Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Meanwhile, ‘divided but in togetherness’, local leaders continue to play
poker in the House and ordinary folk  keep seeing Yahapalanaya as a mirage

he war against the LTTE ended several years ago when the armed forces of Sri Lanka crushed the Tigers that ran wild and free for almost thirty years. It was a great relief for all Sri Lankans because it signaled an era of peace, change and opportunities for the country to emerge from the dregs of the conflict. It was unfortunate that the post-war development programmes for the country’s betterment especially of mega kinds ran into thick banks of fog of various kinds created by a corrupt and crooked government. Their pea-soupers are yet to be cleared.

Friends of terrorists

 A major LTTE tactic to secure a homeland for the Tamil people was wooing the support of western countries that had a penchant for ‘minority communities under real or imagined ‘duress’. The Tiger medium in that effort was the pro-LTTE Tamil diaspora that organized meetings and demonstrations in western cities to garner support for their terrorist masters, the so-called freedom fighters. They also squeezed out donations from other Tamils to support the ‘cause’. Such support kept flowing incessantly to batter the perceived oppressors of the Tamil people–the Sri Lanka government that was compelled to take on the LTTE militarily. And it was that war that finally precipitated allegations of ‘war crimes, war criminals and human rights violations’ allegations against the Rajapaksa government, its armed forces and the possibility of hearings in The Hague. (LTTE atrocities were conveniently overlooked by its western supporters.). Such aggression against Sri Lanka labeled as a rogue nation continued well after the war until recently when that pressure began to lift after a new government assumed power. While this ‘softened stand’ of the US, its allies and the UN was welcomed by the country, it was frowned upon by some sections of the Tamil minority that lost its impetus in achieving Eelam. Their cries of being ‘hounded, harassed and murdered in Sri Lanka’ ran out of gas, baritones and tenors. The rest of the Tamil people however, turned to favour the theme ‘we are all Sri Lankans’ mooted by a Yaha government.

  When some faces turned red

I say, Ooty,with the latest developments in the war crimes scene there’s a change in international poking into the so-called mis-behaviour of the state and the armed forces,” meowed Tommo a pussycat relaxing with his working partner an owl in the kitchen of the Wallside Restaurant and Bar. The pair employed as vermin exterminators in touch with matters that affected their governors were discussing recent events in New York on war crimes and war criminals in the Eelam war.

Thuhoot,” responded the owl. Who can forget the Tiger propaganda; their protests, video clips on Channel 4, 5 and 6 said to be of our governors’ soldiers shooting Tamils and reams of other cooked up stuff in the media. The pro-Tiger crowd was pinching western noses to look their way and nowhere else.”
Meeooww, there was a time when some Un-united governors also supported the Tigers with blazing canons. Can you remember their heavy broadsides when the striped hoodlums penned in some corner were about to be written off the map?”

Even well known ladies of Uncle Sam’s brood and ancient but vociferous actors and actresses in Tamil Nadu yelled that Lankan forces were slaughtering civilians, using them as human shields and blasting hospitals away,” hooted the owl

“When you see the continuing  waywardness in the country with even the new lokkas I think the international entry is a bloody good thing”

They were desperate to save their pets all right. And, what about their Big Brother? He howled to have a cease fire and hold discussions; anything to protect their relations being sent to Satan’s care,” purred pussy.

But, our governors in charge then didn’t listen, did they? They clobbered the terrorists and elevated their leader to godliness of some unknown kind,” giggled the bird.

Purrshsh; but it had repercussions. The international community pissed off that the government didn’t listen to their commands and demands, continued their chase to hang charges of war crimes, infringements of human rights and genocide, whatever that could work, round our governors’ necks. But our governors with support from friendly countries kept that attack in check.”

I know, I know; but now after a series of fits and starts, the internationals have introduced a hybrid menu into a ‘war crimes’ inquiry on local grounds. But first was that war a war or a struggle against some killers branded as terrorists the world over?”  The bird’s question was a common one

Unwanted hybridism

Meeoowwyep (Yep). Your question would never be answered. Apart from the ISIS and other fundamentalists, the latest fad is democratic terrorism. That’s another story. Anyway, the Rajapaksa top-dogs–the alleged ‘culprits’ of war crimes are not the top-dogs anymore. A new regime that took over has lowered the intensity of the Rajapaksa chase has agreed to support a local inquiry under help and guidance of foreign coaches. One reason for this coaching camp is because a princely UN human rights man had said that our governors’ legal frame work was ‘not geared to handle war crimes and war criminals’ or some such thing. The intro of foreign umpires into a local inquiry is clearly to call the shots. ”

When you see the continuing legal waywardness in the country with even the new lokkas looking the other way until kick started by some public hue and cry,  I think the international entry is a bloody good thing,” hooted Ooty.

“Yaha fire is spluttering and may  burn out altogether . The people who had high hopes of a better deal  are seeing Yahapalanya  as a mirage they have been fooled with”

Meeoowwyep (yep). The international club has wangled itself into that position for good reason. But, I think their main aim is to gun down Rajapaksa ‘baddies’ most of whom are in troubled waters already. But surprise, surprise, some of those bad-boys are seen blooming in the Cabinet of the new regime. So there’s a worrying factor in the air. Despite the unearthed history of robbery and villainy, a huge number of Rajapaksa fans yet in government positions are poking sticks into Yaha wheels. If Rajapaksa and his palanquin bearers return, it would be the end of war crime inquiries, hybrid or otherwise and curtains for the multi-coloured Yaha crowd that wants the Rajapaksa Corps sent down to Davy Jones’ locker without safety jackets.”
That’s a tough expectation isn’t it?

Maestros and a mirage

What you see is the unfolding of a drama featuring a Yaha and International combo taking out the strongmen. Then the internationals would regain a position they were losing fast to worrying competition and the new regime would have a clear runway for its Yaha programme.  Recent history has proved that the two Yaha chiefs are political maestros, but theirs is a marriage of convenience. It’s not registered or solemnized but a result of a specially brokered arrangement with pre-conditions like in pre-nuptials,” Tommo laughed the way pussies do.

Hoot! So what?”

Meeoowww, marriages of convenience as the name suggests are for convenience. So there’s no room for permanency in the Yaha marriage. In fact when considering the sparks of sourness in it, the question is for how long it would it stay afloat?

“Marriages of convenience as the name suggests are for convenience. So there’s no room for permanency in the Yaha marriage”

Hooot, boy, oh boy! The situ is getting thicker than a Hungarian goulash.”

The internationals are no babes lost in the woods, chum. They know what they are doing. However a sad situation is developing for our governors who thought, ‘Thank God we are finally getting a Yahapalanaya under a convenient blue-green marriage’ not so long ago, are now wondering what the devil is going on. The new regime that promised a total turnaround is being found of being as guilty of bad governance as the former crowd. ‘And pray, of what kind?’ ‘Of every kind the former crowd didn’t follow’. The truth is that the Yaha fire is spluttering and the way things are going it may not take long for it to burn out altogether and the people who had high hopes of a better deal under a blue-green regime are seeing Yahapalanya as a mirage they have been fooled with.”

Ranga Jayasuriya Courtesy The Daily Mirror

හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතා විසින් ජනාධිපති මන්දිරයේ ඉදිකර තිබූ බව කියන භූගත මාලිගාව ගැන හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා මෙසේ අදහස් පල කලේය.

මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් කථිකාචාර්ය මහින්ද පතිරණ මහතා සිය ෆේස්බුක් ගිණුමේ මෙසේ සටහනක් තබා ඇත.

ජාතික ආරක්‍ෂාව සම්බන්ධ අතිශය සංවේදී තොරතුරු මහජන අවකාශයන් වෙත මුදා හැරීම මගින් වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුව අපේක්‍ෂා කරන්නේ ප්‍රචාරය නම් අප ඔවුන්ගේ තකතීරුකම් ගැන අනුකම්පා කළ යුතු ය.

පසුගිය දා කොටුව ජනාධිපති මන්දිරයේ ඇතැයි කියන භූගත ආරක්‍ෂක කුටිය පිළිබඳ ඡායාරූප මාධ්‍යයට හෙළිදරව් කිරීම කිසිදු අයුරකින් ජනතා සුභ සිද්ධිය වෙනුවෙන් කළ කටයුත්තක් නොවේ. එවැනි දෙය ජනතාවට අවශ්‍ය තොරතුරු නොවේ. ඉන් සැනසීමට පත් වන්නේ නම් ඒ මේ රටට වෛර කරන ඉතා සුළු පිරිසක් පමණි. අප පසුගිය දා ලියන ලද එජාප පාක්‍ෂිකයින්ට පණිවුඩයක්” යන පෝස්ටුව ලීවේ මොවුන් ගැන ය. එහෙත් ජනාධිපතිවරයා හා ආණ්ඩුව ද මෙවන් අපතයින්ගේ තත්වයට ඌනනය වීම අප සැමගේ අවාසනාවකි.

රටක ජනාධිපතිවරයා යනු හුදු පුද්ගලයෙක් නොවේ. එය ආයතනයකි. ආයතනයක් ක්‍රියාත්මක විය යුත්තේ කිසියම් නීති රීති පද්ධතියකට යටත් ව ය. වසරකට රුපියල් කෝටී ගණන් ජනතා මුදල් වැය කරන්නේ මේ නිසා ය.ඒ අනුව මහජන සුභ සිද්ධිය තකා මිස ජනපතිවරයාට වුව ජනාධිපති නැමැති ආයතනය සම්බන්ධ තීරණ ගත නොහැකි ය. මන්ද ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ ආරක්‍ෂාව යනු රටේ ආරක්‍ෂාව ය. සිරිසේන මහතාට වුව එය හිතුමතේ අනතුරට හෙළිය නොහැකි ය. එසේ නම් ඕනෑම ජනාධිපතිවරයෙකුගේ ආරක්‍ෂාවට ඉදිකළ අදාළ භූගත කුටිය හෙළි කිරීම හරහා කර ඇත්තේ එය ඉදිකළ ආරක්‍ෂක අරමුණු සපුරා අවලංගු කිරීමකි. මේ අනුව, මෙම ක්‍රියාව ජාතික ආරක්‍ෂාව මතු නොව ඊට වැය කළ මුදල ද සපුරා අපතේ යැවීමකි.

අපි අවධාරණය කරමු. සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයාට හා මේ ආණ්ඩුවට මහින්දට පහර නොදී තම පැවැත්ම සාදාගත නොහැකි නම් කළ යුත්තේ මෙවැනි දෙකයි පනහේ ප්‍රචාරක උපක්‍රමවල සරණ පැතීම නොව, තමන් වේදිකාවල බෙරිහන් දුන් යහපාලනය ක්‍රියාවට නැංවීම ය.

– මහින්ද පතිරණ

Courtesy Adaderana

The US-sponsored resolution that was adopted at the recently concluded UN Human Rights Council Sessions in Geneva includes several terms that could be a threat to the island nation, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa says.

by Kumar David  Courtesy The Island

The government has tabled estimates of expenditure for 2016, the first reading of the Budget, and a short summary dated 9 October is available on the Finance Ministry website (Appropriation Bill for year 2016 approved by the Cabinet of Ministers). A deficit of Rs 1.35 trillion (million-million) is expected; at 11.8% of GDP this is appalling! The number is so large that it is more comprehensible in dollars – $ 9.51 billion at Rs 142 to a $. The job of finance minister Ravi Karunanayake and the government in the second reading on 20 November, the always much awaited Budget Speech, is to lay out proposals to bridge the gap.

Expected expenditure is Rs 1.94 trillion made up of Rs 1.31 trillion recurrent and Rs 0.63 trillion (630 billion) capital spending. Additional provisions of Rs 1.20 trillion have to be made for servicing the public debt, W&OP payments and minor expenses. This (1.31+0.63+1.20) adds to a grand total expected expenditure of Rs 3.14 trillion. However revenue at prevailing tax and customs duty rates, plus expected foreign grants will total only Rs 1.79 trillion. (The 1.35 trillion deficit is 3.14 minus 1.79). The budget speech is when the government explains how it intends to trim expenditure, raise additional revenue and borrow heaps more money from domestic and foreign sources. It’s pretty grim and if expenditure rises (more recurrent spending or fresh capital projects) or if revenue declines (craftier tax dodgers or belt tightening lenders) the hole becomes deeper.

