From: Ravinatha Aryasinha, Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the USA
To : All Overseas Sri Lankans and Friends of Sri Lanka in the USA
In view of the increasing number of COVID infected persons being detected in Sri Lanka over the last few weeks and the urgency of accommodating them and their close associates in hospitals and quarantine centers respectively, the healthcare workers and others on the front lines in Sri Lanka have done and continue to perform their duty by the motherland despite staff and resource constraints.
Taking into account the enormity of the tasks at hand and the numerous limitations on the ground, the Foreign Ministry is reaching out to Overseas Sri Lankans (OSLs) and to Friends of Sri Lanka, with a view to enlisting their support and contributions in kind and other forms toward their fellow Sri Lankans affected by the pandemic, on a voluntary basis.
Donation of relief items
The Embassy of Sri Lanka in Washington DC, together with the Sri Lanka Permanent Mission in New York and the Consulate General Office in Los Angeles, is in the process of coordinating such voluntary donation of relief items, for the treatment of the COVID 19 infected persons in hospitals and augmenting facilities around the country. Already several groups in the US have channeled assistance in this regard, including in collaboration with the Consul General in Los Angeles, for which the Embassy is most grateful.
In this context, the Ministry of Health has indicated that the immediate need is for ventilators, oxygen concentrators, high flow oxygen units, multi-parameter monitors, PPEs including N95 masks, telemedicine platforms which could be used by medical professionals in Sri Lanka.
As time is of the essence, the Embassy will be grateful to Overseas Sri Lankans and Friends of Sri Lanka in the US for their commitment and generosity towards this timely and worthy cause. Those who are able to extend whatever help at this hour of need are kindly requested to reach out to the Embassy through email at accounts@slembassyusa.org or call the Deputy Chief of Mission Mr. Sarath Dissanayake (202-816-9666) or Accounts Officer Ms. Nadeeshani Dias (301-275-6349) at the numbers indicated.
Monetary Contributions
Additionally, as you may already be aware, the ‘COVID – 19 Healthcare and Social Security Fund’ set up last year is open for monetary contributions extended by OSLs and Friends of Sri Lanka toward strengthening the mitigation activities in controlling the spread of pandemic and related welfare programs. They could directly remit their donations to the ‘COVID – 19 Healthcare and Social Security Fund’ or make an online transfer or cheque deposit to the Embassy of Sri Lanka bank account at the Bank of America as per details furnished at: https://slembassyusa.org/new/images/Financial_Contributions_to_COVID_-_17_May_2021.pdf
Securing of Vaccines
Meanwhile, I also wish to update you, that since the announcement was made on 26 April 2021 that the US Government planned to make available 60 Million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines to countries in need, the Foreign Minister through the US Ambassador in Colombo, and I through the relevant officials in the State Department and the National Security Council, have brought Sri Lanka’s needs in this regard to the attention of the US Government. It has been emphasized that 600,000 doses of AstraZeneca in particular is urgently needed to be given to those who had their first shot almost 2 months ago. While a decision in this regard is awaited, the Embassy has been advised by the concerned authorities that the release of AstraZeneca vaccines by the US will have to be preceded by authorization for its use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Additionally, following the announcement today (17 May) by the US Government that they will share an additional 20 Million doses of domestically authorized COVID vaccines – Moderna, Pfiser-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson, the Embassy has also requested that Sri Lanka be considered for the provision of Johnson & Johnson vaccines, under this scheme.
Earlier this month, the Embassy also facilitated a discussion between the Chairman of the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation (SPC) of Sri Lanka and the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Regional Manager in India, with a view to enabling the purchase of these vaccines, which have the particular advantage of being a single dose, has high efficacy against death and hospitalization, and also has less stringent storage requirements. Several US based Sri Lankan medical professionals are also assisting the Embassy in Washington DC in the task of trying to secure these vaccines early.
Your continued support in this time of need would be deeply appreciated and would go a long way in saving lives and protecting those presently vulnerable and needy in Sri Lanka.
At last Great film, today the first time I have seen it.First time I read about the so-called white flag incident, but Share among the world in the English version, the different version on the atrocities of LTTE against their own, how many died of Army bullets, how many committed suicide by taking the cyanide, the tactics adopted by LTTE to deceive the army and prevent the civilians from escaping, the photos clip of bombers and details of how many civilian killed by action, how many suicide bombers disobeyed the orders, the foreign interference that led to prolonging the battle. And many more. Let’s .hope they do this before the next sessions at Geneva. Experts like Shaminder F Shenali Waduge and others must help
Colombo, May 17: The annual ceremonies held by the Sri Lankan armed forces on May 19, to mark the defeat of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the observances held by Tamil political leaders on May 18 to mark what they consider genocide”, keep alive the conflict between Sinhalese and Tamil nationalisms, which have marked post-independence Sri Lankan politics.
This year, to prevent the Tamils from commemorating their dead at Mulliwaikkal (the scene of mass killings at the tail of the 30-year war) the Lankan government has used the COVID-19 pandemic to isolate the place along with the adjacent areas of Mullaitivu, Pudukudiyiruppu, and Mulliyawali.
On May 12, unidentified persons destroyed a memorial tupi” (stupa for the dead). The Tamils suspect that the army had done it, though the army has denied it.
Over the years, the observances of the Tamils on May 18 have gained international attention thanks to the growing influence of the Tamil Diaspora and the active post-war involvement of the international community headed by the US and its Western allies under the umbrella of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
In response to this, Sri Lankan governments have reacted through sharp denials. They maintain that the charge of genocide is based on biased inputs from interested parties.
The high point on the 12 th. Anniversary of the end of the war this year is the passing of a bill in the Ontario provincial legislature on genocide” in Sri Lanka. Bill 104, the Tamil Genocide Education Week Act, establishes seven days each year, May 11 to 18, during which Ontarians are encouraged to educate themselves about, and to maintain their awareness of, the Tamil genocide and other genocides that have occurred in world history.”
Infuriated by the ‘genocide Bill’ passed by Ontario Legislative assembly, Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena summoned Canadian High Commissioner David McKinnon and expressed Sri Lanka’s deep concern. The Minister pointed out that the position taken by the Ontario Legislative Assembly contradicted the Canadian Government’s stand.
Foreign Secretary Jayanath Colombage pointed out to the Canadian High Commissioner the potential harm Bill 104 could cause to the reconciliation process, peace building in Sri Lanka and bilateral relations.
Along with this, on May 12, unidentified persons destroyed a memorial thupi” for the Tamils who were killed in Mulliwaikkal in the last days of the war. Stones kept for building a better stupa were removed so that when Tamil politicians and their followers gather there to pay homage on May 18, they do not have a focal point. The government however denied that the army had destroyed it.
Reacting to this, the former Chief Minister of the Northern Province, C.V.Wigneswaran, who is now an MP, issued a press release saying that the government’s efforts to hide the genocide” will fail because, one day, the international community would surely recognize what happed in Mulliwaikkal was genocide. He appealed to the Tamils to observe the day, but strictly in accordance with pandemic regulations.
The Democratic Peoples’ Front leader Mano Ganesan condemned the destruction of the monument and pointed that the government could not prevent Tamils from mourning their war dead while allowing the revolutionary Sinhala organization Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) to pay homage to its dead. He appealed to Tamil leaders to seek the support of progressive Sinhalese politicians and Buddhist monks for their reasonable demand for equality in commemorating the dead in conflicts.
In the Indian State of Tamil Nadu, home to nearly over 67 million fellow Tamils, Tamil nationalists, LTTE and Tamil Eelam supporters have already started observing Mulliwaikkal Day. The Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) leader Vaiko, who is an MP, paid homage to the dead. The object of veneration for him and his followers, was a map of Tamil Eelam with a picture of the 12 year-old Balachandran, the slain son of LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, superimposed on it.
Meanwhile www.army.lk said that the Sri Lankan Security Forces are all set to remember the fallen war heroes at the National ‘Ranaviru’ monument in Battarmulla on May 19. The ceremony would be witnessed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and other dignitaries of the Sri Lankan State.
The website said that 23,962 army, 1160 Navy, 443 Air Force, 2598 police and 456 Civil Security personnel, a total of 28,619, had made the supreme sacrifice in the fight against LTTE terrorism before May 2009.
Nearly half of the 130 known species of dragonflies and damselflies in Sri Lanka are found nowhere else on Earth.
The highest endemic species density is found in the island’s central highlands, attributed to the variations in the geography and climatic conditions as different mountain ranges have different ecological characteristics providing unique evolutionary pressures for speciation.
But for long, knowledge of these odonates had been confined to scientific names and basic descriptions and locational information, until a new surge of interest drove the country’s odonates research to new heights.
This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
A tropical continental island located close to the Indian subcontinent, endemic fauna and flora form an integral part of Sri Lanka’s rich biodiversity.
The island’s biodiversity is globally recognized for both its diversity and endemism of fauna and flora, and this is true of its dragonflies and damselflies, or odonates in general.
With 130 known species, 58 of Sri Lankan dragonflies and damselflies are endemic to the country. In addition to these, Sri Lankan subspecies of eight other species are also endemic, elevating the total number of endemics to 66 (50.8%) and thus making Sri Lanka the country with the highest density of endemic odonates in South Asia.
Highest endemism in the region
Though Sri Lanka has a very high number of endemic dragonflies and damselflies, and they have been studied for more than two and a half centuries, very little was known about them until a couple decades ago.
Most were only known by their scientific names and basic descriptions. Then dawned a golden era of research and explorations into the world of Sri Lankan odonata, led by several odonatologists and naturalists. Field explorations coupled with taxonomic studies over the past three decades explored their natural history and taxonomy, and more than a dozen endemics were discovered during this period.
Most importantly, the knowledge gained was documented for the use of others, which helped build a surge of interest in dragonflies and damselflies among the naturalist community in Sri Lanka.
Endemic odonates occur in most parts of Sri Lanka. Among them, species like the Sri Lanka orange-faced sprite (Pseudagrion rubriceps ceylonicum) and stripe-headed threadtail (Prodasineura sita) are widespread in the lowlands. However, the species density of endemics is highest in the wet climatic zone, including in the southwestern part of the country.
The Sri Lanka emerald spreadwing (Sinhalestes orientalis) is a globally critically threatened damselfly species. Image courtesy of Amila P. Sumanapala.
Due to variations in geography and climatic conditions, different mountain ranges in Sri Lanka have different ecological characteristics providing unique evolutionary pressures for speciation. This is clearly evident among the species in the family Platystictidae, which has the highest diversity among Sri Lankan damselflies with 26 species and 100% endemism.
These damselflies, generally referred to as shadowdamsels and forestdamsels, are shade-loving, close-canopy forest-dwelling species with relatively low mobility. Their habitat–specificity, coupled with limited dispersal ability, has resulted in many restricted-range species confined to different geographical regions. These include the Adam’s shadowdamsel (Ceylonosticta adami), among the rarest of damselflies and restricted to the Knuckles Mountain Range, and multiple other shadowdamsel (Ceylonosticta spp.) species restricted to the Peak Wilderness Mountain Range.
