of impartiality and urges the government to relook at the names being nominated.

No one disagrees to any committee that is established putting together people who have proven track record and are respected in society and not the circles that they move around in.

However, the list of persons being nominated as the Consultation Task Force and other committees raises serious doubts whether this objective is likely to be achieved. It would be a grave injustice and would make a mockery out of the objective being expected from the public. Afterall, the people expect a team of impartial and unbiased nominees in lieu of foreign judges.

Some of these entities are working for local offices that are funded by foreign governments and think tanks linked to advancing their geopolitical agendas. These locals are paid by them and therefore their allegiance and their livelihoods are sustained by the disbursements of funds that come from overseas. In such a scenario one cannot expect them not to be influenced by their paymasters. Their allegiance therefore is not for truth or justice for the people or victims of this country.

Manouri Muttetuwegama (Chairperson)

Is a member of the Friday Forum, a unit that has never issued a single statement against LTTE atrocities throughout 3 decades or even against Sinhala victims of LTTE terror. She has held appointments as chair to several Presidential Commissions on the Disappearance of Persons during the 1990s and has also been a member of the Human Rights Commission.

Dr. Pakiasothy Saravanamuthy (Secretary)

Dr. Pakiasothy is the Executive Director of the CPA. CPA has since its inception been at the forefront of the advocacy of federalism as a political and constitutional idea for addressing many of the constitutional problems and anomalies that characterize the Sri Lankan State.” (http://www.cpalanka.org/governance/)

CPA was at the forefront of the 2002 Norwegian backed Cease Fire Agreement and recipient of Rs. 272.31 mn during the three-year period. Some of these funding sources Norwegian Embassy, Commission Des Communautes (Norway), European Commission, European Union, National Endowment for Democracy (US),

Donors to CPA include USAID, Canadian International Development Agency, EU, Ford Foundation, GTZ, National Democratic Institute, NORAD, OXFAM, Save the Children Sri Lanka, Asia Foundation, Berghof Foundation, Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung, UNICEF, UNDP, UNHCR

He was openly critical of the GOSL banning 16 LTTE fronts under UNSC Resolution 1373 in 2014 though not calling that they be investigated to prove their links to the LTTE and thereafter have them removed if not.

Quoting Colombo Telegraph Dr Saravanamuttu is himself accused of similar kinds of corruption – billing for un-held workshops, double billing scandals; i.e getting grants from two donors to do the same task and duplicating receipts, hotel bills and other bills to submit to donors (perhaps even submitting same bills to multiple donors), and hoodwinking donors by filing expenses under safe cost columns.” https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/expose-centre-for-policy-alternatives-defrauded-and-hoodwinked-donors/

Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu & CPA Slip White-Collar Crime Under ‘Executive-Summary’ Carpet https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/paikiasothy-saravanamuttu-cpa-slip-white-collar-crime-under-executive-summary-carpet/

The constitution has to change. A federal government for all of Sri Lanka will improve the government for all, including the Sinhalse in the South.” http://www.cwvhr.org/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=63:open-discussion-with-dr-paikiasothy-saravanamuttu&catid=35:events&Itemid=61

 Dr Gamini Viyangoda

Leads the Purawesi Balaya movement Civil society leaders including Dr. Gamini Viyangoda, who leads the Purawesi Balaya movement that strongly supported the Sirisena candidacy in January” (Daily Ft)

https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/sri-lankas-state-media-intimidates-columnist-gamini-viyangoda/ the letter featured is co-signed by several names in the panel and others associated with the new constitution – Dharmasiri Bandaranayake, Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne

 Prof. Chitralekha (Sitralega) Maunaguru

head of the Department of Tamil Language at the Eastern University. Co- founder of Suriya Women’s Development Centre in Batticaloa. Attended a three-day international conference on `Facets of Tamil Diaspora’ in 2007. She is also signatory of a letter signed on behalf of Tamil women which called for the release of detainees under PTA, demilitarize the north and east, facilitate UN special rapporteur visits. This letter was also signed by Sandya Ekneligoda. http://www.colombomirror.com/?p=1844#.VrsvnTGUeX8

She is also the author of “Gendering Tamil Nationalism: The Construction of `Woman’ in Projects of Protest and Control.” Unmaking the Nation: The Politics of Identity and History in Modern Sri Lanka.

She also sits on the Advisory Board of the Noolaham Foundation

 She also served in the Board of Directors of ICES (International Centre for Ethnic Studies) ICES receives funding from a range of bilateral and multilateral donors and foundations including Ford Foundation, CIDA, IDRC, Diakonia and NORAD

 Prof. Daya Somasunderam

senior professor of psychiatry at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Jaffna, and a consultant psychiatrist. https://lrrp.wordpress.com/2007/11/23/page/3/ Clinical Associate Professor in Psychiatry, Daya Somasundaram himself fled Sri Lanka fearing for his and his family’s safety, and is Australia’s first ‘refugee scholar’ at the University under the Scholar Rescue Fund. He advocates devolution When it comes to addressing the real issue, it is a matter of power devolution. 

LTTE website Tamilnet https://wow.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=13788

Mirak Raheem

former researcher with the Centre for Policy Alternatives (working under Pakiasothy Saravanamuthu), serves as Trustee for Neelan Tiruchelvan Trust (Neelan Tiruchelvan a promotion of federalism/devolution) He also sat on the FLICT Steering Committee (Facilitating Local Initiatives for Conflict Transformation funded by  German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. FLICT is also supported by the European Union)

Raheem & Bhavani Fonseka co-authored a report ‘Land in the Eastern Province-Politics, Policy and Conflict’ acknowledging their debt to Pakiasothy, but the report after visits to 3 towns is full of generalities and reflects an attempt to shift landownership rights from a sovereign government into the hands of minorities.

 Dr. Farzana Haniffa

Senior Lecturer, University of Colombo, manager of The Citizen’s Commission. She is a council member of the Social Scientists’ Association and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Secretariat for Muslims (originally Peace Secretariat for Muslims set up in 2004 and received a grant of Rs. 23,9 million from the Norwegian government in 2005 and Rs.27m in 2006)

 Visakha Dharmadasa

heads an NGO to champion the armed forces as founder and chair of Association of War Affected Women and Parents of Servicemen Missing in Action but at the one to one meeting with UNHRC head Pillay she had spoken against the Sri Lanka Armed forces. Is also part of another NGO – InclusiveSecurity founded by Ambassador Swanee Hunt (member of Council for Foreign Relations) Inclusive Security’s advisory council also includes former President Jimmy Carter, Mary Robinson (former President of Ireland/UN Commissioner for Human Rights 1997-2002 and well known for the Durban racist conference) – Mary Robinson was also a signatory to The Elders letter sent to UNHRC encouraging a resolution against Sri Lanka, also serving on the advisory council is Kenneth Roth the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch an agency that belongs to George Soros. Roth has been accused of bias in Venezuela, Rwanda,

Dharmasiri Bandaranayake

Is a film director & producer of Ekadipathi (The Dictator) in 1976, Makarakshaya (The Dragon) in 1985, Dhawala Beeshana (Men Without Shadows) in 1988, Yakshagamanaya (Resistible Rise of Arturo) in 1994 and Trojan Kanthavo (Trojan Women) in 1999.

Shantha Abhimanasingham PC

Jaffna Bar Association President, hairperson of the National Committee studying the problems faced by Women-Headed Households

Prof. Gameela Samarasinghe

Associate Professor in Psychology in the Department of Sociology, University of Colombo. She has served in the Citizen’s Commission on the expulsion of the Muslims from the Northern Province by the LTTE in 1990. She is also the Founder of The Good Practice Group

The other members to function as Expert Advisory Panel and Representative (Regional) Advisory Panel include the following names.

The names of the 2 Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka members have not been given neither have the social activists from Jaffna and Batticoloa.

These teams are to set up the following commissions

1. Commission for Truth, Justice, Reconciliation & Non-recurrence
2. Office for Missing Persons based on the principle of families right to know (with expertise from the ICRC)
3. Judicial Mechanism with a Special Counsel
4. Office of Reparations.

They are given 3 months to finish consultation & submit recommendations of a terrorist conflict that lasted 3 decades!

Bhavani Fonseka

She is a senior researcher in the Centre of Policy Alternatives headed by Pakiasothy Saravanamuthu

http://cpalanka.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Trincomalee%20High%20Security%20Zone%20and%20Special%20Economic%20Zone.pdf (co-authored with Mirak Raheem also in the Task Force and both involved with CPA)

Brito Fernando

President of the Families of the Disappeared. How many of LTTE’s victims does this organization represent?

Signatory to letter urging government to stop hate campaigns. http://www.right2lifelanka.org/new/newsview.php?id=538. A UK newspaper however, reveals that ‘Violence more common’ in Bible than Quran http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/violence-more-common-in-bible-than-quran-text-analysis-reveals-a6863381.html

Sudharshana Gunawardena

co-convenor of ‘Platform for Democracy’. Representing Rights Now Collective for Democracy his letter to Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka http://www.eyesrilanka.com/2013/12/17/civil-society-organisations-writes-to-human-rights-commission-of-sri-lanka/ (same names keep appearing)

Nimalka Fernando

She is President of the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR). As a student was involved in Student Christian Movement. In 2011 she received the Citizen’s Peace Award from the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka (the head of the NPC spoke at a meeting organised by NESoHR which had a map of Eelam behind him)

her interview given to IPS on the 22 March 2006. (http://www.ipsnews.net/2006/03/human-rights-no-multi-ethnic-balance-in-sri-lanka-says-expert/)

the reconciliation that is needed should also provide dignity to the Tamil Nation on the island.” (2014 – http://tamilguardian.com/article.asp?articleid=10218)

Niran Anketell

Since late 2008, he has worked in the chambers of Mr. M.A. Sumanthiran (TNA) – he is loyal junior of Sumanthiran.

Spoke in favor of a Commission of Inquiry at the seminar organized by Nimalka Fernando’s IMADR in Geneva 2014, also speaking at this event were Sandya Ekneligoda and Ananthy Sasitharan of the TNA. http://imadr.org/csresponses-ohchrreport-srilanka-hrc30-28september2015/

Mr. Niran Anketell, a Tamil lawyer based in Colombo, started his presentation by welcoming the consensus resolution which includes key set of civil society’s demands such as: the international involvement in the transitional justice process

the TNA with Sumanthiran or Anketell cannot be trusted with information pertaining to war crimes and crimes against humanity” Don’t Trust The Colombo TNA Leadership With War Crimes Evidence! http://www.seithy.com/breifNews.php?newsID=115001&category=EnglishNews

Father Yogi (why is a Catholic father included to a Task Force?) Does he work for a NGO?

http://www.ft.lk/article/473455/Statement-by-Sri-Lankan-civil-society-members-on-OHCHR-reports-on-Sri-Lanka – When Dr, Pakiasothy Saravanamuthu, Bhavani Fonseka, Brito Fernando, Niran Anketell, Rev. Fr. V. Yogeswaran who are the very members of the Task Force have endorsed that the Sri Lankan army are already guilty before being found guilty by any court of law and their organizations have also endorsed same where is the neutrality?

In 2015 a host of ‘academics’ signed a letter addressed to President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid Bin Ra’ad, Leader of the Opposition R. Sampanthan and Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera on the UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka, stressed the need for learning from the experience of the countries such as South Africa and Cambodia. These academics seem to have confused LTTE terrorism with Apartheid in South Africa and Pol Pot in Cambodia (they may not have known that Pol Pot was secretly funded by both the US & UK Governments). Some of the names chosen for the Committee were signatories highlighting that they have already concluded that war crimes have been committed by the Sri Lanka armed forces. This makes them automatically unsuited to sit on the panel.

Given that two of the above team are looking into the affairs of the Muslims, we need to next wonder why there is no champion for Sinhalese rights/grievances when the Sinhalese compose 70% of the population of Sri Lanka.

What is also obvious is that at no time in the post-2009 reconciliation process have any of these entities or individuals named, uttered a single word on the need to resettle Sinhala IDPs, address Sinhala grievances, look into the socio-economic welfare of Sinhala victims of LTTE terror or demanded the return of the Sinhalese & Muslims to their original homes in the North. None of the above named individuals or their organizations have issued a single statement against LTTE or questioned how LTTE struck terror for 30 odd years or called to investigate the individuals/organizations or countries that provided material and other support to the LTTE. Given that the resolution explicitly says ‘both sides’ why is the LTTE always omitted from investigation? In particular the 12,000 LTTE cadres that surrendered acknowledging they were working for the LTTE.

 Any individuals by virtue of being funded by foreign parties and linked to ideologies that run contrary to Sri Lanka remaining a unitary & sovereign nation are unsuited to be on any task force of national interest.

The above are identified as NGO activists paid by foreign funds to steer a pro-foreign policy agenda. None of them are respected amongst the majority community or have shown to have functioned with unbias & neutrality. None of them have openly condemned LTTE terror on civilians at any time throughout the 30 years. Their organizations have never gone to Geneva to complain against the manner LTTE has systematically targeted civilians outside of the war zone. These players are only targeting their statements at the government forces. There is no balance in the composition of the Task force.

A committee must have balance. None of the names have a track record of highlighting LTTE’s crimes on civilians or thought it fit to use their organizations to showcase the manner LTTE struck terror. The Sri Lanka Armed Forces belong to the State of Sri Lanka, their conduct cannot be determined by civil society. There are military courts to do that. The foreign experts who have sat on international tribunals for previous war crimes have determined that the forces did not commit war crimes.

When the Tamil IDPs have got their fair share of reparations after the conflict, the Sinhalese & Muslim victims of LTTE were omitted from this but none of these individuals or their entities have highlighted this fact. On what grounds were the Sinhala & Muslim victims of the over 300 LTTE attacks omitted from getting international attention or sympathy.

A government needs the support of the People. The previous government was toppled by the People. The present Government needs to be aware that in a democracy governments need the People’s mandate to stay in power. The people are watching.

• Who are funding these Task Force teams?
• How are these Task Force nominees earning their living? Who pays them and who do they work for?
• Have these members declared their personal wealth?

