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Twenty six COVID-19 related deaths were reported yesterday climbing the death toll to 827, the Government Information Department said.
A three-month old infant was also among the deceased.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has advised the relevant authorities to impose travel restrictions among provinces.
The restrictions are to be imposed until the 30th of May, 2021, President’s Media Division stated.
President’s Media Spokesman Kingsley Rathanayake issuing a statement today (10) stated that President Rajapaksa arrived at several decisions to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus in the country after holding discussions with all stakeholders.
Accordingly, relevant authorizes have been advised to implement the following measures:
– To impose travel restrictions between all provinces,
– To cancel all public gatherings and functions
– To limit the number of people who can enter and remain inside commercial establishments
– Isolation of areas where infections rates are high
However, the President has also emphasized that proper procedures should be followed to ensure that the daily lives of the people are not disrupted and the essential services are maintained when implementing these strategies.
The Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry reports that another 992 persons have tested positive for COVID-19 in Sri Lanka, moving the daily total of new cases to 2,573.
This brings the total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus reported in the country to 128,479.
As many as 105,611 recoveries and 801 deaths have been confirmed in Sri Lanka since the outbreak of the pandemic.
The Epidemiology Unit’s data showed that 22,067 active cases are currently under medical care.
9.5.2021.
I fully endorse the stand taken by Hon Minister Sarath Weerasekara in requesting the Speaker not to allow Badurdeen to attend Parliament, who is presently detained for three months for questioning on alleged high crimes against the State that amount to treason. I think the whole country, other than Badurdeen,‘s Lawyer and those utterly irresponsible opposition MPP who are trying to make hay while the sun shines, will also fully endorse the stand taken by Minister Weerasekara. The whole nation must be happy to see that there is at least one legislator in our Parliament who represents the true interests and the rights of the Sinhala nation. Looking at our present Parliament it is interesting to note what H.L. Mencken has said of the Parliament when he called it a Monkey cage where he said Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage”, when he referred to Parliament.
Meanwhile many a brow has been raised when Attorney General said there is no legal barrier for him to attend Parliament. Well still as he is only a suspect and not a person convicted by a court technically there appears to be is legal substance in what AG has said. But considering the seriousness of crimes Badurdeen is said to have committed, not as an ordinary citizen but as a legislator in Parliament nearly for 20 years, I think it is beyond all principles of natural justice by the society and by the nation to allow him to attend it. What is more is there is very little public credibility left with our Parliament even sans him allowing him to attend Parliament under the present circumstances, I think will further worsen public image of our Parliament. Therefore, in my opinion, it is advisable not to allow him to attend sessions until inquiries and legal proceedings against him are over. Further it will be good for everyone’s political health, I think. As far as the call by the opposition is concerned, I am not surprised as it comes from a gang of desperate and brainless political goons who also wanted Ranjan a convict in jail serving a four year term of rigorous imprisonment back in this Parliament. As such I don’t think we should take them seriously.
Bathiudeens’s lawyer Rushdhie Habeeb is said to have told the Island that the decision to prevent MP Bathiudeen from attending parliament was political. Of course yes it is a political decision on both sides. For the Government as it has a direct bearing on public interest and security of the country as matters of paramount importance not only for the Ministry of Public security but also for the government as they fall among the cardinal duties of an elected Government in a Democracy.
On the other hand it is also political for the opposition as well as lawyer Habeeb says as is trying to fish in troubled waters to catch voters in a cheap game of dirty politics in this country. Both his lawyer and those in the opposition shedding crocodile tears, to woo the Muslim electorate at home and create displeasure in International circles and increase their lot in the House, not realizing that it will boomerang on them as it will greatly reduce the Sinhala and Catholic votes This attitude is no wonder for a set of politicians who have no concern for the country or the people in this country. It appears the opposition is thinking, the number of criminals in the parliament are not enough to make it an august Assembly” and also as if the Parliament is going to end without sufficient number of anti- social elements such as Badurdheen in the nation’s Legislature.
Although the opposition doesn’t know it, the whole country knows who Badurdeen is and what damages he had done to the nation’s economy, through the CWE and more particularly to the country’s Agricultural Minor Export Crop sector by importing substandard goods from Indonesia and other countries from 2005 up to date and what damage he has done to Wilpattuwa. They also should be reminded of the investigations conducted by the Indian Government on his involvements with Kerala in carrying ought his nefarious criminal and illegal business deals. In my opinion not only Badurdeen but there are many others as well, who should not be allowed to be in Parliament
Badurdeen’s lawyer, both as a lawyer and a Muslim is free to raise this issue vigorously as he has said and even nakedly, both here and abroad at his will, as a mark of gratitude to the Sinhala people who have accommodated their ancestors who came here either as traders in search of fortunes or refugees in desperation at different times in history. It is high time that people of this country stop electing this type of uneducated undesirable rogues to the Parliament of this country which is supposed to be the august Assembly that presides over the destiny of this nation as it is already converted to another den of Alibaba and forty thieves.
I think enough is enough. Either people should definitely take immediate action to reform it and convert it to an august Assembly of patriotic statesmen and women of high stature, character and ability who can rescue this nation from the political abyss in to which it had been thrown since 1948 and restore the ancient glory of this once Pearl of the Indian Ocean or close down this British model of the Monkey cage as Mencken has very appropriately called it and seriously look for a native machinery of just Governance for the good of the people and the country fashioned on the tenets of Buddhist Governance of the Dharmasoka Model.
ශ්රී ලංකා සුනිත්ය බලශක්ති අධිකාරිය සහ ජාතික ආධුනිකත්ව හා කාර්මික පුහුණු කිරීම් අධිකාරිය එක්ව ක්රියාත්මක කරනු ලබන සූර්ය ප්රකාශ වෝල්ටීයතා පද්ධති (Solar PV Technology) කාර්මික ශිල්පී පුහුණු පාඨමාලාවේ NVQ – 04 මට්ටමේ පළමු කණ්ඩායමේ සිසුන් සිය පුහුණුව සාර්ථකව නිම කරනු ලැබිණ.
සූර්ය බල , සුලං හා ජලවිදුලි ජනන ව්යාපෘති සංවර්ධන රාජ්ය අමාත්ය ගරු දුමින්ද දිසානායක මැතිතුමන්ගේ උපදෙස් මත මෙම පුහුණුවට අදාළ ප්රායෝගික ක්රියාකාරකම් සහිත වැඩමුළුව 2021/ 03/15 දින සිට 2021/04/02 දක්වා ශ්රී ලංකා සුනිත්ය බලශක්ති අධිකාරියේ හම්බන්තොට ජාතික සූර්යබල උද්යානයේ දී පැවැත්විණ.
මෙරට තරුණ තරුණියන් හට හරිත රැකියා (Green Job) අවස්ථා උදාකර දීම හා ඊට අවශ්ය වෘත්තීය මාර්ගෝපදේශනය ලබා දීම මෙහි අරමුණයි.
මෙහි ප්රථම අදියර ලෙස ජාතික ආධුනිකත්ව පුහුණු කිරීම් අධිකාරියේ සිසුන් 110 ක් පමණ තෝරාගත් දිස්ත්රික්ක නියෝජනය කරමින් පුහුණු සැසියට සහභාගී විය . මෙම පුහුණු සැසිවල සම්පත්දායකයින් ලෙස ශ්රී ලංකා සුනිත්ය බලශක්ති අධිකාරියේ ඉංජිනේරුවන් හා තාක්ෂණික නිලධාරීන් සහභාගී විය .
මෙම වැඩසටහන මගින් 2021 වසර අවසන් වන විට තාක්ෂණික ශිල්පීන් 500 ක් පමණ පුහුණු කිරීමට අපේක්ෂිතය. ජාතික ආධුනිකත්ව පුහුණු කිරීමේ අධිකාරිය මගින් පවත්වන NVQ -04 පාඨමාලාව සදහා සාමාන්ය පෙළ සමත් තරුණ තරුණියන් බදවා ගැනේ.
න්යායාත්මක හා ප්රායෝගික පුහුණුවෙන් යුත් මෙම පාඨමාලාවේ අධ්යයන කාලය මාස 6කි. මීට සහභාගී වන සිසුන් නිවාස වයරින් කිරීමේ සිට සූර්යබල තාක්ෂණය පිළිබද න්යායාත්මක කරුණු පිළිබද දේශනවලට හා සූර්යබල ඒකක ස්ථාපනය පිළිබද ප්රායෝගික ක්රියාකාරකම් ඇතුළත් පස්දින වැඩමුළුවකට ද සහභාගී විය යුතුය. ඉන් අනතුරුව සූර්යබල ඒකක ස්ථාපනය පිළිබද වසරක ප්රායෝගික පුහුණුව සදහා සූර්යබල ක්ෂේත්රයේ ආයතන වෙත වැටුප් සහිතව වසරක පුහුණු කාලයක් සදහා අනුයුක්ත කෙරේ. ඉන් අනතුරුව ඔවුන්ට NVQ -04 මට්ටමේ සූර්ය ප්රකාශ වෝල්ටීයතා පද්ධති කාර්මික ශිල්පී පුහුණු සහතිකය පිරිනැමේ.
ගරු රාජ්ය අමාත්ය දුමින්ද දිසානායක මැතිතුමන්ගේ උපදෙස් පරිදි මෙම පාඨමාලාව හම්බන්තොට, ගාල්ල, මාතර, කොළඹ, ගම්පහ, පුත්තලම, නුවරඑළිය, කුරුණෑගල සහ ගල්ගමුව යන ජාතික පුහුණු කිරීම් අධිකාරියේ පුහුණු කිරීම් මධ්යස්ථානයන් හීද පැවැත්වීමට නියමිතය. මේවන විටත් මෙම සූර්ය ප්රකාශ වෝල්ටීයතා පද්ධති කාර්මික ශිල්පී පුහුණු පාඨමාලාව හදාරන සිසුන්ට NVQ -05,06,07 යන මට්ටම් දක්වා අඛණ්ඩව අධ්යාපනය හැදෑරීමේ අවස්ථාව හිමිවේ. උපාධි පාඨමාලාවක් ලෙසින් විශ්වවිද්යාල සදහා මෙම පාඨමාලාව හදුන්වාදීම පිණිස මෙරට විශ්වවිද්යාලවල තාක්ෂණික සහ ඉංජිනේරු පීඨ සම්බන්ධ කරගෙන අධ්යයන කටයුතු සිදු කෙරෙමින් පවතියි.
යුරෝපා රටවල මෙන්ම අප්රිකාව ඇතුළු විදේශ රටවල මෙම ක්ෂේත්රයේ තාක්ෂණික ශිල්පීන් සදහා විශාල වෙළදපොළක් බිහිවී ඇත. මෙවැනි වෘත්තීය පාඨමාලා මගින් ශ්රී ලාංකික තරුණ තරුණියන්ට විදේශ රැකියාවෙළදපොළ විවෘත කිරීම ඔස්සේ මෙරට රැකියා වියුක්තිය අවම කිරීමත්, මෙරටට විදෙස් විනිමය ගලා එන ප්රවේශ මාර්ග පුළුල් කිරීමට කටයුතු කිරීමත් ගරු රාජ්ය අමාත්යතුමන්ගේ අභිලාෂයයි.
මාධ්ය අංශය
සූර්යබල, සුළං සහ ජලවිදුලි ජනන ව්යාපෘති සංවර්ධන අමාත්යාංශය
The Report on Sri Lanka presented by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to the 46th session of the UNHRC in February 2021, carried an invitation to the Member states of the UN, to report Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or prosecute Sri Lanka in their own country, under Universal Jurisdiction. We have to thank the Tamil Separatist Movement for this unwelcome possibility of getting hauled up before the ICC or encountering Universal Jurisdiction.
The threat of appearing before an international forum on the charge of mismanaging the country’s affairs and ill treating its citizens will infuriate Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is not a badly run, grossly mismanaged State. It is not a bumbling, inexperienced new state either. Sri Lanka is possibly one of the oldest sovereign states in the modern world. It has a long history of successful rule .Sri Lanka has firmly withstood externally induced attempts at destabilization and has never allowed its central government to lose control. Sri Lanka will not take kindly to an ICC probe or Universal Jurisdiction.
INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC)
The International Criminal Court (ICC) developed from the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). These were established by the United Nations in 1993 and 1994 to try individuals suspected of committing war crimes.
The UN General Assembly had earlier called upon the UN International Law Commission, to initiate a permanent international criminal court that would try international crimes including crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes, using the universal jurisdiction principle.
The International Criminal Court was established in 1998, under the Rome Statute by a vote of 120 to seven, with 21 countries abstaining. The seven countries that voted against the treaty were China, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Qatar, the United States, and Yemen. Four signatory states, Israel, Sudan, United States and Russia later decided not to ratify the treaty. As of December 2020, there were 41 countries which had not signed. Sri Lanka is one to them. Others include China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal and Pakistan.
The ICC is the only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. The ICC is a court of last resort, acting only when national courts are unable or unwilling to act. The official seat of the Court is in The Hague, Netherlands, but its proceedings may take place anywhere.
The ICC has the power to prosecute individuals who belong to a state which has signed the Rome Statute. Also individuals who have committed crimes in an ICC state. Two Uyghur activist groups filed a complaint with the ICC in 2020 against China. ICC refused to take action. China was not a signatory to the ICC
There is a third entry point for prosecution by the ICC. The ICC will also hear cases referred to the ICC by the UN Security Council. The request to prosecute Sudan’s Omar Hassan al Bashir and Libya’s Muammar al Qadhafi came through a United Nations Security Council Resolution. This is the route that will have to be used in the case of Sri Lanka. However, the consent of a non-party state is needed before ICC can proceed.
An important innovation of the ICC is its recognition of victims. For the first time in the history of international criminal justice, victims are able to present their views and observations before the Court. They are also entitled to reparation. Reparations can include compensation, restitution and rehabilitation.
The Court issued its first judgment in 2012 against Congolese rebel leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, guilty of the war crime of using child soldiers. Since then, ICC has indicted 44 people. Proceedings against 24 have been completed. Proceedings against 20 are ongoing.
As at 2021, the ICC has opened investigations in thirteen countries. Afghanistan, Burundi, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Sudan, Congo, Georgia, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Uganda and Myanmar. ICC is conducting preliminary examinations in nine states Colombia, Guinea, Nigeria, Palestine, Philippines, Ukraine, Bolivia, and Venezuela.
The ICC has faced a number of criticisms, including objections about its jurisdiction, accusations of bias, the fairness of its case-selection and trial procedures, as well as doubts about its effectiveness.
The ICC has been accused being a tool of Western imperialism, since it was only punishing leaders from small, weak states while ignoring crimes committed by richer and more powerful states. Also that ICC was focusing disproportionately on Africa. In 2016, all nine countries ICC was investigating were African.
Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya have charged ICC with political bias. In 2013 Kenya decided to withdraw from the ICC and urged the other 33 African states who had signed to do the same. In 2017, the African Union agreed to collectively withdraw from the ICC. In 2016, Burundi withdrew.
One of the biggest critics of the ICC is the US, the only Western nation not to ratify the Rome Statute. The American Service Members’ Protection Act 2002 (ASPA) authorizes the President of the United States to use “all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any U.S. or allied personnel being detained or imprisoned at the request of the International Criminal Court.”
In 2018 USA said U.S. would do everything “to protect our citizens” should the ICC attempt to prosecute U.S. servicemen over alleged detainee abuse in Afghanistan. If that happened, ICC judges and prosecutors would be barred from entering the U.S, their funds in the U.S. would be sanctioned and the U.S. will prosecute them in the US criminal system. We will do the same for any company or state that assists an ICC investigation of Americans, said US.
The United States ordered sanctions against the ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and the ICC’s head of Jurisdiction, Complementary, and Cooperation Division, Phakiso Mochochok for an investigation into alleged war crimes by U.S. forces and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Afghanistan since 2003. ICC responded that it will continue to investigate war crimes.
UNIVERSAL JURISDICTION
Universal jurisdiction is a doctrine of international law that holds that certain crimes such as torture, war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, forced disappearances, are so grave, that society is entitled to go beyond national borders to prosecute offenders. International treaties such as the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the 1973 Convention against Apartheid, the 1984 Convention against Torture, provide for states to use universal jurisdiction.
Under Universal jurisdiction a state can try persons for crimes committed outside the state, but only very serious crimes, such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity are considered worthy of such prosecution. They are considered to be crimes that affect the world community as a whole.