Of the more common endemics, the shining gossamerwing (Euphaea splendens) is probably the most common one in the wet zone of Sri Lanka. This species inhabits a wide range of streams both in and outside forests.
The female shining gossamerwing is known to remain underwater for many minutes and lay its eggs in submerged plant material. The endemic dragonfly Yerbury’s elf (Tetrathemis yerburii) is another remarkable species as it is the only known Sri Lankan dragonfly to lay its eggs on plant material above water, thus keeping them exposed to the atmosphere. This species, mainly distributed in the wet zone, is often found inhabiting shady wells with earthen walls, which are usually overgrown with ferns and other such vegetation.
With years of explorations, it is now understood that many endemic species once thought to be rare and known only from a handful of specimens are out there in the biodiversity-rich rainforests and montane cloud forests, hiding from plain sight.
A distinct metallic-blue dragonfly species endemic to Sri Lanka, Yebury’s elf (Tetrathemis yerburyii) occurs in the southwestern and eastern parts of the island. Image courtesy of Amila P. Sumanapala.
Surge in research
Species like the Sri Lanka emerald spreadwing (Sinhalestes orientalis), which was not recorded for more than 150 years and once thought to be possibly extinct, was later rediscovered from the Peak Wilderness Mountain range.
The smoky-winged threadtail (Elattoneura leucostigma), which was not seen for more than 40 years, was recently recorded from several locations in the highlands including Horton Plains National Park, which is one of the most visited parks in the country.
Similarly, Nietner’s grappletail (Heliogomphus nietneri), a species only known from a single specimen for more than 120 years, was recently recorded from multiple locations in the Knuckles Mountain Range, which is one of the most popular travel destination among local travelers.
One reason for some of these rarities to be overlooked for prolonged periods is the fact that they are highly seasonal. Certain species like the shadow damsels of the genus Ceylonosticta, especially in the highlands, are only observed for a couple of months during or immediately after the southwestern monsoon. They are also very habitat specific and usually occur only in their preferred habitats, thus making it crucial to be in the right place at the right time to find these species.
Over the years, researchers and naturalists have gathered a considerable amount of data on these species, gradually widening the horizons of our understanding of the endemic dragonflies and damselflies of Sri Lanka. With recent findings, we now have a better understanding on where and when these amazing species occur.
The stripe-headed threadtail (Prodasineura sita) is a common endemic damselfly found in streams and riverine habitats. Image courtesy of Amila P. Sumanapala.
However, despite decades of research and explorations, some rarities still remain hidden. Species such as Flint’s cruiser (Macromia flinti), which has only been collected once, in 1970, and Keiser’s forktail (Macrogomphus annulatus keiseri), last collected in 1970, have evaded researchers despite their search attempts. Whether they are still surviving the various threats and pressures on dragonflies and damselflies, their habitats and ecosystems, is still an unanswered question.
Further explorations targeting the missing, lesser-known and undescribed species; research on understanding their biology, ecology and biogeography; as well as research focused on investigating the impacts of climate change, pollution and other environmental changes on their survival, are crucial to supporting the conservation of these enigmatic Sri Lankan endemics.
It is hoped that with the use of novel research and conservation tools and opportunities such as citizen science, we will be able to create a better future for the endemic dragonflies and damselflies of Sri Lanka.
Amila Prasanna Sumanapala is a field researcher studying the faunal biodiversity of Sri Lanka. He is currently doing postgraduate work on Sri Lankan Odonata, an order of carnivorous insects that include dragonflies and damselflies, and has more than a decade of experience in biodiversity research and assessments. He serves as an active member of several conservation organizations.
Banner image of a shining gossamerwing (Euphaea splendens), a damselfly found only in Sri Lanka, courtesy of Amila P. Sumanapala.
Kalkman, V., Babu, R., Bedjanič, M., Conniff, K., Gyeltshen, T., Khan, M., … Orr, A. (2020). Checklist of the dragonflies and damselflies (Insecta: Odonata) of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Zootaxa, 4849(1), 1-84. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4849.1.1
Picture shows people are receiving Sinopharm Vaccine as protection against Covid-19 in Colombo today. The Government earlier decided to inoculate the Chinese Sinopharm vaccines for citizens over 60-years of age. Pix by Pradeep Pathirana.
The Cabinet of Ministers has given the nod to introduce a suitable insurance scheme for Sri Lankan migrant workers.
The Department of Government Information says the Foreign Employment Bureau has provided an overseas labor insurance coverage for these expatriates.
Under this insurance coverage, Sri Lankan migrant workers are paid compensations subject to a maximum of Rs. 600,000 in case of death of an employee and Rs. 400,000 in case of total disability.
However, these employees have no coverage for various industrial and domestic accidents in the workplace, access to medical care for mental and health problems due to various illnesses and harassment by employers as well as job losses due to epidemics such as COVID-19.
Taking these factors into account the Cabinet of Ministers, during its meeting on Monday (May 17), agreed to grant permission to the proposal tabled by Labour Minister to introduce a suitable insurance scheme for Sri Lankan migrant workers.
Sri Lanka’s novel coronavirus death toll crossed the grim milestone of 1,000 today (May 18), as the Director-General of Health Services confirmed 34 new victims.
This is reportedly the highest number of fatalities the country registered in a single day following the outbreak of the pandemic last year.
As per official data, Sri Lanka has witnessed as many as 1,015 deaths from the COVID-19 so far.
Among the deceased is a youth aged 20 years from Ratnapura area who died of acute COVID pneumonia.
Further, a 32-year-old female from Dematagoda area succumbed to COVID pneumonia, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, thrombophilia and hypothyroidism while a 38-year-old female from Ragama area fell victim to acute COVID pneumonia and diabetes.
According to the Department of Government Information, the remaining 31 victims were over the age of 50.
The Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry reported that 784 more persons have tested positive for COVID-19 in Sri Lanka on Sunday (May 18), as the daily count of new cases moved to 2,518.
This brings the total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus reported in the country to 147,720.
According to the Government Information Department, 2,478 of the new cases reported today are associated with the New Year coronavirus cluster. The remaining 40 were identified as arrivals from foreign countries.
As many as 121,145 recoveries and 1,015 deaths have been confirmed in Sri Lanka since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Epidemiology Unit’s data showed that 25,560 active cases are currently under medical care.
The government has agreed with all the determinations and amendments of the Supreme Court with regard to the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill, said Minister Keheliya Rambukwella.
Therefore, it could be passed in the parliament with a simple majority, the Minister added.
The determinations of the Supreme Court were presented to the parliament today (May 18) by Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena.
The Court had found that several clauses of the Bill were inconsistent with the Constitution.
However, these clauses can either be amended or passed in the parliament with a special majority or in a referendum, the Supreme Court determined.
In its 62-page determination on the Bill, the Supreme Court had also included how the concerning clauses can be amended.
The verdict of the court was handed down by Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya and Supreme Court Justices Buwaneka Aluvihare, Priyantha Jayawardena, Murdu Fernando, and Janak de Silva.
Today, 21st
May 2021 is the 29th death anniversary of this unassuming colossus
who perhaps had done more for the people of Sri Lanka than many others before
him and after him
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good
men to do nothing – Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke was an influential Anglo-Irish politician, orator
and political thinker, known for publicly expressing his opposition to the
French Revolution. Born in Dublin in 1729, Burke went to London to study law,
but soon gave this up and pursued a literary and political career. He became a
member of the parliament in 1765 and had a 30-year career as a political
theorist and philosopher. Later praised by both conservatives and liberals,
Burke believed that the government should be a cooperative relationship between
rulers and subjects. He also said that most men in a nation are not qualified
to govern it, stating that those who are elected to represent the people should
possess a greater level of wisdom than the public. The past is important,
but change is inevitable so, in order to keep a balance between the new and the
traditional, society needs to learn how to adapt. Therefore, we should
construct civilization by giving weight to our ancestors, but also consider
ourselves and the needs of future generations.
This article is
not about Edmund Burke. It is about one of Sri Lanka’s greatest sons, Tikiri
Bandara Ilangaratne or T B Ilangaratne, who in so many ways epitomised the
values that Burke believed in during his time. His revolutionary policies and
the people owned public institutions he created or helped to create
demonstrated in no uncertain manner that he was never a man who stood in
silence when it came to public policy and governance for all and not a favoured
few. TB Ilangaratne, a family man, a novelist, poet, union leader and
politician, born on the 27th of February 1913, passed away peacefully
on the 21st of May 1992 having lived a life dedicated to a selfless service
to the people of Sri Lanka.
One enduring characteristic of T B
Ilangaratne was his unassuming nature, his simplicity and his affinity to his
family that never faded throughout his life. He and his wife, Tamara Kumari
Ilangaratne or TKI as she was fondly referred to, ran a home which had been more like a community hall
and there had always been a pot of rice and a simple meal in the home as
everyone who had visited, and there had been many from the two electorates
represented by TBI and TKI, had never left their home hungry. They had never
been any discrimination on status or any other discriminatory practice and
whoever having a meal had been served at the main dining table. Being a crowded
household, children of TBI and TKI, and their cousins and friends who had been
regular visitors, sometimes had their meals either in the kitchen or in our
rooms. The family home had been one of joy and had been full of very meaningful
life.
Both TB Ilangaratne
and his wife, as members of Parliament, along with other members of Parliament
at the time, unlike those today who find it difficult to even walk, let alone
travel in public transport, had not been given fleets of vehicles. They were
entitled only to public bus and train passes, and unless they had their own
transport, which the Ilangaratne’ s did not have, their only mode of transport
to and back from their respective electorates had been public transport.
Despite these
challenges, TB Ilangaratne had one motive throughout his life and that was to
be of service to others, in particular to those who were left behind by the
legacy of colonialism and supremacy of money for a few at the cost of
exacerbating the plight of those who were left behind by that few. His
achievements in introducing far reaching policy reforms in independent Sri
Lanka, which continued till the end of the seventies, have to be looked at
through such a prism.
His vision and
approach to policy settings paved the way for others to emulate and set the
direction for a fairer Sri Lanka and opening opportunities for those had been
denied such opportunities.
Throughout
his life and especially during his political career, he was a person who not
only thought or just empathised with people in society, who were poor,
homeless and the lower middle class who were left behind by the Colonial
administrations and then by those who took over from them, but actually
introduced ground breaking policies to raise the standards and hopes of such
people.
Besides the
accolades that he got, which were many and richly deserved, he was also at the
butt end of the nastiest characteristics of many fellow countrymen who assigned
all manner of derogatory labels to him, which were totally unjust and untrue.
Not only was he subject to such vilification, even his family was not spared
and they had to endure these on behalf of a husband and father who did and
always did, what was in the best interest of the mass of Sri Lankans who were
left out of the post-colonial Sri Lankan dream.
In the days
before the advent of social media, these vilifications were spearheaded by
interested parties including the monopoly media who were the servants of the
masters at that time, masters who had been affected by the far reaching public
policy changes introduced by T B Ilangaratne.