Shenali D Waduge

Reference:

• UN Special Rapporteur coming here to help in the consultation process.
  Two-phase action plan shown to Western countries and India.   sundaytimes.lk
• http://srilankabrief.org/2016/01/accountability-reconciliation-in-sri-lanka-dr-saravanamutthu-and-ms-manori-muthettuwegama-to-head-the-task-force/
• http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=SriLanka_War_on_Terror_Revisited_20140124_08
• https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2014/07/15/investigate-and-regulate-foreign-funded-ngos/
• http://www.tbcuk.net/?p=7607
• http://www.sundaytimes.lk/091115/News/nws_17.html – Muslim Peace Secretariat says baseless story, but ST stands by its version
• https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=19671 – Norway grants 27 milliion rupees to Muslim Peace Secretariat
• http://citizens-commission.org/commissioners
• https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2016/02/08/prince-zeid-why-have-you-forgotten-the-sinhalese-muslim-victims-of-ltte-terror/

By A.A.M.Nizam – MATARA

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein who ended a four day visit to Sri Lanka yesterday and extensively listened to the views and opinions of the Tamil community and failed to hold discussions with the Sinhala community organizations or joint opposition members said that it was the sovereign right of Sri Lanka to decide on the judicial process to investigate into alleged war crimes or on the involvement of foreign judges.

He cautioned that at the end of the day whatever Sri Lanka did, it should make sure that justice were served to all the victims, whose human rights have been violated.

Zeid said Sri Lanka has many excellent judges, lawyers, and law enforcement officials but over the years the judiciary had become highly politicized, unbalanced and unreliable and that the country’s history over the past few decades had been littered with judicial failures. He said that therefore it is essential to establish a Hybrid judicial process to investigate into the alleged war crimes.

He pointed out that the Prime Minister has also commented on it at great length and with admirable candour in Parliament. He said virtually every week provides a new story of a failed investigation, a mob storming a court-room or another example of a crime going unpunished. Particularly, sexual violence and harassment against women and girls is poorly handled by the relevant State institutions — especially when the alleged perpetrators are members of the military or security services — and, as a result it remains all too widespread.

The UNHR Chief said it was for these reasons that his report and the Human Rights Council resolution suggested international participation in the accountability mechanisms set up to deal with international crimes and gross human rights violations committed by individuals on both sides.  He asserted that Devolution of power is a must.

It must be pointed out that by co-sponsoring the American initiated resolution against Sri Lanka in the UNHRC last September our western slavish infantile Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera has undertaken the following responsibilities to be implemented by Sri Lanka.

*In Operative Paragraph 1, the government has agreed to accept the report against Sri Lanka prepared by the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) which had accused Sri Lanka of committing unlawful killings of civilians, torture, rape, deliberate starvation of people and other such war crimes. With this Sri Lanka has officially accepted that war crimes were committed in the country.

*In OP 4 the government has agreed to allow the war crimes tribunal that was going to be set up and related institutions to obtain funding directly from foreign sources. Accordingly, the Judges and prosecutors who will be jailing members of the Sri Lankan armed forces will be paid directly by foreign powers.

*In OP 6 the government has agreed to set up a judicial mechanism to try our war heroes with the participation of Commonwealth and other foreign judges, prosecutors, investigators and lawyers.

*In OP 7 it has been agreed that the Government of Sri Lanka would reform its domestic law to ensure that it can implement the commitments made in this UNHRC resolution.

*In OP 8 the government has undertaken to remove through administrative action members of the armed forces suspected of having committed human rights violations and war crimes but against whom there isn’t enough evidence to place before a war crimes tribunal.

In OP 12 the government has undertaken to review the Public Security Ordinance and repeal the PTA and replace it with internationally acceptable anti-terrorism legislation.

In OP 16 the government has undertaken to bring about a political settlement through the devolution of power and to ensure that the Provincial Councils were able to function effectively.

In terms of OPs 18 and 20 all the above were to be implemented under the supervision of the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights.

Fortunately members of the joint opposition, who are patriotic citizens of this country, rightly observed the dangers being posed to our war heroes and unleashed a vibrant campaign against the UNHRC resolution and Mr. Wimal Weerawansa even carried out a series of lectures in foreign countries to enlighten the danger to Sri Lankans resident in those countries while they held a series of workshops, seminars and meetings locally with the participation of leading members of the joint opposition.  If it was not done so the matter would have been hushed up by the western stooges such as Ranil and Mangala as they succeeded in misleading puppet Bra  Sirisena who brought shame to the country by telling BBC and Al Jazeera that there were no accusations of war crimes against Sri Lanka in the UNHRC resolution.  It is claimed that the Foreign Ministry taking advantage of the poor English literacy of Sirisena has given him a doctored translation of the UNHRC resolution and based on this he has uttered this nonsense to BBC and Al Jazeera.

When Sirisena says we don’t need to import foreign judges; we have enough expertise in this country, and that he will not agree to foreign judges, he is repudiating his government’s own position taken in Geneva. Meanwhile Ranil is taking a different view and insists that there is no change in the commitment made in Geneva.

Other than the UNHRC resolution, there are allegations of war crimes in the OHCHR report against Sri Lanka submitted by Zeid as well. The allegations include the ‘widespread’ unlawful killing of civilians, widespread and systematic enforced disappearances, rape, torture and the repeated shelling of hospitals.

Zeid has categorically emphasized that he is keenly watching about the progress being made by Sri Lanka and his next report will be submitted to the UNHRC in June this year.  Legal luminaries point out that Sri Lanka need to change many of its existing Laws to fully implement the UNHRC resolution co-sponsored by Sri Lanka.  Will this happen soon or will Sri Lanka face accusations of breach of trust and some form of sanctions in June due to the absurd folly made by our western puppets?

Courtesy RT

Scientists at Washington’s National Science Foundation and Moscow State University have confirmed the discovery of Albert Einstein’s gravitational waves. The breakthrough, possibly the biggest in physics in a century, could be the key to new understanding of the universe.

Recent rumors of the success in detecting gravitational waves, or as some scientists put it “very weak spacetime wiggles which propagate at the speed of light” were officially confirmed Thursday.

“Ladies and gentlemen! We have detected gravitational waves, we did it!,” LIGO laboratory executive director David Reitze announced in Washington.

“These gravitational waves were produced by two colliding black holes, [that] came together, merged and formed a single black hole about 1.3 billion years ago,” Reitze said.

These ripples in the fabric of spacetime are one of the most important variables in Einstein’s theory of relativity and it took astronomers decades to detect them, although they were pretty sure that gravitational waves existed.

The discovery has been made with the use of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) – a system of two detectors constructed to spot tiny vibrations from passing gravitational waves. Funded by the National Science Foundation, LIGO’s identical detectors are located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington.

The observatories, which are “the most precise measuring device ever built,” recorded a signal on September 14, 2015, “nearly simultaneously,” and the signal “had a very specific characteristic,” the laboratories’ director said.

“As time went forward, the frequency went up,” he explained, adding that it took scientists months of careful checking and analysis to confirm that what had been discovered was exactly gravitational waves.

Each of the two black holes before merging had about 30 times the mass of the Sun, were 150 kilometers (93 miles) in diameter and accelerated to about half the speed of light. The detected collision also proved that the merging of binary black holes does exist in the universe.

“Let’s say this: The first discovery of gravitational waves is a Nobel Prize-winning venture,” said physicist Bruce Allen of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Hannover, Germany.

But the prize will be most possibly given not to theorists, but those who are behind the mechanism that confirmed the existence of the waves, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Pavel Ivanov told RT.

Read more

Scientists to make gravitational wave announcement 100 yrs after Einstein’s theory of relativity

Russian scientists have massively contributed to both of the advances, Ivanov explained, mentioning Soviet scientist Yakov Zeldovich and member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Braginsky, who has been closely working with Kip Thorne, the American astrophysicist at the forefront of the discovery.

The idea to look for the waves was suggested and published in science magazines by Soviet physicists Mikhail Gertsenshtein and Vladislav Pustovoit in 1962, and then developed further by academic Zeldovich and his followers, who explored the theory of gravitational waves. Braginsky and his teams have been working on developing detectors for LIGO.

According to Einstein’s theory, published in 1916, the universe is made up of a “fabric of spacetime“: massive accelerating objects in the universe are believed to bend this fabric, causing ripples known as gravitational waves. The colliding of two black holes or merging of two pulsars are among the presumable causes of such waves’ formation.

“The theory describes geometry of space and time. When gravitational wave propagates, it changes [this] geometry,” Ivanov told RT, adding that “in general relativity and all modern studies of gravity the gravitational field is considered as something that is similar to the electromagnetic field.”

“The discovery of gravitational waves could open a new window in our universe, because before we studied it only using electromagnetic [knowledge], and now we can do it in almost all wave bands, from radio waves to gamma rays,” Ivanov said.

The ability to analyze the information carried on gravitational waves could potentially provide more insight into the Big Bang and other violent events in the history of the Universe, and help to explore if other universes exist, what is inside Black Holes and even potentially pave the way for time travel.

Although Einstein predicted that gravity travels in waves a century ago, detecting gravitational waves was not an easy task due to the fact that their effect is miniscule and easily confused with random noise.

“Everything causes noise: a car passing by, a plane in the sky, or even tiny movements of the Earth’s crust. Detecting a signal amid all this noise is extremely difficult, although of course there are methods, both mathematical and technological – and it costs a lot of money,” Ivanov told RT.

The discovery might lead to creation of new chapter in physics – quantum gravity, scientists believe. It will bring together the knowledge in Einstein’s theory and wave mechanics.

Courtesy The Island

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday described the pledge given by the government to implement  UNHRC resolution as a great betrayal comparable to the Kandyan Convention of 1815

Following is the full text of President Rajapaksa’s statement:

The President and Prime Minister have given the UN Human Rights Commissioner an assurance that last year’s UN Human Rights Council resolution against Sri Lanka will be implemented. This UNHRC resolution was accepted and co-sponsored by the Sri Lankan government and passed by the UNHRC without a vote. The UNP led government accepted the Geneva resolution with the same carelessness with which they entered into the ceasefire agreement with the LTTE in 2002. Though our Ambassador in Geneva tried to negotiate different terms that was deliberately stopped by the government which insisted on accepting the US sponsored resolution just as it was. There is now an attempt to portray this UNHRC resolution as a great diplomatic victory for Sri Lanka. But in reality, it was a great betrayal comparable to the Kandyan Convention of 1815.

The people should once again be reminded about what exactly has been undertaken by accepting this resolution. In operative paragraphs 1, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 12, the present government has accepted the report of the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights which said that war crimes including the killing of civilians, torture, and the deliberate starvation of people had been committed by our armed forces and they have agreed to set up a war crimes tribunal manned by foreign judges, prosecutors and investigators and funded directly from overseas to try our war heroes for these alleged crimes. Furthermore they have agreed to remove through administrative action members of the armed forces who are suspected of having committed war crimes but against whom there isn’t enough evidence to place before the war crimes tribunal. They have also agreed to make amendments to the Public Security Ordinance and to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

In operative paragraphs 16, 18 and 20, the government has undertaken to devolve power in order to bring about a political settlement Sri Lanka and to do everything undertaken in the resolution under the supervision of the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR). It should be borne in mind that the OHCHR that has come in for heavy criticism by the UN Human Rights Council itself. The UNHRC passes every year (with more than a two thirds majority) a resolution calling upon the OHCHR to end the domination of that office by Westerners and to reduce its dependency on Western funds. The government has thus agreed to place Sri Lanka under the supervision of an institution that is facing criticism by the UNHRC itself for its Western bias.

Having accepted the Geneva resolution, the government is now adopting various strategies to convince the public that it will not be harmful to the country. We saw the President and Prime Minister in recent days expressing to the international media what seemed to be contradictory views on the participation of foreign judges in the proposed war crimes mechanism. But this was just a drama for public consumption.  It became clear from the President’s Independence Day speech that there is no difference in the stands taken by him and the Prime Minister on the Geneva resolution. The President not only endorsed the decision of the government to implement the Geneva resolution but also accused those opposed to it of misleading the public. He further said in his Independence Day speech that the implementation of the Geneva resolution will only result in promoting democracy, reconciliation and respect for our armed forces. Subsequently, on 6 February the Daily Mirror reported that the SLFP had officially announced at a press conference that the UNP and the SLFP had jointly agreed on the implementation of the Geneva resolution.

The war was won by an SLFP government led by me. It is a matter of profound regret to me that our party has been subordinated in this manner to the UNP which tried to sabotage the war effort at every turn. Many would recall the manner in which the UNP even tried to stop the war by defeating the government at the budget vote in 2007. When that did not work, members of the UNP ridiculed the war effort by saying among other things that ‘any ox can fight a war’ and that ‘while claiming to be advancing on Alimankada the army was actually moving towards Pamankada’. It is not surprising to see such people now trying to exact revenge from those who won the war.

However, I am profoundly saddened to see that a section SLFP has also joined the UNP in this great betrayal. The UNP may be deriving a great deal of satisfaction by thus getting a section of the SLFP which won the war to underwrite every traitorous act they commit. I call upon the people of Sri Lanka to unite and resist this attempt by the government to betray the country and our war heroes.

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Every day I read news  headlines of all the National news papers about  making incidents in FCID located in BMICH and legal news about Kaduwela  Courts and Traffic congestions in Welikada due to movements of some politicians and their poor little rich kids who have been bullied by the political hopper eating and black coffee drinking so called one time political allies .

I hardly read any business news other than diminishing fitch rating of banks from AA to BB ika etc of finance companies  .

We should like to read about realization /materialization of BOI PROJECTS such  as the construction of Volkswagen factory and steps taken to provide employment to one million unemployed youths

We read about Kidney failures but nothing much about liver failures which go unnoticed due to extremely high consumption of ethyl alcohol and liquor and beer  made of rice in many refineries in Wayamba owned by some politicians

Some lawyers appearing in their customary black coats to get bails to accused (  claimed by them as falsely accused ) making big tax free money paid underhand and doctors fighting for more business in replacing kidneys and students blocking evening traffic and inhaling traffic fumes thus increasing chances of lung failures so that state can appoint another Task Force to solve lung problems of youths ,all these things are in national papers .