Universal Jurisdiction is also used to prevent criminals from slipping through the gaps between national jurisdictions. Under Universal Jurisdiction, a state cannot shield a suspect. The state is required to exercise jurisdiction or to extradite the person to a state willing to do so or surrender the person to an international criminal court. No place should be a safe haven for those who have committed heinous crimes.
Over the past 15 years, a number of states have started to apply universal jurisdiction legislation with regards to war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture or genocide, said Human Rights Watch. But as at 2015, there seem to have been only 17 reported cases. Most of these cases concern low- or mid-level perpetrators who had been hiding in the state, admitted HRW.
But there were some high profile arrests too. In 1961, Universal Jurisdiction enabled Israel to prosecute a senior Nazi official, Adolf Eichmann, for his role in the Holocaust during World War II. In 1998 former Chilean dictator Pinochet was extradited from London at the request of Spain. In 2005 former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was extradited from Chile to Peru.
Hissène Habré, President of Chad was arrested in 2016 and charged before an international tribunal in Senegal for, inter alia, ordering the killing of 40,000 people. He had been supported as President by France and the United States, who provided training, arms, and financing. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. He is the first head of state to be convicted in the court of another nation.
In 2015, Center for Constitutional Rights, (CCR) based in New York, wanted U.S. officials held accountable for torture, war crimes, and crimes against humanity under universal jurisdiction. US had refused to conduct investigations at home.CCR then linked with Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Canadian Center for International Justice (CCIJ).
CCR filed cases in Germany, France, Switzerland, Spain, Canada and with United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT). Investigations into U.S. torture are on-going in Spain and the UN. United Nations Committee Against Torture was also reviewing Canada’s failure to uphold its universal jurisdiction obligations to investigate George Bush for torture, following the filing of a case against him during his visit to British Columbia in 2011.
In November 2011, the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission tried through universal jurisdiction to convict in absentia former US President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the invasion of Iraq.
In May 2012, the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission again under universal jurisdiction took testimony from victims of torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, and convicted in absentia former President Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and others for conspiracy to commit war crimes. The tribunal referred their findings to the International Criminal Court. The legitimacy of the tribunal and its findings have been questioned.
There is now a retreat from rampant universal jurisdiction. Spain passed a law in 2005 which said that Spanish courts could try genocide cases even if they did not involve Spanish nationals. Spain then became a convenient port of call for those who wished to push universal jurisdiction. Henry Kissinger was called to Spain to give testimony about the US Government’s Operation Condor.
in 2006, the Spanish High Court agreed to investigate a case in which seven former Chinese officials, including former President, Jiang Zemin, and former Premier Li Peng were alleged to have engaged in genocide in Tibet, decades ago. China denounced the investigation as interference in its internal affairs and dismissed the allegations as “sheer fabrication”.
Spain then decided to change direction. Spain passed a law in 2009 that restricted investigations to those “involving Spanish victims, suspects who are in Spain or some other obvious link with Spain”. This was followed by Organic law 1/2014.
Organic law 1/2014 expanded the list of crimes covered by universal jurisdiction in Spain but restricted the targets. For genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes, the accused had to be a Spanish national, a foreigner who habitually resides in Spain or a foreigner who happens to be in Spain and whom the Spanish authorities have refused to extradite. This law led to the dramatic closure of practically all criminal cases in the National Court, leaving victims ‘in a state of great legal helplessness, ‘reported analysts.
From its inception universal jurisdiction has been contentious, raising hackles not only in authoritarian states but in democracies too, said analysts. the domestic legislation differed in each country, prosecutions are costly and cumbersome, evidence and witnesses were not easy to find. The end result was highly variable and may include miscarriages of justice. There is also the danger of politically motivated prosecution. complaints can be filed without sufficient evidence simply to cause political embarrassment.
Former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger did not like Universal Jurisdiction. he said it was a breach of a state’s sovereignty. Any state could set up universal jurisdiction tribunals and this could quickly degenerate into trials of the states’ opponents. Universal Jurisdiction with its divergent national criminal procedures, standards of evidence, accepted forms of punishment and the like will only help to fragment international criminal law, added analysts.
Spain’s experience with China shows that diplomatic relations can get adversely affected. When national judges turn to universal jurisdiction, they cannot help creating diplomatic frictions, observed analysts.
The weaknesses in universal jurisdiction of independent states, strengthens the case for limiting the exercise of universal jurisdiction to the International Criminal Court (ICC). ICC was created to eliminate the inefficient, double-standard-ridden international criminal justice regime that was emerging from the patchwork of tribunals created in the 1990s. It was intended as the first universal institution for enforcing international criminal law.
ICC is assuredly an imperfect tool, but single states are at a much greater disadvantage when it comes to investigating and prosecuting complex criminal cases across state boundaries under universal jurisdiction, concluded analysts. (continued)
A documentary about a 10-year-old Aboriginal boy’s experience in school, In My Blood It Runs, has reignited a debate about Australia’s failure to give indigenous children a good education and a fair start in life.
“Listen carefully,” the teacher tells the class. “This one isn’t a story, this is information, or non-fiction – it’s fact.”
She’s holding up The Australia Book, a picture book from 1952, and reads: “In Botany Bay, Cook landed for the first time in a new country. Then he sailed up the coast, mapping as he went… On an island in Cape York he raised the English flag. And he claimed for the English country the whole of this new land.”
Dujuan Hoosan’s hand shoots up, but he doesn’t get the chance to speak.
Afterwards, the children have to find a list of words in the text and mark them with a highlighter. Dujuan, a 10-year-old Aboriginal boy, struggles a bit with the vocabulary, but he finds it even harder to recognise the story, because the history he has been taught by his elders is very different.
“That [lesson] was for white people, not for Aboriginals,” he reflects. “This man came on the ship and he was the first white man on Australia. The Aboriginal people told them to go and find another land, because this was their land. But people didn’t listen.”
Film-maker Maya Newell filmed the scene for her documentary, In My Blood It Runs – in which she followed Dujuan at school for a year – and could feel his frustration.
“You imagine what it feels like to be essentially erased from history,” she says.
Maya and Dujuan first met “out bush” when Maya was filming a story-telling session in one of the red-earth deserts of central Australia. Sitting around a campfire at night, a rapt group of Aboriginal children listened as aunts and grandmothers told stories in the Arrernte language about how the world began and about their connection to the land.
Dujuan was an eager learner. He had already got to know quite a few plants with medicinal properties, and told Maya about his healing gift: when his family had aches and pains it was his job to lay hands on them, he said, using powers that had passed to him after his great-grandad died.
Maya was struck by the unusually confident and articulate 10-year-old. When Dujuan said she should make a film about him, she asked his family, and they agreed. They wanted to shine a light on the difficulties Aboriginal families face in Australian schools, and they trusted Maya, who had been working with their community for more than a decade, making educational films and archiving songlines (an ancient way of passing on laws and knowledge).
Maya began to spend two or three days a week with Dujuan’s family – his mother, grandmother and two brothers – recording day-to-day life in the Hidden Valley Aboriginal Town Camp, on the outskirts of Alice Springs. Some days there was no milk, so the boys ate breakfast at school. Some nights there was no electricity, so they played I-spy under the stars.
About 20% of the town’s 30,000 residents are Aboriginal, and most of them live in heavily-policed, run-down camps that sprang up in the 1960s, when many Aboriginal people were forced off their land.
“You grew up around drunks, smoking – then you start learning from that,” says Dujuan’s mum, Megan. She was expelled from school at 14, so her parents sent her to stay with aunties in the safety of the countryside in Borroloola, 1,260km (780 miles) north. That’s where she met Dujuan’s dad, James, who came back with her to Alice Springs with their first child, but left when they broke up, a few years after Dujuan was born.
“Being a teenage parent is hard, and being an Aboriginal mum is exhausting,” Megan says. “Every day you hear that you are not good enough – in the newspapers, on TV, on social media.”
She worries about her children getting into trouble, like she did, particularly “smart and cheeky” Dujuan. And as filming progresses, her fears are realised.
One day a teacher reads the class a picture book of the Dreamtime, the Aboriginal story of how the world began. It’s an effort to teach Aboriginal culture, but it’s not a great success. The teacher seems puzzled. “So they’re actually saying there’s a spirit?” she asks.
Dujuan reacts with emotion: “The spirit is real, man!”
When his report card arrives he gets very upset. He has the lowest grade – E – for every subject. He thinks there must be something wrong with him.
Soon afterwards, he gets angry and smashes a window; he is sent home and risks being suspended. He also starts skipping school, and this could have serious consequences – under strict rules brought in with the aim of improving educational outcomes for Aboriginal children, attendance is directly linked to income support and family assistance. If children are regularly absent, their parents’ welfare payments can be stopped. It also increases their risk of being taken into care.
When Dujuan doesn’t come home from school one day, his mum and grandma go out looking for him until late in the night. If the police find him first, they will report it to welfare, and he could end up in foster care – or worse, juvenile detention.
“You know, your little age is the right age to go to juvenile centre,” Megan warns him.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are vastly over-represented in the Australian penal system. Nationwide, they make up close to 70% of those aged 10-14 in youth detention, despite being only about 6% of the population in that age group. In the Northern Territory, in which Alice Springs is located, the situation is even worse: at the end of March, 31 out of 33 young people in detention (94%) were Aboriginal.
“Trust me, juvenile is not a good place to be,” Dujuan’s aunt Alexis tells him. “You’re only going to end up in two places: a jail cell, or a coffin.”
“What’s a coffin?” asks Dujuan.
Dujuan’s family move him to a different primary school, one that offers a bilingual curriculum. But he skips classes here too, and his late-night adventures on the streets of Alice Springs continue.
He’s picked up by the police several times, and gets formal warnings that if he’s found causing a nuisance again he’ll be sent to juvenile detention, or taken into care.
“This is what happens to young boys in Alice Springs. This is the story of what it is to be a First Nations child in this country,” Maya Newell says.
Finally, after stealing a teacher’s car keys and throwing them on the school roof, Dujuan is expelled.
The Northern Territory department of education says its schools are supported to deliver the Australian curriculum framework in a “culturally responsive and engaging way” acknowledging the “rich culture and diversity” of the community.
It says schools can opt to use an “indigenous languages and cultures curriculum”, including tuition in any of 30 languages, and that they are encouraged to share decision-making with families, communities and industry partners.
But Dujuan’s family never felt these good intentions were reflected in the classroom.
“White people educate our kids in the way they want them to be educated, but I need [our kids] to speak the language,” says Dujuan’s grandmother, Carol.
Within living memory it was government policy to break the link between children and their Aboriginal ancestors and culture and to assimilate them into the white population.
Dujuan has grown up with stories of children being taken away to be brought up by white families. One of his great-grandmothers was taken, while another was hidden “way out bush” for safety.
William Tilmouth, chair of Children’s Ground, a charity that teaches Aboriginal children through storytelling sessions like the one at which Dujuan and Maya first met, is an example of this “stolen generation”.
“I can remember my eldest sister telling me that when they used to see Welfare coming down the road all the mothers used to run out, grab the kids and run straight back into the house, that way Welfare couldn’t get them,” he says.
He and all his siblings, however, were forcibly removed after his mother’s death. The five oldest had whiter skin and were sent to Adelaide, where they were expected to “blend in”, he says. He and two brothers were taken 1,400km from Alice Springs to be brought up in a Methodist mission, where they were banned from speaking their language.
“We never knew who our family were,” he says. “It was a deliberate attempt to fragment the foundations of our lives, to the extent that we kept asking ourselves, ‘Who are we?'”
Dujuan is at least in no doubt about this. “I was born a little Aboriginal kid,” he tells Maya. “That means that I had a memory about Aboriginals. I just felt something, a memory. History. In my blood it runs.”
When William ran away from a children’s home he was placed in juvenile detention, which he describes as a “conveyor belt that led ultimately to the prison system”.
Only when he was 17 was he able to hitchhike back to Alice Springs, to be reunited with his father, three years before he died.
Although the policy of assimilation is no longer explicit, William says, the draconian rules governing education and welfare mean the system is still set against indigenous children. He sees many parallels between his story and Dujuan’s.
But Dujuan’s family come up with a strategy to keep him safe – the same one that was used in his mother’s case, before he was born. They send him to live in Borroloola, with his father, James Mawson.
“Kids like Dujuan go to detention centres. I wanted to move him away before that happened,” says his mum, Megan. “We Aboriginal parents do love and care about our kids.”
Despite the fact father and son have not seen each other for five years, it works out well. In Borroloola everyone pitches in, working the land and looking after cattle. Dujuan likes being able to spend weekends fishing or swimming in the family’s homelands – and there are no armed patrols on the street.
“Borroloola is like a little town where you are related to everybody. It’s better than Alice Springs, where there are many other kids that lead you into bad places, and lots of police that are watching over you,” he says.
He is also happier at the community’s small middle school, where 95% of students are indigenous.
“What I want is a normal life of just being me,” he says at the end of the film, still only 11 years old. “And what I mean by ‘me’ is, I want to be an Aborigine.”
Dujuan has since had to move out of Borroloola to finish high school. Now 14, he’s doing well, but he’s still not a huge fan. “It’s boring to be in school, but I know there is knowledge I need to learn there,” he writes via email.
The film is now being made available to schools in the UK, where one of the first to show it was Sunnydown school in Surrey, for boys with autism.
After the Black Lives Matter protests last summer, the head of English, Andrea Jensen, decided her year nine class would read Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, the true story of three Aboriginal girls removed from their families in 1931 who walked 1,600 km (995 miles) home. In My Blood It Runs touches on many of the same themes.
But the students could also relate to the experience of not fitting in at school.
“I felt the same way as Dujuan did,” says Elvin, 14. “Because when I was in primary school, I had to go into this special place for people with autism or physical disabilities. When I went out at break time, everyone would go away because they didn’t want to play with me.”
Matthew, 15, says he was made to use a different entrance. “They put me in a room all by myself and they covered the window so I couldn’t see anybody else.”
Dujuan says: “I made the film to give other Aboriginal kids hope and strength, but I think it can give all kids everywhere that too.
දින 10න් ඇඳන් 10,000ක් ප්රදානය කිරීමේ ජාතික ව්යාපෘතියට එක්වෙමින් ඒ වෙනුවෙන් වෙහෙසෙන තරුණ තරුණියන් ඇතුළු පිරිසට දිරි දීම සඳහ තරුණ හා ක්රීඩා අමාත්ය නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා අද (09) දින මාතර, කොළඹ සහ ගම්පහ දිස්ත්රික්කයන් හි ස්ථාන කිහිපයක නිරීක්ෂණ චාරිකාවන්ට එක්වූයේය.
මෙම නිරීක්ෂණ චාරිකාවන්හි දී අමාත්ය නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා අදාළ ඇඳන් සකස් කරන ස්ථානවලටම ගොස් ඔවුනොවුන් හමුවී සාකච්ඡා කරමින් ඔවුන්ට දිරියක් වීම විශේෂත්වයකි.
තංගල්ල පල්ලිය ඉදිරිපිට තරංග අයන් වර්ක්ස් ස්ථානයෙන් අද දින නිරීක්ෂණ චාරිකාව ආරම්භ කළ අමාත්ය නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා මාතර දෙවිනුවර හා දික්වැල්ල ප්රාදේශීය බල මණ්ඩලයන්හි මෙම ව්යාපෘතියට අදාළව ඇඳන් සැකසෙන ආකාරය එහි දී නිරීක්ෂණය කළේය.
ඊට අමතරව, අමතර ප්රතිකාර මධ්යස්ථාන සකස් කර ඇති ආකාරය ද අමාත්යවරයා ගේ නීරීක්ෂණයට ලක්විය.
රාජ්ය අමාත්ය කංචන විජේසේකර මහතා ද මෙම නිරීක්ෂණ චාරිකාවට එක්ව සිටි අතර, එහි දී මෙම කාර්යය ඉටු කිරීමේ දී ඇතිවන දුෂ්කරතාවන් අවම කර ගැනීමට අවශ්ය පහසුකම් හා උපදෙස් අමාත්ය නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා විසින් ලබා දෙන ලදි.
අනතුරුව මාතර ජාතික තරුණ සේවා සභා පුහුණු මධ්යස්ථානයේ දී ඇඳන් සැකසෙන ආකාරය නිරීක්ෂණය කළ අමාත්යවරයා වැලිගම ප්රාදේශීය සභා ගොඩනැගිල්ලේ සහ දෙනිපිටිය චම්පික අයන් වර්ක්ස් හි සිට මෙම කාර්යයට දායකත්වය සපයන තරුණ පිරිස් සමඟ එක්ව ඔවුන්ට ශක්තියක් වූයේය.