His life’s
philosophy and his political philosophy were no different to each other.
Simplicity and equal opportunities for everyone irrespective of ethnicity,
religion, caste or any other discriminatory practices, guided his thinking. In
this respect, he saw common ground with the left movement in the country and
the leaders of the left movement. His socialist orientation and outlook brought
him very close to a scholarly Buddhist Monk, Venerable Walpola Rahula who had
his early education at the Vidyalankara Pirivena, and who maintained close
links with the University. There is no doubt that Ven Rahula had a lasting
influence on T B Ilangaratne and they remained lifelong friends.
These socialist
leanings had irked Mr D S Senanayake and his fellow supporters in the
government of the day. Mr Senanayake was the first Prime Minister of the
country then known as Ceylon, who was in the 1940s, the Leader of the House of
Representatives. They were seeing the Buddhist clergy as being a threat to
their power, and influence with the rich segment of the polity.
The Vidyalankara Declaration
In the early
part of the 1940s, the leading Buddhist Monks of the day had taken a stand to campaign
for broad basing the public policy settings of the country and to extend the
country’s social structure to the majority people in the country who had been
left behind by a few who controlled most aspects of the country’s economy. This
was no ethnic or religion based campaign although the leading Buddhist Monks
had taken it on themselves to launch such a campaign on behalf of the wider
mass of people of the country. In this regard, Monks led by Yakkaduwe Pangnarama,
Kiriwattuduwe Pannassara, Walpola Rahula and others and lay persons like young
T B Ilangaratne had taken the lead to introduce what was referred to as the
Vidyalankara declaration which articulated a new vision for the country.
Politicians,
businessmen and women, and others belonging to the governing class led by Mr D
S Senanayake who was then the Leader of the House of Representatives had been
vehemently against this declaration and the call to action by the Buddhist
Monks. The animosity between Mr Senanayake and
his supporters and the Buddhist clergy had intensified to the extent that they
had prevented Monks like Venerable Rahula from receiving their daily mid-day
meal. It is at this point that the role played by TB Ilangaratne comes into
focus, as he, although a poor clerical hand at the time, had arranged with well-wishers
to supply the mid-day meals to Ven Rahula and other Monks. Ven Rahula had
mentioned special mention of this effort on the part of TB Ilangaratne and their
friendship flourished.
Ven Walpola Rahula was a scholar and a
writer. He became the Professor
of History and Literature of Religions in the North Western University in the
US, the first Bhikkhu to hold such a chair in the Western world. He later
became a Professor Emeritus at the same university and in 1964, the Vice
Chancellor of the Vidyodaya University in Sri Lanka (now Sri Jayawardhanapura
University)
Navaratne Rajakaruna Wasala Tikiri Mudiyanselage Tikiri Bandara
Ilangaratne was
born on 27 February 1913 in Tumpane, Hataraliyadda, Waligodapola, as the fourth
child in a family with seven siblings. His father was a well-known general
practitioner of traditional ophthalmology. He began attending school in 1917 at
Galagedera Vidyalaya and received his secondary education from St. Anthony’s College, Kandy. Ilangaratne wrote three plays
while in school (Akikaru Putha, Himin and Anda
Nanda). On September 4, 1944, Ilangaratne married Tamara Kumari Aludeniya in Gampola. Tamara Kumari
Ilangaratne (TKI) was elected as the member for Kandy (1949-1952) and Galagedara (1970-1977). They had four children
Udaya, Sandhya, Rohana, and Upeksha.
He was a Member of Parliament for Kandy, Galaha, Hewaheta and Kolonnawa in Colombo district. He served as
the Sri Lankan Cabinet Minister of Labour, Housing, Social Services, Finance,
Commerce, Food, Trade and Shipping, Public Administration & Home Affairs
and he also functioned as the Acting Head of State during Mrs Sirima
Bandaranaike time as Prime Minister in a career spanning more than three
decades.
As extensive as his political experience and achievements were, he was
also well known for his literary talent and authored several classic novels and
is best known for writing Amba Yahaluwo (1957), a popular
children’s novel. His novels Tilaka Saha Tilaka, Lasanda, Nedeyo,
Sasara, Niwena Ginna, Nayana and Kale Mal have been adapted into movies. Amba
Yahaluwo and Vilambheetha were made into a television
serial.
Altogether he has written 50 Sinhalese novels, and 2 English novels –
Matchmaker and Amba Yahaluwo which were also translated to French. He also
translated Tale of Two cities written by Charles Dickens to Sinhala as
Denuwara Kathawa”.
Early Days
T B Ilangaratne left school after passing the London matriculation exam
upon which he joined the government service as a clerk in the General Clerical Service. In 1941, he tried his hands at
acting playing King Dhatusena in the play of the same name by Gunasila
Witanansa and in the movies Radala Piliruwa” and Warada Kageda”.
He then contested and won the Kandy
electorate in the 1947 general election as a Socialist candidate, but was
unseated as a result of an election petition. At the request from the people of
Kandy, his lifelong friend, companion and wife, Tamara Kumari Ilangaratne affectionately
referred to as TKI contested at the by-election and became the MP for Kandy. An
election petition may have got rid of T B Ilangaratne, but the people of Kandy
did not.
TB Ilangaratne joined the editorial board of Lankadeepa newspaper
writing the political column under the pen name Andare” while his wife TKI continued
as a member of Parliamentary opposition.
It was around this time that S W R D Bandaranaike, who would become
Prime Minister in 1956, left the government of D S Senanayake and joined the
opposition. T B Ilangaratne recognised and wrote of this move of Mr
Bandaranaike as the greatest political sacrifice he had made. He invited S W R
D Bandaranaike to address a socialist group of Kandy headed by Queens Counsel
Mr Sri Nissanka and himself. At the meeting S W R D Bandaranaike announced his
vision to follow a middle path and expressed his desire to join hands with T B
Ilangaratne to form a new political party.
The seeds for the birth of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party were sown and Mr
Bandaranaike’s vision became a reality when both T B Ilangaratne and his wife,
as convenors and founder members together with 42 others formed the Sri Lanka
Freedom Party. This included D A Rajapaksa, the father of Mahinda and Gotabaya
who were to become Presidents and Heads of State of the country, and another
sibling, Chamal, a Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka, and Basil, a cabinet
minister himself. The key role played by T B Ilangaratne and TKI in the
formation of the SLFP and leading it to one of the most stunning political
victories is perhaps not known to many.
In 1959 S W R D Bandaranaike, a visionary who gave a life and
purpose to the very ordinary common man” fell to an assassin’s bullet,
although the conspirators to the assassination were people engaged in
commercial activity who had lost out on some deals, which were unprincipled,
unethical and not in the national interest, and rightly turned down by Mr
Bandaranaike. The chief conspirator, former chief priest of the Kelaniya Raja
Maha Viharaya, Mapitigama Buddharakkitha, was tried and convicted and sentenced
to life imprisonment, and he died in prison while serving his sentence.
In the immediate post S W R D Bandaranaike cabinet, T B Ilangaratne
assumed duties as the Minister of Home Affairs, which included the department
of police that investigated the assassination and which eventually led to the
conviction of the assassin and the conspirators.
He contested and was elected in the general elections of March 1960 and July 1960 from Hewaheta. He was appointed Minister of Commerce,
Trade, Food and Shipping by Sirima Bandaranaike who became Prime Minister having
led the Sri Lanka Freedom Party in the July election. In 1963, he was
appointed Minister of Finance and then Minister of Internal and
External Trade in 1964.
T B Ilangaratne lost his seat in the 1965 general election. He however returned to Parliament from
a by-election in 1967 from the Kolonnawa electorate and sat in the opposition. He was
re-elected in the 1970 general election from Kolonnawa and was appointed to
the cabinet with the portfolios of Foreign and Internal Trade, thereafter,
Trade and Public Administration and Home Affairs. In 1974 he served briefly as
the acting Prime Minister. Ilangaratne retired from politics on April 12, 1986.
There is a
strong possibility that TB Ilangaratne’ s very significant and unparalleled
achievements are not known to many as such interested parties have for years,
carried out a successful campaign to hide them from the public and vilify him
for activities he was never part of or had any association with.
His
achievements are overwhelming, and amongst the major achievements not mentioned
so far in this article are the following.
Declaring a holiday on account of the May Day and recognising this
as a special day for workers, establishment of the Employees Provident Fund. The Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) was established
under the Act No. 15 of 1958 and is currently the largest Social Security
Scheme in Sri Lanka. With an asset base of Rs. 2,540 billion as at end 2019,
the EPF today has become a huge “Peace of Mind” for the employees of
institutions and establishments of the Private Sector, State Sponsored
Corporations, Statutory Boards and Private Business.
The adoption of the Labour Disputes Act, Creation of Shops and Office
Employees Act, Passing of Maternity Leave Act, providing light work to pregnant
mothers, Implementation of the Workers’ Compensation Act, Establishment of the
National Wages Commission, Establishment of Vocational Training Centres, Abolition
of the right of employers to dismiss employees abruptly, facilitate trade union
representatives to attend foreign conferences.
Some of the institutional work he was responsible for
were, nationalisation of private petroleum companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, Mobil gas, Caltex and Esso
transferring its assets to the newly formed Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, and
its refinery to refine crude oil, nationalization of insurance and the establishment
of the Insurance Corporation, establishment of the People’s Bank, establishment
of the National Lotteries Board, adoption of the Shipping Corporation Act, establishment
of Sathosa, launching the Oberoi Hotel created under the Sathosa establishment,
establishment of State Trading General Corporation (now known as Rajawasa),
establishment of the State Tractor Corporation, establishment of the State
Textile Corporation (Salu Sala),
establishment of the Consolidated Export Corporation (Consolexpo), establishment
of Co-operative Services Commission, establishment of the National Fruit Board,
establishment of the National Pricing Commission, creating a price control
department to protect consumers, transfer of dried fish importation business to
the State (CWE) on account a gold
smuggling racket amongst some private importers, to the CWE
He is also credited as the first Finance Minister to present
the national budget in Sinhala, the reason for this being the budget in Sinhala
were to open the doors for entrepreneurs from the cities as well as villages to
Sri Lanka’s economic opportunities, and to broad base the naturally agro based
country and to create opportunities for students to study economics in the
Sinhala language as such opportunities were restricted to those who studied in
the English medium up until then. He was also responsible for widening Tea
exports, hitherto restricted to Britain, directly to the rest of the world,
breaking the monopoly of Oil imports restricted to England, and opening importations
to the Middle East and Russia.
It would not be
misplaced to assign any other label than what Mahatma Gandhi said of great men
– You must be the change you
wish to see in the world”, to T B Ilangaratne.
He epitomised that and he was always the change he wished to see in Sri Lanka. His singular achievements, his dedicated service to the country
he loved, demonstrates this beyond any doubt. He is assured of an honoured
place in Sri Lanka as a man for all seasons and a visionary leader for
generations to come.