I suggest that the government should build a conveyor belt from Welikada to Kaduwela specifically for the use of victims of purported crimes of owning and ( Unsporty ) TV channels to get their bails refused daily .

I AM DYING TO SEE MORE NEWS ABOUT HAMBANTOTA WHICH WAS IN NEWS RECENTLY FOR PATRONISING A LARGE CRUISE ARRIVING WITH LARGE NUMBER OF MILLIONAIRES WAITING TO BE TAKEN TO SAFARI’S

I want to see how  the wizards of development reactivate the Request for Proposals ( RFP) ‘s issued for Hambantota harbour area where contracts were signed to establish many industries

Now grandiose plan to develop bunkering business which was run and  ruined by previous SLPA big wigs by attracting big super tankers to patronize Hambantota and make Sri Lanka –one of the best shipping hubs in the world!

What we see everywhere is Non Activity and complain about it .I would like to see all industrialists and financial institutions get together and initiate action plan without depending on the state funds to develop Hambantota and Jaffna so that all Sri Lankans benefit from the development

Oil Refinery ,Oil tank farm ,Ship building yard ,Industrial parks for processing food items for export , a hub for exporting agricultural products to Middleast ( better than exporting poor malnourished woman to be re-exported back with illegitimate children ) should be established in a program in a  high gear .

I am again reiterating that Harward ,Sorborne and MIT cannot do anything remotely unless we Sri Lankans have a wish to see the growth of this beautiful country  (with some ugly politicians )

We are running out of time and people are waiting to explode .

Let us  do something  to make the lives of next generation much more happier and full of hopes

T. RAMAKRISHNAN  Courtesy The Hindu

The nomination by the ruling United National Party (UNP) of former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and founder of the Democratic Party Sarath Fonseka to Paliament has been criticised by the Human Rights Watch, a global human rights group based in the United States.

In a statement, [Mr] Fonseka’s appointment signals that the government may protect senior military leaders suspected of widespread abuses,” said Brad Adams, Asia director of the group, The [Sri Lanka] government should meaningfully demonstrate to the Sri Lankan people and the UN that it is serious about accountability and not on the road to a whitewash,” he said.

Mr. Fonseka, who headed the SLA during the final years of the civil war, filled the vacancy caused by the death of Minister M.K.A.D.S.Gunawardana. Mr Fonseka, who was conferred by the present regime with the highest military rank of Field Marshal about a year ago, lost to Mahinda Rajapaksa in the 2010 presidential elections and subsequently, he was a Member of Parliament briefly before being disqualified.

Breach of trust

The HRW’s official also described Mr. Fonseka’s appointment as a breach of trust for victims and families who believed in this government’s commitment to deliver justice for war crimes.”

Responding to the criticism by the human rights group, Gallage Punyawardena, chairperson of the Swarna Hansa Foundation, a body claiming to represent interests of nationalists in Sri Lanka, termed the decision of the UNP appropriate” and said this was done in recognition of services rendered by the former Commander who saved the country from terrorists.” He said international community did not want persons such as Mr Fonseka to be given prominence in public life as it was keen on dividing Sri Lanka,” Mr Punyawardena added.

Meanwhile, in a statement, the former President Mr Rajapaksa said the government, having accepted a resolution of the United Nations Human Rights Council on accountability and reconciliation, was now adopting various strategies” to convince the public that it would not be harmful to the country.

On recent statements by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe which, Mr. Rajapaksa said, seemed to be contradictory views” on the participation of foreign judges in the proposed war crimes mechanism, the former President described them as just a drama for public consumption.”

 Courtesy The Economic Times

India is nervous about losing influence over the island nation off its southern tip, while China’s push into the Indian Ocean, and the possibility of dual purpose civilian-military facilities in Sri Lanka, are raising alarm further afield.

The ouster of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who steered Sri Lanka towards China until 2015, was a setback for ties, as his successor reviewed projects to check if they were fair and legal.

Now Maithripala Sirisena’s government, faced with falling foreign reserves, a balance of payments crunch and few, if any, alternative investors, is heading back into Beijing’s embrace, albeit on better terms than before.

“The stance on China has completely changed,” cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne told Reuters. “Who else is going to bring us money, given tight conditions in the West?”

Most of the focus has been on the $1.4 billion port city China wants to build in the commercial capital, Colombo, where cranes and diggers have sat idle for months.

But according to International Trade Minister Malik Samarawickrama, Chinese investors have also expressed interest in a special economic zone (SEZ) in Hambantota, southern Sri Lanka, where a $1.7 billion seaport and airport built by the Chinese are operating at a fraction of capacity.

“We will agree to that. They will invest their own money. That’s the way to go forward,” Samarawickrama told Reuters.

INDIA “NOT CONCERNED”

Beijing’s rehabilitation does not mean the door is closed to other potential investors in Sri Lanka’s $79 billion economy.

Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj held talks with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for an SEZ in Trincomalee last week, according to an Indian official.

And New Delhi said it was not unduly worried by China’s return to pole position in talks with Colombo.

“The relationship between India and Sri Lanka is robust, is getting stronger,” said Renu Pall, joint secretary in the Indian foreign ministry in charge of the Indian Ocean region.

But so far, only Beijing had come up with specific proposals for a trade zone, an official at Sri Lanka’s Board of Investment said.

Beijing has already pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into roads and ports since the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009, when Colombo was largely shunned by Western investors over its human rights record.

China’s interest is seen as part of its ambitions to build a “Maritime Silk Route” to the oil-rich Middle East and on to Europe.

That makes some countries, including India and the United States, nervous, with Sri Lanka sitting near shipping lanes through which much of the world’s trade passes on its way to China and Japan.

Western diplomats have expressed particular concern over Hambantota, located in Rajapaksa’s stronghold on the southern tip of the country, because they say it could have both civil and military use.

Sri Lanka’s government says such fears are misplaced and that it plays host to a far higher number of ship visits by other foreign navies, including India’s.

IMPROVING TERMS OF DEALS

The SEZ in Hambantota is the biggest of four proposals made by the Chinese to Sri Lanka’s Board of Investment, the official there said. He did not provide details about others.

The SEZ is one of 45 projects the government plans to help lift growth at a time when public finances have deteriorated and Colombo is seeking an emergency IMF loan to avert a balance-of-payments problem.

Trade Minister Samarawickrama said the government decided to go ahead with the Colombo port city project after proposing to the Chinese to reduce the land area and limit the environmental impact.

Already, the suspension of work has cost $380,000 a day overall, according to state-owned China Communications Construction Co Ltd (CCCC), which is financing the project.

“During negotiations, the new Sri Lankan government understood the reality and also the fact that they were legally bound by the contract,” said an official at CHEC Port City Colombo (Pvt) Ltd, the local company handling the project.

Sri Lanka and the Chinese government also discussed loan terms, which critics said were too onerous on the host country, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake told Reuters.

“Everything is going well. If there were 7 percent (interest) loans, we have reduced to lower-regime loans,” he said, without detailing which loans were being renegotiated.

China said it looked forward to working closely with Sri Lanka.

“We believe Sri Lanka … will continue to deepen practical cooperation with China,” said foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.

Full Article

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/short-of-options-sri-lanka-turns-back-to-beijings-embrace/articleshow/50941961.cms

 වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග

පුත්තලම් දිස්ත්‍රික් මානසික සෞඛ්‍ය  වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරී ලෙස ලෙස සේවය කරන ලද කාලයේ පුත්තලම් දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ ජීවත් වන අප්‍රිකානු සම්භවයක් ඇති ජනතාවට මානසික සෞඛ්‍ය ප්‍රවර්ධන වැඩසටහන් ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන ලෙස පුත්තලම් දිස්ත්‍රික්  සෞඛ්‍ය සේවා අධ්‍යක්‍ෂක වෛද්‍ය ආර් එම් එස් කේ රත්නායක මහතා මගෙන් ඉල්ලීමක් කලේය​. එම නිසා මම මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් කටයුතු කලෙමි.

පුත්තලම් දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ ජීවත් වන අප්‍රිකානු සම්භවයක් ඇති ජනතාව ජීවත් වෙති. මොවුන් අතීතයේ පෘතුගීසි සොල්දාදුවන් සමග පැමිණි වහලුන් වෙති. මෙම වැඩසටහනේ ශාක්‍යතාව පිරික්සීමට  වෛද්‍ය ආර් එම් එස් කේ රත්නායක මහතාත්  මමත් අප්‍රිකානු සම්භවයක් ඇති ජනතාව සොයා ගියෙමු. අප බොහෝ ගම්මන වලට ගොස් අප්‍රිකානු සම්භවයක් ඇති ජනතාව සිටින්නේ කොහේද කියා ඇසුවෙමු. බොහෝ දෙනා එවැනි ජනතාවක් සිටින ඉසව්වක් නොදන්නා බව කීහ​. අවසානයේදී එක් තේ කඩයක් අසල සිටි පිරිසකගෙන් ද විමසුවෙමු. මම අප්‍රිකානු සම්භවයක් ඇති ජනතාව කියූ විට එක් තරුණයෙක් ” ආ මේ කාපිරිද ? මහත්තයා ඔන්න ඔහොම මේ ගුරු පාරේ යන්ඩ දිගටම යනකොට ගමක් හම්බ වෙයි ඒ ගමේ ඉන්නේ කාපිරි කීවේය​.

දේසේ හැටියට බාසේ කියමින් අප වාහනය හරවාගෙන ගුරු පාර දිගේ ගියෙමු. අවසානයේදී අපට අප්‍රිකානු සම්භවයක් ඇති ජනතාව හමු විය​. ඔවුන් බොහෝ දෙනෙකු දේශීය ජනතාව සමග මිශ්‍ර වීම නිසා අප්‍රිකානු ලක්‍ෂණ දැරුවේ අඩුවෙනි. එහෙත් අතරින් පතර නියම අප්‍රිකානු ලක්‍ෂණ දැරූවන් සිටියහ​. නියම අප්‍රිකානු ලක්‍ෂණ දැරූවන් දුටු මා හට සිතුනේ ඔවුන් සෝමාලියාව වැනි රටකින් ලංකාවට පැමිණියවුන් කියාය​. පසුව මගේ නිගමනය නිවැරදි බව සනාත විය​.

අප්‍රිකානු මිනිසෙක් දෙස බලා මොහු නයිජීරියාවෙන් ද , ටැන්සේනියාවෙන් ද , උගන්ඩාවන් ද , ගිනිබසව් වලින් ද මලී වලින් ද චෑඩ් වලින් ද , සෝමාලියාවෙන් ද , ඉතියෝපියාවෙන් ද , යනාදී වශයෙන් සිකුරටම  කීමේ දක්‍ෂතාව මා සතුව තිබේ. මේ දක්‍ෂතාව මට ලැබුනේ යූක්‍රයීනයේ වෛද්‍ය පීඨයේ අප්‍රිකානු රටවල්  බොහොමයක සිසුන් ඇසුරු කිරීමෙනි.

මුල් වතාවට අප්‍රිකානු සිසුන් මොස්කව් හි ශෙර්මිතෝවා ගුවන් තොටුපලේ දුටු ලාංකික සිසු සිසුවියන් බියපත් වූ බව වාර්තාවී තිබේ. මමද මුල් වතාවට අප්‍රිකානු සිසුන් දැකීමෙන් යම් චකිතයකට පත් වූයෙමි. එහෙත් ඔවුන් ඇසුරු කිරීමත් සමගම ඔවුන් තුල තිබූ මානුෂික ගුණ මා අත්වින්දෙමි.

මම දැන සිටි අප්‍රිකානු සිසු සිසුවියන් බොහෝ දෙනෙකි. ඔවුන් අතරෙන් සමහරක් මට තවමත් මතකය​. ගහනාවේ කෙනත් බෙයිඩු දීප්තිමත් සිසුවෙකි. ඔහු දකින මට මතක් වෙන්නේ දැත්තා පොතේ සිටි උගතා වූ දත්තාය​. කෙන්යාවේ කමාවූ සෑම ඉරිදා දිනයකම ඉස්තිරික්කය ඉල්ලාගෙන මගේ කාමරයට එයි. ඇන්ගෝලා වේ කාර්ලෝස් මැංගේරා නිහඞ එහෙත් කේන්ති යන චරිතයකි. මොසැම්බික් හි ෆ්‍රෑන්ක්ලීන් විනෝදකාමී කතා කියන්නෙකි. වරක් ඔහුට සුදු තරුණයන් පිරිසක් විසින් පහරදීම නිසා අප ඔහු වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටියෙමු.

ඉතියෝපියාවේ එලිසබත් පියකරු තරුණියකි. ඇය අමහර්ස්ක් භාෂාව මෙන්ම ඉංග්‍රීසි  භාෂාව දැන සිටියාය​. සුඩානයේ කූරි උසැති සිසුවෙකි. ඔහු සුඩාන ගීත ගායනා කලේය​. උගන්ඩාවේ බොස්කෝ පියකරු ලෙස ඇන්දේය එම නිසා සෑම විටම  ජෙන්ට්ල්මන් කෙනෙකු  ලෙස දිස් වීය​. කැමරුන් හි හරුණ කමාරා සිටියේ මගේ පන්තියේය​. ඔහු කුකුල් කේන්ති කාරයෙකි. වරක් ලෙබනන් ජාතික සිසුවෙකු වූ ලු ආයි ඇල් ගෝර් සමග ගුටි ගහ ගත්තේය​.

කොංගෝවේ ශාන් පියෙර් මට අමතක කල නොහැක​. ඔහු මගේ කාමරයට යාබද අසල්වැසියාය​. ඉතා උස් හඞින් කොංගෝ සංගීතය වාදනය කිරීමත් බොහෝ ලෙස බියර් බීමත් ශාන් නිතිපතා කලේය​. එහෙත් ඔහු දීප්තිමත් සිසුවෙකි. මොසැම්බික් හි සිට පැමිණි පවුලීන් ඉතා උස මහත සිසුවෙකි. එහෙත් ළමයෙකු සේ අහිංසකය​. සෙනිගාල් ජාතික සාර්ලා මට රස්තා කොණ්ඩයක් ගෙතීමේ හවරි දුන්නාය​. තවද ඇය චතුර ලෙස ප්‍රන්ස බස කතා කලාය​.