දින 10න් ඇඳන් 10,000ක් සැකසෙන්නේ දැනට පවතින තත්ත්වයට මුහුණදෙමින් ආසාධිත ජනතාව වෙනුවෙන් සහනයක්වීමට බව කියා සිටි අමාත්ය නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා, මෙම කාර්යයට වඩා රජය මේ වනවිට ප්රමුඛත්වය දී කටයුතු කරනුයේ වෛරසයේ ව්යාප්තිය පාලනය කිරීමට අවශ්ය ජනතාව එන්නත් කිරීමේ කාර්යයට බව පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.
කොළඹ දිස්ත්රික්කයේ කටුබැද්ද කර්මාන්ත ඉංජිනේරු අභ්යාස ආයතනය – (IETI) සහ ගම්පහ දිස්ත්රික්කයේ කටුනායක ඉංජිනේරු තාක්ෂණික ආයතනයට ගිය අමාත්ය නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා, අවශ්ය මොහොතේ රට වෙනුවෙන් පෙරට පැමිණි ඔබ සියලු දෙනා ඇතුළු පිරිසට සිය හෘදයාංගම ආචාරය පුද දෙන බව කියා සිටියේය.
මෙම නිරීක්ෂණ අවස්ථාවන්ට ඒ ඒ ප්රදේශය නියෝජනය කරන පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්රීවරුන් මෙන්ම ප්රාදේශිය දේශපාලන නායකයෝ ද එක්ව සිටියහ.
මාධ්ය ඒකකය
තරුණ හා ක්රීඩා අමාත්යංශය
A total of 15 COVID-related deaths were confirmed in Sri Lanka today (May 09), says Director-General of Health Services.
The new development has moved the total number of COVID victims in the country to 801, according to official data.
The media release issued by the Department of Government Information stated that the victims had succumbed to the virus infection between the period of May 06 to May 09.
Sri Lanka reports the highest number of daily COVID-19 cases recorded so far as 927 more tested positive for the virus.
Accordingly, a total of 2,659 coronavirus-positive cases have been reported today (May 09).
This brings the total number of cases reported in the country to 125,906.
A total of 20,657 COVID-19 patients are currently receiving treatment at selected hospitals across the country.
Meanwhile, the number of total recoveries has reached 104,463.
Revised 9.5.21
Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International supported the Report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Human Rights Watch said that UNHCR, at its upcoming session, should act on the recommendations of the UN High commissioner for Human rights, and adopt a new resolution to enhance scrutiny of Sri Lanka’s deteriorating human rights situation and pursue accountability for past and recent violations.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has withdrawn its support for the 2015 consensus resolution seeking justice and reconciliation, and shown general disregard for upholding basic human rights. UNHRC should act to protect those most at risk and advance accountability for grave international crimes,” Human Rights Watch said.
The UN High commissioner’s report highlights Sri Lanka’s shocking record of complete impunity for appalling crimes, and very disturbing developments under the Rajapaksa administration,” said John Fisher, Director, HRW Geneva. The UNHRC has given Sri Lanka every opportunity to address these issues over many years, and now greater international involvement is needed to help protect vulnerable groups and hold those responsible for grave international crimes to account,” he concluded.
Amnesty International said: The international community must not turn a blind eye to the deteriorating human rights situation in Sri Lanka, which is being abetted by the government’s regressive moves on justice and accountability. The OCHCHR warns that there are ‘clear early warning signs of a deteriorating human rights situation and a significantly heightened risk of future violations.
Members of the military leadership that were in command during the last phase of the war, when allegations of human rights and humanitarian law violations are widespread, were rewarded with promotions and positions of power under the new administration, including to civilian positions. This has had a chilling effect on victims demanding justice said Amnesty International.
’Amnesty is calling on the UN Human Rights Council to implement the report’s key recommendations to put in place more stringent oversight on Sri Lanka, including more robust monitoring and reporting on the human rights situation, and the collection and preservation of evidence for future prosecutions. UNHRC must take urgent steps to address the worsening human rights situation in Sri Lanka.
The Human Rights Council must take steps to end the cycle of impunity by holding the Sri Lankan government fully to account, and launching a new internationally agreed justice process,” said David Griffiths Director of the Office of the Secretary General at Amnesty International..Amnesty International’s findings reveal a pattern of targeting those who have played an active role in investigating, documenting, litigating, or reporting on human rights violations and abuses, and advocating on behalf of the victims, including at least six incidents where lawyers were targeted.
The UN report lays bare Sri Lanka’s abject record on delivering justice and accountability and the decaying effect this has had on human rights in the country. The seriousness of these findings highlights the urgent need for the UN Human Rights Council to step up its efforts in Sri Lanka.”
For more than a decade, domestic processes have manifestly failed thousands of victims and their families. Given the Government’s decision to walk away from resolution 30/1 and regression on the limited progress that had been made, the Human Rights Council must send a clear message that accountability will be pursued with or without the cooperation of the Government said Griffiths.
China took the opposite view. China extended strong support to Sri Lanka at the Interactive Dialogue. China’s Permanent Representative in Geneva Ambassador Chen Xu said it is the consistent stand of China to oppose politicization and double standards on human rights, as well as using human rights as an excuse in interfering in other countries’ internal affairs. We are concerned about the clear lack of impartiality shown in the OHCHR’s report to this session on Sri Lanka and express our regret over the failure of the OHCHR to use the authoritative information provided by the Sri Lankan Government. The so-called preventive intervention” and the proposed targeted sanctions contained in the OHCHR’s report are clear interference in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka and exceed the mandate of the OHCHR.
The Government of Sri Lanka also strongly rejected the Report. Sri Lanka pointed out that the Office of the High Commissioner was bound by United Nations Resolution 60/251
The Report was subjective and biased” said the government. It was intended to mislead the international community, said Sri Lanka.
This report shows that the OHCHR wishes to directly intervene in the internal affairs of our country. The Report has broadened its scope, and included issues of governance and matters that are essentially domestic in any self-respecting, sovereign country.
High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet has overreached her jurisdiction and has interfered with the independence and sovereignty of Sri Lanka by releasing this new UN report. She cannot challenge appointments made by the head of state of a sovereign country and interfere with its internal affairs and independence. She must be advised not to overreach her scope of authority in this manner.
The Report wants Sri Lanka to remove from office Security Forces personnel and other public officials alleged to have committed war crimes. The alleged charges were not proven against any of the officers. The removal of such officers without being proven guilty would be a violation of their human rights.
The continued chorus in the Report that credible allegations of serious violations of international humanitarian law amounting to war crimes having been committed during the separatist war, however, remains unsubstantiated with the absence of substantive related evidence, said Sunday Times ,
Here is the full statement made by the government of Sri Lanka to the OHCHR Report:
The OHCHR Report which is presented today, emanates from the Resolution 30/1 and 40/1, from which the Government of Sri Lanka announced its withdrawal of co-sponsorship, at the 43rd Session of this Council last year. Sri Lanka rejects the High Commissioner’s Report which has unjustifiably broadened its scope and mandate further, incorporating many issues of governance and matters that are essentially domestic for any self-respecting, sovereign country. This is in complete violation of Article 2 (7) of the Charter of the UN that states: Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state…”
The trajectory that has emerged with regard to the recommendations and conclusions reflects the preconceived, politicized and prejudicial agenda which certain elements have relentlessly pursued against Sri Lanka. These recommendations are based on ill-founded allegations.
Sri Lanka categorically rejects the conclusions and recommendations in the High Commissioner’s Report. The call for asset freezes, travel bans, references to the ICC and the exercise of universal jurisdiction by individual States, based on evidence that up to date has been denied access to and retained by the High Commissioners Office with some of it unreleased for thirty years, particularly in relation to a country like Sri Lanka which has consistently and constructively engaged with the UN and its mechanisms, points to a distinct and eminent danger which the international community as a whole need to take note of. Such unilateral actions by certain countries are unacceptable and a violation of the principles of natural justice.
In addition to the progress made since last March, Sri Lanka has provided written comments on instances of erroneous information, misconceived and arbitrary assessments in the Report. It is regrettable that the High Commissioner’s Office published its Report, accompanied by an unprecedented propaganda campaign on it and refused to publish our Comments on the report as an addendum. This has deprived Sri Lanka and Members of equal visibility of Sri Lanka’s views on the report.
Sri Lanka refutes the allegations that have been reproduced in the High Commissioner’s report, from the highly contentious Report of the Panel of Experts (PoE) on Accountability and the Report of the High Commissioner’s Office Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL), which have been rejected by Sri Lanka for reasons explained to this Council before. The contents of the Report which have been drawn from the said disputed reports are rife with factual inaccuracies that appear to equate atrocities committed by the LTTE, a terrorist organization proscribed internationally, with legitimate action taken by the Government to safeguard the territorial integrity of the country and the right to life of our people.
The insistence on ever-expanding externally driven prescriptions, notwithstanding our continuous cooperation and engagement with this Council and all UN bodies, can pose numerous challenges and such processes could set a dangerous precedent affecting all Member States of the UN.
We regret the disproportionate attention drawn to Sri Lanka by this Council, driven by political motivations. Sri Lanka calls upon the members of this Council that any resolution which is based on this Report, be rejected by the Council and be brought to a closure.
We remain open to engaging constructively with the UN, including this Council, and the international community in mutually agreed areas, in conformity with the Constitution and in keeping with domestic priorities and policies.” End of statement. (Continued)
By Surya Vishwa/DailyFT-Harmony Page
Colombo, May 8: The Harmony page has been since last month featuring articles from the north-east of Sri Lanka and pertaining to ethnic and religious harmony as well as human wellbeing. We have promoted the concept of dedicating May as a month of peace in Sri Lanka as the nation marks the 12th year of defeating terrorism. Below is the link of the Harmony page article of last week and several related editions.
In the next few weeks, the Harmony page hopes to continue the detailed research it started last month in the interior of the north-east of Sri Lanka, especially in now almost forgotten areas such as Mulliwaikkal, the last bastion of the war. We hope to find out the humanitarian day-to-day needs of the people, beyond the boundaries of local and international politics.
Our last week’s article will reveal some of the difficulties faced by the people. It will also reveal the perseverance, the courage and the incredible potential of using the north-east human capacity for the economic wellbeing of not just that region but the entire Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is the only country in the world which provided amnesty and pardoned an entire fighting force of an internationally proscribed terror organisation. Although receiving skill training and successfully de-radicalised, and re-integrated back to society, and today leading peaceful lives, these individuals and their families face much difficulty, with lack of employment opportunity. This has led to suicide and mass scale depression which is a phenomenon that should not occur in any country, especially a country which is known as a Buddhist country.
To reverse this situation all it takes is some genuine commitment. We should stop merely waiting for Western foreign agencies or foreign donors to look into the wellbeing of our people. Our people are our people. Whether they are Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims or Burghers. Sri Lanka can easily eradicate poverty whether in the north or south if every profit-making business institution in this country undertakes to assist in the entrepreneurship creation of each poverty-stricken family.
This is what the Harmony page hopes to encourage with the support of Nisthar Cassim, the editor of the Daily and Weekend FT. In what we hope will be a sample media initiative in Sri Lanka the Harmony page will assist Sri Lankan youth such as university students and others, especially between the ages of 18 and 25 to create the link between private companies and families in the north and south.
In the north it will be families such as the beneficiaries who were rehabilitated and integrated back to society and those who are disabled. As needed, we will be in contact with the related institutions of the Sri Lankan Government for security and other considerations, following normal protocol. In the southern areas we are aware that there are still families in acute poverty and that some of these families have a history of being involved in the 1971 and 89 Marxist insurgency.
The way this wellbeing assistance model will work is as follows:
Young people will be mobilised through universities and other educational/vocational institutions to make a list of private companies in Sri Lanka and thereafter to engage with them.
Private companies, especially local companies of diverse stature, including young entrepreneurship ventures set up by young people, will be requested to support in the building of two to three rooms and a toilet and bathing area for identified north beneficiaries. The identification of the beneficiaries will be with the assistance of related Government officials.
All money-related matters will be solely between the beneficiary and the business sponsor. The business sponsor can to their advantage use the ‘marketing’ of their brand as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility framework. For example, its products, etc., could be featured on the walls that they are building. These are once again totally up to discussions between the beneficiary and the sponsor.
After the assistance of the housing renovation/construction, these beneficiaries will be then linked to those having technical skill in product making in diverse sectors. Where relevant the business companies assisting in the construction/renovation of homes can also help in the entrepreneurship creation as benefitting their own business goals.
The identified youth to facilitate the program will be mobilised to create a detailed list of every kind of innovative skill that could be used for entrepreneurship.
Sri Lanka’s heritage, the heritage of the north such as the intangible cultural heritage of Siddha medicine and the northern tradition of cuisine, design, arts, crafts, and construction will be utilised.
The concept of integrated home tourism will be introduced first to the north of Sri Lanka as the culmination of a five-year research begun in 2017 by Surya Vishwa, founder of the Harmony page. This is linked to her concept of integrated education/knowledge tourism on which academic abstracts have been featured.
The integrated home tourism concept is part of the integrated knowledge concept to revitalise the human mind to interconnect different forms of knowledge and especially diverse arts/aesthetics, in order to create stimulating change for the self and society. This is opposed to knowledge being seen as confined to paper qualification.
The knowledge connected to mother nature, the soil, water, plants and indigenous medicine, which this Harmony page has dedicated itself to in the past three years will be a key component of the integrated knowledge concept.
The integrated knowledge-based home tourism will be used consistently for national reconciliation through local tourism, and especially aimed at linking southern Lankan families with those in the north.
The concept of integrated knowledge tourism will be promoted especially during school holidays where southern families with children and youth will be encouraged to visit and stay with northern families, especially in remote areas of Kilinochchi, Mullaithiviu and Mannar in the homes built with the assistance of diverse Lankan companies.
Thus, Sri Lanka can showcase to the world the home tourism concept being used not just for integrated entrepreneurship, economic wellbeing and knowledge enhancement but also national reconciliation and peacebuilding.
International and local events such as bookfairs/knowledge camps/reading camps will be encouraged as part of the above concept.
The first such affiliation being considered is the Northern Children’s Book Festival and Children’s Literature promotion to be carried out by the Lankan chapter of the International Board on Books for Young Children early next year.
The assistance for rural homes in the north-east and south to build up trilingual home libraries is envisaged.
Book knowledge will be encouraged to be used as a vital living component to create innovation and idea stimulation for combining economic, spiritual and mental wellbeing. This combination will be consistently promoted in the north-south facilitated entrepreneurship creation combined with the home tourism concept.
Once the COVID-19 pandemic eases this model will be promoted globally. We will be focusing on tourists such as biodiversity experts and those such as innovators who strive to replace non bio degradable products.
The youth we are training for this overall endeavour will be mobilised to create vast links across the world to identify persons and institutions who respect mother earth and whose inventions are focused on protecting and not destroying nature.
Promoting nature-based innovation will be a core component of the integrated knowledge and integrated home tourism concept.
We would like all individuals and companies who would like to support this endeavour to contact Nisthar Cassim on nistharcassim@gmail.com and Surya Vishwa on 0777 27 33 95. The facilitator of this initiative, Surya Vishwa, will not at any point get involved in handling money. Her role is only as the creator of the concept and as the mobiliser and facilitator. The financial interaction is purely between the business company volunteering the support and the beneficiary.
As a policy this initiative will not include any INGO or NGO or foreign agency support. This is an initiative that will encourage and motivate Sri Lankans to take responsibility for fellow Sri Lankans and for the wellbeing of their country. If INGOs or NGOs or foreign agencies which to support the people of the north as well as rural south using the information of our research on the day-to-day difficulties faced by them, they could do so directly with the people concerned, in collaboration with the Sri Lankan Government. Where needed we can support this facilitation.
We encourage Sri Lanka’s retired military officials who are now working in the private sector to assist us.