Palestinians will yet again commemorate the
Nakba (‘catastrophe’), a term that refers to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine
in 1948 and the Palestinians’ loss of their homeland. The mass expulsion of
Palestinians was overwhelming in its scope. Arab Palestine was erased and
replaced with Jewish Israel. It is estimated that between 750,000 and 900,000
Palestinians were expelled from their homes and became refugees in the
aftermath of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. About 500 villages were destroyed and
Palestinian cities were purged of their Arab residents. Only 160,000
Palestinians remained in what became Israel – Dr
Lana Tatour, Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Social Sciences, University of
New South Wales
The West as well as Russia and China have looked
on with feigned disdain while Israel has continued the dispossession of
Palestinians from their own homeland since the creation of the state of Israel
in 1948. While the UN has over the years passed several resolutions clearly
identifying Israel as the aggressor, and its actions as illegitimate, it has
only demonstrated the impotence of the UN, and the triumph of meanness over
what is just.
Today, Israel, and the world in deep slumber,
looks at rockets fired from Gaza as the cause of a conflict while conveniently
overlooking the fact that it is an ongoing reaction to the real cause that
began in 1948.
In a wide ranging article written in 2018, Dr
Lana Tatour (PhD, Politics and International Study), a Palestinian scholar, and
an Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Social Sciences, University of New South
Wales and specialising in postcolonial/settler colonial studies, indigeneity,
and civil society and resistance, Dr Tatour tracesthe ongoinghumiliation of Palestinians since the mass dispossession that began in
1948.
Dr Tatour’s article, a history of Palestinian
Dispossession (https://overland.org.au/previous-issues/nakba70/essay-lana-tatour/) is quoted in full here to give readers a glimpse at this
historic debacle heaped upon the Palestinian people by Israel and the world’s
economic and military powers.
The article begins with the following insult to the
injury heaped on the Palestinian people.
The year 2018 has so far been a good one for
the State of Israel, which has just celebrated its 70th anniversary. Yesterday,
the US embassy was transferred from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem following
Trump’s unprecedented
recognition of Jerusalem as ‘the
eternal capital of the Jewish People’.
Today, Palestinians will yet again commemorate
the Nakba (‘catastrophe’), a term that refers to the ethnic cleansing of
Palestine in 1948 and the Palestinians’ loss of their homeland. The mass
expulsion of Palestinians was overwhelming in its scope. Arab Palestine was
erased and replaced with Jewish Israel. It is estimated that between 750,000
and 900,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes and became refugees in
the aftermath of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. About 500 villages were destroyed
and Palestinian cities were purged of their Arab residents. Only 160,000
Palestinians remained in what became Israel.
But Nakba Day is as much about the present as it
is about the past. The Nakba is an ongoing national and personal tragedy.
Generations of Palestinians have been born into destitution, statelessness and
occupation, and Palestinian claims to self-determination and sovereignty
continue to be curtailed by Israel and the international community.
It is increasingly apparent that Israel’s
occupation of the Palestinian territories is not a temporary situation
but rather a permanent one. Israel has
yet to give up its aspirations for a Greater Israel and the takeover of
Palestinian land, with Jewish settlements continuing to proliferate and expand.
The illusion of temporality enables Israel to seize Palestinian land while
engaging in a futile peace process as a strategy to stall for time and make
facts on the ground.
Since the occupation of the West Bank in June
1967, Israel has established more than 160 settlements there in violation of
international law. Today, between 600,000 and 750,000 Jews – 10 per cent of
Israel’s Jewish population – live in settlements in the West Bank and East
Jerusalem.
Occupied East Jerusalem is gradually being ethnically
cleansed of its Palestinian inhabitants. Since
1967, Israel has revoked the residency status of at least 14,959 Palestinian Jerusalemites.
These people are now criminalised and banned permanently from living in their
native city. In addition, for more than a decade, Israel has prohibited the
movement of Palestinians between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, cementing
the geographical divide between the two.
The United Nations has described
Israel’s policies in the West Bank as ‘creeping annexation’, and Israeli
ministers have begun publicly
calling for the annexation of parts of the West Bank. Under the
Oslo Accords, the West Bank was divided into three areas: Area A (under
Palestinian control), Area B (under Israeli and Palestinian control) and Area C
(under full Israeli civil and military control). According to the agreement,
Area C – which constitutes 60 per cent of the West Bank – was supposed to be
transferred to the Palestinians at a later stage, but this never happened.
Instead, in recent years Israel has escalated its land grab and population
transfer policies in Area C and Jewish settlements have undergone significant
expansion.
According to the Israeli human rights
organisation B’Tselem, Israel now has effective
ownership of the majority of land in Area C. Further,
while Israel has been building an average of 1500 homes for Jewish settlers
every year, only 33 building permits for Palestinians were approved by Israel
in Area C between 2010 and 2014. None were approved in 2015. Dozens of
Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley and the South
Hebron Hills are today facing forced transfer. They are
subjected to daily violence by the Israeli army and Jewish settlers. Israel’s
policy is to make Palestinian life unbearable. Palestinian villages are denied
access to basic services such as water and electricity, and Israel forbids
building schools and health clinics. Water tanks and hundreds of EU-funded
structures (including modular homes and schools) have been demolished in recent
years, in what the EU has described as a violation of international law.
Colonial policies of dispossession and ethnic
cleansing also extend to the Palestinian citizens of Israel. As a result of
massive expropriation of land and state policies of Judaisation, Palestinian
land ownership in Israel is estimated to be only 3.5 per cent. A major internal
colonial frontier is now the Naqab (or Negev, the southern region of
Israel/Palestine), where the Palestinian Bedouin indigenous population faces
state plans that threaten the destruction of about 40 villages and the forced transfer
of tens of thousands of Bedouin citizens
of Israel to state-planned townships – the Israeli equivalent of reservations.
Last month, the Bedouin village of Al-Araqib, which has become a symbol of
Bedouin resistance, was demolished for the 127th time. The Bedouin village of
Umm al-Hiran will be demolished next month and the new Jewish settlement of
Hiran will be built on its rubble. Adalah, the legal centre for Arab minority
rights in Israel, has described Israel’s plan for Umm al-Hiran as being
‘reminiscent of the darkest of regimes such as apartheid-era South Africa’.
The Israeli regime is one based on racial
distinction and racial hierarchy in the treatment of Palestinians and Jews. As
Ahmad Tibi, a Palestinian member of the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament), once
commented, ‘Israel is democratic for Jews, but Jewish for Arabs’. The legal
system and the administrative and bureaucratic apparatus work to facilitate
Jewish privilege in all areas of life.
The human rights organisation Adalah has documented more
than 60 laws that discriminate against the Palestinian
citizens of Israel and limit their political, civil, socio-economic, cultural,
land and due process rights.
Only a few days ago, the Knesset, Israel’s
parliament, passed on first reading the new and controversial
Nationality Law, which formally enshrines
Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. The law legalises the
establishment of Jewish-only settlements and rescinds the formal status of the
Arabic language as an official language of the state. In reality, this law is
not news. It merely consecrates the existing reality of the Palestinian
citizens of Israel. More fundamentally, the law encapsulates the Zionist
viewpoint that Jews – wherever they are in the world – are the only rightful
owners of the land and the only population in the state that is entitled to
self-determination, while Palestinians are portrayed as aliens in their own
homeland.
The two-state solution is dead (arguably, it was
never really an option). It is time to recognise that we already are in a
one-state condition.
Israel exercises sovereignty over the whole of
historical Palestine and it governs the entire population in this territory,
Palestinian and Jew alike. And yet Israel operates multiple regimes of
citizenship, rights and control. While the Jewish population enjoys political and
civil rights, the vast majority of Palestinians are denied those same rights.
Even Jews in the diaspora enjoy more rights to the land than do the
Palestinians who actually live in their homeland or were expelled from it 70
years ago.
For decades, Israel has enjoyed impunity for its
violations of international law and human rights. It should be apparent that a
state that removes Palestinians from their homes in order to build settlements
for Jews is a settler-colonial state. A state that denies political and civil
rights to Arabs because they are Arabs is a racial state. A state that shoots
unarmed civilian protesters who are under illegal and inhumane siege is a
criminal state”.
The following concluding remarks in Dr Tatour’s
article presents the essence of the cause that has been boiling since 1948, and
which periodically releases reactions in the form of rockets from Gaza. Quote For
many in the West, the dispossession and continued exile of Palestinians is
still seen as a legitimate price to pay for sustaining the Jewish state. A
century has passed since the Balfour Declaration, which recognised Jewish
nationalism while referring to Arabs as nationless ‘non-Jewish communities’ in
Palestine. Palestinians are still struggling to be acknowledged as natural
subjects of rights to freedom and self-determination. If anything, the recent
protests (the Marches of Return) in the besieged Gaza Strip – where 70 per cent
of inhabitants are refugees – demonstrate that the quest for dignity and for
the right of return is at the heart of the Palestinian struggle” unquote
Dr Tatour presents the solution that will end
this dispossession and humiliation of Palestinians and an end to the rocket
barrage that is fired from Gaza – The time has come to pursue a
democratic, de-colonised and de-racialised state in historical Palestine – a
state that will guarantee full equality to the whole of its population (Jews,
Palestinians, immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers). It is time
for Palestinians to demand ‘one person, one vote’. And it is time for the
international community to support this just demand.
The test of decency, justice and fair play over
meanness will pass muster only if Western nations, China and Russia, Japan and
India, collectively tells Israel that enough is enough and supports a solution
on the lines proposed by Dr Tatour. If not, it would be conclusively clear that
the mean has inherited the Earth.
The Human Rights Council
of the UN is, as its name indicates, the UN body which deals with human rights.
However, UNHRC does not rank as one of the principal UN organizations. UNHRC is
designated a subordinate body of the UN. It is not therefore, a powerful
body”.
The UN Human
Rights Council was created in 2006 to replace UN Commission on Human rights, by
Resolution 60/251.
Resolution 60/251, stated that
UN decides to establish the Human Rights Council, based in
Geneva, as a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly. The Assembly shall
review the status of the Council within five years ( clause 1)
The Council shall be responsible for promoting
universal respect for the protection of all human rights and fundamental
freedoms for all, without distinction of any kind and in a fair and equal
manner. (Clause 2)
The work of the Council shall be guided by the
principles of universality, impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity,
constructive international dialogue and cooperation, with a view to enhancing
the promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic,
social and cultural rights, including the right to development; (clause 4)
the work of the Council shall be
transparent, fair and impartial ( Clause 12)
HRC has three regular sessions per year, in March, June and
September. HRC can also hold a special
session at any time, to address human rights violations, if one third of the
HRC panel requests it. That was how the 11th Special Session of the HRC was
convened in 2009 to consider the situation in Sri Lanka, just one week after
the conflict came to an end.