බොස්ට්වානා යුවතියන් දෙදෙනෙකුද වෛද්‍ය පීඨයේ වූවාය​. ඔවුන් ආඩමබරකාරියන් වූහ​. ටැනෙසේනියාවේ මේරිට ගහනාවේ ජෝසෆ් අයිවාරු ට්‍යි එකක් දුන් නමුත් එය අසාර්ථක විය​.  මම ජෝසෆ් අයිවාරු ගේ සපෝටර් වූයෙමි. මම ජෝසෆ් අයිවාරුව සමහර විට ජෝසෆ් කයිවාරු කියා නම් කලෙමි. සිම්බාබ්වේ හි ලව් මෝ නෙකමන් ජි මගේ හොඳ මිතුරෙකි. රොක් සංගීත ලෝලයෙකි.

සැම්බියාවේ රොජර් ඉතා කටෝ‍ර හඞකින් අප්‍රිකානු උරුවට රුසියන් ගීත ගැයීය​. එම නිසා ඔහු ගීත ගයන විට අප රොජර් ගේ කාමරයෙන් පිටව ගියෙමු. මැඩගස්කරයේ සිසුවියක් ද වූ අතර ඇයට තිබුනේ ඉතා දිගු නමකි. ඇයගේ නම රසු අමීරා රංසුවා රමානා නරිඌ ය​. මොරිෂස් දේශයෙන් පැමිණි ආර්ථීට තිබුනේ ඉන්දියානු ලක්‍ෂණය​. ඇය බොහෝ සේ පොත් කියවන්නියකි.

රුවන්ඩාවේ ඩෙන්සිල් මගේ මිතුරෙකි. ඔහු රුවන්ඩා ජන ඝාතනයේදී මිය යන්නට ඇතැයි මා අනුමාන කරමි. මවුරිතානියා කියා රටක් තිබෙන බව මා දැනගත්තේ සලීෆ් හමු වීමෙන් පසුවය​. ඔහු අඟුරු මෙන් කාලවර්ණ පුද්ගලයෙකි. ටොගෝ රටින් ආ නුන් ෆුන් දාමේ ඇඩමූ සිත්තර පත්තරයේ ටොගා මෙන් පුෂ්ටිමත් නැත​. ඔහුගේ ශරීර ප්‍රමාණය කුඩාය. සෝමාලියාවේ මුක්තාර් හට   බටහිර ජර්මනියේ නිෂ්පාදිත අලංකාර හිම සපත්තු ජෝඩුවක් තිබුනේය​. සෙරලියෝන් හි ජෝසෆ් කරෝමා සිටියේ මගේ පන්තියේය​. ඔහු අලස නමුත් ඉතා හොඳ මොලයක් තිබූ සිසුවෙකි.

ඊජිප්තුවේ සාමෙක් සයීද් විනෝදකාමියෙකි. මම සහ සාමෙක් සයීද් නිතරම අරාබි බසින් කවටකමට බැනගන්නෙමු.  ටියුනීසියාවේ හාලිද් තරමක ආඩම්බරකාරයෙකි. ඔහුට රූමත් ඉන්දියානු පෙම්වතියක් සිටියේය​. මොරොක්කෝවේ රෂීඩා අරාබි සහ ප්‍රන්ස භාෂා දැන සිටියාය​. ඇය අප සමග විභාග කිට්ටුවදී පාඩම් කිරීමට ආවාය​. මෙලෙස දකුණු අප්‍රිකාවෙන් හැර අප්‍රිකානු මහද්වීපයේ රටවල සිසු සිසුවියන් බොහෝ දෙනෙකු වෛද්‍ය පීඨයේ මගේ මිතුරු මිතුරියන් වූහ​.ඔවුන් සමග මානවීය ගනුදෙනු කිරීම මා ලැබූ හොඳ සහ විරළ අත්දැකීමකි.

DR Sarath Obeysekera

As the ex-chairman Sri Lanka Land  Reclamation Corporation which owns and maintains canal system in Colombo and also as the Ex CEO of Colombo Dockyard and now a MD of a boat building company I can suggest following .

Canal system gets dried up during drought period and over flow during rainy  season  . The jetties to be built to act as stations for passengers to get in and out should be built which should be held by pivoted arms so that when the water level goes  up and down the jetty goes up and down providing  variable landing level

Canal should be dredged quite often during drought period to make the depth of the canal sufficient for a boat to sail

All the boats should be built with two passenger rows only and long enough to carry about 30-40 passengers with low noise engines

Australians have developed solar powered boats which can be run at very low cost and with least pollution

Every boat can have the side of the hull painted with advertisement of large companies who can maintain the boats

Companies like CEYNOR coming under Ministry of Fisheries can join with a private company to develop a suitably shaped long boat like the ones used in dirty canals in Bangkok

You need over 100 boats to ply along the canal starting from Diyatha Uyana closer to parliament roundabout and one boat can go  via Heen Ela to Wellawatte and the other to Kollonnawa and into Kelani river and sail towards outfall

SLLRDC may deploy private sector to operate and charge a royalty for using the canal

We may even get a cue from the Tiffany meal supply system operated in India where employment can be given to the Vallah” who may take the lunch to office workers using the boats

Traffic Police can take a rest in the morning as they do not have to stand under the hot sun anymore

Only problem we may encounter is whether we can find a dynamic leader to  manage the operation without getting drowned  in the canal bureaucracy

Shenali D Waduge

Winston Churchill said I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion” and that they were ‘breeding like rabbits’ so what did the British do, they transported them all over the world to be used as labor and to fester clashes under their famous divide and rule policy. No sooner slavery ended, indentured labor began, to end only in 1920. Some 3.5million people from India were transported to the 178 countries that the British Empire ruled over barring just 22 countries. These Indians were plucked from their homes and exported to all corners of the world in most inhuman and cruel conditions. It was these same Tamils that fought alongside the British Army against India and no sooner indentured labor ended in the 1920s the Tamils began to ask for a separate Tamil Nadu state. All post-independent colonies are carrying headaches manufactured by the British.

The short and sweet of the argument is this. Indentured Indian Tamil laborers were transported to all corners of the world to help Britain earn profits. From 1834 to the end of the WWI, Britain had transported over 3 million Indian indentured workers to 19 colonies including Fiji, Mauritius, Ceylon, Trinidad, Guyana, Malaysia, Uganda, Kenya and South Africa. Many of these coolies were low caste Tamils (dalits). The calculated emigration of Dalits from India is very much similar to the manner the British got rid of its convicts by sending them to America and Australia. The proposed bridge connecting Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu will end up in millions of Tamil Nadu Dalits freely flowing to Sri Lanka.  

None of the countries to which these Tamils were transported during colonial rule wanted them or even asked for them. Britain as invading occupiers of lands that were not their own were doling out land to these Tamil laborers as if the lands belonged to them. Thereafter, after giving independence having made off with profits and looting every country’s treasures, the British insists that the newly independent colonies give citizenship to people the British transported. What kind of logic is this? It is the British who needs to look after all the people they forcefully transported for their profit without forcing other countries to keep them. They are not citizens of these countries and they never were.

When indentured laborers formally ended towards 1920 the laborers in Guyana, Surinam, Trinidad, Jamaica, Malaysia, South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ceylon some decided to stay, some wanted to return to India while others went to the UK in the 1950s. That is how Indians came to be part of the demography in the West Indies, South Africa and parts of Asia to which the British transported them so the British could become rich and leave behind trouble for the natives to sort out and the Brits could fan these issues into further chaos.

The first batch of Tamil labourers came around 1823 from Tamil Nadu, then called the Madras Presidency. They first came to work on coffee plantations. At least 40,000 per year started flowing from India to Sri Lanka. These numbered far more than the Indians that had come earlier from Tamil Nadu. By independence in 1948, Sri Lanka had over 1million Indian Tamil indentured laborers. The total population of the country was 8million..

Even a formula was created – there were to be 7 women for 25% of the total and males were not to exceed 3 times the number of females dispatched.

The British Government that points fingers at nations and talks about human rights, treated these coolies as slaves. They were made to work under harsh working conditions, long hours, little food & water, low wages and anyone grumbling were severely dealt with. Children as young as 5  years were made to work and today these very countries speak about child labor. Work started not at 9a.m but at 3a.m. in the morning. Anyone getting up late was whipped. Rain or sun, these Tamils had to work.

The Kenya-Uganda Railway built between 1895 and 1902 was by Indian laborers. 7% of these laborers actually died due to the harsh conditions. Anyone who tried to escape had their 5 year contract doubled and sent to prison!

They were put to work on sugar, cotton and tea plantations and rail construction projects

It is not the successive Sinhalese Governments that has to be faulted for treatment of Indian Tamils but the British who brought these Tamils from India to work on British plantations under sub-human conditions.

It is not the fault of Ceylon/Sri Lanka that these Indians were treated as aliens, with no right of asylum. That was how the British wanted their status to be. The British only spoke for their rights when they were preparing to leave Sri Lanka.

With these realities staring at us, the present government needs to seriously relook at allowing a wave of Indians to enter after ECTA (CEPA) is signed opening doors to Indian service sector to enter Sri Lanka. Previously the Indians were brought by the British, why is this government foolishly doing the same mistake?

What is relevant about the Indian Tamils used as labor by the British and the current decision to allow Indian workers to freely arrive, work and live in Sri Lanka is that Indians are poorer than their Sri Lankan counterparts and are willing to work under severe conditions for cheaper wages. It was the Dalit low castes of Pariah, Kallar, Sakkili and Palla that came during British rule and probably the same will return.

That India is keen on Mannar is a reminder that these Indian labor came from Mannar during British rule. They had to walk 150miles to Matale. Many died walking. The British human rights then did not permit medical attention because the British did not wish to spend a penny on any non-white. Those who died were just left to decay. The British human rights was such that they didn’t even provide toilets. There was nothing known as a company’s assets are its staff then! The British would not hear of educating these coolies. You cannot have educated coolies as slaves!

The usage of the term Indian Tamil came in 1911 during the census. Those that argue claiming Indian Tamils were disenfranchised need to wake up and realize that these Indians brought as coolies by the British were not citizens of Sri Lanka in the first place. Therefore the question of disenfranchisement does not arise. The issue was that the Indians did not want to take back the hundreds and thousands of Indian Tamil coolies while the Sri Lankans awaiting independence did not wish to have them in Sri Lanka. India did not wish to take these coolies back because the 3.5million indentured laborers scattered all over the world would have also had to be taken back which Nehru did not want.

Sri Lanka had every right to decide how it was to keep people belonging to another nation. Under the Citizenship Act of 1948, only 5000 out of about 800,000 Indian laborers were able to show two generations residence in Ceylon. Under the Indian & Pakistani Residents Citizenship Act of 1949 those who could show 7-10 years residence in Ceylon were given citizenship. 134,000 qualified from the 800,000. The Indian laborers were all Indians and it was subsequent to arriving to work on British plantations that they had generations of children. It was India’s fault that their mission in Colombo refused to register all Indian laborers which eventually made them stateless. Under the Indo-Ceylon Agreement of 1954 known as Nehru-Kotelawala Pact, stateless Indian Tamils were categorized separately in the electoral register for 10 years in order that they learn Sinhala. By 1964 Indian Tamils were 975,000 and under the Sirima-Shastri Pact India agreed to take back 525,000 while 300,000 were absorbed by Sri Lanka.  What is important about both the 1954 and 1964 agreements is that India accepted that over 50% Indian nationals in Sri Lanka were India’s responsibility. The 1974 Pact Sri Lanka agreed to take 75,000 of the 150,000 left. Eventually 514,000 Indians were to remain in Sri Lanka.

Then politics interfered. The government changed in 1977 and repatriation stopped. A secret agreement between JR Jayawardena and Thondaman absorbed 94,000 Indians Tamils while 83,000 who were preparing to leave for India were given employment. Not stopping there the Citizenship by Affidavit Act 39 of 1988 allowed anyone to become a citizen of Sri Lanka by signing an affidavit. This paved the way for 469,000 Indians to become citizens in Sri Lanka. In 1986 only 233,000 Indians had registered while bogus affidavits had been submitted. K H J Wijedasa former secretary to President Premadasa said that Sri Lanka ended up saddled with 634,000 Indians.

On top of Indian indentured labor, there was also the case of the kallathonis – the illegal immigrants from South India and several lakhs had been coming between 1950-1970 to the Wanni region (could these have been the LTTE cadres?). The Task Force set up to tackle illicit immigration was disbanded by the UNP Government.

An article by Dilrook Kannangara titled ‘Wigneswaran should know eelam (Ceylon) Tamil ethnicity is only 105 years old” draws attention to how the British created an artificial ethnic group called Ceylon Tamils in 1911. Before 1911 there was no ethnic group called Ceylon Tamils (it is identical to how the British created Rohingya issue in Myanmar).

Any Tamil born in Sri Lanka or those born in India became Ceylon Tamils in 1911. To prove this he gives the 1881, 1891 and 1901 census where all Tamils were called Tamils only (people originating from India). Dilrook goes on to write that only after creating the Ceylon Tamil League in 1922 by Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam that divided the two as Ceylon Tamils and Indian Tamils at independence. It was these Ceylon Tamils that started Tamil homeland campaign. What Dilrook reiterates is that had the 1911 classification remained there would have been no homeland demands as all Tamils were referred to as Ceylon Tamils with their roots in Tamil Nadu, India so they would have had no right to seek a separate homeland in Sri Lanka. Dilrook also rightly points out that all Tamil inscriptions in Sri Lanka are of Indian origin from Chola dynasty. He sites Yalpana Vaipava Malai written by a South Indian in 1736 under colonial Dutch as being the only Tamil historical chronicle relating to Sri Lanka. Malaysia, Burma and Singapore who were recipient of British export of Tamils from India clearly defined them as Indian Tamils.

The British-Indian Tamil ties are long. Tamils served as Britains best cheap labor, they were ready to be transported anywhere around the world, they served their white masters without question, they were subservient and ready to even become part of the sepoy British army and fight against their own people. This chemistry between the British and Indian Tamils perhaps is what made the LTTE decide to choose London as their international headquarters as the British had no issues allowing LTTE to carry out their campaign from London. However, in turn the British treated Tamils like vassals – to be used, and used and used.