(The author/concept developer is a Sri Lankan who strives to transcend beyond inherited birth identity. She has a keen interest in comparative spirituality and indigenous knowledge. Her academic training has been in sociology and she is a curriculum writer and visiting lecturer in Mass Communication at a national university in Sri Lanka under her inherited family name. She has for over 20 years worked as a writer for local and international publications and has been associated with the peace building/training sector. Her library of 15,000 books, of which a large number is on global literature, science, comparative religions and secular spirituality has been opened up for the public free of charge. She cultivates trees using ancient biodiversity centred methods of cultivation and promotes the concept of ‘Integrated Knowledge’ linking diverse aspects of knowledge to create stimulating thinking and innovative practical initiatives that benefit the individual as well as the country).
Colombo, May 8 (Daily Mirror) – Lawyers of DIG Bimshani Jasin-arachchi, who was removed from her duties as the DIG in charge of the Police Ombudsman Range, has written to IGP C.D. Wickramaratne urging him to immediately reinstate her back to her assigned duties or allocate other suitable duties, a statement from her lawyers said.
He said IGP C.D. Wickramaratne had instructed to remove DIG Bimshani with effect from May 1 in line with the programme to regularize the police service. DIG Rohana said that DIG Bimshani would be appointed to a new post by the IGP soon.
He said following the removal of her, a staff DIG has been appointed to the Police Ombudsman Division. It is reported that the move to remove DIG Bimshani from her assigned duties comes following the filing of the petition by a group of Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPS).
Bimshani Jasin Arachchi was appointed as the first ever female DIG in Sri Lanka in October 2020. (Jamila Husain)
Muscat: Indian nationals looking to return to Oman and other countries of residence can no longer travel through Sri Lanka, after the island country stopped issuing visas to them, thereby preventing them from completing their quarantine processes there before flying to their destination.
Since Oman had banned passengers flying directly from India, as well as Bangladesh and Pakistan, into the country, an alternative route had been set up, through which people could spend a 14-day quarantine period in Sri Lanka, and then leave for the Sultanate, where they would need to quarantine again.Buy Cheap Software CD Key – 73% Off Trending Deals. 5-Star TrustpilotAclab Ramadan Special: Show That You Care
However, Sri Lanka’s Civil Aviation Authority has decided to stop issuing visit visas to passengers arriving from India, taking away from them this route of leaving the country, further reducing the options available to those who wish to leave the subcontinent.ADVERTISING
In accordance with instructions received from the health authorities of Sri Lanka due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation, it is hereby directed that passengers travelling from India will not be permitted to disembark in Sri Lanka with immediate effect,” said a circular signed by Captain Themiya Abeyawickrama, the Director General of Civil Aviation and CEO of the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka.
The aforementioned restriction will be reviewed as early as possible, based on instructions from local health authorities,” he added. A travel agent operating across the Sultanate said he had been fielding calls from passengers who had tried to frantically make last-minute changes to their bookings.
Unfortunately, however, there are very few alternatives available to him.
Sri Lanka has stopped issuing visas because they are concerned about the Indian variant of COVID-19 entering their country,” said Faiyaz Khan, general manager for Travel Point. They are also dealing with the pandemic, and they don’t want their hospitals possibly overwhelmed by this strain. They have also seen an increase in COVID cases lately.
We had all the agreements lined up with the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka, the packages were ready, we had many people willing to take them as well, but now we need to put all of this on hold until the situation can be resolved,” he added.
One of the alternatives available to Indian nationals, he said, was the Maldives, but the Indian Ocean country also decided to stiffen visit rules for people travelling from India: passengers can quarantine there, but only on islands not inhabited by locals.
Maldives is unfortunately a very expensive proposition for many Indians right now, so they have cancelled their flights or postponed them for the next month, in the hope that things will get better by then,” Khan said.
We had looked at Nepal as another alternative, but after the spike in cases there, all domestic and international air travel has been banned by that country as well, so there not a lot of options left for people.”
It’s not just Indians travelling to Oman: we get requests from people travelling to other countries as well. Indians in the UK, for example, used Turkey as a quarantine location, before flying onward, but the British authorities have put Turkey on the red list, so no flights are allowed from there. Armenia is another option that is being considered by Indians flying onward into Europe, the USA and Canada.”
Khan added that tour companies were waiting to see whether other GCC countries like the UAE or Qatar would once again allow in Indians. That would give them the chance to isolate there for two weeks before coming to Oman. While Qatar is allowing passengers to transit, visas are not being issued to those looking to complete their quarantine there before flying to their next destination.
The rules regarding travel are constantly changing right now, so it is unsure whether people can proceed with their plans,” he said. My advice to people is to not travel right now if you can help it.”
Currently, passengers flying to Oman from the following 16 countries are not allowed entry: Sudan, Lebanon, South Africa, Brazil, Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, the UK, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, and the Philippines. The rules also apply for passengers who have spent the 14 days prior to their flight to Oman in any of these countries.You Might Also Like
As many as 22 COVID-related deaths were confirmed in Sri Lanka today (May 08), says Director-General of Health Services.
The new development has moved the total number of COVID victims in the country to 786, according to official data.
The media release issued by the Department of Government Information stated that the victims had succumbed to the virus infection between the period of May 02 – May 08.
The deaths were reported from Ragama, Kadawatha, Mulleriyawa, Thalawathugoda, Moratuwa, Lunuketiyamadiththa, Padiyapelella, Colombo 08, Bulathkohupitiya, Hunnasgiriya, Katugastota, Halgranoya, Horampella, Ganemulla, Gurudeniya, Bibila, Agalawatta, Walahanduwa, Poddala, Galagedara and Gannoruwa areas.
Sixteen of the victims were aged between 60-70 years while four others were aged over 80 years. The remaining two were aged 57 and 58 years.
COVID pneumonia was identified as a cause of death of majority of the victims. Some had suffered from sepsis, heart disease, acute kidney injury, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, acute coronary syndrome and bronchitis as well.
The Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry reports that another 926 persons have tested positive for COVID-19 in Sri Lanka, moving the daily total of new cases to 1,896.
According to the Government Information Department, 1,890 of the new cases reported today are associated with the New Year coronavirus cluster. Meanwhile, the remaining 06 were identified as arrivals from foreign countries.
This brings the total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus reported in the country to 123,234.
As many as 103,098 recoveries and 786 deaths have been confirmed in Sri Lanka since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Epidemiology Unit’s data showed that 19,350 active cases are currently under medical care.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, (UNHCHR) presented to the 46th session of the UNHRC in February 2021, her report on Sri Lanka. (UN Doc A/HRC/46/20). This is the latest in the stream of reports on Sri Lanka since Sri Lanka won the Eelam war. This report can be read at https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/46/20.
The Commissioner stated that the Report was prepared in accordance with Human Rights Council Resolution 40/1 of 2019, in which the Council requested the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to assess the situation in Sri Lanka and to present a comprehensive report at the 46th session of UNHRC. The report was formally presented to the Human Rights Council at the 46 session in February 2021, followed by an interactive dialogue.
The Report is not a normal report, carrying a well thought out independent assessment of facts. It is a lament written by the Tamil Separatist Movement. Here are some of its complaints.
The Report goes on to make gloomy predictions. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that she is deeply concerned by the trends that have emerged over the past year, in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka remains in a state of denial about the past, with truth-seeking efforts aborted and the highest State officials refusing to make any acknowledgement of past crimes, she said.
There is the possibility that Pohottu government will carry out more human rights violations. Also that Pohottu will return to the earlier policies and practices that led to war. Pohottu may also take action to stop accountability for past crimes. There is serious risk of future violations. OHCHR calls for strong preventive action.
There is a shrill call for the UNHRC to take further action on Sri Lanka. Human Rights Council should urgently pay attention to these early warning signs of more violations to come and continue its close monitoring of developments in Sri Lanka. The Human Rights Council is at a critical turning point in its engagement with Sri Lanka, said the Report.
The Report recommended the following to the UNHCR.
The Report also drags in the Member states of the UN. The Report wants the Member states of the UN to take action against Sri Lanka. Member states are offered three options.
Firstly, they could refer Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court. Secondly, member states could also bring Sri Lanka before their own national courts on the principle of Universal Jurisdiction. Thirdly, member states could consider targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes and travel bans on Sri Lankans charged with war crimes. The High Commissioner also asks Member States to work with UNHCR and support its investigation into Sri Lanka.
The report concludes with un-solicited advice for the government of Sri Lanka. High Commissioner recommends that the Government of Sri Lanka should actively promote an inclusive, pluralistic vision for Sri Lanka. It must ensure constitutional and legislative reforms. Order all security agencies to immediately end all forms of surveillance and harassment against human rights activists, social actors, and victims of human rights violations. Lastly, the government of Sri Lanka must follow the recommendations and Resolutions of the UNHCR. (Continued)
Sri Lanka on Friday (May 07) registered 19 more victims of COVID-19, marking the highest number of deaths recorded in a single day.
The latest victims have moved the country’s death toll to 764, the, the Department of Government Information stated.
According to official data, 06 of the victims were in their sixties while another 06 were in seventies. Three others were aged over 80 years. Meanwhile, the remaining four had been in their forties and fifties, reports revealed.
Further, COVID pneumonia has been identified as one of the causes of death of 16 victims.
The Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry reports that another 817 persons have tested positive for COVID-19 in Sri Lanka, moving the daily total of new cases to 1,914.
According to the Government Information Department, 1,889 of the new cases reported today are associated with the New Year coronavirus cluster. Meanwhile, the remaining 25 were identified as arrivals from foreign countries.
This brings the total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus reported in the country to 121,338.
As many as 101,763 recoveries and 764 deaths have been confirmed in Sri Lanka since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Epidemiology Unit’s data showed that 18,811 active cases are currently under medical care.
China-made Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine will be administered to Sri Lankans starting from next week, says State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals Prof. Channa Jayasumana.
The Sinopharm jabs are expected to be administered based on the coronavirus cases identified in each Grama Niladhari division, he noted.
Meanwhile, during a virtual discussion between President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and World Health Organization’s Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom, it transpired that approval would be given in another 2-3 days for the China-made Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine to be used for emergency use.
The National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) approved the emergency use of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine in Sri Lanka on March 20.
Later, a consignment of 600,000 doses of the vaccine donated by China arrived on the island on March 31.
Chinese nationals residing in Sri Lanka were given priority under the first phase of the Sinopharm vaccination drive in the country.
Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine, also known as BBIBP-CorV, is produced by China National Biotec Group (CNBG) – a subsidiary of China National Pharmaceutical Group Corporation (SINOPHARM).
Nothing is Permanent in the world-What is permanent is impermanence
Nothing is permanent in the world – what is permanent is impermanence which is the eternal truth according to Buddhist Philosophy , or any other religion or concepts which are practised by the mankind tested, observed, and proved to be correct. Is 99 year a long period in the world of metaphysics’ and related computations is relatively a difficult question to be discussed? It is a long time for a human or a living being but the nations go on generation after generation with new subjects, subject to new changes which is eternal. China waited for 99 long years to regain the sovereignty of Hong Kong from British who had a legacy of acquiring sovereignty of sovereign nations by any means which is not in conformity with international law they are expected to practice, all times giving opportunities for lawyer and academics to discuss the subject at length with many similar examples. Hong Kong is a tiny land but a masterpiece on money trading and a Financial Hub , China maintains undisturbed with a brilliant vision despite many differences on economic and financial management ideologies though today China has the sovereignty on Hong Kong to make any changes. Hong Kong is a historical site in the ancient Chine Empire, it was captured by the British in 1842, and later in 1898, and the peninsula was taken as a tax haven from the Chinese emperor for 99 years. Then reluctantly, it was given back to China in 1999, when the 99 year lease ended. British had to give up the Hong Kong region because they were sheep in the eyes of the world, whose wealth and natural resources were exploited by wolves. British has Hong Kong for 150 years, and the Chinese authorities did not change the regime overnight. China has not made any drastic changes and maintains sovereignty over the territory based on Hobbs theory that sovereignty of a state is the ultimate authority exposition of international law which regulates behaviour of states when international reputation and Concepts of sovereignty is also ever changing under international law and practices based on the situations then. For example the sovereignty over a territory could be limited restricted or shared with anther nation. Portuguese, Dutch and British had sovereign power over certain provinces of Sri Lanka during certain periods and thereafter British in 1815 by cheating the some Sri Lankan Chiefs in the upcountry by the infamous 1815 agreement after fighting with Sinhalese over 150 years killing hundreds of thousands and destroying paddy fields and cattle with the maximum number in 1818 uprisings when Sri Lankans through history uplifted peaceful peace-loving life with loving kindness to all based on Buddhism with no scars and allegations of violation of human rights of won citizens or others worldwide. Damage including mass murders including children, done by Portuguese and Dutch are recorded in (blood) red letters in history. Obviously we have to learn a lot from history especially long term international agreements entered into due to whatever the reasons. We have experiences giving away our sovereignty partially and full in certain eras of our history we must learn from. We are angry when they try to teach us peace, loving kindness and human rights! It is in 1948 that we regained lost sovereignty over the land from 1815 a long time again in the history of nations now enjoying freedom as an independent nation and a senior and respected member of the United Nation Organization. Lot Can be narrated on the sovereignty over the Middle East countries, India during the western domination and similar examples and precedents on sovereignty and actions of overriding acting’s taken taking sovereignty away from legitimate nations. China appear not concerned on the sovereignty of the Port City. They are in business not interested in sovereignty of lands over others and the partnership with Sri Lanka appears to be ideal.
Sovereignty of a Nation
Sovereignty of a state which is the supreme authority over the territory is also is protected and guaranteed by the international law via United Nations under article 2(1) on sovereign equality and 2(4) based on the principle on non-intervention which is cemented by Geneva Convention on international relations and the accepted practices and conventions the states adhere to. It is accepted and considered that we are a Sovereign Nation. But do all member nations especially powerful and rich accept and consider so is a moot point in terms of practical Universal Practice.
Sovereignty of a Nation
Is Sri Lanka a sovereign nation today? Is an interesting question when the state has the full power over the territory and recognized by the United Nations Organization as a member nation not permitted by other nations interfere in international affairs. It is the duty of the member nations to respect us and our sovereignty, unconditionally based on the convention of the diplomatic relations entered into in Vienna naming Vienna Convention of diplomatic relations commending the nations to respect all member countries’ irrespective of the size or the economic strength. With the setting up of the Port City in the district of Colombo, a question has arisen on legal basis on the economic zone established under the Port City Bill with sweeping powers to do international business in the most competitive atmosphere which according to the facilitators claim essential to do business with the rest of the world competing the giants on the trade. Sri Lankan state is a presidential model and the recent 20th amendment has strengthened the executive powers of the president with a firm grip on the administration along with the legislature headed by the Prime Minister – a veteran politician and brother of the President, backing the President. Each nation has sovereignty over the land, sea and air space partially or in full depending on circumstances. The economic zone is constructed by a company in China with no cost for the Sri Lankan state due to close, warm and long-time friendly relations with the two nations over two thousand years bonded by religious, cultural and personal contacts uninterrupted, with closer bonds by supporting and facilitating China to be a world Power in the United nations when she had few friends and needed friends then. With Rubber Rice pact with China and close leadership bonds with the world leaders during non-alignment with charming and friendly friendship with ‘’Madam Sirimovo Bandaraneika’’ friendships were enhanced with exchange of good will and materials in kind such as the BMICH, and Court Complex which are monuments exhibited to date. A nation has to be economically and politically sovereign to be a fully-fledged sovereign nation. Are we politically and economically sovereign are complicated relative issues based on the large scale debts from international organizations, nations and private sector, political issues connected to human rights, treatises we have entered into such agreements and treatises as Indo Sri Lanka Accord when India now demanding Sri Lanka to implement 13th Amendment – a by-product of Indo Sri Lanka Accord , which according to Sri Lanka a domestic affair and matter within the domestic jurisdiction of the independent nation. It is in the midst of this that Sri Lanka has launched the largest ever FD said to be future of Sri Lanka with a massive influx of funds from China Harbour Corporation – a Chinese Company linked to the state. Massive influx of funds pumped is mainly based on the strong friendship and connections in addition to the excellent geographical situation unmatched in the world connecting all parts of the world historically traditionally connecting sea, airspace and other links to the world in the busiest Indian sea. This shows international relations and foreign policy plays a main role in politics, economy and trade. The agreement of the Port City runs for 99 years which is substantial in the life of the mankind. Depend on the magnitude of the funds and labour spent it has to be a successful project and all the signals are that it is on the right directions when compared to some examples close to us such as UAE, Singapore, Israel, and Malaysia – all success stories with trial and error methods achieved by swimming in the dark, when we are blessed with learning their success stories and experiences freely available in order to swim in broad day light with experiences gained and studies on and of the success stories of leading world powers from nothing!. Let us now look into the success stories of few as a learning process for us. India’s concern on the massive Port City project is realistic and understandable in terms of India and strained relationships with China and the mentality of regional hegemony on the Indian Ocean and entire SAARC region. This is where Sri Lanka should play the cards well based on long term friendly relations from the period of ‘’Arhath Mahinda’s’’ arrival and even before during ‘’Ravana’’ era, on balancing exercises on foreign policy learning lessons from Madam ‘’Sirimavo Bandaraneika’’ the best foreign ever in Sri Lanka.