The UNHRC is empowered, through its Universal Periodic
Review (UPR) to examine the HR status of all 193 UN Member States. The human
rights position of all UN member countries come up before the HRC on periodic
review, every four years. The dialogue between UNHRC and the member state are recorded in UNHRC documents ( forget title) . I have looked at them. No member state ever admitted guilt.
They had explanations, excuses and where necessary, there was outright
rejection of the charges.
UNHRC can pass resolutions
on a country, on majority vote, whether that country likes it or not. But the
Resolution will not have legal force. No
resolution of the UNHCR can have direct legal consequence UNHRC can only make recommendations, said Palitha
Kohona. UNHRC lacks the power to act
against countries. UNHRC cannot cannot
impose sanctions. It does not have that power either.
Subhas
Gujadhur and Toby Lamarque were asked to make an assessment of the HRC
Resolutions issued over the years. Their report was published as The evolution
and future direction of the UN Human Rights Council’s resolution system’ (2015). They found that Resolutions
relating to specific countries, were a mere 7% of its total output, the rest
were on themes. The country resolution
were confined to 12 situations, mainly
Israel but also Sri Lanka. The authors noted that the 10 highest ranked countries for HR
violations were not in this list.
Most of the
resolutions were introduced by USA and
the European Union, 56% by EU and 20% by USA. The Council’s willingness to address
country-specific human rights violations is therefore heavily dependent on just
two Western powers, the EU and the US. When one considers the scale of human
rights violations that have taken place since 2007, it is clear that, by only
addressing fourteen situations, the Council is guilty of neglecting its responsibilities, said
Gujadhur and Lamarque .
The
resolutions brought by the west mainly target developing countries,
particularly those in Asia and Africa, said Sri Lanka’s Pathfinder Foundation. The west decides which country should be hauled
before it and who should undertake the task. Sri Lanka was handled by Canada in
the 1980s and by USA and UK in 2017.
Certain third world countries have grouped together to counter this. It was
this group that supported Sri Lanka during the special session in May 2009,
said Pathfinder.
Pathfinder
observed that the developed countries in the west and the oil rich Gulf
countries are rarely, if ever, summoned before HRC. The sole exception to this
is Israel. HRC has passed many resolutions against Israel, to the fury of
Israel. In 2017, HRC adopted 5 such resolution in one session despite
opposition from US and UK. Israel and
Cuba have ignored UHRC Resolutions.
UNHRC is not well off financially. UNHRC receives only 3.7 per
cent of the UN regular budget. This is insufficient for the work of the UNHRC and
donors have to step in. UNHRC web page
called for donations in 2017. IN 2020 it was announced
that UN is having a financial crisis,
and had cut down the funds given
to the UNHRC. UNHRC has had to reduce
some of its activities such as lunch time meetings.
Two thirds of the UNHCR budget comes from voluntary
contributions from
Member States and other donors. in 2017,
the leading donors were United State of America (USD 450,360,2382), Germany (476,918,6683)
European Union (436,036,9864),
Japan (152,359,7735) United Kingdom (136,219,3706) Sweden (111,958,9457)
Norway (98,941,9568).
In 2019 the leading donors were United States of America (1,706,832,053,
and 33,898,591) Germany (390,479,234 )Sweden
(142,556,147, and 22,687,329),Japan (126,466,093 and 29,780,084) United Kingdom
(122,408,890) Norway (94,345,776) Denmark (91,641,152)Netherlands (72,362,386).
Because they provide most of the funds Western
countries have a hold on the HRC, said critics. They control appointments to
the HRC and OCHRC. Most of the staff in the HRC are
white. There are unusually high numbers
from US, UK, France, Germany, and Italy
in the HRC . Some junior staff are paid
directly by member countries.
Countries have objected to the imbalanced representation in the HRC and
OHCHR.During the 2012 session, Sri Lanka, along with Cuba and Pakistan
successfully sponsored a resolution seeking transparency in funding and
staffing the UNHRC.
They
complained that that 80% of the UNHRC’s funding requirements are supplied by
powerful nations such as the United States and its allies. And key positions in the UNHCR are mostly held
by persons who have served in the
foreign services of such countries. This
affects the impartiality of the UNHRC, they said.
The structure
of the UNHRC will lead to problems, sooner or later. UNHRC consists of a
rotating body of UN member states, sitting in judgment over the rest. This
creates two UN groups, HR pure and HR guilty”. This is the only UN body, in
my view, which has got itself into this situation.
Resolution 60/251 tries to solve this problem by declaring ‘When
electing members of the Council, Member States shall take into account the
contribution of candidates to the promotion and protection of human rights, may
suspend the rights of membership in the Council of a member of the Council that
commits gross and systematic violations of human rights. (Clause 8)
In 2016, some
member countries of the HRC objected to China, Russia, Cuba and Saudi Arabia
holding seats in the HRC. ‘Too many repressive regimes have found a place on
the United Nations Human Rights Council, We must vote in countries that they have good human rights records’,
said UK sanctimoniously.
At the
plenary session of the HRC in 2016, an NGO called UN Watch protested about the
inclusion of China, Russia and Cuba in the Council. Cuba promptly brought in a point of order. An
NGO has no right to adversely comment on the composition of the HRC, said
Cuba. Cuba will obstruct if the NGO
tries to do so again. China, Russia, Pakistan, Venezuela, agreed with Cuba that
they had every right to sit on the HRC. USA, UK, Netherlands and Canada disagreed. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAOAEsI8HdA)
UN General Assembly has, from
the start, had its doubts about this new Council. The Organization is still under observation.
When the UNHRC was created, the UN General Assembly decided that the work and
functioning of the new HRC should be reviewed five years after it had come into
existence, and the review should take place at the level of the General
Assembly. At this review, the status of the Council would also be considered.”
The first review of the UHRC took place in 2011.The General
Assembly decided to continue the Human Rights Council as a subsidiary body and to re-examine its position at a date no sooner than ten years and no later than
fifteen years from 2011. (Resolution 65/281 of 17.6.2011.) This means that
UNHRC will come up for review before the UN General Assembly in 2021 or between
2021 and 2026.
It is likely that at this
second review, a firm decision will be taken whether to continue with the UNHRC
or not. This means that at present, the future of the UNHRC is uncertain. It is
certainly not a powerful, entrenched body of the UN. (continued)
Right Honourable Prime Minister, Honourable Ministers, Premier of Ontario, Honourable Members of the Federal Parliament/ Ontario Legislature and GTA Mayors,
A private member’s bill by one MPP Vijay Thanigasalam of the PC Party, apparently an active supporter of the internationally designated terrorist movement known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) so designated by the UNSC Resolution Number 1373 of September 2001 and proscribed by 32 countries including Canada, USA, UK, India, the EU, etc., as seen from material carried in his Facebook which he has since been deleted following exposure, presented this Bill with a host of false statements which are unproven and unsubstantiated, which unfortunately was passed into law on May 6, 2021 without even hearing the objections presented by the public, thereby seriously affecting the integrity of the laws of this province of Canada. Furthermore, the Ontario Provincial Legislature does not have the authority to determine the actions of any party in an armed conflict anywhere as being ‘genocidal’ in nature, as this authority rests with the United Nations following the Genocide Convention held in 1948 as per the ruling given by the International Criminal Court following the adoption of the Resolution by the Member States of the UN. The UN nor any of its agencies has to date declared the military actions taken against the separatist terrorist movement, the LTTE, as being genocidal in nature.
This opens the door for an officially recognized Tamil Genocide Education Week from May 11th to May 18th each year in Ontario Schools allegedly committed by the Sri Lankan authorities during the latter stages of the armed conflict between the security forces of the Sri Lankan Government and the armed terrorist forces of the LTTE concluded on May 18, 2009 with the defeat of 30 years of terrorism and the dawn of an era of peace and the restoration of the ‘Right to Life’ which had been hijacked by the terrorists that targeted both the military and civilians in the country. This is bound to cause intense pain, and suffering among the children in Ontario schools from the rest of the constituent communities making up the Sri Lankan nation such as the Sinhalese, Muslims, Malays, Burghers, including Tamils that opposed the terrorist ways adopted by the LTTE such as suicide bombings, ethnic cleansing, night attacks on remote villages with machetes and guns, etc.. They could even become victims of harassment and violence in the school environment.
The armed conflict was thrust on the Sri Lankan state by the armed separatist terrorist group that sought 30 percent of the island’s land and 66 percent of the coastline and adjacent territorial waters of the Indian ocean in the north and east for 12.8 percent of Tamils of whom less than half lived in the region with a larger number living outside in mixed ethnic surroundings, by cutting off drinking and irrigation water at the Mavil Aru anicut in Sri Lanka to 30,000 farming families dependent on same for almost 2 weeks in July/August 2006 compelling Sri Lanka to use her Army to restore water to the affected people. Refer the Human Rights Watch report of March 15, 2006, wherein it is stated that the LTTE extorted large sums of money from expat Tamil individuals and businesses to launch their so called final war of liberation. The LTTE forces were later forced to withdraw from their bases on the northwest coast and the Vanni to their strongholds in the northeast compelled the Tamil civilians to accompany the retreating LTTE forces to be exploited for their labour, conscripted to replace fallen cadres and used as a human shield. Sri Lanka rescued a total of 295,873 persons including 12,600 Tamil Tiger fighters who surrendered, kept them in welfare camps in Vavunia, fed them 3 meals a day, provided medical and psychological treatment, access to education, vocational training and new livelihood skills, and resettled them in their former villages after demining the land of nearly 1.5 million landmines, restoring infrastructure including building a 1,000 schools, hospitals, roads, replacement homes, re-establishing the rail links by replacing almost 150 km of rail track destroyed by the Tamil Tigers within a space of about 1 – 3 years.
The Justice Maxwell Paranagama Commission on Missing Persons in Sri Lanka was assisted by a team of international legal and military experts in matters relating to International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and War Crimes issues in respect of the military operations against the LTTE, where they concluded that the Sri Lankan forces had not violated IHL or committed war crimes. These experts were internationally recognized authorities, many of whom had served as legal advisers or prosecutors in the International Criminal Courts.The team of experts was led by Right Honourable Sir Desmond de Silva, QC. (UK) , together with Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice QC. (UK), Professor David M. Crane (USA), Mr. Rodney Dixon, QC. (UK/ South Africa), Professor Michael Newton (USA) Vanderbilt University, Professor William Fenrick (Canada), Professor Nina Jorgensen of Harvard University, Mr. Paul K. Mylvaganam (UK) and Major General Sir John Holmes, DSO, OBE, MC (UK) former head of the British SAS. The ignorance inscribed within this simpleton reading is underlined when set in contrast with an assessment provided after a careful review in 2015 by the retired SAS officer*, Major General Sir J.T. Holmes after: the SLA did not rush in, but instead took its time to plan and adapt its tactics to take account of the civilian presence. It was, in the view of the author, an entirely unique situation and the fact that 295,000 people escaped alive is in itself remarkable.” Refer the blogsite of Prof. Michael Roberts of Adelaide, Australia for more pertinent information: https://thuppahis.com/2018/10/16/the-western-worlds-cumulous-clouds-of-deception-blanketing-the-sharp-realities-of-eelam-war-iv/.