Given that nation-state borders are being redrawn by creating refugees and forcing them to cross continents, it is time that Tamils are wiser and as payback for their subservience to the British, demand entry to the UK rather than allowing open door policy for nationals from the Middle East/Eastern Europe.

 සිංහල බෞද්ධ සංස්කෘතිය සුරකිමු-01   Nalin de Silva – 2016 02 08 –

සිංහල බෞද්ධ සංස්කෘතිය සුරකිමු මැ‍ය‍ෙන් චින්තන පර්ෂදය විසින් පවත්වනු ලැබු සම්මන්ත්‍රණය-2016 02 08 -පළමු ‍‍‍‍‍ක‍ොටස

 සිංහල බෞද්ධ සංස්කෘතිය සුරකිමු-02 Nalin de Silva – 2016 02 08 –

සිංහල බෞද්ධ සංස්කෘතිය සුරකිමු මැ‍ය‍ෙන් චින්තන පර්ෂදය විසින් පවත්වනු ලැබු සම්මන්ත්‍රණය-2016 02 08-‍ ද‍ෙවන කොටස

By Daya Gamage – Asian Tribune Political Note

By Rohana R. Wasala

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.”

• Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32^nd American president (1933-45)

(This is an ordinary citizen’s personal point of view, which is open to critical assessment against contrary opinions.)

Now that the Sri Lankan voters, the common people of the country, are awakening to the reality, we may feel fairly optimistic that a trend towards recovery will start soon, if it hasn’t already started. Recovery from what? Recovery from the political and economic doldrums into which the country has been blown out of course. The ship of the nation has been blown out of course by the ill winds of the unwelcome ‘change’ inflicted on it by meddling alien powers. Some of our people who supported that ‘change’ have celebrated it as a revolution and a victory. It is a case of a monkey praising its own tail; ordinary Sri Lankans have no reason to celebrate the change of government as such. In spite of its defects in other departments, the Rajapaksa government was doing everything possible to develop the country giving precedence to the north and the east over the other provinces and thereby steadily winning the hearts and minds of the people in the area which bore the brunt of the civil conflict; the separatist demand of the Tamil expatriates living in clover in Western countries was fast losing its appeal among local Tamils. The then existing realities of a fairly well managed economy, an independent foreign policy, equitable infrastructure development covering the whole island, and improving interethnic relations did not justify an out of the blue ‘revolution’.

And what is the reality now? The economic development of the country has come to a virtual standstill and the demand for the de facto division of the country on ethnic lines has revived with a vengeance. It looks as if the police and the media are being abused to cover up the failings of the government. Why blame the police (over, for example, excesses in tackling disruptive student demonstrators, and the apparent tardiness of law enforcement in the Ambilipitiya incident and its seemingly conspiratorial aftermath) when the truth is that the police are only a state agency that is under the control of the existing government led by whatever party or alliance that has managed to get a popular mandate to rule. Where is media freedom? Isn’t there suppression of news that the government considers harmful to its survival? Why is it that media coverage of the popularly well received motorcade from Colombo to Kandy on 23^rd Monday, January 2016 by a nationalist organization known as the Sinhale Jathika Balamuluwa protesting against the present government’s policies was effectively censored? (It is important to remember that ‘Sinhale’ refers to the country, not to a particular community.) Amidst such countless instances of misgovernment, the persecution is continuing of the principal members of the previous goernment and the government functionaries who worked under them, risking their all in the face of formidable opposition from the enemies of Sri Lanka. The anti-national nosy parkers are winning while the cabal of strange bedfellows that got together to topple a well performing government solely on the basis of alleged corruption are showing signs of breaking up. Meanwhile the  ordinary citizens are being lashed with the stingray tail of the rising cost of living. Disenchantment is rife even among those who cast their vote for the promised ‘change’.

While it is true that we are faced with  a variety of political, economic, and social issues of considerable complexity, there is no reason for despair. The problems will not be unmanageable if good sense is allowed to prevail among our politicians. We can’t choose our problems, but we can choose ways and means of solving them. We are a country that is supposed to enjoy representative government. The common people, the voters, of Sri Lanka have the power to decide who should represent them in the legislature and take policy decisions on governance on their behalf. But unfortunately, the present ill-assorted coalition between the UNP and a faction of the SLFP in the form of a bunch of infighting opportunists from its ranks, some of them electoral rejects, is making a mockery of that ideal of democracy, and miscalling itself a national government. There cannot be a genuine national government (i.e., one acceptable to the whole country as such) without the proper participation of the majority of the majority Sinhalese community which forms 75% of the electorate.

On its 7 pm news on 23^rd January 2016, the Hiru TV  showed the arrival around 5:30 pm the same day of a motorcade from Colombo organized by the above mentioned nationalist organization called the Sinhale Jathika Balamuluwa protesting against the policies of the present government which the organizers of the event alleged were not in the best interest of the majority community and the country as a whole. Hiru TV repeated the same news item the following morning. When a journalist told a participating monk among them that they were being accused of racism, the monk said, If speaking up for the legitimate rights of the Sinhalese is racism, then I am proud to be labelled a racist”. There was a large crowd of activists, who were displaying the ancient lion flag without the stripes representing the two minorities found in the current national flag. A group of monks were allowed to enter the shrine and worship there while the others stayed outside. During that time, there were some signs of tension among the people when the police tried without success to seize the flags they were carrying. But there was no indication of any untoward incidents taking place.

Hardly any newspaper carried this piece of news. The same probably goes for the electronic channels. This suggests that the government is not interfering with media freedom! The premier’s recent outburst in parliament against journalists only served to confirm our suspicions. Our hope is that the government will understand, at least belatedly, that no constructive ‘change’ is to be expected without the concurrence and active participation of the majority of the majority. The demonstration must be read as a peaceful display of disagreement by an organization of nationalists with the present regime that appears to be playing to the tune of a bunch of real communalists under the auspices of India and the America-led West. The Sinhalese are not exclusively Buddhist; there are non-Buddhist Sinhalese as well, and there is no doubt that they join their Buddhist co-ethnics in their national struggle. These are nationalists, not racists. Nationalists do not exclude the minorities. Sinhalese Buddhist unity does not mean exclusivity. Nationalism transcends ethnic boundaries. We are all one nation like our big neighbour India. India that consists of so many diverse racial groups speaking hundreds of different mother tongues is a single national entity. How strong the sense of Indian national identity is among the general populace of that country is a different matter. What we know is that constitutionally there is one Indian nation, and that it is not a collection of different ‘nations’ defined on the basis of language, religion, or skin colour. There is only one national flag, and one national anthem. Are Tamils in Tamil Nadu which is their original homeland allowed to sing the Indian national anthem Jana Gana Mana (composed in the Bengali language by Rabindranath Tagore) in Tamil?

I started writing this on February 4, 2016, the 68^th anniversary of independence from Britain soon after the official celebrations ended. (But I have had to change its contents while watching events over the past few days, which only confirmed my initial assumptions.) Actually in 1948 Sri Lanka was granted what was known as ‘dominion status’, not full independence, that is, it became an ‘autonomous community within the British Empire’ with the British monarch as its nominal head. We became fully independent in 1972 with the promulgation of the republican constitution under the leadership of the late Sirimavo Bandaranaike. We are an independent sovereign nation with one national flag and one national anthem.

Sri Lanka may have made history this time by singing its national anthem in Tamil as well. The Sri Lankan national anthem was sung in Sinhala at the beginning of the celebrations. A Tamil version was sung at the end, giving it dubious significance, in my view. At that moment I didn’t know how people would react to this historical change. But I felt that it was not likely to engender feelings of mutual solidarity in the minds of Tamils and Sinhalese. If the proponents of this change were thoughtful about their reconciliation-promoting intentions, they would have had the courage to have the Tamil version sung soon after the Sinhala version in one go at the beginning, and both sung again, in reverse order perhaps, at the conclusion of the event. The facial expressions of the young Tamil singers, it seemed, gave the impression that they were not very enthusiastic about what they had been made to sing. The Sunday Mawbima (February 7, 2016) reported that while the national anthem was being sung in Tamil in Colombo, it was being sung in Sinhala the same day at the independence day celebrations held at Paranthan, Kilinochchi by rehabilitated LTTE cadres now employed as officers of the civil defence department. That certainly would be seen as a welcome development, if it was done in good faith. On the whole, I don’t think much about the national anthem being sung in Tamil also (despite its unconstitutionality which, if necessary, could be rectified in the future) if the good intentions of the government are reciprocated by the Tamil speaking Sri Lankan minority.

Some well meaning people have praised the move as a very constructive step in the right direction (e.g. Prof. Carlo Fonseka/The Island/Feb. 10, 2016). Nevertheless, many other people still wonder whether the unconstitutional change of the medium of the national song is going to bring the Sinhalese and Tamil speakers closer together or drive them apart even further? Couldn’t this be a sinister ploy of separatist sympathisers? The Northern Province Chief minister Wigneshwaran has visited the Naga Vihara at Naga Deepa and offer ed flowers at the Buddhist shrine there; he has praised the novelty of singing the national anthem in both languages. Given his pro-federal stance, his commendation of singing the national song in Tamil in addition to Sinhala cannot be taken as an unequivocal gesture. It is reminiscent of the discredited ‘little now, more later’ strategy of certain communalist Tamil politicians of the past. Days before the independence day, constitutional experts pointed out that singing Namo Namo Matha in any other language than Sinhala is illegal; and a Buddhist monk was heard saying that it would be the first salvo of federalism being imposed on the country. Federalism is not acceptable to the majority of the majority. ‘There’s the rub’, as in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

If the national flag, another symbol of national unity, is treated in the same way under this Ranil-Maithri regime, we won’t be surprised. The surprising thing is that those who agitate against such controversial moves are castigated as racists. Will Sinhalese and Tamils be any more united than they are now if they sing the national anthem in their respective languages? Not likely. Rather the opposite is likely to happen. It will only further alienate them from each other. It was the late nationalist Arisen Ahubudu, Sinhalese scholar, educator and lyricist, who argued that our present flag with different sections to represent the different ethnic communities does not make for national unity, but instead keeps communal divisions explicit and confirmed. His suggestion was that the ancient Lion Flag should have been adopted to represent all Lankans without any division.

Actually, existing communal divisions are only superficial, particularly among ordinary Sinhalese and ordinary Tamils. Sharing as they do a peaceful nonviolent religious and cultural heritage, both communities are normally tolerant, compassionate and accommodating, despite the Sinhalese being always portrayed  as fanatical racists by the few separatist communalists there are. Of course, there have been rare occasions when indiscriminate violence was perpetrated against Tamils and even against Muslims by criminal elements among the Sinhalese, and reverse violence against the Sinhalese by similar elements from among the minorities, under the provocation of scheming politicians of all ethnic colours in the past. Much worse incidence of violence took place with state involvement in 1971 and in 1988-89, in which the victims were young idealistic Sinhalese men and women misled and exploited by some short-sighted Marxist politicians, and in which Tamils and Muslims were untouched. The governments of the times (led by the SLFP and the UNP respectively) and the murderously deluded Marxist rebel leaders involved were to blame. The ordinary Sinhalese Buddhists never approve of violence in the name of politics or religion; neither do ordinary Tamils and Muslims. All prefer to live in a single free, peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka.

We who are going to seed today belong to the first post-independence generation of Sri Lankans. We can talk about the tremendous positive changes that the independent Sri Lanka has achieved under various governments. It is customary to criticise politicians with or without reason. But no sane politician would mean to do evil for those they want to give leadership to. (Of course, we know that there are exceptions.) Every government since independence has contributed to the development of the country as a result of which we find ourselves today in a vastly different country to the one we lived in when we were children. More and more citizens have access to education and health facilities, accessories that make life easier, better houses, roads, and many common facilities which once used to be the preserve of the privileged few. The present generations may not be aware this, unless they learn about it as history, but that is not their fault; your attitudes are shaped, to a large extent, by the observable realities into which you are born. In his address at the independence day function, President Sirisena referred to what I understood as the need for working based on the experience of the ‘cultural’ children of 1948 for the welfare of the ‘technological’ children of 2016. No argument about that. In fact, that’s where we have been moving with difficulty all along, despite considerable resistance from certain communalist elements from among the minorities and political zombies from the moribund Marxist fraternity. Over the past nearly seventy years, we regained through our own collective efforts much we had lost during four or five centuries of foreign domination: our independence, our language, our culture and religion, our national dignity. But this artificial communal thing (the handiwork of communalist politicians) has been the perennial stumbling block. That problem too reached a stage where it started showing unmistakeable signs of being finally resolved with the defeat of terrorism in 2009.

Ivor Jennings, the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ceylon, had firsthand knowledge of the way the constitution that led to the grant of independence, the Soulbury Constitution, was drafted and of D.S. Senanayake’s role in drafting it. Jennings wrote that although people who had not read the documents (presumably, those relating to its preparation) thought that the constitution was produced by the Soulbury Commission, it was actually produced by Senanayake. According to Jennings ‘…he (Senanayake) was anxious for a Constitution which was so fair to all communities that they could forget that there were communities. When the distribution of seats was under discussion he was specifically asked how many Tamils he wanted in the House. His answer was typical: I don’t care if they’re all Tamils, provided they are elected as Ceylonese”.’ (Ref. Appendix II/The Life and Times of Don Stephen Senanayake by H.A.J. Hulugalle, M.D. Gunasena & Co. Colombo, 1975). When former president Mahinda Rajapaksa said, after the defeat of separatist terrorism, that there were no majorities or minorities, but that there were only two groups of Sri Lankans: those who love the country and those who don’t, he was harking back to those Senanayake sentiments. That is the attitude that the majority of ordinary Sri Lankans still share. But unfortunately, the attitude of most Tamil politicians has been the stark opposite of this both during and since the  Senanayake era.