Vision and Visionaries in UAE, Singapore, Israel, Malaysia and Sri Lanka- Learn from them
We respect UAE and achievements – once a fish marked in 1960 having blessed with oil exploited the geographical situation and other factors such as sea routs and airlines towards and passing through neighbouring countries set up the trade zone with all novel devices and administrative measures in a disciplined society successfully introducing the one stop shop procedure with ease of doing business within the zone which is implemented successfully to date transforming UAE to a rich world power with the tallest world tower, boost on tourism trade and business with only 4% of oil compared to the rest of the oil rich six emirates. ‘’Rashid Al Maktoum’’ is the Father of Dubai in the current boom, and the visionary of the Nation, who was responsible for what UAE is today who patiently studied the other success stories such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Israel and few other success stories adopted a unique model for UAE, by filling land, making manmade harbours with his vision as a visionary for the nation! He is a go getter and an innovator introduced many novel and world famous places such as the internet city, such as the tallest building, Media City and Financial Centre to his credit with many other development schemes by employing professionals of world repute as CEO’s and employing Asian labour mingled with only 18% local population which is a real vision of a visionary which brought Dubai to the limelight and a top financial, tourism, and a business Hub. As the person who brought UAE to what it is today! Dubai airport and harbour is one of the busiest and Jubal Ali Harbour the manmade Harbour is one of the busiest and largest in the region. It is a business Hub and a tourist paradise, and a money making world power as a centre of education, business and industries with lot more and more success stories still growing. ‘Shaka Lubna’ – once the Trade Minister from the Royal Family and the author of Why UAE? Visited Sri Lanka with a trade delegation to discuss matters of mutual interest laying the foundation of further friendship in order to exchange views and experiences. The book why UAE deals with the country, success, developments and guide of the country and guide to others in real style to attract the world of investers. It is time now Sri Lankan Trade Ministry or Tourist Ministry to edit a book on Why SriLanka? Following footsteps of why UAE, Inviting given the world the potential and beauty of Sri Lanka and abilities of Sri Lankans. Success of Singapore too is unique story with the leading visionary Lee Kwan Yew popularly named LKY is transformed Singapore a powerful financial Industrial and economic hub of the world hub of Asia who also introduced discipline and modern developments to the unproductive barren land with no resources with inmates dealing in small businesses and cottage industries. Singapore itself is a port city, a financial Centre, and a Trade Centre transforming itself to a world financial Hub in an exemplary manner. It is known and famous or International Arbitrations and one of the busiest harbours in the region. ‘’Dr Manther Mohamad’’ is the visionary of the current development of Malaysia as a developed nation and a financial and a trade centre in the region. Israel is the other model country for us with the economic and innovation miracles and also a partly land filled due to want of space and making Israel a miraculous economic centre as a financial hub in Middle East midst of enemies around. Israel a tiny barren desert of 1/3 rd of Sri Lanka with no water except disputed Galali river 73 years ago is today a world power and a nuclear power, due to the vision of the Visionary ‘Ben Gurian’ and the innovative nature of the people who worked hard despite enemies right round the land developed it to be land of agriculture and innovations by desalination of sea water and managing the water well using in agriculture using drip irrigation they introduced and shared with countries such as China and India. They are the leaders in agriculture innovated to improve agriculture based on innovations and technology making 95% of agriculture is technology. Sri Lanka today has faced the main challenge with the economic downtown and desperately in need of FD and assistance in development with the highly educated but poorly planned and not maintaining standards on agriculture, developments, export and generally in many aspects. Sri Lanka has had close relationships with China over 2000 years and close to each other in international dealings especially acknowledges the assistance of Sri Lanka, when China needed help of close friends to obtain membership and a major power. Sri Lanka maintained the foreign policy of friendly with all and angry with none throughout with the themes non alignment and neutrality. China has given Sri Lanka the highest ever FDI of 1.6 billion with the most prominent and modern Port City governed by the Port City Economic Commission with direct supervision of the President armed with 20th amendment and powers to appoint and remove them when necessary. Government and the Port City has long thought having studied the success stories of other enterprises worldwide in practice. China has given Sri Lanka two major investment opportunities in Colombo Port City and ‘’Hambatota Harbour’’ , based on the vision of the visionary Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa who masterminded both projects – especially the Port City project expected to be the future of Sri Lanka. The bill was highly contested in the Supreme Court heard by five judges including the Chief Justice to ascertain the legality and constitutionality of the port city which is established for the establishment of a special Economic Zone in order to set up a Commission empowered to grant registration, licences and many other such propositions.
Sovereignty of the Port City as an independent entity
Port city is gazetted as a part of Colombo District and the details are common knowledge to the average citizen following the serious of events out of interest and curiosity. Mode of operation is clear cut with powers to the Commission appointed by the President for a specific term with powers to change on rotation or administrative requirements, despite concerns from the interested citizens of the sovereign power of the Commission to act independently, with questions of international norms such as ‘’Montevioco’’ theory on international law that when a Unit has a defined territory, effective control, and ability to enter into contracts with the outside world may be considered a separate state as has been effected in Israel in 1948, when USA recognized Israel as a separate state even without defined territory in dispute then. This is a weak argument when Port City is a part of Colombo district, with full control over the President of Sri Lanka, under whose directions the Port City enters into contracts with the outside world. But the fact remains that the Port City is given a certain amount independence and powers to perform the duties to make the concept and the project a success, which is the challenge to the Nation. It is clear that the sovereignty of Port city is with the nation and the challenge lies on all of us to cooperate with the project for the betterment of the future and future generation. Sarath7@hotmail.co.uk
ඉස්ලාම් බැතිමතුන් වෙනුවෙන් ගරු අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා වාර්ෂිකව පවත්වන ඉෆ්තාර් චාරිත්රය මෙවර කොවිඩ් පාලන නිතිරීති වලට අනුව මුස්ලිම් මන්ත්රීවරුන් කිහිප දෙනෙකුගේ සහභාගීත්වයෙන් අද (05) පස්වරුවේ අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ දී පැවැත්විණි.
ඉස්ලාම් ආගමික නායකයන් ඇතුළු ඉස්ලාම් බැතිමතුන් රැසකගේ සහභාගීත්වයෙන් වෙනදා පැවැත්වෙන ඉෆ්තාර් චාරිත්ර උත්සවය කොවිඩ්-19 හේතුවෙන් මෙවර කිහිප දෙනෙකුට සීමා විය.
මුස්ලිම් පක්ෂ කිහිපයක් නියෝජනය කරමින් පැමිණ සිටි මන්ත්රීවරු මෙහි දී මුස්ලිම් ජනතාව මුහුණ දෙන ගැටලු පිලිබඳව අග්රාමාත්යතුමාට කරුණු ඉදිරිපත් කළහ.
මුස්ලිම් කොංග්රසය, මුස්ලිම් ජාතික සන්ධානය, සමස්ත ලංකා මහජන පක්ෂය නියෝජනය කරන පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්රීවරුන් පිරිසක් මෙසේ අග්රාමාත්යතුමා හමුවී සුහද සාකච්ඡාවක නිරතවෙමින් ඉෆ්තාර් චාරිත්රය ඉටු කළහ.
මන්ත්රීවරු ඉදිරිපත් කළ මුස්ලිම් ජනතාව මුහුණ දෙන ගැටලු පිළිබඳව අග්රාමාත්යතුමා විශේෂ අවධානය යොමු කළේය.
ඉෆ්තාර් ආගමික චාරිත්රය අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේ දී ඉටුකිරීමට ලැබීම විශේෂත්වයක් බව මෙහි දී මන්ත්රීවරු සඳහන් කළහ.
මෙම අවස්ථාවට පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්රීවරුන්වන නසීර් අහමඩ්, එච්. එම්. එම්. හාරීස්, එස්. එම්. එම්. මුෂාරෆ්, අලි සබ්රි රහීම්, එම්. එස්. තව්ෆික්, ඉෂාක් රාහුමන්, ෆයිසල් කාසිම් මන්ත්රීවරු සහ අග්රාමාත්යතුමාගේ මුස්ලිම් ආගමික කටයුතු පිළිබඳ සම්බන්ධීකරණ ලේකම් ෆර්සාන් මන්සූර් මහතා ඇතුළු පිරිසක් සහභාගී වූහ.
When a COVID patient is admitted to an Ayurvedic Hospital, he/she has the freedom to choose the treatment he/she receives is Ayurvedic or Western, State Minister of Primary Health Care, Epidemics and COVID Disease Control Minister Sudarshani Fernandopulle said.
She said this during a meeting held to finalise the decision to use Ayurvedic hospitals in the country as Intermediate Care Centres to treat COVID patients.
The discussion held with the participation of Indigenous Medicine Promotion, Rural and Ayurvedic Hospitals Development and Community Health State Minister Sisira Jayakody, Director General of Health Services Dr. Asela Gunawardena, Ayurvedic doctors and other relevant officials today.
Accordingly, it was also decided to provide the Ayurvedic hospital staff with the basic training to deal with COVID patients and also to grant adequate facility to accommodate the patients.
All Ayurvedic hospitals across the country would be operated under supervision of Health Ministry officials.
The State Minister also requested the Director General of Health Services to issue a set of guidelines on the subject and make arrangements to operate Ayurvedic hospitals covering every district.
Moreover, a seven-member committee was appointed with the representation of both the State Ministries in order to make the necessary arrangements within a week.
State Minister Sudarshini Fernandopulle recently granted permission to Ayurvedic hospitals to treat COVID patients. (Sheain Fernandopulle)
The Ministry of Health says that another 546 persons have tested positive for the novel coronavirus today, pushing the daily tally of new cases reported to 1,851.
All new cases are associated with the New Year COVID-19 Cluster.
This increases the total COVID-19 cases count in Sri Lanka to 119,424 while total recoveries stand at 100,885.
17,805 patients infected with the virus are currently under medical care.
The Director General of Health Services confirmed eleven more Covid-19 related deaths today (06), as Sri Lanka’s death toll due to the virus pandemic rose to 745.
1. The deceased is a 73-year-old female resident in Inamaluwa. She was diagnosed as infected with Covid-19 while undergoing treatments in General Hospital Polonnaruwa and transferred to Special Covid-19 Treatment Center Welikanda where she died on 05.05.2021. The cause of death is mentioned as COVID Pneumonia and renal failure.
2. The deceased is a 52-year-old female resident in Kuliyapitiya. She was diagnosed as infected with Covid-19 while undergoing treatments in a private Hospital Kurunegala and transferred to the Teaching Hospital Anuradahpura where she died on 06.05.2021. The cause of death is mentioned as Cardio Respiratory Failure and multi organ failure due to Covid-19 pneumonia.
3. The deceased is a 71-year-old Female Resident in Katuwana. She was admitted to Base Hospital Katuwana and transferred to District General Hospital Embilipitiya where she died on 02.05.2021. The cause of death is mentioned as Covid-19 pneumonia.
4. The deceased is a 55-year-old male resident in Benthota. He was diagnosed as infected with Covid-19 virus while undergoing treatments in Colombo South Teaching Hospital and transferred to District Hospital Undugoda. She died on 06.05.2021. The cause of death is mentioned as Covid pneumonia.
5. The deceased is a 68-year-old female resident in Seeduwa. She was diagnosed as infected with Covid-19 virus while undergoing treatments in the Chest Hospital Welisara and transferred to the Base Hospital Mulleriyawa where she died on 04.05.2021. The cause of death is mentioned as Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome and COVID-19 Pneumonia.
6. The deceased is a 78-year-old female resident in Mallewagedara. She was diagnosed as infected with Covid-19 virus while undergoing treatments in District Hospital Moratuwa and transferred to the Base Hospital Mulleriyawa where she died on 30.04.2021. The cause of death is mentioned as Heart disease and COVID Pneumonia.
7. The deceased is a 75-year-old male resident in Gelioya. He died on 06.05.2021 while undergoing treatments in Teaching Hospital Peradeniya. The cause of death is mentioned as Covid pneumonia.
8. The deceased is a 77-year-old male resident in Jaffna. He died on 05.05.2021 while undergoing treatments in Teaching Hospital Jaffna. The cause of death is mentioned as Septic Shock and left lower limb wound.
9. The deceased is a 72-year-old female resident in Udawalawa. She died on 21.02.2021 while undergoing treatments in District Hospital Embilipitiya. The cause of death is mentioned as Covid pneumonia
10. The deceased is a 43-year-old male resident in Buluthota. He was admitted to Base Hospital Kolonna and transferred to the District Hospital Embilipitiya where he died on 29.04.2021. The cause of death is
mentioned as Covid pneumonia.
11. The deceased is an 81-year-old female resident in Colombo – 03. She died on 05.05.2021 on admission to the National Hospital Colombo. The cause of death is mentioned as COVID-19 Pneumonia, Hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus
The Ministry of Health reports that another 1,305 persons have tested positive for coronavirus today (06).
All new cases are associated with the New Year Covid-19 cluster.
This brings the total number of COVID-19 cases confirmed in the country thus far to 118,834.
Presently 17,215 infected patients are being treated at hospitals and treatment centers across the island.
Meanwhile total recoveries has reached 100,885.
When Pohottu came to power in 2019 it informed the Human Rights Council of its decision to withdraw Sri Lanka’s co-sponsorship of UNHRC resolution 30/1 and related resolutions 34/1 and 30/1. A responsible government is obliged to withdraw from such a Resolution, said Pohottu.
The previous government, a puppet government, in a manner unprecedented in Human Rights fora, joined as co-sponsors of Resolution 30/1 which was against our own country. It carried a host of commitments that were not deliverable and were not in conformity with the Constitution of Sri Lanka.
For instance, the Resolution called for hybrid courts with foreign judges. . Foreign judges can be appointed only after an amendment to the Constitution and a referendum”. Further, the government had not obtained Parliament approval before co sponsoring the Resolution.
Pohottu was supported by two clauses in Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969). Article 45 warned that a state could not back out of an agreement if it had supported it initially. So Pohottu had to withdraw from the Resolution as soon as possible.
Article 46 provided the justification for withdrawing. Article 46 states: A State may not invoke the fact that its consent to be bound by a treaty has been expressed in violation of a provision of its internal law regarding competence to conclude treaties as invalidating its consent unless that violation was manifest and concerned a rule of its internal law of fundamental importance”.
The Core Group on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council , comprising Canada, Germany, North Macedonia, Montenegro and the UK, said they were deeply disappointed and concerned” that the Government of Sri Lanka has changed its approach to UNHRC Resolution 30/1. They decided to go for a fresh Resolution in 2021. The Sri Lanka government was invited to join, but turned down the invitation to co-sponsor the resolution.
At the UNHRC meeting of March 2021, this Core group put forward Resolution A/HRC/46/L.1/Rev.1 It was titled Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka.” This Resolution can be found at https://undocs.org/A/HRC/46/L.1/Rev.1
The Resolution made it clear that it was the latest in a long line of UNHCR Resolutions against Sri Lanka. The Resolution said it followed on the earlier resolutions, 19/2 of 2012, 22/1 of 2013, 25/1of 2014, 30/1of 2015, 34/1 of 2017 and 40/1 of 2019. The Resolution also remembered the joint communiqué of 26 May 2009 by the President of Sri Lanka and the UN Secretary-General.
The Resolution asked the Office of the Commission of Human Rights (OHCHR) to collect evidence on violation of human rights and related crimes in Sri Lanka, with a view to advancing accountability .This is the most important item in the Resolution. Thereafter, the OHCHR was to present an oral update to the Human Rights Council, at its sessions in September 2021. at its forty-eighth session, a written update at its forty-ninth session of March 2022 and a comprehensive report at its fifty-first session in September 2022.