The Tamilnet, a propaganda arm of the LTTE reported total of 7398 being killed during the period January 1 to May 18, 2009, the UN Resident Representatives Office said that 7721 had been killed between September 2008 and May 13, 2009, the US embassy in Colombo estimated 5,000 deaths, while Col. Anthony Gash the UK Military Attache in Colombo reported a total of between 7,000 and 8,000 to the FCO in the UK saying that about 2,000 of whom were done to death by the LTTE per Lord Naseby of UK, the Sri Lankan Government carried out a census using Tamil school teachers and public officials as enumerators to arrive at a figure of 7,432 deaths due to the conflict. The ICRC reported having ferried 18,439 injured for treatment to hospitals outside the final battle theatre, which number is usually 2 to 3 times the number killed based on global averages. MPP Thanigasalam cites the figure of 40,000 deaths estimated by UNSG’s personally appointed panel not sanctioned by the UNGA or UNSC headed by Marzuki Darussman which later recommended that the information mainly gathered from pro-LTTE supporters be locked away for 20 years till 2031, the UN’s Charles Petrie’s internal review of the Darussman report where he estimated 70,000 deaths, the LTTE propagandist Yasmin Sooka’s estimate of 100,000 deaths, and yet others who like Darussman and the rest estimated a total of as much as 146, 679 deaths from outside Sri Lanka without visiting the country. These figures quoted by the MPP are fictitious and not proven, and therefore cannot form part of the legislation.
It has been established that half the LTTE fighters did battle in civilian attire deliberately to blur the distinction between combatant and genuine civilian. They prevented these Tamil civilians from leaving to safety during two 48 hour ceasefires implemented by the Sri Lankan forces in February and April 2009, and in fact fired on those that attempted to flee their control killing large numbers, which was captured by UAV’s and shown to foreign diplomats based in Colombo. Nor did they agree to surrender despite numerous offers made by the state to ensure the safety of the internally displaced Tamil civilians, expecting western countries to intervene and spring them to an African country to continue their terrorist warfare in pursuit of a separate state.
It is hoped that the political leaders of Canada will rectify this serious anomaly in the law and restore Canada’s honour and integrity.
I am deeply concerned about the latest outbreak of
hostilities within the Israeli-Palestinian region, which has already caused
untold suffering for the people on both sides of the conflict. Apart from
causing much harm and misery to the people living within the territories
concerned, including the deaths of many children, this is a conflict that has
the potential to spill over into the neighbouring region, thus igniting a
conflagration that would have catastrophic consequences for the entire world.
The creation of the question of the Palestinian people
was a direct consequence of colonialism and the fact that the people of this
region had no control over their own destinies when the seeds were sown for the
conflict that we experience today.
As a long-time supporter of the Palestinian cause and
the Founder President of the Sri Lanka Committee for Solidarity with Palestine,
I have always held the position that the Palestinian people’s legitimate right
to statehood must be upheld. The preservation of the rights of the people is
important for the assertion of their identity as a distinct people. For a
durable solution to the Palestine question, it is imperative to recognize the
legitimate and sensitive security concerns of both the Palestinian and Israeli
peoples.
Sri Lanka stands by its position that it is only by the
peoples of Israel and Palestine living side- by-side in peace, security and
mutual recognition, with all matters resolved permanently through negotiations,
that the legitimate aspirations of both parties and sustainable peace can be
achieved – a truism highlighted by the latest outbreak of hostilities.
It is my sincere belief that the Israeli-Palestinian
region is Holy Land that is sacred to people of
many faiths from around the world, in fact to all of humanity. As such,
I earnestly urge both sides to show
restraint and de-escalate hostilities and commence negotiations for a
ceasefire.
Mahinda Rajapaksa
Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Colombo, May 16: This article will attempt to juxtapose the challenge of defeating terrorism that Sri Lanka faced and succeeded in May 2009 being the only country to defeat terrorism, with the challenge as well as potential we face to defeat a pandemic the world cannot.
We defeated terror militarily and used Buddhistic compassion to pardon the entire fighting force of the internationally proscribed terrorist organisation that was the LTTE. Because of the clear and swift decision taken by the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who was then the Defence Secretary, around 12,500 human beings who were one time terrorists are today honouring the Sinhalese Buddhist ethic of humanism and leading normal lives with their families.
We still have not got the needed global recognition for this humanistic feat that is a basic construct of the psyche of the nation’s ancient Buddhist civilisation.
Today, we are faced with a pandemic that has confused the Western world. It is a literal war that the world is confronted with.
Western science which is around 500 years old is today struggling with vaccines; the only option it sees for tackling a disease which first attacks the lungs and then the human body.
The extent to which the disease impacts the person concerned is dependent on the person’s immunity; which can be described as a combined force of mind-body composition, influenced greatly on the food a person consumes and the mental make-up of the person.
The so-called developed West known for having regular flu infections every winter season and known for a fast food diet are among the worst affected regions of the world.
In Sri Lanka we can see that majority of the persons are asymptomatic which means our immunity (despite us not having the original kind of traditional diet of our ancestors) are still nevertheless protected by the basic rice and curry which we consume (despite the chemicals – and probably due to the many herbs we use and the karapincha which remove the toxins from the food).
Diet
Because of the Indian situation currently with regard to Covid-19, maybe it should be pointed out that the Sri Lankan diet is very different to the Indian diet.
Today we live in a world governed by an education system introduced to spearhead the force of industrialisation which began around the 18th century which changed social and economic values of the Western world.
Much of the world including Sri Lanka which has been the victim of colonisation for over four centuries have lost almost all of the ancient sciences which mystifies the modern world.
In Sri Lanka these sciences ranged from engineering to architecture and medicine – these ancient sciences unlike today were bound to all of nature based on the basic premise that we are all part of nature.
The ancient holistic knowledge system that combined ethics with knowledge imparted through the Gurukula tradition of countries such as Sri Lanka is what created accomplishments as this nation’s hydraulic civilisation which to date would baffle the most knowledgeable water engineering expert.
Calamity
It is a calamity that engineering is taught in this country to ape the Western science of engineering where few current Sri Lankan engineers would be able to explain through what they learn in their professional training at Lankan universities, how the ancient water engineering was done atop the world marvel of Sigiriya.
Likewise no Western so-called specialist will be able to explain how rocks were melted thousands of years ago and carved in ancient structures of this nation.
Yet, the world is today encased with the view that there is only one ‘science’ and those such as oil tycoon John Rockefeller started the trend of influencing Western medical science and the education system which taught it and today we have as a result the medical ‘industry.’
This Covid-19 pandemic; the new war in the world, threatens Sri Lanka, like everyone else.
It is a war no country has yet defeated and vaccines made with Western science based technology has not yet annihilated it.
Vaccine
Reports are now emerging in different parts of the world that those who have taken the vaccine are infected with this virus and likely Western scientists are currently working on investigating this phenomena.
Sri Lanka and India are countries which are heir to ancient medical knowledge – Deshiya Chikitsa – Sinhala Wedakama also known as Hela Wedakama is the pre Ayurvedic medical science of Sri Lanka a country referred to in ancient times as Hela Deepaya.
This science is one that is connected with the AyurVeda (Ayu meaning life) and (Veda meaning knowledge/science) that was discovered through the mental ‘labs’ of the minds of ancient Rishis, Yogis and bikkhus; individuals who perfected their awareness/consciousness and thereby merged with the universal consciousness.
Attire
Today Ayurvedic doctors in India and Sri Lanka who wear the Western attire are studying ancient 2nd century CE texts such as the Charaka Samhitha may or may not contemplate that those such as Charaka who authored these texts were sages who were able to come up with the knowledge concerned only because their minds were directly attuned to the universal oneness.
In trying to understand this, we all can pardon ourselves in not being able to, because we have been trained from babyhood to have a totally different mental construct.
We are now ‘industrialised’, ‘technologised’ machine like beings who owing to the dark years of colonisation, have been consciously and subconsciously, subtly and overtly trained to believe that what was ours was ‘backward’, ‘unscientific’ and ‘superstitious.’
Many in Sri Lanka may not know that from December 2019, at the very beginning of the virus spread in the world that there were Sri Lankan traditional physicians who were investigating into this Covid-19 disease.
Illnesses
They were examining whether the thousands of ways of curing respiratory and immunity attacking illnesses that Sri Lanka has with the diverse herbs and plants – much of it ordinary food, can be carried out for this virus and take it out of the system at the very first stages when it shows ‘semprathishyawa’ signs.
Due to lack of recognition of physicians and lack of opportunity for them to clearly discuss such matters openly these efforts were mostly confined to themselves. We are therefore still confined to the fear psychosis of Covid-19.
Despite many of Sri Lanka’s plant varieties facing near extinction due to the seven decade chemical industry after effects, these traditional physicians in every district were actively doing their own research by March 2020 gathering the rarest of herbs.
This writer who was researching for a book and several academic research papers on Lanka’s traditional physicians/ancient methods, from 2015 directed my research in March 2020 towards Covid-19 and traditional physicians.
Silence
There were many issues they faced when trying to solve the saga of Covid-19 through ancient science and around over 98 percent chose silence and obscurity.
Among the earliest traditional medicine based researchers/physicians who were searching for herb compositions for Covid-19 are senior traditional physician D. D. Hettiarachchi of Ganemulla, Physician-bikkhus such as Ven. Algamawaththe Sumanawangsha Himi, Embuldeniya Weda Mahattaya (who is also a systems engineer who created a traditional vaccine equivalent based on his success in treating Dengue for over 10 years) traditional physician Kalutharage Sampath and traditional physician Amila Sanjeewa.
Physician D. D. Hettiarachchi was one of the first physicians to send to countries such as Italy his medicines which prevented the spread of Covid-19 among Sri Lankans in Italy.
Embuldeniya Wedamahattaya is today courted by many countries who wants him to share his knowledge with them.
Herbs
Other earliest traditional medicine researchers who discovered that many simple herbs that we use as everyday food such as ginger, garlic, onion, turmeric, karapincha, pepper, bees honey and lime could boost immunity to a very high degree and possibly safeguard against any respiratory ailment, did not come out to the Lankan media and speak out because they did not want to be misunderstood or face any protocol based complications at a time when the word ‘health’ is dominated by the Western scientific ideology.
Sri Lanka is one of the few Buddhist countries which still retain the tradition where almost every temple has Buddhist bikkhus learning and practising the ancient medical science that survived a nation prior to Western science and several monks took it upon themselves to provide herb compositions to safeguard the immunity of anyone who came to the temple.
Prisons
Some young wedamahattayas such as Amila Sanjeewa of Gampaha and Kalutharage Sampath managed to use social media and other contacts to communicate that they have sent their medications to quarantine camps and prisons.
They produced written evidence of stopping the spread of the virus in these places and won the trust of many persons who gave these written evidences.
Some such as Amila Sanjeewa robustly promote their success through social media and many others do not.