When all is said and done, despite some shortcomings, the ousted Rajapaksa government brought peace and prosperity to the whole country on a non-communal basis. A trend towards consolidating interethnic harmony and goodwill started at economic, social and educational levels. All communities participated in governance and the economy was looking up. What we have seen since the enforced change a year ago is not very encouraging; it’s actually a reversal of the positive changes the nation achieved by defeating terrorism at a great cost, not only in terms of blood and tears, but also in terms of the country’s wealth. I, as an ordinary Sri Lankan, don’t think that the president unfairly calling his critics in the south (racist) extremists or the prime minister saying in a jovial mood that the ceremonial Thaipongal milk-rice in the north tastes better than its Sinhalese New Year equivalent in the south (both speaking from among Tamils in Jaffna, out of good intentions, no doubt) is likely to do anything much for enhancing communal harmony, for no sensible Tamil or Sinhalese would take their flattering, specious comments seriously.

It’s time those at the helm stopped trying to suppress opposition by endlessly harassing the still popular Rajapaksa who actually did a great deal to save the country without surrendering our national independence, sovereignty and security to outsiders in the face of massive roadblocks mounted on his path by the enemies of the country. No use flogging the dead horse of corruption. (By all means, deal with those guilty of corruption in a just manner with the cooperation of the opposition if possible. However, the problem of corruption or punishing the corrupt is not the biggest issue before the country.) Something important to remember is that even if Rajapaksa’s administration had been 100% flawless, the foreign aggression against him and the country would have been the same or worse. UNHRC head Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has come and gone. How reassuring are his statements ruling out foreign involvement in the investigation of alleged human rights violations and war crimes during the last phase of the civil conflict? (The real import of his mission here hasn’t come out in the media yet.)

The sordid reality today is that the current rulers, through their words and actions, are already justifying likely allegations of corruption and misgovernment against them on an even bigger scale than in the case of their rivals when, inevitably, the tables are turned on them in the future. While correcting their steps after self-scrutiny, they must turn their attention away from those who are out of power now and whose return they dread and want to somehow prevent. Instead, for the sake of the country the present administration ought to direct its attention where it is really needed: the rising cost of living, the falling rupee, stalled development, deteriorating law and order situation, endangerment of national security, steady growth of separatism, and erosion of democracy and media freedom, and a plethora of other burning issues. And they must finally, allow the voters to decide the future of our beloved motherland. Postponing the provincial council elections by one year is only one among many ways in which they are disenfranchising the people.

(Note: The appropriation of the phrase ‘the Inheritance of Loss’ in the title of this essay is with apologies to Indian American novelist Kiran Desai, the author of ‘The Inheritance of Loss’ , 2006)

Concluded

John Glaser, Courtesy: Anti War website

November 12, 2013

http://antiwar.com/blog/2013/11/12/us-refuses-to-cooperate-with-afghan-investigation-into-war-crimes/

Last week, Matthieu Aikins at Rolling Stone shed light on evidence that U.S. forces committed war crimes against Afghans, including extra-judicial executions, torture, and disappearances of at least 17 men.

The following day, Human Rights Watch issued a statement urging an official investigation, but noted that the U.S. has a meager record of investigating and prosecuting human rights abuses allegedly committed by its forces during its 12-year military presence in Afghanistan.”

Today, Reuters reports on the hard evidence that the U.S. has deliberately rebuffed efforts to investigate these murders:

Afghanistan’s intelligence service has abandoned its investigation into the murder of a group of civilians after being refused access to U.S. special forces soldiers suspected of involvement, according to a document obtained by Reuters.

…In the report authored by Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) intelligence agency, investigators said they had asked the United States for access to three U.S. Green Berets and four Afghan translators working with them but were rebuffed.

Despite many requests by NDS they have not cooperated. Without their cooperation this process cannot be completed,” said the report, which was originally published on September 23.

Needless to say, it’s hard to investigate a crime committed by American forces in Afghanistan if the U.S. refuses to cooperate.

But even when investigations do occur, U.S. soldiers typically get off easy. Eight of the nine U.S. soldiers charged with the 2005 massacre of 24 Iraqi men, women, and children in Haditha, Iraq were not convicted. Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who was charged with leading the slaughter, was convicted in a plea bargain of a single count of dereliction of duty.” He was demoted to the rank of private and will serve no jail time.

The Kill Team” in Afghanistan, the army unit that planned and committed executions of multiple innocent, unarmed Afghan civilians, framing the dead as having been a threat, and mutilating their corpses as trophies received light sentences as well. All but the ringleader of the Kill Team received reduced sentences and are eligible for parole in a handful of years. Even the ringleader, described as evil by one of the other defendants, was sentenced to life in prison, but could be eligible for parole in less than 10 years.

A State Department diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks revealed that U.S. forces committed a heinous war crime during a house raid in Iraq in 2006, wherein one man, four women, two children, and three infants were summarily executed. Not a single American soldier was prosecuted and no investigation was initiated.

In one notable and comparable incident in February of 2010, U.S. Special Operations Forces surrounded a house in a village in the Paktia Province in Afghanistan. Two civilian men exited the home to ask why they had been surrounded and were shot and killed. U.S. forces then shot and killed three female relatives (a pregnant mother of ten, a pregnant mother of six, and a teenager).

U.S. troops lied and tampered with the evidence at the scene. Investigations eventually forced the Pentagon to issue an apology, but none of the soldiers were charged with a crime.

Most of these incidents were revealed to the public because of intrepid journalism and they almost certainly represent a tiny minority of the U.S. crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan with impunity.

Courtesy: Anti War website

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Statement made by the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein at a media briefing held in the last day of his four-day Sri Lanka visit, on the judicial process into alleged war crimes committed by Sri Lankan tri-forces was malicious and unfair, Joint Opposition’s expert spokesman G.L. Peiris said today.

He said that the motive of the UN High Commissioner was not to prevail justice and equity for the victims, whose human rights have been violated, but to fulfil certain political agendas,” he said.

In his statement wrapping up his four-day visit, the UNHR Chief has insulted Sri Lankan tri-forces, judicial system and the sovereignty of the country,” Peiris said.

He questioned as to what kind of proof caused the UNHR Chief to come to a conclusion that an investigation was a must into the alleged war crimes. According to sources, the report of the UNHR Chief was based on the evidence gathered from anonymous witnesses and therefore, the reliability of the evidence against a reputation of a country seems to be unclear,” Peiris said.

He said that President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe should have a clear stance on the UN resolution and the implementation of its proposal in the country without making contradictory statements with regard to the issue.

When other countries, including the United States of America (USA) are openly violating Human Rights by carrying out military exercises in war torn countries, where thousands of innocent civilians are killed, UNHRC’s strange concern on the alleged Human Rights violations in Sri Lanka is a point to be noted,” he said. Meanwhile, Prof. Tissa Vitharana charged that Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera prevented representatives of the Joint Opposition meeting UNHRC Chief Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein. (Piyumi Fonseka) –

See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/105259/UNHR-Chief-malicious-unfair-GL#sthash.Bx4xExrJ.dpuf

Courtesy Adaderan

Editorial Island

February 9, 2016, 7:31 pm Good governance consists in respecting people’s verdicts at elections. Their franchise is not to be trifled with. One of the main flaws in the present Constitution is the provision for abusing the National List (NL) mechanism to appoint defeated candidates to Parliament at the expense of those whose names are presented to the people at parliamentary polls.

The UNP has appointed Democratic Party Leader Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka to Parliament via the NL. He was defeated at the last general election. No less a person than Minister of Justice Wijayadasa Rajapakshe, PC has raised objections to Fonseka’s appointment as an MP, arguing that it is illegal, but to no avail!

We have seen over the years how unashamedly party leaders appoint political rejects to Parliament through the backdoor. It is not difficult to imagine what the situation will be if the preferential vote mechanism is abolished while the Proportional Representation system is retained. There has been a sustained campaign against the preferential vote or manape which enables an elector to vote for one or three candidates of his or her choice. It is claimed in some quarters that manape has resulted in intra-party rivalries which often find expression in violent clashes. But, the problem is not manape as such but the nomination of rowdies to contest elections. When social undesirables are allowed to enter electoral contests it is only natural that they resort to violence to get elected.

The preferential vote mechanism has been introduced to prevent party leaders from acting arbitrarily. Its abolition will be tantamount to giving political leaders carte blanche to appoint their loyalists at the expense of deserving candidates who are not in their good books.

The proponents of good governance won the last presidential and general elections by promising to do away with the present Constitution which they described as rotten. They condemned the previous government—and rightly so—for having made use of the draconian provisions therein for political expediency. But, now, they are unflinchingly making use of the same rotten Constitution to further their interests while extolling the virtues of good governance.

President Maithripala Sirisena, in a desperate bid to consolidate his power and keep Mahinda Rajapaksa at bay after the last general election, catapulted several political rejects loyal to him to Parliament and appointed them ministers. In so doing, he not only made a mockery of his good governance credentials but also dealt a body blow to people’s franchise. In other words, some of the politicians people deemed unfit and rejected at the last parliamentary polls are now exercising executive powers!

Meanwhile, the government has made one wonder whether the much-flaunted 19th Amendment (19-A) is worth the paper it is written on. For, it has blatantly interfered in the process of appointing the next Attorney General. Those who may have thought 19-A would be a potent antidote to political interference with appiontments to key positions in the state service must be disillusioned now.

Why should the government consult the Bar Association of Sri Lanka on the appointment of the AG? There has been an acting AG and he should have been appointed to that post. Is the government looking for a malleable person willing to make himself/herself mere putty in its hands to take over as the state prosecutor!

Ushering in good governance is an uphill task which only statesmen are equal to. Power hungry politicians pay lip service to it while practising the very antithesis thereof. This has been the name of the game in Sri Lankan politics.

Noor Nizam.

THE NEWS.

An eleven-member Consultation Task Force will enforce provisions of the US-backed resolution which was jointly sponsored by Sri Lanka at the Human Rights Council in Geneva last year.Its work will be carried out with the help of a UN expert who will arrive in Colombo next week. He is Pablo de Greiff, Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparations and guarantees of non-recurrence. This will be part of an Action Plan formulated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as stated in a confidential document circulated to Western countries and India as part of the implementation of the UNHRC (UN Human Rights Council) Resolution titled promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka adopted by the UNHRC in October, 2015.

The framework for the consultation process, already formulated, will have two phases — a web-based process in all languages and a face-to-face consultation process which will focus on specific stakeholders –including children, military, disabled combatants, widows and ex-child combatants. The web-based process will begin after Mr. de Greiff arrives. According to the Action Plan, the consultation process will be victim centric” and will be completed within three months. The 11-member Committee named by the Government comprises Manouri Muttetuwegama (Chairperson), Dr. Pakiasothy Saravanamuthu (Secretary), Gamini Viyangoda, Prof. Chitralekha Maunaguru, Visakha Dharmadasa, Dharmasiri Bandaranayake, Dr Farzana Haniffa, Shantha Abhimanasingham PC, Mirak Raheem, Prof. Daya Somasunderam and Gameela Samarasinghe.

The Task Force, which will report to a Steering Committee on Reconciliation and the Prime Ministerial Action Group (PMAG) will consult stakeholders on design of the domestic mechanisms. The Steering Committee is now speaking to experts and researching on options available, according to a Government note seen by the Sunday Times. It says the actual designing and presentation of legislation to Cabinet and Parliament will begin only once the process of consultations concludes.”

On the subject of commencing a dialogue with persons of Sri Lankan origin overseas,” the note says 267 out of 424 individuals and eight entities out of 16 entities that were listed under the UN Security Council resolution 1373 in 2014 were de-listed in 2015.” It says that the Government is working with the private sector to organise a month-long festival in June 2016 for persons of Sri Lankan origin, inviting them to re-visit Sri Lanka.”

Noor Nizam. Peace and Political Activist and Political Communication Researcher.

 Shenali D Waduge

Prince Zeid has come to Sri Lanka to point fingers and give orders. He is violating Article 2.7 of the UN Charter ‘United Nations has no authority to intervene in matters which are within the domestic jurisdiction of any State’. Why should the Government of Sri Lanka entertain such visits where UNHRC head is virtually giving orders to Sri Lanka and interfering in the internal affairs of a sovereign state? In fact we do not know why he has come. Is the silence due to the illegalities of the UN/UNHRC against Sri Lanka getting international attention?

http://www.un.org/en/sc/repertoire/principles.shtml#rel5

The UNHRC/OHCHR head and the UN has been demanding Sri Lanka demilitarize, confusing war crimes with general crimes which can be dealt under prevailing laws, demanding resettlement of people who we do not know are our citizens as the statistics of Tamils does not make sense and we need to question how many Tamils from Tamil Nadu have illegally made Sri Lanka their home and pose as Sri Lankan Tamils and Tamil refugees.