The Office of the High commissioner said that it was prepared to do so. ‘My Office stands ready to continue monitoring the human rights situation, including progress towards accountability and reconciliation’, Bachelet responded. The High Commissioner’s office was given the authority to set up a special unit to gather this information and a budget of USD 2.8 million to do so.
A new Secretariat will function under Human Rights High Commissioner Bachelet, Sunday Times reported. The Office of the High Commissioner has already advertised calling for applications for the identified new positions.
This includes One Senior Legal Advisor with experience in criminal justice and or criminal investigations and prosecutions to co-ordinate the team. He or she will be responsible for collection strategy; the development of a central repository to consolidate, preserve and analyse information and evidence; co-ordinate the processes of reviewing and sharing of information with national authorities for universal jurisdiction and extra territorial jurisdiction cases and other accountability purposes in line with relevant United Nations guidelines; develop accountability strategy and engage with accountability mechanisms including specialized investigators, prosecutors, judges, and other legal practitioners both for information sharing purposes, to promote accountability and advice on the development of accountability strategies; and liaise with other Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), other independent mechanisms and other UN systems to ensure co-ordinated approach.
”There will be two investigators or Human Rights Officers with a background of criminal law to research, collect and analyse information and documentation pertaining to serious human rights violations, and international criminal law matters. Others include two Legal Officers, two Analysts, Information and Evidence Officer, two Jurists – Linguists, a Victim Support Officer, and a programme Assistant.
.
Funding amounting to US$ 2,800,900 is required for the remaining part of this year for this new team. Thereafter for 2022, a sum of US$ 2,064, 400 is estimated. This fund requirement is to be brought to the attention of the UN General Assembly when it meets for its 76th sessions in New York in September2021. It would have to be approved by the Fifth Committee which is charged with financial administration of the UN system.
Diplomatic sources said that Australia and Norway were ready to offer the funds should there be opposition. But they were very confident” such a situation would not arise. In any case, the move for a new Secretariat under the Human Rights High Commissioner will not be dropped.
The United Kingdom together with the core group are examining ways and means of pursuing issues related to future human rights violations, said the media. Reports emerging from diplomatic consultations among the sponsor and core group of countries show that many options were being discussed.
What happens if members of the new Secretariat under the UN Human Rights Commissioner are not allowed to visit Sri Lanka? There have been suggestions for those concerned to visit as tourists. There will also be references to trophy footage and evidence on the violation of humanitarian law. In the coming weeks, there will be especially important measures adopted by some core group members to take forward the resolution,” said a western diplomatic source.
The government of Sri Lanka is also adopting measures to counter information gathering on future violations of human rights” by this new Secretariat at the OHCHR , continued the media..
Seven Foreign Tamil organizations have been proscribed through a Gazette notification. They are based in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, and France. The main group proscribed is the UK-based Global Tamil Forum (GTF) which, together with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), has been at the helm of pushing through the Resolution on Sri Lanka. This is the second time such a proscription has been re-imposed after the withdrawal by the previous Yahapalana government in 2016.
Also named are 339 individuals who will not be allowed entry into Sri Lanka. Efforts are being made by Tamil groups to appeal to western governments to counter this. This proscription means that any person who has any dealings with those named in the Gazette notification would be treated as an offender. Such a person will be liable for arrest. The idea is to prevent them from transmitting any complaint or in helping in many other ways.
The government is also closely monitoring Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) which are funded in US dollars. Remittances from different sources are being identified. This again is to prevent, among other matters, funds being used to gather information on alleged victims of human rights violations and fees for lawyers who produce affidavits. ( Continued)
HE. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Your Excellency should spare some of your very valuable and busy time to visit/attend parliament more frequently please. When you are re in are in attendance, the presence in parliament of MP’s of the government are nearly 99%.
Even the presence of opposition MP’s are somewhat the same. But during the other parliamentary sittings, it is “NEARLY EMPTY”. Those MP’s and ministers who speak, only speak for the benefit “MEDIA” and the “TV cameras” in an almost empty parliament. Excellency Sir, you should bring about a “CHANGE” to this “bad parliamentary culture” please.
MP’s who do not attend parliament during sessions should be withheld their “day’s wage/salary/allowance” as a penalty/punishment for not being present in the chambers.
please. That should NOT mean that they can come, mark present and then leave the chambers. They should be in attendence throughout the sessions.
The Hon. Speaker of the House should be adviced to follow the “rule of sitting in their allocated seats” during sessions and not to take seats behind prominent ministers or other parliamentarians just to been seen on the TV screens during broadcasted/aired.
The “DISCIPLINED PRACTICES” of seating procedures practiced in other countries, especially in the West, should become a “parliamentary norm” in our “MAATHRUBOOMIYA” as well, Your Excellency.
හැදින්වීම
2017 පෙබරවාරි මස මුලින් ලියන ලද මෙම ලිපියේ මාතෘකාව වූයේ, “රට ගොඩගන්නට වෙහෙසුණු කළුකොඳයාවේ මහනාහිමි ” කියාය. එය “කළුකොඳයාවේ ප්රඥාශෙඛර මහනාහිමි හා හිට්ලර්” යනුවෙන් වෙනස් කලයුතුය කියා මට සිතුනේ, දැන් 2021 මැදවන විට රටේ දක්නට ලැබෙන අසතුටුදායක, අවිනීත සමාජ දේශපාලන වාතාවරණය නිසාය. හිට්ලර් කෙනෙක්වෙලා හෝ රට බේරා ගන්න යයි 2019 ජනාධ්පති මැතිවරණයට පෙර හාමුදුරුනමක් කල අනුශාසනාවක්, විකෘතිකර, ගෝඨාභය චන්ද අපේක්ෂකයාව ගෝනි බිල්ලෙක් සේ හුවා දක්වන්නට සජිත් හා අනුර කුමාර පිල් ගත් අශොභන වෑයම සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජනතාව ප්රතික්ෂේප කලේය.
මේ වනවිට උඩුදුවා ගොස් ඇති ලංකාව වෙලාගෙන, ගිලගෙන සිටින, – දේශපාලකයා-නිලධාරියා-එන්ජීඕකාරයා- යන දුෂ්ට ත්රිකෝණය වෙනුවට,
ගම් මට්ටමින්, ග්රාම සේවක වසම් හෝ ප්රාදේශීය සභා කොට්ඨාශ මට්ටමින්, නව පරිපාලන ත්රිකෝණයක් බිහිකල හැකි බව කළුකොඳයාවේ හිමිදුන් 1930-40 දශක වලදී රටට පෙන්වා දුන්නේය. උන්වහන්සේ ඒකාලයේ ඒ සඳහා යොදාගත්තේ පොලිසිය, පන්සල හා ග්රාම සංවර්ධන සමිතිය යන ත්රිත්වයය.
මෙම අතිශයින් සාර්ථකවූ දීප ව්යාප්ත වැඩ සටහන සුද්දන්, කළුසුද්දන් හා නිලධාරීන් විසින් කඩාකප්පල් කර දමන ලදී. ඩොනමෝර් ඇමතිවරුන් වූ ඩී. බි. ජයතිලක, ඩී. ඇස්. සේනානායක හා බණ්ඩාරනායක යන තිදෙනා මෙන්ම, මැලේරියා බඩුමළු බෙදමින් ගිය තරුණ මාක්ස්වාදීන්ද මීට වගකිව යුතුය. එංගලන්තයෙන් ගෙනා පක්ෂ දේශපාලන ක්රමය ලංකාව විනාශ කලේය. 2009 දී රට දෙකඩ වීමෙන් බේරාගැනීම හැරෙන විට, රටේ සිටි අගමැතිලා/ජනාධිපතිලා කර ඇති අඥාන ක්රියා නිසා අද ජනයා දුකට වැටී ඇත. ඔවුන් බොහෝ විට හැසිරී ඇත්තේ ආත්මාර්ථකාමී ලෙසටය. ඊළග චන්දය දිනන්නේ කෙසේද, වස්තු සම්භාර එකතු කරගන්නේ කෙසේද යනාදිය සිතමින්ය.
මීට වෙනස් ආකාරයකට ක්රියාකිරීමක් සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජනයා ගෝඨාභය ජනාධිපතිතුමාගෙන් බලාපොරොත්තුවේ. අවුරුදු 72 ක් පුරා සිටි ආකාරයේ තවත් කබල් දේශපාලක පංචස්කන්ධයක් නොවේ. උභතෝකෝටික ප්රශ්ණ ජාලාවකට ඔහු මැදිවී, හිරවී සිටී. විශේෂයෙන් විරුද්ධ පක්ෂය හා දෙස් විදෙස් සතුරු බලවේග ගෙනයන අසාධාරණ, අසත්ය, සංවිධානාත්මක ප්රහාර ගැන සිතන විට, සිංගප්පූරුවේ ලී ක්වාන් මතක් වෙන්නේ, ඔහු ඊට ඉඩදුන්නා නම් ඒ දූපත අදටත් මඩවඟුරක් වන්නට තිබුණ නිසාය. බොරු ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදයක් යටතේ, විශේෂයෙන් 1978 න් පසු සිදුවී ඇත්තේ රජය මගින්ම ජනතාවට වස කැවීම නොවේද?
හිට්ලර් කෙනෙක් වෙලා හෝ රට බේරාගන්න යැයි කීමෙන් අදහස් වුනේ විනය ගරුක ශිෂ්ට සමාජයක් ගොඩනගා ගැනීමය. සතුටින් පිරි රටවැසියෙක් (හැපිනස්) මතුවන්නේ එමගින් පමණය. කොරෝනා වසංගතය අපට පෙන්වන්නේ රටේ මිනිසුන්ට නිදහස හා සාමය ලඟා කරදීම දැනට පවතින සුද්දගෙ නීතිය, බොරු නීතියේ ආධිපත්යය වැනි සුරංගනා කතාවලින් කල නොහැකි බවය. සම්මුතිවාදී ග්රාම මට්ටමේ පාලන ක්රමයකින් එය කල හැකි බව, ගම-වැව-දාගැබ යන අපගේ අතීත සමාජ, ආර්ථික, දේශපාලන ත්රිත්වය ( මොඩලය ) නූතන සමාජයට අනුව ගලපා ගැනීමක් කළුකොඳයාවේ මොඩලය මගින් සිදුවිය.
පලාත් සභා නම් මර උගුල වෙනුවට මෙම ක්රමය ක්රියාවේ යොදවාවිය යන්න “ජන මූල සභා” යන චන්ද ප්රකාශණයේ තේරුම නොවේද කියා සිතේ. මේ මගින් රටේ ප්රශ්ණ වලින් සියේට හැත්තෑවක් පමණම විසඳා ගත හැකිය. එය දැන් මෙන් නොව සැබැම ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදයක් කල හැකි වන්නේ ගම් මට්ටමින් බලතුලනය කිරීමෙන්ය. පක්ෂ දේශපාලනයෙන් තොරව තෝරාගත් නියෝජිතයින් දහ දෙනෙක්, පන්සලකින් හාමුදුරුනමක් බැගින් (කෝවිල්/පල්ලිද සමඟ ) හා පොලිසි/යුද හමුදා නිලධාරීන් යන කොටස් තුන අළුත් පාලන ත්රිකෝණය ය. මාසයකට වරක් පොදු මහජන රැස්වීමක් මගින් ප්රගතිය සමාලෝචනය ( මොනිටර් ) කරණු ලැබේ.
1802 න් පසු ලංකාවේ ඉතිහාසය පන්සල හා පාලකයින් (සුද්දන් හා 1948 න් පසු කළුසුද්දන්) අතර ඇතිවූ සනාතන ගැටුමක/ අරගලයක කතාවක් නොවේද යනුවෙන් විමසා බලන විට හඳුනා ගතහැකි අවධි අතරින් එක් අවධියක් වන්නේ, අනාගාරික ධර්මපාලතුමා අනුව යමින් කළුකොඳයාවේ නාහිමිඳුන් කල උදාර ජාතික මෙහෙවරය. හීනටිගල ධම්මරතන හිමියනුත්, හොරණ ප්රදේශයේදී විල්මට් ඒ පෙරේරාත් මෙවන් ක්රියාවල නිරත විය.
මුර දේවතා සංකල්පය ලෝකයේ වෙන කිසිම බෞද්ධ සමාජයක දක්නට නැති සංසිද්ධියකි. නෝත් ආණ්ඩුකාරයාගේ සිට හා 1940 ස් ගණන් වල ඩී.බී-ඩී. ඇස් කාලයේ, “පොලිටිකල් මන්ක්ස්” යනුවෙන් හංවඩු ගැසීමට ලක්වූ රට ජාතිය වෙනුවෙන් අරගල කල හාමුදුරුවරුන්ට 1978 න් පසු එල්ලවූ අභියෝග එමටය. 2015 න් පසු උදාවූ යහපාලන මරාළයේ , සිංහල බෞද්ධ විරෝධී, මහාවංශ විරෝධී කුමණ්ත්රණ ව්යාපාරය, රන්ජන් අල්ෆොන්සෝ රාමනායක හිරගෙට යාමෙන් වැලලී ගියත් මළේ නැත. මේ නිසා මෙම පන්සලේ ඉතිහාස කතාව වැඩිදුරටත් විමසිය යුතුය. ඊළඟ ලිපියෙන් එය සළකා බලමු.
රට ගොඩගන්නට වෙහෙසුණු කළුකොඳයාවේ මහනාහිමි
ගිහි-පැවිදි භේදය
කළුකොඳයාවේ ප්රඥාශෙඛර මහානායක හිමියන්ගේ ස්වයංලිඛිත චරිතකථා පොත (1970) කියවිය යුතුය කියා මට සිතුනේ එච් එල් සෙනෙවිරත්න මහතා විසින් ලියූ ද වර්ක් ඔෆ් කින්ස් (1999) යන පොත කියවූ පසුවය. එම පොතෙන් ඔහු කියා සිටියේ රජවරුන් විසින් කලයුතු වැඩ වලට හාමුදුරුවරුන් අත ගසා ඇතිබවය. හාමුදුරුවරු ආරණ්යගතව භාවනායෝගීව සිටිය යුතු බවත් දේශය පාලනය කිරීමේ කාරියට අතනොගැසිය යුතු බවත් යනුවෙන් ඔහුගේ පොතේ සඳහන්වූ එක්තරා ගැමියෙකුගේ මතය ඔහුගේද මතයවූ බව පෙනේ. ඔහු විශ්ව විද්යාලයේදී මාක්ස්වාදීයෙක්ව සිටියේය. ලෝ වැසියාගේ හිතසුව පිණිස ගම් නියම් ගම් සැරිසරණ ලෙස පස්වග මහණුන්ට බුදුහාමුදුරුවන් දුන් උපදේශය පන්සිල් පද කියාදීමට හැර, මිනිසුන්ගේ කුසගිනි නිවීම, සාමය හා සතුට ලබාදීම යනාදී කාරණා ඊට ඇතුලත් නොවන්නේය යන්න මේ මතයේ හරයය. එහෙත් 1916 දී සිටම කළුකොඳයාවේ ප්රඥාශෙඛර හිමියන් කියා සිටියේ ආගමකින් කළ යුතු කාර්ය්යය නම් මිනිසුන්ගේ ජීවිත සකස් කිරීම (හැදීම) බවත්, ඒ සඳහා ජීවිත නොමඟ යාමට ඇති හේතු මොනවාදැයි සොයා බලා එම හේතු වළක්වා ගැණීමට උපදෙස් දියයුතු බවත් යන්නය (ප්රඥාශෙඛර චරිතය, 230 පිටුව).
පන්සල හා ගම
තමන්ගේ වැරදි මතය අන්තයටම ගෙන ගිය එච් එල්, ලංකාවේ ප්රශ්නවලට (සිංහල-දෙමළ?) වගකිව යුතු වල්පොල රාහුල හා යක්කඩුවේ ප්රඥාරාම යන හාමුදුරුවරුන් දෙන්නා යයි කියා සිටියේය. ඔහුගේ පොත ලිවීමේදී රාහුල හාමුදුරුවන් (1907-97) ගෙන්ද උදව් ලබාගත් බව සඳහන් කර තිබූනත් ඔහුගේ මේ බරපතල චෝදනාවට පිළිතුරු දීමට උන්වහන්සේට අවස්ථාවක් නොලැබුණේ පොත පිටවන විට උන්වහන්සේ ජීවතුන් අතර නොසිටීමය. පන්සල හා ගම අතර තිබුණ ගසට පොත්ත වැනි බැඳීම නමැති සුද්දන්ට මතුවූ උභතෝකෝටික ප්රශ්නය නෝත් ආණ්ඩුකාරයා දැනගත්තේ 1805 දීය (312 පිටුව). දැන් 2017 දී මේ ප්රශ්නය කළු සුද්දන්ට හා එන් ජී ඕ මුදලාලිලාට ලොකුම හිසරදයක් වී ඇත. ඔවුන් වටකරගෙන බෞද්ධාගමට හා ශාසනයට පහර දෙන්නේ ඒ නිසාය. පන්සලේ පූජා කිරීමට මල් කැඩීමෙන් මීමැස්සන්ට පැනි නැතිවන නිසා සත්ව හිංසාවක් වෙන බවත්, කුඩා ළමුන් මහණ කිරීමෙන් ඔවුන්ගේ මානව අයිතිවාසිකම් කඩවන බවත් කියන තරමට එය උන්මත්තක ව ඇත.