Yes the task is grim but there is no need to panic. If the government is prepared to take a long view and plan three to five years ahead it can evolve a strategy of economic recovery. Yes recovery is the right word because though in his final years the wily Rajapaksa claimed to have reduced consumer and wage earner hardship, actually his regime was piling up now exploding problems. Nearly Rs 1.2 trillion or a horrendous 67% of revenue is earmarked for servicing the debt, mostly incurred by the previous government and inherited by this one. Another shocker will come when we get updated figures on how much of this is for servicing foreign debt; the previous regime and its moustachioed mafioso leader borrowed (and stole) with gay abandon. Now the task is to set the economy on a RECOVERY road.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post (19 Oct) finance minister Karunanayake urged China to let “bygones be bygones and help us by adjusting the payment terms of loans to make them bearable”. I have also done a cut-and-paste job of a part of the prime minister’s statement in the House during the Interim Budget debate at the end of January. The gist, largely verbatim, is as follows.

I am aware that this is a centre-right government; the centre is its populist and democratic mandate, the right the strong business interests represented by the UNP and SLFP and propped up by the Muslim Congress. Therefore policy could drift anywhere from mild social democracy to anti-populist austerity. A social democratic thrust modulated by a commitment to growth is what it should be; that’s easy to say but the devil is in the details.

This government’s drift is still not easy to foresee. It could lean on mass action and civil society to thwart a chauvinist backlash against the war-crimes probe (Weerawansa et al have gone quiet; has the threat of a sound thrashing if they invoked mob violence scared the chauvinists?). If the government opts for this populist political response, it will also automatically move in social-democratic directions in economic matters. On the other hand the prime minister (the president counts for less) may shift into authoritarian gear mimicking Lee Kuwan Yew. The political trajectory somewhere between these limits that the prime minister may opt for will in turn set economic policy in respect of both domestic-to-export balancing and in modulating the legroom permitted for the private sector to do just as it pleases.

Feeding folks or exporting for dollars

Enhancing export earnings and encouraging corresponding production drives is desirable for the reasons already noted; there can be no argument about that. Production of exportable commodities and processing of agricultural output for export is part of the answer and planning to benefit from the Trans Pacific Partnership is wise. The problem is that obsession with exports is accompanied by considerable ideological baggage. A stock in trade is anti working class legislation euphemistically called ‘labour market reform’ (easier firing, curbs on collective bargaining and trade unions, physical and legislative hostility to strikes). Strangely there is greater pressure to implement such measures in the third-world than in the West. Anybody familiar with labour laws and employee protection in California knows that no investor will touch Lanka with a barge pole if this scenario were replicated here.

Two other items of ideological baggage often associated with an export oriented paradigm are preferential or nil taxation for foreign investors and removal of all capital controls. Extreme export orientation is necessarily accompanied by heavy reliance on foreign investment and a frame of mind driven by this obsession overwhelms policy makers – FDI is slowing down so the panic is worse. Recall an extreme case, the Pinochet military dictatorship in Chile, standard bearer and poster child of neo-liberalism, called Washington Consensus in polite circles. Though exports and overseas investment played a big role in China’s take-off, the country set aside even greater resources to yank 300 million (President Xi claims an improbable 600 million) people out of poverty and to take modernisation deep into the hinterland and landlocked western regions. The CCP, for all its dictatorial character, is also a balancing act in which millions of workers and the huge peasantry exert influence at grassroots levels.

Populism will have to provide this counterbalance in Lanka to curb unconditional surrender of the UNP-SLFP-SLMC to big business. However, apart from the ideological dimension there is the straightforward matter of the product mix of national output not only to earn foreign currency but also to satisfy people’s needs. Food security is one – Lanka is not strong except for rice and marine products; nutrition and protein deficiency another; and the dilapidated state of much of the national housing stock is a shocker. Resources have also to be set aside to improve deplorable public education and healthcare and to build a suburban railway in and around Colombo.

The last three are economic issues, not welfare and infrastructure matters only. An educated and healthy population improves output and man-hour and petroleum savings from eliminating the gigantic traffic snarl-up in Colombo and environs will enhance productivity. My bottom line is that there is a lot more to do than a naïve obsession with export orientation. One other crucial matter is that policy makers and planners in Lanka completely neglect or are hostile to the informal sector. However, this sector of the economy is nimble, productive and generates large amount of employment. Economic policy must include recognition, credit facilities and regulatory assistance for this sector. A national planning framework with a light touch, staffed by intelligent people not bureaucrats, a big if, can do much to guide the government. Leaving it to the invisible hand of the private sector is playing blind man’s buff.

The state must assert itself

I have in mind more than the conventional triple-task of managing interest rates, exchange rate and capital controls. Lanka’s experience of the Rajapaksa state pushing people around has been revolting, but fortunately the public understands that a greedy dictatorship is not the same as the guiding hand of the state in setting directions of growth. The citadels of Asian capitalism – South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore – were the pioneers; China and Vietnam were late comers to the concept of the state directing private, public-foreign and public-foreign-private development models. None is to be copied blindly; each case is a candidate for bottom up thinking. However the directive paradigm common to them all is compelling. Of course the state can get it all wrong; Megacity plans promise lucrative projects for business but will impact adversely on the poor; and most of Rajapaksa’s grandiose state-led infrastructure ventures were sheer madness. So I repeat, there is no substitute for case by case bottom up thinking.

Some of my ultra-left friends still hanker after a Soviet style state-owned economy, but do they not recall that Lenin and Trotsky were thorough going pragmatists? I have just finished Michael Pearson’s biography of Inessa Armand, Lenin’s girlfriend, and here is an abbreviated quote:

“Lenin realised (late 1918) that worker control in factories was not successful. He shocked the left but was facing the facts. The first thing many workers committees had done was to vote themselves big wage increases. He did the unthinkable and ordered the creation state managers supported by managerial boards”.

And in the Red Army, desperately fighting the civil war, Trotsky rued that operational plans were drawn up by men “who could not even read a map”. Pearson reminds us:

“Trotsky called back officers of the regular army; reintroduced saluting; dissolved soldier committees; and brought back pay scales and privileges. The result was anger from the troops and a howl of outrage from the left. After a tough start Trotsky’s policy won battles. Lenin backed him since winning in the field was more important than socialist theory”.

The moral of this is, hard nosed social democratic pragmatism must take precedence over ideology, left or right, in crafting economic policy at the present time.

චන්ද්‍රසේන පණ්ඩිතගේ විසිනි

එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ මහා මණ්ඩලය පිහිටවන ලද්දේ ලෝක සාමය ස්ථාපිත කිරීම උදෙසාය. එ් වර්ෂ 1945දීය. මේ වනවිට ඇයගේ වයස අවුරුදු 70 කි. ඇය විසින් ස්ථාපිත නොකල වැදගත්ම දේ වන්නේද සාමයයි. මේ අපි දකිණ, අපිට පෙනෙන තත්වයයි. අැයට අපේක්ෂිත සාමය ලබා දීමට නොහැකි වූයේ අැයි‍?

මිනිස් සමාජය තුල යුද්ධය යනු ගංඟාවක් සේ ගලා යන ජල පහරකි. පලමුවන ලෝක යුද්ධය හා දෙවන ලෝක යුද්ධය විසින් මානව සංහතියට සිදුකල මහා විනාශය  නවතාලීමට එම ගඟ හරස් කර ඉදිකල මහා බැම්ම එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ මහා සංවිධානයයි. ගඟක් හරස්කර මහා බැම්මක් ඉදි කල පමණින් ගඟ ගලා ඒම හෝ ගලා යාම නවතාලිය නොහැක. නමුත් මහා ජලාශයක් නිර්මාණය කල හැක. එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානය නම්වූ මේ මහා බැම්මේ විවර කලහැකි වාන් දොරටු ගනනාවක් අැති අතර, එ්වා ලෝකයේ විවිධ දිසාවන් ඉලක්ක කරගෙන නිර්මානය කර ඇත. දකුණු ඇමරිකාව, අප්රිකාව, දකුණු අාසියාව, නැගෙනහිර අාසියාව, බටහිර අාසියාව යන ඉලක්කයන්ද මේ අතර වේ. එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානයට  දකුණු අැමරිකාවේ යුද්ධයක් උවමනා නම් සිදුකරනුයේ, දකුණු අැමරිකාව ඉලක්ක කරගත් වාන් දොරටුව විවර කිරීමයි. එවිට, එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ මන පිනවන කලාපීය යුධ ගැටුම් අාරම්භවේ. මෙය ලෝකය මත පිහිටුවාලූ නවීනතම යුධ උපාංග හා උපක්රම සහිතව ගොඩනංවා අැති  යුධ පාලක හා මුදා හැරීමේ යාන්ත්රණයයි.

මෙන්, උත්තර ධ්රැවීය  අක්ෂයට ඉහලින් පිහිටි විට සිදුවන සියලූම, පාරිසරික හා දේශගුණික විපර්යාශයන් සම්බන්ධව අපට මනා දැනුමක් තිබේ. එවිට සිදුවන එක් විපර්යාශයක් වන්නේ, සියලූම නිරක්ෂයට අාසන්න රටවල්, උත්තර ධ්රැවය මෙන් ඝන අයිස් තට්ටුවකින් වැසී යාමයි. මේ වනවිට වයස අවුරුදු 70 ක් වූ එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානය නම් වූ මහල්ලාත් සිදුකරමින් සිටින්නේත් එම කාර්යමයි. ඊට එරෙහිව, පීඩනයට ලක්වෙන රටවලට නැගී සිටීමට කාලය පැමිණ අැත.

By NJ Thakuria

Guwahati: Another middle-aged journalist, this time it is in poll-bound Bihar, has lost his life to the perpetuators. Mithilesh Pandey, 40, was shot dead on 25 October 2015 in his hometown under Gaya district. According to the family source, the miscreants (two masked persons) entered the victim’s house on Saturday evening and shot at him to death. Pandey was taken to a nearby hospital by his family members, but he succumbed to injuries after some time.
Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) has condemned the incident and reiterate its demand for a national policy for justice to all slain media persons across the country.  The murder of Pandey has increased the tally of slaughtered media persons in India this year till date up to five.
Earlier Hemant Yadav, another middle aged journalist of Uttar Pradesh was shot dead on the night of October 3 at Dheena locality of Chandauli district. Yadav, who worked for Hindi news channel TV24, was attacked by two motorcycle-borne miscreants. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
Prior to that, a Thane based journalist Raghavendra Dube was killed by the miscreants in July. Similarly Jagendra Singh from UP and Sandeep Kothari from Madhya Pradesh lost their lives to assassinators in separate incidents in June this year.
We reiterate our demand for a national action plan to safeguard the brave journalists who pursue critical journalism,” said a statement issued by JFA president Rupam Barua and secretary Nava Thakuria adding that the robust Indian media fraternity must rise on the occasion to compel the authority to punish every single murderer of journalists under the rule of law.

Another certified moron bites the dust

JOHN SIMPSON, BBC: Western countries almost universally now believe that there’s a new Cold War and that you, frankly, have decided to create that. We see, almost daily, Russian aircraft taking sometimes quite dangerous manoeuvres towards western airspace. That must be done on your orders; you’re the Commander-in-Chief. It must have been your orders that sent Russian troops into the territory of a sovereign country – Crimea first, and then whatever it is that’s going on in Eastern Ukraine. Now you’ve got a big problem with the currency of Russia, and you’re going to need help and support and understanding from outside countries, particularly from the West. So can I say to you, can I ask you now, would you care to take this opportunity to say to people from the West that you have no desire to carry on with the new Cold War, and that you will do whatever you can to sort out the problems in Ukraine?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=uwWMaJJ_MSg

by Selvam Canagaratna Courtesy The Island

“W[ith] extramarital courtship, the deception was prolonged where it had been ephemeral, necessary where it had been frivolous, conspiratorial where it had been lonely.”