Questions for the UN/UNHRC to answer

• What evidence have we seen of UNHRC/UN officials looking into the welfare of the victims of LTTE terror? 300 suicide attacks throughout 3 decades have left plenty of victims. Why are their grievances never a subject for the UN/UNHRC or human rights organizations?
• If the Resolution says to investigate allegations of violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law, as applicable”, why is it only the armed forces/GOSL under investigation omitting LTTE and all those who supported LTTE (locally & overseas) including foreign nations and even UN officials?
• Isn’t the UN’s failure confirmed in its own report by Charles Petrie on the total inadequacy of the UN and its agencies to handle the unique circumstances associated with the Armed Conflict in Sri Lanka proving that UN did nothing to stop terror that lasted 30 years?
• Is it not correct that there was no commitment by the Sri Lankan President to UN Head Ban Ki Moon in May 2009 for an accountability process?
• Is it also not correct that inspite of the GOSL appointing the LLRC on May 15, 2010 the UN Head went to appoint a 3 member panel on on June 22, 2010? How can the GOSL determine in 5 weeks what took place in 30 years? Moreover a report meant for the UNSG only was released to the public. This is a blatant violation of the UN Charter.
• The arbitrary allegation of 40,000 civilian deaths is being used as a battering ram with no justification or evidence. This needs to be clearly corrected by the UN.
• Moreover with no bodies, no names, no evidence of such deaths except exaggerated statements and hyper emotions on what grounds exactly are these war crimes charges stemming?
• Let us also remind the UN/its local office and others in the UN system that they were very much functioning and involved throughout the 30 years of the conflict. They cannot pretend to be babies unaware of what took place. They were at weekly meetings with the former Defense Secretary right upto the end of the conflict. Now these participants are trying to wash their hands as if they did not know anything. Release these reports to establish how well briefed the international community were.
• How come this Panel of Expert report that was meant to be for the UN head to refer ended up in public domain and the foundation for the UNHRC Resolutions against Sri Lanka? We would like to know how an Internal Document can be used to vilify a sovereign nation?
• We would like to know why OHCHR set up a special investigating team within the OHCHR in Geneva when Paragraph 10 of the Human Rights Council’s Resolution on Sri Lanka specifically states: …the need for an international inquiry mechanism in the ABSENCE (emphasis added) of a credible national process…”.
• Why have appeals to investigate the illegalities of the consecutive resolutions fallen on deaf ears? An advisory opinion from the ICC can easily lay to rest doubts of illegalities at play.
• Prince Zeid is violating Article 2.7 of the UN Charter by ordering Sri Lanka what type of courts to establish and who are to sit in judgment. All these are violating Sri Lanka’s constitution.
• Is it not correct to say that the UNHRC heads reports have all been a farce – does the UN entity really have a case with provable evidence against Sri Lanka? It most certainly does not.
• Why has the UN ignored the contents of the reports commissioned by the GOSL one which included eminent legal experts who had been part of UN war crimes investigations in other countries? Their reports conclude that no war crimes was committed. If your office says war crimes have been committed and the international experts commissioned by the GOSL says no war crimes have been committed is it not best to appoint a new independent team of experts selected and appointed by the UN General Members?
• Why is the OHCHR head ignoring the Sinhalese & Muslim victims? Why is it always and only Tamils being referred to and visits directed at only the North? Why has the whole world forgotten that it was LTTE who started terror and Sri Lanka was only defending its citizens?
• Since the Prince is travelling to the North, his office should tell him to ask about the state of affairs of low caste Tamils in the rigid and cruel caste system that divides Tamils more than uniting them.
• If Zeid is here as an unbiased official why is he not inquiring about the displaced Sinhalese & Muslims who were chased out from their homes in the North by the LTTE in the 1980s. None of these have been allowed to resettle in their original habitats? Why is the UN silent on their plight?
• We would also like to have the OHCHR make public all the visits by pro-LTTE groups (most of whom were listed under UN Resolution 1373 as LTTE fronts) to the OHCHR office to meet officials of your office including yourself. These fronts are boasting that they have been in and out of your office which does raise eyebrows as to why?
• Why does the OHCHR head only visit pro-LTTE leaders and their representatives? Meetings with one side obviously gives one-sided views. How can a  day visit with one sided views establish what is relevant for the whole country?

Questions for the Sri Lankan Government to answer

• Why is the GOSL allowing the UN, UNHRC and foreign nations and their envoys to interfere in the internal affairs of the country?
• When there is no evidence to prove that the Sri Lankan Army killed civilians with malicious intent to kill why did the present government forsake the country’s armed forces by co-sponsoring a UNHRC bogus resolution that names service commandos as war criminals?
• This government is failing the nation in agreeing to evidence-less allegations/accusations and accepting wild notions of hybrid courts which are obviously an experiment for the UN to penetrate into nation states and overrule the existing law of the land.
• Why is this government failing to demand UNHRC/OHCHR action on the 5000 missing soldiers?
• What the GOSL should be doing is to table a motion in the General Assembly listing out all of the irregularities, illegalities and lies that have been manufactured against Sri Lanka and request an independent expert panel to be appointed by the UN General Assembly. All nations that abstained or voted against the Resolutions on Sri Lanka need to realize that today it is Sri Lanka, tomorrow it could be them and the day after it most likely will be them because the UN is now a puppet organization manipulated by a handful of nations only.

We cannot help that we are a small island nation without the same clout that bigger powers have. It is for these reasons that we expect better from the UN and its officials. However, the manner that Sri Lanka has been hounded and the very visible witch-hunt clearly seen and can be shown with evidence should highlight to the world that the UN should now close shop for it is not serving the world equally and is favoring the West and covering the West’s crimes unashamedly.

 Shenali D Waduge

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග

මීගමුව දිස්ත්‍රික් රෝහලේ විශේෂඥ නාරි හා ප්‍රසව වෛද්‍ය  අජිත් සේමසිංහ මහතා සීසර් ශල්‍යකර්මයක් සඳහා සහායක වෛද්‍යවරයා ලෙස මාව කැඳවාගෙන ශල්‍යාගාරයට ගියේය​.  අත් හොඳින් සෝදා අත්වැසුම් සහිතව ශල්‍ය ඇඳුම් ඇඳගත් අප ගැබිනි මාතාව සීසර් ශල්‍යකර්මයට ලක් කිරීම ඇරඹුවෙමු. වෛද්‍ය  අජිත් සේමසිංහ ශල්‍ය සැතෙන් නිර්වින්දනයට ලක් කරන ලද ගැබිනියගේ බඩෙහි කැපුමක් කලේය​. මම රුධිරය ගැලීම නවතනු වස් ගෝස් කෑල්ලකින් රුධිර නාලිකා තද කලෙමි. එසේම කැපුණු රුධිර නාලිකා ශල්‍ය නූල් වලින් ගැට ගැසීමට උදව් කලෙමි.

ගර්භාශය දක්වා කැපුම් යෙදූ වෛද්‍ය  සේමසිංහ සෙමෙන් සෙමෙන් ගර්භාශය පාදා එමතින් සුළු කැපුමක් දමා ගර්භාශය ආංශිකව විවෘත කොට භූණ හිස ගර්භාශයෙන් පිටතට ගත්තේය​. ඉන්පසු ගර්භාශ කැපුම තවත් දිගු කොට නවජ බිළිඳා ඉවතට ගත්තේය​. හේ නිරෝගී පිරිමි දරුවෙකි. පෙකනි වැල කැපීමෙන් පසුව නවජ බිළිඳා ස්වාධීන ජීවියෙකු බවට පත් විය​. බිළිඳාව වින්නඹු නිලධාරිනියගේ අතට දෙන ලදි. ඒ සමගම විශේෂඥ නාරි හා ප්‍රසව වෛද්‍ය  අජිත් සේමසිංහ මහතා තමන්ට වෙනත් රෝගියෙකු බැලීමට තිබෙන බව පවසා මට ගර්භාශය මසා ශල්‍යකර්මය නිම කරන ලෙස පවසා ඉවතට ගියේය​.

ශල්‍ය හෙදියත් සමග මම තනිවූයෙමි. එය ගුවන් යානයක පාලනය සහය නියමුවා අතට දී ගුවන් නියමුවා පැරශූටයක ආධාරයෙන් යානයෙන් පැනීමක් බඳු විය​. මීට ඉහතදී විශේෂඥ නාරි හා ප්‍රසව වෛද්‍ය ජී ඒ රණතුංග මහතා සමග බොහෝ සීසර් ශල්‍යකර්ම වලට සහයකයා ලෙස සහභාගි වී ඇතත් මම තනිවම සීසර් ශල්‍යකර්මයක් අධීක්‍ෂණයකින් තොරව සිදු කොට නොමැත​. මගේ නලල මතට දාඩිය බිඳු ගැළුවේය​. එහෙත් මම චිත්ත ධෛර්‍යය වඩවාගෙන ශල්‍යකර්මය කරගෙන ගියෙමි. වෙහෙස ගෙන ගර්භාශයෙන් ගලන ලද රුධිරය නවතා ගර්භාශ කැට්ගට් නූල් වලින් මැසුවෙමි . ඉන් පසු කැපී ගිය පේශි සහ පටකද මසා අවසානයේදී චර්මයද  මසා ශල්‍යකර්මය නිම කලෙමි.

ශල්‍යගාරයේදී සිහිය ලැබූ මාතාව වාට්ටුවට ගෙන යන ලදි. ශල්‍ය අත්වැසුම් ගැලවූ මම වෛද්‍ය විවේකාගාරයේ හාන්සි පුටුවේ ඇල වූයෙමි. විශේෂඥ නාරි හා ප්‍රසව වෛද්‍ය  අජිත් සේමසිංහ මහතා කිසිම සංඥාවකින් තොරව මාව ගැබිණිය සමග තනි කොට ශල්‍යකර්මය මැද ඉවතට යාම ගැන මට ඇතිවූයේ කේන්තියකි. නමුත් පසුව හෙළි වූයේ වෛද්‍ය සේමසිංහ ශල්‍යාගාරයෙන් ඉවතට නොගොස් දොර අසල රැඳී මා ශල්‍යකර්මය අවසන් කරන තෙක් සිටි බවයි . එසේම එතුමා වරින් වර වෙනත් හෙදියකගේ මාර්ගයෙන් ශල්‍යකර්මයේ තත්වය විමසා තිබේ. වෛද්‍ය සේමසිංහ එලෙස මාව තනි කොට යන ලද්දේ මට ප්‍රතිහානය ( confidence) ලබා දීමටය​. මෙයින් ලත් අාත්ම විශ්වාසය නිසා පසු දින මම තනිවම සීසර් ශල්‍යකර්මයක් කලෙමි. විශේෂඥ නාරි හා ප්‍රසව වෛද්‍ය  අජිත් සේමසිංහ මහතා මගේ සහයකයා විය​. මම ඉතා පරිස්සමෙන් සීසර් ශල්‍යකර්මය කොට ස්ව දක්‍ෂතාවය එතුමා ඉදිරියේ පෙන්වූයෙමි. ඉන් පසු සීමාවාසික වෛද්‍යවරයෙකු සහයට ගෙන තනිවම සීසර් ශල්‍යකර්ම කිරීම  මට පවරන ලදි.

මෙලෙස මීගමුව දිස්ත්‍රික් රෝහලේ නාරි හා ප්‍රසව අංශයේ ජේෂ්ඨ වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරී ලෙස මම බොහෝ සීසර් ශල්‍යකර්ම කලෙමි. ඒ අතර සංකූලතා තිබූ ගැබිණි මාතාවන් ද වූහ​. එක් දිනක් මම සීසර් ශල්‍යකර්ම 13 උදේ නවයේ සිට පස්වරු පහ දක්වා එක දිගට කලෙමි. පසු කාලයක නෝත් යෝක් ජෙනරල් රෝහලේ කැනේඩියානු   නාරි හා ප්‍රසව  වෛද්‍යවරයෙකුට මෙම අත් දැකීම කියූ විට මම අසත්‍යක් පවසනවා කියා ඔහු සමච්චලයට සිනාසුනේය​. ” කිසි කෙනෙකුට එක් දිනකදී සීසර් ශල්‍යකර්ම 13 කිරීමට නොහැකියි” ඔහු කෙටියෙන් කීවේය​. එහෙත් මීගමුව රෝහලේ මසකට දරු උපත් 400- 450 අතර සංඛ්‍යාවක් වන බවත් එක් විශේෂඥ නාරි හා ප්‍රසව වෛද්‍යවරයෙකුත්  එක්   ජේෂ්ඨ වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරියෙකුත් සහ සීමාවාසී වෛද්‍යවරුන් හතර දෙනෙකුත් විසින් වාට්ටු දෙකක් සහ සූතිකාගාරයක් බලා කියා ගත් බව ඔහු නොදැන සිටියේය​.

මෙලෙස් කාලයත් සමගම මගේ සීසර් ශල්‍යකර්ම කිරීමේ වේගය වැඩි විය​. වරක් මම නිර්වින්දන වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරී එච් ජී සුබසිංහ නිර්වින්දන වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරී  මාංජේෂ්ඨ පීරිස් යන වෛද්‍යවරුන් ඉදිරියේ විනාඩි 20 තුල සීසර් ශල්‍යකර්මයක් සිදු කලෙමි. එහෙත් සෑම විටම සුපරික්‍ෂාකාරී වීම මම අත් නොහැරියෙමි.

මෙසේ මීගමුව දිස්ත්‍රික් රෝහලේ නාරි හා ප්‍රසව අංශයේ ජේෂ්ඨ වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරී ලෙස  එක් මාතෘ මරණයක්වත් නොමැතිව මම සීසර් ශල්‍යකර්ම 723 කලෙමි.  මට පෙර සිටි ජේෂ්ඨ වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරී අතින් මාතෘ මරණ දෙකක් සිදුවී තිබුණි. මේ නිසා මීගමුව  රෝහලේ දිස්ත්‍රික් වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරී පී. සිවරාජා විසින් මට සහතිකයක්ද දෙන ලදි.

මා විසින් සීසර් ශල්‍යකර්ම කොට එළියට ගත් දරුවන් දැන් අවුරුදු 17-18-19 වයසේ පුද්ගලයෝ වෙති. මීගමුව  රෝහලේ ගිලන් රථ රියැදුරු ජෝතිපාලගේ නැගනියගේ සීසර් ශල්‍යකර්මය කරන ලද්දේද මා විසිනි. මාව දකින විට ජෝතිපාල ” සර් එලියට ගත්ත කොල්ල දැන් නියමට ඉන්නවා ” කියයි. එය මට සතුටකි.    සීසර් ශල්‍යකර්ම කිරීම මගින් මම දළ වශයෙන් මිනිස් ජීවිත 1446 බේරාගෙන තිබේ. එය සිහිපත් වන විට මට නිරාමිශ සතුටක් දැනේ.

වෛද්‍යවරයෙකු ලෙස බොහෝ යහපත් දේ කල හැකිය එසේම එම බලපත්‍රය යොදාගෙන බෝහෝ අවැඩද කල හැකිය​. මට මීගමුව රෝහලේ සිටි වෛද්‍ය සුදර්ශන බාලගේ මතක් වේ. තරුණියක දූෂණය කොට ගොඩනැගිල්ලකින් බිමට දමා මරණයට පත් කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඔහු මේ වන විට මරණීය දණ්ඩනයට ලක්ව සිපිරි ගෙයක කාලය ගත කරයි.