Algamawaththe Sumanawangsha Himi had created a herbal mask and also at the initial stages of the virus spread last year created preventive and curative medications (which he has stopped now) and when contacted stated he does not need ‘publicity.’
Ven. Sumanawangsha thera is the author of the book Maha Sinhale Thel Beheth Potha and is to shortly release an entire compilation of the Yanthra Manthra Shasthra and has created a national body for promoting traditional knowledge of Sri Lanka for all Sri Lankans and especially among the youth.
Traditional
The vapor inhalation method of Sri Lanka’s traditional medicine system promoted by Hela Suwaya and supported by MBBS doctors such as Dr. Kumudu Dahanayake was used in quarantine centres with excellent results. There are written records of these.
Those such as Dhammika Bandara who is not a traditional physician or a registered physician, who were practicing ancient methods of using the assistance of unseen forces were also using herbs to boost the immunity and providing in liquid form to those who wished.
Just like it is being revealed now pertaining to the Covid-19 vaccine, this kind of method worked and it also did not at times.
This writer is yet to study the vaccine successes and failures and hope to do so for an article in the near future.
Just for the record the number of traditional physicians of Sri Lanka – Weda Mahattayas/Weda hamines run up to thousands and there are several weda sangam such as the Deshiya Waidya Krama Surekeeme Sangwidanaya.
Some of the wattorus (herb compositions) used by many traditional physicians have once been general knowledge to the average person of this country.
Blinded by chemical based imported substances which passes off for food in the supermarkets, few Sri Lankans today would know the immense immunity enhancing medicinal value of herb based food such as our traditional tubers/yams/traditional rice spices, the hundreds of varieties of mallung leaves, garlic, ginger and coriander and it is possibly this ignorance that has made us demand ‘medicines for Covid-19 with the expectation of an instant medicine as in the Allopathic Western medical system.
These Western medicines are known to only control non communicable diseases in many instances- such as diabetes, but has no cure.
Western medicine has no complete cure for diabetes or cancer or dengue but where all three ailments, including heart blocks are curable (nittawata suwa kirima) in traditional medicine of Sri Lanka as many, many actual records show.
By the 17th century Sri Lanka had passed the strongest phase of its Deshiya Chikitsa knowledge proliferation which ebbed and waned according to different monarchs and their interest in promoting the nation’s vein of survival; its health.
Yet it is in the 17th century that Robert Knox, the sailor who spent 19 years in captivity in Ceylon explained in his memoirs compiled as An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon, that every person was a physician in this land and that the forests were their pharmacy.
All of Sri Lanka now has a duty to the ancestors of this country who strived to protect the medicinal heritage of this country to ensure its sustenance at this crucial stage.
We do not need experts to talk about it – we need people to use its expertise although this expertise may have dwindled to a large extent.
Stating that all those who are young and trying to promote it are ‘frauds’ is not the way forward and Ayurveda and Deshiya Chikitsa physicians must be encouraged to be united and encourage each other.
It is known that the ancient Sri Lankan Armies had specific diets and the heirloom rice of the nation such as Kalu Heeneti was one of the foods used for strength and immunity of the fighting forces of the country.
It has to be reiterated that prior to the advent of Western medicine in this nation, there was a thin line dividing food and medicine. At that time we did not have the illness manufacturing chemical industry.
Today, if there is ever a time to revive our traditional identity and educate ourselves on it, it is now. We have to do away with the mere theorisation of ‘our heritage’.
Our heritage, our intangible cultural heritage is needed now. The same premise we used to defeat terrorism should be used to defeat the terror of modern pandemics which our ancients may have used the term ‘deiyange ledak’ to describe.
Indeed it looks as if this virus is a curse from nature itself to the modern man which has raped and exploited mother earth.
The world is weary of education that is only used to destroy nature and what is happening now is true to the two warnings made by the ancient Kogi tribe within the past 30 years.
They warned that nature will reciprocate to man how man has abused nature in the name of development.
The answer to this calamity seems also to be only through nature. One of the few medical systems that are retained in the world in its original form is in Sri Lanka – Deshiya Chikitsa – Sinhala Wedakama which although having both similarities and differences with Ayurveda remains one of the few ancient medical systems in the world which can stand alone in its unique and still non unindustrialised connection to the natural world.
India Ancient Ayurveda is today almost completely technologised and industrialised which while also having its good side (such as instant pill based remedies using herbs) nevertheless is a far cry from what Sri Lanka has – the still surviving knowledge of age old practices that are deeply connected with mother earth; the ultimate bestower of the herbs that create the difference between life and death, illness and wellbeing.
Compassion
Hence what Sri Lanka now needs is the same fearlessness and the same assertiveness it showed in defeating terrorism militarily and the same compassion it showed to those engaged in terrorism by de-radicalising these terror brainwashed human beings and re-integrating them with society as no nation in the world has done.
Sri Lanka now has a similar opportunity to de-radicalise Lankan minds from believing that Western science is the only science and to empower and embolden the army of its traditional physicians to heal the nation, to advice the nation on how to use the methods and knowledge of the ancient science of Deshiya Chikitsa (Sinhala Wedakama/Hela Wedakama) for national wellbeing and economic security as no nation in the world has done.
To do this we need not look at any nation for emulation. We did not emulate other nations or depended on their advice when we ended terrorism.
It is Sri Lanka’s fortune to have as President the same man who as Defence Secretary used bold decision making.
From 2015 to 2019 Sri Lanka’s traditional medicine was destroyed systematically. Now is the chance to change that.
This article is best ended with the wisdom of Ven. Alagamawaththe Sumanawanse thera who calls for unity of the different medical systems practiced in the country for fighting the national battle on Covid-19.
Nagisithiya heka eksath wee, Bedi Giyoth Rata yayi sun wee.” This is the same logic we used for defeating terrorism and for trust-building in the aftermath of military victory achieved on 18th May 2019.
Ailments
There are strengths and weaknesses in each medical system in how it can treat different ailments.
For example if we look at this Covid-19, one of the ways it attacks is by creating breathing difficulty where oxygen is needed – hence we can use the Western method in providing oxygen for such a situation faced by a patient and then use the traditional herbs according to the complications of the patient.
There are many ways how this integrated method can work for other ailments.”
Army Commander General Shavendra Silva says that travel restrictions will be imposed across the island from 11.00 p.m. on Friday (May 21) to 4.00 a.m. on Tuesday (May 25).
He stated that island-wide travel restrictions will be imposed once again from 11.00 p.m. on Tuesday (May 25) to 4.00 a.m. on May 28 (Friday).
The Director-General of Health Services confirmed that Sri Lanka has reported 19 more deaths related to the COVID-19 pandemic on Wednesday (May 17).
As per the Department of Government Information, the reported deaths had occurred between May 10 and May 17.
They are identified as residents of Boralesgamuwa, Medakimbieeya, Waskaduwa, Maggona, Kalutara, Payagala, Moratuwa, Ambepussa, Galle, Rambukkana, Polgolla, Katuwana, Padukka, and Dambulla.
Accordingly, the total number of deaths due to Covid-19 infection in Sri Lanka has risen to 981.
The Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry reports that another 854 persons have tested positive for COVID-19 in Sri Lanka, moving the daily total of new cases to 2,433.
This brings the total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus reported in the country to 145,202.
As many as 119,629 recoveries and 962 deaths have been confirmed in Sri Lanka since the outbreak of the pandemic.
The Epidemiology Unit’s data showed that 24,611 active cases are currently under medical care.
The Ministry of Health says that a decision has been taken to direct COVID-19 infected patients to treatment facilities or intermediate care centres closest to their residences, for the necessary treatment.
The decision has been taken after considering the severe stress that affects individuals and their families when they become infected with the virus.
The decision was taken during the meeting of the Special Action Task Force Review Committee which was held this morning (17), chaired by Minister of Health Pavithra Wanniarachchci and attended by State Minister of Primary Health Care, Epidemics and COVID Disease Control Sudarshani Fernandopulle.
The committee has also taken the following decisions:
To provide necessary medical equipment and assign health staff including doctors and nurses to the treatment centres currently being constructed by various government and non-government organisations, apart from the Health Ministry.
To direct staff from hospitals and health centres with extra staff to these COVID treatment centres.
To accelerate the process of importing stocks of vaccines necessary to administer the second dose of COVID vaccines.
To increase Rapid Antigen testing in the field parallel to PCR testing for identify COVID-19 infected patients.
By Nikhil Inamdar and Aparna Alluri Courtesy BBC News
It took 31-year-old Sneha Marathe half a day to book an appointment online for a Covid vaccine.
“It was a game of ‘fastest finger first’,” she says. “The slots filled up in three seconds.” But the hospital cancelled her slot at the last minute: they had no vaccines. Ms Marathe went back to try for another appointment.
All 18-44 year-olds in India have to register on the government’s CoWin platform to get vaccinated. With demand for jabs far outstripping supply, tech-savvy Indians are even writing code to corner elusive appointments.
Ms Marathe can’t code, but she is among millions of Indians who are on the right side of the country’s digital divide – unlike hundreds of millions of others who don’t have access to smartphones or the internet, currently the only route to a jab.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s federal government has opened up vaccinations for some 960 million eligible Indians without having anything close to the required supply – more than 1.8 billion doses.
Worse, the severe shortage comes amid a deadly second Covid wave and warnings of an impending third wave.
A cocktail of blunders – poor planning, piecemeal procuring and unregulated pricing – by Mr Modi’s government has turned India’s vaccine drive into a deeply unfair competition, public health experts told the BBC.
How did the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, often dubbed the “pharmacy of the world” for generic drugs, end up with so few vaccines for itself?
A piecemeal strategy
“India waited till January to place orders for its vaccines when it could have pre-ordered them much earlier. And it procured such paltry amounts,” says Achal Prabhala, a co-ordinator with AccessIBSA, which campaigns for access to medicines in India, Brazil and South Africa.
Between January and May 2021, India bought roughly 350 million doses of the two approved vaccines – the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab, manufactured as Covishield by the Serum Institute of India (SII), and Covaxin by Indian firm Bharat Biotech. At $2 per dose, they were among the cheapest in the world, but not nearly enough to inoculate even 20% of the country’s population.
Declaring that India had defeated Covid, Mr Modi even took to “vaccine diplomacy”, exporting more jabs than were administered in India by March.
Contrast that with the US or EU, who pre-ordered more doses than they required nearly a year before the vaccines became available for immunisation.
image captionSome 100 million Indians over the age of 45 are still waiting for their second jab
“This guaranteed vaccine manufacturers a market, gave them certainty to forecast supply and sales, and ensured that some of these governments got large quantities as quickly as possible, once the vaccines were ready,” Mr Prabhala says.
Unlike the US and the UK, India also waited until 20 April – well into the second wave – to extend a $610m financing line to SII and Bharat Biotech to boost production.
Another failure, according to Malini Aisola, co-convener of the All India Drug Action Network, was the decision not to enlist the vast swathe of India’s manufacturing capabilities – biologics factories, for instance, that could have been repurposed into vaccine production lines.