– Mary McCarthy, The Company She Keeps, 1942.

Thomas S. Harrington, a Professor at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and a regular contributor to CounterPunch magazine, was brutally frank about America’s deadly play-acting in Syria in his opening observation: “The great danger of faking your ability to do something in the public square is that someone with an actual desire to do the job you are pretending to do might come along and show you up.” [Wow! That’s certainly ‘telling it like it is’!]

And that, precisely, was how Russian President Vladimir Putin dramatically chose to expose Barack Obama’s elaborate and quite costly pretense in Syria – indeed, in the whole of the Middle East, for that matter. In a series of sudden, unannounced aerial strikes, the Russian Air Force bombed the hell out of the bloodthirsty US/Saudi-backed ISIS jihadist cadres in their Syrian strongholds, something that America had for long claimed to be doing, thereby giving the wrong impression to many that ISIS was, in fact, so powerful as to successfully neutralize even the awesome military might of the world’s sole ‘super-power’!

But even before Putin’s bold move in Syria, which literally caught hypocritical America ‘with its pants down’ (as Harrington put it), the world’s ‘indispensable nation’ has been shown up to be a two-timing skunk by many investigative journalists. My mind goes back to Devil’s Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam, the 2006 book by Robert Dreyfuss which set out in damning detail how Washington actively promoted the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in pursuit of its own hegemonic ambitions.

As Dreyfuss made clear in his Introduction, this little-known US policy of funding and encouraging right-wing Islamist activism, conducted over six decades, “is partly to blame for the emergence of Islamist terrorism as a worldwide phenomenon”, adding, “Indeed America’s would-be empire in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central and South Asia was designed to rest in part on the bedrock of political Islam. At least, that is what its architects hoped. But it proved to be a devil’s game.”

Dreyfuss noted that the US played not with Islam, but with Islamism. “Unlike the faith with fourteen centuries of history behind it, Islamism is of more recent vintage. It is a political creed with its origins in the late nineteenth century, a militant, all-encompassing philosophy whose tenets would appear foreign or heretical to most Muslims of earlier ages and that still appear so to many educated Muslims today. Whether it is called pan-Islam, or Islamic fundamentalism, or political Islam, it is an altogether different creature from the spiritual interpretation of Muslim life as contained in the Five Pillars of Islam. It is, in fact, a perversion of that religious faith. That is the mutant ideology the United States encouraged, supported, organized, or funded.”

It’s worth quoting one more crucial point made by Dreyfuss: “The US spent decades cultivating Islamists, manipulating and double-crossing them, cynically using and misusing them as Cold War allies, only to find that it spawned a force that turned against its sponsor, and with a vengeance.”

America’s hegemonic objective in the Middle East has always been, at best, a badly kept secret, thanks to leading US ‘policy planners’, a.k.a. warmongers, making known their views over the years both in published documents and in public statements. Their ‘plans’ certainly encompassed Syria from year 2000 – when that ‘accidental Prez’, George W. Bush and his partner in political criminality, Vice-Prez Dick Cheney, took office. Their sole objective was ‘regime change’ in just about every nation in the Middle East that refused to kow-tow to Big Brother’s dictats.

Dick Cheney’s focus in Syria was not, as they openly claimed, to  save the Syrian people from the ravages of the long-standing Assad dictatorship, but rather to heighten the level of internecine conflict in that country to the point where it would not be able to serve as a bulwark against Israeli regional hegemony for at least another generation.

As Professor Harrington noted, important protagonists in the Israeli-American policy planning elite have advertised the fact with a surprising degree of clarity  that the only way to deal with ‘the Arabs’ in and around Israel was through unrelenting force and the inducement of cultural fragmentation. Israeli journalist, Oded Yinon, who had formerly worked at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, published an article in which he outlined the strategic approach his country needed to take in the coming years. The main thrust of Yinon’s piece (as translated into English by Israel Shahak) read:

“Lebanon’s total dissolution into five provinces serves as a precedent for the entire Arab world including Egypt, Syria, Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula. . . The dissolution of Syria and Iraq later on into ethnically or religiously unique areas such as in Lebanon, is Israel’s primary target on the Eastern front in the long run, while the dissolution of the military power of those states serves as the primary short-term target. Syria will fall apart, in accordance with its ethnic and religious structure, into several states such as in present day Lebanon. . .

“Iraq, rich in oil on the one hand and internally torn on the other, is guaranteed as a candidate for Israel’s targets. Its dissolution is even more important for us than that of Syria. Iraq is stronger than Syria. In the short run it is Iraqi power which constitutes the greatest threat to Israel. An Iraqi-Iranian war will tear Iraq apart and cause its downfall at home even before it is able to organize a struggle on a wide front against us. Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation will assist us in the short run and will shorten the way to the more important aim of breaking up Iraq into denominations as in Syria and in Lebanon. . .”

Professor Ismael Hossein-Zadeh, Professor Emeritus of Economics at Drake University, noted that America’s recent call for “negotiations and a political settlement in Syria was a reflection, if anything, of the sheer hubris of a bully that wouldn’t allow him to acknowledge defeat and give up a botched plan to loot, hurt or murder.” It was an attempt by America “to wiggle its way out, regain strength and prepare for another attack at an opportune time.”

The Professor reminded readers that what he was saying had already been disclosed in congressional hearings by none other than the head of the US Central Command, General Lloyd Austin, who admitted “that a year after it was launched at a cost of $500 million, the Pentagon’s program to recruit and train a “moderate” US proxy fighting force in Syria had been able to field a grand total of ‘four or five’ fighters inside the country!

“From the time it embarked on the criminal mission of regime change in Syria nearly five years ago,” Prof. Hossein-Zadeh added, “the US and its puppet and mercenary allies rejected all attempts to negotiate with the government of President Bashar Al-Assad or its geopolitical allies Russia and Iran. Now, all of a sudden, it is calling for negotiation with these same adversaries in pursuit of ‘de-escalation’ and a political deal that would not include President Assad’s immediate removal from power. The long-term strategic goal of removing him from power, however, remains unchanged; it is simply postponed. It would be fulfilled consequent to a negotiated political settlement, or at the end of a “transitional period.”

Courtesy The Island

Former External Affairs Minister, Prof. G. L. Peiris yesterday alleged that an attempt was being made to confuse the public regarding an opinion expressed by Sir Desmond de Silva on the issue of wartime accountability.

Prof. Peiris said: “There is an opinion by Sir Desmond de Silva, QC which was submitted to the Commission on Missing Persons. This is an opinion which was published in the Oct 18 issue of The Island.

This opinion is exceedingly useful for the purpose of establishing that no form of criminal liability can be imposed on armed forces of Sri Lanka for any action by them during the closing stages of the war.

The gist of this opinion is that the armed forces acted entirely within the parameters of established principles of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

Sir Desmond de Silva specifically concludes: ‘It is my opinion that a war crime cannot be ascribed to the government’.

Sir Desmond in his legal opinion refers to the context in which the armed forces were compelled to take action. He says ‘it was occasioned in the process of the security forces fighting to overwhelm and defeat the LTTE who had taken hostages in such large numbers that this may well be considered to be one of the largest hostage takings in history. The stakes were colossal, considering that the hostages were being murdered if they tried to escape. The end result of saving some 290,000 hostage lives and the defeat of the ruthless LTTE were legitimate military and humanitarian objectives”.

Sir Desmond goes on to state that the action by the armed forces ‘wholly consistent with the humanitarian imperatives that prevailed at that grim time.’

Prof. Peiris: “We are totally at a loss to understand why this material which is obviously of the greatest value in protecting the country’s armed forces is being suppressed by the government. It should receive the widest possible exposure. Sir Desmond’s opinion contains a wealth of legal considerations which rule out any blame or culpability on the part of our security forces. This should have been placed fairly and squarely before the UNHRC and the member states.

Far from conceding any criminal responsibility involving the armed forces and talking of measures to ensure ‘non-recurrence’, the government should have taken it upon itself to demonstrate before the bar of world opinion that our armed forces acted as they should have done in a manner entirely permitted by international law to rid this country of terrorism’.

Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka in Geneva

Initiatives for migrants from the Asian region taken under Sri Lanka’s Chairmanship of the Colombo Process (CP) was commended at the Fifth Global Meeting of Chairs and Secretaries of Regional Consultative Processes on Migration (RCPs). The global meeting organized by the International Organization on Migration (IOM) in collaboration with the League of Arab States, brought together representatives of 18 Regional Migration Processes as well as 14 civil society organizations, and was held in Cairo, Egypt, 21-22 October 2015.

The Sri Lanka delegation comprised Mr.G.S. Withanage Secretary of Ministry of Foreign Employment, Sri Lanka, Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva and Mr. Isantha Dasanayake of the Ministry of  Foreign Employment.

Detailing the progress made during Sri Lanka period as Chair-in-Office over the past 2 years, Secretary Withanage observed that Sri Lanka spearheaded a Strategic Vision/Road map that sought to strengthen engagement with countries of destination under the theme “International Labour Migration for Prosperity: Adding Value by Working Together”. He said the five main thematic areas of focus were; to Develop a Qualification Recognition Processes including transnational accreditation and  monitoring,  to pomote Cheaper, Faster & Safer Transfer of Remittances, Ethical Labour Recruitment Practices (including promoting Standard Employment Contracts), Effective Pre-departure Orientation & Empowerment, and Enhancing capacities of the Colombo Process participating countries to track labour market trends and the setting up of the Colombo Process Migration Resource Centre (CPMRC) in support of CP goals.

Seeking to ensure tangible benefits accrue to the membership of the CP, through Cooperation within the Abu-Dhabi Dialogue (ADD) in order to enhance cooperation with destination countries in the Gulf region, and to enhance the CP’s cooperation with the EU with a view to secure greater labour market access. Conscious of the need to strengthen the synergies between international migration and development at the global, regional and national levels, due recognition was also given to migration as a priority in the post-2015 development agenda. The CP was also working towards enhancing cooperation between the CP and the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) and other migration related forums. The CP has also devoted considerable effort to develop a self-funding mechanism that will ensure predictability and regularity of CP activities and meetings.

Secretary Withanage added that the CP is scheduled to have its third Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) on 4 – 5 November 2015 in Colombo, where it will take stock of the progress achieved in the five thematic areas under Sri Lanka’s Chairmanship and discuss how to further the implementation of the other areas of cooperation.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Chairman of Sri Lanka’s three-member probe commission says that certain isolated incidents that may have occurred outside the activities of the war should be investigated in depth to come to conclusion.

He said that whether to permit foreign involvement in the mechanism, more than observing, is a political decision. Those are political decisions we never wanted to tread,” Maxwell Paranagama told Ada Derana in an interview.

The Paranagama report, which was presented to Parliament on Tuesday, is relevant to the commission’s second mandate which is to inquire into violations of international human rights law during the last phase of the war, the period from January 01 to May 18, 2009.

In this report we have set out in detail how the international laws become applicable into these incidents,” he said.

Thereafter we have set out in detail the incidents that occurred through both the security forces and the LTTE during the phase of the war and analyze them, he said.

We also have set out where on the face of evidence we received and also other evidence from various material where you can accept certain wrongs have been accepted without much investigation.”

But there were a few incidents that were of very public importance, incidents like the Channel 4 video, the white flag case and surrendees going missing, Mr Paranagama.

Those are isolated incidents that may have occurred outside the activities of the war which we say they should be investigated in depth to come to conclusion,” he said.

At no time have we come to conclusion those wrongs have been committed by our security forces. We can also say security forces always acted for the safety of civilians. They took all precautions. They created No Fire Zones. They always acted in defence of the civilians. Sometimes they had to shoot to save civilians. In the midst of this crossfire some civilians may have died.”

We have applied that humanitarian principle proportionality and we have analyzed to what extent it can be justified in regard to the number that may have died and what the army achieved by doing so,” he added.

I could say we have set out a balanced report also when you overall take into consideration our forces have done a humanitarian operation sometimes you cannot have nil casualties because it’s a war with both sides dealing with arms.”