අප සෑම දෙනා තුලම සුදර්ශන බාලගේ කෙනෙකු සිටියි. එම නිසා සෑම විටම තමන් ගේ හැසිරීම බාහිරව සහ අභ්‍යන්තරව නිරීක්‍ෂනය කල යුතුය​. තමන් තුල සිටින යක්‍ෂයා යටපත් කොට සාදුවරයා බාහිරයට ගෙන ආ යුතුය​.

by Tamara Kunanayakam Courtesy The Island

February 8, 2016, 7:28 am
It should by now be obvious to any keen observer of events in Geneva and vacillations of Sri Lanka’s ruling class that the ‘human rights’ game being played out has little to do with the Sri Lankan people and everything to do with the island’s strategic location on the Indian Ocean as vital maritime link between a declining West and a rising East, with China at its centre, and strategic observation post, and with Washington’s fundamental commitment to maintaining a unipolar world in which it has no peer competitor. Sri Lankans matter only insofar as they constitute obstacles to that goal, or would-be collaborators, or opportune victims to be used and abused as and when strategy requires.

Yesterday, Sri Lanka got too close to China and Russia, and regime-change was in order. Today, having obtained the support of collaborators within the Yahapalanaya regime to subscribe to a resolution devastating for Sri Lanka’s sovereignty, all efforts concentrate on stabilizing its auxiliaries in Colombo by ensuring implementation of a precedent-setting joint resolution whose reach extends far beyond Sri Lanka’s shores or its relations with Washington.

Washington’s ambitions are not just geopolitical, but the erection of a new international architecture that will permit its unilateral, preemptive, and preventive use of force, anywhere, at any time, unconstrained by the rules and norms of the multilateral system of international relations that is Charter-bound to respect sovereignty.

Washington’s obsession with Sri Lanka cannot be divorced from this Grand Strategy. The justification advanced by the neoconservatives who continue to influence the current US Administration is the need to respond to terrorism, new global threats that former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called the “unknown unknowns … things we don’t know we don’t know.” Such threats do not require evidence because invisible (“absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”) and can only be combat in this manner. President Obama’s 2015 National Security Strategy views virtually any form of economic, social or environmental disruption as strategic security issues that potentially justify US military intervention, “unilaterally, if necessary.”

Abdication of sovereignty, devastating admission of inability to govern by ‘Good Governance’ government

Washington’s problem in implementing this Grand Strategy is the sovereignty principle, which, therefore, must be recast. Such threats do not respect borders so neither can Washington. According to this neoconservative vision, countries that harbour terrorists by consent or are unable or unwilling to combat such threats forfeit their rights of sovereignty. The reader will here recognise a version of the infamous third pillar of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) utilised in the human rights arena to unilaterally intervene in countries that Washington considers are unable or unwilling to protect their own population.

In Sri Lanka’s case, the “support to terrorism” argument was untenable. On the contrary, it had succeeded in defeating terrorism within its own borders and without external (read US) intervention. It is a bad example to be crushed, flying as it does in the face of Washington’s Grand Strategy, hence, the resort to R2P’s third pillar, which underlies all resolutions against Sri Lanka.

Given developing country resistance to the onslaught against their independence and sovereignty, Sri Lanka included until the arrival of Yahapalanaya, the US-led resolutions of March 2013 and 2014 conferred this interventionist role on its proxy, OHCHR, technically part of the UN System, although under Washington’s thumb. It was only in October 2015, due to a servile new Government, Washington succeeded in making the leap and introducing foreign elements from outside the multilateral system, in the form of judges, prosecutors, investigators and defense lawyers.

The unprecedented authority to intervene conferred upon OHCHR is part of broader efforts to put in place a system in which sovereignty is the monopoly of the US, but conditional for countries that challenge its ambitions. By co-sponsoring the resolution, Sri Lanka freely abdicated its sovereign right to govern, a devastating admission of inability to govern by a Government that was voted in on the promise of ‘good governance’!

OHCHR, a Washington proxy

The timing of the visit of the High Commissioner is significant, it comes in the wake of a controversy at the summit of power over implementation of a recommendation relating to foreign involvement in a domestic judicial mechanism that is central to a resolution aimed at limiting State sovereignty. Contradictory declarations emerging from Colombo confirm that the new Government may be a reliable ally, but not a stable one.

In June this year, the High Commissioner must submit an oral update to the Human Rights Council on progress made on implementation of the resolution. If the regime in Colombo fails to do so, it is not only the credibility of an ally that is at stake, but the credibility of Washington and its ability to achieve the broader goal. Given the extreme fragility of the regime and the existence of an alternative, the US and its auxiliaries are determined to ensure that the new Government stays its course and unconditionally implements the Geneva decisions.

The High Commissioner will echo this demand. Since its establishment in 1993, following the collapse of the Socialist Bloc, Washington has heavily invested in fashioning OHCHR in its own image, an example of the type of international institution that can respond to its demands. Financed largely from voluntary funds and staffed overwhelmingly by the donors, it has become a privileged weapon in Washington’s soft-power arsenal. Today, the High Commissioner functions as UN Secretary-General bis and it is no surprise that countries posing a challenge to Washington’s grand design are channeled through the human rights system.

The High Commissioner will also seek to establish the hard-fought for OHCHR field office accepted by the Government in the October 2015 resolution when agreeing to the recommendations in the High Commissioner’s report. That Office, as I pointed out in a piece prior to its adoption, will have the combined function of investigation, monitoring, and governance, and will be the Trojan Horse that will permit direct US intervention in Sri Lanka.

OHCHR’s insidious role

The insidious role played by OHCHR in coordinating the campaign that triggered the March 2012 US-sponsored resolution was revealed in an email written only hours after its adoption by a triumphant Rory Mungoven, Head of OHCHR’s Asia-Pacific Division, paying tribute to staff who provided substantive and political support for the initiative, including the Darusman Report. Its adoption, wrote Mungoven, “seemed unthinkable” in the “the dark days of the conflict or the special session in May 2009.” The adoption in 2012 was “the culmination of the sustained and determined work by many in the team and other parts of the house over the past few years.” He lauded the staff for their support to the Darusman Panel, “without which this would not have been possible,” and paid special tribute to those involved in monitoring activities “who added a powerful dimension to our advocacy.” Anticipating the next steps, Mungoven went on to marshal support for “a good follow on strategy” to make most of “new opportunities ” opened by the resolution, “and “to pursue this agenda further.”

Mungoven, who is accompanying the High Commissioner to Colombo, is former Advocacy Director of Human Rights Watch, which has close ties to the US State Department and interventionists in the current Administration. He has been a constant in external interventions in Sri Lanka ever since his appointment as UN Human Rights Advisor following the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) in 2002. According to then Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, Mungoven, whose job it was to assist the Sri Lankan Government in strengthening the Human Rights Commission’s regional offices, had been, instead, involved in “propagating a campaign of deceit that the Commission was illegal,” making it impossible to obtain international assistance. Mungoven, he said “had proconsular ambitions.

Wikileaks cables reveal Mungoven’s privileged access to Washington as far back as 2004, his regular reporting on confidential information to US diplomatic missions in Colombo and Geneva, and their close coordination on OHCHR actions, in particular, the establishment of a field office, one that would go beyond technical assistance to “a robust monitoring and reporting function as well.”

There is a continuum in the unfolding of events in Geneva. If we fail to comprehend the bigger picture, underestimate Sri Lanka’s strategic importance, and refuse to see ourselves as Sri Lankans, we will find ourselves, again, in a fratricidal war that will provide fertile ground for marauding invaders. It is urgent that the people of Sri Lanka regain their sovereign right to govern themselves from those who, in Geneva, betrayed their trust by surrendering the authority accorded to them to external forces whose interests are antithetical to ours, thus also demonstrating their inability to govern.

Media Release  Citizens Electoral Council of Australia

The cascade of write-downs, defaults and bankruptcies now sweeping the oil and gas sector worldwide is well on the way to triggering the final, deadly implosion of the London/Wall Street-centred financial system. Like the smaller, 2007-08 mortgage debt bubble, the threat lies in the derivatives trades that are many times the value of the oil debts they are betting on, which are increasingly worthless.

Explaining the collapse in European bank stocks this year, including falls of 37 and 34 per cent in the stocks of Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse respectively, Matthew Lynn reported in the 8 February London Telegraph, Collapsing oil and commodity prices are starting to seep into the financial system, much as collapsing house prices did in 2008. The big oil and mining conglomerates have massive debts, and so do the smaller oil explorers. Hedging contracts [derivatives] on commodity prices are scattered throughout the financial system, and enormous losses may start to crystallise in the next few months.”

A swathe of smaller US exploration and production companies—42 players in the so-called shale gas fracking boom”—already went bankrupt in 2015, with combined debts of US$17 billion. Now, bigger fish are beginning to fry. Oklahoma-based natural gas company SandRidge Energy was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in January, laid off 440 of its 1,157 employees on 3 February, and will file for bankruptcy unless it can restructure its US$4 billion debt, which is doubtful. Large mining and energy company Freeport-McMoRan, one of the world’s biggest producers of gold and copper, had its credit rating slashed four levels—well into junk” status—by ratings agency Moody’s, casting doubt on its ability to continue to roll over its debts.

In Australia, Woodside Petroleum has announced that it will write down the value of its assets by US$1–1.2 billion, in part due to a six-month delay to the Wheatstone liquefied natural gas export terminal in WA. Supplier and retailer AGL announced last week that gas extraction will no longer be a core business for the company” and that it will sell its Queensland gas wells, abandon a 300-well project in New South Wales, and write down $795 million. Even BHP Billiton has seen its credit rating at Standard & Poor’s cut by one notch, with a second cut almost assured when it releases its fourth quarter 2015 report on 23 February, thanks to a multi-billion dollar write-down of its US shale assets late last year.

Major oil refiners are also suffering. Chevron, the second largest US oil company, lost US$588 million in the last quarter of 2015, and has had its credit rating cut at S&P; BP lost US$5.2 billion in 2015, its worst ever annual result; and Shell has announced that it will sell US$10 billion worth of assets, after its annual profits collapsed by 87 per cent. The Dallas, Texas branch of the US Federal Reserve described the results of its January 2016 survey of industrial conditions as an oil depression” in every aspect equal to or worse than that of 2009, while oil industry news sites and blog posts galore are calling it a replay of the 1986 crash, only bigger. According to the US Energy Information Administration’s second quarter 2015 figures, when oil was almost twice its present price, debt service already swallowed more than 80 per cent of US onshore oil producers’ cash flow, and S&P data suggests that one third of all oil-related companies on its international listings will not earn enough this year to service their debts. With that in mind, it is worth noting that Citigroup, in its fourth quarter 2015 report, has already recorded a 32 per cent increase in non-performing corporate loans, and that several Wall Street banks are between them setting aside billions of dollars of loan loss” reserves.

Derivatives the real danger

Just as in the US sub-prime mortgage crash of 2008, it is the major international banks’ trillions of dollars of derivative gambling that will turn an oil-led depression” into a global catastrophe. In a 4 February Business Spectator article headlined A derivative dilemma for the banks”, Victoria Thieberger cited Louis-Vincent Gave of Gavekal Economics who questions the banks’ claims that they are not overly exposed to the collapse in the oil industry. Gave admits in his recent report Red Herrings, Margin Calls And Heart Attacks” that analysts—himself included—have been looking in the wrong place to understand banks’ commodities exposures”, and asks, Perhaps what matters is not the banks’ direct loan exposure to the sector, but instead their exposure to commodity-related derivatives?”

In any derivatives transaction”, Thieberger explains, one side of the deal is long and the other party is short. But the prospective rise of bankruptcies among commodity companies increases the chances that some players will not fulfil their derivatives commitments, triggering a potentially ‘catastrophic’ repercussion through the chain of derivatives holders.

Recall that the initial trigger for the global financial crisis was about $US500bn worth of losses on US mortgages. Gave cites figures [showing] that through the magnifying effects of derivatives markets, that wiped some $US7 trillion from global GDP and $US28 trillion from global equity markets.” (Emphasis added.)

View the US$5.4 trillion alternative energy sector” debt, mainly associated with the US fracking boom, through the magnifying effects of derivatives” and you begin to see the scale of calamity soon to befall the world’s financial institutions.

The truth is that no amount of emergency loans, bail-outs or bail-ins can prop up the more than $2 quadrillion global debt and derivatives casino. It must be shut down, immediately, along with the banks that have created it, before it collapses—and drags the whole world down with it. Governments, not central banks, must take this action, beginning with a full Glass-Steagall separation of banking from derivatives gambling.

By NJ Thakuria

Guwahati: Nearly eighty percent city based scribes of northeast India have shown satisfactory outcome when they were exposed to a general health check-up on 8 February 2016 at Guwahati Press Club. Over eighty journalists participated in the daylong health check-up camp, organized  by the city based ‘down town hospital Limited’ at the press club premises. Except few participants, who were diagnosed  high sugar and high blood pressure with heart related disorders, most of them passed all the tests with satisfactory readings.

A number of practicing physicians namely  Dr Sumitav Baruah (medicine), Dr Abhijit Deb (orthopaedics), Dr Dhrubajyoti Datta (ENT), Dr Esther D Liani (gynaecology), Dr Dipanwita Mahanta (cardiology), Dr Rupam Das (diabetology), Dr Luna Dutta Baruah (specialist on food, nutrition & diatetics),  Dr Kuldeep Deka (physiotherapist) etc checked the physical status of the scribes and advised accordingly after various tests including ECG, lipid profile, random blood sugar, blood-pressure, neuropathy test, weight, height etc.

Dr N.N Dutta, chairman & managing director of the pioneering private hospital in northeast India also attended the camp, where necessary supports were extended by Banidor A Twangkhiew, Baswongnia Kharmuwai, Ibanylla Wawlang, Banbetlin Kurbaw, Ibanrilang Lyting, Mousumi Handique, Rupali Rajput, Gracelalrin Mawit, Agnes Zomuankimi, Karabi Baruah, Priyanka Borah, Ramngaihzuali etc Ramen Boro and Bulbul Saikia.

The camp was also supported by Nikhilesh Sharma (business development manager), Sajal Sinha  (marketing manager), Jiaul Hussain (assistant business manager), Geetashree Barman (public relation), Lydia Gangmei, Vethi Pralu, Dharitri Rabha, Jimi Moni Hazarika, Rumi Kujur, Arindam Bhattacharya,Rakibur R Hazarika,  Siddhartha Sankar  Bodh, Mrinaljyoti Sarma and Koushik Banerjee.