බෞද්ධයා රැවටීම
2003 දෙසැම්බර් 12 දින, කුමණ්ත්රනයක් යැයි සැකසිතෙන ආකාරයට රුසියාවේදී සිදුවූ සෝම හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ නැතිවීමත් සමඟ යටගිය සිංහල බෞද්ධ බලවේගය, 2012 මැයි මස ඇරඹුණ බොදු බල සේනාව විසින්, පන්සලේ බණ මඩුවෙන්, ප්රසිද්ධ වේදිකාවට ගෙන යාමත් සමඟ මේ ප්රහාරය අමුතුම වේශයක් ගෙන ඇත. දේශපාලකයින් විසින් සිංහල බෞද්ධයාව හිත හොඳ ගැහැනියක් සේ සැළකීමට විරුද්ධව මිලිටන්ට් ව්යාපාරයක ඇති අවශ්යතාවය හා වතුර සොයා ගොස් ලිප් බොක්කේ හිරවූ බෝධි සත්ව නාගයා විසින් දර ඉපලක් ගත් මැහැලියට ඉගැන්වූ පාඩමේ කාලෝචිත භාවය, බොදු බල සේනාව රටටම හා ලෝකයටම එලිකර දුන්නේය. හාමුදුරුවරු දේශපාලනයෙන් ඉවත්විය යුතුයයි කී අයගේ සටන අන්තිමේදී ඇමෙරිකන් තානාපතිනි මිචෙල් සිසන් අට පිරිකර සමඟ කෝට්ටේ නාග විහාරයට යෑමෙන් කෙළවර විය. කබරගොයා තලගොයා විය. එහෙත් මාදුළුවාවේ සෝභිත හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ රට වෙනුවෙන් පෙන්වූ හොඳ හිත හා තරුණ ජීවිතය, පරාජිතවූ මනසකින්, හා සැක මතුකරමින් සිංගප්පූරු වෛද්ය ගුවන් යානයක් තුල අවසාන විය.
වර්ෂ 2001 වනවිට ප්රඥාශෙඛර ස්වයංලිඛිත චරිත පොතක් ලංකාවෙන් හොයා ගැනීම හරියට කළුනික සොයනවා වගේ විය. අන්තිමේදී බොහෝ දෙනෙක් හා සම්බන්ධකම් තිබූ මගේ බිරිඳගේ සොහොයුරා මේ පොත හොයා ගත්තේ ඔහුට 1970 දී ඒ පොත මුද්රණය කල අයව දැන සිටි කෙනෙක්ව කොළඹ ආපනශාලාවකදී අහම්බෙන් මුණ ගැසීම නිසාය. පොත් ලෙස කපා පිළියෙල නොකල එහි මුද්රිත කොල මිටි කීපයක් ඔහු ලඟ ඉතිරිවී තිබුණේය. ඉන් එකක් ලබාගෙන ඒවා කපා පොතක් ලෙස බන්ඳවා ඔහු මට එව්වේය. මේ පොත හොයා ගත්තේ කෙසේදැයි මියගිය ආනන්ද ගුරුගේ මහතාද වරක් මගෙන් ඇසුවේය. හිටගෙන නිදා ගන්නා, නිදාගෙන බණ කියන උන්වහන්සේ ගැන මතකයක් අද කාලයේ ලංකාවේ මිනිසුන්ට නැත. හාමුදුරුනමක් වශයෙන් බණ දහම් අංශයෙන් උන්වහන්සේ විසින් කර ඇති සේවය විෂ්මය දනවයි. තනි පුද්ගලයෙක් මේ සියල්ල කලේ කෙසේද යන්න අදහා ගැනීමට පවා අපහසු වුවත්, උන්වහන්සේ ඒ සියල්ල දිනපතා දිනපොතක ලියා තබා ඇත.
අනාගාරික ධර්මපාලතුමාගේ ආදර්ශය
1895 දෙසැම්බර් 30 දා උපන් දොන් ඉඟෝනිස් නමැති දරුවා කළුකොඳයාවේ ප්රඥාශෙඛර නමින් පැවිදිවූයේ 1911 පෙබරවාරි 23 වන දාය. සතිපතා සෙනසුරාදා දිනයේ පන්සලට ලැබෙන සිංහල බෞද්ධයා පත්රය කියවීම හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ පුරුද්දක් විය. එහි කොටස් වශයෙන් පළවූ අනාගාරික ධර්මපාලතුමාගේ දැන ගත යුතු කරුණු නමැති දීර්ඝ ලිපිය උන්වහන්සේගේ අදහස් වෙනස් අතකට පෙරළුවේය. <ගිහියා වේවා පැවිද්දා වේවා මේ සිංහල රට ජන්මභූමි කොට ඇත්තෙක් වී නම් සියරට වෙනුවෙන්, ආගම වෙනුවෙන්, ප්රජාව වෙනුවෙන් සේවාවක් කළ යුතුයයි මට අවබොධ වූයේ එම දැන ගත යුතු කරුණු කියවීමෙනි. කවර ජාතික ආගමික සේවාවක් හෝ කිරීම ජීවිතලාභයෙහි ඵලයකැයි එම ලියවිලි කියවීමෙන් වැටහී ගිය මා තුළ ඇතිවූයේ අතිශය උද්වේගයකි> (119 පිටුව). මේ වන විට උන්වහන්සේගේ වයස අවුරුදු විස්සකි (1916). ලංකාව අද වැටී ඇති අවාසනාවන්ත අඩිය ගැන සිතන විට මේ හාමුදුරුවන් 1930-50 අතර කාලය තුල ග්රාම සංවර්ධන ව්යාපාරය උදෙසා කල කැප කිරීම රටට ලැබී නැතිවී ගිය දියසේන කුමාරයෙක්ගේ සේවාවක් වැනිය.
බණමඩුව හා පාංශකූලය
ක්රිස්තියානි හා මාක්ස්වාදී සම්භවයක් ඇති රාවය පත්තරේ වික්ටර් අයිවන් වැනි අය හා නා නා මාදිලියේ දෙස් විදෙස් සුද්දන්, කළු සුද්දන් ඊලම්කාරයින් හා පල්ලි නිකායිකයින් විසින්, සිවුර, බණ මඩුවට හා පාංශකූලයට සිරකර තැබීමට දැන් 2017 වනවිට කරගෙන යන අඛණ්ඩ ව්යාපාරයට, දැනට අවුරුදු සීයකට පෙර, 1916 දී සිට 1970 ගණන් වනතුරුම න්යායාත්මක, ප්රායෝගික හා යථාර්ථවාදී බෞද්ධ පිළිතුරක් උන්වහන්සේ විසින් දී ඇති ආකාරය අති විශිෂ්ටය. රාහුල හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ භික්ෂුවකගේ උරුමය නම් පොතත්, 1956 නිහඬ විප්ලවයට බලපෑ යක්කඩුවේ හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ විද්යාලංකාර ප්රකාශනයත් පළවූයේ 1946 දීය. 1931-32 වන විට ආරම්භකර, ග්රාමප්රතිසංස්කරණය හා අපරාධමර්දනය නමින් කාරණා 99 කින් යුත් පොත් පිංචක් ලෙස 1942 දී කළුකොඳයාවේ හාමුදුරුවන් විසින් ඒ ව්යාපාරය ගැන කල විස්තරය කළු සුද්දන්ගේ හා එන් ජී ඕ පොත්පත් ලේඛනාදියේ සඳහන් නොවේ. එය කූඨ ලෙස යටගසා, වලලා දමා ඇත. අද 2017 දී කොසොල් රජතුමාගේ සීන සැබෑවී ඇති අවධියක හා මෛත්රීපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් බෞද්ධ රාජ්ය සංකල්පය ලෝකයටම පතුරවාලීමට කතාකරමින් සිටිනා අවස්ථාවක (2017 ලෝක වෙසක් දිනය ලංකාවේ පැවැත්වීමද සමඟ) 1931 දී ඇරඹූ ඒ අනගි ව්යාපාරය කළු සුද්දන් විසින් කඩාකප්පල් කර දැමූ බව දන්නේ කී දෙනාද?
බෞද්ධ දේශපාලනය
ලංකාවට හූනියමක් වී ඇති පක්ෂ දේශපාලන බොරු වල, ලංකාවට නොගැලපෙන සුද්දන් ඇටවූ නියෝජිත ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය නමැති නාස් ලණුව, 13 වන සංශොධනය නම් මර උඟුල, දෙමළ ඊලම්වාදය හා මුස්ලිම් ශාරියාවාදය, ගම් මට්ටමින් මහජනතාවට බලය මාරුවන ජන සභා ක්රමය, මහජාතිය හා අනිත් ජන වාර්ගික කොටස් සමඟ සංහිඳියාව හා තිරසර සංවර්ධන මාවත යන මේ අද ලංකාව මුහුණපා සිටින උභතෝකෝටික නොහොත් අන්තෝ ජටා-බහි ජටා ප්රශ්න වලට 1931 දී සිට කළුකොඳයාවේ හාමුදුරුවන් ගත් විසඳුම මිස වෙන විසඳුමක් තිබේද යන්න මේ පොත කියවන්නට ලැබුණා නම් අතුරැලියේ රතන හා ගලබොඩ අත්තේ ඥානසාර හිමිවරුන්ටත් රටේ ජනාධිපතිවරයාටත් ප්රත්යක්ෂ වනවා නිසැකය. දැන් බදාගෙන දඟලන සිංගප්පූරු-ඉන්දියන්-චීන, හෝ දකුණු අප්රිකා මොඩල් වෙනුවට මෙම කළුකොඳයාවේ මොඩලය (ක්රමවේදය) අපේ උරුමය නොවේද? ගස් කොලන් කපා දමමින් රටට කරනා මෙගාඩීල් විනාශය වෙනුවට පරිසරය රැකගන්නා ගම-වැව-දාගැබ නම් සිංහලේ ත්රිත්වය මේ මොඩලය මය.
කළුකොඳයාවේ මොඩලය
තවමත් පිරිවෙන් ශිෂ්යයෙකු වශයෙන් සිටියදීම දෙමටගොඩ කොලොන්නාව පාරේ කුලී ගෙයක පවත්වා ගෙන ගිය ධර්මදාන සමිතියක උපඅනුශාසකවරයා වශයෙන් 1917 ජනවාරි 21 පත්වූ හාමුදුරුවෝ දෙවසරකට පසු එහි ප්රධාන අනුශාසකවරයා විය. මෙම සමිතිය විසින් ද්විභාෂා (සිංහල හා ඉංග්රීසි) රාත්රී පුණ්ය පාසැලක් ආරම්භ කරන ලදී. ගිහියන් හා පැවිද්දන් ඉංග්රීසි භාෂාව ඉගෙන ගැනීමේ ඇති වැදගත්කම (ප්රයෝජනය) උන්වහන්සේ නිතරම සඳහන් කර ඇත. 1931-32 කාලයේ ශ්රෙෂ්ඨාධිකරණ විනිසුරු එම් ටී අක්බාර් මහතාගේ මාර්ගදේශකත්වයෙන් පැවති දීප ව්යාප්ත අපරාධමර්දන ව්යාපාරයට හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ එක්වීම සිදුවන්නේ 1933 ජනවාරි මාසයේ කොළඹ ආනන්ද විදුහලේ පැවැත්වූ මහ සභාවකට අනුශාසනයක් දීමට ලැබුණු අරාධනාවට පසුවය.
පක්ෂ දේශපාලනය නම් වසංගතය බෝවීමට කලින් අපරාධමර්දන ව්යාපාරයේ මුල් තැනක් ගෙන ක්රියාකල උන්වහන්සේ 1931 න් පසු පක්ෂ දේශපාලනය රටට කරන විනාශය මෙහිදී පෙන්වා දුන්නේය. ගම් වැසියාගේ ජීවනතත්වය උසස් කිරීමේ අවශ්යතාවයද පෙන්වා දෙමින් කල අනුශාසනය පොතක් ලෙස මුද්රණය කිරීමට එය අසා සිටි අක්බාර් විනිසුරු අරාධනාවක් කලේය. එය පියසේන නිශ්ශංක කතුවරයා විසින් පසුදා සිටම ග්රාමප්රතිසංස්කරණය හා අපරාධමර්දනය යන සිරස් තලයෙන් සිළුමිණ පත්රයේ කොටස් වශයෙන් පළකරණ ලදී (242 පිටුව).
මෙම පොතේ අදහස් අත්හදා බැලීම පිණිස තෝරාගත්තේ (අපරාධමර්දන-ග්රාමාරක්ෂක මහාසංගමය, 1933 අප්රියෙල් 30 දා පිහිටුවන ලදී) හේවාගම්කෝරළය ය. 1934 දී කෝරළය පුරා පැතුරුණු මැලේරියා වසංගතය නිසා හැම ගමකම ශාඛා පිහිටුවීමට නොහැකි වුවත්, මුදලිවරු, පොලිසිය, දිසා විනිසුරු හා මන්ත්රී ෆොරැස්ටර් ඔබේසේකරද එයට සහාය ලබාදුන්නේය. මේ අතර 1912 දී රටේ මුලින් ආරම්භවුණ අමද්ය ව්යාපාරයට නව පණ දීමක් 1933 දී සිදුවිය.
මාවනැල්ල පොලිස් සථානාධිපති ඩී අබේවර්ණ මහතාගේ මැදිහත් වීමෙන් 1940 සැප්තැම්බර් 27 දා රාත්රියේ එලිවනතුරු එවකට කෑගල්ලේ උප පොලිස් සුපිරින්ටැන්ඩන්ට් ව සිටි ඔස්මන් ද සිල්වා සමඟ පැවැත්වූ ග්රාම සංවර්ධන ව්යාපාරයට අදාල සාකච්චාව ඓතිහාසික සිදුවීමක්, කැස්බාවෙන් දෙන්නෙක් දියට දැමීමක් යයි හාමුදුරුවෝ සටහන් කර ඇත (366 පිටුව). කෑගලු දිස්ත්රික්කයේ ග්රාම සංවර්ධන ව්යාපාරය ඇරඹුණේ එලෙසය. දිස්ත්රික්කයේ පොලිස් ස්ථාන හය පුරාම සමිති බිහිවීම ඇරඹුණේ 1940 නොවැම්බර් 25 ප්රසිද්ධ රැස්වීමකට පසුවය. 1941 අප්රියෙල් වනවිට දිත්රික්කයේ තැන් 73 ක ග්රාම සංවර්ධන-ජාතිකෝත්සව සංවිධානය කරන ලදී. මේ නිසා සිංහල අවුරුදු කාලයේදී දිස්ත්රික්කයේ කිසිම අපරාධයක් සිදු නොවීය. ගම් බිම් කෙත් වතු සරු සාර වෙමින් දිලෙන්නට විය. උන්වහන්සේගේම වචනයෙන් කියතොත් < මෙයට පෙර අවුරුදු දහයක් පමණ කල් ප්රත්යක්ෂාවබොධයක් නැතිව සිහිනෙන් දකින්නාක් මෙන් රටට අවශ්ය සංවර්ධන ව්යාපාරය නම් මේ යයි සිතා ඒ පිළිඹඳව මම අනුශාසනය කෙරෙමින් සිටියෙමි. ක්රියාත්මක ව්යාපාරයකට සම්බද්ධ වන්නට හැකි වූයේ කෑගලු දිස්ත්රික්කයේදීය. මා දකිමින් සිටි සිහිනය ස්වල්පකාලයක් තුළ දීම සත්යයක් වූ බව ප්රත්යක්ෂයෙන් දත හැකි වූයේය> (371 පිටුව).