We have also suggested a mechanism,” he said, adding that if someone had done wrong – be they LTTE or our security forces – how they can go through a process of freeing themselves.”

We have said setup a special High Court so that if some soldier is alleged to have committed crime may go before the High Court and proving his innocence by going through the process of law,” he said.

At the same time we have recommended to set up a truth commission where if anybody – LTTE or security forces – can go before the truth commission and say ‘I did this wrong under these circumstances please have amnesty.’ So the truth commission will consider.”

Putting into operation what we have suggested is not a difficult task.” We have recommended the process, he said.

Speaking on the 2011 report of the US Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka, he said that: We have been critical of the Darusman report but there are instances we have accepted some of those things said.”

The Darusman report specifically says 40,000 died during the last phase of the war. We have said it is without any basis. In this matter the commission went through many sources to find out what the correct number of death during the last phase of the war.”

He stated that all the data and statistics the commission has analyzed point to a figure of about 7,000.

To be honest about it even considering this we can’t come to an exact number but considering all these facts we can definitely say it is not 40,000 as set out in the Darusman report.”

Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D.

Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a clinical syndrome that may develop following extreme traumatic stress (APA). It is an important, albeit relatively uncommon, consequence of exposure to traumatic events (Greenberg, Brooks & Dunn, 2015) presumably the result of life threats and conditioned fear (Ramage et al., 2015).

According to the DSM-IVTR (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual from the American Psychological Association, 2000) the symptoms of PTSD include: a) re-experiencing the traumatic event through intrusive memories, flashbacks, nightmares, and physiological responses similar to when the traumatic event was occurring b) avoidance and numbing such as avoiding situations and people that remind them of the trauma, amnesia for trauma related information, loss of interest in activities, social and emotional detachment, emotional numbing especially for feelings associated with intimacy, and feelings of a limited future; and c) increased arousal manifested by angry outbursts, problems sleeping, problems concentrating or completing tasks, exaggerated startle response, and hypervigilance.

PTSD is a global health issue (Tanielian, 2009; Jindani, ‎2015) and alleged to be associated with high rates of concurrent psychological disorders (Keane &, Wolfe, 1990) and highly impairing condition (Kessler, 2000). Patients with post-traumatic stress disorder have complex and multiple symptoms (Hawkins et al., 2015) causing significant economic and social burden.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) develops in approximately 20% of people exposed to a traumatic event (Freedman et al., 2015). PTSD is more prevalent in females than in males: typically about twice the rate (Jaycox et al., 2004). PTSD affects 7-8% of the general U.S. population at some point during their lifetime (Gates et al., 2012). The prevalence rate of lifetime PTSD in Canada was estimated to be 9.2%, with a rate of current (1-month) PTSD of 2.4% (Van Ameringen et al., 2008). According to the Canadian Forces Mental Health Survey (2013) 5.3 per cent of soldiers reported experiencing PTSD.

Risk factors for PTSD in adults vary across studies. The 3 factors identified as having relatively uniform effects are 1) preexisting psychiatric disorders, 2) a family history of disorders, and 3) childhood trauma (Breslau, 2002). According to Kessler et al (1995) the risk of developing PTSD after a traumatic event is 8.1% for men and 20.4% for women.

Patients with PTSD have a severe clinical profile. Therefore treating patients suffering from PTSD pose significant challenges. Pharmacologic and psychotherapeutic interventions are indicated for the treatment of PTSD.

A variety of psychotherapy treatments have been developed for PTSD (Schäfer & Najavits, 2007) and psychological interventions play an important role (Bisson & Andrew, 2007). Among the psychological interventions meditation has been recognized as one of the effective modes. Meditation is an empirically-validated treatment for PTSD. A growing body of evidence suggests meditation-based interventions have the potential to reduce symptoms and improve well-being (Mitchell et al., 2014; Seppälä et al., 2014).

Meditation is a mind-body practice. Meditation is an essential element in all of the world’s major contemplative spiritual and philosophical traditions (Walsh, 1999; Shapiro, 2008). According to Manocha (2000) meditation is a discrete and well-defined experience of a state of thoughtless awareness” or mental silence, in which the activity of the mind is minimized without reducing the level of alertness. Walsh and Shapiro (2006) described meditation as self-regulation practices that aim to bring mental processes under voluntary control through focusing attention and awareness.

Effects of meditation on health are based on the principle of mind-body connection and there is a growing body of literature showing the efficacy of meditation on various health related problems (Hussain & Bhushan, 2010). Mind-body practices are increasingly used in the treatment of PTSD and are associated with positive impacts on stress-induced illnesses such as depression and PTSD in most existing studies (Kim et al., 2013). As described by Cloitre et al (2011) meditation has been identified as an effective second-line approach for emotional, attentional, and behavioral (e.g., aggression) disturbances in PTSD. Lang and team (2012) further suggest that meditation as an intervention for PTSD.

Anapanasati meditation or mindfulness of breathing meditation can be used to treat PTSD. Deo and colleagues (2015) emphasize that breathing is an exquisite tool for exploring subtle awareness of mind and life itself. Mindfulness of breathing helps to oxygenate the body and reduce stress and anxiety. Breathing interventions have boosted emotion regulatory processes in healthy populations (Arch & Craske ,  2006; Seppälä et al., 2014). Sack, Hopper, Lamprecht and Low (2004) indicate that breathing-based meditation practices may be beneficial for PTSD. Seppälä and team (2014) reported that breathing-based meditation decreased posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in U.S. military veterans.

Mindfulness meditation which is a non-concentrative technique helps individuals to cultivate awareness and acceptance of all mental events (Steinberg & Eisner, 2015). The term mindfulness” has been used to refer to a psychological state of awareness, a practice that promotes this awareness, a mode of processing information, and a characterological trait (Davis & Hayes, 2011). Germer et al (2005) defines mindfulness as moment-by-moment awareness. The evidence concur that mindfulness helps to develop effective emotion regulation in the brain (Siegel,   2007; Davis & Hayes, 2011).

Mindfulness is associated with low levels of neuroticism, anxiety, and depressive symptoms, as well as high levels of self-esteem and satisfaction with life (Brown & Ryan, 2003; Tanner et al., 2009). Mindfulness meditation is indicated in PTSD. Follett, Palm and Pearson (2006) discuss positive outcome on trauma survivors after using Mindfulness. Furthermore Christelle et al (2014) suggest mindfulness meditation for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Vedananupassana meditation or awareness of sensations and feelings is a form of mindfulness meditation which is useful in the treatment of PTSD. Chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) commonly co-occur in the aftermath of a traumatic event (Palyo & Beck, 2005) In addition chronic pain and PTSD are mutually maintaining conditions (Sharp & Harvey, 2001) and pain sensations can trigger PTSD symptoms. People with chronic pain and comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder report poorer quality of life (Morascoet al., 2013). Vedananupassana meditation is beneficial in alleviating pain in the individuals with PTSD.

Loving-kindness meditation (LKM) is a practice designed to enhance feelings of kindness and compassion for self and others (Kearney et al., 2013). Self-compassion is considered a promising change agent in the treatment of PTSD (Hoffart , Øktedalen   & Langkaas , 2015). Kearney et al., (2014) conducted Loving-kindness meditation pilot study with 42 veterans impacted by active PTSD and found increased positive emotions among them. According to Kearney and colleagues (2013) loving-kindness meditation appeared safe and acceptable and was associated with reduced symptoms of PTSD and depression. According to Hinton et al (2013) LKM has potential for increasing emotional flexibility, decreasing rumination, serving as emotional regulation techniques, and forming part of a new adaptive processing mode centered on psychological flexibility.

Research has shown that transcendental meditation (TM) can be an effective technique to treat PTSD. Transcendental Meditation (TM) is derived from ancient yogic teachings (Lansky et al, 2006) and it is an effortless purely mental technique (Rees, 2011) and this technique falls within the category of automatic self-transcending” because the practice allows the mind to effortlessly settle inward, beyond thought, to experience the source of thought, pure awareness ( Travis & Shear ,2010). Chhatre et al (2013) describe TM as a behavioral stress reduction program that incorporates mind-body approach, and has demonstrated effectiveness in improving outcomes via stress reduction.

Rees, Travis, Shapiro and Chant (2013) indicate that reduction in posttraumatic stress symptoms in Congolese refugees practicing transcendental meditation. Rosenthal and colleagues (2011) highlight the successful use of TM meditation on the veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom with posttraumatic stress disorder. Furthermore Orme-Johnson and Barnes (2014) elucidate anxiety reduction effect of TM meditation.

Conclusion

Meditation is an important part of health and spiritual practice. It is a form of mental exercise that has an extensive therapeutic value. There are three major types of meditative practices: mindfulness, transcendental meditation and compassion meditation. There is evidence to suggest that meditation can be used to treat PTSD. Studies demonstrated that meditation is associated with reductions in PTSD symptoms and improve quality of life. Therefore meditation-based approaches are indicated in the treatment of PTSD.

Acknowledgements

• Rev Harispaththuwe Ariyawansalankara Thero – Vipassana Meditation Center Colombo Sri Lanka
• David R. Leffler, PhD Executive Director Center for Advanced Military Science (CAMS) Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy   Iowa   USA
• Fred Travis – Post Doctoral Fellow, University of California, Davis, in Basic Sleep Research

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ALI SUKHANVER

The Article 370 of the Indian constitution gives a special status to Jammu and Kashmir and this privileged status is not acceptable to the Hindu extremists in any case. According to the India Today RSS had set four Hindutva conditions for supporting Modi before his selection as the Prime Minister of India. ‘Modi has been made to pledge to building a grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya. He has also been urged to enforce the contentious Uniform Civil Code across the country. He is asked to press for a repeal of Article 370. If done, it will take away the special status accorded to Jammu and Kashmir. He is asked to take steps for the protection of cows,’ says the paper. So the importance and value of this article 370 could easily be estimated by the demands set by the RSS. Mr. Modi has been very honest and sincere in fulfilling the conditions imposed by the RSS since after his appointment as the Prime Minister of India.

Mr. Modi is very much conservative and staunch in his religious concepts. He is very sincere and honest to the Hindutva philosophy and it is nothing unexpected if he co-operates with the RSS in its plans of crushing the minorities for making India a real Hindu state. On 14^th October 2015, the Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi in a statement alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was carrying forward the agenda of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which is to divide the nation and to seek power. Talking to ANI Joshi said, ‘”It is the double speak of the party. Mr. Modi cannot wash his hands off. This is a Fascist ideology, supported by the BJP and Narendra Modi. He is carrying forward the agenda of RSS. The political agenda of the RSS is to divide the nation and to remain in power and to seek power and I think he is badly exposed.’

All words and actions of Mr. Modi are a proof that he is very much committed to the philosophy followed by the RSS. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, commonly known as the RSS is an organization which claims to struggle for giving India back its lost identity as a Hindu state. The RSS was founded in 1925 as an anti-colonial organization. It promotes a fundamentally different vision that draws on a mix of Hindu legends and ancient Indian history, when the subcontinent was home to some of the world’s most advanced civilizations.

The Reuters has recently published a report with the title, ‘Battling for India’s soul, state by state’. According to that report an ascendant Hindu nationalist group wants minority Muslims and Christians to accept that India is a nation of Hindus, and is pushing some of them to convert. An election in the volatile state of West Bengal has become a prime target in its game plan. The move against the Muslim and Christian minorities in India is being fully supported and supervised by the RSS. A few days back, RSS General Secretary Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi said talking to the media, Hindustan means land of Hindus; so anyone living here is automatically a Hindu first.” RSS Joint General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale told Reuters, We would want the BJP to win all the state elections because only then can significant social, political and cultural changes take place in this country.” In short the RSS is planning to start something like a civil war against the minority Muslims and Christians in India. How long this war continues and what would be the ultimate outcome of this war; no one knows but one thing is very much clear that RSS is dreaming of changing the secular society of India into a Hindu extremist society. Unfortunately the RSS is enjoying a very strong support of the Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi. Since after Mr. Modi taking charge has come into power, life for the Muslims and the Christians in India has become very difficult. The Foreign Policy says in its recent issue, ‘Subramanian Swamy, a senior BJP leader from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, declared in a speech this March that mosques, unlike temples, are not holy places and thus can be demolished. Two days later, the BJP chief minister of the northern state of Haryana announced that the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu holy text, would become mandatory throughout the state. A number of churches were vandalized. A 71-year-old nun in the eastern state of West Bengal was gang-raped. And the beef-ban movement was spreading to new states.’ The BJP, the RSS and Mr. Modi, all follow the same philosophy; crush the minorities. Last March The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh during its three-day Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha made it clear that no one from the RSS ‘parivar’ should work against the interests of the Narendra Modi government. And what are the interests of the Modi government, everyone knows well.