Again, four firms, including three government-owned ones, have only recently been given rights to make Covaxin, which is partially publicly-funded.
On the other hand, by early April, Russian developers of Sputnik V, had inked manufacturing deals with a host of Indian pharma companies, which are set to produce the vaccine.
A fractured market
As the sole buyer initially, the federal government could have held far greater leverage over pricing, Ms Aisola says.
“Centralised bulk procurement would have allowed the price to come down from $2. Instead it has gone up,” she adds.
This is because since 1 May, it has been up to individual states and private hospitals to broker their own deals with manufacturers.
Opposition parties have called it a “scam”, saying the federal government had abdicated its responsibility, opening up “debilitating competition among states”.
States have to pay double – $4 – the federal government’s rate for a dose of Covishield and four times as much for Covaxin – $8. This was after the two companies lowered prices for states as a “philanthropic gesture”. States are also competing for scarce stocks alongside private hospitals, which can pass on the costs to customers.
The result: a veritable free market for vaccines that have been developed and manufactured with both public and private funding. At private hospitals, a single dose can now cost up to 1,500 rupees ($20; £14).
Several states have now announced plans to import other vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. But no manufacturer is able to guarantee supply in the next few months since richer countries have pre-ordered stocks.
Sputnik V has been approved, but it’s still unclear when the vaccines will be rolled out.
Should India’s vaccines cost so much?
Some have accused SII and Bharat Biotech of “profiteering” during a pandemic, especially after receiving public funding.
But others say they took substantial risks and that the fault lies with the government. India is the only country where the federal government is not the sole buyer, and one of the few where vaccinations are not free.
But public health experts agree that SII and Bharat Biotech need to be more transparent about their manufacturing costs and their commercial contracts.
Ms Aisola says SII needs to disclose how it spent the $300m it received from the international Covax scheme and the Gates Foundation, funding which was meant to finance vaccines for low-income countries. SII has failed to do so, partly because India banned exports. The company is also fielding a legal notice from AstraZeneca for defaulting on its promise to send 50% of its supply to low-income countries.
Public health experts are also calling for scrutiny of the Indian government’s contract with Bharat Biotech, especially since the Indian Council of Medical Research has said it “shares” intellectual property (IP) for Covaxin, which it developed along with the company. But the jab costs more – often double – than Covishield.
“They say they share IP but what sort of an agreement did they sign? Does it give them [the government] the right to override any clauses in case of an emergency?” asks Dr Anant Bhan, a public health expert.
While India has supported waiving the patents on foreign-made vaccines, it has made no move to suspend it for Covaxin.
Contrary to its international position, it has opposed suggestions from opposition leaders to invoke compulsory licensing and allow other pharma companies to manufacture the approved vaccines, saying these measures would prove “counterproductive”.
Dr Bhan agrees that at this stage it would take time to transfer technology and build capacity in other pharma companies – but he also says it’s unclear why none of this was attempted earlier.
Vaccinating even 70% of India’s 1.4 billion people was always going to be a long exercise in planning and patience. But given the country’s strong record on immunisation, it was not an impossible task, Dr Bhan says.
However, why the government chose to rely on just two companies who can now control supply and dictate prices is a question that few have answers to.
Hemasiri Perera is among the few people with
extraordinary qualities I have met in my life. He was a practising Buddhist and
I would call him a true renunciant though a layman.
I came to know Mr. Perera in Winnipeg, Canada
where he migrated with his loving wife Prema to spend their retirement with
their daughter Nirosha.
He was a student of Henegama Central College,
in the Gampaha District and was the first from this school to enter University.
His mathematics teacher in school, now living in Winnipeg, Mylvaganam
Subramaniam remembers him as a hosteller, a hardworking and well-dressed
student. We conducted a Zoom meeting with Mr. Perera on his birthday on March
13, 2021 and Mr. and Mrs Subramaniam too joined to wish him.
In 1964, he graduated from the University of
Peradeniya. As a student he was at Jayathilaka Hall. During his
university days he was an outstanding table tennis player. He was a versatile
character with multidisciplinary knowledge but as he was following subjects related
to a statistics degree, his batchmates called him Stat Perera. After
completing his degree Mr. Perera worked as an Assistant Lecturer at the
University of Vidyalankara. For a short time, he was an Economic Advisor to the
Lanka Steel Corporation.
Until his retirement, he worked as Director of
the Coconut Research Institute, Lunuwila and at the Coconut Development
Authority, Colombo. He was a consultant to the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) and several other UN agencies as well as quite a few countries
on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka.
He was the author of two Sinhala books – Gami
Andarayak (Rural Anecdote) and Udella, Ma Ena Thuru Bala
Sitee (Mammoty, Waiting for Me). In the latter he illustrated the
historical and current conditions in countries such as the Netherlands, France,
England, Indonesia, India and Pacific Islands. While in Sri Lanka recently, he
was busy with trying to publish his third Sinhala book about new management
skills.
He has also published seven books in English
on the coconut industry in Sri Lanka drawn from his experience gained from his
decades within the coconut sector looking at aspects of economics, desiccated
coconut, coconut cultivation in Hambantota District, domestic marketing,
productivity and high yielding varieties. These publications and his extensive
knowledge made us identify him as a walking encyclopedia.
The Sri Lankan Association of Manitoba (SLAM)
utilised his extensive knowledge to script and train performers in a drama and
folklore performance highlighting Sri Lankan heritage. Mr. Perera’s talents
were in evidence at the grand annual event held during the Sinhala and Tamil
New Year celebrations. Sometimes he joined in singing folk songs as well. His
capabilities helped us to relive our good old memories of home and showcase our
rich culture among Canadian communities. Subsequently, he joined the Sri Lankan
55+ Seniors Group and in 2018 was elected as a Board Member. He was re-elected
to the Board in 2020.
He also joined the South Side Seniors – the
senior’s group of the Trinity United Church and was very popular among non-Sri
Lankan members too. When the co-chair of the Church Seniors Group came to know
the sad news of his passing on April 7, they conducted a remembrance service
for him.
Mr. Perera who had been in Sri Lanka for more
than one year to attend to some domestic matters, fell ill at this time and was
looked after with utmost care by his second son Priyantha. His eldest son
Channa is working in Singapore for more than three decades and is closely
associated with Ven. (Dr.) Omalpe Sobitha Nayaka Thera, Chief Incumbent of the
Bodhiraja Viharaya in Singapore. Ven. Sobitha Thera in fact visited to bless
him and conducted a Pansukulaya (Buddhist funeral service) as well.
Colombo, May 16 (Xinhua/newsin.asia/Economynext): People in Colombo and other parts of Sri Lanka are queuing up to get jabs of China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine.
As on May 16, Sri Lanka had 140,000 Covid positive cases and 941 had died.
Currently, Sri Lanka has a stock of close to 600,000 Sinopharm doses which were given free by China ahead of the World Health Organization’s approval.
Till Saturday, 348.619 first doses and 2435 second doses of Sinopharm had been administered. Only Chinese nationals had been given the second dose of that vaccine.
People fill in forms prior to receiving the Sinopham vaccine in Colombo. Photo: Tang Lu/Xinhua
Sri Lanka is expecting three million Sinopharm doses. Negotiations held with the Chinese authorities to obtain three million doses of Sinopharm vaccine have been successful and the government has made plans to commence the vaccination programmes in other provinces too as soon as the vaccines are received,” the President’s office said.
Till May 15, 350, 000 security forces personnel and frontline health workers had been given the second dose of the India-made COVISHIELD vaccine from India. Since India has expressed its inability to continue supply, the Sri Lankan government is exploring the possibility of importing its equivalent from other countries. According to official sources, a reply from these countries is expected in the next couple days.
In the meanwhile, the 15,000 doses of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V had arrived and they are being administered in the densely populated Western Province. Another 85,000 doses are expected soon, the government said.
Long queue on the roadside in Colombo to take Sinopharm vaccine. Photo: Tang Lu/Xinhua
On May 8, Sri Lanka’s Health Ministry began administering the Sinopharm vaccine to local nationals, soon after the World Health Organization (WHO) approved it for emergency use worldwide.
The vaccines were administered at the Panadura Health Office in Kalutara District, in the outskirts of capital Colombo, an area which has reported a rising number of COVID-19 patients in recent days.
Speaking at the launch of the vaccination drive, State Minister of Production, Supply, and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals Channa Jayasumana thanked the Chinese government for sending the Sinopharm vaccines to Sri Lanka and said this would add to the efforts of the Sri Lankan government to vaccinate at least 70 percent of its population against the COVID-19 virus by the end of the year.
A lady receives a jab of Sinopharm. Photo: Tang Lu/Xinhua
Today is a very special day for the Panadura MoH office. We want to thank the Chinese government as well as the WHO for approving the Sinopharm under emergency use. Today we began administering the Sinopharm in the Panadura area and want to thank President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for approving to start this program from the Kalutara district,” Jayasumana said.
State Minister of Primary Health Care, Epidemics and COVID Disease Control Sudharshani Fernandopulle, also said at the launch of the vaccination drive that with the WHO and the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) approving the Sinopharm vaccine under emergency use in Sri Lanka, authorities will now look to get more vaccines from China to vaccinate the local population.
Today we began administering the Sinopharm vaccine in the Panadura Health office for locals above the age of 30 years and below the age of 60 years. From tomorrow we will also identify the areas which have reported the highest number of COVID-19 patients in recent days and will begin to administer the Sinopharm vaccines in those areas as well,” Fernandopulle said.
She said some of the areas worst affected by the COVID-19 virus were Colombo, Kalutara, Gampaha, Kurunegala, Kandy, and Matale, and authorities were making arrangements to vaccinate the people in these areas as soon as possible.
The best way to protect yourself from the COVID-19 virus is to vaccinate the people and this government led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is aiming to vaccinate the population in Sri Lanka as soon as possible,” Fernandopulle said.
The President is confident that Sri Lanka will be able to successfully manage the current situation through vaccination, similar to the successful results achieved in the United States, the United Kingdom and a number of European countries through vaccination,” a statement from his office said.
Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 death toll saw an uptick today (May 16) as the Director-General of Health Services confirmed 21 more victims.
As per official data, new fatalities have moved the total to 962.
The deaths were reported from Anuradhapura, Motaruwa, Mirigama, Nebada, Badulla, Bulathsinhala, Imaduwa, Muruthgahamula, Ingiriya, Gelioya, Jaffna, Handapangoda, Habaraduwa, Emibilipitiya, Nakiyadeniya, Galle, Kadawatha, Mahaiyawa, Hali-Ela and Kalutara South areas.
Among the deceased is a 37-year-old from Badulla. He had been transferred from Bandarawela Hospital to General Hospital in Badulla where he died today due to septic shock with multiorgan failure, COVID pneumonia, pulmonary edema and diabetes.
COVID pneumonia was identified as a cause of death of majority of the victims, according to reports.