මේ නිසා රටේ ඉතිරි දිස්ත්රික් 20 තුළද මේ ක්රමය ක්රියාත්මක කිරීමටත් ඊට පෙර කෑගලු දිස්ත්රික්කයේ ව්යාපාරය ආදර්ශ ප්රදේශයක් වශයෙන් ස්ථාවරත්වයට පත්කර ගැනීමටත් රජයේ සහයෝගය ලබාගතයුතු බව වටහාගත් හාමුදුරුවෝ ඒ සඳහා අමාත්ය මණ්ඩලයේ ප්රධාන ඇමතිවරයාවූ සර් දොන් බාරොන් ජයතිලක මහතා හමුවිය. දිස්ත්රික්කයේ සංචාරයක් කල එතුමා එහි අගය අවබොධකරගත් බව දැන්වූ විට එසේනම් ව්යාපාරය ස්ථාවර කරගන්නා තෙක් ඔස්මන්ඩ් සිල්වා මහතාට අවුරුද්දක් දෙකක් මේ දිස්ත්රික්කයේම ඉන්නට ඉඩ සලසා දෙන මෙන් ඔහුගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටියේය. මෙයට හේතුව වූයේ රටට හෝ රටවැසියාට හිතකර ලෙස රාජකාරිය කරණ නිලධාරීන්ට ප්රමාණවත් කාලයක් එම ස්ථානයේම රැඳී සිටින්නට ඉඩ නොදීම එදා පාලනතන්ත්රයේ උසස් ධර්මතාවක් මෙන් ක්රියාත්මක වන බව පෙනෙන්නට තිබුණ හෙයිනි. රට හදන්නට උත්සාහ කිරීමේ ප්රතිඵලයක් වශයෙන් ඔස්මන්ඩ් සිල්වා මහතාව වෙන පෙදෙසකට මාරුකර යවන්නට වෙර දරණ යත්න දරණ පිරිසක් ඒ වන විටත් මතුවී සිටින බව උන්වහන්සේට ආරංචිවී තිබුණේය. < එහෙයි, ඔබ වහන්සේගේ ඉල්ලීම ඉටු කරන්නට හැකිතාක් උත්සාහ කරණවා යයි ඔහු කී නිසා මම එයින් තෘප්තියට පත්වීමි> (372 පිටුව).
එසේ වුවත් සිදුවූයේ කුමක්ද? රජයේ සිවිල් නිලධාරියෙකු මේ ව්යාපාරය ගැන පරීක්ෂාකිරීමට පත්කල බව ප්රසිද්ධ විය. කෑගලු දිත්රික්කයේ ගමක් පාසා ගොවිතැන්බත් සරුවී ඇත. ගම් රැසක පාලුවට තිබූ ඉඩම් කැබලි වැවිලිවලින් පිරී ඇත. අපරාධ සියේට පනහකින් අඩුවී ඇත. බොහෝ නිලධාරීන් ඔස්මන්ඩ් සිල්වාගේ මේ ව්යාපාරයට සහයෝගය දුන්නේ එය අතිශයින්ම සාර්ථකවූ නිසාය. නමුත් දේශ ද්රොහී ප්රබල නිලධාරීන්ට එය ඇහේ කටු ගසන්නාක් මෙන් විය. හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ සහාය නිසා ආගම් භේදය පිළිඹඳ කුමන්ත්රණයක්ද ඇතිවුයේ යයි කියති. < අපගේ ව්යාපාරය කවර ආගමික ප්රචාරයක් සඳහා වත් ආයුධ කර නොගන්නා ලදී. කෑගලු දිස්ත්රික්කයේ ඉතා ස්වල්ප දෙනෙකුන් හැර හැම දෙනාම වාගේ බෞද්ධයෝය. ප්රදේශයේ සෞඛ්ය තත්වයේ සැළකිය යුතු දියුණුවක් ඇතිවිය. සොරකම, වංචාව, දුරාචාරය, සූදුව හා සුරාපානය බෙහෙවින් ම අඩුවිය> (374 පිටුව).
මේ හැර ඔස්මන්ඩ් සිල්වා මහතාගේ පුද්ගලික ජීවිතය පිළිඹඳ කරුණු පවා හුවා දැක්වින (පසු කළෙක ඔහු විවාහ වන්නේ පොලිස්පති සර් රිචඩ් අළුවිහාරේ ගේ දියණිය සමඟය). අන්තිමේදී ව්යාපාරය කඩා කප්පල් කර දැමූ නිලධාරී වාර්තාවත් සමඟ ඔහුව බම්බලපිටියේ පොලිස් අභ්යාසවිද්යාලයේ අධිපති ලෙස උසස්කර මාරු කර යවන ලදී. එතැනට ගම් වැසියන් යන්නේ නැත. තමන් දුන් ප්රතිඥාව වෙනස් කළේ ඇයිදැයි විමසූ විට ජයතිලක මහතා දුන් ක්ෂණික පිළිතුර වූයේ පාලන ව්යවස්ථාව අනුව මාරුව කළයුතුම බවය. එහෙත් ප්රතිඥාව දෙන විට තිබුණේද ඒ ව්යවස්ථාවමය (376 පිටුව). කෙසේවෙතත් කෑගල්ලේ ග්රාම සංවර්ධන ව්යාපාරය කුරුණෑගල හා මහනුවර දිස්ත්රික් වලටද ව්යාප්තවිය. <එහෙත් රජයේ ප්රබල නිලධරයෙකුගේ අවංක හෘදයංගම සහයෝගය නැතිව අපගේ අනුශාසනයෙන් හා මාර්ගෝපදේශකත්වයෙන් පමණක් මෙබඳු පෘථුල ක්රියාමාර්ගයක් සමෘද්ධ කල නොහැකි බව හොඳින් ප්රත්යක්ෂ විය.. කෑගලු දිස්ත්රික්කයේ සියළුම ග්රාම සංවර්ධන සමිති ඒකාබද්ධකොට පිහිටුවා ගන්නා ලද ග්රාම සංවර්ධන සමිති සම්මේලනයේ අනුශාසක ධූරයට ද 1941 දෙසැම්බර් 27 දා මම පත්කර ගන්නා ලද්දේ වෙමි> (386 පිටුව).
ඔස්මන්ඩ් සිල්වා මහතා බම්බලපිටියෙන් උතුරු පළාතට ගොස් ඉන්පසු වයඹ පළාතේ සුපුරින්ටැන්ඩන්ට් ලෙස මාරුවිය. කෑගලු දිස්ත්රික්කයේ ග්රාම සංවර්ධන ව්යාපාරයෙන් වඩා ලාත් ප්රත්යක්ෂ ප්රතිඵල ලැබූවෝ හීන යයි සම්මත කුලවලට අයත් අයය. ඔවුන් හා සම්බන්ධතා ඇති කුරුණෑගල ජනයා ඔස්මන්ඩ් සිල්වාට මේ ව්යාපාරය ආරම්භ කරණ මෙන් ආරාධනය කළත් කෑගල්ලේදී උගත් පාඩම් නිසා ඔහු ඒ ගැන යුහුසුලු නොවීය. ඔහු හමුවීමට ගිය හාමුදුරුවෝ කෑගල්ලේදී මෙන් නොව මුලින්ම පොලිසිය හා දිසාපති අතර සම්බන්ධකමක් ඇති කරගතයුතු බව සාකච්චා කළේය. එවකට කුරුණෑගල දිශාපතිවූ බී එෆ් පෙරේරාගේ සහයෝගය ලබාගත්තේ මේ නිසාය. ප්රථම රැස්වීම පැවැත්වූයේ 1948 ඔක්තෝබර් 14 දා වාරියපොළ පාදෙණිය විහාරස්ථානයේ දීය. <මෙසේ වන්නි හත්පත්තුවේ කෘෂිකර්ම ව්යාපාරය කෙතරම් සමෘද්ධ වී ද යත්: අනුරාධපුර යුගයෙන් මෙපිට වන්නියේ මෙතරම් දියුණුවක් ඇති නොවූ හෙයින් එයට මූලිකව මං පෑදූ ඔස්මන්ඩ් සිල්වා මහතාට වන්නි දෙවියෝ යයි ඔහු තුමූ නම් කළ හ> (405 පිටුව).
බෞද්ධ, හින්දු, මුස්ලිම්, ක්රිස්තියානි ජනයා සිටින හලාවත දිස්ත්රික්කයේ කොස්වත්ත පොලිස් කොට්ඨාශයට අයත් මොරකැළේ ගම කෙතරම් දුශ්චරිත වලින් යුක්තවූවාද යත් කොස්වත්තේ පොලිසියක් තබන්නට වූයේ ඒ නිසායයි කියැවින. ගමේ පවුල් 175 න් 135 ක්ම හැළි අරක්කු පෙරන, මිණීමරා ගන්නා අය විය. එහෙත් ග්රාම සංවර්ධන ව්යාපාරය නිසා ගම වෙනස් විය. කොස්වත්තට දැන් පොලිසියක් අවශ්ය නැත, එය වසා දැමිය යුතුය කියන තැනට පත්ව්ය (407 පිටුව).
මේ වකවානුවේදී 1935 සිට මාක්ස්වාදීන් කලේ සූරියමල් විකිණීම (පොපිමල් වලට එරෙහිව) හා මැලේරියා වසංගතයේදී ආධාර බෙදීමය. එය ඒ කාලයේ ලංකාවේ හැමෝම කල දෙයකි. මෑත කාලයේ සුනාමිය වගේය. මැයි දිනයේදී බිල්ඩින් වලට ගල් ගසන බංගවේවා දේශපාලනය ආවේ 1948 ට පසුවය. බ්රේස්ගේඩල් හංඟා ගැනීම හෝ ජේලර්ගේ අනුදනුම ඇතිව හිරෙන් පලායාම හෝ ඉන්දියන් වතුකම්කරුවන් ගැන මිස ලංකාවේ ගැමියන්ගේ දුක් ගැනවිලි ඔවුන්ට අදාල නොවීය. ඔවුන්ගේ කම්කරු ව්යාපාරය ව්යාජ රතු කළු සුද්දන්ගේ වැඩක් කියා මට සිතෙන්නේ මේ නිසාය. 1971 හා 1988-9 ට පසුව අද වනවිට ජේ වී පී එක කරන්නේත් මෙවැනිම අතරමංවූ දේශපාලනයක් යයි මට සිතේ. මොලය පෑදී කළුකොඳයාවේ හාමුදුරුවන් සමඟ එකතුවූවා නම් ලංකාවට කුමක් වන්නට ඉඩ තිබුණාද? මුදල් ඇමති ලෙස ඇන් ඇම් දළදා මාලිගාවට නෙළුම් මල් බන්දේසියක් අරගෙන ගියේ 1964 දීය.
පක්ෂ දේශපාලනයෙන් තොරව, නිලධාරීන් විසින් ඉතා සාර්ථක ලෙස ගම්වල ගෙනගිය වර්තමාන ව්යාපාරයක් ලෙස ගැමි දිරිය වැඩ සටහන හඳුන්වා දිය හැකිය. මෙය ලංකාවේ උතුරු හා නැඟෙනහිර පළාත් වලටද හඳුන්වා දෙනවා වෙනුවට දේශපාලකයින් එය කඩා කප්පල්කර දමන ලදී. මා මේ බව දන්නේ මෙම ව්යාපෘතිය නිර්මානය කල නිලධාරියාත්, එහි අධ්යක්ෂක ලෙස අවංක සේවයක් කල නිලධාරියාත් යන දෙන්නාවම මා පුද්ගලිකවම දන්නා නිසාය. ගම කරට ගත්තා සේ හැසිරෙමින් 1970 සිට විවිධ දේශපාලකයින් විසින් කරන ලද ආණ්ඩුවේ ගම් සංවර්ධන වැඩ සමෘධි-දිවි නැඟුම යන නම් වලින් තිබෙතත් එය කළුකොඳයාවේ මොඩලය මෙන් සම්මුතිවාදී දේශපාලනයක් නොවේ. ඒවා පක්ෂ දේශපාලන බරකරත්ත ය. ස්වාභාවික මායිම් සහිත ජන සභා ක්රමයක් ඇතිකර (දැනට ඇති 14,020ක් වන ග්රාම සේවා නිලධාරී වසම් වෙනුවට) රට ගලවා ගත හැකි ආකාරය තේරුම් ගැනීමට 1933 දී කළුකොඳයාවේ හාමුදුරුවන් පෙන්වා දුන් කාරණා 99 න් අද වනවිට යල් පැන ඇතැයි කිව හැක්කේ ඉතා සුළු ප්රමාණයක් පමණය.
Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern Prime Minister of New Zealand Parliament Buildings Wellington
Dear Prime Minister,
Tamil Genocide / Mullivaikal Massacre Remembrance Day In Auckland – Stirring Up Communal Strife In New Zealand based on a disproven allegation
The United Sri Lanka Association (USLA) of Wellington and its members are both frustrated and distraught at learning of a planned Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day” meeting that is to be held on 18th of May 2021 at 6.30pm at 202 Hillsborough Road, Hillsborough, Auckland. This allegation of Tamil Genocide”, during the final weeks of liberation of Sri Lanka from three decades of Tamil Tiger Terror, on the 19th of May 2009 at Mulivaikal, was first levelled by the international funders of the Tigers, within days of their defeat at the hands of the Sri Lankan security forces, to discredit the latter. The allegation was that in these last few weeks the civilian casualty rate was of the order of 40 to 120 thousand, disproportionately high suggesting directed shooting at civilians by the Sri Lankan forces and hence justifying the charge of Genocide,
However, this claim has now been shown to be clearly false through a impressive volume of evidence. Most notable among them were the war time dispatches in May 2019, from UK Defence Attaché Lt Colonel Anton Gash from Colombo, first tabled by Lord Naseby in the UK House of Lords in September 2017 and many times thereafter, having obtained them with great difficulty using the Official Information Act. The heavily redacted 39 dispatches Lord Naseby tabled, clearly showed that the civilian casualties were of the order of seven thousand, quite proportional to the scale of the fighting. This number was also similar to the estimates by US Defence Attaché Lt Col. Lawrence Smith, estimates of Sir John Holmes the UN resident representative in Colombo in May 2019, and the findings of the Sri Lankan Tamil University Teachers census carried out a few months later.
Sir Desmond de Silva QC of UK, a former United Nations Chief War Crimes Prosecutor in Sierra Leon, providing a legal opinion to respond to these Tiger allegation, following examination of extensive information provided on the conflict concluded that the great mass of civilian deaths which occurred in the final stages of the war were regrettable but permissible collateral damage”.
Additionally, it is recognised that in war, the number of injured would be two to three times of the fatalities. Ten years after the end of the war those found injured were not anything like the 120 to 300 thousand that should have been found. Nor have any sites of burial for the 40 to 120 thousand allegedly killed, even ten years after the event.
The claimed support for this Tiger allegation from the UN, their only significant support, was in fact not from the UN, and the basis of their support was of questionable credibility. It came from a panel of three experts, all with recent adverse interactions with Sri Lanka, appointed by the UNSG against the wishes of the UNSC, to advice UNSG on accountability provisions in Sri Lanka. Going beyond their brief, they indicated the presence of credible allegations” of disproportionate civilian loss of life, but refused to reveal their sources for thirty years, so bringing in to question the credibility of this observation.
Despite this volume of evidence against Tamil Genocide”, importing this claim from Toronto Canada where this claim is rife will inevitably import also the consequent inter communal discord and even violence within the Sri Lankan community, that is common place there, to hitherto peaceful New Zealand.
This prospect is horrifying to contemplate for Sri Lankan New Zealanders, especially to those of us who came to New Zealand fleeing Tiger Terror and have enjoyed decades of peace. This is a flagrant misuse of the democratic freedoms of New Zealand to spread what are now clearly falsehoods, with no regard to the discord it would lead to. It’s aim is to avenge the defeat of the Tigers they sustained with funds and propaganda for decades .
It is for these reasons that USLA seek your help and urge you to use the power and resources at your disposal to prevent this agenda of Tamil Genocide” being pursued as planned, in New Zealand.
On the other hand, if it is to be a Remembrance of Tamil Victims of the Three Decade Long Conflict”, then we would have no objection and would be happy to even support.
Thank you very much for your help as requested.
Yours sincerely, Dr. Chula Rajapakse MNZM Spokesperson United Sri Lanka Association (USLA) Wellington NZ
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