Citizens Electoral Council of Australia

Barack Obama has taken Australia’s most important ally further along the despised Bush-Cheney regime’s morally-bankrupt path of trashing international law, regime change, extra-judicial murder and war crimes.

The most egregious and disturbing of Obama’s crimes has been exposed by investigative-reporting website The Intercept, founded by Glenn Greenwald and others, which on 15 October published The Drone Papers”. These comprise eight articles concerning America’s use of drone attacks in its post-9/11 wars, based upon leaked documents showing that President Obama, from his earliest days in office, ran a global assassination program from the White House Situation Room that killed thousands of people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Up to 90 percent of the estimated 5,000 victims of this mass-murder program were not even on Obama’s personally-signed target lists! They were classified as terrorists and enemy combatants post mortem to cover up the magnitude of Obama’s crimes. Australia is directly implicated in this criminal program, through the Pine Gap signals intelligence facility in the Northern Territory, which targets the drone strikes with its tracking technology.

On Sunday, The New York Times Magazine published a lengthy reprisal of Seymour Hersh’s May 2015 exposé of the 2011 murder of Osama bin Laden, the first prominent American media coverage of the real story. To boost his re-election prospects, Obama, his then-counterterrorism advisor John Brennan, and others in his inner circle, blatantly lied about the circumstances of the raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, fabricating an elaborate Hollywood-style fable touting the CIA’s sleuth work. In truth, a Pakistani officer had walked in years earlier and traded the precise location of the Al Qaeda leader for US$25 million. The White House also covered up the role of the Saudis, who for years paid for bin Laden’s safekeeping under the watchful eye of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence service (ISI).

Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières—MSF) has released new evidence that the US Air Force had deliberately bombed their hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing 22 patients and staff, and had then sent in heavy vehicles to plough over the evidence. An unnamed Pentagon source has confirmed that MSF had done everything right” in documenting the location of the hospital so it was placed on an off-limits” list of hospitals, schools and mosques—sites never to be attacked, even if there were Al-Qaeda or Taliban fighters present. It may be relevant that the bombing in Kunduz came after MSF had vowed to fight to defeat Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, because it would deny life-saving generic drugs to half a billion poor people around the world. MSF has demanded an independent investigation as provided by the Geneva Conventions to preclude a cover-up.

Finally, anticipating Hillary Clinton’s 22 October appearance before the House Select Committee investigating the 11 September 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya,the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) aired a documentary on 18 October charging Obama, along with (in their roles at the time) Secretary of State Clinton, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice and Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, with lying to the American people about the assault in which US ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other American officials were killed. The ABC broadcast mirrored Lyndon LaRouche and Jeffrey Steinberg’s December 2012 National Press Club briefing, proving that Obama and Clinton knew even as the attack was underway that it was no spontaneous demonstration” against the slandering of the Prophet Mohammed in a YouTube video, but a premeditated, heavily-armed assault by Libyan Al-Qaeda affiliates. The ABC also interviewed former Congressman Peter Hoekstra, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee in 2004-07, who charged that Obama had betrayed Libyan leader Qadaffi—an ally in the war against Islamist terrorists since 2003—and had trained and armed the very terrorists who carried out the Benghazi slaughter.

Like those of his despised predecessor, Obama’s actions reflect on America’s allies, including Australia. While Lyndon LaRouche and other patriotic Americans who are determined to restore their republic to constitutional rule seek to impeach Obama for his crimes, Australians should demand our government cease Pine Gap’s involvement with the drone murder program, as former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser called for in 2014, and end all cooperation with Anglo-American wars and other actions that are in breach of international law.

ධර්මන් වික‍්‍රමරත්න

දෙමුහුන් ආණ්ඩුවට අදට දින 286කි. දින 100ක් ඇතුළත ගෙනෙන බවට පොරොන්දුවූ තොරතුරු දැනගැනීමේ පනත තවමත් හමස් පෙට්ටියේය. හිටපු ත්‍රිවිධ හමුදාපතිවරන් ප්‍රශ්ණ කිරීම සදහා එෆ්.සී.අයි.ඩීයට කැදවා ඇති බව ජනාධිපති දැකගන්නේ පත්තරයෙනි. ඩුබායි බැංකුවල සල්ලි සැඟවීම තවත් දිය කිඳුරි කථාවකි. රුපියල් ලක්ෂ 30ක් වැයකර වැලිඅමුණ සකස්කල එයාර් ලංකා සමාගමේ දූෂණ වාර්තාවෙන්  හඬ ඇත. නඩුද නැත. ඖෂධ මාෆියාවේ කතාව දැන් වාදනයකර තැටියද පළුදුවී ඇත. රාජපක්ෂ රෙජිමයේ බේබිලා ලඟ තිබුණායැයි කියූ හෙලිකොප්ටර් නැත. රත්තරන් අස්පයින්ද හමු නොවීය. ලැම්බෝගිනි වාෂ්ප වී ගොසිනි. රගර් හාදයාගේ මෘත දේහය ගොඩ ගැනීමට තිබූ හදිසිය පරික්ෂණ වලට නැත. වැරදිකර ඇති සියල්ලන්ටම දඬුවම් ලැබිය යුතුය. ඒ පළිගැනීමක් ලෙස නොවේ. කර ඇති වරදට දඬුවමක් වශයෙනි. එවිට පසුවට රටේ වැරදි සිදුවීම අවම වනු ඇත.

බලය ලැබීමට පෙර දේශප්‍රේමය වෙනුවෙන් පෙනි සිටි වරාය ඇමති අර්ජුන රණතුංග බලය ලැබුණාට පසු දැන් පෙනී සිටින්නේ සහෝදර ප්‍රේමය වෙනුවෙනි. ශ්‍රී ලංකා ක්‍රිකට් ආයතනයේ ප්‍රධාන විධායක වශයෙන් සිටියදී තීරුබදු රහිත මෝටර් රථයක හුටපටයකට ඉවත්වීමට සිදුවූ ඇමති අර්ජුනගේ සහෝදරයාවන ධම්මික රණතුංග දැන් වරාය අධිකාරියේ සභාපතිය. “අයියණ්ඩි, මම උ‍ඹේ මලයණ්ඩි… රටෙන් නෝණ්ඩි වූවාට කම් නැත. පවුලට සලකන විදිය මම පෙන්වන්නම්” කියා ඇමති අර්ජුන කීවාද දන්නේ නැත. හෙඩ් වැටුනත් ටේල් වැටුනත් අලුත් ආණ්ඩුවේ දසත ඔඩුදුවා ගිය අපූරු සහෝදර ප්‍රේමය ඉදිරිපිට ‘යහපාලන’ ටොයියන්ට ඇපත් නැත. ගරු සරු දේශපාලනයකට මහත් හොරුන්ට එරෙහිව ගම්ප‍හින් පැමිණි කැප්ටන් කූල් දැන් හිට් විකට්ය. වරායේ හොරු ඇල්ලීමට පත්කල කමිටුවේ වාර්තාව අයියාට දැන් ඇමති මලයා විසින් කියා දිය හැකිය. ඇමති අර්ජුනගේ අමාතාංශයේ තවත් තනතුරු දුසිම් දෙකකට ආසන්න ගණනක් පත්කර ඇත්තේ ඥාතීන් සහ හිතවතුන්ය.

නැගෙනහිර ආණ්ඩුකාර ඔස්ටින් ප්‍රනාන්දු‍ගේ බෑනාද ලන්ඩන් මහකොමසාරිස් කාර්යාලයේ කොන්සල්වරයෙකු ලෙස සේවයට අද හෙටම ගියහොත් එයද පුදුමයක් නොවේ. පවුලට සැලකීම ආසියානු රටවල සම්ප්‍රදායකි. ඉන්දික කරුණාජීව, චමින්ද කුලරත්න සහ සේපාල රත්නායක එම තනතුරේ සිටියානම් ආණ්ඩුකාරයාගේ බෑනාටද එය අකැප නැත. ජනතාවට දුක රෙජිම් චේන්ජ් කියා කීවාට යන්නේ කකුළුවා ගිය පාරේම වීමය.

මහාමාර්ග සහ උසස් අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යාංශය දැන් ඇත්තේ එකටය. නමටම ගැලෙපෙන පරිදි සරසවි සිසුන් දැන් මහපාරේය. ඒ අන්තරේ විරෝධතා පා ගමන් හරහාය. රුහුණේ සිට මාතරටය. සෞන්දර්යයයේ සිට කොටුවටය. කැළණියේ සිට කිරිබත්ගොඩටය. රජරට කෘෂි පීඨයේ සිට අනුරාධපුරටය. පේරාදෙණිය සරසවියේ සිට මහනුවරටය. ඒ මාළඹේ පෞද්ගලික සරසවිය අහෝසි කරන ලෙස ඉල්ලමිනි. ඇමති ලක්ෂ්මන් කිරිඇල්ලට දැන් වැඩ වැඩිය. කොළඹ හතේ වෛද්‍ය ශිවා සින්නතම්බි සරසවි සිසු කාන්තා නේවාසිකාගාරයක් සදහා රජයට පැවරූ දේපල සාප්පු සංකීර්ණයකට බදුදී ඇත. එහි තිබූ වටිනා දේපොලද අතුරුදහන්ය. චූදිත ‘යහපාලන’ ඇමතිවරයා සිටින්නේ සීට් 5ක් අතේ දුරිනි. උසස් අධ්‍යාපන ඇමති කිරිඇල්ල ඒ පිළිබදව උඩින් නෝ කථාය. යටින් මෝ සිනාය. ගෙදර ගියොත් අඹු නසීය. මඟ සිටියොත් තෝ නසීය කියන්නේ ඒවාය.

රාජ්‍ය සහ නියෝජ්‍ය ඇමතිවරුන් පත්කර මාස 2ක් ගියද ඉන් සමහරකට තවමත් තමන්ට අයත් කාර්යභාරයන් සහ විෂය පථය මෙන්ම ප්‍රතිපාදනද නැත. අමාත්‍යාංශයට පැමිණ වැඩකිරීමට කාර්යාලයක්ද නැති බැවින් නිකරුණේ කාලය ගත කරති. තමාට සහ කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයට වාහන, වැටුප සහ දීමනා ලබාගැනීමට අවශ්‍ය හෙයින් අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම් වෙත ගොස් ලිඛිතව පත්වීම් පමණක් භාරගෙන තිබේ. සෙත්සිරිපායේ පමණක් එක් රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශයක කාර්යාල කුලිය පමණක් මාසිකව රුපියල් ලක්ෂ හතළිහකි. නිකරුණේ කාලය ගත කරන ඇමතිවරයෙකුගේ පෞද්ගලික කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයට මාසිකව වැය වන මුදලද ලක්ෂ 15කට අධිකය. කැබිනට් ඇමති මහින්ද සමරසිංහගේ විෂය පථයට යටත්ව තිබූ මාළඹේ සිලිට් ආයතනයද අහිමිවී ඇත. විදේශ කටයුතු අමාතාංශයේ ඉහළ නිලධාරින් 8ක් ඇතුළු 13 දෙනෙකු ලබන සතියේ එම තනතුරුවලින් ඉවතට විසිවනු ඇත. විදේශ අමාතාංශයේ ඇතැම් කටයුතු ඇමති මලික් යටතට පවරා ඇත. ඇමති මංගල සමරවීර තවමත් සීරුවෙන්ය.

සංචාරක ඇමතිගේ කාර්යාලයට සංචාරක අමාතාංශය තුළ ඉඩකඩ ප්‍රමාණවත් වූවද දැන් එය පාර්ක් ස්ට්‍රීට් ගොඩනැගිල්ලකට ගෙන යෑමට සැරසේ. වර්ග අඩි 20,000කට මාසික කුලිය රුපියල් ලක්ෂ 200කි. රටට විදේශ විනිමය උපයන ප්‍රධානම කර්මාන්තය වන සංචාරක ව්‍යාපාරය දියුණු කිරීමට ලොකු මෙහෙයුමක් අවශ්‍යය. එහිදී මහා පරිමාණ හෝටල් හිමියන්ගේ සිට විදෙස් සංචාරකයා ගෙන යන ත්‍රීරෝද රථ රියදුරා මෙන්ම සංචාරකයාට තැඹිලි විකුණන තැඹිලි වෙලෙන්දාද එකලෙසම වැදගත්ය.ඒ පිළිබදව ආණ්ඩුවේ දැක්ම සහ මෙහෙය තවමත් අපැහැදිලිය.

ඛණිජතෙල් හ ස්වභාවික වායු නියෝජ්‍ය ඇමතිනි සහ ජාතික ලැයිස්තුවෙන් පත්කල මන්ත්‍රීනි අනෝමා ගමගේ විසින් සිය අමාතාංශයට කෝටි 6ක සුඛෝකභෝගි බී.එම්. ඩබ්ලිව් වාහන දෙකක් මිලදී ගැනීමට අනුමැතිය ගෙන තිබේ. ලංකා ඛනිජ තෙල් සංස්ථාවේ සේවක ප්‍රශ්න, බවුසර් ප්‍රශ්න, ඉන්ධන මිල අඩුකිරීමෙන් උද්ගත ප්‍රශ්න රැසක් තිබියදී කලින් ඇමතිවරුන් පරිහරණය කල මොන්ටේරෝ රථ හතරක් සහ බී.එම්.ඩබ්ලිව් රථයක් තිබියදී සැප වාහන යළි මිලදී ගැනීම යහපාලනයට කැපද? ප්‍රවාහන ඇමති නිමල් සිරිපාලට අනුව මත්තල වී ගබඩා කිරීමෙන් සිදුව ඇති හානිය විශාලය. එහි ගබඩා වලට කෘමි සතුන්ගෙන් හා පරවියන් ඇතුළු කුරුල්ලන්ගෙන් සිදුවී ඇත්තේ දැඩි හානියකි.  මේවා ලඟ එන පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණය බලා කියන කථාය.

මරේ මරුය. යස-පාලන ආණ්ඩුවේ මැතිවරණ පොරොන්දු පො‍තේ නැති ඉල්ලීම්ද දැන් ඉදිරියට පැමිණ ඇත. සමලිංගික සේවනය සහ ගණිකා වෘත්තීය නීතිගත කරන ලෙසට ස්ත්‍රී සහ පුරුෂ ලිංගික සේවක සේවිකාවන්ගේ ඉල්ලීමකි. මාධ්‍ය සාකච්ඡා පැවැත්වුණේ නාමික නායිකාවන් වන අතර සැබෑ නායිකාවන් තිරයෙන් පිටුපසය. මෙම අම්බපාලි ව්‍යාපෘතින් නෙදර්ලන්ත‍ය සහ නෝර්වේ රටවලින් ඩොලර් ලක්ෂ ගණනක් ලබාගෙන කරන එන්.ජී.ඕ ගේමේ ස්ත්‍රීවාදී නායිකාවන් සියළු දෙනාම දෙමළ බෙදුම්වාදය වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටින්නන්ය. ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සමලිංගිකත්වය නීතිගත කිරීම සදහා කළෙක සිට පෙනී සිටින්නේ “ගමන් මගේ සහකරුවෝ” නැමති සංවිධානය නමිනි. ලංකාව ආවරණය වන පරිදි දිස්ත්‍රික්ක 24ට සමලිංගික සම්බන්ධීකරණ මධ්‍යස්ථාන 24ක් ඇරඹීම ඔවුන්ගේ අරමුණය. සමලිංගික ඇසුර ශ්‍රී ලංකා දණ්ඩ නීති සංග්‍රහය යටතේ සිර දඬුවම් ලැබිය හැකි වරදක් වූවද එම නීතියට ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ අභියෝග කරමින් මෙය සිදු කරන්නේ ලංකීය සංස්කෘතිය වැනසීමේ ඒකායන අරමුණෙනි.

මානව හිමිකම් ඇත්තේ උතුරු නැගෙනහිර ජනතාවට පමණක්දැයි දැන් ප්‍රශ්ණයක් නැගේ. කැබිතිගොල්ලෑවේදී, අරන්තලාවේදී, ගෝණගලදී, වැලිඔයදි, නුවර දළදා මාලිගය, කාත්තන්කුඩි පල්ලිය, පොලොන්නරුවේ පල්ලියගොඩැල්ල, දෙහිවල සහ කොටුව දුම්රියපොල, මරදාන හන්දිය, දිගන්පතන, මහ බැංකු සංකීර්ණයේ කොටි ප්‍රහාර වලින් කැබලිවූ මිනිසුන්ට මානව හිමිකම් නැතිදැයි සැකයකි. ජවිපෙ දෙවන කැරැල්ලේදී 1986 සිට 1990 දක්වා මරදැමූ 60,000කට ආසන්න තරුණ තරුණියන්ගේ මානව හිමිකම් වෙනුවෙන් ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණද නිහඬව සිටීම මහා ඛේදවාචකයකි.

 ඉකුත් වසරේ රුපියල් 84ට තිබූ අමු තේ දළු කිලෝව දැන් රුපියල් 40කි. එමෙන්ම ඉකුත් වසරේ රුපියල් 500කට අළෙවි වූ රබර් ‍‍ෆීට් කිලෝව දැන් රුපියල් 200කි. ආණ්ඩුවේ දින 100  වැඩසටහනේ තේ දළු සහ රබර් සදහා සහතික මිලක් නියම කලද දැන් එය ක්‍රියාත්මක නොවේ. අමු තේ දළු කිලෝවක් නිෂ්පාදනය සඳහා රුපියල් 40 පමණ මුදලක් වැයවේ. රබර් ෆීට් කිලෝවක් සකස් කිරීම සදහා රුපියල් 168ක් වැයවේ. සුළු තේවතු හිමියන් සහ කුඩා රබර් වතු හිමියන් අසාමාන්‍ය ලෙස මිල පහළ වැටීම නිසා යන එනමං නැතිව හාන්සිය. කුමාරතුංග මුණිදාස සූරින්ගේ හත්පණේ කිරිහාමිලා මෙන් ‘යහපාලන’ ආණ්ඩුව පිළිබදව අන්ධ විශ්වාස වල එල්බගෙන සිටි ජනයාට එම සිතුවිලි බීජය එතැනම මිය නොඇදී දලුලන්න පොලඹවීමට හෝ පැන් ටිකක් ලබාදීම ආණ්ඩුවේ යුතුකමකි.

යස-පාලන දෙමුහුන් ආණ්ඩුවේ චීන විරෝධය හරියට මහා පත්‍තර කලාවේදී ඩී.බී. ධනපාලගේ චීන විරෝධය මෙන් සංවිධානාත්මක රෝලකි. එදා රාජපක්ෂ රෙජිමය ගොඩනැගීමට චීන්නු ගේම ගැසූ බවට චෝදනා කළේය. චීන කොලනියක් බවට ශ්‍රී ලංකාව පත්වීමට ඉඩඇති බව කීවේය. මුහුදේ ඉදිකරන පෝට් සිටියෙන් රටේ පරිසරය කාබාසිනියා කරන බව පැවසීය. දැන් චීන ශ්‍රී ලංකා මිත්‍රත්වය වැඩිදියුණු වූවාලු. අධිවේගී පාරවල් සැදීමට මෙගා ඩීල් නැතිලු. දැන් සමුද්‍ර පරිසරය වනසනවායැයි කියූ චීන වරාය නිසි පරිසර තක්සේරුවකින් තොරව ඉදිකිරීමේ වැඩකටයුතු යළිත් අරඹා ඇති බව පරිසර හා සොබාදහම් අධ්‍යයන මධ්‍යස්ථානය ඊයේ නිවේදනය කළේය.

විමධ්‍යගත මුදල් යටතේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ට වසරකට සන්ධාන රජය මගින් ලක්ෂ 50ක මුදලක් ලබාදෙන ලදී. සභාග ආණ්ඩුව එය ලක්ෂ 100 දක්වා වැඩි ක‍ළ බව ජනවාරි 17වැනිදා අතුරු අයවැය ඉදිරිපත් කරමින් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී  ප්‍රකාශ කළහ. එහෙත් මාස 10ක් තිස්සේ කිසිවක් ලැබී නැත. වසර 44ක් පුරා එම ප්‍රතිපාදන සියළු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ට නොකඩවා හිමිවූයේය. එමෙන්ම කිසිදු ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කොට්‌ඨාසයක ප්‍රාදේශීය සම්බන්ධීකරණ කමිටු රැස්‌වීම් 2015දී පවත්වා නැත.

හිට්ලර් ගියාය. චැප්ලින් ආවේය. ලංකාවට ඇඩ්රස් නෑ කියන්නේ පනාපුත්‍රයින්ය. කලක් ජනමූල නායකයා කියා ලොක්කාව අන්දවා සංචාරක සංවර්ධන අධිකාරියෙන් කුට්ටියක්ද හම්බන්තොට වරාය සමාරම්භක උත්සවයේ අඩව් කස්තිරම් අංගයන් සදහා වැයකල කෝටි එක හමාරකින් පළුවක්ද, රන්මිණිතැන්න ඇතුළු මෙකී නොකී වැඩවලින් දොල පිදේනිද ලබාගත්තේද මේ ගොටුකාරයන්ය. සයිමන් නවගත්තේගමගේලා ජනාධිපති ප්‍රේමදාසගේ සට්ටැඹියෙකු වුවද මෙවැනි නීලකාසයන් නොවේ. දොන් නම් දොංය. සිමං නම් සිමංය. දෙකක් එකවර බැරිය.

කැපුවත් මහින්ද යැයි කියා සන්ධානයෙන් තරඟකර ආණ්ඩුවේ වරදාන සහ වරප්‍රසාද ලබාගත් ‍දේශපාලනඥයින් ප්ලග් ගලවා උතුර දකුණ මාරුකර ගත්තද ඒ වෙනුවෙන් ඡන්දය දුන් ජනයා එම සූදුවට මනාප නැත. මහ ඡන්දයට තව කලක් තිබුණද පුංචි ඡන්දය එන්නේ ලබන වසරේ මැදය. මෙම ගන්ධබ්බ කාලයෙන් ගැලවීමට හැක්කේ එයට එරෙහිව සැබෑ ලෙසට නායකත්වය දිය හැකි ව්‍යාපාරයකට පමණි. අනාගතය තීරණය කරන සාධකය එයයි. ඉකුත් ඔක්තෝබර් 19වැනි සඳුදා කොළඹදී මුළු දුන් ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ ජනහමුව ඒ වෙනුවෙන් සුභ ආරම්භයකි. ශ්‍රිලනිපයේ විපක්ෂ මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් 42කගේ සහායද එයට හිමිවී තිබිණි.  

විපක්ෂය එදා කීවේ ඉවසුවා.. ඉවසුවා.. මෙච්චර ඉවසුවා.. තව ඉවසන්න බැරි බවය. එබැවින් රාජපක්ෂ රෙජිමය පන්නන ලෙස ජනතාවගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටියහ. ජනතාව එය ඉෂ්ඨ කළෝය. චීනා සහ ජපනා ගෝරි දමාවි යැයි කීවද එයද ෂේප් විය. ව්‍යවස්ථාව හරි නැති නිසා එයද වෙනස් කර දුන්නේය. රටකට ඕනෑ අපමණ අගයක්ය. එහෙත් ‘යහපාලන’ ආණ්ඩුවේ යස-පාලන කැලෑසියද හරියට මෙම දිනවල මුහුණු පොතේ ජනප්‍රිය රුවන්ගි‍ රත්නායකගේ ඇදුම වාගේය. ඇය ඉල්ලං කෑවේ එය ඉන්දියාවේ නිළි ප්‍රියංකා චොප්රාගේ ඇදුම වාගේ ඇදන් ගිය නිසාය. අපේ වාහේලාත් එහෙමය. යමං බණ්ඩෝ වෙසක් බලන්න කියනවා වෙනුවට දැන් කීමට සිදුවන්නේ යමං බණ්ඩෝ යස-පාලන කැලෑසිය බලන්න කියාය.(The writer is a senior journalist who could be reached at ejournalists@gmail.com)

ධර්මන් වික්‍රමරත්න 

ejournalists@gmail.com

Courtesy Adaderana

Dunesh Priyashantha, also known as Kondaya, today said that he never confessed to the murder of 5-year-old girl Seya Sadewmi in Kotadeniyawa and that all he did was sign a document prepared by the police, as he could no longer stand their beatings.

Speaking at a press conference in Colombo today after he was released on bail by the Gampaha Magistrate’s Court over previous cases, he accused the officers of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of repeatedly assaulting him while in custody and even causing injuries to his head which was hit on the wall.

Priyashantha also said that the moniker Kondaya” was given to him by the media and that neither his friends nor anyone he knows calls him by that name.

Attorney-at-law Udul Premaratne, who also addressed the media, said that the only existing court cases against Priyashantha are for unlawful entry, assault and burglary. There are no cases regarding child molestation or any other serious crimes as claimed by certain media, he said.

DHARSHAN WEERASEKERA

This article is a follow-up to my previous article of the same title published in Lankaweb on 17^th October 2015. The Government’s present plan seems to be, soon after the ‘Debate’ on the OHCHR report, to push through enabling legislation for a Domestic Mechanism,’ and to do so by a simple majority in Parliament.

If the Government gets to push through the aforesaid legislation by a simple majority, Sri Lanka as a country is finished. At the very least, the opposition—i.e. those who for one reason or another oppose a ‘Domestic Mechanism—have to force a 2/3 majority vote, or a referendum, before any such legislation is passed.

Members of the public and other concerned parties should begin now itself to prepare the arguments to accomplish the above two tasks. In this article, I present two arguments (by no means exhaustive) that could help force a 2/3 majority vote, or a referendum, in case enabling legislation for a ‘Domestic Mechanism’ is tabled in Parliament.

2/3 Majority

The basic argument here is that, the ‘Domestic Mechanism,’ whatever final form it takes, will in essence create a separate procedure for trying members of the armed forces for offences which, if committed by an ordinary citizen, would be tried in the normal courts, and this violates among other things Article 12 of the Constitution.

Former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva has discussed the above matter in an interview given to the Sunday Island. I shall quote him at length here, because his remarks are highly pertinent. This is what he says:

‘Under Article 12 of the Constitution the law should apply equally to everybody. For any criminal offence, there has to be a uniform procedure. You can’t single out our soldiers and those who directed the war and say that they are subject to a different procedure. According to Article 12 of our Constitution you can’t have two parallel legal systems.

 Article 12 of our Constitution accords with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which places emphasis on equality before the law. If there is a case involving torture it has to go before a high court. You can’t say that in order to fulfill our international obligations these have to be referred to a separate court. Torture is an offence under the law. You can’t say that torture related offences committed by the Sri Lanka army should be taken before a special court while a torture related offence committed by a policeman or a non-military person is taken before the high court.

 If a person has been shot and killed, that is murder. A person who has committed murder has to go before the normal courts. A soldier accused of murder cannot be referred to another court while others who commit the same offence are referred to the ordinary courts system. That will be a totally irrational classification.’ (Sri Lanka in legal quagmire after UNHRC resolution, Sunday Island, 11 October 2015)

So, my argument is this. Since the ‘Domestic Mechanism’ involves setting up a special court in some form or another, any legislation authorizing such a court will invariably be inconsistent with the Constitution (i.e. Article 12 in this case). Therefore, members of the public can challenge such legislation before the Supreme Court, and ask the court to rule that a 2/3 majority should be required before passing the said legislation.

Referendum

My argument here is that, a Domestic Mechanism,’ if it involves a special court that includes foreign judges, invariably compromises the sovereignty of Sri Lanka, which in turn means that enabling legislation intended to authorize such a court will clash with Article 3 of the Constitution. Bills that clash with Article 3 of the Constitution automatically require a referendum in order to be passed.

It may be pointed out that, Article 4(c) of the Constitution gives Parliament the power to establish courts and tribunals. I concede that Article 4 does give Parliament the aforesaid power, but, in my view, that power cannot be interpreted as extending to cover the creation of courts and tribunals that compromise the sovereignty of the country.

Parliament draws all its power ultimately from the Constitution, and the basis for the Constitution is ultimately the sovereignty of the country, since, without that sovereignty being intact, there would be no country, or at any rate no country that a free people have a hand in governing.

For someone to say that Parliament, exercising its power under Article 4, can establish courts and tribunals that can compromise the sovereignty of the country is to say that Parliament has the power, at its will, to surrender the sovereignty of the country, which is an absurdity.

It is a fundamental legal maxim that: ‘He who has not, cannot give’ (Nemo dat qui non habet). Parliament is not the owner of the sovereignty of the country: that owner is the People. Article 3 clearly states that the sovereignty of the country is in the People, and inalienable. Therefore, if sovereignty is to be surrendered it can only be done by the People, which is to say the People have to be asked first. And that means a referendum.

Only one question remains: ‘How can it be said with certainty that the special court under the ‘Domestic Mechanism’ will invariably compromise the sovereignty of the country?’

The best way to answer the above question is to ask: ‘What is the appeals process in the proposed court?’ Under the law as it stands at present, the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land, and a person found guilty or whose interests have been adversely affected by the ruling of any lower court can appeal as far as the Supreme Court.

In addition, the Supreme Court, using its inherent jurisdiction, can call for the record of any case in the lower courts, in order to redress any grave injustice, if the court considers that such as happened with respect to the case in question.

The hallmark of the sovereignty of any country is that its apex court, as aforesaid, has the power and jurisdiction to hear and dispose of all matters that pertain to the rights and interests of its citizens, and is subservient to no other judicial institution, nor prevented from looking into the records of any other institution adjudicating on the rights and interests of the same citizens.

To turn to the proposed ‘Domestic Mechanism,’ the High Commissioner has made it clear that the reason for a ‘hybrid court’ (for some reason the Government appears reluctant to use the word ‘hybrid’) is the lack of expertise of the local judiciary to handle the types of crimes mentioned in his report, and also the lack of ‘independence and impartiality’ of the said judiciary. (See the High Commissioner’s statement via video-link to the Human Rights Council on 30^th September 2015, www.ohchr.org)

If the above is the case, then the Government, whether it wants to or not, will have to satisfy the High Commissioner, and also the party that is no doubt pulling strings behind the High Commissioner, namely the United States. This means that, even though the Government may allow a limited role for the local courts in the ‘Domestic Mechanism,’ they will be completely cut-off when it comes to any appeals from said mechanism.

In short, if an accused who is found guilty by the ‘Domestic Mechanism’ wants to appeal, he will either have to face a tribunal at the Hague or some such place, or put before a tribunal in Sri Lanka, but a tribunal fully under the control of foreigners. I don’t see any way the Government can get around this. If there is a judicial process that cannot, in the final analysis, be brought under the purview of the apex court in the land, that is unquestionably and invariably a compromising of the sovereignty of the country.

Recommendations

Members of the public along with other concerned parties must be on full alert for any signs that the Government is getting ready to gazette enabling legislation for a ‘Domestic Mechanism.’ The moment such a Bill is gazetted, they should start preparing their petitions, file as soon as the Bill is placed on the Order Paper of Parliament, and fight this thing to the end.

Dharshan Weerasekera is an Attorney-at-Law. He is the author of two books: The UN’s Relentless Pursuit of Sri Lanka (2013), and The UN’s Subversion of International Law: The Sri Lanka Story (2015)

Lasanda Kurukulasuriya

– See more at: The Biased OISL Report and the Dangers of Disinformation

Shenali D Waduge

 Before any hybrid court or international investigators are brought into the scene causing another burden to the taxpayer and wasting years compiling data what is more important is to identify all those who had supported and sponsored terrorism in Sri Lanka. You can have disgruntled men and women who want to rebel against a system but it is when these men and women are supplied arms, ammunition and given training that creates a total new ballgame. We know that unemployed low caste Prabakaran and a handful of his men were unhappy with the government but things started to change only after India transported Prabakaran and coterie and trained them in guerrilla warfare. Who is going to bring India on trial for this crime? Thereafter plenty of other players entered the scene for their own agendas and helped created LTTE Inc into the internationally banned terrorist designate organization involved in illegal network of international rackets to which local and foreign players continue to make big bucks. We need to know who is going to investigate them. Moreover, the GOSL in April 2014 used UNSC Resolution 1373 to declare 16 organizations as LTTE fronts and over 400 individuals as directly being responsible for terrorism. This ban was no April Fools and we want to know why those countries harbouring these organizations and individuals are not taking any action against them?

The People have every right to know what the world bodies are going to do about investigating the following organizations that have been declared as LTTE fronts for materially supporting LTTE over the years. If not for these organizations LTTE and Prabakaran would have had to fight with sticks and stones.

We need to know …..Who helped supply arms, how was the money raised, what type of training did the LTTE cadres get, who trained them, who ran their global communications, who funded all these activities are questions that we need answers for.

It is only by roping in these entities declared banned by UNSC Resolution 1373 can we find the answers. Prabakaran would not have reached the stature he became if these banned organizations and other invisible organizations/individuals did not come forward to assist him starting out first with India. These truths now need to come out into the open otherwise words like reconciliation becomes meaningless when part of the jigsaw puzzle is kept hidden and uninvestigated mostly because those now coming forward to be the conflict resolutionists were actually steering these entities at some time or the other and so do not want to get their names exposed.

1.Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam a.k.a LTTE a.k.a Tamil Tigers – EN/CA/2013/01

2.Tamil Rehabilitation Organization a.k.a TRO. – EN/CA/2013/02 (Sri Lanka & Overseas)

3.Tamil Coordinating Committee a.k.a TCC – EN/CA/2013/03

4.British Tamil Forum a.k.a BTF – EN/CA/2013/04 (Operating from London, UK)

5.World Tamil Movement a.k.a WTM – EN/CA/2013/05 (Operating from Canada)

6.Canadian Tamil Congress a.k.a CTC – EN/CA/2013/06 (Operating from Canada)

7.Australian Tamil Congress a.k.a ATC – EN/CA/2013/07 (Operating from Australia)

8.Global Tamil Forum a.k.a GTF – EN/CA/2013/08 (Operating from UK)

9.National Council Of Canadian Tamils a.k.a NCCT a.k.a Makkal Avai – EN/CA/2013/09 (Operating from Canada)

10.Tamil National Council a.k.a TNC – EN/CA/2013/10 (Operating from Norway, Italy , Switzerland, France, Canada.)

11.Tamil Youth Organization a.k.a TYO – EN/CA/2013/11 (Operating from Australia)

12.World Tamil Coordinating Committee a.k.a WTCC. – EN/CA/2013/12

13.Transnational Government Of Tamil Eelam a.k.a TGTE – EN/CA/2013/13

14.Tamil Eelam Peoples Assembly a.k.a TEPA – EN/CA/2013/14

15.World Tamil Relief Fund a.k.a WTRF – EN/CA/2013/15

16.Headquarters Group a.k.a HQ Group – EN/CA/2013/16

The above categorized Foreign Terrorist Organizations are led by the following 4 key individuals all of whom are domiciled overseas and carrying on operations without any fuss by foreign governments and even openly lobbying against a sovereign government inside the halls of the United Nations where they are given VVIP treatment against the shoddy treatment meted to Sri Lanka’s diplomats!

1.         Perinbanayagam Sivaparan alias Nediyavan”;

2.         Rev.Fr. S J Emmanuel

3.         Visuvanathan Ruthirakumaran

4.         Sekarampillai Vinayakamoorthy alias Vinayagam

These LTTE fronts are operating openly in EU, UK, Canada, US and Australia. They are registered as charities and human rights organizations and some of these representatives have over the years been arrested though it has always been ‘business as usual’ thereafter. In addition the Tamil National Alliance that was first formed by the LTTE need to also be thoroughly investigated for links with the LTTE.

When the 16 LTTE fronts were declared banned the official statement delivered was not only those who perpetrated the terrorist crimes but those who financed and supported terrorism will be brought to justice”. We now want that delivered.

LTTE ground force was eliminated in May 2009 along with the Leader Prabakaran and a handful of others while key layers either surrendered or managed to with the help of foreign/local NGOs escape and are now living in foreign shores and getting trained to come out with tearful and emotional stories of their harassment so as to either get refugee/asylum status or use these accounts against the military as a punishment for having ended a very lucrative terrorist business.

Any organization/individual can croak all they like but having saved 300,000 people who can be named those claiming that 40,000 to 200,000 had been killed by the Sri Lankan troops have so far in 6 years failed to show mass graves, skeletons, newly dug earth mounds (Ban Ki Moon went on a helicopter tour of the area 3 days after the LTTE was eliminated) and no names even… so instead we are going around the mulberry bush with stories about the troops ‘may have killed’ but no bodies or names to verify this and then wasting time demanding investigations until they come up with names….this means we are in for a long investigation, wasting a lot of money and a handful of selected people getting rich.

Close to 12,000 LTTE cadres surrendered. If the Sri Lankan troops had been murderers as claimed would this lot be alive? Would the 594 child soldiers have got a Presidential Pardon? This is not to say that even within the army there are some bad eggs but that cannot and should not bring the entire reputation of the army down or have the war heroes treated as they are currently being done. Moreover, where are the calls for the 5000 military soldiers whose families have officially filed the names of their missing sons/husbands with the Presidential Commission on Missing Persons. While 40,000 do not have names the 5000 military missing do – why is there no concern or calls to demand from the 16 LTTE fronts and their leaders what the LTTE did to these men?

What needs to be said is that the LTTE monster initially created by India is only part dead, its tail, feet are still very much wagging while the teeth have been removed in May 2009. The players that were involved in keeping the LTTE alive are very much active still. Their objective is nothing to do with Tamils and the day ordinary Tamils realize that they have been taken for a jolly ride all these years it would be too late. Many enjoy the ride for they have had freebies come their way as a large number of Tamils have been given the opportunity to live in foreign shores and they do not mind keeping the kitty going. They little realize the damage they are doing. However, the players that first used and turned men, women and children into killers are very much active and it is they who need to be exposed.

So long as there are entities that are ready to manufacture and supply arms, nations prepared to allow their territories to be used to train men and women to shoot and kill terrorism will continue to exist.

So long as there are entities that knowing terrorism is killing innocent people but because they make a good living and can travel widely and amass perks and privileges terrorism will continue to thrive.

So long as there are entities prepared to train terrorist groups to promote terrorism and showcase terrorists as ‘saviors’ manipulating mass media and communication channels terrorism will see no decline.

So long as there are people who would do anything and everything for money to function as charlatans appearing as panel speakers, authors and people ready to lie and prostitute their integrity for money the loss of innocent lives, damage to property and chaos the world over would continue.

So long as there are international organizations, foreign envoys, foreign governments that make profit from the sale of arms & ammunition and create conflicts to supply both the terrorists and government troops and thereafter use terrorism to advance their own larger economic/political agendas innocent people will continue to perish and environment will be destroyed.

Shenali D Waduge

Additional reading:

LTTE Fronts Banned – Sri Lankan envoys abroad must now deliver – http://www.onlanka.com/news/ltte-fronts-banned-sri-lankan-envoys-abroad-must-now-deliver.html

CHARGESHEET AGAINST LTTE : We demand accountability of 30 years of LTTE War Crimes – https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/06/19/chargesheet-against-ltte-we-demand-accountability-of-30-years-of-ltte-war-crimes/comment-page-1/

LTTE War Crimes and Human Shields – http://www.ceylontoday.lk/59-14938-news-detail-ltte-war-crimes-and-human-shields.html

Framing bogus War Crime charges: WHO are the ‘civilians’ who died in Sri Lanka’s Final War? – http://www.sinhalanet.net/framing-bogus-war-crime-charges-who-are-the-civilians-who-died-in-sri-lankas-final-war

Indian War Crimes in Sri Lanka: IPKF Massacre of Tamil Doctors and Nurses inside Jaffna Hospital – https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2014/02/02/indian-war-crimes-in-sri-lanka-ipkf-massacre-of-tamil-doctors-and-nurses-inside-jaffna-hospital/

Sri Lanka demands War Crimes against LTTE Terrorists and India’s IPKF – http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2012/05/21/sri-lanka-demands-war-crimes-against-ltte-terrorists-and-india%25E2%2580%2599s-ipkf

Commission of Inquiry on Indian War Crimes in Sri Lankaommission of Inquiry on Indian War Crimes in Sri Lanka – http://www.spur.asn.au/index.php/77-spur/274-commission-of-inquiry-on-indian-war-crimes-in-sri-lanka

The UN Investigative Panel must probe TNA – LTTE links – http://www.onlanka.com/news/the-un-investigative-panel-must-probe-tna-ltte-links.html

Sri Lanka Accountability: Investigate LTTE-TNA allegiance – http://www.onlanka.com/news/sri-lanka-accountability-investigate-ltte-tna-allegiance.html

Prabakaran is dead but the LTTE is not –https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2014/12/28/prabakaran-is-dead-but-the-ltte-is-not/comment-page-1/

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

By Saman Indrajith The Island

The Commission of Inquiry that probed Abductions and Disappearances (better known as the Maxwell Paranagama Commission) has found that it was the LTTE which killed majority of Tamil civilians during the last 12 hours of the final stage of the war, according to the commission report tabled in Parliament yesterday.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe tabled the Maxwell Paranagama Commission report and the Udalagama Commission report along with the UNHRC report on alleged human rights violations in Sri Lanka.

The Paranagama Commission report has said: “In coming to its findings about the LTTE, the Commission was cognisant of the fact that every major NGO and many international organisations recognized the parasitic conduct of the LTTE in its treatment of Tamil civilian population, including the forcible recruitment of children as soldiers, particularly in the last stages of the war. It has been estimated by a respected Jaffna-based NGO that in the final 12 hours of the conflict the majority of the Tamil civilian casualties were caused by the LTTE,” Paranagama Report said.

The report “rejects the suggestion that civilians were either targeted directly or indiscriminately by the SLA as a part of an alleged genocide plan.”

“The Commission finds that the Darusman Report, as well as other reports, have taken a particularly narrow and restricted view of the obligation upon the GOSL to prosecute international crimes.”

The report says, “The LTTE was principally responsible for the loss of civilian life during the final phase of the armed conflict through their actions which included taking 300,000 to 330,000 civilian hostage, implementing a strategy of killing Tamil civilians to suit their military aims, using civilians as a strategic human buffer leading to considerable loss of civilian life, using hostages to dig trenches and build fortifications thereby exposing them to harm, sacrificing countless civilian hostages to keep the LTTE leadership in power, arming hostages and forcing them into the front line leading to the deaths of large numbers, forcing a great number of children to man the frontlines; deliberately preventing civilians, under their effective control, from fleeting to areas away from the fighting and executing civilian hostages for attempting to escape their captivity; shelling civilian hostages in order that the LTTE might assign those deaths to the SLA for media purposes to provoke international humanitarian intervention; placing their heavy weaponry amid civilians making it inevitable that there would be civilian casualties; killing civilians through the use of suicide bombers; placing mines and other explosive devices that resulted in civilian deaths; causing the deaths of civilians who drowned in an attempt to flee their LTTE captors; and adopting a practice whereby a significant number of its cadres fought in civilian clothes, thus blurring the distinction between combatants and civilians inevitably leading to civilian deaths.”

“Commission is of the view that the principal reason for the loss of civilian life during the final phase of the war was the hostage taking and use of human shields by the LTTE.”

The commission accepted that shelling by the SLA undoubtedly led to a significant number of civilian deaths, “but the commission stresses that this was an inevitable consequence of the LTTE’s refusal to permit civilians to leave their control in order to use them both as a shield and a pool for recruitment, even when the GOSL permitted a ceasefire on April 12. No government could be expected to permit young children to be forced into the front lines without taking all available measures to put an end to such ruthless exploitation of a civilian population,”

“The commission rejects the Darusman Report’s finding that ‘a number of credible sources’ have estimated that there could have been as many as 40,000 civilian deaths.”

The Commission has recommended dealing with the issue of missing persons and the establishment of effective mechanisms at various levels for that purpose. “Different contexts might require different solutions and no approach that fits every situation has yet been identified. Coordinating mechanisms and national mechanisms should always liaise with the families and communities concerned about their work, its limitations, the chances of success and the probability of finding the missing person alive or of finding the remains through exhumation and forensic identification. In addition, families should be informed about whether and how they might obtain assistance and reparation and about the possibilities for punishing those responsible for the disappearance of their loved ones.

“Several complainants stated that their family members who were abducted or caused enforced disappearances were from their place of residence, while some stated that their members were abducted from places other than their homes, which information were transmitted to the members of the family by a third party.”

The commission recommends the legal process against the inmates held in prisons related to LTTE activities, should be expedited.

“Livelihood assistance should be provided to families of missing persons by providing assistance so that they can sustain a continued livelihood for a period of time until such time they are able to sustain themselves independently. It has been observed by the Commission that livelihood is being drawn back due to the traumatic conditions of the missing persons family as a result of the war.”

The Commissions also suggested a process of counselling and psycho social related services.

The Commission of Inquiry into Abductions and Disappearances (Maxwell Paranagama Commission) conducted 12 public sittings in the North and the East. Each public sitting was spread over a period of four days.

The Commission chaired by retired senior judge Maxwell Paranagama comprised Suranjana Vidyaratne, Mano Ramanthan, W.A.T. Ratnayaka and H Sumanapala.

The second report tabled in Parliament yesterday was the final outcome of the Presidential Commission (Udalagama Commission) of Inquiry appointed to investigate and inquire into alleged serious violations of Human rights arising since August 1, 2005.

The Udalagama Commission says that the way police have conducted the initial investigations with regard to the killing of 17 aid workers of the international non-governmental organization Action Contre La Farm in early August 2006 lacks professionalism. The commission recommends that it is necessary to incorporate a comprehensive component on human rights and international humanitarian law in all police and armed forces training schemes.

In addition to the case on killing of 17 aid workers, the commission compiled separate reports with regard to the killing of 51 persons in Naddalamottankulam (Senchoali) in August 2006, alleged execution of Muslim villagers in Muttur and the execution at Welikanda of 14 persons from Muttur who were being transported in ambulances in early August 2006, killing of ten Muslim villagers in Radella in Pottuvil Police area on Sept 17, 2006, killing of five Tamil youths in Trincomalee.

“Out of the 16 cases mandated to be inquired into by the Commission proceedings seven cases have been concluded. With regard to the balance nine cases the COI is not in a position to conduct the inquiry during the mandated period. Two of the cases namely the killing of 17 aid workers of the ACF and the killing of five youths in Trincomalee attracted the attention of many parties including international organisations and foreign governments. Proceedings of these two cases took most of the time of the Commission.”

The Commission, chaired by Justice N.K. Udalagama, comprised Upawansa Yapa, Devanesan Nesiah, K.C. Logeswaran, Manouri Muttettuwegama, Jezima Ismail, S.S. Wijeratne, Javid Yusuf, Douglas Premaratne, M Faizal Razeen and Denzil J. Gunaratne.

Adaderana